i like it when they bust airs because by time they land it, if they even pull that off, the wave has passed them by, rendering the move useless and unfunctional.(plus it makes me laugh)
"where he was the only soul alive on this planet and he wandered down to his local break that was reeling for 400metres and no one out…not a sould alive on the earth…would he want to take his board out and bust massive airs?? THE ANSWER IS NO HE WOULDNT BECAUSE THERE WOULD BE NOONE TO SEE HIM!!! " Actually, that surfer probably WOULD just try to bust massive airs, because that’s about all his board would let him do, and that’s about all a young urban surfer has ever known. That is the current standard. When something new comes along, as it inevitably must, those generations will be Thrust to the back burner by the New Younger Generation who are now Where It’s At. Of course, that hypothetical surfer would wear out his chip in a couple of months and be reduced to bodysurfing that 400 meter wave…perhaps thereby attaining the grace which eludes the grasping.
Finally someone has said it,“The kids are a product of society and media hype!” I am just plain bored to death watching the current slater wannabees doing the same stuff over and over and over and over AGAIN!IT"S UGLY! The problem is it’s getting alot worse with no end in sight and you all know it.
If there wasn’t progression in the sport of surfing, then we would all still be riding along on 40’s era Tom Blake style Hollows. Where did the shortboard come from anyways? The desire to ride along trimming on the nose? Just because you can’t do something dosn’t mean that you should bag it… riding a modern “thruster” style board is really hard. I know, I grew up riding them. I still ride them to this day. I also ride logs, HP longboards, big guns, and little round fishy things. Today I rode my Lis-inspired fish. And while I was at it, I thought about this particular post. Here I am, at age 24 riding a direct knock off of a 70’s board… why? Because I want to be cool? No, because the board is a blast to ride. Does it do anthing new? No, but it’s a blast to ride… I have fun on it. When I paddle out on my “clone thruster” as several of you guys like to call them… I usually have a blast also… I do different things on my thruster than I do on my Fish… but it’s all the same… I’m just having a good time. I also like to ride my Logs, especially during the summer, one of my favorite boards is a 1967 Haut step-deck… that board rocks for any kind of trim/noseride surfing around the Pleasure Point area… It surfs alot diferently than my thruster and my fish… but I also have a blast on it whenever I ride it. I want to make myself one of those Tom Blake hollows…I was really inspired by the book… just to see how they ride, wouldn’t that be fun? My point here is that if you close your mind off to something, just 'cause you can’t to learn how to do it, or you just don’t want to… dosn’t mean you should come onto this forum and bag it. I know lots of guys that would absolutly kill it if they were to just paddle out and “trim” on single fins… but they don’t, because the think it’s lame. And you know what? Those guys are just like you guys… close minded fools. Keep you mind open, not just to single fins and other “opened minded” surfboards… but to everything, and your life will be much better.
I don’t think it’s being closeminded to see that progression was going fine until Slater jumped on a 17" wide toothpick only he or some other super talented pro could ride and everone called that progression. Blanks were changed and the hype was on. Fact is that was not progression but regression. Those boards do not glide and are only good for riding right in the pocket and up over it. Thats a fact not an opinion. The new revolution is going back to wider thicker boards and the fact that kids are going retro for really the first time in 30 years shows the current stagnation of the modern surfboard. When they melded the surf industry to the urban street culture and tried to force feed that crap down our throats in the magazines and in the hurting surf shops that bought into the fashion craze that was regression. Just like they are trying to tell us popouts are an improvement on handshaped and chinese made are the same as the master shapers. I think it’s been so much for so long now many surfers are simply sick of all the garbage and simply want to go ride some waves and feel the offshore winds on their faces instead of flipping the finger to the cameras on the beach and thinking they made some deep statement. Revenge of the nerds continues. Tear down the wall, tear down the wall, Pink Floyd
All this fish craze and Donavan hippie long haired beard stuff --I like it but is it progress or just reaction to bullshit of the last ten yrs? Why lis fish design and not Mark Richards twins??The lis fish was really a kneeboard a incredible kneeboard at that but rarely surfed as standup board back in the 70’s .Atom tan really has great posts though!!! You can tell he is at the pulse of surfing, in the now .I just wonder what he thinks is the the bright spot in the future?
The man’s right again. It’s about having a good time, though the majority of the mainstream is about marketing junk to the gullible. Ultralight, weak boards, shapes that only a pro can do anything with, bizzare fads - or, utter crap aimed at know-nothing beginners who clog the water with oversized retro garbahge. I’ll be real glad when surfing becomes non-mainstream again, when the brat pack and wanna be bunch discover it’s harder than it looks in the movies.
Yes,I really like it when it was a lowlife pastime for the twisted.Now,even parents want their kids to surf!!!The whole world is in the lineup.I live in what was a super obscure,hardcore local area now,soccer surfing moms home schooling their kids so they can rip in contests on weekends. Sorry for the rant but I AM SiCK OF IT!!!I need a surf trip now! I really can’t stand the current fad -trend of surfing this time around.
“I’m old!”
I was out surfing at my home beach the other day.Iwas riding my 9’6" 50/50 railer, enjoying the glide, maybe 3’waves. One of the older locals was out on his fish and strugling a bit because it was small paddled past me and said “I don’t know why you all ways ride that thing”. The answer was simple. Because I enjoy riding it and catching 5 waves to your 1. 70’s single fins are becoming popular with some of the kids around here. It is great to watch them surfing them. Kids are coming up to me and asking where they can get one of those old single fins from, they look like fun when it is small. So maybe the tide is starting to turn a little. They might just be getting tired of pumping their boards through fat sections on small days, exerting all that energy for not much return, when they could be enjoying the wave taking them for a ride for a change.David.
I was talking to a young team rider today and as per usual he made me laugh, he is doing the junior tour this year and when I said to him “how do you think you will go” his answer was “I dont know man there are some real freaks in the water these days”. The way he said it, he made it sound like the surfers of the past were kooks and that there were not any freaks in the old days. I stopped and thought to myself, now I was sure that when I was younger that there were quite a few freaks in the water and I guess that he will learn that when he gets older the same thing will happen. The only comforting thought about young crews attitudes is the fact that one day they will be old too. KR
If it makes any of you nastalgic fellas feel any better, I chose for my second board, a shape that descends directly from the single-fin era, with a very forward center of gravity and smooth, almost gun lines. Even in the blank form, it looks fast, sleek, and smooth. However, we’re going to install thruster boxes to give the option of harder turns because we really don’t know how these will ride. My friend’s is going to be a few layers of S glass while mine is going to consist of 4.8 oz carbon, covered with 5.75 romanian hemp, on both sides. I will post pictures if this experiment proves successful.
Here is the bright spot. There are (at least for now ) numerous shapers out there who have not bought into the crap and still produce modern functional surfboards that float properly,trim properly and rip. Guys like Geoff Mccoy, Steve Forstall, Jim Philips, and a host of others. Some have made improvments on old designs and some have simply kept doing what they know works. Seek out shapers who actually still go surfing and have been shaping at least over 25 years and let them be your guide. The brightest spot would be if the magazines closed down along with the overhyped clothing companies that claim they have done so much for surfing. No more filthy advertisments meant to get some punk exicted, no more promotion of one particular surfer to sell your overpriced line of lightly glassed surfboards. Simply world class shapers that actually go surfing making boards for surfers who simply want to have fun. Don’t think the shapers who have bought into the crap will go away without a fight. Who do you think coined the phrase fun board, which gives the impression anything other than a toothpick is not serious equipment. At least with singles everything is simple. You are not going to make one look good unless you know how to use your rails and it probably will not matter because you will be having a blast just surfing. You know if you piss off the toothpick crew you must be doing something right.
The system may be bad for a lot of people, but sadly it’s not going away. Michael Peterson absolutely ripped on a single fin, and it was a modern single fin at the time. He hated the system but used it to his advantage. He inspired Tom Carroll who also ripped on a modern single, and even now rips on a modern thruster. Modern boards made it easier to surf (I didn’t say properly), which is why the kids getting dropped at the beach these days are having fun, even their soccer-mum’s can probably do a few turns (I didn’t say ‘rail turn’) Tom Carroll, among thousands of other surfers, inspired me to surf properly and do real rail turns. A cutback that lasted more than a fraction of a second and a bottom turn where your fingers lightly caress the wave face while almost touching your own face. I watched a pro contest where the eventual and heavily sponsored winner baulked an easy tube…in the final??? I was disgusted in the whole system. For that fact alone he should not have won. Modern surfing is great, but all surfers who don’t know how should learn the real basics before hassling the crap out of people who enjoy putting a rail in the face of a wave, no matter how hard or on whatever surfboard.
Hey Atom, can you drop me a line, i like what you say and would like to get you in the loop on some stuff we are doing… drop me a line or something…visit me sight. cheers mate, and keep on gliding. A hodad http://www.hodaddy.com.au
I didn’t start this as a new thread. I’m interested, but whats happening here?