Watched the final of the pro contest at Sunset the other day and I was flabbergasted.
You can check it out on the triple crown of surfing website.
I mean Sunset was big and perfect and I thought the standard of surfing was lame.
No projection, no length in the turns, no meaning, no emotion.
I know CJ has cojones the size of watermelons and he stared down a beast in the final and speared it right between the eyes at pointblank range. Anyone whos surfed Sunset knows that takes a lotta heart.
I thought his equipment looked so underpowered it was a joke…half turns, losing speed in the top third of the wave…it was unbelievable.
Compared to the standard Billy Hamilton set in Big Wednesday in the early seventies the surfing looked lilliputian.
I’m no retro revivalist apostle…i love modern equipment but it seems to me that the paddle in equipment for Big Sunset those pros were riding was a major step backwards.
Any shapers out there with Hawaiian experience feel the same?
After the initial peak broke and the surfer dropped in the wave looked done to me,just a big mushy bank peeling kinda slow with no real line,sometimes its not the surfer or the equipment that is malfunctioning…it’s the wave Those waves looked fun though!
Sunset can be a true pain in the ass. It’s a different wave everyday and sometimes you just can’t click. There’s different swells running together, there’s surface chop, there’s wind , a million things going on all at once. It can look perfect and be as difficult as you can imagine.
Bill Hamilton ripped the place though, no doubt about that. I also enjoyed BK, Hakman, MP, MR, Shaun, Reno, Ian, Fitz, Owl , all about that same time.
Sunset can be a true pain in the ass. It’s a different wave everyday and sometimes you just can’t click. There’s different swells running together, there’s surface chop, there’s wind , a million things going on all at once. It can look perfect and be as difficult as you can imagine.
Bill Hamilton ripped the place though, no doubt about that. I also enjoyed BK, Hakman, MP, MR, Shaun, Reno, Ian, Fitz, Owl , all about that same time.
I liked Cheyne in 89…but I don’t think anyone surfed the place like Kong when he was in his prime. In 92 he was making these deep fades in 15 + and just ripping the tops off.
What would another 6" to thier boards would have done for them?
If they where riding slightly more traditional gun-ish shapes?
I shouldn’t talk… because I know I wouldn’t have paddled out on that day…but if I recall, a few of them were doing their double pump bottom turns…at macking Sunset. If they were on a better sized board maybe they wouldn’t have to double pump. I hate the double pump. It might be necessary on a 3 foot wave but Sunset? Someone show those guys some footage of BK bottom turns!
Maybe a rocker issue? I remember shapers used to make Sunset guns with an entirely different mind set than Pipe boards (surely they still do). Straighter rockers, widepoints up a bit. One of them was quoted as saying, “There’s a lot of ground to cover out there!”
So true…
Then again, I never took the top off a west peak, but did manage to get mauled by one or two!
I suspect the equipement choice is strongly influenced by the judging standards, peer pressures, and general attitudes of the riders, spectators, judges, girlfriends, etc…
Just not “dakine” to ride a 8’ x 20.5" that covers water surfing and paddling.
It’s “in” to make that 6’6" chip tri work in just overhead surf.
Is that the state of surfing pushed generally by the boardmakers and decisions makers ???
I’ve always wondered why we need to ride 7lbs 6’ x 18.5’s when we generally could surf better with maybe 4" added length and one inch added with…with some added thickness too.
Heck, those performance log riders make 9’ x 22 at 17lbs snap turn and throw spray.
Maybe we’re trying to “sustain” the whole mystic of surfing by making everyone ride really small and sinky boards. Sure, 3 or 4 great turns balanced out by 5-10 less waves per session…maybe making surfing more accessible to the minions and millions.
Just an old guy hashing out some longterm frustrations.
If I was surfing Sunset (and I have maybe 25 days as big or bigger), I’d choose to ride a full volume 7’9" x 20.5 with lotsa V and belly, small tail and lotsa tuck. Longer if the whitecaps from the offshores start to show at the takeoff.
But then, I’d be laughed off the water while still in the parking lot.
For the sake of advancing the mystic of surfing, we need to pack in as many surfers per arena as is humanly possible, and what better way than making everyone ride boards that barely float our armpits dry?
So most of us get maybe 4 waves in 3 hours, unless we want closeouts or shoulders, leaving more waves for the masses.
And yes of course, almost everything done today in 7’ + surf has been done before by old farts using bigger boards.
And of course, those of thems who still surf 5 hours a day, 6 days a week when triple the wave count regardless of size of board ridden, thus allowing the lions to predominate, and the rest of us to simply watch and hope for maybe a few crumbs, thus perpetuating the image of surfing for the elite few, almost accessible for the rest of us.
If I was surfing Sunset (and I have maybe 25 days as big or bigger), I’d choose to ride a full volume 7’9" x 20.5 with lotsa V and belly, small tail and lotsa tuck. Longer if the whitecaps from the offshores start to show at the takeoff.
But then, I’d be laughed off the water while still in the parking lot.
Excluding the pro surfers, your right on target…and you light? something like 150 lbs…right?
A quote from the gentleman in the picture above…“Hey,…8 foot of surfboard won’t get you shit out here!”
I’ll surf my 7’10" at the point, but when it starts breaking on the reef it’s back to the 9’0" gun. But then, if i paddle for something I want to make sure I catch it. Nothing worse than missing the wave to look over your sholder just to see 3 more getting ready to unload on you.
9’0" shaped by Owl. Bought it from a bloke named Paul for a hundred fifty bucks in the Kammies carpark just before dark. Paul was jonesing and needed cash fast. As Owl said “it’s a ticket to ride”. The best waves at Sunset are the North West ones with the rocket drops. Need a wave catcher for that.
Agreed with Solo that Kong was the modern master. The deep fade to comitted bottom turn is the line at Sunset.
Didn’t see one at the last contest.
Marcus Hickman backdooring the peak was the ride of the whole damm thing.
Why has surfboard design regressed at a wave like Sunset Beach?
saw a bit of the action and thought the surfing was great. Some of the turns were nutso…
It seems to me that it is a shift in style more than lack of performance, as was noticed in the bottom turn technique. Maybe it has something to do with the current generation of pros being bread on the thruster setup? I read a week or so ago in the thread asking advice for what to build for a kid that he should learn on a single fin to give him good style and technique, and to learn to use the rail. Is it that these guys are making their bottom turns off the fins more than off the rails? (I am not claiming the pros dont know how to properly engage a rail).
Or maybe equipment selection because surfers tend to let testosterone go to their heads?
I’d like to say it was the conditions. Not a lot to work with as most were foamballs that shouldered up a bit.
Those waves looked fun though!
[/img]
[/img]