surfing or flying?

General Discussion
1

Having been an OB regular for decades, felt compelled to watch some of the internet broadcast contest heats at the just concluded Search contest there ( a personal first).

It was good mix of competitors, heats pitting long established pros against New Age aerialists.  The older pros demonstrated a somewhat surprising knack for modest flight time (tour survival is a strong motivator), and the aerialists demonstrated a surprisingly repertoire of solid  surfing.

What struck me with it’s disturbing incongruity was the scoring, where in the "new age of surfing’, flight time above the lip is scored as heavily as deep tube time.  Seasoned pro pulls off a free fall takeoff into a deep backdoor barrel and concludes with a clean exit  into a slicing cuttie off the top.  Young aerialist pumps a couple of turns, launches into a 360 aerial well above the lip and rides out the whitewater landing, receiving the same score as the barrel ride.  And two such aerial maneuvers on a single wave score  higher then the good barrel on one wave

And that’s where it lost me. 

Knowingly sounding suspiciously like an ESD (elder surfer rant), surfing has always been pretty much man dancing with the wave to his/her own tempo.   Some laying down jazzy fall line speed licks, others gliding to classical riffs, heavy metal driving heavy slashing for yet others,  all moving and grooving to their own beat on and with the wave.

And now approaches the onslaught of the highly athletic, sometimes quite artistic, flight time aerials far above the lip, the natural morphing of a mass market surf/skate/snowboard culture  primarily defined by the mantra ‘hold the pose.’

Whether high above the half pipe, the skate ramp, or now the wave face.  Hold the pose.  Flick through any of the youth targeted action mags at the local market rack and what do the majority of the pictures display - aerialists striking the pose.  Interchange the surfboard with a skateboard or snowboard, wetsuit for ghetto shorts or Burtons, the wave face for skate ramp  or snowboard halfpipe. 

And therein is the key disconnect - a wave face, the primary medium for our many generations dance, now relegated to launching and landing pad for the hold the pose aerialist well above it.

Understanding flight time is here to stay,( someone is probably right now is designing boards to enhance flight characteristics), think I’ll stay with the old school where a good barrel scores higher then anything else.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2

Yeah, but on the plus side: the new generation have as much fun (practising aerials) in closed out beach break waves as down the line point breaks! Plus, they’re hard to do, and fun to watch.

Anyway, I don’t much care what the contest gurus are looking for this week, I just like to get out and surf once in awhile (yeah, on the face of the wave, that is LOL).

3

My frustration is when a guy does two pumps then launches an air and gets a big score.  I'm sorry but a single manuver wave deserves a low score regardless of how impressive that single manuver was.  I've also recently watched heats where the one manuver wave with the high score was early in the heat and the judges didn't leave enough wiggle room to properly score other rides later in the heat.

I'd rather watch Taylor Knox or Joel Parkinson surf connected to the face of the wave than just about anything out there.  Those are the two most pleasing surfers to watch for me.  Airs really don't impress me that much especially compaired to a high speed power turn with a ton of spray.

4

Not a single air in this video.  Just a lot of flawless power surfing.

http://youtu.be/H4z2XM48-iE

Another worthy video.

http://youtu.be/_MlNm1cs284

 

5

This vid http://vimeo.com/blakekueny/sanfrancisco was posted on the erbb with the comment by OB locals that they couldn't believe how good these guys surfed in their waves. The best surfers will make the most out of difficult waves. The airs are very much a part of modern surfing (and shapers have been considering performance in the air for a long time). When I was a kid drawing waves and imaginary maneuvers in my school notebooks, airs and carving 360s were something to shoot for. I don't see anything wrong with dreaming-then-doing.

Sometimes I get to surf with pros that do basic airs as easily as most of us do a normal off-the-top. If I could, I would.

The judging criteria has changed in last couple of years, yes. They want to encourage risk-taking, and make length of ride and # of maneuvers less important. I am all in favor of that, I wanna see these guys go big, go deep, go for broke. They are the best surfers in the world and I don't want to watch them holding back one bit. 

6

Up here in the PNW. an ever increasing number of hot snowboarders are flocking to the local beachies during the non-snow months.

All fit athletes comfortable being up in the air, they tend to congregate in the inside sections, trading airs (interesting how many of them have a GoPro camera mounted on their board or head).  However, taking off deep outside and setting up a good barrel ride?..certainly don’t seem to have either the skills or interest.

Regardless, surfing well above the lip is here to stay, and as part of the full arsenal of the well rounded surfer who flows from move to move, can be dynamic to watch.  Witness Kelly or Joel, who include well time aerials as part of their ride, not as the ride.

Reiterating my main point, however, which was the scoring assigned to the witnessed rides - just don’t consider aerials on par with a well conducted tube ride,
which has always been, and will hopefully remain, the pinnacle of
surfing excellence. 

On the other hand, very little doubt that at this late point in my surfing journey, any airs I personally pulled off would probably be the result of an unfortunate pitch… :slight_smile:

 

7

it cracks me up when i see younger surfers waste a loong point wave only because they are soo intent on doing airs. take off, hit the bottom, off the top,hit bottom and go for big air and have the wave leave them behind…(and/or wipeout in the process.)

8

"On the other hand, very little doubt that at this late point in my surfing journey, any airs I personally pulled off would probably be the result of an unfortunate pitch.. :)"

HAHA - Same here.   Check at 1:12 in this video.  That's some air!

 

9

 

I think that’s why they have had the last three contests at beach breaks (NY, Portugal, SF).  

 

I too prefer fluid carving surfing, but I fully understand the judging.  In my brightest moments I can pull in and get lucky and when the stars align I can carve off the top or do a big roundhouse.  But airs?  Have you tried to do one??? They’re way frickin beyond my modest abilities.  If you can complete an air reverse or alley oop then complain all you want about the judging.  But the fact is they are rewarding “progressive surfing”. I think airs are much harder to do than tube riding.  And note- they don’t get the score if they don’t ride out of the movenomatter how big they go.

Just like in art, the avante garde will often seem dissonant to those working the status quo.  Probably like Nat Young was for the nose riding generation.  Or the nose riders were to the plywood paddle board generation…

 

And I think lcc said it at the onset, the fly boys still pull into massive tubes and carve the crap out of the waves…  I’m just in awe…

 

That said, my next project is going to be a semi gunny 6-10 bonzer for a daily driver meant for pulling in and pure smooth carving and nothng else.  No air, no vert.  I know my limits.

10

My theory has been this:  Every surfer’s idea of “Good Surfing” pretty much stops at the uppermost limits of what the “surfer” in question “might” be able to pull off if they were at the top of their game(guilty).  Same with music…Most people’s idea of “Good Music” is music that they grew up on in their teens and 20’s, and they can’t really understand or grasp newer technology(not guilty).  Things change and progress… Your “barrell ride” is some youngsters “360 slob-rodeo-roastbeef”.  Be like water…flow, change…  On the flip side of the coin, I can’t see myself following the Pro circuit after Slater retires.

11

I remember as a kid talking to a respected local shaper (Glen Kennedy) who pointed out a big difference between wide tails and pulled in tails... Something about the wide tails providing plenty of squirt but being nearly impossible to get (and stay) in the tube.  The same basic design differences may well apply today.

12

Should I want big air and flight time, I will take up skydiving, hang gliding, ski jumping or gymnastics.

13

my take on it...........

ban competitive surfing................period!

 

herb

14

Circus

and ceasar said give them circus

to keep the masses occupied

while the manipulation went on undisturbed.

the sand from the oceanfront at ocean beach

is disappearing because the water is being sent

in an aqueduct to so-cal for swimming pools

and irrigation of housing tracts compounded

by the  dredge mining of the sand

from the middle of sanfrancisco bay.

 

beach breaks are the perfect venue for contests

inshore spectators can easily “SEE the PERFORMERS”

tube riding essentialilly the contestants disapear from view.

Surfing as a covert activity is not “saleable”

contests are about sales and promotion.

performances are spectator driven.

controversy about what is good surfing

drives contest format changes

OH YEAH WELL WATCH THIS

will change the ‘big cutback bottom turn’

‘climbing and dropping’

stroll to the nose and back’

dance formula for wide stance

survival antics to ariel loops and beyond to 

the new nose tweak,remember the nose tweak?

 

Surfing is dead ,long live surfing.

 

the reinvention of surfing is on going 

who reinvents it is largely up for grabs

and will go to the bigest investor of $

the over throw will surely go to

the young and gifted focusing

on the love of surfing

and youthful exhuberance.

 

the current state of t he art

being driven by men no longer young

quickly approching  40$ is quite telling.

…ambrose…

aerlals  are for cars

leashes are for dogs.

( I love that cap)

15

"the reinvention of surfing is on going 

who reinvents it is largely up for grabs

and will go to the bigest investor of $"

 

and who better to reinvent it then…Kelly.  think he is no more capable of walking away from the ‘surf scene’ then an alkie from that last swig…he’s got the money behind him, the connections, and the respect…wouldn’t be surprised to see him take his almost manic focus to helping steer the ASP to whatever it’s next incarnation will be…

interesting juxtaposition between now and the ‘shortboard revolution.’  Old school back then still knee paddling 9’10’s and walking the tip while young bucks on previously 9’10’s cut down to sub 7’s were learning new moves the old schoolers scoffed at. And these days…

In the end, whereas the tasty new flavor of the moment will always get the most licks from the young, a classic barrel will always remain…classic

 

16

When the emphasis on a single, albeit difficult, ungainly trick outweighs fluidly linking together a series of perhaps not as difficult, but perfectly executed tricks, it gets lost on those of us that recall a different time. Many will disagree, but I always thought that surfing languished in the evolution of tricks far behind skateboarding. Skating, in my opinion, continues to be one of the most innovative sports out there as far as the continual pushing of the boundaries. Skiing was similar. It needed snowboarding to come along to move beyond the kookiness of daffy’s and twists.

Skating, at least in the competitive sense, has taken an ugly turn much like surfing. Skate across an artificial landscape, do the trick, start over. Gone are the runs, the linking of tricks, the flow and utilization of the entire space or wave. I find both disciplines almost unwatchably frustrating in the cometitive sense. On similar waves, you might end up with two nearly identical rides, drop in, cut back, gather some speed, launch into a moment of anticipation as to whether Kelly or surferX will clumsily arise from the froth. Yawn. No doubt it takes skill, no doubt it takes practice, and I’ll fully agree that the practice is much harder in surfing than skating. But I can’t shake that as spectacular that it may be, I’m left unfulfilled instead of blown away. Just my three and a half cents…  

17

It’s not an either/or… it has, is, and always will be about who can do it ALL.