Taj wins on a firewire and puts himself into second place in the ratings.He is proving that compsand does work and it is a legitimate board design.Props to Bert berger and Josh dowling!!!
I didn’t see a springer on his board this time.I wonder why the rails were black.Maybe they are carbon.
Cool.
Taj was lit up…Kelly looked slow and tired in comparison.
Ive never seen Jbay so glassy too…not too many barrels.
Some of those guys seem so motivated this year…they might see a chink in the KS and AI armor.
Not sure about Taj’s board but it sounds interesting.
I saw a close up shot on the 'bong site - the rails look to be painted black. Kelly had a crap heat but Taj has been taking to a new level, coming from behind the white water and hooking these super tight turns - the extra bit of squirt off the bottom and hold at the top I think is Taj starting to tune his surfing to the flex characteristics of the rails.
Quote:
I saw a close up shot on the 'bong site - the rails look to be painted black. Kelly had a crap heat but Taj has been taking to a new level, coming from behind the white water and hooking these super tight turns - the extra bit of squirt off the bottom and hold at the top I think is Taj starting to tune his surfing to the flex characteristics of the rails.
Hmm? Black painted balsa? Carbon would be cool and perhaps functional?
Got to admit though Taj’s surfing is wild to watch, hope he’s riding a compsand…at least for Firewire’s sake.
The proofs in the pudding, the boards DO work!
Taj’s been on tour for a considerable time. First year on firewire, makes J-bay final. Second year, Wins J’bay.
Great Stuff.
You put a shit surfer on a great board, you won’t get a world champion.
I saw a story on Taj on the TV and he said that he is a lot more focuses this year and has started a training program to improve his fitness.
I’m not saying that his boards don’t improve his surfing, they are probably great boards, but he has worked on all aspects of his surfing, not just his boards.
It takes good equipment, good fitness, good mental focus and support to be able to compete and overcome poeple like Slater.
If you are missing any of these aspects, you wont cut it.
Cheers
Excellent point MDS.
We can also add some good old fashion luck in there as well.
There’s also the confidence factor. Pro golfers go into slumps and often a simple club change or two can get them out of it. Its very possible, that in addition to Taj’s overall gameplan, his equipment is giving him extra confidence. Sometimes just a bit of confidence is all it takes to make a 2nd into a 1st.
Confidence (in himself) is one of the reasons why Kelly is so great. Taj proly just needed a little boost, via equipment and all the other factors you mentioned.
I also think his two wins this year were in conditions that really suited him. Not too big and/or not too windy/bumpy. In small glassy waves he is a definite favorite.
Having said all this, its really hard to win one of those events. Most of those 44 guys have a very slim chance of winning. Its usually someone in the top 10 that wins.
It obviously takes a great surfer to win…
But the board cannot hold him back.
Taj’s board, obviously, is not holding him back any. He was, to my eye, making more speed off the bottom turn than the other surfers on the last day.
His proficiency in competition has seemed dependent on smaller days when making speed matters more. I guess we will see at Trestles.
That makes a total of two event victories on compsands in 25 years. Both on Firewires this year by Taj. Quite a milestone for the parabolic stringers and composite sandwich boards.
I stayed up and watched the conny from the last of the 4 th round on (fell asleep just b4 the final but I understand TB was a very worthy winner) but there were a few interesting things going on there boardwise.
Kelly came out in his quarter against Adriano De Souza, one of the youngest and fastest surfers on tour and absolutely smoked him on a pu/pe shaped for him by simon Anderson in 03/04 ?. Point being it was a very well thrashed pu/pe and I couldn’t believe how sharp/in control, fast and radical he looked on it. that board had a ton of life in it He repeated the process against Dean Morrison in the semis. By conventional Sways theory that pu/pe should have barely floated him let alone looked like the best board of the event. Anyone got any ideas why? (yeah,yeah , yeah we know Kelly is the greatest etc etc etc).
Compared to last year when he made the final i thought TB’s boards seemed to surf waaaaayy better than last year. Last year they seemed to light and flimsy for him often skipping through a bottom turn, a slight rail catch or washout that would rob him of speed.I actually couldn’t believe he made it to the final.
This year in admittedly much more favourable conditions his boards seemed way more solid (stiffer?) and had unbelievable amounts of speed and projection out of bottom turns which TB utilised in lightning fast full rail snaps and gouges which he linked seamlessly into the next bottom turn. I’d love to know what they tweaked in his equipment to get these (in my eyes) massive performance advantages.
As one poster pointed out it is a total package but to my eyes his equipment seemed to be giving him an advantage. Steve
As they say in motocross it is 95% rider and 5% equipment so you better make sure your bike is set up the to take advantage of your style.I think that this is what has happened with taj and his boards.Of course training and natural ability play a huge role in this to.I seriuosly think that he got his setup just right after some time in development.
That heat where he got the 10 point wave he got tubed four times on looked pretty windy and bumpy to me. The “devil wind” they were calling it.
The board definatly played a big role! anyone who’s ever rode a good compsand knows eg Silly, Bert, Sabs, Chip etc
taj has always been fast & always into light boards, but it did seem as if his equipment was giving him an edge. he looked faster than slater, & even faster than fanning. his board looked like it was doing all the right things for him, while slater’s was getting hung up. geez, those guys can surf.
Quote:
Point being it was a very well thrashed pu/pe and I couldn’t believe how sharp/in control, fast and radical he looked on it. that board had a ton of life in it He repeated the process against Dean Morrison in the semis. By conventional Sways theory that pu/pe should have barely floated him let alone looked like the best board of the event. Anyone got any ideas why?
Now just hold up there Lennox, just because the board was shaped 3 years ago and looks thrashed doesn’t mean a whole lot. Kelly has probably only ridden it a couple of times. Pro’s tend to hold back their magic Pu/PE’s for contests because they know they deteriorate with use. After a period of regular use PU foam will fatigue and lose a bit of it’s liveliness. That board may looked thrashed but with PU that could happen with 10 hard sessions.
At the level those guys are at, anyone can win / lose in any given heat. Equipment is important but not nearly as important as conditioning / training and mental focus. Slater was ripping the quarters /semis and then just sortof lost it for the finals where Taj didn’t. to me this says one thing very clearly and that is superior conditioning and / or mental focus on Taj’s part. When I played hockey (not pro, but at a high level) it was easy for guys to blame their stick or their skates for why they were having an off night but the guys who wanted to win were the ones who did regardless of their equipment.
and yes i prefer eps and compsand boards to pu/pe.
I only caught the final at J-Bay, but looking at Taj’s last ride the 8.0 it was obvious that the board was responding particularly well to his input and he was linking up sections that Kelly just could not. In one sequence Taj is pumping the board so fast he looks like he is on a trampoline.
If anyone is can get a link to the finals video of that wave it would be worth looking at in slo-mo to see what was happening.
The relevant variables contributing to Taj’s win are what make it interesting…
Did the board put him over the top?
Did his conditioning put him over the top?
Was it all random luck of the waves he got and he would have been just as likely to do two years ago?
Each point is obviously debatable…
But, for the first time in a LONG LONG time, many people are thinking the choice of board played a much larger role in victory than it did when everyone was riding Pu/Pe.
As time goes on, if good pros keep riding the compsands, the cream will rise to the top.
i put money on the surfer not the board
what is funny is a buddy of mine who did alot of motocross and got semi pro (for under 18 class) said the same thing:
95% rider 5% bike
i put money on the board …
, if you took 10 good surfers , 5 on bad boards and 5 on good boards , then took contest result averages over a period of time , then the cream does indeed rise to the top …
i have seen it personally at every contest level since the boards were first developed …
i have seen countless situations where one surfer wins a title , then the next year it maybe a different surfer , but both were riding the same boards , so regardless of who was riding the boards , one style of board was always in the winners circle …
what would the odds be if 200 competitors roll up for a contest , 6 are riding the same brand , and 1st , 2nd and 3rd all happen to be on that brand ???
beware the new status quo …
regards
BERT