Transmission Dispatch #7

In: Transmission by doclach 0 Comments Fri 2nd Dec '11

Tags: Danarchist , custom Bodyboards , Stock bodyboards

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On the politics of making friends with strangers.

This is the story of a man.

The man just bought a stock board for the first time in many years. It was a bargain. Last years model, half the usual price.

For many years leading up to tax time, when he would have a little superfluous cash to spend,the man would often find himself thinking of specs and templates, pros and cons, when he really should have been focusing on other, supposedly more important things in the "real" world. How, he would ponder, could these adjustments affect how he could surf. Would a variation or adjustment allow him to surf that little bit better?

The mans journey however, begins when the man was a grom.
The groms first custom board had a lot of logic applied to it. High wide point for good control, skinny tail for manoeuvrability, bat tail for extra speed to offset the loss of drive from the skinny tail, deep rails to offset the looseness of the bat. Sounded like a winner.
It was a lemon, literally and figuratively. To loose, no drive, awkward to ride on every level. The yellow deck / slick and brown railed fruit held back the grom's surfing for a whole year. The grom persisted with the lemon until he found salvation in the form of a 25% of retail C grade sponsorship and conned Ma and Pa into shelling out for new ride.

Like everyone else, the grom's surfing technique was influenced by the waves he grew up riding. Short intense reefs, that required getting to the bottom as fast as possible and gunning for the channel. The grom thought the extra "pop" a bat tail gave him through the bottom 1/3 of his bottom turns was perfect. (Plus Mike and Skipper were repping them at the time, so they were way cool).
The grom grew to be a, well a larger grom in mans body, started a family, and moved away from his home breaks. New places, new waves, new challenges. Wedgey Worimi waves required adjustment and adaption. Old habits and techniques had to be retrained or discarded. The man had to learn to surf "longer". Using his rails and a stiff, straightened inside leg to drive drawn out bottom turns that lasted longer than entire waves at his old home waves. He learnt to scoop into the barrel or sit on the side wedge by widening his legs. He stopped doing as many flip moves, and focused more on projection moves off of bank sections.

But the man never truly did learn to adapt fully. He would marvel as the born and breeds would whip themselves through reverse after clean reverse. Their positioning on the wave concentrated higher up the face, where speed could be milked and maintained, until unleashing it onto the approaching section.

Perhaps as a consequence of the man's slight ill adjustment and unease in the new environment, he went searching for answers in his tools, rather than admit his own failings. He wandered into strange, sometimes absurd new territory with his thinking and expectations on board designs, seeking the magic bullet to help him surf that much better. One piece gel coated boards that required waxing every surf to prevent sliding off the thing , a Wide chocolate coloured foamer with ¾ length channels, rounded rails to square pegs. Bat tails with no channels.
And so it went.

None of the weird and wacky's however, gave him that edge he wanted, to allow him to surf the place as well as the locals. After more years, more kids, and more debt, the man arrived back at his home breaks. Again the man had to adjust, re-adapt, redefine and re-learn.
Or so he thought.

The man applied himself to learning to re-learning the subtleties of the old haunts. He focused on trying to surf "short" better, hanging in and around the barrel longer by using the back half of his torso to adjust his positioning , trying to fit as many moves into the quicker rides as possible. A man must have goals, even small ones, to keep himself motivated he mused.

The process of tinkering with board refinement to match waves and surfing technique started again. More flex, rounder template, different rails, thinner boards.
One day however, the man had an epiphany. Those considered great surfers are exalted for their ability to ride any kind of surf craft. They don't impose their will on the board, they react to the different way the boards template and design interact with the wave surface to produce the way the board rides. They get the most out of the board, ride the board to its fullest potential not by seeking to ride the board in a certain manner, but by adjusting their technique and riding focus to compliment the board attributes.

The man realized that through all of the different boards he'd had, he'd been learning. Sub-consciously adjusting to every nuance of each board, even as he had tried to make the board and himself fit a pre-conceived surfing style.
So this year at tax time, the man didn't order a custom, tailored to his current mental mould of a board that would help his surfing. Instead he bought a stock board, specs unknown. And started focusing on learning to react, rather than impose.
Revelling daily in my own delusions,

The Danarchist

P.S. Apologies for the hippi-esk nature of this post. It's spring time on the North Coast. It's been 1ft wind chop and NE winds for three weeks now. Gettin' a little stir crazy.)

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