Dont think, just surf.
The nature of ‘style’ is to change and mutate over time. To move like water, from a trickle, to a small tributary, to a river, flowing with the landscape of our social climate. Spilling majestically over a cliff at high speed, flowing fast underground, or finding an obstacle… losing momentum, and stagnating.
Anyone with a love of wave riding will explore its roots, its tributaries (in fact, it is essential to late night ‘surf-jive’ after a few beers). And, undeniably, the roots of wave riding lie in that abstract concept of ‘style’.
It evolved from the pioneers of surfing. Duke Kahanamoku brought surfing to the world, inspiring people like Tom Blake and George Freeth. Who in turn inspired the pioneers of big wave riding (the Greg Noll power stance stands out in my mind), and after that came the man that is considered the pinnacle of surfing style: Tom Curren.
Of course technology and experimentation in design of surfboards goes hand in hand with the courage of the men who rode them. The beginning of bottom contours and fins, the skeg bottom (Tom Blake and Bob Simmons), the use of PU and glass after being invented for bombers in WWII, Bob McTavish’s ‘V’ sliding out at sunset… The list goes on, to MR’s utilisation of the twin-fin, Simon Andersons thruster and finally perhaps Kelly Slaters ‘Deep 6’, wider and shorter with optional fin set-ups.
These are just a few of the big names and there is a wealth of information and countless profound stories with just as much impact on the subject, of what seems to have turned into a full scale amble down memory lane…
Style... Abstract concept?
Or... what?
To state the obvious, I digress…
So what is style? Individuality and personal flare? (The wounded gul), proficiency? (Slater), revolutionary radical lines? (Reynolds), the soul-surfing, solitary longboarder? The traveller? Or the groundbreaking, air-reversing grom-tacular, rising star of the competition circuit…
My opinion is that all of them have their own style. That style is not constrained by what you ride or why you ride… But it is defined by it. This subject is consistently pulled into contention in the surfing ‘scene’. With some labelled as ‘hippies’, soul-surfers, competitors, weekend warriors or kooks. Some refuse to comment, indifferent of their inevitable label. Others are very outspoken and deem other approaches as beneath their own (young short boarders seem to be the stereotype here).
Is it wrong or distasteful to return to an older ‘style’? To revisit the longboard and glide, rather than joining the crowd at the edge of what we can ride, of where we can go on a wave. To ride a single-fin bonzer, cross stepping in the barrel, or to body surf… Are there boundaries within surfing? It seems that the popular culture within our beloved art, or sport, has a split that we have all felt or encountered at one stage or another.
Maybe the rain that fell on the few, and became the waters of surfing has become so diluted that many don’t explore the spiritual side of the art. Which seemed to be more prevalent in years gone by. The roots of wave riding are in the realm of spirituality after all, from the ancients to the rejecters of consumerist society that pioneered the ‘life-style’ that has become an unfortunate cliché.
It seems as though the sporting approach that has given the style and the sport so much, has also caused a paradigm shift.
Are many missing the point? I certainly feel as though this is the case.
I would urge anyone who is serious about their surfing to try something different. Don’t be like a river fish, swimming upstream in the same old tributary. Be the inevitable ocean metaphor fish, reaping the benefits of freedom and exploration.
Words by 'The Dude'
An interesting insight! I took the liberty of adding some of my favorite pics. Hope you dont mind 'Dude'!
Joe
Editor UKPSN
