Twiggy and the art of balance

where do we start with Twiggy?  There's so much that he does right in and out of the water.

Something that's quite impressive, for me at least, is how well balanced he always is.  This photo is awesome, but isn't unique.  We've seen him air-drop colossal waves like this before.  He sticks them most of the time.  He shrugs when he doesn't.  That's impressive in its own right.

But something that's striking is that he always has his arms close to or by his sides.  This pic shows his trailing elbow up, but it's still only level, maybe even below his shoulder, and that's about as high up as i've ever seen it go.  His leading arm is low, down keeping that centre of gravity down near his hips or below.  He begins well balanced, and so is able to keep that balance through-out and I think that's one his secrets to being able to ride waves like this.

Of course, the real trick is keeping that control from the start.  But, you will see a lot of other guys in similar situations with arms out wide trying to find that balance.  They're a league behind.  Make no mistake, they're still right up there, but it's composure like this that allows Twig, Dorian and Greg Long to be the stand-outs when others are just trying to survive.

In a way what these guys are doing is like a very finely tuned feat of engineering.  Everything has to the just right, slight flaws here and there are magnified to the point where the whole system fails.  This begins with lining yourself up right.  No small feat.  The take-off zone is the size of a sports field and you probably have about a 10m bracket in that for a given wave.  And on the bigger days I've surfed in my life, the amount of water moving around out there is terrifying by itself.  Just something else to up the ante.

Then there's board speed.  We know this is about fitness - obviously.  But, like a swimmer will spend hours with his coach refining his stroke, I wonder if Twig and his crew do the same...  It would be interesting to hear from the man himself about this.  The fitness itself needs little explanation.  It's of a very high standard.  Need I continuea?

Then there's the boards.  A mate of mine said the other day that length is not what you want on a board.  I was about to contradict him, when I realised he's right.  What you want is volume and planing surface.  Unfortunately, the by-product of this is length.  Also, another mate of mine went down to DVG - go-to guy for guns in Cape Town to add some heat to his quiver.  He asked Dave about Twiggy riding shorter boards in bigger conditions.  Dave just shook his head.  "Don't worry about that.  That's just Twiggy."

Like I said, another league.

 photo via quirarte

Not long ago, at a beach not too far, far away*

*If you recognise the reference in the title - congratulations!  You're also a nerd.

Well, flying in the face of yesterday's post, it then rained hard, I put on shoes, and later even a hoodie.  Then a status update mentioned a few good waves here.  And a few there.  Then, just to rub a bit of salt into those non-surfing related wounds in scratching, zigzag offers up this pic.

To everyone bemoaning lack of waves:  [derisive] hahahahaha

They claim it was yesterday.  Could well have been.  They could well be lying, too.  They do that from time to time, just to throw you off.  I know where it is.  If you're Cape based, you probably do too.  Still, I'm not naming it.

But there's a lesson here:  If you're optimistic, and dialled, you will score more than your whinging mate who only surfs selectively.  Stoke fuels itself.  It's a virtuous circle.

So, I'm counting things to be stoked about now:

1. New GoPro2 has arrived (SD memory card not included)
2. Invitation to a yacht to watch the Volvo Inshore racing on Saturday
3. Wavescape board auction tonight.  Always fun

I'll combine 1 with 2 and put the results up here.

4.  That forecast I was whinging about.  Ja, they changed that.  Wind is taking a long weekend.  Which would be fine, except I was kind of hoping it would huss for the boat race on Sat... nope, just checked again...back to its typical windiness.

4.  I'm going sailing on Saturday and the wind is set to howl.  Yes, please!
5.  Was eyeing out dad's old windsurfers the other day.  Why not?

Shot ZZ and AVG, for the pic.  there is one of those funny circle c things in the corner, but I chatted to him about this sort of plagiarism, and he was pretty cool with it.

Finding Humour

Occasionally, I'll stagger to my lap-top, pre-coffee and be quite surprised and a bit bemused by the forecast on Windguru.  I'll be looking at a very strange forecast for Cape Town.  The wind is weirdly consistent, and the temperature with it.  There's no angry purple brusies of a gale followed by calm powder blues a few hours later with the.  The arrows don't swing violently like a compass bedevilled by a magnet.  Swells come and go with long periods, usually from the NW, before vanishing to windswell.  My intial reaction is that the models must have it wrong.  Some flaw in the data processing is leading to this.  Of course, we never think that the problem lies with us.  A few seconds later, I might notice that the page is still on its Maui default, and I'm reading the forecast for the North Shore.  Ah, mystery solved - again, fool.

I don't know if any other adherents to the 'Guru have a similar experience.  But, one that it does lead to is being pretty aware of what's going on there in surfing's answer to the Colloseum.  I remember a few years back, Cape Town was blessed with an unbelievable summer run.  And in seeing both forecasts, it was often CT summer > NS winter.  This year, neither areas can claim a boon of waves.  CT has had a fairly quiet winter by our own high standards, followed by summer doldrums.  The North Shore has been blighted, too, and there's much grumbling from the rock.

Still, with the world's elite packing into a small stretch of coast, there is some action going down.  Guys have been practising their aerial punts - not usually part of the Hawaiian repertoire, but better than nothing.  And I only hope that with everyone in it together, a sense of humour is prevailing.  We all know the grumpiest beast on earth is the wave starved surfer.  So how do you think Jordy managed this situation?

Jordy Smith, and friend

Of everything that this photo says, from what WTF factor, to the indignity of a older man lying down, to the way his gunning for it, pretending like he's charging, but actually seeming quite a fool.  There's a lot that's unsaid too.  What was the build up?  Was Jordy being a bit greedy and did he deserve it?  Is the booger a chop who reckons his age earns him priority?  Does he know what Jordy is capable of and where he can put his fins, should he choose?

And afterwards?  Some stern words or just a scowl?  Laughing it off - because, let's face it, it is quite ridiculous.  A scared booger heading for the beach?  Jordy heading to the beach, because if that sort of thing is going down, is it really worth it?

My best part is Jordy's elbow: retracted in a sort of don't-touch-that-thing manner lest it rub off on you.  Close second is the rest of body language:  Seriously, bru?

Shot to Zigzag for the image, photo credit Kolesky/Nikon/Lexar

Local Thursday: Llandudno

We called it wrong this morning.  We drove an hour in the wrong direction only to turn tail and sit in commuter traffic back through town.  It was kak, and some people do it every day.  Rob described it as having your soul eaten out from you - one teaspoon at a time.  One rusted teaspoon with a jagged edge and some of that miff hardened, old food that the dishwasher can't get off.  So to cut a long story and drive short, we turned up at Llandudno - a not too bad beachy with a rep for heavy barrels and locals.  The locals were all at work, but there were a few barrels to be had.  If you could get in them.  There was a such a current sucking up the face, that unless you got the first wave of the set, it was near impossible.  Air-drops were almost mandatory.  A very challengin surf, and as I said afterwards, without making it onto the face of a single wave, certainly my least successful surf in a long time.  I would sulk, but hey, I was surfing, so I won't.

I was mostly on the wrong side of the lip.

Did I mention how cold the water was?  It was very cold.  Have I mentioned that I don't have booties at the moment?  I have, haven't I... Anyway, its very kak not having booties at Llandudno. 

Did I mention the film shoot on the beach?  There was a film shoot on the beach.  There was a hot chick in a red bikini shooting an advert or something stupid.  She was probably the highlight of my session.  But, the cool thing was, partly because of her hotness, and partly because of someone's wasteful marketing budget, there at least 40 other people enjoying being on the beach this morning - AND getting paid for it. 

The other people getting paid for being on the beach were Llandudno's team of gardeners and their owners' dogs.  Cape Town housewife: "Philemon!  Walk the dog!  He wants to have his foofie now and I'm having a cup of tea!"  Still, getting paid to be on the beach - not bad.

Shot to Matt Slater for the pic.  And I will start taking my own pics soon - my camera is stuffed after being owned by me (in a literal, and a more emphatic, slangy sort of way) and mom has been preoccupied with hers on a photography course - but that means upgrade for her...and then for me by extention!  Shot mom! if you've worked out how to read this.

Being Mocked by Shaun Joubert

Sometimes you just have to admit being beaten.  Here's Shaun Joubert's blog.  Having a brief look at it, it's pretty plain to see that he does most things better than me.  He surfs better than me.  Takes better photos than me.  Travels better than me.  Blogs better than me.  (Sigh)

Hacks better than me...

I first became aware of Shaun about 4 years ago in Bali while watching Occy's Grom Comp.  He was pretty good back then, but now, he's a household name and one of our rising stars.  Keep an eye on him.  Good things to come from this guy.

Here's a pic of J-Bay taken by Shaun. I originally meant meant for J-Bay subject of this post.  Then I got distracted.  Now I feel inferior.  Damn you, interweb.  Crush my ego like that...

A new take on an old subject.  Pretty sweet shot from a guy whose job it is to be on the pixels, not creating them.

Do yourself a favour and hit the link above.  Then, carry on being awesome to yourself and carry on hitting his links (note: marinelayerproductions in there.  See...I'm not the only one)

Shaun Tomson - let's have that chat

Before there was such a thing as pro-surfing, aerials, a thruster, or even rocker for that matter - there was Shaun Tomson.  AndtThere was the reef at Pipeline.  And there was style.  And the three were never far apart.  Here's a few shots which may go a short distance in defining the man as a surfer.  Two entries.  And two barrels.  Two backhand.  And two forehand.  All awesome. 

Putting his own brand on what it is still the coolest move on your front hand - Soul Arch at Backdoor

Backdoor barrel.  His tuberiding was ahead of its time.  I doubt that barrel riding would be where it is today were it not for Shaun.

Crazy late drop at Pipe.  That's a heavy drop even by today's standards.  And if you look at the previous shot, you can see where board design was at the time.  I'm not sure if this was a thruster, or had rocker (both pioneered by Tomson), but you can be sure the rails aren't nearly as refined as what we have today.

If this shot of Pipe looks familar, it's because you probably had that silouette on a day-glo pair of baggies as a grom.  Backhand, no hands at Pipe.  Probably the hardest move, at one of the world's most challenging waves.  And style so classic they made a logo of it.

And does anyone know where I can get those green shorts with slip and the orange seams?  Would be classic for summer.

Pics lifted from here, here and here.  That ESPN one has a pretty good gallery as well.  Worth wasting a few minutes.

Scoring

Like taking off on the left of the A-frame and steering right for a crazy back door - blasted out with the spit.  Like racing into the parking lot after after work, suiting up after sunset and grabbing a few before dark.  Like asking a stranger in the line-up if he has a watch and learning that you should have been somewhere else 10 minutes ago.  And then rocking up at said event with sand in your hair, salt on your eyelashes and water in your nose.  Sorry, it's late.  I've been busy.

 If there's a wave, we'll surf it.  If there a flat piece of grass, we'll put goals up and kick a ball on it.  A defining image of two sports we love in this country.  Now, if we could only combine the two somehow...

Credit goes to AVG, who I made the pleasure of meeting today.