Innehållsförteckning för #358 Technique från Surfing Life

Do you accidentally sabotage your surf? Wait, what? Sliding into the second half of the year, those New Year resolutions are now a muddied memory belonging to a more-motivated, summery version of you. It was when those upbeat memes cycled through social media: Motivation gets you started. Commitment is what keeps you going. Commitment leads to results. Achieving those results relies on technique: the method of accomplishing.1 To be a better surfer—or, for some, to be the best—we confuse being “our best” with being “perfect”. Surfers are known for their affinity with nature—naturalists. (This doesn’t mean we all want to swim naked in the ocean, though some do.) Leaves dancing in dappled light, tree trunks with their gnarled branches stretching for the sun, uneven sand patterns on the beach, or…

Wildcards, are they the maker and killer of careers? Used in many sports, has their greatest impact been in surfing? There are a myriad of arguments for both sides of the story. Just like a rip pulls the innocent out to sea, are wildcard’s undercurrents good for our particular sport? So what are the significant issues with wildcards, if there are indeed any? The most prominent concern is that people’s careers are put in jeopardy. They have to surf against a wildcard or surfers that get a free ride into the top level without the required grind. One stunning example of a surfer who qualified for the big show exclusively via wildcards from start to finish in one year is Mikey Wright. If you’ve ever seen Mikey surf, you would…

There is no better sensation than waxing a board, feeling fresh, energised and ready for a full day of offshore winds and pumping conditions. The nature of surfing, however, doesn’t always let us feel this way before every surf. Swell windows can often last up to a week and consecutive days of surfing can often be a struggle. Accumulative fatigue is especially evident during long surf trips. It’s common to see surfers shredding on days one and two, getting on the Bintangs, smashing pizzas for dinner, having little sleep and as a result, feeling burned out and underperforming for the rest of the trip. In times like this, recovery is key. Proper recovery will ensure you have the energy to catch more waves, perform better and run circles around your…

Will using wave pools as a part of coaching help or hinder future progression? Wave pools are definitely going to be a real positive for the future progression of surfing especially in the area of skill development. Surfers are going to be able to get very specific with their skill development. They will be able to practise the same manoeuvre repeatedly, with the wave pool consistently offering the right section of the wave to practise whatever particular skill they want to work on. For example, the Waco Surf Pool offers a good speed-generating section, which then goes into an awesome ramp section for practising aerial moves, or The Surf Ranch, which offers a long barrel section. I think you will see a real impact of that skill development around the…

An idyllic winter’s morning on the Gold Coast. Bluebird brilliance with water and air temperature sitting around an agreeable 23 degrees, and not a breath of wind to be felt. These serene conditions allow an uninhibited swell to toss crystal-clear head-high waves onto the famed golden shoreline. Pair this weather with Moondarewa’s1 classic sand setup and you’ve got a portrait of surfscape perfection. A textbook example of “dreamy”. Now imagine scoring this weekday lineup with a few mates, only to look up and witness ten of Australia’s most promising aerial specialists charging over the dunes, wetsuits on, boards underarm, expectations psyched to the point of rabid froth, and all cheering at the potential on offer. Welcome to Puntorama 5.0! Apologies to those South Straddie rats who were hoping to score a…

Brad Gerlach was a classic rock’n’roll surfer, full of attitude and sass, who reached number one in the world and won multiple Championship Tour events. However, Gerr, as he has been aptly nicknamed, went searching for a better way to find his energy, his power, his ki. We’ve only scraped the surface, because to go any deeper into this article would put us way behind the foam ball. SL: When did you start surfing? BG: I started surfing when I was ten. I found a surfboard on the beach. It didn’t have a fin on it, so I grabbed it. [And] asked all the people around—didn’t want to steal it, so I made sure it didn’t belong to anyone. I had tried surfing two years before that, but I didn’t…

Are you the person that inhales surf content like a starving, post-session grommet doing a Maccas run? The one who’s data disappears in a day, because you’re constantly glued to a screen deciphering the mind-bending surfing you’re trying to mimic from your favourite surfers. Sometimes, we don’t know what we’re seeing, because it’s beyond the realms of what we comprehend to be possible. Yet, we can’t look away nor stop ourselves from digging deeper into the mechanics of what keeps us coming back for more. Let’s face it, every time we see surfing that stops us in our tracks—whether live, at our local, in a magazine, Instagram clip, or movie part—we get psyched to go surfing. But you don’t want to be the surfer with all the gear and no…

Hawaiian-born surfer Mahina Maeda will represent Japan at the Tokyo Games. Dual nationality (America and Japan) has given the 23-year-old a rare opportunity to surf for her parents’ country of birth, the host country of the 2021 Summer Olympics. Maybe, the samurai warrior’s humble attitude fits best with Mahina’s surfing mindset, one which believes women in the lineup should be strong and respectful. Raised in the North Shore of Oahu, Mahina has an exceptional track record of what it takes to be a winner. She’s a three-time Women’s Junior Tour world-title holder and the second woman to tow-surf Nazare (at only 16 years of age). Recently, Mahina has swapped surfing the heavy lineups of the North Shore for being part of the COVID-restricted Tokyo Games. She will be one of…