Future of surfing
Hello AndyM
I do like our chats and I was off on an April Fools Day Tangent and was chatting with Waveman , above .
Pointing out that Ballina can choose its own Future , like the Outer Hawaiian Islands .
The Worlds Rich and Famous , CAN afford to Find lovely , Hideaway Holes .
I DO know , Strop and Delvine , were and are , Loved by the Real Bay Locals !!!
They did lots of Good work .
The Pubs they owned , have changed their Culture with new owners and the locals DO miss the Old owners , a lot .
The Pub at Brunswick Heads , will always be visited , if I am in the Shire .
Thats were we ALL catch up , when I visit .
It has a Stage out the Front , now haha .
Australia is a bloody Big , hiding spot STILL , as the Tyranny of Distance , still is working , in the Space Age ,
It’s year 2022. Where is surfing heading, where can it possibly go?
As a kid I can remember watching in awe as professional surfers completed even the shortest of head dips, however tube riding has gotten to a point where foam ball wrangling and backside pig down dogging is a common skill amongst all good surfers.Barrel riding cannot get any better can it?
We seem to have mostly come out the other side of what I like to call the ‘tricky dicky’ phase with major manoeuvres including floaters, tail slides, fin drifts, carving 360’s, chop hops etc - which I’m glad to be past.
Aerial surfing is at a unusual juncture. An end move, ‘air reverse’ is less exciting than a solid close out belt. The aesthetics of a forced air (read: big chop hop) are about as appealing as a VAL and their bog-stanced bottom turn. Watching someone pumping down the line, ignoring sections of a wave, takes focus from the very reason we are allowed to do this thing we do and that is the wave itself. Kind of reminds me of the relationship a surf sports Ironman has with waves; that is to conquer/beat/surpass rather than to conform, flow and adapt to its unique form.
Despite what 10-15 years ago appeared to be the only direction high performance surfing was heading, you could say that barely 1/2 of the top 34 male CT surfers do frequent airs and very, very few of the women complete them with any regularly. Is aerial surfing becoming unfashionable? Is this aspect of surfing only viable for the young and malleable?
Rail-surfing AKA surfing, appears to be where the focus it is at presently. Although it feels like as with most things that have been saturated, more of a back to the future kind of situation. However it’s hard to deny the original lines being created by the likes of JJF, particularly in big open waves. The layback hack in heavy first or last turn sections appear to be a popular choice for the modern pro.
Has back hand surfing progressed in the past 30 years? Is anyone doing anything better or different than what Occy did in his heyday?
95% of pro surfers are still paddling out on craft that are more than fair replicas of what Simon came up with 40 years ago. I would also wager that more than 3/4 of mug punters are paddling out with the humble thruster also. Let’s face it modern boards are good, really good - I can’t even imagine what shapers could possibly do to these highly refined pieces of equipment to progress performance?
There is a lot more to be said and this is why I’ve created this topic as it would be great to hear other’s thoughts. Be it high performance pro surfing or every day punter paddling, it would be interesting to ponder what the future holds.