Carissa has her technique dialled better than anyone on
tour. | Photo: WSL
Does Carissa Have the Best Technique on
Tour?
By Derek Rielly
The two-time world champ wins the Swatch event,
leads tour. And there's a reason…
A few minutes ago, Carissa Moore won the Swatch contest
at Trestles, easily beating the South African Bianca
Buitentag. She leads the gals going into Portugal, a contest that
starts in four days.
(Watch the final here)
What’s the secret to her dazzling success? Fitness? Boards? How
about a flawless, almost-men’s WSL level technique.
Technique matters. It’s the difference between being a game
changer and a numbers maker. Between top three or better in the
world and shuffling orbits on the qualifying series.
It’s the difference of an eighth of an inch in foot placement,
the ability to be able to shift around your board in response to
curves in the wave, to the subtlety of the rocker in your board and
the shape of the rail line.
And Carissa Moore? The two-timer from Honolulu? She’s got her
technique dialled better than anyone on tour. Stephane Gilmore is
close, but with style in her mind, she’ll ride a little forward if
necessary to find the aesthetic she’s chasing.
Carissa, like Kelly Slater, finds her own style in the
perfection of her technique. That only in the purity of her
function will form follow.
Watch her in motion, here, in her semi-final against Dimity
Stoyle.
I want you to watch how she opens her shoulders on those top
turns (spray!), how a familiarity with the boards of her shaper
Matt Biolos allows her to surf as if the board was an extension of
her feet (note how she’ll delay her bottom turn to allow the wave
to hit the bank a little harder, to curve, so she can attack…
exactly… in the pocket).
Shane Beschen, the former sparring partner of Kelly Slater (same
age, once scored three 10s on three waves in a World Tour heat,
still the highest-scoring heat in history) knows it. He’s been
working on Carissa’s air game (trampolines, video sessions at
Trestles) and he’s seen her refine her technique to such a point,
she can hammer a move that’ll give her a heat, at will. All she
needs in the waves.
“There was a moment at the US Open at Huntington Beach,” says
Shane. “And she was in the semis and losing to Sally Fitzgibbons.
The waves were really bad and it was high tide and it had stopped
breaking on the outside. It came down to one wave. Carissa caught
it, there was nothing to hit on the outside and she barely had
enough momentum to get to the shore. But, when she got there, she
did this huge throw-tail. A proper throw-tail. She threw half the
board out of the water and stomped it clean. You see very few
things like that in women’s surfing. The crowd went wild. I was
super psyched but I didn’t know how the judges were going to react.
No moves on the outside? But she scored a nine.”
Technique? Yeah, it matters.
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Movie: Who is JOB 5.O Season Finale!
By Derek Rielly
Board swaps, cruelty to best friend, pussy eating,
usual…
Born into loving, motherless poverty in a beachfront
rental at Pipe, Jamie O’Brien’s life has always been a
work of extremes.
And in this, the final episode of Who is JOB 5.0, we see,
and here I dip into the press release:
“Jamie and friends surf the best swells of
the year from Tahiti to Mexico including the biggest South swell in
more than a decade. Shopping carts, water-skis, rafts, and the
infamous Supsquatch are just part of the best quiver ever assembled
by a rag tag surf bunch affectionately known as #TeamGrom.”
But how extreme? How motherless? How poverty?
Listed below, are 10 things y’mebs don’t know about JOB.
1. He’s Motherless. Jamie’s mom left baby J and
dad Mick to seek her emotional fortune back on the mainland.
Australian-born Mick, a lifeguard, scraped every cent he had from
his seasonal lifeguard work to keep his son, and him, on the beach
at Pipe.
2. He’s concerned about age. “You know what
freaks me out? That it ain’t a joke that I’m actually halfway to
60!”
3. Three Red Bulls a day, mostly. “I become
very energised. I just do it. My fridge is pretty much empty. There
are so many scavengers coming and going around my house. And, all
that’s in the fridge is Red Bull, so when they’re hungry, I tell
’em to grab a Red Bull. I grab one, go surf, then have a food
attack and eat poke, drink some more.”
4. He was John John Florence’s principal tormentor as a
child. “Jamie used to tease John and throw poop at
the kids,” says John John’s mom, Alex.
Jamie says, “It was all in good measure.”
5. Jamie wasn’t all bad to John
John. “He’s the reason John started contests in the
first place. John was four and Jamie went out there in the heat and
pushed him into his waves,” says Alex Florence.
6. Speaking of John John. “He’s alongside Dane
and Kelly as the best surfer in the world. His surfing is so good.
John is 21 and charging Jaws. John is always going to be that one
steep ahead. He surfs more than anyone alive. He surfs all day
long. He wakes up in the dark and surfs until dark.”
7. His heart remains loveless. “The chicks are
all savages here on the North Shore. There’s no love around
here.”
8. He refuses to believe his hair is red not
blond: “I ain’t red. Cheyne Magnusson’s all red. Easy,
brag.”
9. His win at the Pipe Masters in 2004 drives him a
little nuts. “It’s a long time ago now. It pisses me
off.”
10. His beachfront rental at Pipe was glorious, but his
new house 20 yards back is even better. “At our beach
house at Pipe I was so sick and tired of these rats and
cockroaches. That was the dream pad on the beach, now I’m 20 feet
from the beach. But, this place is clean and nice and not a rundown
beach house. That thing was savage. ”
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Great unfinished surf novel:
Literature!
By Chas Smith
One Day in the Life of John Dennis (part I)
Derek Rielly and I, before your beloved
BeachGrit, started a gorgeous little blog called LikeBitchin. It
was very popular and we, both of us, wrote great unfinished surf
novels that we posted serially. Has any great, truly great, surf
novel ever been written? We are reimagining it here. This is my
first offering. Derek’s and maybe Rory’s will follow.
8:00 am He hates the grey.
His Qantas flight seems like it is descending for ages. Through
kilometers of slate grey grey without break. It was grey in South
Australia too, that marbled grey which perpetually suggests rain
but never offers, and he is convinced that he hasn’t seen the sun
for weeks. Since Bali. When exactly was Bali? Weeks ago? Rain
droplets form on his little coffin shaped airplane window. But not
his, his neighbors. Middle seat hell. He lays his head back, tired.
He closes his emerald eyes and almost instantly feels the wheels
touch, bounce, skid on the tarmac. Newcastle. Home.
He doesn’t spend much time in this his blue-collar town. Mere
weeks out of the year. He travels constantly. Around Australia,
Indonesia, Mexico, Europe, the United States. Wherever there is the
surf and he is obsessive about finding the surf. Like, way more
than most professional surfers. He spends hours digging through
wave reports (on stormsurf) and wind reports (on windguru),
calling, finding it.
But he always comes back to Newcastle though Newcastle isn’t
even really home. He was raised in Newport Beach, California. So he
doesn’t necessarily have a home at all. But he has a family. And
they live in Newcastle.
The airplane stops motoring. The seatbelt light turns off and
everyone stands up except elderly woman sitting next to him doesn’t
and so he doesn’t either. He is too polite to push an elderly woman
out of the way even though he can’t wait to get off this plane.
Flying standby has its benefits (it is virtually free when holding
a Qantas friends/companions pass) but also its problems (middle
seats). The elderly woman appears to be not well. He’ll just have
to sit.
He forgot to switch his iPhone to flight mode before the
take-off and didn’t bother mid-flight. Does it really matter? Like,
really? It dings out of. “ding ding.” His filmer, Greg, has texted
to say he hadn’t taken the car last night because he didn’t have
enough money for the parking fee and took a cab instead but he
doesn’t read the text because he can’t be bothered right now. Why
does it have to be raining?
He sits in his seat and thinks about nothing much. The
early morning commuters and cheap flight connoisseurs shuffle down
the aisle to rain but freedom and the elderly woman finally shoves
her counterintuitive frail portly frame into the flow and floats
away too. Then it his turn. He slips out and bounces down toward
the rear door, reading his texts (the one about his car) and
bopping his head unconsciously. It is a rap tune thumping inside
his memory. Pain from a rap cat.
“Man you didn’t know that
3 AM, man, we bumping Bobby Womack
My homie keep all his bullets hollow
That’s why I smell like Salvatore Ferragamo with the diamond
sparrow
A rap cat with the BOSS apparel
I put my rhymes on your block then I run it just like little
Darrell
Money and dope, man, don’t come for free
Man, I don’t have no competition, ho, all I got is enemies
I turn around like a tornado
Rock it like a baby cradle
Call me Doctor J if you a baller and it’s getting fatal
I make MC’s do angel dust
Take ’em to the Bay Bridge, make ’em strip, tell ’em jump
I don’t know why I get high
I’m so in love with money I keep spending ’til it runs dry
Hot like a kettle, when the pedal hit the metal
Pinocchio you know son of Guipetto, hello
Deep fried just like Friday fish
A lot a hot sauce, now we got it popping in this bitch.”
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Heavy Water director Michael Oblowitz, left,
and the subject of his movie, Nathan Fletcher.
Interview: Mike Oblowitz on Heavy
Water!
By Rory Parker
It's anti-bio film, says the director…
Last night, BeachGrit showed a little of
the Michael Oblowitz-directed documentary Heavy
Water, a Nathan Fletcher biopic with an emphasis on energetic
waves.
It premieres at the San Sebastian Film Festival on September
25. #SAVAGECINEMA, if hashtags are your thing.
Anyway, Oblowitz is an interesting guy. This interview just
happened.
BeachGrit: You’re a busy guy. Finishing up a documentary
on Sunny Garcia, one about Korean ceramics, and you’ve just
finished Heavy Water, about Nathan Fletcher. But, what I really
want to know is, when am I gonna get to see Sea of Darkness? I’ve
been waiting forever. So many rumors flying around about the thing,
what’s the deal?
Oblowitz: Martin Daly and I have made a deal with New
York/London based distributor, Goldcrest. Goldcrest were
responsible for some classics over the years such as Chariots
Of Fire, The Killing Fields and more recently the
Academy Award documentary, Sebastian Junger’s Restrepo. It
was the latter film’s distribution success which convinced me that
they were the right fit for our film.
BeachGrit: What I know about film making begins and
ends with a single high school class. Why’s a distributor
necessary? Why not just put it on itunes or
something?
Oblowitz: How one distributes a film is the personal preference
of the filmmakers and financiers. For the former its how the film
will be perceived for the latter it’s how the money the film cost
will be recouped. In my case, I’m old school. An OG filmmaker
if you will. I make my films to be viewed on a big screen in
5.1 Surround Sound in a movie house. That’s the most desirable
viewing platform for me. Secondarily I try to make films that
are interesting to a broad audience. In this case not only the
small international cadre of surf film fans (who I love and are my
base audience) but I’m aiming for a larger audience who can immerse
themselves in the experience of this film. Thus I need to
create an audience through a large distribution network with a team
that know how to manage this kind of thing.
BeachGrit: Your newest work, Heavy Water, about
Nathan Fletcher, is coming out really soon. When I lived on Oahu he
was like this ghost that’d pop up in random places. Like checking
the surf at Alligators on a totally flat Summer day, or I’d see him
out surfing alone at Log Cabins in the windiest, most horrifying,
overhead close out slop. Always alone. The impression I always got
was that he’s this kind of strange, super introverted, maybe a bit
self destructive, guy. How close to reality is
that?
Oblowitz: Nathan is a cross between The Marlboro Man and
The Bob Dylan of surfing! Always changing always smoking a
cigarette!
BeachGrit: Except Dylan dug fame, while it seems
like Fletcher tries to stay out of the spotlight. Or, at least,
doesn’t actively pursue it.
Oblowitz: Dylan repeatedly says in his lyrics how he shunned the
spotlight, fame found him. “…I can’t help it if I’m lucky”..in the
song Idiot Wind…”It wasn’t my intention to sound the
battle charge…” another line about the unintended consequences of
finding oneself in the spotlight. Nathan is quite similar. A Dylan
line that really reminds me of Nathan is: “I can’t help it if I’m
lucky…”
And of course the classic: “..the only thing that I could do is
keep on moving on, like a bird that flew…” in Tangled up in
Blue. Which, when you see the film, is the theme of much of
Nathan’s life… things happen…I don’t use any Dylan songs in this
film, I did that in Sea of Darkness, but you get the
point…the law of unintended consequences…
BeachGrit: I just have hard time believing that
anyone who gets onstage and performs doesn’t crave attention. They
may not enjoy what comes with it, but there’s that “look at me”
aspect that’s pretty unavoidable. And I get it, I crave attention
too. I just don’t have any talent that’ll win it for
me. But I’m supposed to be asking about your
new flick. Who’s in it, what’s it all about? Obviously Nathan
Fletcher, but is it a full-on bio, or do you focus on one
aspect/event/whatever?
Oblowitz: No it’s more of an anti-bio. It adopts a rambling
intuitive posture, not unlike its subject, and things just happen
to him, to people who came before him, people around him. It
digresses and shuffles along as the everyday elevates itself to the
sacred…
BeachGrit: How long have you been working on it?
How did the idea to make it come about?
Oblowitz: I met Nathan, briefly, a few years ago through his
friend the great artist/filmmaker/surfer Julian Schnabel. It was
not long after Nathan had surfed the historic Teahupoo
wave.A lot of heavy stuff happened around
Nathan, material for cinema
BeachGrit: What kind of heavy stuff?
Nathan is a man who pushes the limits of human endurance in a
quiet understated fashion. At the level he performs at and with the
extreme athletes he engages in his pursuits, things happen: Andy,
Sion, Kirk Passmore. Things over which Nathan had no control, but
happened around him.
BeachGrit: Oh man, I’d forgotten he was there all
those times. And he was nearby when Peter Davi died too. So gnarly,
that would have a huge impact on someone. I
know Heavy Water recently premiered at the San Sebastian Film
Festival, is there any way the rest of us can see it?
Nathan has been in and around a lot of heavy water, hence the
title. The film has its world premiere at San Sebastián on
September 25th, inshallah. If the stars align it will have a
long life. Sea Of Darkness, Heavy Water,
they aren’t going away….
BeachGrit: Sorry, something I read online must have
confused me. I guess the only thing I have
left to ask: you directed This World Then the Fireworks, with Billy
Zane and Gina Gershon, as well as The Traveler, with Val Kilmer. Of
those three people, which one exuded the most raw sexual
magnetism?
Gina Gershon, duh! Have you seen her nude scenes in This
World Then The Fireworks?
We were an official entrant in the Cannes Film Festival with
that one- driving around Cannes in a limousine with Gina in some
kind of transparent dress, stark naked underneath, paparazzi
blasting flashes through the car window. As we walked up the red
carpet, I had it all for a moment..
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Movie: Kelly Slater’s Four Great Hail
Marys
By Derek Rielly
New York, Bells, Portugal and… Trestles! All
on one inexpressibly exhilarating reel!
Isn’t it an odd turn of events that a middle-aged man
who, until recently, would dress is in shapeless sacks, is
the most exciting surfer of 2015. As he was the year before and the
year before that.
Yeah, it’s inevitable, I suppose, that John John, or maybe Jack
Robinson, will steal our attention, but, for now, it’s Kelly
Slater, who’ll turn 44, in February.
I mean, thirty seconds to go, needing a ten, who else can smile
faintly, kick start their bike and jump the Caesar Park fountain
like Kelly? Always jerky, but always with a tenuous strength, and
with landings on cushions.
So how about we celebrate his vigour just a little?
Here are his four greatest Hail Marys, New York, Bells, Portugal
and Trestles, all wrapped up in one little pile, complete with the
best song from the expansive oeuvre of Brigitte Bardot.
