Or just really really damage it?
The Bells Beach Classic, presented by Rip Curl in association with North Korean slaves, is less than one week from kick-off and other surf websites are awash in fantasy tips. We here at BeachGrit have dipped our toes into that pond but I’m glad we are well clear this year, pushing straight up gambling instead. Fantasy surfing is crazy lame no matter which way you slice it. The domain of sexless perverts. Oh, speaking of, and real quick, did you watch Stormy Daniels on 60 Minutes last night? Did you have any thoughts?
Back to Bells, though, the hot picks for the Bowl are unsurprisingly power surfers. The Jordy Smith/Michel Bourez/Wade Carmichaels of the tour. It all certainly makes sense. Bells lends itself to loping, big turns feat. lots of spray and grimacing O faces. It is a fine sort of surfing, one that has transitioned through the 70s, 80s, 90s and aughts relatively unchanged.
But I wonder, will wave tanks be the death knell for buried rails? Technology at other locations might be different but at Surf Ranch it is virtually impossible to throw any spray. I’ve been told it’s how the wave is generated and, on my lone visit, noticed a distinct lack of boom off the lip. It’s fun to carve mid-face but… not what the place is built for. As they become more ubiquitous and children learn on them etc. it makes me think they’ll dispense with burying the rail altogether, focusing instead on cool tube stuff and airs.
Power surfing will then become “an ocean thing” and only at certain breaks by older men. Then those older men will climb onto longboards and power surfing will only be something future generations read about in Matt Warshaw’s excellent Encyclopedia of Surfing.
Which brings me to another point. Just think how hyped Matt Warshaw must be. He has created a work that will never ever ever be repeated. Not next week, not next year, not in three-hundred years. Can you imagine someone sitting down and thinking, “I’m going to spend the rest of my life carefully cataloguing every little bit of surf culture, history etc. and put it all in one place.”? Yes, if my calculations are correct Matt Warshaw will live on while Kong Elkerton will be completely forgotten (save his entry in the Encyclopedia of Surfing).
Will you miss it when it’s gone?
Taylor Knox could do a reasonable power slash, etc. I also think Pancho, Sunny, Kong, yeah all those peeps.
That stationary German shit is an mp3.
Power surfing isn’t done for cameras and contests; it’s how one tell’s everyone in a crowded line up that yes, some people do get dropped in on, but you ain’t the motherfuckin’ one. It’s silverbacking plain and simple. Tell me you’ve never seen some full grown man lay down brutal grunting aggression and then given him a little more elbow room. Some skinny-jeans flicks a floaty air reverse and you feel impressed, but less obliged to let him paddle inside of you – fuck off there trickster until you can show me you can bang.
16 year old Kong was much less like to be dropped in on than a 16 year old Kolohe .There is a photo of a young Kong doing a layback slash on a single fin ( Hotstuff?) published in an 80s surfing world edition . Total Man Turn from a very big kid .
Yeah I remember that
Powerful memory you have there Mr Pest !
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Ross Williams’ surfing was flicky and slidey like a cat on acid.
Where is your gambling sponsor? I want to place bets whilst making stupid commentary about my poor gambling record and how the WSL & the surfers are to blame for my losses.
https://youtu.be/VkoNRyYHNLA
Reminds me of watching him at whatever that outer reef at Pinetrees is called (Mahina’s? Help me Seas nail). So much pushback against the juice. Baffled me then…
Not sure if was the same event but in his heat against Occy he caught a left , seemed way to deep , mid face bottom turn to a floater about 3/4 of the way up the face and was shot like a cannonball into a big bottom turn before cracking the lip vertically at a million miles an hour . One of the best 2 turn combinations I’ve ever seen .Quik pro Hossegor 2005 .
https://youtu.be/FI47-eD1hGc
Thanks mon Ami Lost . The first wave is the one ☝️
Any of us are potential Eskimo brothers of trump!!
Wavepools could be the death of wavepools…
I look forward to most of the Wct submitting a post on Facebook (or Bebo or whatever it is then) to demand that Power surfing get less coverage!
The pool may actually provide the fertile farmland necessary for a power surfing come-back. The air game has choked the seeds of big rail turns in the vast expanses of the ocean. The farm to plate consumption of airs by WSL Judges left little room for the middle man big rail turns to thrive. Now the air game will be farm to ranch consumption leaving room for the seeds of change in the ocean. Why not have a contest in the ocean where doing an air would subject the contestant to a penalty like a point deduction?
Is that Meatloaf in the photo?
I wish I could use “the end is nigh” and “death knell” in my everyday vernacular.
I envy you, Chas.
Try preaching out.
I hear christianity is pretty big on selling fear
Who cares about fear? I love it for the shear beauty of the language.
Maybe you could get a job as an executioner or apocalyptic demon ?
I used to think that being the Director of the National Hurricane Center would be a fun job. That’s kind of like an apocalyptic demon, right?
Power Surfing?
I would love to 1 of The Modern Goofys
do some damage at Bells like Occy did waaay back in 1997 in The Skins Event:
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
how badly did everyone surf back then….embarrassing. Occy would still win Bells today with that surfing.
ding ding ding
It was pretty obvious that machado was never going to win Bells
Filipe Toledo norco,family guy joke,see ya tonite
“Power Surfing” as a concept died the day someone on some ‘CT webcast a couple years ago (I think it was RonDawg) said that Josh Kerr was a Power Surfer™. Words no longer have meaning.
Check mate at 4:30 but all of its good https://youtu.be/HbyjN1OqNnI
Teenage Riot!
I know right. Give these new jams from Hot Snakes a listen.
https://youtu.be/a7or6-7QRog
I approve of this message.
On tour. Tickets purchased. Glad they’re back.
You won’t be disappointed.
Its a cracker album and only realised your handle from the album – one of my favourite songs yet didn’t think about it!!!
I am pretty sure most of his comrades call him wrongdawg. Guy is as sharp as a marble!!
Far more annoyed that Conner is considered a power surfer.
What else would we call him though? Ain’t really an air guy? Idk.
The thing is, he was really good at airs! He just stopped doing them when he started listening to classic rock.
Hmm. Good point. Guess I’d just call him a good surfer. He doesn’t seem to display more power than anybody else.
Totes reasonable. I get the sense he wants to be a power surfer type, but we get to decide if he actually is!
Hard to be a power surfer when you’re four feet tall. (is that mean? sorry)
So you’re saying this is maybe a case where the size matters, not just the handwritin’
Tom Carroll is barely 5 feet tall and is a power surfer..
I’m still waiting for his secret turn.
Its been now how many years since it was meant to be unleashed???? At least 2 no!!
Yeah, and Michel is not a Bell ringer. Caio is, though. The horror, 2nd Brazzo ringing the Bell!
“aye so stoked, yeaaaaah won this choo (two) tiiiiimes naow (now)”
Caio came second dude. Unless you mean ringing the second place trophy?
Potential is implicit. Try to keep up.