Time in the cube can help you shred? Maybe!
There’s a mindset that says if you want to climb to any elevated surf performance you gotta give your life to the game. You see it in the little kids pulled out of school to give ’em more hours in the ocean so they can pursue a pro surfer dream that’s gonna leave ’em broke and busted at twenty five.
You see it in the locals who’ve built their lives around their local beach, poor forever, aged into pickles by the salt and the sun and forever out-surfed by blow-ins who turn up for thirty and shred the hell out of their five waves during lunch break.
So I gotta ask.
Can deprivation make you a better surfer?
Or, better, does deprivation make you a better surfer?
Imagine that. A salaried job where you’re paid to occupy space in an office actually sharpens your attack when you get to surf.
An old pal of mine, a much better surfer who’s on the nine-to-six wheel, surfs in thirty-minute blocks. He don’t fuck around. He don’t sit out the back, legs akimbo on his horse, talking about real estate or girls or whatever. He’ll scoop up an insider on the way out then paddle wide and be on the ramp for a set. In thirty, he’ll catch eight or ten waves. Other surfers will float around for two hours for the same wave count but with a much diminished performance.
That old ten thousand hours rule by pop psychologist Gladwell in his too-often-quote book The Outliers? Where if you put in enough time, in his case the magic figure was 10k hours, you’ll achieve mastery?
It falls at the first hurdle. Look at a fifty-year-0ld man in the lineup. Endless hammering at waves all his life. He smashed the 10k rule. So why does the twelve-year-old who’s stuck at school from eight thirts to three every day surf better?
It misses the need for deliberate, passionate focus.
And how do you get that?
By depriving yourself of what you love.
Miss a swell.
Be under fluorescent lightbulbs listening to the endless drone of middle management while the sun shines and three-foot wedges topple onto lovely sandbanks?
Know that unless you’re awake at five am and out of the drink by six you won’t feel the bite of salt on your skin.
Or maybe I’m very wrong.
Being from the east coast makes deprivation a part of your lifestyle. Missing a swell is some of the worst advice I’ve ever heard
Surely, regardless of time spent, a certain amount of god-given gifts have to be a factor. Balance, rhythm, coordination, etc. are not something we all can simply “learn”. Unfortunately.
And the almost never mentioned that some of us a more at ease and confident in aquatic surroundings because we learnt to swim like fish ( more f’in hours of fun and pain ) which eliminated the fear of drowning .
Better? No. Happier in the water? Almost certainly yes. Actually writing about that right now, in fact.
All work and no play
Makes Johnny a fat sad git
And crap at surfing
– For Eddie
Derek, it seems you’re assuming that surfing better is actually a goal. i believe it’s previously been established that the commentariat has long lost the teenage dreams of actual shedding. bobbing up and down in the water is always better than sitting in a shitty office.
*sent from my shitty office
I had this theory about 10 years ago after a succession of injuries. Every time I got back in the water after an extended stint out things seem more focussed. After nearly a year being stuck on a boog with ongoing knee and ankle issues, got back on a stick and not only felt I was surfing better, but looking at waves with a complete different perspective. Definitely merit to your theory
could this “new perspective” be just that you were seeing things from a more elevated position after 12 months of lying down ?
Yes. Definitely. If it ain’t hollow slabs or wedges, booging is the worst
Oh you East coasters, I chuckled when you said miss a swell, and then three footers!
Everyone surfs better on their second daily surf, it’s a fact. Ain’t happening when you’re squeezing in 45 mins on the closest bank to home once every second Saturday.
With golf I get better the less I play. Haven’t played in years, next round should be a cracka
Had to stop playing golf with the boys at my local for fear of being locked out of their famous $18 all you can eat buffet..Plowing rails off the dash of the buggy and draining a carton of JD over 9 holes didn’t sit well with some of the lifers
Your playing at the wrong club ha
Happy Gilmore!
Well you are perhaps the only person in the world for whom this is true.
Have you heard of Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) Chaz?
It’s real buddy.
Yeah, what about it? I was pointing out that no-one who cares about golf gets better at golf by not playing golf. That’s an impossibility.
I dunno why you keep quoting that Outliers figure. Just go straight to the source: The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance, edited by K Anders Ericsson, Neil Charness, Paul J Feltovich and Robert R Hoffman. In this mighty tome you will see gathered a compendium of the past 30-odd years of research into the development of skills, including a clear backgrounding on Gladwell’s oft-quoted and inaccurate figure (it’s closer to 11,000 hours, and requires constant upping of the quality component – if you don’t work on quality practice, you can keep doing something forever and just stay at the same level), ages at which skills tend to “cut off” (there are well known tipping points, 13 and 19 being two examples, when people tend to either commit or re-commit to a skill, or turn away from it in search of new forms of identity), the importance of encouragement, and a range of thought patterns commonly used by expert performers to continue their improvement over time.
They don’t say anything about being a desk jockey helping you surf better, but then again they don’t say shit about surfing per se, so what do they even know. Fuckers!
Point prob is once you hit a certain level – so way over the 11K hrs then it is muscle memory and largely performance is a flow state!! Happy to be paid to do the study!!!
I will say this surfed an epic bank today and after being out of the water near on 20 days with eye issue I had no rythmn, timing ,patience nor paddle fitness- so deprivation has made me a worse surfer
Nobody has ever even approached 11,000 hours of riding waves. Nobody really knows how good you can get at it. “Surfing” is really a combination of several skills, all of which affect and feed back into each other in sometimes unexpected ways. Trying to develop those skills in some sorta sync with each other is the real process of learning to surf. Identifying which skills need more work and which skills need to be stretched via quality practice, well that’s why most surf coaches are shit. And why you should never read articles about “Five Ways To Improve Your Pop-up.”
Mate not arguing with you – as someone with sports science background my point was – repetition makes perfect. The JJF and Kelly’s done thousands of jumps ups, bottom turns cutties etc such that the drop away is less than say a high intermediate surfer. Any deprivation at their level could result in increased performance from other factors such mental fatigue. So like dez’s buddy someone with a high base may actually revel in short intense sessions
Oh completely. That can be very much quality practice. But you gotta get to the high baseline first, and the only way there is many many many hours, preferably back to back, for years.
yep post your trip details I need a trip!!! either got to be surf or snowboarding
Look at the 80s 90s pre Slater pros who partied every night but had surfed before and after school from age 8 to 18 not to mention weekends and school holidays . So dumbfounded were fans in Europe who had not seen the childhood and adolescent sacrifice in hours by the party animals to get to that point .
Nick, if you were to run “Nick Carroll’s (Old) School of Surf Skills and Trivia” retreats on some tropical idyll I’d be the first name on your list, and I’d pay you a handsome dollar.
Well Chazzy you will soon be in Luck, I am figuring on doing just that in concert with my old buddies in Telo, possibly with lil bro in tow. So stay tuned. I can help you, even if you are a goofy foot.
I’m not a goofy and very excited. Where?
if chazz is keen then count me in. I will pay extra if you gets WPS on board as a guest speaker.
I’m only going if he’s a fluffer.
the ponds might change that though for a few lucky (maybe not) rich, home schooled little fuckers
Step One: Pop up faster
Step Two: No, faster than that
Step Three: Are you fucking serious?
Step Four: Dude.
Step Five: Stares in silence
i’m pretty sure there was literally an inertia article on this recently.
There was three articles in the last year alone according to the Google.
Ha ha oh no, that is… a lot.
Five Ways an Avocado Can Improve Your Surfing
Many kids (75%) hate the idea of organized sports by the time they hit 13. Very Typical reactance stage as they rebel against parents, coaches and any authority figures. Throw in some herb, rock n’ roll and chicks and it’s easy to see why performance levels might indeed wane.
https://youtu.be/UlaboI2cjqo
what kids need more of. this guy is the best.
https://youtu.be/rdIyMkzJTc4
this one is better.
Dad?
the dude is hilarious. “when your dad gets out of rehab…. we are going to work on a new pitch.. called a strike” article in the wash post with him.. the parents are in on the joke that he is making fun of dickwad coaches.
PAZZAAAAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZ
The Hobgoods might make a good case study. Pretty similar ability and life probably in the early years. I don’t know what they’re doing now? Seems there’s a gap in their performance now. Might just be weight/fitness related?
“tipping point”, ha, i see what you did there.
Oh fuck off Malcolm. I easily have more than ten thousand hours and you probably surf better than me.
A little breadth of interests outside of surfing waves never hurt the average Joe. Does it make you better? Does it matter?
Some truth – deprivation definitely gives me more energy/waves – and the thought that i’m ripping…..
Actually ripping – naat so much!
My girlfriend told me that deprivation would make sex better but I just started watching more porn and texting other chicks.
Didn’t it improve for you?
Nothing quite as fun as ducking around to an old flames house on a Sunday for some afternoon delight. Fucked off to get some milk alright.
Wigs – I don’t know what you do for a living, but if you aren’t a writer or a comedian the world is missing out, I’ve shown some of your comments to non-surfing friends, who wet themselves! It’s time somebody paid you to write!
Unfortunately not mate. I’m still waiting for the day they let me write obituaries for the Geelong Advertiser but until then this is it.
My Granny died in Geelong. Give her some love wiggs
I was never told about the sex deprivation plan, it was just implemented. certainly hasn’t improved my performance. unless points are scored for being first finished.
Reporting live from the cubicle – Derek is wrong.