Ask Carroll

[alakaboo]

Who do you think would win a WSL championship of shapers?
Like, who over the years has shaped boards that are best suited to the current tour locations?

[Nick Carroll]

Ha ha that's a good one. They used to have something like that for a while in the ASP days, like adding up points from event finals for each label.

Thing is sometimes these days it's hard to know if someone's really doing the shaping. Like Al Merrick doesn't shape any more for Channel Islands so who would get the guernsey there if CI boards were in the majority? The KKL machine and 3D software? Son Britt? A collective of finishing shapers in the USA and Australia?

Designers go on fashion rolls too, like Chilli was hot for a while (no that was not an intentional thing there), Mayhem is a perennial of the past few years partly because Biolos wants to shape winning boards so bad it hurts, Marcio Zouvi of Sharpeye in San Diego has done some bomb work this year with Filipe and some of the other Brazilians, JS had the absolute hell team in the first bit of the Noughties with Joel, AI, Bruce, Louie Egan and co.

I guess you would have to declare the world championship of shapers to be On, and then sit back and watch the carnage.

[BA]

Hey Nick, kinda along The Kunji's line of questioning, are racing ski's good for fitness? Looking for something for flat days to paddle out past the headlands. I've heard they're harder to ride than they look. Is their size related to your height? Finally, could I pick one up from a surf club, or is something like gear trade best?

[crabmeat thompson]

Hey Nick, kinda along The Kunji's line of questioning, are racing ski's good for fitness? Looking for something for flat days to paddle out past the headlands. I've heard they're harder to ride than they look. Is their size related to your height? Finally, could I pick one up from a surf club, or is something like gear trade best?

hey ba, this is what nick answered close to the same question for kunji in the just stuff thread. i think we agreed the 12' race board is the best option. out deep ocean catching runners, catching small waves in and out from the beach. knee & prone paddling etc ...

OK fantastic

so you'll find three basic varieties of board:
- the clubby 10'6" racing paddle board
- the "stock" 12-foot racing board
- the unlimited racing board, usually between 15 and 18 feet

the first two are fixed fin boards, the third usually has a rudder system to steer the board

I suggest you find one of the first two. The unlimited type board is a hard beast to handle and while you might get into that down the track, it's not something you want to start out on.

If you get a clubby one make sure it's in excellent condition, don't buy some beater. It'll probably cost you $1000. A good stock board, a Pang or a JM, that's gonna cost you $1200-1500 second hand in excellent condition. Make sure you have a paddle of any stock board before committing to buy it, some of them are v skittish and hard to control (usually these boards are the fastest ones but maybe not great to learn on).

Just do your own thing for a while, like loops of Long Reef are good. In November there's gonna be a race between Newport and Long Reef, called (imaginatively) the Reef2Reef, there'll be a lot of people doing it, you should do it too just to meet other paddlers and check out the boards etc. I'm doing it but not seriously because I'll have to be water safety, so I can paddle with you and give you a few tips.

[BA]

Yeah saw that, but I want a ski, not a board.

[The Mighty Sunbird]

As long as you get intimate with the surface of the water, it's all good. But HOW intimate, is what I want to know

[Nick Carroll]

Hey Nick, kinda along The Kunji's line of questioning, are racing ski's good for fitness? Looking for something for flat days to paddle out past the headlands. I've heard they're harder to ride than they look. Is their size related to your height? Finally, could I pick one up from a surf club, or is something like gear trade best?

umm wow this is a question

racing skis are real power craft, they're also v technical.

they're a standard length 19' and a standard weight 18 kilos. most of 'em are built to fit a certain leg length, which is important, a ski needs to fit you like a shoe. they also require a double bladed paddle which is a big deal, it needs to suit you.

skis are awesome to paddle once you get them figured out but they are not a piece of cake, it takes a while to develop confidence with a craft like this and more than a while to get real clean and efficient with it. once you do, all the ocean out to maybe 4-5k offshore is your oyster. they're insane downwind and just rip along. they are incredibly tricky in surf. if you can handle a ski in surf with ease, you really have an act.

paddle them right and they build strength in your legs, bum, core, lower back and lats. they're not aerobic stress trainers like swimming or running but they'll test your lactic tolerance like nothing else.

that said you don't have to go to an extreme level with them, you can work up to a comfortable level and really enjoy getting around headlands etc.

a new ski from a good manufacturer will get you little change from $4000 but you will find a good second hand one for half that. its worth spending some money on one because there is a big fcuken difference between a shit ski and a good one. you should find out your leg length before going to look for one. re paddles, go and see Greg Bennett at Bennett Surfboards, if there is someone who knows more than Greg about skis and paddles I haven't met 'em.

[BA]

Awesome, thanks Nick. Knew it wasn't as simple as just buying one, jumping on, and heading out. I'll duck down to Bennett and have a chat.

[Nick Carroll]

As long as you get intimate with the surface of the water, it's all good. But HOW intimate, is what I want to know

well you could always grow a beard and get a hand plane...though I do notice that hipster bodysurfing hasn't quite caught on the way hipster everything else has

maybe because bodysurfing in actual surf is hard work.

You'll never get as intimate as various people reckoned they got in around 1970 at places like Kauai, Maui and Byron Bay, then again you will never get Orange Sunshine acid either.

Forget intimacy anyway, it's too dangerous. You'll just get your heart broken and end up drunk and rummaging through dumpsters.

[The Mighty Sunbird]

And the surface of the water in a dumpster is where flower power will lead.

[alakaboo]

BA I'd strongly recommended getting a 14ft learner ski to start with.
Wider, easier to sit on. Can get plastic ones on gumtree for 300 or so to get you started.
Ozflyte enduro is not bad, but the leg length thing is critical. Both for good technique and not screwing up your hips and back.
Also recommend watching some paddling videos on youtube.

[ctd]

Forget intimacy anyway, it's too dangerous. You'll just get your heart broken and end up drunk and rummaging through dumpsters.

Nuh, then you will buy a jetski, because if you manage to rev it hard enough, it means she never left you.


Nick, how can I improve how long I can hold my breath for?

I'm not talking yogic meditation or free diving style, with preliminary breathing and slowing the heart rate and all that. I'm talking 'oh S%$ that set wave is about to make me cactus' breath holding?

I appreciate number one is 'relax' when being tumbled about.

I have tried to do things like holding my breath for the last 15m of a swimming lap, but I find it pretty quickly means I have to stop and recover my breathing, which makes a mess of any swimming training. I'm sure improving my cardio fitness will be useful and I'm working on that, subject to knee injury.

At the moment, if I'm sitting down and I just take a breath (ie no preparation but no previous exertion), I can hold my breath for about 90 seconds without getting too uncomfortable; probably stretch that to 110 seconds or more with a bit more effort (I'm not going to push it). But if I try at the end of a moderate bike ride, its down to around 40 seconds. Add the rough and tumble and stress of a wave, that's probably 20 sec at the most, maybe less. I know very few hold downs are 20 seconds (esp at the size I surf), but I wouldn't mind having a bit more in reserve.

I'm in no way looking to do anything dangerous, like swimming underwater or holding my breath until I black out or anything; nor am I looking to deal with truly big surf or major hold downs. Just something that might assist my abilities to stay down if I need to - a safety margin.

So if you can just solve my cardio vascular weaknesses over the internet, that would be wonderful

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[Nick Carroll]

BA I'd strongly recommended getting a 14ft learner ski to start with.
Wider, easier to sit on. Can get plastic ones on gumtree for 300 or so to get you started.

Nah fcuk that. Just go there.

If I could learn from scratch on a proper racing ski then so can BA. Getting a training wheels ski will just delay the process and leave him with one more piece of shit plastic thing to get rid of in six months.

I will say that unlike the racing board, and unlike what I did with the ski (which was straight into the surf zone), you want to start a ski on flat water and I mean flat water, not just a small surf day at the beach but sheltered estuary water.

I dunno where you live BA but there are lots of people who paddle skis and kayaks on Narrabeen Lakes, if that's not far from home then I suggest going there and paddling around and watch people who have an act, or half an act. It really helps.

[Beerfan]

Hey Nick, kinda along The Kunji's line of questioning, are racing ski's good for fitness? Looking for something for flat days to paddle out past the headlands. I've heard they're harder to ride than they look. Is their size related to your height? Finally, could I pick one up from a surf club, or is something like gear trade best?

hey ba, this is what nick answered close to the same question for kunji in the just stuff thread. i think we agreed the 12' race board is the best option. out deep ocean catching runners, catching small waves in and out from the beach. knee & prone paddling etc ...

OK fantastic

so you'll find three basic varieties of board:
- the clubby 10'6" racing paddle board
- the "stock" 12-foot racing board
- the unlimited racing board, usually between 15 and 18 feet

the first two are fixed fin boards, the third usually has a rudder system to steer the board

I suggest you find one of the first two. The unlimited type board is a hard beast to handle and while you might get into that down the track, it's not something you want to start out on.

If you get a clubby one make sure it's in excellent condition, don't buy some beater. It'll probably cost you $1000. A good stock board, a Pang or a JM, that's gonna cost you $1200-1500 second hand in excellent condition. Make sure you have a paddle of any stock board before committing to buy it, some of them are v skittish and hard to control (usually these boards are the fastest ones but maybe not great to learn on).

Just do your own thing for a while, like loops of Long Reef are good. In November there's gonna be a race between Newport and Long Reef, called (imaginatively) the Reef2Reef, there'll be a lot of people doing it, you should do it too just to meet other paddlers and check out the boards etc. I'm doing it but not seriously because I'll have to be water safety, so I can paddle with you and give you a few tips.

Nick, the Brian, 12'er seems the better option, but I personally have no interest in getting way out, more just cruising from beach to beach, purely for fitness on the flat days, and was thinking of a 10'6". There are also plenty more of them available. As far as catching runners, I'd have to do that prone anyway, so actually catching waves wouldn't be much fun for me. At 78kg, would a 10'6" be a bad option for what I've just described?? Nippers is coming soon so there should be some used ones available at the surf club.

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, how can I improve how long I can hold my breath for?

ctd, first the good news, you can already hold your breath just fine.

Trust me -- you already have way more than enough in reserve.

What I sense is that you kinda need to convince yourself of that. Which is fine.

For absolute sure the best thing you can do is increase your cardiovascular fitness, especially as it relates to water. Swimming is the ticket without a trace of a doubt. You gain water feel, familiarity with having your head underwater, and confidence through the feedback you'll experience while going surfing and realising you can paddle faster, longer etc as a result.

Work on your underwater presence during swimming. Like, rather than doing 15m underwater at the back end of a lap, do it at the start. Push off and butterfly kick out to 15m then come up and swim it off.

After warming up, or better still at the end of your swim session, put fins on (small fins, not massive ones) and try this:

12 x 25m:

three times through, all on a minute:

15m underwater kick/10m swim
20m underwater kick/5m swim
10m underwater kick/15m swim
25m underwater kick

Go bodysurfing; as you swim out through the wave line, go down and hold it under two waves, then come up and swim off a bit. Then do it again. Do this 10 times during your bodysurfing session. Make sure you're not alone when doing this. It's v unlikely anything bad will happen, but then again it's unlikely you'll have a heart attack while surfing, and people do.

When bodysurfing, put your head down and extend your arms out, hands together, lift your hips a fraction, and find the planing surfaces on your chest and the side of your rib cage. Count to 15 before rolling to breathe.

Again - trust me, you've already got the reserve you need. Work on the fitness and surf awareness/timing and the confidence will come.

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, the Brian, 12'er seems the better option, but I personally have no interest in getting way out, more just cruising from beach to beach, purely for fitness on the flat days, and was thinking of a 10'6". There are also plenty more of them available. As far as catching runners, I'd have to do that prone anyway, so actually catching waves wouldn't be much fun for me. At 78kg, would a 10'6" be a bad option for what I've just described?? Nippers is coming soon so there should be some used ones available at the surf club.

Well they make 10'6" racing boards for many different bodyweight. At 78kg you're right in the middle. I'd get one rated for 80kg, no bigger, no smaller. (There's no gender divide btw, an 80kg women's board is the same as an 80kg men's board).

You may be surprised at how much fun it is to catch a wave on such a board. But you gotta think about 'em different to a surfboard. The front edges are lethal on a racing board; catch one and you're done. Moving the board and controlling it on a wave should be done off the fin and back end rails; steer by dragging a foot, not a hand. The speed's up front, the turning's down the back.

[alakaboo]

Nick I'd suggest that you are not a normal beginner paddler.
I'd also suggest BA doesn't drop a couple of grand on something he may not gel with.
Borrow one if possible, or see if there is a club you can join.

BA wear a good wetsuit and don't go too far from shore. Look straight ahead and relax at the hips.