Pro Surfers Height and WeightSaw

[Condor]

Saw the Aussie pros shuffling through the entry gates at Kingsford Smith once, some dragging their boardbags, looking well beaten. One thing that struck me was their height, or their lack thereof. Obviously there is a biomechanical advantage for shorter guys in this sport. Flexibility is another major advantage. Have you seen the photo in Kelly Slater's biography of him bending backwards? The guy can bend like a contortionist. His flexibility is a genetic gift. I could practice yoga for a lifetime, and never bend the way he can. What other physical traits contribute to success in this sport?

[Caroma]

Long arms

Shaved Head

Penis with enough length and girth to satisfy a super model

[yomutha]

Didn't it say in this months ASL that being taller is better (ie. Owen Wright)?

I don't think being flexible like Kelly Slater doesn't help that much, just enough so he can surf forever. It's not like being able to put your legs over your head will help you do bigger turns...

[newman]

Im relatively tall (6'4) and both me and my brother (who is taller) find it a hinderance to surf well and be tall. Particularly when the waves are smaller. I read that article by Nick Carroll about being tall being an advantage in high performance surfing and reckon its bullshit. Most of the time you look and feel like a hunched over praying mantis.

[FishStick]

Didn't it say in this months ASL that being taller is better (ie. Owen Wright)?

I don't think being flexible like Kelly Slater doesn't help that much, just enough so he can surf forever. It's not like being able to put your legs over your head will help you do bigger turns...

I read something similar, I think, in Surfing Magazine a few months ago. It didn't say necessarily that taller was an advantage, it just said that taller people seem to be up there with the best of them nowadays giving a few examples like Owen Wright and a few others.

They were saying the average pro nowadays is much taller than 10 years ago. However, small bodies are better at creating more body torque and have the advantage of having a lower centre of gravity. A mate of mine says he bumped into Slater and Dorian and said they were dwarves, which is nice, cause I'm not taller than them, so good to know what he really thinks.

[drowningbitbybit]

I console myself by knowing that Im taller and less bald than Kelly.
These are the important things in life, not being world champion a zillion times or anything superficial like that.

[sorry_charlie]

Jordy Smith certainly isn't a short or small guy and he rips pretty dam hard

[pridmore]

physical attributes are an advantage but it is a MUST that you have mental trength and a fierce competitive drive and be able to maintain focus for a whole year .... Kelly seems to have every trait required in aundance and I have little doubt that he will win ten titles, he is by far the best surfer to ever live and must be one of the best athletes ever too IMO....

[bohdidontsurf]

Kelly Slaters spine is a genetic gift. His lumbar spine, the bottom 5 verterbrae, can bend and create a curve the opposite way all of ours do and he does this without even thinking about it. If you look at this lower back when he surfs you can clearly see this. His lower back will curve outwards where all of us will create a curve that moves inwards. This allows him to maintain a lower center of gravity through turns and create a lot of power and drive. Micks back is similar but not as radically flexible as Kelly's. I have a surf doco on DVD that goes right into this and once you see it, it explains a lot. This genetic gift and the fact that he has stoompered some pretty hot women makes him one lucky bastard, I am glad he went bald.

[Quangers]

Saw the Aussie pros shuffling through the entry gates at Kingsford Smith once, some dragging their boardbags, looking well beaten. One thing that struck me was their height, or their lack thereof. Obviously there is a biomechanical advantage for shorter guys in this sport. Flexibility is another major advantage. Have you seen the photo in Kelly Slater's biography of him bending backwards? The guy can bend like a contortionist. His flexibility is a genetic gift. I could practice yoga for a lifetime, and never bend the way he can. What other physical traits contribute to success in this sport?

Bending backwards? I had a girlfriend who could do that - yeah, I made the most of it.

[yomutha]

Extracted from this monthes ASL (Hope ya don't mind NC!)

Forget all that bullshit about having a "low centre of gravity". Tallness has ALWAYS worked well in surfing. Pretty much all the best longboard surfers of centuries back, the likes of Nat Young, Joey Cabell etc, were tall as f**k. It's physics: a longer lever exerts more pressure with greater control and gets a better result. But then along came the short board, and the whole game changed - so radically that only in the past decade has hi-performance surfing style and technique developed enough for tallness to be fully employed. Only in that time have people grown relaxed enough on board to adjust those long limbs without stress - and as they have, they've rediscovered the joys of body length.
So if you're a bit of a stork, don't listen to people who reckon you've gotta be short in order to get the job done. Get out there and rip.

[chrisb]

Extracted from this monthes ASL (Hope ya don't mind NC!)

Forget all that bullshit about having a "low centre of gravity". Tallness has ALWAYS worked well in surfing. Pretty much all the best longboard surfers of centuries back, the likes of Nat Young, Joey Cabell etc, were tall as f**k. It's physics: a longer lever exerts more pressure with greater control and gets a better result. But then along came the short board, and the whole game changed - so radically that only in the past decade has hi-performance surfing style and technique developed enough for tallness to be fully employed. Only in that time have people grown relaxed enough on board to adjust those long limbs without stress - and as they have, they've rediscovered the joys of body length.
So if you're a bit of a stork, don't listen to people who reckon you've gotta be short in order to get the job done. Get out there and rip.

You need to consider whether surfing journalists have a vested interest: a surfing magazine will want more surfers > more boards sold > more people will buy their magazines > more money.

Tall people such as me still enjoy surfing but there are disadvantages eg. tall standups make a bigger target for offshore winds; co-ordination and reflexes are not as good as with shorter people (brain is further from the extremities); more chance of injury as taller people generally are not as big-muscled.

[Carpark King]

The same low centre of gravity principle is applied with freestyle skiing/boarding. Most top pros are short arses!

[Quangers]

Extracted from this monthes ASL (Hope ya don't mind NC!)

Forget all that bullshit about having a "low centre of gravity". Tallness has ALWAYS worked well in surfing. Pretty much all the best longboard surfers of centuries back, the likes of Nat Young, Joey Cabell etc, were tall as f**k. It's physics: a longer lever exerts more pressure with greater control and gets a better result. But then along came the short board, and the whole game changed - so radically that only in the past decade has hi-performance surfing style and technique developed enough for tallness to be fully employed. Only in that time have people grown relaxed enough on board to adjust those long limbs without stress - and as they have, they've rediscovered the joys of body length.
So if you're a bit of a stork, don't listen to people who reckon you've gotta be short in order to get the job done. Get out there and rip.

All the best longboarders of centuries past? Yeah, I heard Midget Farrelly was a behemoth- tallest man ever...

On the height and power to weight ratio thing - a mate is a former aussie gymnast and according to him pretty much the whole mens gymnastics team rip in the surf.

[Buff_Brad]

Kelly Slaters spine is a genetic gift. His lumbar spine, the bottom 5 verterbrae, can bend and create a curve the opposite way all of ours do and he does this without even thinking about it. If you look at this lower back when he surfs you can clearly see this. His lower back will curve outwards where all of us will create a curve that moves inwards. This allows him to maintain a lower center of gravity through turns and create a lot of power and drive. Micks back is similar but not as radically flexible as Kelly's. I have a surf doco on DVD that goes right into this and once you see it, it explains a lot. This genetic gift and the fact that he has stoompered some pretty hot women makes him one lucky bastard, I am glad he went bald.

Don't be a schadenfreuder or a bitter dreary Dinosaur Bohdisheepfcuker. That's not very nice.

[mustkillmulloway]

just lookin at the facts and figures on the asp

shit they look bigger in photos

kelly slater....4'10

taj burrow...3'11

parko...5'2

fanning....4'8

SHIT....NO WONDER THEY SURF

any other sport they be crushed like mice

except midget wrestling

http://www.shadoz.com/video/1650766/attacked-by-a-shark

[danw]

^^ tAJ b 3'11