Ask Carroll

[Nick Carroll]

I think that is one of the great hokey bullshit sayings of all time.

The wax issue is common enough and has a simple root cause. The layer of active wax on your board at the start of a surf works partly by being transferred to the soles of your feet during your first couple of rides. For the duration of the surf, wax and feet are one; the flattening and smoothing of the surface that occurs during the surf goes unnoticed. But flattened and smoothed it is, and it may also have thin layers of oil left on the surface from your natural excretions. When you go back out for the next surf, your unwaxed feet meet this smoothed oily surface and wheeee! Off we come!

I've considered the Reader Video Masterclass but have come to the conclusion that it would be an entertaining waste of time for all concerned - technique coaching is tricky and requires a bit more input than that gained from a couple of minutes' self selected footage. I might be able to quickly see things that the reader can't but would have to spend a few hours working directly with him/her to make a difference to how he/she understood the issues. As far as Al's resort goes, I suspect the less roundhouse cutbacks to vertical backside re-entries in Backdoor style conditions attempted by the guests, the better off we will all be.

[marauding mullet]

Recently you mentioned possibly of heading off to Hawaii soon, which got me thinking.
Is it a viable surf destination for someone who's had too many birthdays and a self imposed ceiling of 6' on wave height? Any bigger and I'm in survival mode these days, and not having fun anymore.
I've always assumed it's a case of go hard or go home, but maybe the off season, or shoulders are a possibility.
I assume there's a zillion good surfers there this time of year, but without naming spots, is it possible to wander off and find a decent wave somewhere and not have to battle insane crowds, maybe on other islands?

Also what length boards will you take, no relevance to me, just curious.

[Nick Carroll]

Oh hell yeah, there's heaps of waves and a lot of smaller less frequented spots, it's not like everywhere is Pipeline or whatever. It's a great experience. For sure you want to go in the slightly off times, ie March to April is a good one.

I've got a bunch of bigger boards in Hawaii so would just take two or three boards 7'0" and smaller.

[Hatchnam]

Hi Nick!

A Question on a couple of potentially untapped aspects on what might also be valid considerations on board selection and design aspects..?

For now, board selection/design aspects primarily focuses around experience, age, fitness, gender?, weight, frequency of surfing, size/types of wave, and other important elements, but what of the following two aspects (considering the example of ALL other aforementioned criteria being the same for two different individuals)..?

1) Effect of fast/slow twitch muscle fibres on style/approach of surfing (and required board)
2) Effect of body type (whilst height/weight being equal) on style/approach of surfing (and required board)

As both of these aspects would almost inarguably impact the style/performance of other sports (boxers, runners, cyclist, martial artist, gymnasts, swimmers, and so forth...)
- so has it simply not been considered ? or if so, to what degree, findings, etc ??

[offshore1]

I know one thing, you're gonna have to do something about those orangutan arms of yours iggy, they're like two sea anchors.

[Nick Carroll]

Hi Nick!

A Question on a couple of potentially untapped aspects on what might also be valid considerations on board selection and design aspects..?

For now, board selection/design aspects primarily focuses around experience, age, fitness, gender?, weight, frequency of surfing, size/types of wave, and other important elements, but what of the following two aspects (considering the example of ALL other aforementioned criteria being the same for two different individuals)..?

1) Effect of fast/slow twitch muscle fibres on style/approach of surfing (and required board)
2) Effect of body type (whilst height/weight being equal) on style/approach of surfing (and required board)

As both of these aspects would almost inarguably impact the style/performance of other sports (boxers, runners, cyclist, martial artist, gymnasts, swimmers, and so forth...)
- so has it simply not been considered ? or if so, to what degree, findings, etc ??

I think surfing style selects for type and the type changes a bit over time as surfing style evolves.

Surfing is not a perfectionist activity like, say, ballet, or swimming, or rowing, so there's a fair bit of room to move on it.

High quality surfing takes a lot of different skills, when they're all put together over a few years a similar body type does tend to emerge. And while people are born with a genetic tendency toward fast or slow twitch muscle fibres, those tendencies can be altered over time by the type of exercises undertaken.

I guess what I am saying here is that at the elite level, surfing tends to form the surfer physically, at least as much as the other way around, if that makes sense? Every good surfer has a mix of fast and slow twitch muscle tendencies, some aerobic strength and some explosive strength, and while you could design the Perfect Surfer for any given period in surfing's style evolution, you can be a great surfer even if you don't fit the exact mould. You can see this today in the variations between, say, Jordy Smith and JJF; the Perfect Surfer would probably be somewhere in between these guys, maybe around AI's dimensions, but Jordy and Johnny can work with what they've got. (Their general body shape, by the way, isn't all that different.)

Quite a few elite surfers have been studied in this area, not in an academic setting so much as a training setting, to analyse what kind of training will work best for them. The people who are really into it seem to end up with a training formula that blends working on fast twitch explosive muscle strength in some parts of the body and a consistent aerobic strength throughout.

As far as board design goes: You'll notice that almost all top pros use pretty neutral boards which aren't built to generate extraordinary speed or whatever, but which are really beautifully balanced craft - they don't do silly things under extreme pressure. Most pros's explosive power to weight ratios and technical excellence means that they don't need too much help from a surfboard - what they are really after is something that won't get in the way.

There's nothing hard and fast about any of this, surfing is a dynamic sport and is still developing and I doubt it will ever be in that perfectionist sport box with swimming etc - maybe a bit closer to something like tennis, with its variable needs and constantly changing effort, good tennis players work insanely hard on technique but once on court have to innovate within that all the time. But it does seem to be honing itself further with each passing year and as it does, I bet we see more and more pros hewing to a specific body type etc.

[Hatchnam]

Thanks for the reply. Makes perfect sense (the surfing shapes/re-shapes the body/muscle-twitch type, and not the other way around)

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[Cuttlefish]

Which one will have a higher top end. A Nano or a Metro?

[Nick Carroll]

Umm shit I don't know, I have a 5'10" supa Metro that's the fastest board I've ever ridden, definitely faster than the Nano we tested in Telo but there's a lot of variables, I'm sure there's faster hulls out there waiting to be cut.

[Hatchnam]

Hi Nick,

Sorry for the barrage of questions, but "Back Foot Placement?".

What's the typical rule-of-thumb here ? I've read and seen conflicting opinions (back foot over front fins vs over rear fin).

And I've also read that the board's placement of foil/volume and plan-curve mostly dictates where ur footing is by default.

After nearly 30 yrs surfing mine's comfortably placed over the front fins. Sure I'm not busting beyond vertical craziness like Margo etc - but surfing tight top-to-bottom is no problem.

But wanted to know if it's really necessary to get the back foot over the rear fin to take things to the next level. As anytime I make a conscious effort to try place my back foot over the rear fin it just never feels right. Perhaps too squirrelly and stally (for want of a better term).

I mean are there top level dudes out there that Don't have their backfoot over the rear fin ?

[Nick Carroll]

I really like to steer clear of the terms back-foot and front-foot. To me it shifts a surfer's attention away from what really matters, which is weighting. Where do you put your weight? A much more subtle yet correct way of viewing what occurs when riding a wave on a surfboard.

Pretty simply, when your weight is mostly pushing on a curve in the board -- i.e. the outline near the fins, where it curves back toward the tail, or more skilfully the rocker line in the same area – then the board's gonna turn. When your weight is bearing on the straighter lines in a board, i.e. the stringer line in front of the fins or the rail rocker line just behind the midpoint, then the board's gonna run.

Technical proficiency in surfing is largely about efficient weight shifts that help the board turn and run when needed. The fins are all part of it too; apart from absorbing your weighting and turning it into drive and direction, they also give you an awesome feel for where your weight's really being applied.

A lot of exceptional surfers these days are very mobile in their weighting and will use pretty much every part of the board at some point, recovering airs by using the front third of the nose rail, sliding on the mid-rail etc etc. They tend to set the front foot but have a mobile back foot, shifting it here and there in the past six or eight inches of board to assist in subtle weight shifts in that critical last few inches. What I've found is that very minor weight shifts back there can produce pretty dramatic results in tight arc turns. But it all depends on your overall physical freedom of movement and ability to shift wight through your upper body movement as well as those big body hinges in the hips, knees and ankles.

Anyway yeah, try to think about weight and where it's going vis a vis the critical elements of your board's design. Feet placement's just a part of that.

[alakaboo]

Following on, it seems like the really good barrel riders are a lot further forward on their boards in the last few years.
It almost looks like they don't have any weight over their fins at all.

Not a question, just an observation.

[Hatchnam]

Ok. Weighting. Thanks. Got it. Glad to hear that also, as that's going to be way easier to adjust than back-footing as such.

The question was motivated out of the want of getting a little more explosive or extreme on forehand vertical turns. Backhand's no issue, but want to match the punch-the-tail-out wafting-free sort of feel on forehand as well.

Thanks I'll focus on weighting, give it week or three and report back. Thanks again.

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[Nick Carroll]

Following on, it seems like the really good barrel riders are a lot further forward on their boards in the last few years.
It almost looks like they don't have any weight over their fins at all.

Not a question, just an observation.

Yeah well you don't want to weight the fins in the barrel, that's how you lose it on the foam ball.

[alakaboo]

Oh, I've normally lost it long before that point.

Was a bit of a lightbulb moment just reading that.

[steve shearer]

I don't think that is true at all Boo/NC.

Compared to FreeRide Era single fin barrel riding modern era tuberiding is only marginally forwards and certainly back foot still on the fin cluster.

Here, look at the finest of the bunch JJF at Fiji and Bali. Back foot still on the tail pad....maybe a couple of inches fowards of turning position but only the merest adjustment needed to go full ballistic in the turn.

https://vimeo.com/74954532

Now look at Shaun Tomson in FreeRide and compare to forwards tube stance.

There's no comparison, people surfed far further forwards in tube stance on single fins and early thrusters.

In fact the last person who really had that shuffle forwards tube stance was Tom Carroll at G-Land.