Ask Carroll

[Nick Carroll]

Listen here buddy, Trev's got years on me.

Good GOD he must be 120.

as for fong, OK I'll see what I can do. Might take a week or so.

[Hatchnam]

Nick, what would you deem to be the generalised variances in the "styles of surfing" that best embodies and "typifies" surfers in general from their given locations in Australia. i.e; general style/approach/look of surfing ? and if so, what are your examples ?

for example, i note a real variance in the way gold coast surfers look vs. south coast nsw. even still, within a closer proximity of comparison, how a sunny coast surfer's general look/style might vary from say. northern nsw. or how surfers from "the gong" tend to have their own certain style of surfing, that'd differ from say northern beaches sydney.

probably a very sweeping generalisation and stereo-typing to factor in, but i think it exists. do you notice these type of things, or am i just fkning tripping balls. ?

[Trev]

listen to tardG, telling me how to write!

I got out of breath myself just reading it.
Listen to your audience Nick.

Trev, commas, full stops, dashes. They are your breathing moments.
Long unpunctuated sentences cause death by asphyxiation. Not long punctuated paragraphs.

foamy, I do know that. It's a well written paragraph. I was just drawing attention to it's length.
However criticism of writing styles, sentence construction or punctuation on a forum like Realsurf really shouldn't occur because we are really just spinning our wheels on here.
If I WAS going to critique it, there would be lots to discuss.
But that would then give people plenty of options to rip my posts to shreds and these days I pay a hell of a lot less attention to my grammar and sentence construction than I used to. Plus I'm a shit typist.

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, what would you deem to be the generalised variances in the "styles of surfing" that best embodies and "typifies" surfers in general from their given locations in Australia. i.e; general style/approach/look of surfing ? and if so, what are your examples ?

for example, i note a real variance in the way gold coast surfers look vs. south coast nsw. even still, within a closer proximity of comparison, how a sunny coast surfer's general look/style might vary from say. northern nsw. or how surfers from "the gong" tend to have their own certain style of surfing, that'd differ from say northern beaches sydney.

probably a very sweeping generalisation and stereo-typing to factor in, but i think it exists. do you notice these type of things, or am i just fkning tripping balls. ?

You know I thought about writing a book partly about that a while back.

I think the differences you're talking about were much more pronounced 20 plus years ago. Since then many forces - video/dvd, online, surf forecasting, etc etc - have conspired to work away at the distinctions. To me they used to seem like the differences in accents in other parts of the world - Australians have never developed distinct regional accents the way the US has or the UK, but we have developed distinct surfing styles and even body types based on the waves we ride. In southern Qld surfers seemed really physically stripped back, hardly any body fat but not super muscly either, and they had a natural fluidity in their movements and a swift but unhurried paddling style that clearly related to long pointbreak drag etc. In Sydney surfers were more mesomorphic and vertical turning, snappier paddlers off the mark but essentially sprinters who'd run out of steam on longer paddles, but forceful and a bit dramatic in their movements (and behaviour). In SW WA, surfers were big, strong, quiet on land and in the water, but very direct in their movements and great at holding a turn in place. Their behaviour and physiques were all in line with the kind of surf conditions they'd encountered from a young age. I used to think of this in line with a sort of natural history of surfing in Australia, explaining all that plus explaining the different coastlines and types of surf and how they've profoundly influenced the way we have seen the continent over the centuries. I would really enjoy writing a book about all of that. Maybe I'll get around to it when I don't have to make a fcuken living out of writing.

But yeah I don't think you are tripping at all, I would be surprised if an observant surfer hadn't noticed this stuff to some extent. And tardg sorry about the massive paragraph. Just stop every few sentences, you'll be ok.

[Trev]

Nick, what would you deem to be the generalised variances in the "styles of surfing" that best embodies and "typifies" surfers in general from their given locations in Australia. i.e; general style/approach/look of surfing ? and if so, what are your examples ?

for example, i note a real variance in the way gold coast surfers look vs. south coast nsw. even still, within a closer proximity of comparison, how a sunny coast surfer's general look/style might vary from say. northern nsw. or how surfers from "the gong" tend to have their own certain style of surfing, that'd differ from say northern beaches sydney.

probably a very sweeping generalisation and stereo-typing to factor in, but i think it exists. do you notice these type of things, or am i just fkning tripping balls. ?

You know I thought about writing a book partly about that a while back.

I think the differences you're talking about were much more pronounced 20 plus years ago. Since then many forces - video/dvd, online, surf forecasting, etc etc - have conspired to work away at the distinctions. To me they used to seem like the differences in accents in other parts of the world - Australians have never developed distinct regional accents the way the US has or the UK, but we have developed distinct surfing styles and even body types based on the waves we ride. In southern Qld surfers seemed really physically stripped back, hardly any body fat but not super muscly either, and they had a natural fluidity in their movements and a swift but unhurried paddling style that clearly related to long pointbreak drag etc. In Sydney surfers were more mesomorphic and vertical turning, snappier paddlers off the mark but essentially sprinters who'd run out of steam on longer paddles, but forceful and a bit dramatic in their movements (and behaviour). In SW WA, surfers were big, strong, quiet on land and in the water, but very direct in their movements and great at holding a turn in place. Their behaviour and physiques were all in line with the kind of surf conditions they'd encountered from a young age. I used to think of this in line with a sort of natural history of surfing in Australia, explaining all that plus explaining the different coastlines and types of surf and how they've profoundly influenced the way we have seen the continent over the centuries. I would really enjoy writing a book about all of that. Maybe I'll get around to it when I don't have to make a fcuken living out of writing.

But yeah I don't think you are tripping at all, I would be surprised if an observant surfer hadn't noticed this stuff to some extent.

And tardg sorry about the massive paragraph. Just stop every few sentences, you'll be ok.

Fixed it for you Nick.

My old editor at Racing Car News. Max Stahl, used to call it verbal diarrhea when I went on too long in a paragraph.

[Hatchnam]

good to know i'm not tripping. agree re: southern qld vs sydney surfers. i really notice the difference when i go back there. qld surfers seem more languid, delicate (in a good way) and more rythmic. whereas sydney surfers are seem more agressive, punchy, jagged, explosive, powerful, unpredicatable etc.

[Beanpole]

you just read barthes for pleasure do you beanpole? or did someone say you have to?

Well yes I have Lucky Al. Camera Lucida is a nice read. Umberto Ecco writes some excellent essays as well as heavy duty semiotics. I'm a self directed reader. I was introduced to Ecco at College but that was a brief encounter.
Derrida on the other hand is not really on my reading list.

[Nick Carroll]

My old editor at Racing Car News. Max Stahl, used to call it verbal diarrhea when I went on too long in a paragraph.

Max was right. I wouldn't do it except for the context.

[Beanpole]

Speaking of regional styles, I've always thought the Thruster would never have been invented in Queensland. It really grows out of Simons surfing style which carries on a real Nth Beaches approach. Baddy Treloar used to have a somewhat similar approach.

[alakaboo]

No regional accents?
Put a lady librarian from Adelaide next to a FIFO boilermaker from Karumba and you'll change your mind

[Buff_Brad]

nah haven't read Barracuda, is that the one about the kid swimmer?

Yes - a well worth read IMHO. Be interested to hear your thoughts if you ever get around to reading it.

[foamy]

Many years ago, I read an interview with speed style master, Terry Fitzgerald. He said, he thought he was a bit stylish until he saw some footage of himself and was surprised to observe that his style, to him, looked quite choppy and ugly. As a cure, he moved to QLD for a period and surfed the long point waves and that was how he deliberately worked on his style and turned himself into the Sultan of Speed.

Of course, those were the days when filming was limited. You didn't normally have a clue of what you looked like and footage of what was happening at other beaches was rare.

[Nick Carroll]

No regional accents?
Put a lady librarian from Adelaide next to a FIFO boilermaker from Karumba and you'll change your mind

I'm not talking about obvious extremes, but about generic regional dialects.

Compare the Cornish influenced North Carolina accent with the Texan and the New York City and the Montanan, and you'll see profound shifts in sounding out meanings. Likewise between say the Welsh, the Midlands, the Aberdeen and the Suffolk coastal accents in GB. Big gulfs in the ways of speaking which have never appeared in Australia, because we haven't had time. And it's too late now; since the evolution of post to email etc, accents are now almost redundant. The Aussie accent of 1950 is nothing like it is now for instance, it was way broader back then; today it is drifting into something almost mid Pacific.

[alakaboo]

Well I reckon up until about 5 years ago you could pick which capital city an Aussie came from based on their accent, and still when you meet someone who went to a regional school they will always sound different.

The original inhabitants had whole different languages.they had more time.

Learning Swedish has been interesting, each phrase I learnt I would pronounce in the dialect in which I first heard it. So I'd greet someone like I was from Stockholm and ask them about their weekend like I was a nomadic reindeer herder from Lapland.

[marauding mullet]

Ever since we moved to NSW from SA, people talking to me or my wife have assumed we are fcuking Kiwis for fcuk sake.
You dumb cnuts.

[Trev]

Ever since we moved to NSW from SA, people talking to me or my wife have assumed we are fcuking Kiwis for fcuk sake.
You dumb cnuts.

MM, was gonna mention that. Our first visit to Adelaide in the early 90's I asked the mini bus driver who took us from the airport to the city how long he's been over here (meaning Australia). He told me he'd been born over there (pointing to the Adelaide Hills) and never been anywhere else.
There's a hint of something different in WA too. Listen to Kim Beazley talking for example.

I have a theory that, as Australians, the differences in Australian accents aren't as obvious to us. I know a few people in the UK and apart from obvious things like Scottish and Irish, they can't tell a lot of difference. Yet, I can drive 50 miles from one town to another over there and hear a difference. And there's a clear difference between Glaswegians and thos efrom Edinburgh.

[marauding mullet]

Definitely Trev, at one time or another I've lived or at least worked in every state. There are clear differences in the way people speak, or at least there used to be. NC may be right, everything is becoming more global and will probably end up a murky shade of grey instead of vibrant local colour...shame.
At least I don't talk like Alexander Downer, more a Julia Gillard.

[Trev]

Definitely Trev, at one time or another I've lived or at least worked in every state. There are clear differences in the way people speak, or at least there used to be. NC may be right, everything is becoming more global and will probably end up a murky shade of grey instead of vibrant local colour...shame.
At least I don't talk like Alexander Downer, more a Julia Gillard.

You sound like Julia?????