taking off on hollow waves.

[marcus]

matty, ive seen you get bombs out the island, what are you talking about saying you cant take off hollow, anyway still interested to hear the guys responces.

[marcus]

matty (guard) and i have just been talking about this, maybe someone has an answer for him, maybe as squid said, he just has to paddle faster. matt's seen rusty moran surf island and suck rock (real sucky below sea level take off into air bowl tube) and do this real quick take off thing where hes in the sweet spot really quickly.
mattys trying to work out whether rusty does this on a 45* angle down the face so his board the face and his feet all find the perfect place to be.
anyway a mate just got back from the waves and says its good so im outa here, maybe matty should ask rusty how he does it.
i read on this forum or somewhere where you guys talked about big wave take offs, the whole angle of the paddle in effects the way you ride the wave, is that it?

[hammer time]

u gotta luv ox and terapai.

When i was out on a huge day at second maybe even third reef point (if u can call it), terapai just had no fear taking of on dredging 12ft+ pits, airdropping setting his line and just smiling whilst rocketing through the subway.

seriously, if u need a demonstration on how to take off on hollow waves that was your day.

>>>pure commitment.

[nubby]

the best tip ive got is to take off under the ledge, you know, makin sure that first angry throwing bit is already above you as you get to your feet. also goin it at an angle helps heaps to cause if you gotta air drop it, your rail is already set from your takeoff angle, and for some reason a rail goes back into the water alot easier if it is set and running before it gets air. lastly, alot of crew dont realize how much difference the board makes. no use tryin to pull an air drop to tube combo on a 6ft day on your 6'4 fish. get a board made for heavy drops/tubes and youl be laughin

[the kalakau kid]

No doubt there are different take-offs for steeper or completely hollow waves. Question is, how cool under pressure are you? How quick are your reflexes? How much nerve/experience do you have?

All the cronulla crew you mention might give you advice if you ask the right way. Otherwise, wtching them on good days and then trying to replicate it will help.

Maybe ask Griggsy ( if you know him) as I think he has done a fair bit of coaching and definitely knows what to do himself.

The right board is gonna be essential for those days but i'm assuming you've got that covered.

If you want to really mess with your mind, get out an old Cheyne Horan vid and you'll probably see footage of him doing no paddle takeoffs at pipe. Ditto Glen Winton....... That is another world....

[_cant_touch_this]

i reckon taking of at an angle works best coz if it bottoms out n goes vert then ya will nosedive 4 sure. paddle hard and stay under the lip.

[countrybumkin]

im having trouble taking off in hollow waves.

you gotta really want it. slight hesatation spells ova the falls or lip in the ear.

[[email protected]]

I got some advice from a old bloke from Byron when I was in indo once - he said that as soon as you get to your feet (forehand) you need to bend back knee & push the heal down on your back leg. This sounds silly but the end result is that a heap of force is applied to the ball of your back foot. You can try this sitting in chair to see what I mean - bend the leg & push the heal down - your leg should be bent enough so that you heal doesn't actually touch the floor.

I've seen blokes take off late on a sucky wave & rather than dropping all the way into the pit before really setting their rail, they catch it half way down & really jet down the line. I think diagonal take off + solid paddling + this back heal technique + a heap of commitment is how this is done.

[zzz]

Get as much paddling speed as you can, including that last stroke, take off at an angle, once you're up there's a bit of a slow mo' time freeze where you can set the wave as you slide down the face. Depending on how far back in you are you might need to start gunning it straight away. As Nub said you'll get the free fall sometimes but if you're up and set fairly comfortably you'll often land it. If you're taking off a long way inside, try not to bottom turn, or at least as shallow a bottom turn as possible so you're really holding to the face and staying inside the curtain. Then watch the shape and drive along the bottom of the face if necessary until you can see its going to hollow out properly before stalling and pulling in, ride up fairly high as you get deeper back and stay well trimmed, use the back foot and/or arm stall to keep yourself slotted but let it go again when you need to. Feel the spit fly out with you and pull a big cutty.

Not that I'd know, but thats what it looks like in the pipe videos anyway...

[nubby]

Not that I'd know, but thats what it looks like in the pipe videos anyway...

cmon z, werncha out with us at wink on sunday mate. she sure was angry round that low tide.......and guard, after my surf on sunday, i reckon i forgot somethin easily as important as what everyones said.....you have just gotta be hangin for it eh, the kegs, the axings, the busted boards and the cuts. its a job lot really, and ive sorta forgot this lately as ive had a fair few 'alice in wonderland' surfs out at some gnarly spots recently where all i did was get kegged with hardly a wipeout, sunday reminded me that wanting it means alot. i swear i made one horror one on willpower(and a board with autopilot)alone.

[the kalakau kid]

Desire is a powerful motivator, no question.

[zzz]

cmon z, werncha out with us at wink on sunday mate. she sure was angry round that low tide.......

I was out that way around low tide, but wasn't amongst the crew attempting unsuccessfully to suicide in the fat suckups on the rock shelf though ... there was a mad session going on there ...

[nubby]

mate, i sure was succesful on a few doogans off second reef eh.......

[zzz]

bloody awesome - hollow as - was a pretty low tide, not much water out in front. Did you get a few hammerings? Everyone was going pretty hard - surprised no-one injured 'emselves!

[marcus]

im having trouble taking off in hollow waves.

you gotta really want it. slight hesatation spells ova the falls or lip in the ear.

if hes going to ride a surfboard the way he rides a booger, he'll definately want it. hes got lots of commitment, real standout at places like guilitines, etc (even if he is my brother).
ox and terapai have been great guys to surf with over the years, i reakon those guys are way underated, been times just me and terapai, or ox outside island and its commitment all the way, sometimes terapai may pull off before surge and ask me if i thought he could have made it, and im thinking, man you would have died if you pulled in.
compared to me wearing a helmet on a booger you can grind over the reef and drop down double suck ups,or free fall mid barrel, and this guys pushing it on a surfboard no helmet...and like someone said, he does it with a smile on his face.
remember some old billabong vids they had a band called DIG play a few tracks, he was in that band, now hes the drummer in the whitlams, the guy up the back playing drums with a smile on his face.

[nubby]

bloody awesome - hollow as - was a pretty low tide, not much water out in front. Did you get a few hammerings? Everyone was going pretty hard - surprised no-one injured 'emselves!

yeah zzz, i got AXED on one, i came flyin outta the first bowl only for it to double in size on the end and have the bottom fall out as it walled up thru to bow. i couldnt help myself and pulled in anyway, and when the lip came down it just blasted away all the water inside and i just remember seeing dry reef over the nose of my board and thinkin 'f@#k'.....i didnt bail cause i thought id best just hang on as long as i could and let a bit of the power dissapate and ended up goin off the foamball nose first into the bottom, got bounced pretty hard, but no cuts and only a few chunks of cungi in the nose of me board, styling......but that combo of strong north swell and a 0.1 low tide made for some of the angriest wink ive had in a while, heaps heavier than that last swell even though it was way smaller.....

[marcus]

and when the lip came down it just blasted away all the water inside and i just remember seeing dry reef over the nose of my board and thinkin 'f@#k'...

thats a nice shock wave story there nubby, whooyeah.
the blast from the lip on the inside of the barrel, bloody hard to ride eh.
bits of cunji in the nose...thats cutting it pretty dry