Ask Carroll

[The Mighty Sunbird]

happy dad = happy kids
order 2 boards

[ajohnsen]

Happy wife = husband obeys
order at peril.

[Davros]

Me so horny = happy ending

[Drailed]

My quiver limit of 6 recently got raised to 7.

[Beerfan]

my knee won't let me surf yet but I've got one nearly finished.


Just do it Steve

[Cranked]

My quiver limit of 6 recently got raised to 7.

What did you have to do?

[Drailed]

Just hide them and lie.

[Cranked]

Ah, that's exactly the method I use. My wife tries to catch me out sometimes by asking "Is that a new board?" but you soon realise its just a try-on and she doesn't really have a clue.

[Drailed]

Always put wax on before you take home

[MrMik]

Ah, that's exactly the method I use. My wife tries to catch me out sometimes by asking "Is that a new board?" but you soon realise its just a try-on and she doesn't really have a clue.

That's where kids really become problematic: They remember every board and spot the new ones immediately, and ask all the wrong questions at the most inopportune moments.....

[PeepeelaPew]

Same covers, same sprays, messy shed.

[gardie]

Hi Nick

I am interested in your thoughts of the increasing average age of the elite tour.

How much a factor is KS and has he opened the eyes of others about training diet etc and the ability to keep on improving through your thirties and now into his forties.

Does the make up of the dream tour in terms of locations also help. If we had more metro beach breaks would it play into the hands of the younger generation with their above the lip abilities.

In your discussions with retired pro's do you pick up any regrets about letting go to early when they see the current group still going strong in their thirties,

Finally with the level of injuries going on will the average length of career actually fall as we see the long term impacts on knee's ankles etc from the above the lip turns and the landings required in such an unstable and moving environment. This stuff I see as akin to gymnastics and I dont think many of those guys have long careers and they have a stable landing place.

[Cranked]

How many boards do you have again Nick? You've answered this before and the number was so large I only retained an order of magnitude, that is, given a choice of 10, 100 or 1000 boards, then 100 pops into my ailing memory.

[godsavetheking]

How many boards do you have again Nick?

and on what percentage of them did you pay something approaching the full retail price?

[Nick Carroll]

Hi Nick

I am interested in your thoughts of the increasing average age of the elite tour.

How much a factor is KS and has he opened the eyes of others about training diet etc and the ability to keep on improving through your thirties and now into his forties.

Does the make up of the dream tour in terms of locations also help. If we had more metro beach breaks would it play into the hands of the younger generation with their above the lip abilities.

In your discussions with retired pro's do you pick up any regrets about letting go to early when they see the current group still going strong in their thirties,

Finally with the level of injuries going on will the average length of career actually fall as we see the long term impacts on knee's ankles etc from the above the lip turns and the landings required in such an unstable and moving environment. This stuff I see as akin to gymnastics and I dont think many of those guys have long careers and they have a stable landing place.

Yeah I think they are just following the general trend of a maturing pro sport. You'll notice that in many sports these days, athletes seem to be pushing the age up a bit.

It's enhanced in surfing's case because surfing is such a "skill" sport. All sports contain a balance between acquired skill and athleticism; in surfing's case the balance tilts toward acquired skill, which is compounded because acquiring the skills takes fcuken ages. Indeed when you break down the time spent riding waves against the rough benchmark of an acquired skills peak (around 11,000 hours of quality practice), there probably isn't a surfer in history who's actually achieved his or her full potential.

Many "normal" good surfers will find themselves discovering new skills and improving technically deep into their 40s.

Against that is set the inevitable physical ageing process, which gnaws away at the athletic side of things. There's a tipping point somewhere, probably a bit different for each individual, where declining athleticism begins to limit skill acquisition. This doesn't mean you can't continue to improve and develop your understanding etc, but it marks a point where you can't keep up with new skill trends and have to begin a different kind of learning about how to work within your apparent limits.

For sure KS's dedication to clean living and staying physically sharp has pushed every pro surfer's idea of their potential career length well out beyond where it was last century, but there's also been many social trends moving that way and they've been magnified in elite sports - partly because of the large sums of money involved nowadays. In a surfing context, there's a hell of an incentive now to push yourself into your 30s and 40s at that top level if you can, compared with the measly sums of money on offer in Shaun's and MR's day.

I think for sure the great locations in pro surfing these days have played a role in pro surfers hanging in longer -- those waves are another skill level and another motive to push yourself, it takes time to figure that shit out, so that plays into the hands of surfers who've been around longer. But I don't think it's played as big a role as the things mentioned above. It doesn't necessarily count on an individual level either, look at JJF for an example of a young surfer who's completely on top of the challenge posed by that kind of spot.

Re injuries, well we are seeing a temporary spike in elite surfer injuries at the moment, well above the norm. I think this is indeed a spike and the injury rate will pull back down to its average during the next year. There is a difference between the types of injuries now and the types of injury 25 years ago though - the old surf injury was a knee ligament strain or tear or a bad fin gash, the new injury is an ankle or lower back ligament strain or tear or a reef impact injury. That tells you a bit about how surfing has changed in that time: lighter boards and fin systems have limited the fin gashes, technique improvements have lessened the pressure on the knee joint, but airs and complex lip moves have put new pressure on ankles and backs, and Tahiti and the Mentawais have exposed us all to reefs in new and fascinating ways.

I don't think injuries will pull the age range back down again by the way, athletes tend to hurt themselves more in the early phase of their pro career. A nasty injury smartens them up and they don't make the same mistake again. Only a minority of top athletes, and very few pro surfers, suffer a career-ending injury.

Re surfers having regrets, no, I don't feel very much of that when talking with retired pros. Most of them still have pretty sizeable egos and love it when people tell 'em "You could win a WCT today!" But they're also realists who grow more comfortable with themselves the further they move away from their pro careers, understanding that your competitive days are just a phase of life, not the whole of life. The regrets I've heard -- either expressed or unexpressed -- lie within pros who didn't really give it their best shot and know it. Shoulda coulda woulda, but didn't. That hangs around a long fcuken time and in lock step with a big ego, can lead to some hard years.

[Nick Carroll]

How many boards do you have again Nick? You've answered this before and the number was so large I only retained an order of magnitude, that is, given a choice of 10, 100 or 1000 boards, then 100 pops into my ailing memory.

Umm shit I don't know, not to the board. Pretty silly eh. I've got boards in various places that I have forgotten about. Probably around 100 or a few less.

[Nick Carroll]

How many boards do you have again Nick?

and on what percentage of them did you pay something approaching the full retail price?

Maybe 20%.

[chrisb]

We have all heard those great cricketing sledging stories such as the Merv Hughes/Javed Miandad bus-driver analogy then the "tickets please" retort (that sledge was in fact resurrected on the ABC last week).

But does any verbal or non-verbal sparring occur during surf contests in and out of the water?
Any memorably witty ones?
Then, the women. They are generous in praising each other in the media but is this what they really think? After all, this is a professional sport, big money is at stake, and their competitive window is small compared to mainstream occupations. Do they sledge, even if it's very subtle, or are they all really nice people? If they do sledge do you have some witty insults you would like to share?