Ask Carroll

[tootr]

Here's a poser nick,

Who invented the 'pump trim' ?????

[Nick Carroll]

hey mate I think the spectrum is too great to define surfers in a simple range but like most skills within a population you could prolly grade it on a bell curve of some sort.

There's a shit load more "average" surfers than there are any other kind I would suspect. Not really that many good to expert in comparison, just as there's not that many completely shithouse surfers who never improve.

Where anyone sits on the range would vary from surf to surf. I'm sure many of us have felt like we were kind of at the top of the tree on a certain day in a certain crowd, only to be brought down to earth with a thump in another situation. Plenty of guys who surf pretty good at a certain spot, who are then exposed at another location. That sorta gear.

What I do notice is that few average surfers are crystal clear about their own skill level, either thinking they're a fair bit better or a fair bit worse than they are. High and low skill surfers are much clearer about this.

Also - average surfers are often far more judgmental about other surfers' abilities than are high or low skill surfers. I was surfing somewhere the other day in 4'+ waves and a bloke came out on a longboard and wanted to chat. "Trouble out here is that everyone can surf!" he told me. "Not like in Bali, where there's all the Japs and other people who can hardly stand up, you can get all the waves."

He caused me to flash on a thought I then conveyed to him, viz: No matter how good a surfer you reckon you are, there's always someone waaaaay better.

[Nick Carroll]

Here's a poser nick,

Who invented the 'pump trim' ?????

Fcuken ripper.

I dunno really, I doubt it could be pinned down to an individual surfer. I could only tell you what I've seen in that regard. There was a surfer named Terry Clarke from Long Reef who ripped back in the mid-1970s. Goofyfoot, he would terrorise Northy during junior comps back in the day. Terry used to work these little turns up and down in mid-face to develop speed before burning it out in a full on low slung Bertlemann type cuttie. It was kinda his only move but it was so striking it separated him from the pack for a while. He was the first guy I ever saw do a pump trim, closely followed by Cheyne Horan in the same mid 70s junior era.

Older guys than them never seemed to do such jumpy stuff so I suspect it was a product of the big Australian junior wave of the time. Maybe also the young Sth Shore Hawaiians who had a lot in common with the young Aussies of the day.

Pump trimming is way better with multi finned boards, so by the time MR had re popularised the twinfin, around 1979, the pump trim was the move du jour, Dane Kealoha used to be the master of it, my god Dane would work up amazing speed in a short space with his pump trim thanks to those massive thighs.

[Davros]

One other thing for anybody, I have a new board, it looks like it has a purple tint in the glass..saw another board the other day different shaper..same...maybe I'm going colur blind..

[Nick Carroll]

davros if it is "clear" and has a light apparent purple-pink tint, what you're seeing is anti-UV elements in the resin. It will fade out to normal white in a short time.

[Davros]

Thanks, yeah is white.

[Beanpole]

What about the old pumping the left arm before bottom turns that Nat, MP and I think Kong used to do?

[Yuke Hunt]

What about the old pumping the left arm before bottom turns that Nat, MP and I think Kong used to do?

You're confusing viewing your reflection whilst masturbating with surfing ... right hand ... left hand ...take your medication ... or risk ending up in a westerly winded kind of cosmetic castration.

[Beanpole]

What about the old pumping the left arm before bottom turns that Nat, MP and I think Kong used to do?

You're confusing viewing your reflection whilst masturbating with surfing ... right hand ... left hand ...take your medication ... or risk ending up in a westerly winded kind of cosmetic castration.

Thanks for clearing that up for me wombie

[Nick Carroll]

What about the old pumping the left arm before bottom turns that Nat, MP and I think Kong used to do?

Well I don't think that's got anything to do with a pump trim line, that was just an aggressive pre-turn twitch.

For MP and Elko in particular, it often seemed as if things weren't quite happening quickly enough -- they would fizz and twitch and almost literally fume with impatience as the wave set itself up. That left arm twitch was the turn they did when they weren't doing a turn, if you get my drift.

[Beanpole]

Yeah, kind of always thought that a bit myself. The only time I actually saw Nat surf was out at very small Angourie on one of those MOTE style pintails he used to ride. Kept doing these little re entries cursing and getting cranky until it was more or less on top of the rocks and threw up a bit of a section. He tore that bit up. I would have pulled out about the same time he started

I guess their twitch would have been where a thruster surfer would have done a little pump or two,

[steve shearer]

I've got a question Nick.

It;s about the essay you wrote for White Horses about losing the surfing obsession.

I don't have time to formulate it properly now. I'll try at 5 oclock in the morning. It's peaceful then.

[Nick Carroll]

well come on then shearer, don't turn this into the fcuken movie thread

next thing you know coops will be in here explaining how he wants to ask me a question about bodyboarding, but first he has to cook another lamb roast.

[aaronn]

who would do such things
http://s7.postimg.org/dvtb6pkd7/npbnsi.jpg

[138cfh]

Hi Nick,
what's your thoughts on using a gopro to film yourself to analyse your surfing?
I know getting filmed from the beach is better, but is it an option or more or less useless.

[Nick Carroll]

Umm shit to be honest I think it's damn near useless.

POV cameras remove all sense of perspective on how your movements on the board are affecting your position on the wave. The exception might be shots taken from a rear mounted camera of a highly skilled surfer riding somewhere like Chopes or Backdoor -- which lets you actually see what such a wave looks like from the surfer's angle and so can help you psych and prepare to ride such a spot. But that's not watching yourself and breaking down technique.

There are weaknesses in any camera angle but to see what you're really doing, you need a third party angle. sorry about that!

[138cfh]

Umm shit to be honest I think it's damn near useless.

POV cameras remove all sense of perspective on how your movements on the board are affecting your position on the wave. The exception might be shots taken from a rear mounted camera of a highly skilled surfer riding somewhere like Chopes or Backdoor -- which lets you actually see what such a wave looks like from the surfer's angle and so can help you psych and prepare to ride such a spot. But that's not watching yourself and breaking down technique.

There are weaknesses in any camera angle but to see what you're really doing, you need a third party angle. sorry about that!

No worries. Thanks for the help.

[otway1949]

A good third party video of you surfing, can honestly horrify you.

You get the wave of the day ( in your own mind) and you see it on video, it's smaller, you are less skilled than your altered ego believes the awkwardness, the stance and positional timing all look wrong and totally different from the wave you believe you caught.
A reason why, on the wave you are emotionally and psychologically engaged, if it is a decent wave you are in the moment, not in analysing it .
Watching yourself the reverse is true!
Anyone remember the first time they heard themselves on tape or disc?