I was chatting to various people at the OM Surfboard Factory the other day and we were discussing my latest board (for me) – nicknamed the FreakFish… it’s a bonzer 4 fin with what I am calling the “EVO4” set-up and a complex concave bottom…We were shooting the breeze about the purpose of surfing. Some were saying ultimately it was all about high performance and speed, speed to do manoeuvres and go different places on the wave… I agreed with much of what was said but something didn’t sit comfortably. For me it has always been less about speed and performance and more about sensations, experimenting and trying new things, often prompted by trying different boards (like keel fin McCoy Nuggets, Cinqo 5 fins, and most recently Bonzers) most of which do not sit comfortably in the conventional performance bracket.
As if to make the point this morning I was gliding through a flat spot on a chest high onshore sloppy wave at my local beach on my Malcolm Campbell 6’6” POD… I’d moved forward to trim (where the thruster kids would have slapped, flapped, pumped and jumped about as the wave died under them)… and truly relished in the quiet effortless glide that carried me through, and then as the wave started to reform… I stepped back, dropped in to the section, bottom turned and smacked that lip like a good little thruster-kid of the 80s.
Ride and glide.
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