Surfing is a SPORT. But the end result, visually for the surfer or a spectator is a "work of art". The entirety of a wave, the turns and tricks that you accomplish on it is a work of art when you are finished. Most of them go unseen, so does that somehow make it not an art any longer? No, its the old "If a tree falls in the woods and no one heard it, did it really make a sound" Well, or course.... But in every sense of the word "SPORT", I agree that surfing is a sport. An Individual sport... Many atheletes, like runners, spend their who lives, training, running, doing what they love in a non-competetive format... For themselve... This does not mean that they are not taking part in a SPORT... It is a sport... I believe that competition in surfing is the MAIN reason that surfing has gotten to where it is today... It is top atheletes, pushing the envelope ni front of the WORLD, so every small beach town in the world can take these radical moves home and work on them.... I believe that the most crooked part of competetive surfing is the TOP level. THE ASP tour... The scoring and system in place OFTEN times fails... Like in TAJ's case and many others... If you want to be honest, a TON of guys on the ASP just simply CANNOT do an air... The Sonny Garcias and the power surfers from HI... a VERY LARGE amount of guys simple can't do it... So, while the judges were all once on the tour, there are still a bunch of veterans in the field, so those factors have kept PROGRESSIVE surfing on the lower end of the scoring scale.... So, i bet you in 5 years, once the old guys are too old, and retire from the tour, Aerial surfing will be one of the only ways to land a 10... How many "Deep Barrels" on a perfect Right hand point can you possibly give 10s to... Its actually not that darn hard to do on a perfect wave... So what I notice, from the local contests that I attend and pay attention to are MUCH more progressive and reasonable with their scores... Especailly the local grom contests... When kids are landing backside 360 airs, they get 10s... The judges are all over it... I think on the groud level and on the Pro-am circuits and minor leaguers are all moving into the radical aerial styles of surfing... It is the changing of the guard.... I mean, all of us who have been surfing for some time have all gone through the same process. As a shortboard, you simply HAVE to be able to at least punt a frontside air. I mean, it is one of the most basica moves in surfing now... Yeah, it was tough, yeah its not for everyone, but let me say, I get MUCH more gratification on landing a big air, than getting a clean barrel... Everything that does into punting an air, the grabs and asjustments in the air on your board, the rotation, the balance, and digging those fins in and sticking the landing, usually completely backwards and disoriented... It is truely one of the most difficult things to do. So when done in competition, the airs should be at the top of the list... It takes athletesism and a huge skills set to pull it off. I bet you there are plenty of guys who have been surfing their whole lives, who just weigh a little too much, or surf a certain way and have never dedicated time to airs and stuff... But its the changing of the guard, and if any of us want to keep up with the kids, we better keep following them.... The kids know whats what... Not us... The youngsters determine progression... Its the old farts that try and hold the sport back and not score people for the aerial "Trickory" But anyway, yeah surfing is a sport.... an individual sport... that turns into a work of art at the end of the day.
True... on the same note, the majority of guys in the ASP simply can't do the things Mendia, Knox, Garcia and Pancho can/could do in their prime, either. These guys are a rare breed, and are part of an elite group in themselves, just like the Danes of the world. To me, it's a matter of style, and how a surfer chooses to approach the wave, choose a board, what's skills they've practiced over their years in the water... ...which is precisely my question. In order to be fair, you have to judge surfing, or any sport, quantitatively. How can you quantify style?
I am a professional artist and I do not usually think of surfing as art, but if one looks at the current so called "post-post-modernist" art movement, one will realize that anything can be considered art. Some examples I've seen: taking a nap, washing peoples hair, and cooking dinner. These are everyday activities, but when put in the context of a gallery or museum they suddenly become art. Truthfully I have studied my craft (metal smithing) too long to easily accept this very pretentious approach, but I try to keep an open mind and just wanted to hip all you brothas to what's going on. Really, everyone of these Contextualist (my term) exhibitions is doing the same thing- establishing a border between sacred and profane space/time (see Mircea Eliade). Surfing and the Ocean have inspired a lot of my work, though.
Good question. I can't give a definitive answer though. That is why there is a big grey area in comp surfing. I think the easiest way to quantify it is to just base your judgements on difficulty... Yes, if someone lands a crazy air, but their limbs are all flying around and they look ridiculous, they should lose a few style points. ANd at the same time, when big Pancho lays down a hug hack and blow the lip off of a wave, digging his arms in and moving all that water, pancho should definately get some extra style points... But guys like pancho and sonny need to understand that although what they do in the water is a beautiful thing, the level of difficulty in their actual maneauvers is pretty low. Now, that does not hold true when they are surfing 12 foot pipe. Then sonny and Pancho have an advantage. They charge big waves, and big barrels... But in general competetive terms, you have to just score based on Risk and Difficulty.... You gotta score the guy who goes for broke on a huge air on a 7 foot wave more credit than the guy laying down big hacks... We can all do some tight clean smacks on a wave, but when that fast section approaches, are you going to hack at it, or launch a two handed frontside 360... You HAVE to give the guys who take the bigger risk and reward them for it... Power surfing is beautiful, but even guy who weigh 135 lbs can move some water... So, although those HI power surfers are a thing aof beauty, they should be getting destroyed in comps... Good old fashion style only goes so far. Innovation is a larger factor.... to me. But again, competetive surf judging is still a big work in progress. I just think on a local level, most judges get it right... The reward kids for going big... Not playing it safe and using nothing but style.
I have to agree in part with the big airs. I love carving, bashing the lip and tubes but sometimes I get lucky and totally launch my board out of the water. I'm always screaming at the top of my lungs when that happens. Its so cool and so fun. Its like 'out of the body' and beyond. it normally happens when I let go and just surf my brains out and let the momentum take over.
the thing is i love when we get the bigfast surf as just the drops im just always screaming and then when i just bottom turn and do a mean cutback i to at that point am in a sense of just being in sync with everything going on. and after that first wave it just makes every other wave so much better.
"Power surfing is always going to be relevant... power surfing will always have a spot, without any kind of politics. The new craze is aerials, but you can't just go down the line all year long, throw in the air and expect to be world champ, that's for sure. Every world champ has some kind of power surfing in his repertoire: Mick Fanning is powerful but very quick, and so is Kelly Slater." Garcia -ing Dec. 2010
I totally agree with him. Mick, Taj, Kelly and many others throw mean gouges, blow big fans, have huge roations through turns.... However, in competetion, all of the above throw ridiculous airs.... Most spots on the tour involve HEAVY, large barrels... So of course, those are power surfing waves... But the new talent, the guys that transcend it all are the slaters and fannings that can do both. THat the difference, Mick and Kelly can do everything Sonny can do... But not the other way around.... Power surfing is a beautiful thing, but power surfing will not win you world titles. You have to be able to do it all... That is what the best surfer should be... The one who dominates in all conditions... The one who is power surfing in Tahiti and HI, and then when they are at lowers and other places, they are doing the progressive thing, doing insane airs and ridiculous tail sliding turns.... ANd that is why kelly wins every year... HE power surfs, and innovates as well. He is the total package.
i believe there is a power outage in surfing today.it's been noticeable for some time,now.i don't know,guys like gary elkerton used to seem to really blast their off-the-lips.focusing on high speed athleticism seems to have removed the full power blasts of the past.i see top turns looking different these days,lacking power.additionally,air flip 360 is not happening as much as videos and mags would make it seem.most guys still just do off-the-lips and cutbacks,except for a tiny percentage of surfers. an even tinier percentage pull any of these above the lip tricks in a functional part of riding a wave to it's potential.a lot of waves don't even allow it.the power in off-the-lips has been replaced by high speed acceleration slaps that seem to lack the power of the old way of doing it.they put up huge spray,but i don't like it as much.i find the modern surfing artless.but,to each his own,i guess,just my opinion,but i think the focus on the flying,sliding,spinning has in turn made the power disappear.maybe their tiny boards don't allow for it,or stylish fluid ripping,for that matter.i think 2010 surfing is a sport with athletes.i think the old way was a 'natural art' with surfers.
and another thing...since i just made the argument that the new pros don't have the power of the old pros,i guess i should add that the 'art' or style was certainly lacking in the 80's/early90's as well.i think i was making two unrelated points,sorry for the annoyance headache as usual,but i guess the 80'/early90's had the power but then it changed to speed athleticism and growth in what is possible,for example tomson's to curren's to slater's tuberiding or curren's to slater's abilities to push the limits for all others today.progress came from curren and then slater took it further in a certain way,though not really when it comes down to it,because what curren did on waves can not be topped. that being said,i guess there was always kooky herky-jerky styless surfing,so who are the artists on a wave? My favorites are Lance Carson,Gerry Lopez,Barry Kanaiapuni,Wayne Lynch,Michael Peterson,Buttons Kaluhiokalani,Joel Tudor... single fins=style
You make a good point about boards... the emphasis on lighter, flexier, more highly rockered and lower volume boards lend themselves more to above-the-lip surfing than power surfing. Especially for the average Joe. Ironically, the average Joe still wants that kind of board, whether they surf above the lip or not. But the sacrifice with the modern performance shortboard is that they also take much of the smoothness out of the ride, with variations of concaved bottoms instead of displacement features, which used to be common on shortboards as well as longboards and specialty boards. Only big wave boards, longboards, and retro boards have displacement bottoms anymore, it seems. If you watch even the top pros today, you see the nose of their board vibrate and jitter over every little lump of texture. There's smooth surfing... then there's SMOOTH surfing. And a lot of that has to do with equipment, and what's valued in terms of performance.
"Us"? It sounds to me like you're neither an old fart nor a youngster. Maybe caught in between? Personally, I know what's what for me and I know I'm comfortable enough with my reality to know that a clean barrel beats all (for me). But yeah, the kids are alright...
To each their own. Im no old fart. I just turned 30 this year, so I feel old, but i surf like im still 22, so its all good. And all I am saying is this... Each year, I see what the 16-18 year old pro crews are doing around here, and each year, I try and ad a few of their styles or tricks into my own surfing, and year after year, what the youth is doing is becoming increasingly harder. As Beachbreak was saying above, he prefers the hugetransfer of weight and speed, the old school beauty. He also said he doesnt like the big fan sprays from quick turns that have less torque. Now, I agree the new age, small radius fans are not as powerful, but they are PLENTY harder. In order to do all those turns, you have to go freeweight basically, and manipulate your body through the whole turn. It involved balanced, agility, flexability anda TON of skill... So, I am just saying that what there kids are doing today is much harder. I have the basic aerial moves in my skillset. I can do the frontside, the backside, and the air reverse all with a few variations of grabs. All of those air tricks are based on simple speed and body rotation. That I can do... I worked on those years ago, and that is enough for me... I cant even begin to try these crazy skateboard tricks... I really stopped trying to keep up, because im happy with what I have learned. All I do is surf now.Im not worried about getting inverted in the air and doing supermans and sh**. I really got through the developmental stage and just enjoy it now... But I appreciate seeing what guys are doing it. Innovation is what is the coolest to me... I love seeing some little 17 year old blast through the air, turning in ways i have never thought of... and im like DAMN, that was badas$! Im just saying, that sh** is hard.... If it wasnt almost impossible, we would all be landing rodeo flips wouldnt we?
Most aerials done today start with a down-the-line speed run and launch from the lip that's nowhere near vertical. Personally, I like the more vertical approach to the lip and a boost that's not as high as what's required for all those crazy (and extremely difficult) grabs and rotations. The look of a clean, vertical, fins free, no grab boost above the lip is more appealing to me, both to watch and to perform, than a skateboard move. A vertical approach... a smooth lift off... a lofty no grab 180... and a perfect re-entry is a beautiful thing to watch, and feels great.
Im froathing right now. Must surf. Its raining though. I agree, that is the most clean, pure kind of boost. The money. Its hard to get low on the grabs and still get the right force off the top. But yeah, vertical is sick. Fins free is whats its all about. Airs and turns. A nice punch of the lip and release em for a quick slide. Ya get butterfiles in your stomach when it happens, that zero gravity effect.
