Style. Everyone wants style, not everyone has style.
Wait. Scratch that. A lack of style is the exact opposite of style. In other words, a dude simply cruising anomalously on a wave with no distinctive individuality is the opposite of style. A guy waving his arms frantically on every attempted 3 degree turn, knees facing outward like a spastic orc being electrocuted is still a style, albeit a very poor style. It’s like love. Folks say the opposite of love is hate, which isn’t entirely true. Not really. The opposite of love is complete indifference. You could hate a former friend or lover for hurting you, but hate is still a strong emotion. Not feeling anything at all is a total lack of emotion. Hence, the opposite of love.
An absence of style trumps a kak style. Discuss.
Trident is clearly nothing if not philosophical, yet we’ve veered off topic in the above paragraph. The point is, surfing to a large extent remains about style. You can be a fairly average surfer with no repertoire of manoeuvres at all. Yet if you ride that wave with flow, fluidity and every aspect of your bodily movements controlled and smooth, you can still be very well regarded.
The converse is true. You can land air reverses like clockwork, but we feel the effect is somewhat diminished if you ride a surfboard like a constipated ostrich. So style is a thing. Good style, bad style and ugly style. Ugly style is preferable than no style?
Our very own Mikey February is considered to be a stylish surfer. Although style is ultimately subjective, we dig his smooth turns and slightly retro approach to waveriding. Mick Fanning is speedy as hell, able to whip 12 turns in while we’re still popping up. Slater’s approach, like him, simply does not age. Speaking of, some aging surfers still ooze style. Others just ooze.
Stylish surfing isn’t the same as good surfing? Discuss.
We don’t know about you lot, but Trident feels we have several personal bad habits when it comes to surfing. We are introspective enough to say so out loud. Sadly, so many of said bad surfing habits are like many of life’s bad habits – namely, they’re difficult to break. From when we first learned how to stand up on a board, an individual style was being developed, for better or worse. Sadly though, much of surfing is instinctive, and what feels natural doesn’t exactly translate into stylish, good surfing. Stance, feet placement, boardshorts sitting at nipple level – these become entrenched surf habits that are difficult to improve upon.
Doing a turn? Your head needs to decide the direction, not your lower body. A guy doing a solid turn while his head remains fixed on the wave direction will resemble a cross-eyed owl trying to scratch its arse with rodent bones.
And as for arms while surfing? Sheesh. No arm movement. Wild arm movement. Incorrect arm positioning. Incorrect hand position. Palm in? Palm out? Jeez. Apparently there is a third force Surf Style Secret Police that dictates what is correct and what is as aesthetically pleasing as a flatulent cross dresser. (Ed’s note, as discussed, style is completely subjective. So there’s nothing wrong with finding flatulent cross dressers aesthetically pleasing.)
Work on your style. Imitate your heroes; Curren, Medina, Moore or O’Brien. Just be advised for every surfer whose style you aim to emulate, there are others that believe those same surfers surf with all the grace of a stoned slug.
