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kottke.org posts about surfing

A Long Surfing Life

I really enjoyed this profile by William Finnegan of 75-year-old Jock Sutherland, who was one of the best surfers in the world in the late 60s and who still cherishes a good wave.

A surfer as famous as he was could have made enough money for an easy retirement, I thought, but Sutherland hadn’t cashed in. Surfing was never, to his mind, a job. Even when he was at the apex of the surfing world, he was unimpressed, stubborn. There was no pro tour in those days. “You could work for a board manufacturer, maybe have your own signature-model board,” he told me. “But that meant sell, sell, sell. That was…crass. I mean, the banality. It was antithetical to being able to enjoy being out in the water.”

Sutherland’s mom, Audrey, sounds like an amazing person:

Audrey drew up a list of things that every child should be able to do by age sixteen and stuck it on the wall. It read, in part:

- Clean a fish and dress a chicken

- Write a business letter

- Splice or put a fixture on an electric cord

- Operate a sewing machine and mend your own clothes

- Handle a boat safely and competently

- Save someone drowning using available equipment

- Read at a tenth grade level

- Listen to an adult talk with interest and empathy

- Dance with any age

This list changed with the times, adding computers and contraception, and nobody really kept score, but everybody got the idea.

Finnegan wrote Barbarian Days, a memoir of his life as a surfer — I loved it.

Reply · 4

The Freedom to Be: Black Surfers in the Rockaways

This short documentary takes a look at the Black surfing community in the Rockaways. These surfers are members of the Black Surfing Association (East Coast branch), which Surfer magazine profiled last summer:

“When you talk to kids here at Rockaway, they think of a surfer as John John Florence — blonde,” says Harris. “When I say, ‘Hey, I’m a surfer,’ they’re shocked. We’re trying to reach every kid, but we’re really trying to reach the kids that wouldn’t otherwise get the opportunity.

We just want to keep kids busy and active, and spread the message and spread the stoke of surfing, and go into schools and talk to kids about water safety.”

“There’s no racism out there”, says Harris of the ocean. “When you come out of that water, of course you go back to your life. But you lose yourself when you get into the waves.”


Surfer rides a wave 115 feet tall

The waves off the coast of Portugal near Nazaré are some of the biggest in the world. Nearly two weeks ago, a German pro surfer named Sebastian Steudtner rode a wave estimated at 115 feet high and didn’t crash or kill himself. If you watch the video, even at a larger size, it’s difficult to pick Steudtner out from the wall of the cartoonishly massive wave.

Curiously, the current world record for the largest wave ever ridden (also set at Nazaré) is 78 feet. And if you look at the video and compare, Steudtner’s wave is definitely much bigger.


Kelly Slater’s perfect wave machine

Surfer Kelly Slater has built what I can only guess is the world’s largest wave pool that pumps out perfectly surfable waves. It looks a bit boring actually, faultless waves every time. Like playing against the computer in NHL ‘94. (via @mathowie)


Dolphins surfing

As if you needed more proof that dolphins are cool: they enjoy surfing.


Long wave is looooooong

Koa Smith rides in the barrel of a wave for almost 30 seconds…it just goes on and on and on.

This video is a bit misleading. The ride is shown twice but the first time through it’s slowed down so it lasts more than a minute. The full-speed replay starts at 2:01 and is still impressive. (via digg)


Slow Motion Surfing

You know what’s pretty? Big waves and surfing in slow motion. Take a break and relax at 1000 fps with this mesmerizing video.

The Hans Zimmer soundtrack only adds to the effect. (via ★interesting)


Teahupo’o: Inside the Monster

Inside the Monster is a 25-minute documentary (in French w/ English subtitles) on Teahupo’o, a Tahitian locale known for its spectacular waves.

Crazy the way those waves rise out of almost nowhere. My favorite photo of Teahupo’o is this one (view larger):

Teahupoo

All that water hanging out 14 feet higher than it should be….it ain’t natural!


Duct tape surfing

Pascale Honore enjoyed watching her sons surf but couldn’t participate because she’s been a paraplegic for the past 18 years. But then Tyron Swan, a friend of her sons, duct taped her to his back and took her out on his board.

Man, that smile is incredible. What a great video. Pascal and Tyron are trying to raise funds to take their show on the road. Backed. (via ★interesting)


Surfer swims for his life

Remember the guy who rode the alleged 100-foot wave? Here’s a video of some other tow-in surfers from that same location (Nazare, Portugal) on the same day. The waves aren’t quite as big as 100 feet, but the sequence starting at 1:52, where the guy falls off his board and swims like hell to get out of the way before the whole ocean crashes down on top of him (watch the top of the wave), gives you a real sense of how insane this sport is.

Great use of high definition and slow motion. (via @alexismadrigal)


Surfer rides monster 100-foot wave

There’s some weird perspective stuff going on with this photo (do those waves break right on shore?) but holy crap look at the size of that fucking wave!

Garrett McNamara Nazare

The teeny speck speeding down that wall of water is Garrett McNamara, who already holds the world record for the largest wave ever surfed and will likely extend that record with this estimated 100-footer.

There’s no video of the ride but in this promotional video, I think you can briefly see McNamara riding the monster wave at 38 seconds and perhaps again at 42 seconds.


Biggest Teahupoo Ever

“The French Navy labeled this day a double code red prohibiting and threatening to arrest anyone that entered the water.”

(via ★colossal)


Garrett McNamara breaks biggest wave surfing record

Garrett McNamara rode a wave off of Nazare, Portugal last November that some surfing experts billed at 85-90 feet. This would have smashed the world record wave height of 77 feet held by Mike Parsons. However, last month, after judges compared “McNamara’s height in a crouch and the length of his shin bone with the wave’s top and bottom,” the Guinness Book of World Records decided the wave was 78 feet and gave him the record. To get a feel for McNamara’s feat, go find an 8 story building and imagine riding down it on a surfboard.

And here’s another nice surfing video.


Bullet time surfing

Using a rig of 30 GoPro cameras, these guys captured surfers in Matrix-esque bullet time.

(via petapixel)


Slow motion surfing

Friday night, getting late? Perfect time to watch a slow motion surfing video. It’s only a minute and a half, but it feels like it’s at least two minutes and fifteen seconds. Just beautiful. It’s body boarding, but it’s about the waves anywave, right?

(Via @heinekensdaily)


The biggest wave ever surfed

From the Feb 2011 issue of Vanity Fair, a profile of big-wave surfer Ken Bradshaw by William Langewiesche. Bradshaw rode what was, at the time, the largest wave ever surfed.

Later he told me it was like skiing down an avalanche chute in the mountains. He said, “You know that feeling you get when you’re going over a cornice and it’s just straight down after that?” He counted the seconds. He went, “One. Two. Three. Four!” Already it was a long drop, and the wave kept rising higher. “Five! Six! Seven! Eight!” He went, “Holy shit!,” and kept dropping. He went, “Don’t fade! Don’t even imagine it!” He got toward the base of the face, still well above the bottom, and rounded out of the drop as the surface curvature allowed. Bradshaw had never seen such wave expanses before-huge fields of sloping water to the right. He was aware of the mass gathering above and behind him. He went, “I gotta get out of here, now!” He dug his right rail in, banking the board hard against its will, and held it with all of his strength into a carving right turn. The turn was slow because the board was fast. Bradshaw kept at it, however, and went slicing up the wave face almost to the crest. He was briefly elated. Technically he had “made” the wave, but he wasn’t done with it yet. From the crest he turned again and went angling back down the face. He intended to perform a full cutback toward the break, but no sooner had he started than a roar erupted behind him as the wave formed a giant barrel. The barrel spat spray at him from its throat. There was no way into that barrel from his position, and it blocked any turn back toward the core of the wave. The ride was almost over for Bradshaw. It had lasted 30 seconds, or hardly more. He exited straight ahead and over the wave’s shoulder. He was angry with himself. He thought that he should have been in that barrel, and that he would have been if he had not shied away from the peak at the start of the ride. He did not care about having made history-and did not consider it until others began to insist on it that night. He did not even think that this had been a great run. He thought, Shit, I should have faded.


Big wave skiing?

Watch as Chuck Patterson skis (not surfs, skis) the Jaws surf break in Maui.

And for some reason, he’s using poles!


Tarp surfing

Get yourself a skateboard, a big blue tarp, have someone lift the edge of the tarp over you as you skateboard by, and guess what that looks like:

(via mathowie)


Amazing Matt Meola surfing video

This video was offline so soon after I posted it and is so crazy that I thought it deserved more than an update to the old post. So here it is again. Watch it, watch it, watch it. (thx, tomek)


Amazing surfing video of Matt Meola

It is difficult to watch this video of Matt Meola surfing and not think of the evolution of skateboarding, particularly the transition between freestyle skating and the invention of vert in the empty swimming pools of southern California. Most of the stuff he does looks impossible. (via matt’s a.whole)

Update: Gah, the video has been pulled offline for some reason. Here’s another one, not quite as good. You can also try YouTube.


No people, just waves

Jonah Lehrer profiles Clay Marzo, a top surfer who also happens to be on the autism spectrum, which has been useful in focusing his attention on surfer but is also a challenge.

It’s like everyone else has a bucket for dealing with people and I only got a cup. When my cup gets too full, then I shut down.


Waves in slow motion

Absolutely gorgeous slow motion HD video of a large wave from under the water…you can clearly see the intricate and powerful architecture of the wave.

Nice surfing shot too…but the wave is mesmerizing.


Dustin Humphrey photography

Dustin Humphrey’s surfing/underwater photography is difficult to explain. Pro surfers + underwater naked steampunk maybe? NSFW. (via avenues)


Modern big wave surfing requires a knowledge

Modern big wave surfing requires a knowledge of oceanography and wave dynamics…and quick wits out on the water.

After committing to a wave, the surfer must confront the sheer tonnage of hurtling water and hit a 10-foot-wide slot of the best spot to launch a ride with pinpoint timing, a maneuver that Washburn has described as akin to “trying to place a Dixie cup on the horn of a charging rhino.”


Big wave surfing at Cortes Bank

Recent Pacific storms have resulted in some epic big wave surfing at Cortes Bank, a seamount located 105 miles off the California coast.

Big wave surfing at Cortes Bank

The NY Times has a nice overview:

With a second major storm bearing down, four of the most experienced big-wave surfers in the world launched a boat and two Jet Skis toward Cortes Bank, an underwater mountain range whose tallest peak rises 4,000 feet from the ocean floor to within about four feet of the surface. The perilous spot, about 100 miles off the coast of Southern California, had been surfed only a handful of times in the past decade. With just the right conditions, its shallow waters turn huge ocean swells into giant, perfect breaking waves.

On a big wave site set up by Billabong, one of the riders said that 100-foot waves will be ridden out there:

Cortes Bank veteran Mike Parsons returned from the voyage absolutely certain that larger sea monsters are awaiting around the spooky open-ocean shoal. “It’s getting closer and closer now…I guarantee you there will be a 100-foot-wave ridden out there,” said Parsons. “For sure. There were several big peaks that jumped up at the top of the reef outside of us that could not have been too far off that size. If you put yourself in the right place at the right time, it will happen. It’s only a matter of time now.”

For photos and a nice audio feature with the crew that took the trip out there, head on over to Surfline.


60 Things Worth Shortening Your Life For. I’ve

60 Things Worth Shortening Your Life For. I’ve done a few of these things…I don’t really drink or smoke enough to have accomplished a lot of them. Surfing Teahupoo in Tahiti is #3…the waves generated there are short lived but insane (photo, more photos, video). (via megnut)


Mark Foo’s Last Ride, the story of

Mark Foo’s Last Ride, the story of the death of one of surfing’s best big wave riders at Maverick’s in 1994.