8/12/2019 Example of Sam's writing

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SUSSED: TECHNIQUE   WELCOME ONE AND ALL TO PART TWO OF SAM LAMBCHOP’S DECONSTRUCTED VIEW OF MODERN SURFING

TECHNIQUE. LIKE MODERN GASTRONOMY BREAKING THINGS DOWN TO THEIR CONSTITUENT PARTS AND PUTTING IT BACK TOGETHER IN NEW

WAYS YOU’VE GOT TO UNDERSTAND THE BASIC ELEMENTS AND HOW THEY WORK TO MAGIC THEM INTO NEW AND INTERESTING DISHES.

OFF THETOP CARVE…What exactly is good surfng?

My friends, the answer I know not, but I do know this: what you

witness on these pages right here is not it.

No, in fact what you see before you is actually rather

flawed surfing, bordering on the poor. However, before I tear

my own surfing to shreds so you can improve yours, there aresome redeeming technique traits to be found in there. Which is

why this sequence is perfect for analysis, so let’s have a look.

Background, we went to a remote little Cornish cove

recently, the standard options were a bit funky and crowded so

we searched and found this. Our massive crowd consisted of

a certain Mr. Alan Stokes, filmer extraordinaire Timmy Boydell

and I. They can both be seen in the background staring in

shock and awe.

 As we touched on last time, whenever you go out for a surf

it’s really beneficial to make a conscious note of the conditions,

so that when you approach, paddle into and take off on a wave

you already have a subconscious plan ready to go. On this day

the waves were shutting down really fast, not many open face

waves. So it was either ‘pull in’ or ‘look for the close out hit’.

There was also a bit of a wobble on the waves, just a sprinkling

of funk, which meant that if you did get a section to hit, it would

‘shape shift’ as you were on your way up to hit it often resulting

in many a mis-timed effort.

1. So when this little wave came through and actually had a

wall on it, I seized to opportunity to try to get a turn off. It had

been a while! You can see from my shallow line of attack ( the

trail of the bottom turn is quite high up the wave face) that I was

i) eager to get down the line, maintaining my momentum , so

did not want to dig too deep off the bottom and

ii) I wanted to minimise the time between coming off the bottom

and getting to the lip. So that what I was looking at on the wayup was actually what I found when I got there, not a flaccid

lettuce lip.

What is clear to me from this shot is that real preoccupation

with ‘get down the line’. It’s everywhere, the line of approach,

the prematurely reaching right (trailing) arm, even the line of

sight and the ‘head down’ reaching forward posture. All this will

come into play in a moment.

2. As a single shot you could just about get away with this

technique, but the sequence tells the real story. Read this next

sentence then close your eyes and go through the motions,

really slowly and deliberately, it’s better if you stand up.

Imagine throwing a small heavy ball, your arm comes back,

then your chest turns backwards with it, then as you prepare

to throw your hips shift forwards and start to turn, your weight

comes onto your front leg and then your body uncoils from your

waist, forward, up through your chest and then your shoulders

swing round to the front and finally right at the end your arm

is brought through in a fast whipping movement at the last

possible moment, releasing the projectile at the optimum point

for maximum velocity. Do it again slowly, close your eyes and

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WORDS BY SAM LAMIROY • PHOTOS BY SHARPY 

feel the amazing way your body is naturally maximising the

mechanics available to it.

Throwing is easy. Your (modern) body has had about

200,000 years to work on it’s technique. Surfing should

be the same. Surfing is the same. Now do this, close your

eyes, repeat the throwing motion, now really slowly try to

use the same motion principle to do an imaginary ‘off the

lip’, of course your trailing (throwing) hand is at waist level,

your knees are more bent and the initial movement is more

upwards, but the delay of bringing that hand up is the key

difference, your lower body initiates – your upper body and

arms finish, all working in unison, delightful!

3. Here is where my poor form comes and bites me.

My shallow approach means my board is hard to get on

a rail. My line into the lip, which did turn a bit soft, is not

aggressive enough for a critical lip turn, but too steep for a

full open face carve. I’m in manoeuvre limbo!

In order to get something out of the turn I’ve given the tail of

the board an extra little squirt with my back leg, not a bad

thing, think of a little karate kick, “ Hay yah!”

But now I’m all over the shop, my arm is coming back,

against the flow of the rest of my body, I’m cancelling

myself out. Less power and forward momentum.

4. So the meat of the turn has been done now the focus

is all about getting back on that toe side (inside) rail, getting

my weight shifted forward and setting up for the next turn,

if there is a section. The good point is that I have managed

to minimise the (counter productive) movement of my back

arm by bringing it back down to my side. But if you look

closely the damage has been done. With correct approach

and good technique I could have driven longer on my heel

side rail and might actually still be driving my board round

at this stage, making for a much bigger turn. Instead I’m

having to sort my shit out.

5. If you look at the tail of the board , you can actually

see it is being sunk into the wave, slowing me down the

whole time, like an anchor. I’m having to lean heavily on

my back foot to re-adjust my weight distribution. Instead

I should be smoothly coming off my heel rail, onto the toe

side rail, briefly unweighting in the middle but generally

driving the whole time.

6. Just look at the water coming off the back quarter of

the board, lead foot, no finesse! My body position here is

actually not too bad, if it were the end… but it’s not.

7. Noooo! What kind of pigeon

stance is this? The whole point o

in a good position at the end of a

to the next, to be ready to power,

next turn. Not this! Because of my

trailing arm, because I had to cor

turning body back into line when

projecting forward we have this. I

the meek will inherit all sorts of st

in this stance then I think I would

‘good surfing stance’ in this shot!

Final point to remember. Goo

stand up, put your feet just over s

imagine you are trying to jump as

your knees, get ready to jump an

before you are about to accelerat

power stance, give a little bounce

treasure them, for it is this that w

not I.

Maybe next time I won’t be quite

Cheers, Sam

To really get the best out of your

surfing check out lamiroysurf.com

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WORDS BY SAM LAMIROY • PHOTOS BY SHARPY 

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