Speed lines

frog's picture
frog started the topic in Saturday, 25 Jun 2022 at 7:37am

Out at the superbank the other day in 4 to 5 ft excellent conditions. Hanging in a bit grabbing occasional wide ones and the all to rare waves people wiped out on, I had a front row seat to watch some amazing speed lines making seemingly unmakable sections. I sort of admired the skill level but suffered the frustration of swinging around thinking no way only to look left and pull back as they swept past.

It is a skill set that is never so dramatically on display as at the Qld point breaks. Elsewhere it is useful occasionally. Out there is is bread and butter for the locals.

There was so much variety in how it was done.
- some used volume and longer boards straight line trimming - sort of lazy but still a skill to get the line right.
- short wide low rocker worked as well.
- many did high energy subtle little pumps on shorter boards
- one guy with long thick hair just aggressively non stop pumped top to bottom from the moment he took off and made amazing sections
- the really high performance surfers used top to bottom ripping and even cutting back caring little about looming sections knowing that at any time with a well timed swoop off the bottom they could come around sections at will.

The most amazing of all to me was the most subtle. A skinny goofy on a few waves trimmed for 200 metres plus on waves of almost closeout rate of peel with barely a move of a single muscle. He knifed across the lip at incredible speed by sitting way up high just below the lip line in a zone in the wave most people visit briefly coming off the top or not at all.

Occasionally he adjusted slightly to dodge traffic but returned to his high line (i saw spray from slashes down the line so he could rip). He knew exactly where it was and what it could do.

His board looked small like a surgeons knife

An inch higher and he would have gone over the falls. A few inches lower and he probably would have lost his secret power source. Up there the throwing lip cannot be ducked or dodged, the bulls horns are threatening to slice you in two or toss you way out into space the whole time. The correct line and confidence to hold it is everything.

Years ago on a perfect left I rode that same line sitting way up high at amazing speed perfectly still the entire ride. Did it once at Lance's Left on a rarer super walled horseshoe bowl at eye watering speed. Rarely done it since. It feels amazing but requires such a lined up wave and total accuracy to get right. And, the natural instinct is to hit that line briefly before swooping down for speed rather than staying up there.

Speed lines are one of surfing's most amazing yet underrated skills It is a part of surfing totally alien to the WSL scoring system.

The skinny goofy may have got a 3 or 4 out of ten in a heat for those rides. Too straight line. From the beach the subtle radical position, high in the concave wave face, is flattened out in perspective into a one dimensional trim of no consequence. Only the side on water view really shows it well.

No one else took quite that line all day.

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udo Saturday, 25 Jun 2022 at 9:36am

bump

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Andrew P Saturday, 25 Jun 2022 at 11:11am

Sick analysis Frog

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spidermonkey Saturday, 25 Jun 2022 at 1:35pm

Since I've started riding an asymmetric fish I have a much better appreciation and feel for the effortless speed line. Such a pure way to surf if the waves allow.

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zenagain Saturday, 25 Jun 2022 at 1:46pm

Well written Frog. I can picture the whole scenario.

Personally, I'm a massive fan of the high line trim. If you break surfing down to pure feel- not much comes close.

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Island Bay Saturday, 25 Jun 2022 at 2:19pm

Good topic, Frog. And some sharp observations.

Going fast as fuck on a sizey wave has to be the best thing. It's what I've been trying to do all summer on my latest obsession.

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frog Monday, 27 Jun 2022 at 10:00am

Gabriel Medina speed line and mini pump technique at G land - making the almost unmakeable, with spring loaded bottom turn around the last section and scoring .... 4.67.

First wave of heat:

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velocityjohnno Monday, 27 Jun 2022 at 10:22am

Taking high lines are a thing of joy. Placing the rail up into the upper curve near the top - you'll make any section. I'm an anachronism and ride with the older style and flow of the single style boards, but it works - agree frog on the longer rail for this style (match rail lengths to wave size/shape). This way, you don't have to pump at all, just read and position. Can be complete joy with the subtle shift of the hips getting the board up there, and then mowing down distance at speed. Can be done on a 1 1/2ft wave on a log with equally good feeling, like a 6ft wave is happening in minature!

High lining seems to work well down this way.

Edit: any video of Terry Fitz shows this approach.

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Craig Monday, 27 Jun 2022 at 10:40am

Great topic, I feel getting onto a single-fin or twinny where you need to use the power source of the wave helps you really find that sweet spot re high-lining.

The feeling of absolutely flying and holding your line through that top bit of the wave to then fade down to the beach once the wave backs off is incredible.

I find the tricky bit sometimes is taking off right up in that high-line pocket from the get go, I always like to drop down and bottom turn but doing that in some circumstances sees you not making it around the section. Just have to mentally remind yourself sometimes on those faster, hollower days.

Here's an image of me at North Steyne in that beautiful power source of the wave..

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velocityjohnno Monday, 27 Jun 2022 at 10:53am

Great colours in that pic too Craig :)

Nice wave for the spot! I've seen the Lynch vs Blair footage, it must have it's day.

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velocityjohnno Monday, 27 Jun 2022 at 10:56am

Just out of interest, when I did an advanced riding course some years ago it was taught that the middle part of the wave is the power zone. I've never intellectually come to terms with the fact the hi-line is where flight begins. I'll go with the feeling and go that bit higher.

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frog Monday, 27 Jun 2022 at 1:23pm

Overall, there are many ways to skin the cat - generate above average speed. The surfboard board is only part of it. Techniques can vary.

There is:
- Big pump
- Wriggle pump
- Speed weave
- Pure surgical straight lines on the middle power line and, less often, on the high line trim.
- Top to bottom swoops to gain from gravity
- Slingshot bottom turns timed just right

The secret sauce is the rider - their skill, feel for the wave, choice of technique for the wave in question and feet position on the board of choice. It is very obvious when it not there. And, pretty amazing when done just right.

The spring of youth helps but some grizzled old leather-skinned surfers still know how to do it THEIR way instinctively.

The goofy at 1:16 in the foreground may the same guy I talked about in the first post. Similar build and use of the top 3rd of the wave more than most. Obviously on that wave he is weaving on a smaller slower wave but is still drawn to the high line zone.

Surprised that Surfonmars edited out my waves ..... ; )

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Island Bay Monday, 27 Jun 2022 at 1:48pm

One of my favourite waves (and a very unfashionable one - not exactly the hell barrel) is Impossibles, exactly because you can do the most incredible speed runs on good day.

At 6ft+ it's sublime pelican-like swooping with limited input.

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zenagain Monday, 27 Jun 2022 at 2:43pm

Nice trim Craig. Eyes on the prize down the line for the goodness yet to come.

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frog Monday, 27 Jun 2022 at 3:35pm
Island Bay wrote:

One of my favourite waves (and a very unfashionable one - not exactly the hell barrel) is Impossibles, exactly because you can do the most incredible speed runs on good day.

At 6ft+ it's sublime pelican-like swooping with limited input.

Can imagine. There is the hard work pump to get the job done type of speed and then there is the rarer minimal effort weightless bird of flight mode, with highlines and swoops, that feels amazing.

Not something your average beachbreak can offer very often and is a peak surfing experience many people never even have an opportunity on due to ability and to lack of access to waves of quality and length ... and crowds. I have tasted it but not often.

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Island Bay Monday, 27 Jun 2022 at 4:42pm

Come and visit once the sand has sorted itself out again here.

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channel-bottom Monday, 27 Jun 2022 at 4:47pm

I have found that it's way easier (for me anyway) on a quad to access that top part of the wave, and I think that's why quads are faster because you drop from a higher part of the wave. Just don't like quads for the rest of the wave.

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velocityjohnno Tuesday, 28 Jun 2022 at 8:44am

Perhaps if there was a button on the deck you could press with your toes that would jettison one of the rear quad fins, you could surf the rest of the wave as a 'thruster'

sort of

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Island Bay Tuesday, 24 Oct 2023 at 5:45pm

Speaking of speed lines, I just read a Matt Warsaw article about Paul Witzig's films in an old Surfers Journal (it's excellent, btw: "I've probably seen Witzig's movies a dozen times each over the years, and with every viewing my take on the early shortboard surfing lifts up an inch or two, flutters a bit, and settles down in a slightly different place than it was an hour or two before." ) Vol 20.4

Anyhoo, there's this outrageously good little Wayne Lynch speed sequence. Holy heck!

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AndyM Tuesday, 24 Oct 2023 at 7:23pm

Lynch is a demi-god and he’s still underrated.

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old-dog Tuesday, 24 Oct 2023 at 8:01pm

Was he the messiah? Probably not, but he personified everything that a true surfer used to strive to be, a long haired drop out druggie who lived, ate and breathed surfing. Classic style and backhand reo ahead of his time. They really were the good old days. RIP surfing.

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AndyM Tuesday, 24 Oct 2023 at 8:23pm

Talking just about his surfing - the smooth flow in tune with the wave, his innovative use of different parts of the wave, his style.
We all know he was miles ahead of pretty much everyone else in his generation, but I still think he’s underrated.
I’d much prefer to watch footage of Lynch than MP.

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icandig Tuesday, 24 Oct 2023 at 9:30pm

I'd like to think this is true, but unless Wayne himself confirms it, I'm only reaching. I was 17, so 40 odd years ago, but I reckon I watched Wayne at Cathedral rock during the famous swell that hit Bells in 1981. Riding a long red single fin, taking off on the biggest beasts and hooking power turns under the lip (not speed trimming). I also think I surfed perfect Lorne at six foot later that day. Anyhoo, that's my Wayne Lynch story or perhaps it's a made up memory - I'll hang on to it and hope it's true. A surfing legend. No doubt.

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views from the ... Tuesday, 24 Oct 2023 at 9:48pm

Paddling into a 6ft bomb like a maniacal grom at Bells bowl, thinking the bloke on the inside was way too deep behind the section and then the next second this bloke comes around the bottom ripping up the face and cuts harder spraying me like a firehose :-)
Found out later it was Wayne Lynch.

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lostdoggy Tuesday, 24 Oct 2023 at 9:49pm

I think there is info out there that he did surf cathedral alone that day.

The bit I find hard to believe is Lorne being 6 foot and perfect.

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udo Tuesday, 24 Oct 2023 at 10:45pm
icandig wrote:

I'd like to think this is true, but unless Wayne himself confirms it, I'm only reaching. I was 17, so 40 odd years ago, but I reckon I watched Wayne at Cathedral rock during the famous swell that hit Bells in 1981. Riding a long red single fin, taking off on the biggest beasts and hooking power turns under the lip (not speed trimming). I also think I surfed perfect Lorne at six foot later that day. Anyhoo, that's my Wayne Lynch story or perhaps it's a made up memory - I'll hang on to it and hope it's true. A surfing legend. No doubt.

1981 Lynch swings from the rafters of giant Cathedral With the world watching Simon Anderson as he staked his credibility on the unproven thruster in huge easter Bells, a quiet few had retreated down the Road to experience the reefs at a size rarely if ever surfed before. Prominent among these was Wayne Lynch; at that time able to lay claim to being the most gifted surfer on the face of the earth, and a man with an intimate understanding of the Road’s potential.

Lynch surfed Cathedral alone during the Sunday morning at about fifteen foot. It’s hard to visualize now; a lone, bearded prophet paddling over mountainous seas, a speck on the huge faces, while bemused daytrippers looked on from the safety of their VB Commodores. In the afternoon, a few of the touring Hawaiian pros, including Larry Bertlemann, joined him. Barry Langan, who took a drive along the coast to ‘pay homage’ to the swell, came across the scene in the afternoon. “The Hawaiians were freaked,” he recalls. “It was the length of the wall, as opposed to the very peaky waves they were used to back home. It was a westerly swell, peeling beautifully, but god it was a long face. And they couldn’t get their heads around how deep Lynch was taking off – he was linking it up all the way from Supertubes.”

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velocityjohnno Wednesday, 25 Oct 2023 at 6:19am

WL, TF, MP, these were the guys I wanted to surf like when I was a grom (not KS who was the in thing at the time.) So much more style and fluidity, and yes the speed lines and the powerful waves down south lent to the kind of surfing that I saw the Aussie legends doing. Video footage was relatively hard to get so looking at individual photos of incredible turns was the go.

In this clip at about 1min you get to see TF and WL surfing together:

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icandig Wednesday, 25 Oct 2023 at 8:02am

Thanks Udo (and Jack Serong). I'll hold onto that one as a true memory now.

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icandig Wednesday, 25 Oct 2023 at 8:06am
lostdoggy wrote:

The bit I find hard to believe is Lorne being 6 foot and perfect.

I might have 'gilded the lilly' a little bit there....

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stunet Wednesday, 25 Oct 2023 at 8:32am
udo wrote:
icandig wrote:

I'd like to think this is true, but unless Wayne himself confirms it, I'm only reaching. I was 17, so 40 odd years ago, but I reckon I watched Wayne at Cathedral rock during the famous swell that hit Bells in 1981. Riding a long red single fin, taking off on the biggest beasts and hooking power turns under the lip (not speed trimming). I also think I surfed perfect Lorne at six foot later that day. Anyhoo, that's my Wayne Lynch story or perhaps it's a made up memory - I'll hang on to it and hope it's true. A surfing legend. No doubt.

1981 Lynch swings from the rafters of giant Cathedral With the world watching Simon Anderson as he staked his credibility on the unproven thruster in huge easter Bells, a quiet few had retreated down the Road to experience the reefs at a size rarely if ever surfed before. Prominent among these was Wayne Lynch; at that time able to lay claim to being the most gifted surfer on the face of the earth, and a man with an intimate understanding of the Road’s potential.

Lynch surfed Cathedral alone during the Sunday morning at about fifteen foot. It’s hard to visualize now; a lone, bearded prophet paddling over mountainous seas, a speck on the huge faces, while bemused daytrippers looked on from the safety of their VB Commodores. In the afternoon, a few of the touring Hawaiian pros, including Larry Bertlemann, joined him. Barry Langan, who took a drive along the coast to ‘pay homage’ to the swell, came across the scene in the afternoon. “The Hawaiians were freaked,” he recalls. “It was the length of the wall, as opposed to the very peaky waves they were used to back home. It was a westerly swell, peeling beautifully, but god it was a long face. And they couldn’t get their heads around how deep Lynch was taking off – he was linking it up all the way from Supertubes.”

He got around.

On the morning of Big Saturday, the other Lynch, that being Barton, 17 at the time and on his first Bells trip, dropped into a big one at Bells not knowing his namesake was already on it. A photo exists, perhaps in Michael Gordon's book 'Bells' but it's not on the web.

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Dumai Wednesday, 25 Oct 2023 at 11:24am

Tamarin Bay.