Kelly Slater recreational drugs article

Recreational drug use is rife in society, not just surfing. It's human nature.

As surfing is mainly a youth oriented/targeted sport I think you'll find that it's that age that tends to experiment. I know I did. I reckon as people mature and move into and beyond their 30's, most people tend to grow up and leave that stuff behind them, especially the chemicals.

I watched a vid of that chap Fisher doing the rounds of an ASP party, I reckon every single person at that party including many top 20 sufers that he accosted were peaking, clenched jaws diluted pupils and all.

In answer to your question- I think not.

Just read the article, thanks Barley. Is this Slater's 2013 World Tittle strategy? Get all opposing WCT surfers arrested leaving him with smooth run to number 12? Why would he speak to the mainstream media about this, even if he privately believes it. You wouldn't see footy players stab their colleagues in the back like that. "But he is just trying to help them" you might say? Bullshit

Yeah very interesting take YS.

Kelly is very smart, and he would of thought of and structured his answers to these questions with some sort of end aim.

Whether that was to disrupt other surfers on the tour to gain an advantage or to purely clean up some of the drug issues, we'll never know. But I'm sure this article will just pass and be forgotten as early as the end of the Quik Pro.

Isn't he connected to ZoSea? I'd say he's more interested in trying to get things cleaned up over the long term to present a marketable product to institutional investors looking to actualise their investment portfolios. Or something.

No doubt he would have thought about it but he has no need to make friends so I don't reckon he'd give two hoots if he pissed off other surfers on tour. But if he is connected to the company that's taken over then I'd have thought it's in his interests to appear to be cleaning things up. I'd reckon that'd be what's behind his commitment to the tour. I can't remember him saying he'd give it a red hot go since what, 1992?

He's the golden goose after all.

Well Slater and Kongs book certainly paint a different picture to what Ben and Stunet did when I raised this in a forum post, are they talking about the same surf scene? I thought there was only one.

What picture did I paint?

no different to any other sport or section of society, if that is the case more than half the world are "drug addicts" using Slaters term

Slater and Kong are pro surfers and were commenting upon pro surfing (hence their comments about ASP drug testing and WADA). Pro surfing may be a scene but it makes up, what, 0.1 of the total surfing community?

I was commenting on the wider surfing scene. The distinction was put to you early in the piece, why repeat it now?

Kelly said in that article "I've been drug free my whole life". Is'nt alcohol considered a drug? A destructive, addictive drug that ruins lives. Ever had a drink Kelly?
I'm sick of these "holier than thou" type of people casting their judgements on others. What about when he was hanging with Pamela and the other Hollywood B listers? Ever see a bit of cocaine being lined up Kelly? Ever been offered any? I'm sure you told them what you thought hey Kelly? Yeah sure.

All other pro surfers just need to comment that maybe some elderly pro surfers take performance enhancing drugs maybe that will keep Kelly quiet. Performance enhancing drugs will bring down sponsors/fans quicker than "recreational" drugs. Just ask Lance Armstrong.

Kelly said in that article "I've been drug free my whole life". Is'nt alcohol considered a drug? A destructive, addictive drug that ruins lives. Ever had a drink Kelly?
I'm sick of these "holier than thou" type of people casting their judgements on others. What about when he was hanging with Pamela and the other Hollywood B listers? Ever see a bit of cocaine being lined up Kelly? Ever been offered any? I'm sure you told them what you thought hey Kelly? Yeah sure.

By: "yorkessurfer"

Hey Yorkey. I'm not sure about the Pamela days & coke. But, I do know Kelly very rarely drinks more than one or two, and his choice is red wine, also known as a beneficial antioxidant.

He's so into getting the most performance out of his body, he spent a fortune getting himself tested for food allergies. Just every food you could imagine he got tested for, all so he could only put the most beneficial things into his body.

imo, There's a difference between having a rare drink or two, and bingeing once a week, a month or whatever.

Even as a teenager, I remember stories where kelly would take himself away on boat trips and surf trips, and be by himself while everyone else was getting messy around him. It's not uncommon for kids who grow up watching their dad waste away on the booze to grow up and detest it. I hardly drink for the same reason.

So Kelly rarely drinks and only has one or two when he does. What if another WCT surfer at a party has a rare puff on a joint, turns around to see Kelly glaring at him. Next thing Kelly's going to the mainstream media saying that pro-surfing has a recreational drug problem.
That's a dog act.

First of all, the media -- mainstream media -- took everything he said out of context.

Secondly weed = illegal. Alcohol = legal. If some pro wants to potentially throw away their 100's of thousands of dollars career over some pot, they deserve everything they get. One pro getting caught for drugs, will bring everyone else down.

And thirdly. Don't believe everything you read in the terrorgraph as gospel. They get paid to sensationalise, and all their journos are ravenous and would stand on each other's grandmother to get the front/ back page scoop.

Having just read Snowing in Bali I just wonder how many pro surfers are runners as well.Maybe not the top guys but the bottom rung WQS guys.The book dosn't paint our South American surfing brothers in a good light.Just an after fought maybe Kellys trying to deflect some attention on him after all the Lance Armstrong debacle 11 world titles would have to start people thinking.

Nah he didn't say it. He was referring to surfing in general, not the ASP and WCT & professional surfers as the article would lead you to believe. The reporter who broke the story has admitted his fault and apologised.

Did you watch the big wave awards? Half the room was E'ing off their face and making no secret about it.

I think that was the kind of statement Kelly was making and his opinion is those kind of nights drag surfing down. His opinion of course. It's a pretty good one too, I reckon.

"Did you watch the big wave awards? Half the room was E'ing off their face and making no secret about it."

Good point. On Twitter Fearless Freddy Pawle was talking about what a great night it was and trumpeting Jed Smiths coverage on ASL (which had numerous drug references). It's hard to equate this with his holier than thou approach to drugs in the press. Bit hypocritical if you ask me.

All Slater did was call a spade a spade I really don't see what all the fuss is about. Recreational drug use amongst the surf scene being described as 'rampant' is an understatement if anything, and anyone who has ever really spent time in that social circle will know this is the case. Arguing otherwise is just naivety or lack of first-hand exposure. It's not about making judgment whether it's right or wrong, it's just stating a fact. Of course this generalisation may exclude the handful of top-performing CT guys, but certainly amongst the ranks of the QS and other industry hanger-ons. I think all these Slater conspiracy theories and ulterior motives are getting rather dramatic...

All Slater did was call a spade a spade I really don't see what all the fuss is about. Recreational drug use amongst the surf scene being described as 'rampant' is an understatement if anything, and anyone who has ever really spent time in that social circle will know this is the case. Arguing otherwise is just naivety or lack of first-hand exposure. It's not about making judgment whether it's right or wrong, it's just stating a fact. Of course this generalisation may exclude the handful of top-performing CT guys, but certainly amongst the ranks of the QS and other industry hanger-ons. I think all these Slater conspiracy theories and ulterior motives are getting rather dramatic...

By: "kms_away"

Thank you at least someone sees it for how it is, btw I have never snorted coke before.

Why revisit it now?
Because talking about drugs is fun
And as kms away has said use is rampant across the scene. I missed the distinction u made, and the acknowledgment of rampant use amongst pros. U and Ben just seemed to be in denial, maybe I read it wrong. all media seem to ignore what is blatantly obvious to common folk ie. Drugs r everywhere, but people portraying sqeaky clean images r hiding stuff

Out of interest - and without wanting to sound naive - how could a professional surfer truly gain a significant competitive edge by using drugs? As a non-drug user I have no first hand experience and only know what I've read in media reports.

Lance Armstrong admitted using testosterone, human growth hormones and EPO as well as taking blood transfusions. Would a surfer benefit from these drugs in the same way a Tour de France cyclist benefits?

Or are we talking about common recreational drugs, similar to what you'd expect to find in a nightclub? If so, how would they give a surfer a competitive edge over a non drug user?

U and Ben just seemed to be in denial, maybe I read it wrong. all media seem to ignore what is blatantly obvious to common folk ie. Drugs r everywhere, but people portraying sqeaky clean images r hiding stuff

By: "sypkan"

Huh?

@sykpan

You were asked, "Do you mean 'surf culture' or 'pro surf culture'?"

Your reply, "Good question." And it was a good question because there is a distinction between the pros who follow the circuit which is held during the biggest party/festival of the year at each location, and the other 99% of surfers who aren't much different from the rest of society except they like to slide around on a board occasionally.

I find some comments on here quite disturbing.....YS why can't you believe that someone can say no to taking drugs just because they may hang with people that do? There is a thing called will-power that some people posses and maybe,just maybe Kelly may have some. What do you reckon?

Drugs are everywhere,whether it be the bum on the street,the highly paid banker or the pro surfer. Some people cant help themselves to recreational drugs I guess and if anyone can comment on it in Pro Surfing,would't that be KS? Surfers generally want to hear what he has to say but seem to be disgusted that he has an opinion on this issue.

Cocaine and Meth would dare I say give you a little more edge than your fellow competitor.Cocaine will give you the confidence and meth would give you the endurance and focus followed by the end of the competition day some xanax and a few beers to chill out.Not that anythings wrong with that?

so stu, you are suggesting the percentage of use amongst pros (and the circus hangers on) is greater than the wider population? (not debating, just asking opinion) because you seemed to deny use was any higher amongst all sufers in general than the wider population (a point i disagree with, but yeh we're over that)

I think the surf media (ALL, this isnt just about swellnet) have tried to portray a squeaky clean image to increase marketability despite (i think) obvious connections between drugs and surf culture.

other sports also seem to live in this land of denial (cycling especially). then the media puts on this charade of outrageessness and unbelivability when a story breaks, as was the case recently in australia. the only person i heard with a balanced perspective was Tony Delroy on ABC radio who said something like - well you'd have to have been living under a rock to not think this stuff has been going on for years. then that cycling commentator dude said people have to come clean now, well what about him, he must have known who was doing what, but he said nothing. they are all protecting their self interests.

as to recreational drugs versus performance enhancing drugs it is a grey area. that WA football dude (Ben Cousins?, sorry dont follow footy) suggested in his documentary he played some of his best football when he was on the meth. and as i said in the other post, i have heard of big wave surfers using coke and meth to improve performance, as Fraser- Gordon has written above, this was something I hoped big wave surfers would comment on (being a small wave pot head mid coast hero myself) Also the book about MP said he used weed and even heroin to get in the zone (not sure about the effects on energy though) but MP was just a freak and that was a different time and game back then.

Confidence? Aside from Teahupoo I can't see where that might be necessary (unless it's related to 'confidence in front of crowds', which I can understand).

Endurance seems to be probably more in line with what I was thinking. But, surfing competitions aren't quite the same as cycling through the French Alps for a week straight. At most a surfer might have four 30 minute heats in one day (plus preparation and training). And some of the heat time is spent waiting for waves.

I think the surf media (ALL, this isnt just about swellnet) have tried to portray a squeaky clean image to increase marketability

By: "sypkan"

Are you kidding? Please show me a single instance where Swellnet has " portrayed a squeaky clean image ".

as is the case with many academic writers, it is about what a writer chooses not to write as much as what they write.

but yeh, you guys are definitely not the worst offenders, but only because you have this outrageous forum that allows us voiceless littlemen to give our worthless opinions

So what are we choosing NOT to write about, which is allowing us to " portray a squeaky clean image to increase marketability "?

Specifics would be nice, sypkan.

@jasper99- Actually I was talking about about the hypocrisy of hanging around cocaine snorting Hollywood B listers and not saying anything but then going to the mainstream media and dobbing in your fellow competitors for taking recreational drugs.

"Drugs & alcohol aren't my problem. Real life is my problem. Drugs & alcohol are my solution."

A fascinating article from Russell Brand (sorry for the mild off-topic diversion, but I thought you'd all be interested).

http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/03/the-only-way-to-help-ad...

Yorkessurfer-duely noted......

I wonder though what other pros would have said given the same line of questioning? Or do they (the tabloids) just ask KS these things?

I want to hear more about surfing on acid barley. Did you talk to any dolphins?

Hi Ben,

There is potential athletic advantage to be gained from any performance enhancing drug when used correctly. But like you have assumed. The potential for game changing advantages from PED's is much smaller in surfing than in pure speed/strength and/or endurance based sports.

Blood transfusions (and EPO) would be next to useless as they are only really used to superficially boost the haematocrit of endurance athletes for specific high intensity efforts or during prolonged periods of day after day endurance efforts whereby naturally the haematocrit drops and the blood is not able to transfer oxygen as efficiently (Good for cycling, endurance running, elite soccer players and endurance-heavy field based sports who have to play up to 3-4 games per week and/or be in top shape for really important games etc). I can see negligible advantage for surfing pros... endurance is important, but it's hard to predict when it's going to be crucial in any given event... unless they got rid of jetski assist and regularly had multiple days running in big point break surf with...

Steroids build muscle but big muscles don't really help in surfing unless it's purely functional. So I doubt any surfers would take steroids for performance reasons. Maybe for vanity though.

If anything, i would suggest that Testosterone and HGH are the most likely PEDs that could be used to gain a measurable advantage by a pro surfer. These drugs allow you to train harder and longer and recover quicker. SO you can do more functional training and become stronger and fitter faster as you can go harder, fit more into any given timeframe and spend less time recovering day to day from hard efforts. It could also help a competitive surfer recover better for heats the day after a 3-4 heat day in physically challenging surf (assuming they were not used to such efforts and came up sore the next day). I could imagine that some of the surfers who have really started to train 'professionally hard' over the last few years may been able to utilise these drugs. Testosterone and HGH are also favoured by ageing athletes getting well into their 30's and beyond. Testosterone production steadily (and sometimes quite sharply) drops over these years and it naturally becomes harder for athletes to train, and stay as muscular/fit/strong as they have been used to. This obviously makes it harder to keep up with the youth even though still have the skillset and mindset to be competitive. Kelly and Taylor would fit this bill... But it would surprise me.

Much of the advantage gained from PED's is due to the training advantages. That's why it's so easy to train for months juiced to the eyeballs and then go to particular high profile sporting events (like the Olympics) with strict testing and not get caught. Only random off-season testing catches smart dopers.

The kinds of regimes seen in cycling and athletics with fully realised doping schedules are very expensive. There is simply not enough money in surfing for such regimes to be worth it. It's possible that some individual surfers have sourced the odd thing here or there for themselves. There is certainly not a culture in surfing where trainers and team managers are implicitly implying that they need to take performance enhancing drugs to succeed and then supplying said drugs (though it seems this may be possible with social/recreational drugs).

I think, as covered above and in countless comments threads polluted with rottmouth et al about AI... uppers and downers would have the biggest potential. Mind set changers. to fight fear, anxiety, focus etc. That is a massive area of competitive edge in surfing because those things being out of whack can suppress skill expression/execution. Skill execution, water knowledge and competitive experience are key to winning heats. extra strength and endurance will always help an athlete in any given skill situation that utilises them to any degree... but unless an athlete is demanded by his/her sportt to function at or near physical limits of strength and endurance (cycling, running etc) it's not going to consistently separate the best from the other rans. Surfing is too variable and too skill-based.

And Sypkan, Cycling is in the least denial about PED's than any other high profile mainstream sport in the world. Doping has been rife in cycling for its entire history. And its only been a secret to those that didn't care, didn't want to know or were just paling blind and gullible. It also has the most stringent and most technological advanced anti-doping program of any sport in the world with the harshest penalties for proven infractions. There has been corruption at the highest level in cycling that has caused problems... but, despite it's prolific drug use, in fact because of it, it is at the absolute forefront of anti-doping. The whole sport is blowing up right now with doping confessions coming out left right and centre...

if you want to see denial... look at tennis, athletics, soccer, baseball, nfl, boxing, mma, etc etc etc... between match fixing and PED's, the majority of high profile sport is complete charade, a marionette play with organised crime and big business joining and pulling all the strings. A pure spectacle to make hidden people a lot of money. This isn't conspiracy theory either. It's cold hard fact if you look at the research. Surfing is a largely a charade too, but for different reasons. Apart from perception benders, I think the athletes are pretty damn clean on the whole.

Fantastic reading - thanks Grug. Very insightful.

No worries Ben, do some googling and there is a lot out there on PED use in world sport. What we are seeing in the media (even now with everything seemingly coming to a head in some sports) is only the tip of the iceberg. Most sports still don't wanna deal with it.

I agree with you barley. I think REC drugs have more potential to enhance surfing potential too. In the eyes of WADA and most serious doping agencies there is no major difference in terms of positive tests for PED's or RECs i.e. if you test positive for something on the banned list you generally get drilled with a 1-2 year ban. MMA hands out bans for fighters testing positive for marijuana metabolites (and any other illegal REC drug). They also hand out TRT (testosterone replacement therapy) exemptions to fighters who apply and seemingly justify why they need it. These fighters can then not be punished by showing massively elevated testosterone ratios... It;s controversial to say the least. Testing protocols are all over the place in MMA with different states and countries applying different rules and testing regimes.

AFL is an interesting one. They have their 3 strikes policy with REC drugs. This is borne from the afl having an internally run anti-doping program where-buy everything is at their discretion. Massive potential for corruption and cover-ups due to conflicts of interest. It's hard to tell exactly how well it runs. But I suspect not so well. Clearly heaps of drugs in AFL (PED and REC) and not all that many positive tests or major punishments.

The weird thing about surfing is that the REC drugs are potentially PEDS if used appropriately... yet a lot of the surfers and industry are munching and smoking them for social/personal reasons as well. They should be testing for and punishing for RECS 'in competition' in the CT and QS by virtue of the fact that they can be used for competitive edge. Out of competition testing should focus on HGH and Testosterone.

Barley, as far as moral conscience goes... it is a complex issue. Should an anti-doping regime only focus on trying to keep the pure sporting/competitive integrity of said sport clean... or should it also attempt to police the social and personal lives of it's athletes. An internal systems, such as the AFL's can attempt to do both with variable discretionary protocols in place. An external system (WADA, ASADA USADA etc) should not be expected to do this and are not equipped too anyway. If surfing make a serious anti-doping effort they will need to decide to go external or internal for their testing and punishing protocols. If they go external, surfers and industry are not going to like the lifestyle changes they will need to make to avoid positive tests. At the very least they will need to be much smarter about their drug use. If it is internal then who knows what will transpire. I think there would be a massive debate regarding every facet of the protocols and it might end up looking something like the AFL... i.e. arbitrary, confusing, inconsistent, non-transparent and ripe for internal manipulation.

Or just keep testing out of it on the basis that PEDs don't seem to be a massive problem and try and clean up the REC drug problem with an overhaul of culture and support systems. In other words, get their fucking houses in order and grow the fuck up.

I think it's also worth noting that the ASP have never had anywhere near the the funds or infrastructure (or funds to set up and/or outsource the infrastructure) to enact any remotely effective anti-doping protocols. It's been the corps that provided the money for pro surfing and thus only the corps that had the money to set this up. It has obviously never been in the best interests to do any such thing.

Effective anti-doping is ridiculously expensive and difficult to follow through with. It has to cover so many scientific and legal bases. I think ZoSea might have the funds AND the motivation to bring something effective in. Especially if they want to increase the competitive integrity and profile of surfing as a legitimate 'professional sport' in order to increase it's marketability to the masses and the professional world sporting stage.

With the corps investment (and ability to invest) and influence over professional surfing culture and competition waning by the day and soon to be all but a whisper. I think the the culture and sport is going to have no choice but to change. When the surfers are being paid and accredited by ZoSea instead of sponsors/asp then they will need to follow ZoSeas rules to stay on the payroll/tour. I'm not saying the most marketable surfers still won't have big marketing endorsements from the corps, they will. But if they fall foul of ZoSeas rules and get kicked off the tour then they will only have the option of being free-surfers for the corps or their own personal marketing machines.

It will be interesting to see how the corps change their marketing strategies with the ZoSea Paradigm (i.e. if they continue to sponsor and market both competitive and free surfers). The money could dry up for specific types of currently sponsored surfers. Or, now that they don't have to shoulder the event costs, maybe they'll have more money for sponsorship expansion/diversity into big wave surfers too... and to save/re-structure their current business models...?

Could be a good thing... could be a bad thing... not sure. Depends on how you view the place of all of these things in the wider surfing culture. Complex and interesting times for surfing.

Good stuff grug.

Thankyou.

Muscles don’t do much in surfing? Perfect, the perfect angle for surfing to throw itself into the spotlight for future success. I can just see the headlines! ‘Unlike other err arts, the special one of a kind art of surfing has figured out that muscles don’t really effect performance in surfing, and has made the breakthrough, state of the art decision to do away with men’s and women’s divisions, as muscles don’t really effect surfing, and see, muscles, well that means that see, well, so that means, well, because muscles don’t, so that, well, ok! Anyway, it’s a fact, and the decision has been made. The women are stoked. 10 foot Chopes, 20 foot Fiji here we come!!! Stop press, **** xxxx, the top women surfer has just pulled off the most powerfull hack ever seen in surfing, paddled Slater and co into exhaustion and won in the heaviest surf ever seen in any comp. The other girls took out all the minor places with the heaviest drops and moves ever seen also. Several men’s competitors, who initially placed, were busted for using the big E, estrogen boosters. The obvious advantages of their muscle-less physiques was just too much and too suspicious! Other sports, err arts are catching on and following suit, doing away with weight divisions as well. Champion boxer, super-duper mosquito weight, Wendy 'no Quads' Emotions, just KO’d Danny Green in round one. Green admitted that ‘Hey, I couldn’t get my muscles small enough in time, and I was just too big, too slow, no power, no timing. Emotions just beat the crap out of me man! It’s not fair, she uses E, brah!’ All Emotions could say was, 'Too easy, I haven't got a muscle in my body, that muscle bound chump didn't stand a chance'.

Uptight - have you seen how skinny slaters legs are?

Gidday Crispy, are you saying women surfers can beat men, do bigger gouges, power of the bottom harder, hit the lip harder, all more often without tiring, paddle harder, and so on, because of a lack of muscle, caused by a lack of testosterone and a prevalence of estrogen? Or, is the exact opposite true. Is it? Seriously?

Or is it due to something else, like men are just somehow better coordinated, more clever and skillfull than women. I don't think so. Muscles obviously have a huge effect on surfing, so much so that a lack of muscle is even deemed life threatening in waves of consequence.

Its good to truly look at things in depth. It can be so helpfull and revealing. Way off topic now, but maybe not if you are considering drugs and training. Years ago a good friend of mine really helped Tom Carroll keep his surfing career and lifestyle, by doing exactly what the supposed world's experts said wouldn't work. He did it with other elite, famous athletes too. He's dead now, and died a bitter man, bitter largely because his personality couldn't cope with the constant ignoring and quashing of his success by those so called experts, who had so much to lose by being so obviously, blatantly wrong. Even if you knew who the guy was, knew his name, the good old 'experts' standby, that is,'google it, google will save us, google will know', would barely bring up a hit, despite him resurrecting and prolonging the careers of some extremely famous, elite athletes.

Here's a good human behaviour story. I sent two friends to him, to do exactly what I would do. My trainer friend and I both used the same, both had really similar ideas for stuffed backs. My two crippled friends and I lived in Elliston at the time. One could never stand something like following my advice, that I had helped him, never live with that, because of a bit of local dribble at the time (I had a zero tolerance policy toward localism, especially if it involved the pack mentality as well). So despite the local dribble, still having compassion for the guy, I convinced him to go and see my friend, rather than listen to me, which could be reasoned away. The other, a doctor, who hated me always reminding him that doctors know next to zero about nutrition, training etc, had spent zillions (both had) to get the, exactly like my other friend, 'its unfixable, no more surfing', diagnosis, from the myriad of 'experts'. However, my trainer friend, who loved to help people, had some top surgeon friends whom the doctor contacted, and who had to reluctantly admit that he did help some pretty elite people. Away they went, both extremely sure it was a waste of time and money. Both could barely walk, hadn't surfed for ages, and were in agony, largely bed ridden unless on endless drugs and pain killers. To cut a long story short, both came back beaming, pain free after a couple of weeks, and both surfed not long after, and still surf now, despite only following maybe 50% of my friend's advice, which was largely doing what the experts said not to do, at any cost. Yet, despite that, despite what he did for them, they both admit that they have forgotten all about their crippled, pain riddled lives then, and at times even question whether my friend even helped them.

Rather than be open to my friend's success, and explore it, it drove the 'experts' crazy. He was a really good guy, and a surfer to the core. We used to have massive conversations about all this stuff all things training, performance, etc, and although we disagreed on a lot, we became friends because we had discovered a lot of common ground too. I can still hear him, too blunt, too much to the point for many people. I actually use a similar approach myself. And, in the case of the majority of surfers, along the lines of 'fucked back'? What back, you have no back, and the strength and back of a 10 year old girl. No wonder its fucked. Fucked knee, fucked hammy's, what legs, thank God for boardies? Get a microscope so that we can see the things'. But those issues, and the consequences can be quickly, easily, clearly demonstrated, as can addressing them. Getting strong, balanced strength, true functional strength, (getting the blood flowing, filling the blood with healing properties, the right, natural hormones and chemicals, anabolic v catabolic. Training is a cause, recovery the all powerfull effect. Wrong cause, wrong effect.

In the end, it simply boils down to what's in your bloodstream, what effect did you elicit, and then support, hormone wise? That's why drugs are a huge issue. Because a teenager transforms totally, mentally and physically, bullet proof, cocky, whether they train or not, because of... hormones. Those all powerfull triggers, that trigger everything in our physical body. There's zillions of them, not just the obvious ones, testosterone, estrogen, insulin, HGH, cortisol. Why a marathon runner, why a sprinter? Simple, its all about hormones. Hormones dictate the response(s). If you really get it, no drugs, as you, your body can make them all.

Good point crisp. And look at Jonny 'bones' Jones, the UFC's current light heavyweight champ and probably the most dangerous pound for pound fighter in the professional fighting world right now... twigs on a fridge.

But uplift, as amusing as your muscle atrophying future scenario is... I didn't say that 'muscles' didn't do much in surfing. I implied that 'non-functional muscles' were not much use in surfing. I.e. extra muscle may provide extra power/strength but it will also come with a considerable weight sacrifice. In pure power sports like sprinting, weightlifting etc where strength and power is paramount they are potent. But having big muscles in surfing is not necessarily going to help you. Steroids are powerful muscles builders and if used correctly with good training can certainly assist in building stronger functional muscles quickly. They also come with some major drawbacks. They generally stay in your system for a long time, and come with fairly obvious and and highly unpleasant side effects (stiffness, acne, testicular shrinkage, roid rage etc). A surfer needs his muscles to be as functionally strong, supple and flexible as possible without being any bigger (heavier) than required. This can be achieved with far less money and side effects using testosterone and good training.

Like you said though... steroids do provide women with a much larger advantage as the power/strength from greater muscle mass is generally what they lack in terms of keeping up with men in most sports. Google Christiane 'Cypborg' Santos! She could beat the crap out of 99.99% of men in the world... and probably some of the lower tier male mma fighters as well... while your at it, google some pictures of Sam Stosur in full flight... ha. natural muscles? very doubtful.

Sorry, was writing when you posted uplift. Very interesting. I agree with you. Hormones are absolutely key. Drugs (both 'natural' and synthetic) are generally a shortcut for those that either don't know how, or don't want, to train and live in all the right ways to reach their full natural capabilities. The body can do incredible things when trained correctly.

'true functional strength'. Slater has it.

Uplift - just making witty observations, not having a go. I couldn't give 2 shits if the pros are on the juice, orange or otherwise.

I watch the CT events to see high pressure, high performance surfing as entertainment, the same reason I watch all sport.

The reason I surf is above it all, I surf for me. The following is a quote from Tim Winton's book "Breath"

"The way the swell rose beneath me like a body drawing in air. How the wave drew me forward and I sprang to my feet, skating with the wind of momentum in my ears. I leant across the wall of upstanding water and the board came with me as though it was part of my body and mind. The blur of spray. The billion shards of light. I remember the solitary watching figure on the beach and the flash of Loonie's smile as I flew by; I was intoxicated. And though I've lived to be an old man with my own share of happiness for all the mess I made, I still judge every joyous moment, every victory and revelation against those few seconds of living."

The rest is entertainment.

Gidday Grug, weight divisions. Even for Jones, and Silva, to protect them. Its Slater's extra testosterone and muscle and associated attitude that makes him far superior to women the same weight, but less muscle, different composition. No Tahiti, to protect them. Being lighter in muscle is no advantage to them at all. Its a stereotype to always associate muscle and size with negative performance. Surfing is a rookie, all top sports once swore by that and made that same mistake. Olympic lifting is the realm of manipulating true functional performance, strength and weight, and can be adapted to and added to for any desired result. Core strength, speed, coordination, flexibility, reality is quickly made clear. Shit, that's heavy and dangerous too, fuck that! How's me hovers but, time us mate!

Gotta get some equipment to cater for athletes though. A glaring hole in surfing at the moment.

Gidday Crispy, you would love visiting the West Coast SA, so beautiful, pristine, natural and primal in the ocean. Totally embracing.