The carve
In no specific order-
Occy
Curren
TC
AI
Parko
Honourable mention- Sunny.
Trent Munro
Pound for pound surfs as hard as anyone ever has.
A bottom turn with enough G's to black out Buzz Aldrin.
A cutback that's stringer and fins more out than in.
Searing, searing surfing.
Blowin, lovin your descriptions....
Surfed with Occy (watching whilst surfing the same beachie), Jack McCoy filming, Inji, crystal clear water, sun shining, blue skys, thick heaving sections, he still managed some amazing carves. Never ever forget that day.....................
Loved watching Hoyo lay some rail.
JJF goes alright for a young fella.
Bring back power surfing.
Surfing a solid Tweed coast beachie in the eighties. Saw some guy with labels all over him (maybe said Tokoro?) that I had never seen before. He was throwing carves upside down one after the other in the barrel under the lip. Then some over the top. Defying gravity. The noise of the little chops on the water hitting his board was like he was being towed by a boat. This guys surfing was burned into my brain
Air reverses? Pffftt.... designed by the surf industry to destroy boards and promote sales
Watched Pancho at a Mid North Coast rivermouth a few years back and his carves were absolutely on point, so much commitment that the slightest error in timing or weight distribution would've stopped him in his tracks. Didn't happen though. Not once in the session.
Prolly wont get Taj Burrow's name thrown into too many discussions about power surfing yet I'll drop it in the mix. Saw him at Winki a few years back destroy a section as I paddled over it. Fella came down the line at warp speed and his first move was a bottom turn to vert reo fin waft thing. It wasn't perfect Winki, the wind was on it, the lip a bit crumbly, there was 1001 things that could've gone wrong yet he landed with aplomb, then without delay jammed it onto his inside rail once more. The wave wasn't as steep this time so he transferred all his accumulated speed and momentum into a searing centrifugal cutty that reminded me of childhood trips to the Gravitron - being stuck to the wall by sheer speed.
Dunno what it would've looked like from a distance or via webcast, but the view from the front row was incredible. Just two seconds out of a shit hot surfers life and here I am writing about it many years later.
Rastas laybacks are pretty neat and cool looking. Can watch them all day without getting bored.
Excellent top comment there Blowin.
As much as i respect the air game people have these days i just cannot help but love rail surfing in all its powerful, committed drawn out glory. Im 26 and i much rather watch a board being put on its rail edge at 90 degrees with only one fin still cutting through the wave.
A beautiful example provided by one of the best of all time;
https://www.thefreeridevoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/836_1brian_b…
Agree with all the comments above. The carve is amazing when seen live with someone who shreds!
I'd like to mention a couple of newer school guys:
Conner Coffin - good to see the young yank keeping the fins in the water
Dion Atkinson - So bummed he dropped off tour this year, reckon he has what it takes, but such a good surfer in good waves. Love seeing him in waves like bells and haleiwa.
Honourable mention to another new schooler: Ricardo Christie reminds me of Dion, but will need to pull his finger out to stay on tour
Hands up who would pull a decent carve BEFORE setting up the Tube .......
" www.facebook.com/video.php?v=393595564058856 "
This young Keramas local Lempog Jackson pulled off the most stylish carve I've seen in person for a long while...
Another unknown down the beach..
Another bloke who could throw a bit of water..... Sadly no longer with us.....
Sheepdog wrote:
Remember this guy? He went alright......
How could I have forgotten Richard Cram ?
There was one wave of his in the Quiksilver flick " Performers 2" when he raced a few sections on a right and then buried the rail to the stringer and sliced that thing to freaking death.
Merciless Top to bottom hook .
So influential on my vision of good surfing and to this day still spawning my own Z Grade imitation of same.
Thanks Crammy, and again , sorry for what I regularly do to the great dream of the perfect carve.
stunet wrote:
Watched Pancho at a Mid North Coast rivermouth a few years back and his carves were absolutely on point, so much commitment that the slightest error in timing or weight distribution would've stopped him in his tracks. Didn't happen though. Not once in the session.
Prolly wont get Taj Burrow's name thrown into too many discussions about power surfing yet I'll drop it in the mix. Saw him at Winki a few years back destroy a section as I paddled over it. Fella came down the line at warp speed and his first move was a bottom turn to vert reo fin waft thing. It wasn't perfect Winki, the wind was on it, the lip a bit crumbly, there was 1001 things that could've gone wrong yet he landed with aplomb, then without delay jammed it onto his inside rail once more. The wave wasn't as steep this time so he transferred all his accumulated speed and momentum into a searing centrifugal cutty that reminded me of childhood trips to the Gravitron - being stuck to the wall by sheer speed.
Dunno what it would've looked like from a distance or via webcast, but the view from the front row was incredible. Just two seconds out of a shit hot surfers life and here I am writing about it many years later.
Cool story. So true. Indelibly imprinted on your mind.
lostdoggy wrote:
Some great pics sheepy!
Any love for Kong?
Hell yeah..... Should've been world champ.....
BTW that last photo is of a bloke who won the bells....
andy irons at snapper one day, just unbelievable how fast he was going and the arc was amazing also china at d-bah one day carved back into the barrel behind him hit the whitewater and came out- fastest smoothest turn i have ever seen
Let's not forget Davo! Absolute animal on a carve! Lightning fast & beat Kelly twice in the one comp at Bells...
Ok Sheepie Joe ripped alright and its still imprinted on my mind those carves on the end section at Nias in storm riders.Think he died in the northern territory and he turned his back on surfing as some do for reasons unknown,cant believe guys with so much ability just give it away.
Joey had some mental health issues in his last years ...but was happy
RIP.
couple of extras....Michael Peterson,Dane Kealoha.....currently miles ahead of the rest JJF......and Margo had the best backhand of just about anybody!
It may have been the tube that got the attention, but old Tommo from South Africa could carve with the best of them... You don't win a world title up against guys like rabbit, MR, Ho, Dane, Simon, Warren etc by just riding barrels... note how much rail of this single fin is buried....
Kanga wasn't bad at displacing some water on a single fin, too.....
Checkout - The best of Mark Occhilupo , Occy surf on YouTube for a refresher course in unrelenting wave destruction and a lesson in dealing with each section ,and therefore each moment in life, as the situation arises.
Some iconic clasic major carves captured in still shots and published in magazines over the years just don't look so good in video. With youtube I have now seen a lot that were captured on film as well. A couple Richard Crams and one of MP in the Stubbies spring to mind. A lot of the 70s and 80s is best seen as still shots.
Early Occy, Tom Curren and Martin Potter and some Cheyne Horan still stand out as surfing that would not seem out of place today.
"Cheyne Horan still stand out as surfing that would not seem out of place today. Horan still stand out as surfing that would not seem out of place today."
Oouuccchhhhh....!
Classic call from UDO.
Seen Cheyne the other day teaching young ones with dads.........? 1ft wash thrus...?
Yeap and with a waist line for sure;)
WE all grow old............................................
Fanning carve on a single fin :
Hedgey crankin a backhand bottom turn :
Andrew 'shorty' Buckley photography.
Straight up - a barrel trumps all.
I love coming off the bottom as square as possible and eyeing off that lip, time seemingly suspended as you determine where you're going to hit the lip.
I dig a high line, praying that the rail and fins hold as you shoot down the line with the wave face pushing beyond concave beneath you, moving faster than you could believe was possible .
I love a carve.
Have you ever seen a master carver in the flesh ?
I saw Dean Morrison reave a turn that would peel your eyes back . I've seen Luke Egan gouge a cutback with such drawn out ferociousness that I still feel it sometimes when my mind drifts into sleep and I'm jolted with a wakening shot of adrenaline.
I witnessed Occy destroy an entire wave with what amounted to a single line that was sustained top to bottom three times over that left me speechless. Spray arcing to the sky , the lip disintegrated and a wake pursuing his board like a meteor burning through the atmosphere.
Rail set against the grain.
Feet planted into the deck.
I love a carve.