ezak wrote:Steeno, freak'n awesome!
I hope you know I wasn't knocking any particular type of board or style. I have an open mind.
EQ, I'm too young for rose colored glasses, but not for recognizing real turns. I don't get your previous posts about not being able to do a "real turn" on a board just because of when it was made.
Very astute, Ezak. My point exactly. It doesn't matter what you ride, a great turn is just that...no matter what your style. "Rose colored glasses" or not.
I think some people often forget that today's fashion is tomorrow's "nostalgia". Kinda like talking about what a great musician Buckethead is, and blowing off Mozart as washed up.
There just happens to be a contest at one of the best waves in the world on January 15th-17th.
So there's no "Retro" Division... Who Cares?!
Ask Mom for your allowance, pack up all your Spoons, Retros, and Buckethead CD's, and come show the world that you don't just talk, you surf too.
Good times.
"In the 1980's, huge improvements were made in golf club design and construction. Most of those improvements increased both forgiveness (the ability of the golf club to compensate for swing error — and the golf ball to go straighter) and distance (the ability of the golf club to hit harder — and the golf ball to go farther). The object of the game is to hit straighter and farther, so golf clubs designed to do that are called Game Improvement golf clubs. The primary characteristics of game improvement clubs are perimeter weighting, large sweet spot and low center of gravity design.
To contrast, there actually are golf clubs that are not designed as game improvement golf clubs. Those are used by professional golfers who always hit the ball straight — so, they don't care about forgiveness — they just want distance. If we could always hit the ball straight, we wouldn't care about forgiveness either."
I guess the question is - are people on "game improvement" equipment being rewarded in contests for having equipment that helps them "play safe" and make waves (but look impressive to the uncritical eye) over guys that commit to do or die? Should a wild hit and not make it be scored higher than a made cutback? Should a board that looks vertical be scored higher than one less vertical but slaughtering the lip? Should a guy be rewarded more for sitting in the barrel for 3 seconds and not making it over a cover up and break through the lip?
Answer these questions by rewarding "getting there" (as opposed to "making it") and it won't matter what equipment is being surfed - high performance surfing will win out (and "game improvement" boards, slabs, old twinnies etc will fall by the wayside). It's not in the divisions, it's in rewarding what you want to see.
