half kneelo?

ocean7847 · Post by **ocean7847** » Thu May 11, 2006 8:55 am

apparently i look like AI when on my backside bottom turns. not sure about kneelo though

Jimputz · Post by **Jimputz** » Thu May 11, 2006 10:50 am

Gee..........look closely at his lead foot. It's barely being used at all............he's basically "single-knee" riding the wave!!
Beautiful picture!

Shelfbreak · Post by **Shelfbreak** » Thu May 11, 2006 3:32 pm

They had some highlights on the news from Tahiti last night, Andy Irons wasn't the only one using the knee stabilising technique. Waves looked nice, but these guys generally make it look easy.

Jon Manss · Post by **Jon Manss** » Thu May 11, 2006 4:06 pm

This is exactly what every surfer sees and finds no apparent similarity to Knee riding, but there it is. A back sider really has his posture compromised tucked in a tube. Now if he dropped to down to both knees just think of how much more drive he would have. But will that happen? Hardly, the mentality of so many are so rigid. The Aussie knee rider is light years ahead of the common stand up surfer. He can do both and it can be incorporated into one sport. Mark my words one day you'll see a surfer and wonder what he is. Stand up, or Knee rider? The answer will be simple, Surfer.

Mike Fernandez · Post by **Mike Fernandez** » Thu May 11, 2006 4:10 pm

I knew we were light years ahead of our time!

ScottMac · Post by **ScottMac** » Thu May 11, 2006 6:55 pm

wino · Post by **wino** » Thu May 11, 2006 7:27 pm

A couple of years ago there was an article in one of the major mag's, I believe Surfing and maybe by Nick Carrol(but don't quote me), comparing the backside pig -dog style of tuberiding to kneeboarding. If you look at the top modern pro's, once they drop down, garb the rail(!?!?!) and square their shoulders they are essentially kneeboarding.
And four fins in hollow surf???? Who would've thunk it!?

Remember, to keep laughing on the inside. Of the tube that is

southpeakbrad · Post by **southpeakbrad** » Thu May 11, 2006 8:07 pm

Also, I bet that for those stand ups that do this really well it's a really cool feeling like nothing they've experienced standing. They can pull into sick barrels with more confidence and enjoy the ride.

Since this is such a perfect shot/wave I'll ask it now. How much "in the tube" do you think he is. It usually seems to me that they are not really covered up that much but if there was shot from the beach at this moment as well, how deep is he? To me it looks like he's about to get a bit deeper however, but I've never surfed waves like this so I'm not quite sure..

strudle · Post by **strudle** » Thu May 11, 2006 11:10 pm

Don't know how deep this guy is, but watching the Billabong Pro at Teahupoo on the net today, they were getting pretty deep. Can't remember which one, but one of the Irons bros was doing it exactly like the pic and getting so deep you couldn't see him at all, ajusting position in the tube while grabing the rail. Infact, the pic may be him. Awesome stuff. No wonder nobody wants to kneel thesedays

Richard Hewitt · Post by **Richard Hewitt** » Fri May 12, 2006 2:44 am

Hi all,

I've been watching a fair bit of this online as it's on in the late evening UK time.

I think it's Danny Fuller from Hawaii who's riding a four-finner, the commentators (Mike Parsons and A.N.Other) were having a bit of a debate about it last night. They reckon they're faster and hold a better line in the barrel, this comp is 95% tube riding.
Mike Parsons said tow-in guys were also experimenting with four-finners.

They were also debating pig-dogging and rail grabbing, as far as they were concerned, no problem, particularly for guys on their backhand and in ‘smaller’ tubes like the pic. Stating the obvious, it allows the surfer to squeeze smaller, increase stability in the tube and most importantly control speed to stay in the tube.

One of the best stand-up tube riders in the UK is Robin Kent, ex kneeboarder, currently doing the Rip Curl 'search for isolation'. He can pig-dog like this all day long and occasionally drops to both knees (there was a picture of him doing that in the gallery some time back). What I'm trying to get at is there isn't a whole lot of difference between the stances.

Strudle, if it was good kneelos getting pitted at perfect Chopes with 200,000 (their numbers, not mine) people watching online, perhaps more would want to kneel

p.s. Buds G-land shots blow this away!

ocean7847 · Post by **ocean7847** » Fri May 12, 2006 7:16 am

in terms of "how deep is he" - in that particular shot he isn't all that deep. just probably half/full shacked. in this contest, these guys are getting 10-15 feet behind the curtain on a regular basis. friggin ridonkulous.

edit: PS, i can tell that because of the lighting still on his face and where the foamball is