NSW
137 posts
Love it!!!!
Rips and chargers, one of my favourites
5390 posts
Personally, what I saw is how far he must be on the nose to get into the wave on takeoff. That hints of a lot of design features on his board to maximize control in power at the expense of paddling speed. Rails but also lack of volume, lots of rocker, ...?
310 posts
I think you do need more front foot weight on catching waves on such a small board. But much easier to fit in hollow parts and not pearl. thought he looked pretty normal on takeoff but I was surprised how far forward he positioned for the tube, it seemed like he was forward of the board wide point even.
If i remember correctly he is using < 7 ft and < 24 inches although I'm sure he has a quiver. He has great videos, total charger. Looks like another step rail variation to me but transitions differently, did not look like production rail at all to my eyes.
450 posts
kind of related, I watched the Da Hui Shootout on Youtube and for me the most interesting part is just watching all the stuff before and after the wave, seeing them scrambling to get back out and how they'd punch through waves that look like they'd take them over falls. Also interesting to see Mo Freitas on Rogue board, think they went out of business like 3y ago, can't believe his boards last that long in the waves he surfs, or maybe he has a stack of them...
310 posts
Very cool starts at 2:49 in vid. I thought Bernd was the standout by a very large margin, if he had come out of that one barrel, he would have won easily, some highlights of his heat: taking off under lip in barrel, riding switch stance pipe left, punching thru lip of a breaking pipe wave to other side without falling down, etc. unreal talent. I would also wager the only time he has ever surfed pipe is in the few minutes of these contests.
I had to mute the announcers though, non-stop idiotic blather. Video was good quality but they missed some of the moments.
