LIVE: Bioglan Bells Beach Longboard Classic 2024 - Day 2
So got to watch it in parts over the day, was nice to see a display in cleanish little Rincon on boards that will go well in it. Conditions not ideal with a bit of north bumping the faces at times. But good to see. There were a couple of boards of note that seemed to bog their rails coming down from the top turn, wondered if the rails were too bladey in that instance. Amazing how low key this event is given a) at Bells, and b) a WSL world tour event.
& day three.
Blustery offshore, seems like there's new energy in the water, high tide tending many places to flat but Rincon has a contestable wave at times.
Good work VJ, thanks for sharing. Nice to see you guys have sun, we might get some here later. Loggers swell.
I got a chance to go down there, as always the skill, speed and flow look far more alive, and better, in real life. The cliff face sheltered most of the round from the wind too, making it clean for the most. Good crowd.
velocityjohnno wrote:I got a chance to go down there, as always the skill, speed and flow look far more alive, and better, in real life. The cliff face sheltered most of the round from the wind too, making it clean for the most. Good crowd.
Ace, good to hear.
Kai Ellis-Flint surfs unreal, so much style in such critical sections. Impressive.
Conditions tending to a bit of a mess.
I would think these events have a smaller field than the shortboard tour, maybe have smaller windows, wondering why they kept running once the wind was in.
Reckon it costs a motza to get the broadcast up and running so it'd be a case of we are here now, let's do it. Tough cycle of weather we are in for this sort of thing.
Have been watching a few heats. Been some good waves. Great afternoon on the couch, looking forward to Jensen tomorrow.
The Esquievel/Inoue heat at the end was dramatic, just as the Kai/Declan was an after the buzzer cliffhanger. Inoue's mad, functional soul arches were amazing, commentators called him the Italo of the longboard tour. Been entertaining, I think the swell comes up tomorrow.
Tough way to end it for Inoue, camera crew going “whoops, backed the wrong horse. Laters.”
Noticed that, camera crew following the surfers has produced some golden moments after the heats, board stomps, losing it on winning simultaneously as someone who thought they won lost it on losing, random toilet breaks etc
The Esquievel camp looked very happy, bub in tow
Better waves today. Looks fun on a log.
The difference between men and woman on the longboard tour is so much better than the gap on short boards. The girls are killing it style wise.
Watched for ten minutes, didn't see a single wave ridden! Looks painfully slow.
Here's the finals day link for posterity:
Ben these are good conditions for this winter down here!
Blomfield near perfection..just awesome on that high line
A great Sunday arvo with some quality longboarding.
Agreed. Saw spits and spurts of it but caught the end of the mens final Roady. Was great. Some amazing surfing in beautiful clean waves.
The bits I caught were fun. It was good to see where pro logging is at as well, don't really see much like that down this way.
Found it surprisingly enjoyable to watch for a few hrs today. Extra points for Grant 'GT' Thomas's interviewing style, friendly but not cloying.
Getting to watch the rest now, after a lazy Sunday of nice waves down here. When I got to go down to see it, I loved the low key feel, this is what a Bells comp looks like in the old photos, wonderfully under the radar. Bells finals on single fins, who would have thought, Cheyne would be as happy with that as I am.
I couldn't maintain interest for more than 5 mins.
See a lot of Jedi level logging live and it makes no sense to me as a competitive sport.
Great calls VJ and Gra. Agreed on the GT beach interviews.
Yeah just looked like a more natural fit for how Bells feels VJ.
Stoked you got some fun ones too today. Would have been a beautiful day in the ocean down there today going by the webcast.
Yeah I'm getting back into it, small steps!
And FR - there is considerably more variation in the boards used at the elite level. This alone should be interesting. There were Aussie 'Involvement' style boards (hip far back for turns, more narrow nose so have to set up the noseride for the pocket - which Soleil managed to noseride anywhere she wanted; Takayama style boards with his trademark curves and smoothness, there were boards that were more downrailed and you could see the water leave more quickly when noseriding rather than the displacement of the more 50/50 rails. There were bladey rails that I saw catch off the top turn more than once. Then there were the traditional noseriders with more full nose and many variations of tail (Johnny the Ripper had a wide square tail). And I saw some underside rails that were edged into the tail rather than a smooth 50/50 or smooth downrail. All sorts of fins too. So there's absolutely lots going on in the design area and it's really open to individuality and evolvement. All really satisfying to see.
haha. Yep, you'd be jaded up there FR.
Bit more of a novelty down this way.
And i always appreciate seeing how people turn big boards, not just longboards.
Great eye VJ.
Those kind of astute observations add to the spectacle and create a bit of curiosity and it was actually reading your post yesterday or the day before that piqued my interest in the comp. Cheers!
Thanks for posting all this VR.
Glad it got some attention from Swellnet which seems to be predominately shortboard/bodyboard.
Loved the commentary from JC Josh Constable and GT Grant Thomas was awesome.
He would make a great any sport commentator I reckon.
I watched a lot of it as had the Lergy last few days.
Some insane locked in nose riding and not boring like the WSL short boarding can get as so many different styles and approaches and as VR notes equipment and a lot more honest commentary without all the pocket pissing from Turpel and co sometimes get.
Great conditions for long boarding.
How good is Kai Ellis Flint and Ben Skinner/Kai Sallas/Jensen are such cool under pressure competitors who all rip on any equipment.
If you want your kid to rip on a shorty and you want to up their rail game put them on a longboard every now and again to finesse rail engagement.
velocityjohnno wrote:The Esquievel/Inoue heat at the end was dramatic, just as the Kai/Declan was an after the buzzer cliffhanger. Inoue's mad, functional soul arches were amazing, commentators called him the Italo of the longboard tour. Been entertaining, I think the swell comes up tomorrow.
That Declan/Kai heat one of the greatest ever I reckon.
If your only ever to watch one longboard heat in your life.....thats the one.
Epic
Kai Ellis Flint deffo stands out to my eye.
Thanks for the design analysis VJ- I didn't pay that much attention.
I just noted that both T-Jensen and Johnny the ripper both rode square tail classic "California" pre-67 templates in the Final, which to me is the most functional log design for both turns and nose-rides.
So to my eye I didn't see any design progression per se, just a return to the classic design of the genre which has not been superseded.
Once I realised there was a feed I decided on a 'pirate' Swellnet coverage (a la Goodies Pirate Radio)... I mean, it's at Bells, and it's concerning the biggest growing part of the sport, so why not? I'm glad some of you enjoyed it.
We've mentioned in the WSL feeds that watching surfers sitting there is a bit 'test cricket' - some of us love this. During this comp, we were treated to both great commentary, they were knowledgeable and relaxed (Matt C was great too) - and absolutely beautiful, long drone pans. There was time to soak in what the spectacle of the cliff and it's protruding limestone platforms are all about. I learned a bit from the commentators - my longboard is now 24 years old, and times have moved on (or, they went backwards for inspiration, and have emerged better for it!)
I don't know who the surfers are, and this gives it more wonder.
All that the thread needs now to be a complete Swellnet comp thread, is bad puns, written live, as fast as you can think them.
Yep FR - Kai is incredible, I swear I've seen him at Crescent, actually stopped what I was doing to just watch this guy late one afternoon, incredible style and can pull off amazing turns and noserides with poise seemingly effortlessly, weightlessly.
And yeah, that '67 board was/is the holy grail, Lenny made similar on the West coast with these squared off noses, called it the 'Ugly' which I think was a thing in design then.
Seen him up here a few times.
Still the best logging I've seen live was Joel Tudor one arvo at Wategoes.
So creative, so smooth, fluid, powerful.
Just flawless log riding.
Do you surf a longboard at times, FR?
Also of note, Skindog shapes his own boards and is competitive on the world tour - is anyone else in this position? Are any of the shortboard top 44 shapers: Jordy? His dad is.
I have done a lot of longboarding, but not much in the last decade.
I do love it.
Probably the price of a good log has put me off. I snapped my Chris Brock 9'6 and repaired and it's so nose heavy now it's pretty useless.
Can't afford 2 grand for a good log.
I didn’t really appreciate longboard skills until I started riding one. I love watching these guys for the lines and where they ride on the wave. I find straight ahead hanging 5 a bit boring at times. I do love when they finish on the beach and hit the lip and float down on the whitewater…I love the feeling doing that.
I surf a Taylor Jensen GEM in the red technology…amazing board, so much fun and turns so good.
Agree, VJ. The commentary on the feed was really good..not so skitzy as the usual WSL commentators
I've got a confession @roady. Have ridden a longboard plenty. Have never hung 10. Barely gotten 5 out there. It all looks like voodoo magic to me! Which is why it was so sick to see full toes curled over the nose and then crew striking poses as they did so. There's something pretty pure in that i reckon.
And Kais dropknee cutbacks were insane. Loved the amount of whip he was getting from his set up from highline to bottom turn. Just timeless surfing.
I’ve managed 5 for about 3 seconds…..never 10. I’ve had both feet together just back from the nose but invariably kook it and fall off. Riding a log really well is a bit of an art form. Looks easy but is anything but.
First logs ridden were 1962 and 1965 originals, as described here previously - really heavy, bigger dimensions than a contemporary log, much heavier, 12kg+. The momentum of the things was stupendous. Still ride my Dibben, it's transitional, just before Tudor emerged fully, so it has edged rails in the tail and a 2+1 (has only had the single in for a long time)like the 90s but low rocker, heavy momentum machine like a trad one should be. On and off, sometimes I surfed it heaps over the years, sometimes I just didn't - especially after my son decided shortboards were his thing and years went by without surfing it. Made the semi finals of biggest comp in state way back in the day just as children arrived... hang 10s and 5s, yes done them but not often! Developed flaws in my technique, such as getting to nose, then looking down at the wave in amazement at it all rushing by, guess what, head and weight are leaning over, the tail falls out the back. For ages I couldn't work out why, until told by someone really good! So get there, look forward! It's a nuts feeling as you are just coasting along with nothing in front of you and the heavy board totally torques along like a V8.
Placement beforehand: walk up two steps, be about half way. Watch wave and note where it's going to stand up, edge toe side rail a bit to set line (my board even requires a little toe side rail stall at times to do this), then walk a second 2 steps and gun for the nose. Then look forward, where is your head and chest pointing? A bit of knee bend might help too, to adjust. Also setting up with a fade and a hard turn (rail turns, man turns!) especially with those soft 50/50 rails and a big grippy fin, help.
My 2c. Can't wait to give it a go again.
3 seconds is worthy @roady! Well done!
VJ i've always wondered the merits of a 'performance' log.
The more traditional longboards that you mentioned above, heavy and creating their own inertia, having that width in the board and tail to allow noseriding, make alot of sense to me. It's a type of surfing that can't be accessed on any other board.
However a performance log baffles me. Why not paddle out on an 8 or 9ft gun that you can easily catch waves with and still turn and come out of critical sections with as opposed to a cumbersome board that as far as i can see, is just a poorer version of a gun, that has no real function in big or small waves,...that a gun couldn't do anyway, with the bonus of being able to ride it in much larger surf. Even midlengths make more sense to me than a 'performance' longboard. Maybe i'm missing something but as far as i can see, a 'performance' longboard is a board too long in critical sections when you really want to push it, and too narrow and rockered out to nose ride, which i'd imagine is the main objective of riding a longboard? Interested in your thoughts with your shaping background and understanding of design principles.
Maybe it was created for competition, pre Tudor? A bit like the narrow Slater boards of the early 90s went straight from competition to under the feet of recreational surfers?
Longboard clubs in the 90s used to have an 8ft division, and I agree that a midlength (for me, a double ender to egg like 'Evolution' with a wide tail) would make sense instead. Longboard regulations used to stipulate a certain length (so shape it 9'1" so you don't get pinged - also why I measure my boards tip to tail against a wall, rather than along stringer, it's not beholden by the nature of the rocker curve this way, and you'll never get 'oh that's only 8' 10 1/2" mate, you can't surf in this'), a certain nose width 12" from the nose - so you couldn't go too narrow like a gun... Add all these wonderful regulations together and the mantras of the 90's (thin, potato chip, heaps of rocker) and you get the performance longboard. Didn't Tom Carrol and Glen Winton enter a longboard comp in Hawaii on the things and destroy in the early 90s? So this kind of longboard, is different to a log.
Again, coming out of the 90s blanks were also thin and rockered... the surfing world worked with what it had available and what made sense...
Remember a few years ago, the Kirra longboard comp in honour of a surfer who passed away, had a performance longboard division especially for this kind of surfing - it felt fresh, because logging had become almost a parody of the 60s in its revival at the time. A counter counter revolution if you will. Didn't take off - the comp got hijacked politically, sadly.
Early 90s logging/longboarding was so fun - no one was doing it (they all thought you were mad) and this whole world of little, empty waves opened up. Right place at right time.
Fascinating response. Thanks so much VJ. I feel like i'm plugged into a deep well of wisdom reading your replies. So good.
Yeah good point on the trends. Funny how trends can overpower 'log'ical thinking. Yes there's a pun there. ;-)
It's a great point because we all followed the Slater, Powell, Machado wafered boards in the early 90s. Actually, i foolishly followed them through til the end of the first decade of the noughites. Still love a wafer thin blade in the right conditions. Keep it in the pocket!
Yes! Tip to tail makes perfect sense. Crazy not to if the boards rockered out. Very interesting points on the rules and regulations being so pivotal in the direction board lengths took. That's an over reach bloody woz and co!
Great pick up on Tommy and Mr X. No doubt, and i'm sure you'd be the first to agree, their high pedigree of surfing big guns regularly made big stable 'perfomance' logs in small nonconsequential surf a walk in the park. I remember TC talking about how he used to surf his big guns in small surf so as to get used to them for when it actually got big. Which kinda just adds weight to my argument about guns v 'performance' longboards.
Yes i do remember that division being added to the Kirra comp (don't mention the war!);-). I think i remember that division being discussed here. Yep, i still don't see the relevance of it, especially at Kirra. A semi gun would make more sense to me at Kirra, solid especially, but even if not, what could be done on a 'performance' longboard at 2-3foot drainy kirra that couldn't be done on a semi gun or gun. At least on the latter you have the plan shape to fit into the curve of the wave somewhat, with the added bonus of plenty of drive from the rail length easy wave entry, you can move up and down the board easily enough for dramatics (although no noseriding...unless ur that good!) and most importantly, the ability to maintain drive through critical freefalls and steep sections.
But most importantly, is, the gun will catch any wave the 'performance' longboard will catch. No problem. No contest. So to sacrifice all that rail contour and tail width purely for fitting within the confines of a criteria,...is at the very least, a ridiculous proposition.
Old school longboarding though, full respect.
Thanks for the thought provoking convo VJ. I appreciate your insight heaps.
No worries SR - where would you longboard on your coast? OB when little? Ann/Charles when open? Is there such a thing as a log point you could access - I never found it when down there if so.
And you've picked the next trend in surfing. When we've gone through stubby hyptos, log return, midlength madness, 54L shortboards, the next thing, the only thing in the Volume Wars that could possibly trump all of these, is if we all carry around big guns and surf them in every type of surf from small to large. (Deep Voice) "Mine's a Rhino Chaser and it's 11 feet long..."
hahaha. Yes true. Orghh orghhh. A hard earned thirst, means a big long gun!
Yeah you're on the right track there with spots. Probably a few others but tbh it all depends on wave size down here. There are many small enough days that a log is perfect. I have an 8ft foamie and i surf it alooooot! I know that's outta the conversation, but....i have the exact amount of fun required in those kind of waves on that board. But yeah, not alot of peeling points down this way. Did spend many moons in Byron, particulary the Pass though so feel well informed on the pros and cons. Actually can say i spent thousands of hours in the water at the Pass! Saw that Declan grom alot back then..super lovely kid, and i reckon he surfed more performance oriented boards....and really well. I'm sure he'd ride a pintail gun just as well ;-)
I guess my point is what is the point of creating a whole new type of longboard when a more efficient one already exists , that probably has more pros and doubles as a big wave board. Having said that a 9foot performance longboard will always plane faster through flat sections than a 9foot gun. But also having said that, a 9foot traditional longboard will allow you to surf a longboard how it was designed to surf compared to a performance board. So again, what's the point of a whole new design.
As for the next big design breakthrough. I think we'll be moving to inflatable surfboards and only surfing the whitewaters. Big long 15second foam climbs and recoveries over 8foot whitewaters on an inflatable thong! ;-)
Honestly though....the whitewater is the next frontier. :-D
I was having a surf round the corner from the comp yesterday and a few of the women paddled out and put on an absolute clinic. The read on the wave and board control they have is unbelievable!
Spent some time recently up the mid-north coast at the "worst-best wave" in the region, and some very good longboarding going on. It was interesting to see how this stacked up against the best on show over the weekend. Some of the crew up there would have done okay I reckon.
I have a 9'7" in the shed for those small day runners, old-school bottom, belly throughout, pinched rails into a tight pin. It turns like the Potempkin but trims a treat. Best surfed from the middle until a wander up front or step back to turn it. I reckon it helps my general surfing coz I have to think about turns and everything is slow enough to take in the feedback.
I think it’s a lot easier to look good on a log at cresso than at bells.
Bells sorts you out.
velocityjohnno wrote:Bells sorts you out.
Shyama does ok though.
Have a look at some of his other posts!!!
Here it is, up live so we can do a comp thread
Small clean and cold day here on the coast. I do note the raised logging quality at local breaks in recent days.
VJ is wanting to go down and watch comp, and will probably be wrangling cars instead, so this is welcome.