Kelly Slater on the new banana boards
Last week Swellnet ran an interview with Greg Webber where he said he'd been approached by Kelly Slater to shape a pair of banana boards for him. This followed Slater viewing twenty-year-old footage of Shane Herring on Webber's highly rockered, low volume boards from the early-90s. For the full interview with Greg Webber click here.
Knowing Kelly Slater is always ebullient when board design is the topic, we then asked the 11 time champ how the boards are riding. He admitted to "being a little caught off guard" as he hadn't ridden the boards much. Nevertheless he's "still to this day amazed by the carving Herring was doing in '91 and '92" on Webber's boards and keen to explore the idea further.
Swellnet: Do the boards have similar rocker and other dimensions to those you were riding in the early 90s?
Kelly Slater: My rockers were very different from what Herring was riding. The overall volume is more than my boards now and a bit thicker and wider than what I was into back then. I didn't ask for specific measurements, just whatever Greg assumed I would need.
What aspect of your surfing are you hoping to improve by riding them?
Carving in the pocket and fitting into the curve. Basically, finding new approaches throughout the wave.
Always room for improvement.
Always. I think there's a surprisingly large amount of area that's not being used in the wave still.
And the boards are quads despite being thrusters back then?
They never rode or set them up as quads, I don't think. I think this might be a couple of the first for Greg to have set up like this.
Do you feel the design pendulum is now swinging away from shorter, high volume boards?
It seems so. You always go to extremes and work your way back. But I still think there is some room there for a bit more experimenting [with short boards] cause a lot of the best guys didn't really push their knowledge in my opinion, or maybe I wasn't aware of how much they had in the last five or so years before heading for more length again.
These boards are twenty years old, are we allowed to call ‘em retro?
Typically, but maybe not in this case cause it feels modern and functional. These boards were never widely accepted and were seen as a very out there design back then. But the guys that rode 'em loved 'em. I've always regarded Greg as a radical, out-of-the-box thinker and designer who is too eccentric for some people, so his designs may have not gotten through to some people who would've otherwise been exposed to them somehow.
Also, he got to a good phase in his design and went beyond it to a further level that was far beyond people's understanding or threshold of acceptance. When people take too many steps most people can't follow along and [the public feels] they may have gone the wrong direction. There was a really good zone on the branch Webber was creating from. It would've been interesting had more shapers climbed out there with him twenty years ago. It's not rocket science but it is unique and all about feeling. These could be great in some waves and terrible in others. I'll find out soon enough.
Lastly, Slater said he'd read comments in the Greg Webber interview that attributed his sudden curiousity in Webber's design as mind games vis-a-vis their rival wave pool ventures. On this he said:
I read some comments saying it's mind games and blah blah blah. This guy made a really good board design that I only realised I appreciated by watching an old friend in Herring shredding away twenty years later on tape. I'm passionate about design and I'm old enough to just call it what it is and not have it be anything else. I'm glad Greg chose to dust off his thinking cap and share this with me. I really appreciate it.
Comments
That last sentence .....
Does this mean that The real Jimmy Slade reads this site ....
Jimmy could you please tell us how much you look to M " Uplift " B for inspiration .
And lastly am I reading correctly , that the reason you watched the Herring Video is because Greg sent it to you ????? I'm getting confused . stu is that correct ?!?
"I'm glad Greg chose to dust off his thinking cap and share this with me."
Not too sure what's confusing Southey. Greg is sharing his design knowledge with Slater. Is that what you mean?
Yes Stu.
My recollection of Greg's initial interview never really mentioned why or how Kelly was watching this 20 year old movie ....
Good on Greg for " extending the palm frond" , as Zen said (and I mentioned in the Climate change thread ) . It would be good if some pioneering designs spent less energy on getting infront of everyone else and a little more on collaboration .
Mind you , easily said by someone like myself . That has brought very little to the surfing world [ besides perhaps being uplifts crypto nite] .
This is going to be the second time I give you kudos stu. Great work
Cheers Southey.
Always great to hear Kelly's perspective on board design and the direction that designs have taken over the last 20 or so years. Kelly is a great commentator too and any time he is on the mic it's worth listening.
I bet Stu was dying to ask him about the wave pool but that probably would have resulted in an abrupt end to the interview. Personally, I think they should collaborate on it together.
You're right Zen, the questions were firmly on point. However, Kelly did have the following to say regarding wave pools:
"Greg was a little ambiguous about his wave pool answer [laughs] I think we're all good there and we both had similar ideas at a similar time with slight variations. I'd like to think good minds think alike and I don't think at this point there is an axe to grind between us."
Very interesting to have the presence of greg webber & KS on swellnet
Good read, hope we see some footage of these boards in action.
mmm, interesting ...
I'm not sure what you mean southey re: KS watching the footage after GW sent it to him. Where did you get that from?
Also, I'm not sure KS reads here himself ... maybe he does, but if so, wouldn't he comment direct? Given his "brand" management it would be a fair assumption he has people involved who track anything, anywhere around the globe, where he is mentioned. Once that 'interview' with GW was published, they'd have been onto watching it and any comments. KS would probably get the highlights, summary, etc via his manager ... AND, since there is a link with the wave pool stuff, well, it would be a fair guess the people involved on that side would have made it known to KS too.
Anyway ... mind games. I can't help but think there are mind games at play. Don't get me wrong, KS is obviously interested in board design, and it's good to see IMHO ... but his comment:
" ... cause a lot of the best guys didn't really push their knowledge in my opinion, or maybe I wasn't aware of how much they had in the last five or so years before heading for more length again."
Just feels like a mind game to put doubt into the minds of the elite guys who did not get caught into following KS down THAT path too far, and so, now also casts doubt over what he is doing with the GW banana boards ...
I think KS can have a huge impact on design and performance, but more so, once he is out of the arena and has no vested interest. Until then, I suspect the willingness of the elite guys to follow him will be restricted, and with that, the best of any design theory will not be fully tested. (On a side note, I think it is the same for any of the healthy lifestyle stuff KS is promoting ... while good, with an inherit vested interest, there must be an element of skepticism)
As for the average joe surfer following, well, what people do because of a lack of knowledge and ego, is their issue ... the BEST thing, IMHO, that could come out of the resurgence of the "banana boards" is seeing even more surfers riding boards that do not suit them; struggling to paddle, missing waves, falling off, and then ... eventually giving up surfing for good because it is too hard. More waves for those who tread their own path!
Hang on, did I just find the KS motivation? He wants less people in the lineup at Snapper!
http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/sport/quiksilver-pro/kelly-slater-jo...
:)
Geez that could be Nick Carroll in that pic.
At a time when Kelly needs that little something else he turns to Bondi. Having flourished under Bruce Raymond, Bondi born and bred, he turns to another (ex)Bondi indentity. Being a Bondi identity since the sixties and following Kelly's fantastic rising to International Sporting Identity this doesn't suprise me. But I would caution him....be careful Kelly... It may not be the time to lean on Bondi's glow.
i agree with KS on the other CT guys not pushing board design, if you go back and watch the last 6-7 snapper, trestles, pipe, france events you will notice mick, parko, jordy, taj etc are all riding the exact same stock standard boards, it hasnt changed!!!
Their surfing is exactly the same also, boring, consistant, perfection, but not radical or inspiring..
A parko 8 point wave from snapper 08 is no different to parko 14...
if you look at KS or dane reynolds they are pushing design and furthering there surfing, more radical, tigher, you can see growth... This is inspiring....
KS conspiracy or act of god I can't imagine it's the fundamental motivation. Recently I read that the ASP judging panel is shown to be scoring highest for critical maneuvers in the pocket, aligning itself back towards power surfing and the overall criticality of maneuvers, as opposed to recent years scoring high for anything above the lip.
If you've got a steep bowly wave like the stuff Herring was riding in the clips, you can see how aggressive he was able to get with his hacks in the steepest sections of the pocket.
So the judges are scoring high for criticality... banana boards can go upside down in the pocket... makes perfect sense to be looking into boards that can get the extra edge in the pocket.
In saying that, I can't imagine it will be the go-to design at trestles
KS experimenting with boards, and experimenting with what we think is a new GoPro camera. Either that or he's dragged a pool noodle out to Cloudbreak.
Photo taken this morning by Mick Freeman.
Reckon he is wearing Kelly clothes. What better way to get the first pics of Kelly clothes put to the people than the man himself wearing em in 12 ft cloud break in photo taken by Kelly..., think of the Ad...
Photo: Kelly
Clothing design: Kelly
Surfer: Kelly
He looks so cool though! Cloudbreak is the bomb! Forget what he has on for a second, how great is that wave and what he is doing on it!!
Looks a bit phallic
That's how Kelly deals with drop-ins.
I was thinking the new hit show ASP is thinking about picking up - surfer jousting!
What the hell is he wearing??
Werid ay, maybe the pole is connected to him in someway under the shirt, or he's hiding some equipment?
Looks like he's experimenting with surf clothing too .
So does this confirm that Mick Free has now officially become Swellnets ' foreign correspondent .
Mick can you get Jimmy to confirm whether he lucked across the Herro footage, or it was sent to him ?
And I wonder if the new slogan for a potential new Go Pro could be ......... Be a Herro !
Will ask him tomorrow Southey. He has broken his toe though apparently.
Cheers Mick .
looks like a Jedi, maybe channelling Yoda with the bald head and pixie ears haha.
I was working for Greg at Insight at the height of the banana concave craze. Those boards were really good! (The copycat boards I rode were epoxy sandwich ones I built myself. I still have those boards :-) ) the following info is from an article by Nick Carroll I believe... http://forum.realsurf.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=14075&start=18
"Then one day in mid-1985, while surfing at Angourie Point in northern NSW, Australia, he saw the great Floridian surfer Bill Hartley. Bill was in Oz trying to crack some of the pro trials events and stopped at Angas for a free-surf. He was riding a single concave thruster made by Greg Loehr, and in Webber’s words, “he went mental. He did surf better than anyone else in the world – at least in that one session. Bite off the bottom, release off the top, and the water coming off the outside rail in a sheet.” Greg got down low and demonstrated a Hartley turn from that day, a whippy drivey top turn, common these days but back then, in the days of the snap, rare as … as full concave. “It gives me goosebumps now,” he says."
Cheers Norv. Great read from NC, as always.
Man that link was a good read.
And I now know how GW lost that fucking tooth.
Locals in Fiji have officially declared war on foreign surfers. Here we find Kelly sporting the anti spear vest and "surf artillery" for protection.
More to follow.
Hey I've got a question that I'm hoping some of you can shed some light on for me...
Why is there so regularly an undertone of negativity toward Kelly in many of these comments threads? By that, I mean that there seems to regularly be several detractors whenever he's mentioned.
I've watched him conduct himself for several years now, and whilst I don't consider myself a surf historian, what I've seen of him in the past 10 or so years has me feeling predominantly positive about him.
Obviously his surfing is exemplary, and he seems like an intelligent, humourous, and reasonably well rounded guy. That's his media persona anyways.
I live on the SA mid coast so have zero possibility of running into him in the local line up, so i'm curious as to what he's like?
Is he a dick in real life, and that's why people have a tarnished view of him? Or was he a dick in years gone by?
Cheers in advance
It's because we love him but we're too insecure to say it.
Uh huh. A good old aussie case of the tall poppy.
At least you can admit it Stu.
Cheers
He really is an old baldy bastard but.
Surfed with him today Simesy at cloudbreak, on his arrival the wind dropped and sets pulsed. No wonder we all hate him, he is the best surfer ever and gets all the waves. Kelly said hello to everyone in the water. He hurt his foot and ran safety for the rest of the session, picking up guys getting who got washed in. Kind of sums it up for me that he would pick up Joe punter.
Though it was different when he was younger - if you read his autobiography gives you a good insight.
Hi Mick,
As you are aware we are all super curious at KS....
Unless something top secret was going on... Can you answer some Qs re the photo...
How big would you say the waves was? ( please clarify Hawaii or Seppo size)
Was Kelly towed in?
What is he holding and what is he doing with that thing?
How did he break his toe?
Will he be surfing with one of those at the pipe contest?
I surfed with KS in 1992 in J Bay and yeah, he was very different in the surf during that session. Caught loads of waves(a few he shouldn't have), was very hyper paddling like crazy and didn't say hi or talk to anyone except the Pros. But he really was still a young man then.
I met him on a beach in Durban the same year or maybe before, funnily enough he was with Shane Herring. I chatted to them for a few minutes and he he was cool, very cool. Smiling and talking about how much fun he was having and which waves he had surfed.
Burgs, Kelly was towed. Not sure it was top secret just trying a 360 gopro mount. Was pretty skillful staying composed while holding that thing. Waves 4-6 feet yesterday 3-5 feet today. Hawaiian size. I'm not sure if its broken but guys in lineup said Kelly not surfing and is walking around with crutches. You would have to ask him the last question but I am sure he won't be surfing Pipe with a donkeydick.
Thanks a lot for the insight Mick. He sounds like a solid character who is super passionate about surfing. I'll track that book down and have a read.
Cheers
MF, how big was CB on Monday?
Don, 4-6 foot with a couple of bigger ones. Today is 3-5 feet. I'm traditional Hawaiian scale. 6 foot double overhead. 8 feet triple overhead and there weren't any triple overhead Monday. But the swell quality was very very good from that polar low. Here's two photos windy one Monday other today, both at similar times 11am. Didn't get many good shots was in water, but Scott Winer would have got some great shots
I only see one pic? Damn nice looking wave mind you and yeah I'd be calling that around 6ft.
Sorry Don, thought it would load up both images. Today was first time surfed without wind surprisingly you need it to hold the barrels open. It was clamping a lot and was average. This shot is from Monday, 6 foot....this one is deceptive it is zoomed in and the guys in the foreground are 50m from the guy in the lip
BTW how is the south swell today - did it get to you up there. Next stop will be CB Thursday. From the photos I have seen it looked like it was pretty good in Sydney with Back Bombie longy solid.
Its because we're mostly Aussies on this forum and he's an American. If he moved to Australia and gained citizenship and drank more beer we'd call him a Coolangatta kid or a bronzed Ozzie and chair him up the beach every time he does a sick cutty. oi oi oi!
i reckon something to do with a new video game.
I don't detect any undertone of negativity to kelly ...quite the opposite.
Why does the best surfer in the world keep going in the opposite direction to me in board design?.......ks rips and he holds himself well in public, but he's a septic tank so the negativity from this side of the planet is healthy, just a piss take and nothing sinister.
I believe I kicked off the mind games comment - apologies KS!!
Simesy, you are right, of course, there is a constant undertone of negativity to Kelly in a lot of threads.
Freeride seems a bit tone deaf.
I have written extensively on other sites that the 'tall poppy syndrome' is a fiction. I won't go over that old ground, but I suspect Kelly worries so many of us because he seems to be as genuine as all get out, a freakishly good surfer, a generally humble sort of person who has kept it together in spite of being treated as a god for most of his life, and so far we haven't been able to find the chink in his armour.
So as good Australians, we assume one is there and we just haven't found it yet, or we make one up.
It's not a tall poppy syndrome, it's just a reflection of the fact that we have been let down by our leaders and role models for pretty much all of our white history, and it's a reasonable thing to take the odds that this is the natural order of things.
I can't fault him, personally, if I was that good I would be the least humble person on the planet.
Hes' a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
Predicting that he'll trip? Please do explain a little bit more about how tall poppy syndrome is a fiction...
Geez batfink, you've thrown a cat amongst my pigeons there. I'd always understood tall poppy syndrome as being a representation of a natural defence mechanism (i.e. golden shadow projection) for all people, but your suggestion that this phenomenon derives from being "let down by our leaders and role models" puts a 'conditioning' spin on it that I hadn't considered. If this doesn't exist in other cultures, or in lesser degrees, then that doesn't support my "for all people" conception. Interesting...
simesy
You only see the smooth, corporate Kelly Slater.
The real Kelly is this crazy guy who lives up trees and throws stuff at people. :)
How cool us that pic... He 's got a tiny bit of fat, makes me feel better!
Kelly is my favourite surfer.... Absolutely love him. I think we tease him, like my comments above, because he is interesting! He does cool stuff, loads of the pros are just: surf, pose, watch surf films... Boring! But Kelly goes out in FULLY SICK cloudbreak and does what he is doing in that pic!
Taking the piss and gentle teasing, which is what happens on here, as well as a fascination with his psychological manouverings is very far from a negative undertone.
As Stu said that's how us convict scum tell someone we love them.
Freeride, I get the 'it's all in good fun' idea, but that gets a bit twisted when there's an absence of "gentle teasing, and/or taking the piss" out of Fanning, or Parko. Surely "we love them" more than we love Kelly, yet they don't seem to attract the same amount of harmless jibes (if any).
Don't want to open a can of intellectual dick jousting, just curious to find out if there was something monumental about Kelly that I was missing.
'Parko gets overscored' and 'Fanning's too robotic'. I see both those accusations often.
Absolutely. Go look at the Seppo sites.
it's just a bit of nationalistic chest beating.
same as it ever was.
Slater riding his Webber boards at Chopes today, rationale was the extra curve fitting the curve of Chopes which makes sense. Also, the latest Surfers Journal shows him riding a Webber during a session in Portugal late last year.
off topic,....
Ceej the Day!
The final day CJ Hobgod retires is the day huge heaps of surfing knowledge retires as well.
Each to their own, but those '90s banana boards were a bitch to ride if you were surfing average east coast Oz waves. As part of a quiver now, not an allrounder, sure ...
5'11 & 6'1 good to see him on slightly bigger boards. The benny banana will have to look at a clip... not that too many turns happen at chopes.
He wants a 6'8 for pipe...big difference to the 5'9 or 5'8 he was riding in EVERYTHING
didn't he ride one in Fiji?
absolutely ripped on it as far as im concerned.
got under scored again for tight rail surfing.
So, Kelly's on a Webber at Pipe (here's Strider holding Kelly's backup).
saw that. pity he didn't get to put on a real clinic in his heat. mind you the 8.5 (?) he got was pretty epic
Slater rode it today. Looked OK.
He was still getting deep and making those barrels too.
Quiky pro Probably the first time ever Slater has chosen the wrong equipment
That banana rode like a dog.
Mr Kennedy on fire...on a Firewire
Seems like he had pre-decided riding the banana boards.
Should only bring it out for the lower tide/steeper conditions.
Huge rocker boards in fat walls? Not even you can pull that off, Kelly.
Kellys flogging a dead horse with the banana board all been done before and theres a reason no one rides them these days and if he was on Tomo sci fi like Stuey or even a Al Merrick like he used to ride might have been a different story.Kelly does weird shit at times and that board was wrong for those waves.Like hes trying to prove something....not working.
Take a look at yesterdays heat he was surfing fine, the boards have merit, and go great when the wave has some curve and a pocket, it was just bad timing that the tide was coming in instead of going out, and Stuey just got the better waves and better canvas, and ironically beat Kelly riding a FW Slater designs board.
Lets remember they called the next heat off because of conditions.
99% of surfboard designs have been done before surfboard design is constantly going back and borrowing aspects we have done before and reinventing them, the whole low rocker, short, wide thing that most guys have been riding for years now has been done before.
Mate it wouldnt have made any difference today if the tide was going out,that board is made for hollow waves and your saying KS dosent know which way the tide was going?They might have their place at some events as in cloud break but not onshore snapper.....watched most of the event and i cant remember any one getting a tube yet.
That's the point ID. It was bad timing, but it was a bad choice by him. Why did he take it out on the rising tide?
It should be a board that he has in his quiver to bring out in the conditions it's best suited for so he can get an edge over his opponents, not all the time.
Second that lost doggy. hope he reads it LOL!
Agree LD. I reckon it has the potential to be a phenomenal board, some of those turns in Round 1, tight roundhouses with a bounce where he never left the top third of the wave, show it has an incredible turning circle. Put to good effect, with a board that's dialled in on waves that suit it, I think KS could be very had to beat. Unfortunately yesterday didn't offer those waves.
On a more aesthetic level, I don't think that color board will help him. KS has been the master of visual appeal, the karate chop snap, the faux-relaxed shoulders, but dark boards don't look as good travelling through the water.
umm And dont forget today Stu...same board worse waves.....
Karate chop snap - I love that thing.
The resurgence of the banana design - good for your board accumulation style Stu ?
You mean when Kelly wins his 12th world title on a Banana board and everyone rushes out to buy new models while collector scum throw big bucks at the people with enough 'Insight' - ho ho ho - to hang on to the original versions?
Yeah, the thought has crossed my mind.
Bede really pulled that board apart "pushing water" ,"looks great in the pocket". " liked one turn" from the previous heat. Great insight pardon the pun.
Board really has some potential, i prefer the baked bean board from greg webber that herring used. hence more suited outline for the rocker.
love the coloured boards though stu !
I love coloured boards too Dean. Well at least if the colour is red, because that's all my boards are. But then I'm not competing so I don't care what they look like in the water. From the carpark to the shoreline is all that matters to me...
That board in 1 word was a straight out pig. Slow, bogging and pushing water
if slater cant make a board look good who can? The idea should be buried just
like the single fin. Neither work in the 21st century.
Greg webber put a clip of a nice left hand beachie being torn apart by Adam Robbo?
If Bells goes to Johanna (or 13th) it could be similar waves.
I think the waves may need some push as well as a pocket because it looks terrible when they're trying to generate their own speed.
Hot off the press
http://www.tracksmag.com/stu-kennedy-crushes-kelly-sci-phi-moment/
Haha.
It's actually a secret ploy in Kelly's design battle with Greg Webber.
'See how much better slater designs go than Webbers'.
:)
Apparently he was also ridding these pretty crazy fins (pretty out there) https://www.instagram.com/rchbrgsurf/
kellys board looks one dimensional , does really tight turns ,but with no power , looked very pivoty , no real power in the turns , but as he had no warm ups and didn't tune his equipmentto soft snapper , he got the result he deserved , sounds like Stu has worked really hard with Tomo and got the results. If Kelly takes that banana to bells , he'll get another last!
The banana puts Soul back in to his Surfing ... WTF
You really think Kelly had fun in that heat ?
Mr Indo,
Very interesting. Noticed about ten or more years ago that Robert was using really stiff front fins and a really flexy back fin.
I noticed this and started experimenting with similar fins, they went fantastic.
Unless i had a board with glass ons i would and still do run stiff front fins and flexy back fins.
Actually now you say that, i had a board with a quad setup that i just couldn't find the right fin set up for, i tried so many fins but it was never quite right, then i found a magic combination of big stiff fronts with smaller rears that had quite a bit of flex and it went amazing, maybe there is something in that combination.
I had a custom small-medium wave quad made, with quite a wide roundtail. Shaper recommended M7 and M5 fins for my weight, and it was just not working. Found a set of carbon TF 1 (almost MR twin size) on fleabay, and the board lights up.
Wide tail = bigger fins
Long rail = smaller fins
Im wondering how many banana boards Firewire has been making in anticipation of Kellys debut at snapper thinking he would kill it and people would rush out to buy Kellys latest design....well Tomos will sell o.k but could be a backlog of bananas going cheap in the near future.
Bananas are for eating.
LOL!
Making a forward projection: if these boards catch on again, there could be absolutely epic times ahead for surfers who do not follow the trend. Catch all the waves, make flat sections, no bogging, no pushing water, less board to whip around in top turns...
What you will sacrifice in not surfing them is those amazing carves in the pocket. What you gain is the other 98% of the time.
Banana boards were around in the 90's and everyone tried one because Kelly had one. The end result was everyone found them to be No Fun temperamental rubbish and went back to more versatile flatter rockers. If you really want a good board with lots of continuous rocker that fits into those kinds of round rare to find waves, Al Merrick designed the Proton years ago which does go really well because it has the correct balance of continuous rocker, curve and concave and is a good all rounder if you like to work it rail to rail . The other way to go is boards with big kick tails and a lower entry rocker. They do great things in round hollow waves as well. A banana board may be fun sometimes as a toy in the quiver, but the average fun seeker with only a couple of boards should stay well clear of this frustrating boggy beast.
Actually BobC, I thought that Shane Herring was responsible for the Banana boards of the 90's. You also had a few (mostly Sydney) pro's and sponsored surfers on them like Mike Rommelse and (hazy memory) Col Bernasconi (sponsored local) but most punters worked out pretty quickly that they had a small window of functionality and gave them a wide berth.
Kelly, on the other hand, was more responsible for popularising the ultra-thin 'Toothpick' boards that only light weights like him (at the time) could get a reasonable paddle out of. Everybody else struggled but for some reason continued to persist for a while before they also died a quiet death (the popularity of the boards, not the riders).
I think most people these days are more attuned to what works in the widest variety of waves and will stick with that. If it's good enough for 33 of the top 34 surfers on the tour then that is better than 1 out of the 34 who appears to have lost his way. Those of us with long memories will be less inclined to follow Kelly down another Red Herring (or is that Herro???) path.
Got a 6'4 proton, goes really well. Single concave, pretty simple overall, rounded squash. Its actually a lot of fun to surf. They don't make them anymore apparently only to order
i think bb has a good view and because hes my old mate who used to loan me his 6 channel singley at the bluff in 93 and not to mention suggested i check the place out a few years previous , he knows whats up , thats you eh barrell ? hey i lost your ph number, you got mine hit me with some contact mate
Got it mate
yeah i sent you a mesg this morn and no reply ya madman !
Looks like Kelly has got off his Banana board.
Doesn't look like either of his other two models, i did see on social media a few days ago he had three new Tomos made up though.
I wonder if he watched the footage of himself surfing Snapper and realised how slow and boggy he looked in those flat sections.
It probably did, i guess he is getting ready for bells now, so good to see he is on a different board hopefully a sign he is not going to try to use the banana at bells, although if it's moved to Winki he might be tempted and it could well work there.
I think it was all a case of him just being over keen to surf the banana, kind of how sometimes you check your favourite surf spot, knowing conditions aren't right but just being to positive and hoping they really are right.
If the waves had been like we have seen a few weeks back, i think all this talk about his board would have been much different.
Kelly Slater Will Go Back To The ‘Banana Board’ For Trestles
http://stabmag.com/news/kelly-slater-to-go-back-to-the-banana-board-for-...
I like the last bit of the article, hope conditions are perfect for the boards or at the very least i hope Kelly spends some time surfing trestles on these boards before the comp, so atlas we get to see some footage of him on them ripping.
The criticism of the banana did “irritate” the champ, says Webber, but ultimately commentators need to understand what he is trying to achieve.
“He’s trying to generate speed and find lines in a part of the wave that no one has experienced yet.”
“He knew he didn’t wanna be the same old Kelly forever. So the people that moronically say, oh go back to your fucken CIs, go ride a normal board, shut up you morons, seriously.”
“We’ve got an opportunity to watch the greatest of all time break new ground and you’re influencing him to go back to dull boring old boards,” he says.
“We’ve got an opportunity to watch the greatest of all time break new ground and you’re influencing him to go back to dull boring old boards"
Aren't bananas boring old boards from 20-30 years ago? Not sure why Greg is offended at the criticism of his boards at Snapper. They went like shit there.
Because they're not intended for 2-3 foot high tide waves. It shouldn't have been ridden there.
I've had a few chats with Greg about it and I understand why he's frustrated. Just as a flat rockered fish wont perform in steep bowly waves the Banana struggles in flat waves. The difference, however, is that no-one criticises the fish when it doesn't surf well in tubes, yet everyone is ultra critical when the Banana doesn't work in mush.
Figure that out..?
Also, as per the above link, I've had a different chat with Greg about Trestles boards but we'll wait and see what transpires.
"It shouldn't have been ridden there" but it was, and neither the 11x champ or Greg has said that afaik..?
GW definitely has, not sure about KS.
Flippin' 'eck. Just had a 'you have mail' notificfation and saw the sender was Swellnet, in my mind I was immediately packing my bag for for the Pulse charter and all it was was telling me you'd replied! Hurry up and put me out of my misery will ya!
3 foot waves might be exactly what Trestles dishes up and yes Trestles is a pretty flat faced wave. In fact of all the waves on tour I'd say the right at Snapper (when it's not barrelling) is probably most similar to the right at Trestles.
"Trestles is likely to provide more drive and punch than the lacklustre Snapper conditions served up for the opening event, and Webber believes the banana design will be in its element. "
Highly contentious statement. Trestles is a weaker, slower, fatter faced wave than Snapper......it's one of the main reasons Matt Biolos boards, with their extra volume and more user friendly rockers are so in demand by the pros and go so well there.
Lots of flatter sections to glide over there, even when it's bigger.
But good luck to kelly, lets hope he doesn't derail his momentum with boards that don;t work in the prevailing conditions.
These are 30 min heats not freesurfs.
Hello all,
Found this online. It gives a great explanation to the design.
heck, i wonder what people said about the first quad , twin , gasp.....even thruster when it was first unveiled in competition?
.
Freeride articulated my thoughts exactly. Kelly is on a tear riding proven equipment, i reckon he should stick to those and save the bananas for the free surfs. Trestles is a fun wave but at any size it still aint no Snapper.
So what happens when you flatten out the rocker in , so its got normal rocker , and put a 70's winger Stinger , whats the design revolution?
You get a faster board that is way more pivoty in the pocket !..... Better than just wacking a crazy tail or weird extreme concave in like some do and hoping for the best ..... I'm sold!
yeah pivoty in the pocket ,girl turns!!
Don't sit on the banana , as its flat now , , get stung by the Stinger , Swallow deep and there you go , you can be GW sex toy!!
Not girl turns damn it!!... Graceful cool as shite surfing .... You just need a twinny or a stinger and button up shirt on ( unbuttoned of course) while hipstering out. A black spray painted mural on the bottom of your board usually helps too... Truly individual
Not girl turns damn it!!... Graceful cool as shite surfing .... You just need a twinny or a stinger and button up shirt on ( unbuttoned of course) while hipstering out. A black spray painted mural on the bottom of your board usually helps too... Truly individual
truly individual , like emu beer , or ,well are there any micro brewers over there on the outer side of Australia?