Watch: Slater Wins Single Fin Division Of Lux Surf Comp
You may remember the Four Seasons Invitational which gets run every year. Effectively an advertisement for the luxury Maldives resort, the organisers invite a bunch of surfers, make them surf on boards with one, two, and three fins, and I'm not really sure how points get tallied but I'm assuming someone wins.
Anyway, winning isn't really the point. You're supposed to be wowed by the surfing and maybe consider buying a package at Four Seasons (prices start at $1,500 per person per night - get your fourth night free!)
This year, the organisers got the Momentum gang back together: Slats, Mob, Doz, Rossco, T-Knox etc etc. Would've liked to have seen Shane Herring or Shane Powell get a start but it's not to be.
First div is singlies and Slater takes the nod with some good surfing on limited equipment. For mine, it's a great study in the advantages of multi fin boards. Turns cut short, boards that struggle to go on rail, and despite proclamations to the contrary by purists, a lack of flow.
Comments
That first 30 seconds was the saddest thing in surfing I've seen for a little while.
I suppose we'll keep seeing this shit until the entire momentum generation fan base is dead...
Uh-uh...think, 'Sons of the Momentum Generation'.
Seeing those two bitches rep the four seasons like that...
Geez - really aiming for the Seppo market here?
Obviously no other country surfs..
Woulda been nice to see slats and dorian ride actual single fins instead of putting a single in to their regular five fin shorty.
I reckon coastal grandma got ripped off.
Great surfing from Slater, I didn't know a single fin could be turned so tight in the pocket.
If only the Australian coastal international owned resorts & companies would cough up for a flamboyant surf comp; instead of the State Govt's in WA, NSW & Qld... maybe management took the Aust Covid19 bailout payments & had holidays with their bonuses.... in some exotic location they may buy...
"The 2021-22 Budget committed an additional $41 billion in direct economic support, bringing total support since the beginning of the pandemic to $291 billion as of May 2021."
https://treasury.gov.au/coronavirus
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-10-29/jobkeeper-stimulus-used-to-fund-e...
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/sep/06/australian-compan...
Classifying JobKeeper payments in ABS economic accounts
JobKeeper payments will provide an estimated $70 billion of support from the Australian Government to eligible employers. The payments will be made by the Australian Taxation Office directly to eligible employers who will be directly responsible for ensuring that eligible employees receive a wage of at least $1,500 per fortnight for a maximum period of six months commencing on 30 March 2020.
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/business-indicators/economic-m...
Saw the title and really looked forward to that. But yeah, what was that?! It looks like they've just jammed a finbox into the centre of a standard thruster.
So I guess it's a good lesson that the modern shortboard shape will not easily provide the flow, lines, projection of a single. The short rail and rocker lengths contradict the long, drawn out bottom turns that project distance at speed, so they're fighting it looking for that time to pump the shape, and thus losing any flow that straight line speed provides. Also, where's the volume forward that makes so much of life so much easier? It's interesting in what aspects of modern design to carry forward, and what not to.
Also, next year let Joel Tudor, Devon Howard and CJ Nelson come along for the single division if you want similar aged surfers, let them design their own boards, and sit back and watch proper flow. The momentum generation aren't the ones to really do singles - even the younger crew are a much better fit and some of them are naturals at it.