Photos: Derek Hynd's permanent revolution
More compelling than any passing fad is Derek Hynd's devotion to friction free. While elsewhere the Olos and Alais and various fins free craft have slipped to the back of the racks, Hynd is still pursuing his idiosyncratic slide, spending summertimes at The Pass, winters at Jeffreys Bay.
These photos were taken a few days ago amidst preparation for the J'Bay Open. The second board Derek is riding is a Jed Done fish, the same board he rode on a 2008 cover of SW magazine with a tagline trumpeting Viva le Revolution!
Ten years on, and despite his comrades relenting and taking up fins, Derek's revolution is still rolling on.
All photos by Aaron Hughes
Comments
He's almost standing diagonally across the board, one foot either side of the stringer, side-saddle style. Check his stance in the second last shot then his back foot in the last shot.
These photos are beautiful.
Agree. 10x better than anything the WSL is running on their website.
DH, you are a talented surfer, but your persistance in surfing a long board at the Pass in Byron Bay without a legrope or fins is dangerous and pissing a few locals off. You and a few other fuckers need to wake up and respect other peoples, kids, safety. Do you own a house ? Well you wont for long once you injure someone and they sue you and anyone else who thinks its cool . Wake up and show some respect.
Any ideas on how DH lost his eye?
Come on, leashes aren't designed as a safety device for the wearer nor the rest of the line up. They're convenient yes; safe, don't count on it. Safety stems from awareness and surfing within your limits. Some of the gnarliest accidents I've seen at The Pass are when someone discards their nine longboard with zero thought, care or responsibility to wherever the 3m radius of leash is going to whip it.
Call out unsafe surfing for sure. But don't for a moment think a surfboard is any less dangerous because it's attached to a 3m elastic cord!
Within a 3m radius, you're right. Beyond it, you're wrong.
I love that he's found something that resonates so deeply.
And by the grace of God, JBay is such a beautiful looking wave.
Bionic knees?
Derek Hynds permanent diversion.
the best surfer in the water is the one having the most fun.
Ok, I am like a toggle switch that has largely seized up due to bitterness, other shit, bitterness, other shit, bitterness, other shit.
This is the one time the toggle switch got stuck in the middle, it was momentary.
In gaming, if you find something purple, it is awesome. Ipso facto, what ever that means, you must have found something awesome.
I could write a story, I am sure.
And I will asure you I have the speed, I have felt it.
I have a play of sorts, it is based on the album TIME
I have been listening to it for over thirty years.
Last night, I wrote over three pages of that stuff that that stuff that they say when you try to put a foundation of something. I had an intermission with cartoons, another part, that had dancing.
There should be surfing in there somewhere, cause it is my story. I am not to sure if is relevant to anyone else. But I could make it.
Talk about flogging stuff. But there is a story to be told, I have always known it. If it coincidnes with the reast of the world, fine.
I like it that he does'nt thrust. I don't thrust either. That makes at least two people who don't thrust. I don't feel so alone now.
Gary's got enough thrust for both of us, Halibut.
You're justa nother thrusta, Gary
Three, Halibut. Single fins since the start. Terry Fitz is another. Most of the local longboard crews are more. Then there's Geoff and the Nugget, Zap and Astron Zot riders - many of those swear by the single and don't pump, wiggle or chop hop.
You are not alone.
It's been a pleasure to see Derek in the surf from time to time. The clarity of expression and the intellect - wonderful to see.
That's beaut VJ, so great to hear the good news of the unthrusting few.
The earth is a ship full of thrusting fools
Wildly thrusting away they go
With their thrusting tools and their thrusting ways
Thrusting here, thrusting there
So much thrusting does there be
Such busy-ness at sea that it's become
Difficult to see
Anybody surfing
Nope, not me, I am not surfing, but, surely would like to be.
It seems I am not the only poet, it is confronting.
Dr. Suess rode a single fin I believe.
Ok, I would I like to see that picture book.
If you look at the kids, so many times their boards are actually stalling in trim, hence the big pump like an olly motion to take it out of its stall and get that jet of water. So the boards end up being stall-pumped off the fins through the high line of the wave, head over mid section all all weight forward, then whoa, up goes an aerial with a reverse. The best will use the speed in this pumping in the top of the wave to go down and into full turns, rail turns. But otherwise the rail turn is disappearing. Lines are being drawn far more in a traverse across the wave rather than top-to-bottom rail turns for many recreational surfers.
With the single you have to use the rail to project distance, you point it down more on takeoff, and that first heavy turn sets up the wave. It's more like a martial art in that you are limited to surfing with the wave, rather than skating lines all over it. Singles don't do that initial squirt for speed so you use extra foam to get in earlier and get the gravity working with you that bit earlier. Top to bottom backhand at 5-6ft is a joy, as is the forehand projection and distance covered down a point at that size. When the single goes wide tail and soft underside rails, the game changes.
At the doc's yesterday, they had a copy of Pacific Longboarder, so I flicked through. Some of the most dramatic pics were total power turns in the pocket, fades then huge bottom turns, wake disappearing back up the face really fast. That is surfing. Swellnet doesn't show enough pics of turns like that.
Boom!!
What is this style called?
https://imgur.com/gallery/oZ731MX
LOL surfing ducks, classis!
Keep an eye on the very last duck. He loves taking out his buddies in style.
Exactly VJ, the best laugh I get at my local lately, is seeing the "newbie" hipster longboarders "pumping" their parallel railed carving machines as if they are 6'2" thruster - seriously confused about what is required to actually trim or turn the board correctly.
VJ I agree that a lot of surfers on thrusters are not rail turning. I love thrusters but they make it easy for learners to wiggle across the mid-face under the delusion that they are ripping. I favour them because of their ability to change direction at any time. I remember the incredible feeling of freedom surfing the early ones. Suddenly a whole new world of possibilities opened up. It is easy to take some purist attitude that if you can't pick the perfect line, which is what you have to do on a single fin, too bad. Reality for most of us is that we are not surfing perfect waves and usually have to deal with some degree of surface irregularity as well as suddenly changing wave faces. The mobility of thrusters copes with that in ways singles just don't. Thrusters also allow wider tails with greater planing area and (sorry but it's true) deeper, longer bottom turns as well as the ability to adjust the line out of the top, try that on a single, whoops bogged rail again! Singles have their place, usually under the feet of excellent surfers in bigger waves!
For sure BB, they have the improvement of being able to turn beyond the natural arc at any time. Just don't get addicted to it at the expense of all else! And the early ones (we have a 1981 Energy) with the wide tail are a treasure. And all those things you mention, apart from the longer bottom turns bit - one of the narrow pin tail singles with straight rail (and flyer perhaps) will bottom turn for yards and yards - look at the famous pic of TF at 81 Bells on the 7'4, it's massive. To this day I've never seen a pic of a faster, bigger bottom turn. Maybe I'm talking projection or distance covered and you are talking hard turns in and around the pocket... In my own way, I've compared a modern 6'5 thruster with one of my 6'5 singles in 5ft surf on the points at home, the straight rail single goes for more yards off the bottom turn all things equivalent, making sections the thruster will get caught behind. A single to double concaved HB goes a bit further and faster. Toledo on his board goes faster still. In little beachies the thruster will outperform, then folks go quad for the forehand speed or twinny for the freedom. You can get away with very wide tails on the single and perform - Cheyne did it so long ago, you just leave out the edged underside rail till after the fin. In fact I think he paddled into Waimea on a 5'8 version of it (Stu did a story on this). The purist lines are a feeling of joy as is the lift but the single will lose speed off the top turn and so a 2+1 can solve this preserving the single feeling. The closest thruster to true love I've ever had is a Byrne 6 channel, the channels and track seeming to create lines in between the looseness of turns. Modern rails, and dome decks make either design more relatable. For me the die is cast and I love the single feeling and I know how I want to surf for the rest of my life.
Derek would be reading this and having a chuckle; he is on a different plane.
Derek was always an extreme talent. I was lucky enough to see a lot of him in the early days and in my judgement he was the best small to medium wave surfer of that generation. Caught up with him a few months ago and had a long chat though it was about unrelated issues. Still that rarest of things, a complete original!
He was a towering influence here starting at Litmus & it was his words initially. Meeting up north ("Drouin shaped tails like that in '72," he said of my board - then surfing with my son & Derek in the water. Finless on both occasions, confident and smooth.
To what extent would you think longboards and singles coming back around early 90's (now a movement complete with Kombis and cliche) are a reaction, or counter-revolution, to what the thruster had become by then?
I think a lot of it was a reaction to the competitive attitudes of the 70s and 80s. Every generation wants a point of difference from the previous one. Earlier generations changed board designs or put polka dots on their board shorts. The early 90s was the beginning of the nostalgia trend which has continued and intensified ever since. I understand why people go there but there is part of me that reverts to the culture I grew up in ......... which was pretty much the old "Go hard or go in!" As for Kombis, haven't these people heard of crumple zones ? Do they know that they are likely to fall over in a stiff sea breeze? Truly horrible vehicles!
Agree with everything you say. Started on a single but once I got a twinnie I thought this is it and once I finally got a decent thruster (those early Simon rip offs were dogs with fleas for me), made surfing even more fun, with the option of Quads to boot. You can now take off on any wave of your skill level and know you will make it to the bottom, with those old boards there was a bit of luck in it. Kombis were crap, they used to change lanes on their own, the old Kingswood HT wagon was better and more reliable. And yeah, I wouldn't want to be in front end prang.
Long live the memories of the HG and HT wagons, my favorite Holdens. I owned a 60's Kombi when I was 17 and it was the worst vehicle of all the cars I've owned, it drove like a loaf of bread and had the acceleration of a wet tea towel and it had a 6volt battery, the high beam looked like a torch beam.
Yeah my HT went from Melbourne to WA and back; Sydney and back; Canberra and back; and every weekend down the beach. Dropped a new wrecker 186s in it for bugger all when the motor died and it even had disc brakes on the front. Its greatest claim to fame was when we were coming back from a trip to the south coast of NSW and a CUB truck overturned with Fosters cans and slabs all over the road and verge. We loaded it up to the absolute brim, crammed in the front seat, and drove back to Melbourne whilst waving at the cops as they went the other way.
It was the late '70's early 80's when I had mine, white roof with a cool green body and a 186 and three on the tree gears, almost bullet proof and sooo easy to fix. Those days having a tinny on the way home after a night out was the norm, if you got caught chances were you got sent home with a defect and a warning...... my how things have changed.
Kombies are good when they are parked.
Ha ha so true, had two when younger, they were fun to drive but gutless as anything and fuel guzzlers, but awesome to just hang in the car park in.
Is that a statement or a philosophy?
A joke.
Sorry, the pot being ignorant of the kettle, I hate when that happens.
The air cooled motors didn't like temps over 40, blocks cracked in the heat, they weren't fast; and the easily tunable, cheap to repair 161s, 186s, 173s and 202s in the Kingswoods for $1000 were a much better bet in the early 90s.
Brace yourselves for the electric Kombi which I believe VW has in the works for 2020 or so...
Twin Pin. If you wanna ride long boards. Do it in uncrowded areas. Not the Pass or other crowded point breaks where young kids have no chance against a lost board. There has been some horrific injuries because of this. Not denying there are injuries with attached boards. But a lot of people, dad's etc, aren't happy with the continual ignorance of riders who say they don't fall off, and show total disregard for another surfers safety. I come from an era ofno leggies, but there's a lot more surfers in the water now. And I respect a great surfer like DH but continually showing disregard to another surfers safety ? And he does lose his board.
And Dereks Peripheral vision not being 100%.
Its amazing that he can crouch so low !
He could do it to go faster ? Great skills DH
Whats he riding ?
A thin piece of shit.
It's mesuaraments 3 x 1 x fucknose
Got to agree with the comments above about the lack of consideration for the safety of fellow surfers or kids by those who don’t use leg ropes in crowded surf. I missed a whole summer because a dickhead without a leg rope fell off his trendy log mal, which then hit me and broke a couple of ribs. With the crowds we get these days there’s no place for loose boards washing through the line up.
beautiful photos.. I love the colours and you can really FEEL the glide... the freedom, ahh to be in jbay,, one day. Stunning waves and smooth surfing Derek.
Man, if I was going it invent a surfing video game, it would have the backdrop of these photos. As I said before, it is purple, I hope they had a drink after these sessions and thought about shit.
When he does that 360, it is like he is shaking of everything. These photos are special, in not the fact that it is expratial surfing. It is the release, one decent surfer, see, this I can what do.
And of course, he has his hangers on. You lookin at me?