Recently Stu wrote an insightful and informative piece entitled 'Slater's Arc' that traced the evolution of the rail turn from the power gouge of the eighties into the controlled tail drifting that the Momentum Generation popularised in the early-nineties.

Analysing the classic shot of Kelly showcasing the new technique needed to slide the tail Stu wrote:

“Slater's counter-weighted body position shows it's deliberate and controlled. It also shows photographic flair: the cheek-puffing exertion, the flying side-kick, the Kecak hands."

Cheeks puffed, flying side-kick, Kecak hands.

If you're a bodyboarder you know this description, the image it evokes. But it isn't of Kelly. More on that later.

Jack Lindholm was a native Hawaiian who was bodyboarding's first superstar. While experimenting on an early Morey Boogie kit board at Sandy Beach in the early-seventies, he found himself standing with one leg up near the nose and one knee down on the back corner of the tail and realised it was a functional way of wave-riding. Jack took his 'Jack Stance' riding technique to Pipeline and charged ten foot barrels on boards that today would be classified as pool toys.

In a lineup dominated by Lightning Bolt downrailers, Jack Lindholm stood out: different equipment, different stance, different attitude (Divine)

Jack's efforts inspired others to adopt what evolved to be called dropknee riding. While many early bodyboarders both proned and dropkneed depending on wave conditions, a few became almost exclusively devotees to DK. One of these was a tall, skinny, sandy-blonde kid from Encinitas in California named Paul Roach.

A natural in the water, a young Roach was winning the early bodyboard contests he entered with ease. He picked up sponsors like Quiksilver and Morey Boogie and embarked on a pro career. When quizzed on why he transitioned to ride almost exclusive dropknee, Roach stated:

“You know, all I can think is that it is really fuckin’ hard to do and I needed the challenge.”

While earlier DK riders like Lindholm and eighties stars Keith Sasaki and Jay Reale sat lower on their back knee in a more squat position, the tall, lanky Roach pushed out his chest and sat bolt upright above his board. This afforded him greater leverage to pump and manipulate his 43 inches of finless foam to generate greater speed and perform harder turns.

With a hyperactive, charismatic personality and an attitude born of a love of SoCal skate Punk and Heavy Metal Roach liked to ride aggressively and fast. He was soon whipping his board through turns and lip bashes that redefined and inspired what, where, and how was possible.

While much of the eighties and early-nineties bodyboarding scene (particularly in competitions) was dominated by riders doing 360 spinners to the beach, Roach’s dropknee riding was all rail and all power.

Speaking into the camera in the introduction to his breakout video section in Scott Carter's film 'Bodyboarding: Enough Said' he monologues. “My name is Paul Roach, and one of these days we're going to stop spinning, and you know what happens then? Boom! Tail!”

Remember Stu’s description of the Slater carve above, “the cheek-puffing exertion, the flying side-kick, the Kecak hands”? That was Paul Roach “throwing the tail”, but instead of the motion coming at the end of a carve and sliding along the wave face, he was fly-kicking oncoming close out sections and blowing the back out of lips.

Stu’s breakdown of Kelly's turn reads, “Slater had unweighted his back foot and shifted bodyweight onto his front foot. With that, the rail is released, the board is laid flat”. Roach was doing the same thing, just tilted 90° and aimed at the lip.

The secret sauce in the Roach attack was the way he was able to extend and straighten his back kneeling leg as he contacted the lip in a kicking motion, while simultaneously hooking his back foot and flipper over the tail of the board. This locked the board in, prevent it from flinging free of his control, and allowing it to be brought back in and under the body as the snap ended.

Like Slater, Roach's hands conveyed the unfolding drama, as did the leg extension (with foot locking onto the board's tail), the move always ending in a shroud of spray.

In his teenage years, Roach honed this vicious, snapping, whipping style of dropknee at Seaside Reef in California. He became friends with a young surfer and aspiring filmmaker who was working on a surf film project for his school media course. The filmmaker's name? Taylor Steele. Taylor was also filming his other buddies like Rob Machado, Taylor Knox, Kalani Robb, and later Slater and Shane Dorian when they came to Cali. That school project eventually grew and evolved until it was released as the seminal surf movie 'Momentum'.

From the outside it's difficult to say to what extent Roach's style of dropkneeing had in influencing the way the new school Momentum crew did their turns. Mayhaps the tail sliding turns of the Momentum Generation and Roach's tail throwing approach was part of a wider Zeitgeist of the then-New School of surfers exploring and expressing different ways wave riding from the generation before then.

What is certain is that Roach and the Momentum members routinely shared lineups and knew each other out of the water - Roach is the guy in Momentum whacking Slater around with the boxing gloves before the film's closing section - so undoubtedly there was some cross-pollination of style and wave riding technique.

While the Momentum Generation went on to dominate the surfing world, Roach continued on for a few years as a professional bodyboarder. He was a part of the 'No Friends' crew that filmed and released hugely popular films in the boogin' world and inspired a legion of dropknee devotees who mimicked his riding, attitude, and musical preferences. When the sponsor cheques dried up and the bills needed to be paid, he humbly faded from the spotlight, began working in carpentry, raising kids, and surfing when he could.

Aside from his position as the touchstone for dropknee riders around the world, it's at least arguable that Roach's influence carries on into the wider surfing sphere to this day.

When John John Florence came off the bottom, sized up the lip, and then blew it apart with a tail throw snap for a perfect 10 at the Margaret River Pro a few weeks ago, I couldn't help but think that somewhere in California, one Paul Roach might have seen that footage and perhaps said quietly to himself, ”Yer, Boom! Tail!

//DAN DOBBIN