WHOOSH!

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6802, 4 January 1929, Page 4

WHOOSH!

W

HOOSH— Down on the breast of a foaming comber! If horse-racing is the sport of kings, nobody can convince me that

board-shooting in the sizzling suft isn’t a thrill for the gods (writes Frank Foran, champion Sydney surf star). Spring on the board! Away you go! A hundred miles an hour! It seems like it, anyhow. Green vales of water tearing past you. Nobody in front. You’re all out —let her go, away on a sprhy-stinging, pulsequickening career to a distant strip of golden sand. But watch her direction, keep your head!

Otherwise it would be a very sensible idea if you called out the local ambulance corps to be prepared for any sensational emergency during your exhilarating stunts. That’s the whole idea.

Don’t do any board-shooting until you have made sure you are not going to be reckless, and until you have practised and know all there is to be known about the eight feet of timber beneath you. Somebody sent a surf board from Honolulu to the Surf Live-saving Association’s president, Mr. Patterson, in 1908, and a number of our chaps tried their hand at it, with some sort of success: but it was really Duke Kahanamoku who showed Sydney the true art, and he ought to be awarded a medal for it. New excitement was added to surfing. It made body-shooting feel like dog-paddling. How can I do it? How do you do it? Get a board first.

I think mine is the best on the coast. That’s why I have drilled a hole in it, so that I can chain it up and prevent anyone who might not appreciate it from using my cherished old craft. It is a redwood board, eight feet long, r and two feet wide, and three inches thick at the centre. Naturally it tapers—a board must taper. If it doesn’t, it will scarcely have a shoot in it. ..It is 20 inches wide at the back, and two inches thick. Its thickness forward, is one neighbourhood of the nose, is one inch. On the rear portion of it I screwed a wooden cleat, a batten, just to avoid splitting. The sides have a thickness of two inches and a half. Underneath it is not flat, but gently curved. 1 -

The first board I made was unsuitable, but I tried again, and the next satisfie4 my desires.: The board I now possess is the same old veteran I turned out years ago. I have fashioned dozens of boards, and the, only tools I ever required were a plane and a saw. Before the board is allowed near the water, give it two .coats of goldsize and one coat of varnish. Sandpaper the board, and renew its' protective coats every season. This will save it from the ruin-

The Joys of Shooting the Breakers . .. Exciting Pastime Calls for Steady Nerves and Great Accuracy

ous effects of sun and water. Always 'keep it under a roof out of the weather, or it will decay before you have had fair use out of it. Now you have your board. Then for the surf. Don’t go out too far, but practise first in the shallows. Stand at the rear of the board, looking sideways, and wait until a wave has broken. Then spring on your board, and go with it. But be careful—there is danger here, for if you lie too high you will slide over the top, and probably bash your head on the sandy floor of the bay. It is just as important not to lie too far back, because the front will have a tendency to cant up, and then there is the possibility of your getting dumped, the board lurching forward, leaping back, and- giving you a hard, lusty blow, which may dissuade you for ever from attempting to become an expert board-shooter. Try hard and you will • succeed—that is, if you have board-shooting in you, and you possess that little essential knack which makes boardshooting eventually simple. Strike a balance, and use your common sense, for it is all a matter of individual judgment. That is all I can impress upon you in that direction.

Presuming that you have now gained confidence, leap on to .the board and demonstrate that you own it, and that it will do all that you bid it to do. Spread your hands forward, and grasp the sides near the nose. If you find that your board is dipping, slide back a little, and you’ll balance her up again, bilt if it shows that it is determined to dip, and dip deeply, slide right off the board over the front; or you’ll see all the stars there are in the sport. If it betrays a tendency to dip down at the back, move up a little forward, and then the board will be even once more. Do not on any account overlook this—that it is inadvisable to commence board-shooting until you have Become a good body-shooter. There are some surfers, however, who will never become hoard-shooters at all. It is ofteD just pure luck.

If the board is not going as any normal well-behaved board should go, and you feel that there is . going to be a crash, don’t on any account go over the side. It’s dangerous. When you think that you .can essay a shoot on a big wave without any risk of serious injury, paddle out in 1 a calm channel, because it is much easier to get out there than to force yourself and your board against the incoming waves. Recline on the board until the wave is just about to break, and then paddle furiously with it. When your board is going, it is a good plan to stand up immediately, but to get right down again to the rudiments of this thrilling pastime, don’t do anything out of the ordinary until you are able with ease to shoot in on the board lying down.