You Need Extra Rocker To Surf Solander Like This

Cape Solander is what Australians call a “flat-bottomed wave”.

Which is to say, such a magnitude of water is drawn off the reef to fuel the warping mass that marches toward it, that the slow between the wall and the trough disappears entirely.

The result? Fucking nosedives. Lots of ’em.

Waves that look perfectly makeable in a lateral sense are botched by capable surfers when they take even an ounce of weight off the tail pad. 

The only reasonable solutions to this apparent epidemic?

1. Everybody grab a boog.

2. Add some rocker.  

Of course, neither of those are actually reasonable solutions. Laying down on the job is an admission of defeat, and adding a flip to your nose is a declaration of virginhood.

Remember when Anthony Walsh rode a literal elf shoe of a surfboard on that slab in Ireland? Positively heinous. He could have gotten the biggest, best, longest, deepest tube of all time and it wouldn’t have mattered. Because all we saw was a surfboard that looked like a bookish 6th grader with a surprise erection in gym class.

So, sorry Solander crew. You’re just gonna have to keep nosediving I guess. 

(Full respect to Ant though. One bad decision does not undo a lifetime of remarkable tube-riding.)