The bottom turn…. Continued.

If you think about the way we surfed, and for that matter what we surf, changed pretty radically in just those few years from 1967 to ‘70 - ‘71. As I mentioned in my post of July 6, for me it started with the bottom turn.

Looking for a way to ride a wave without moving around on your board was what drove board design. Interesting that all the changes took place on a very grass roots level. There were no big pro surf events, no big sponsors that put good surfers on the payroll so all they had to do was surf. There were a couple surf magazines and some guys making surf films so we all could see a little of what was going on but, the advances in surfing around California was put on by all the local core guys up and down the coast that did what they needed to do to get by and still have time to surf as much as possible.

I think most people didn’t understand the surfer. We weren’t interested in making money or getting ahead. We just wanted to go surf. Got to have a roof over your head and you need transportation, so find some work that will get you that and a surfboard, of course, and that’s it… go surf.

Why? We wanted to work on that bottom turn. You know the one that you put all your weight into, with your board on extreme bank out on the flats. You’ve got full G force dynamic with weight, gravity, rail, fin and water that when released launches you down the line and back up the wave face to set up your next move. It could be a ride out on the shoulder for a turn back or a long calculated slide down the line for distance. One way or another you’d be looking to set up another bottom turn. When your ride was over… paddle back to the line up with full adrenaline and mind impressions flashing through your head of that last wave. Ready to do it all over again, only better.

All the uncharted places on the wave face that starts with a bottom turn…

D.R.

Dan Riley at a Ventura County point. The full force bottom turn. Circa 1972.