DANA POINT – High speeds, dramatic carves and cutbacks and the occasional big air are usually the images that come to mind when dealing with short board surfing.
But there is another style, almost a sub-culture in the surfing community that is usually forgotten about or brushed to the side, giving way to the flair of the short board.
Surfing a longboard does not involve picking up a lot of speed to make a big air move. nor does the style match the flash of its smaller, short board counterpart. The longboard is all about grace and ease and the ability to make surfing a wave while walking up and down a huge board look easy.
“Short board, it’s more radical, you’re trying to attack the wave. Longboarding you’re just trying to be one with the wave,” Laguna Beach senior Kris Williams said.
Williams, 18, who was one of 12 longboarders competing in qualifying heats Friday in the NSSA National Interscholastic Championships, won the first heat of the longboard semifinal at Salt Creek and will compete Saturday in the final against the others who have chosen this laid-back style of riding a wave.
The most prolific move in longboard surfing is the nose walk, where a surfer glides carefully up the length of the board and positions himself at the tip. From there the surfer can either make the tricky walk backward or try to stay on the razor’s edge for a few seconds more, earning style points.
Williams, who also surfs on a short board from time to time, is a follower of the graceful, nose-riding philosophy.
“It (nose riding) is what I do mainly. You don’t want to run up to the nose. You want to slowly step up there and make it look nice. … I like kind of being smoother with the waves,” Williams said.
The short boarders will be out at Salt Creek on Saturday as the finals begin, slashing and carving their way up and down the waves.
The longboarders will be the ones smoothly gliding along, making that notorious walk up and down their boards in that signature, laid-back style.
