Underwater fin surfing...

[bluh2o]

Are we talking Kauai? If so I'd suggest some kind of time table for getting this party started. Say we agree on when. Early spring break is fairly good, like second week of March. Or middle of January or summer. Actually summer might be good for this crew because the diving's at it's best and there's usually some kind of wave action just not the huge macking winter swells (which are too big to sub in anyway) Then maybe agree that confirmed air tickets be posted about a couple months prior. (at least a couple of 'em) With that I can find and reserve a suitable house (er. Convention site) We do this all the time for visiting friends and family. The only difference is the activity schedule would be my kind of fun; Surf, surf, dive, surf, dive and of course lots of eating and drinking to keep up the energy. I nominate Noa as our association President and chief instigator.

 

[noa]

Ok guys, we've passed the 3000 viewings mark, that makes me happy. Connor you say you're too far ? no mate, i'm too far (Europe) but when there's a will... anyway if you could make it, it'll be great to have you there. Pete, Tim and Tom, yeah i'm thinking next winter in Kauai. first, i can't leave here before end of October and that's when swell season starts anyway. true it might be a bit big for us but i guess we'll just have to ride the smaller breaks. my ideal plan would be to go to Kauai sometime in November/December, meet up with everyone and do our thing. then stay on for some more weeks and train, after which i'll be going to Maui to do a bit of foilboarding and more subsurfing and ideally i want to go to Oahu to check out the bodysurfing comp at Pipe and if it was small (pretty unlikelly) do some sort of a subsurfing demo to generate some interest. so, that's where i stand in my time frame and plans, how does that work for the rest of you ? Pete, i take it you could write a story on this event, for this site, what's your opinion ?
delphicly,
Noa

 

[laminar]

Hi Noa and everyone,

November is a good time to go because its an off-season for air travel. I don't know how long I'll be able to stay because I expect to be busy with this new Liquivision thing. I'd hope to stay for at least 10 days and like Noa, visit Maui for some windsurfing and maybe the big Island to freedive with Annabel and Matt. The other alternative would be January, for sure. I wouldn't be able to confirm my ticket until this fall, say September.

Noa, tell me more about foil boarding. Is that like what Rush Randle does?

You can count on an article with photos. I should also pitch it to other mags in the surfing world as something different. The arty magazines might bite.

Sounds great!

Pete

 

[dexter]

I'm keen whenever, wherever. I'll obviously need time to plan but have no preference so long as I'm home for Christmas.

Cheers for all your offers of hospitality Tom. It sounds like we're in for a corker of a time.

By the way, correct me if I'm wrong guys but this is NOT AN EXCLUSIVE EVENT. If anyone reading this thread is at all interested in getting together for what's shaping up to be a trip filled with diving, beaches, like minded blokes to talk trash with, and of course a bit of sub-surfing, then speak up because the more the merrier.

The same goes for this thread. If you've got something to say, or a question to ask, don't be shy.

Tim

 

[bluh2o]

Here, here! If you're headed to Kona after, I wanna go! Matt, Annabelle, Bill, Darron and who ever else they're diving with are good fun! Take me back to Honaunau! I followed a eight foot or nine foot Manta along a ledge on my last dive with Matt a couple years ago. It was great and so were my host's. I've got a good place for a few divers to stay there but it's up the mountain 20 minutes.

November is a good time for sure, off season for plane tickets and rentals. Don't be surprised if it rains some of the time and the Tiger sharks are out! You've heard of Bethany Hamilton? She's on my kids soccer team and plays pretty well with one arm. Surfs well too. Just the other day I got out of the water at Kalihiwai, it was breaking big and nasty. A friend pulled up and looked out, all pumped. He's looking at the boulders and logs pushed up onto the lawn he just mowed and say's "I don't know. I didn't think it was this big!" I replied as the sets were growling in and breaking boards and surfers, "Well if you don't want to go out I don't blame you but a skinny one armed fourteen year old chick just went out and she's gettin' some good waves!".

Hanalei Bay is generally a great place for Bodysurfing/underwater takeoffs and Subsurfing. The spots that go off around the bay are numerous even though the bay is not huge. It's a crescent and from the main break there's; Summer's,"The Bay", the Bowl, and some others. Then the Pier, Kiddie's, Pavillion's, the Cape, Monster mush, Reforms, Pine trees, Grandpa's, Toilets, Middles, Waipa, Chicken wings and Wiakokos.

My favorites for Subsurfing? Pinetrees, Pavillions or the Cape. Bodysurfing? Reforms (a winding fast right) and Waikoko's (see past post).

Tim, I agree, no matter what our numbers or the weather a good time can be had by all.

Noa the Pipeline event would be a blast for you. Either to see or surf in. But not intending to pour water again of the promote-ability of this enlightened activity, the Subsurfing genre of Bodysurfing is really the bottom. To be kind a demo would be tough, you can't even see it from shore!

Get this guy over here and pour him a Mai Tai! It's a miracle to me that this thread exists. Every now and then I pop up and a surfer will startle and say, "Dude! I thought you were a shark or something" That's about all the recognition I'll get before he returns to burning me on the next wave!

Don't forget to bring dive stuff!

 

[noa]

Hey guys, ok good to see we agree on a time frame. same case for me, i'll be able to book my plane tickets and have exact dates sometime in September. Pete foilboarding is what Randle, Hamilton, Kalama, to name a few, do with a hydrofoil board. check out www.foilboarding.com and www.neilprydemaui.com for some info. in regards to an article, i think there could be many mags interested if we create a good story with interesting pictures. as Tim stated again this whole thing is 333% opened to all, join in when you want, how you want. Tom, i've been thinking about the tigers but i hope we can all share the ocean in peace. Bethany still goes in and rips, after what she went through that takes serious courage. that girl is true inspiration, i'd love to share some waves with her this winter. about Pipe, i would just want to check it out and if it's possible for me to subsurf it i will. i don't want to play hero, i'll take a step at a time and see how far i can go with it all. i don't know what the attitude is in Hawaii, but i can say that in Sydney i was getting some good recognition from the surfers by the time i was leaving. if i had not left two years ago, my opinion is that subsurfing would have gotten some press coverage by now. i remember sharing the line up and getting odd looks at first. but when they kept on seeing me out there with them doing my thing they started getting curious and paddled over to ask me about it. sometimes they would tell friends who would come down to the beach to check out the wannabe merman surfer and more than once have people crowded on the water's edge to observe my antics only to tell me afterwords that they where trying to figure out if it was a human or a dolphin in the surf. i've found that subsurfing with a monofin gets people more interested. it might be the esthetics or the fact that they make a connection with what the dolphins do and find that more appealing.
delphicly,
Noa

 

[bluh2o]

Noa, How long/big/flexible is the blade of your fin? I tried a small mono in a pool once but I think it was first generation technology. It about ripped my legs and lumbar area apart. Not a good first impression.

T

 

[noa]

For subing it's gotta be stiff to get quick speed for take off. monos are an aquired taste but once you get used to them there is no going back (at least in my books). the one i curently use is a big and stiff (but stil too soft for subsurfing) carbon monofin by Specialfins.
delphicly,
Noa

 

[Solo]

Very interesting to read about dolphins, and human "subsurfing", riding waves underwater.

Noa asked...

"is there anybody else out there doing this. I really think that there must be, it's imposible that no one else has thought of this and tried it. If you are out there i want to know, i want to communicate, this is too fun to not share"

That question has been answered and documented..

Over 8 years in the making, the incredible experience of surfing with wild dolphins.. from a dolphin's point of view. A 35mm film by George Greenough.

http://www.dolphinglide.com/

 

[dexter]

hmmm, interesting. Not quite sure how this answers Noas question about people riding waves underwater but it looks like it'll make for good viewing. Will be interested to see if anyones actually in the water or if they're just holding a camera underwater to capture some dolphin footage.

Cheers Solo

 

[Solo]

George Greenough:

"Once I decided to shoot 35mm, I wound up having to pull one of my Mitchell cameras to bits and rebuild it into the shape where it looks like a tuna now, or maybe a baby dolphin-- very streamlined. If I'd left the camera in its original form, I wouldn't have been able to bodysurf like a dolphin. I wouldn't have been able to keep up with the wave...

"In some of the scenes you can see dolphins that are moving with the wave just like surfers. Once I've caught the wave there's so much pressure involved... But once you get in the right place in the wave it will draw you along with it, even though you're fully underwater. And that's basically the position I was putting the camera in. I was catching the wave and riding it underwater with the camera held out ahead of me. I also have a boat which I can run in the surfline with the camera suspended from an underwater camera crane...

"At times the camera is only inches below and behind the surface of the wave. If you watch dolphins surfing, they are very, very close to the surface... The dolphins themselves seem quite interested in what I'm doing. They've come up and talked to me while I was underwater swimming with the camera...

"It's the lighting that makes it-- when you're out there surfing with the dolphins, right around sunset, you wonder why they go nuts at that time of day, then you see the colors that occur underwater. And to think they're gliding along through those colors with that feeling of no resistance. While I'm out there with forty pounds of camera gear, kicking my guts out to get going on a wave-- they're just gliding along effortlessly, then one jumps through the face of the wave six feet into the air and disappears from my field of vision..."

Excerpt from "Dolphin Glide with George Greenough", The Surfer's Journal, Summer 1995, Vol. 4, No. 2.

 

[noa]

YES YES YES ! that last picture Solo, that's exactly what it looks like when riding underwater and when you see the wave curling and tubing...unreal. next winter in Hawaii, we're gonna shot and film it all then send it out to the world. gotta get in touch with Greenough, he already knows exactly what this is all about. thanks again Solo, great eye opener.
delphicly,
Noa

 

[Solo]

Noa-

Many thanks... I'm happy to have been of assistance.

 

[cdavis]

That is absolutely OUTSTANDING!!! Is there any possibility of getting a video copy of this film?? Wow!

Connor

 

[dexter]

Nice. That makes a bit more sense than what I could find on the website. Is the vid finished yet?

 

[Patrick]

Solo,
As cdavis, I too would like to track down a copy of the film. What do you think the time line is for the release of the DVD?
Patrick

 

[Solo]

Patrick-

I'm sorry, but I have no specifics on the release of a Dolphin Glide DVD.

George Greenough has no email address, but may be contacted by phone: Country Code (61) 266-877090 or mail: P.O.Box 611, Byron Bay, NSW Australia 2481

I hope this was helpful.

 

[noa]

Guys, to start out with, go check out the site www.dolphinglide.com and from there there's a link to Greenough's personal site also, that way you'll start getting some info. it's a bummer that he has no e-mail, i guess i'm gonna call him, start blabbing away about subsurfing and see what happens. would of been good if he could read this thread before so he gets an idea of who we are and what we're up to.
delphicly,
Noa

 

[Solo]

http://www.kochgallery.com/artists/contemporary/Levin/

 

[noa]

Solo you trully are a source of wealth of information, we most certainly need you. Where are you based ? Now, how much better would those guys look if they where wearing monofins and perhaps swimming suit pants (Speedo "fastskin" type) to add to the whole merman effect ? The visual potential of subsurfing is huge, we have not even skimed the surface yet !
delphicly,
Noa