From Jeff A.

Hi Paul,

I read what you wrote on the blog about biking and surf mats in pools which also struck home. I don't often get to actually surf on the mat and when I do, my arms are usually shot in short order. So last January I started training in my local community pool - with the mat. They weren't going to let me use it at first because they have a rule against inflatables. I explained to the pool manager that I was training for surfing. After he heard my explanation he said he would allow me to use the mat. I've been training basically 2 to 3 days a week there ever since.

The interesting part is that I've had two people, on separate occasions, who have wanted to try the mat in the pool. One was the pool manager and the other was a professional triathlon trainer. Both of these people are experienced swimmers. They both had exactly the same experience - after one lap (50 yards) they were exhausted! Their arms were shot. I was really shocked. I had always assumed that swimming would be a great conditioning exercise for surf paddling. That does not appear to be the case (I guess it's akin to running conditioning not being really helpful for hiking long distances.)

This also comes to mind: I started mat surfing a little over a year ago. (I already knew how to surf with a board before trying the mat.) So far, it seems very natural to me to be on the mat, surfing. I can control the mat and go where I 'will' it to go. I honestly can't explain exactly what I do to control the mat. I ride a mountain bike every day to work and back (about 2 miles each way). I ride no matter what - rain, and snow unless it's too deep. In the snow you really have to be conscious of your balance - minor weight shifting in the wrong place or wrong time can be unhealthy, ie; you fall. Somehow I think the weight shifting/awareness in the bike riding has helped my mat riding. Just a theory, but it's the only way I can explain why surfing on the mat seems so natural to me.

Jeff

Canvas 4GF

Mat courtesy of Florian Morlat collection

This is a Standard 4GF made out of canvas. Since the modified three pontoon concept worked so well with nylon fabric, it was worth a try. I even threw in some brass grommets and perimeter rope!

Not only did this mat ride nowhere near as well as a nylon 4GF, it wasn't as good as a Converse Hodgman in head-to-head comparisons. Which reinforced what we were beginning to suspect at the time...that each material calls for a different configuration of dimensions, pontoons, and I-Beams to maximize it's potential.

Slick Bottom Mats

Mats courtesy Florian Morlat collection.

During the summer of 1985 -- after the Standard 4GF shape had already evolved into what we were riding all the time -- I tried a couple of further experiments. This time, altering the bottom texture of the nylon mats.

I covered the bottom of two mats I had laying around with urethane. The idea was to see if a smoother bottom would enhance the performance of the mats.

Two part liquid urethane was used, with two different durometer readings. The clear urethane I had on hand was hard. The red was very soft. The application on both mats came out about the same, but you can see the minor thickness variations of the red urethane more clearly. (I used a combination of a squeegee and a paint brush to apply the urethane, which is pretty thick stuff even in the summer.)

Both mats surfed noticeably slower, and their inflation levels were much touchier to get right on any given day. And, both mats exhibited less glide. Presumably, the reasons was because the mats were stiffer and wouldn't relax and conform as easily when you let them flatten out. Plus they sometimes had to be ridden firmer -- since the smoother bottom fabric didn't hold in as well -- and this slowed them even further.

The red-bottom mat was slightly better, which made sense since the red urethane was softer. But both were real turkeys!

One other test was conducted. I fine sanded the sheen off the clear-bottom mat with 320 W/D, to try and regain some of the "wetted-out" feeling the slick urethane bottom had removed. The mat was improved somewhat, but it was still a long ways from being as good as the taffeta-textured nylon.

After a couple of weeks riding theses mats, I took a stock 4GF nylon mat out and couldn't believe how well it worked, or how good it felt!

Mat'N'Bike

Like PG says, bike riding is good training for mat riding. And matting is beneficial for cycling. Also, I've pedaled thousands of miles in various countries with my mat and fins in my backpack to get to the waves. Plus, after biking and surfing, napping on my mat before pedaling home completes the circle. These shots, however, are of me just riding...

Old School, Forehand Scoop

The hand scoop was a technique Greenough used to employ, especially riding weak waves with a fresh (meaning stiff and unbroken in) Hodgman raft. He would square up to a small section, reach forward with his inside arm, and pull himself forward through the section.

This sequence is from Innermost Limits. It's worth watching in live motion. You can really see the concept working.

Cross Training

As different as cycling and surfing (with swimfins) might seem, there's a way to derive similar fitness benefits from both activities.

This is poignant for me, because we're now living in Eastern Washington -- 5 hours from the coast -- for an indefinite period of time. (Caring for my mother, who's 90.) The obvious way to stay in shape to ride a mat would be to swim with fins at the local Y... and I may do that, especially next summer when the inland heat turns unbearable.

But there is a way to get tremendous benefit from cycling in a manner that relates to using fins. The key is the placement of your saddle. As you raise, lower, and move the saddle back and forth, different muscle groups come into play.

You can't, however, do much about the muscle groups you use when you are swimming with fins...other than changing fins.

So, what I started doing a few months before we moved up here was to kick as hard as I could for as long as I could on a mat. I paid close attention the what areas of my legs started to fatigue first. Then, I repeated the same process riding my bike. I climbed up hills in a seated position putting out as much effort as I could. Again, I noted what area of my legs became fatigued.

I began to move my saddle around until the same muscle group (mostly the outer part of my quads) fatigued first. I rode hard for a few weeks. Then I went for a mat surf. It felt like I had been in the water a couple hours every day...both in leg strength and "wind." Cross training in this manner really worked!

Generally speaking, the further forward and/or lower the saddle, the more effort is transferred to the upper parts of your legs. A higher and/or further back saddle shifts the effort to your lower legs. There's nothing new about these observation...and, this is an oversimplification. Further, it's important that your bike saddle position be comfortable when riding longer distances. There's some fiddling involved, and it take a lot of miles to really get it all fined tuned.

No one, least of all me, is saying that riding a bike is as fun as surfing...but it's a good alternative, with added fitness benefits for anyone who surfs or swims with fins.

Nice Lines

Mattitude

Photo: Joel Mayer

Mr. Dirk

Photo: Maria McCall

A variety of mats and riders leaving nice lines across wave faces.

Classic Positioning

This is an old frame grab of George Greenough. It's an example of ideal positioning on a mat...

His head is at the front of the mat, his left hand has a firm grip on the side of the outer rail, his weight is focused on the inside rail, and his fins are up...with the inside fin poised to drop into the water when called for. Notice how there's no water wrapping around the outer/back part of the mat. Even on this big, heavy, stiff mat, efficiency is possible.

Because George is so thin, and the mat he's riding is so large (the Converse/Hodgman Stripes Down model), the positioning of the rider on the mat is exaggerated...which is good in terms of a graphic example of this style of riding. Because most mat riders are larger and today's mats aren't as wide, the positioning shown in contemporary shots isn't as well defined, visually.

Stand Up Mat?

With stand up paddling (SUP) all the rage now -- someone just had to bring out the SUM (stand up mat)!

Mat Master Manuel -- The Lost Years

Sharp-eyed Surfmatter regulars may have already spotted the missing time frame of our mini-bio of Mat Master Manuel Jose Ramone ... what was Manny into during the 70's?

Long story short:

Coming from a proud line of visionaries, Manuel's uncles formed the world's first punk band in the raucous atmosphere of 1930's Havana...

In addition to popularizing left handed guitar playing, they also started a "home page" for their musical endeavor, "muypunk.com."

Since it was 60 years before the internet, their traffic numbers were low. They did, however, go on to coin punk's seminal cry...

By the mid-70's, Mat Master Manuel was disillusioned with life as a mat surfer. He had fallen into a deep depression with the termination of the Converse/Hodgman raft, and moved to New York's East Village. His motivation was to explore the decadence of the modern world so that, umm, he might better understand it.

One night, while on line to enter a local nightclub, he met a wannabe rocker named Jeffrey Hyman.


They discussed Jeff's options as a musical talent, and the young man was blown away with Manuel's grasp of all things relating to heaven, earth, and rock and roll.

Manuel desperately wanted Jeff to experience the ocean, so he could apply the "wisdom of the deep" to his musical vision. With the world's supply of mats dwindling, Manuel was forced into the shaping room to create a single fin roundtail hull for Jeff...

Taken with Manny's charisma, Jeff abandoned all hope of originality. He adopted Manuel's uncle's preferred musical genre -- punk -- and begged Manuel to let him assume the Ramone family name.

"This is acceptable, my friend," Manuel said. "But I must insist on these three things. One, you and your band mates must cloak yourselves in leather and torn denim, as they represent the yin and yang of the material world. Secondly, you must honor my uncles by joining their web site when the internet is eventually invented. And finally, please allow me to be photographed with you before your first gig."

"Yeah, whatever man," The Ramones replied.

Addendum, 10/27/08:

A little know fact: Manuel wrote the original lyrics to Blitzkrieg Bop. His version was entitled The Hodgman Bop, and was penned in Hindi script. In a nutshell, it involved having consensual sex on an inflatable raft. The Ramones, wary of crossing the boundries of good taste, never recorded the tune with Manuel's lyrics.

Manny did manage to assert himself in later years, and persuaded an Irish/Hawaiian ukulele duo to cover Blitzkrieg Bop. Also, a surf guitar version of many Ramones hits was produced by Manuel's daughter, Lourdes, herself an accomplished punk mat rider. ("Accomplished" in the sense that she can surf a mat without popping it with her lip ring.)

Slip'N'Slide

Mat riding is somewhat akin to rally driving, in that both sports involve highly variable surface condtions, random camber changes, curving tracks, crosswinds... Mats feature similar chassis dynamics to dirt cars, and so slipping and sliding are just part of the deal. Of course, dirt track racers go much faster by drifting than railing through corners and long bends. Mats free up and utilize side-thrust out the channels in much the same way as crossing it up with the hammer down in a racecar. So work with moderate slippage and dance on the edge for super-speed. I reckon that riding the line between hooking up and spinning out is one of the funnest things ever, in or on any type of vehicle, especially surfmats!

Unweighting

Even under full power, there's a huge benefit to unweighting just as you reach terminal drop-in speed...and letting the mat fly before burning off a bottom turn.

Charging A Close Out

No happy ending here...but plenty of ragged, burning, flat out speed running across a closed out wall! Fun!!!

Fin Dipping -- Part I

Remember, back in the day, when you tried to fly a stick-and-paper kite without a knotted cloth tail? And how the kite would violently yaw back and forth? In many ways, the mat rider's legs and fins function like the tail on a kite. Even when your legs are out of the water, they counterbalance the mat's tendency to drift laterally.

Four (of many) different styles of cutbacks...

A carving cutback with fins in the water, and left hand dragging and providing a pivot point.

A flat, drifting cutback with fins out of the water.

A carving cutback with fins out of the water.

A carving cutback while dragging one fin to control the arc.

Fin Dipping -- Part II

Controlling lateral drift with one fin...

Photo sequence from Greg Huglin's Fantasea

Using the inside fin for directional stability.


Lifting the inside fin to allow the tail to slide out.

Both fins are out of the water... and the mat is in full side slip.

The inside fin is lowered back into the water to check the tail slide.

Fin Dipping -- Part III

Two identical flat bottom turns -- 1969 and 1985 -- and two identical uses of flipper drag. In both instances, the outside fin is clear of the water. The inside fin is lowered "horizontally," and just enough to rotate the mat "around the corner"of the turn.

Photo: Wardie

Fin Dipping -- Part IV

Subtle but critical adjustment, mid-trim...

A speed run into a building section. Both fins are clear of the water.

A quick dip of the right flipper tightens the rider's line into the face.

Both fins are released for maximum speed. The adjustments for wave altitude and angle of attack have already been made before the wave crests. All that's left is to sit back and enjoy the ride!

Mat Master Manuel -- The Early Years

My in-box was stuffed with PM's when I got home from work this evening. (I had a long day crushing 4GF workers who were threatening to unionize, and was in no mood for idle chit chat...)

Anyway, the gist of my messages were asking -- no, demanding -- to know more about "Mat Master Manuel." All I can say is that his story is so amazing, you couldn't make it up! But, let me give it a shot...

Manuel Jose Ramone's infatuation with all things aquatic goes back to his mother and aunt, who were avant garde swimwear models in pre-Castro Cuba.


Both thrilled and ashamed by his family's erotic passion for the water, little Manuel became a defiant child who could not be dragged from the ocean without a fight!


As a young man he became a dare devil, willing to risk his life for the admiring glances of attractive foreign tourists...


Self aware beyond his years, Manuel realized he had an almost perverse fixation with swimwear models, so he dove into shark infested waters once again...this time headlong into fashion photography.

His first paying gig was shooting models on the beach with inflatable rafts in his new-found home of South Florida.

(Photo courtesy of "Studio Manuel." Copyright, 1960.)

A good hearted soul, he soon became disgusted with the shallow nature of the fashion world. A close call with death after a dicey appendectomy added fuel to the fires of his discontent...and, no surprise, he became very religious.

Not one to do things halfway, Manny really got into it!

(Photo circa 1962. The guy in the back isn't on a cellphone. He's scratching his ear lobe.)

Mat Master Manuel - The Years Of Discovery

Manuel found time to pen the true story of the Godless Cuban revolution, called "Los Diarios Verdaderos De La Motocicleta." ("The Real Motorcycle Diaries.")

He was also searching for a way to reconcile his love for beautiful women on inflatable rafts and his religious convictions. One night in a dream, it came to him...he would create inflatable churches!

The second tier of this eruption of creativity was the realization that inflatable churches, when partially blown up, provided the most direct means to a spiritual end!

It was only a matter of time before water-crazy Hollywood got wind of the sensation named Manuel Jose Ramone...and his faith and determination were once again challenged. When Sea Hunt was in pre-production, it was Manuel who became the real life model for the character Mike Nelson.

He also served at the underwater technical director of the original Pink Panther film, at the behest of his brilliant but paranoid next door neighbor, Peter Sellers.

Now bucks up and cruisin' in LA, Manuel dabbled in the thoroughbred game...but the ocean was never far from his heart.

As Manny's fame spread to uncomfortable levels, he left America to find greener pastures. It was in the Sydney, Australia of the 80's that he found inspiration...and a place where he could have breakfast at 5:30 AM and wear speedos at the same time!

Mat Master Manuel -- The Golden Years

Manuel took to Australian waters like a duck to, uh, water...and the rest is mat surfing history.

After mastering the nuances of mat surfing, he turned his attention to more pressing matters. He created the first "Inflatable World Peace Dialog Chamber."

And, he charted all the sea creatures of the South Pacific. Not in the conventional form of meticulously taken notes and photographs, but as non-skid figures on the deck of his favorite air mat!

The ensuing years have been kind to Manuel. He still frequently dances his favorite steps on the beach...

...and nurses the occasional Aussie-caliber hangover by jogging along the seashore with an ice pack on his head.

No one will ever accuse Mat Master Manuel of being an overachiever ... but in 2008 he earned the first Black Belt in Yoga ever awarded!