Oct 31, 2022

From Gogglefog

Hi Paul,

Hope you’re well!

I’m back in El Salvador for a month. The photo was taken last week sometime.

It’s kind of slow for here today. Should be a nice run of swell starting tomorrow.

Thanks, John

Oct 30, 2022

From Nick

This hilarious image has been making the rounds on Instagram for a few days now. More about Nick and his artwork ...

Oct 27, 2022

Women's Mat Training Event, San Diego: Nov. 12, 2022

Hi Paul,

Wahine Kai Women's International Surf Club is, through me and another friend, putting on a Surf Mat 101 training on Nov. 12, at La Jolla Shores. 8 am. Five ladies signed up right away, and we're expecting maybe a dozen.

There is apparently a nice sized interest in learning about the mat. I've also been sending people your way to get mats so you may have some more customers after the meet up. I'm by no means an expert in mat surfing, but I think by now I know enough to give some pointers to interested newbies. I'm sure glad you encouraged me to keep going back in the beginning when I was getting frustrated.

To RSVP, email porozcocronin at ucsd dot edu

Thanks PG!

Julie B

Oct 25, 2022

From Jim

Southern Atolls, Maldives. Fourth Gear Flyer, flying!

Oct 23, 2022

The Future Of Mat Riding?

Suiting Up like a Shark Is Still a Struggle

Shark skin is the envy of engineers trying to maximize hydrodynamics, but shark skin–inspired materials have a long way to go before they work like the real thing.

by Marina Wang

Few people have gotten close enough to a shark to pet it. If you could run your hand from a shark’s head to its tail—not that you should—it would feel smooth, almost like suede. Reverse direction and it’s rough like sandpaper. Viewed under a microscope, shark skin is composed of ribbed, dragonesque scales layered over each other like shingles on a roof. These structures, called dermal denticles, are more like teeth than skin. Made of dentin and enamel, they are innervated, and their ribbed and layered pattern guides water across the shark’s back, reducing friction and drag. Sharks’ impressive skin helps them glide through the water, with some species reaching speeds as fast as 50 kilometers per hour.

Shark denticles are the envy of engineers. To mimic sharks’ impressive hydrodynamic prowess, materials scientists have designed shark-inspired surfaces for the hulls of boats, wind turbines, and even high-end swimsuits, all in an attempt to maximize efficiency.

But in a new study, researchers from Harvard University in Massachusetts, led by ichthyologist Molly Gabler-Smith, have for the first time compared materials that attempt to mimic shark skin with the real thing. As it turns out, the engineered materials have a long way to go.

Previously, scientists have examined shark denticles in impressive detail using scanning electron microscopes, a technology that can take images of structures just a few nanometers wide. But the images scanning electron microscopes put out are two-dimensional. And if you’ve ever seen a car in a wind tunnel, you’ll know that when it comes to reducing drag and friction, an object’s 3D structure is incredibly important.

So using a technique called surface profilometry, an imaging technology in which a scientist essentially uses a thin layer of gel to make a mold of the surface to be studied, Gabler-Smith and her team viewed shark skin in 3D. “It’s almost like looking at a topographic map,” says Gabler-Smith. “You can see where there’s peaks and valleys.”

Gabler-Smith used the technique on skin samples from 17 different shark species. She also looked at two Speedo swimsuits marketed as mimicking shark skin—the FS Fastskin II swimsuit and the Lzr Racer Elite 2—as well as a 3D printed surface created in her lab. She compared the proportions of the denticles and the height and spacing of the riblets and found substantial differences between real shark denticles and the artificial materials.

A close-up analysis shows the differences between real shark skin (top right) and several synthetic materials including a 3D-printed material (bottom right), the Speedo FS Fastskin II (bottom left), and the Speedo Lzr Racer Elite 2 (top left). Photos courtesy of Molly Gabler-Smith

“I hesitate to say that [the swimsuits are] really mimicking shark skin, because they really aren’t at all,” Gabler-Smith says. One of the biggest differences, she says, is that unlike a ribbed fabric, real shark skin is made of hard enamel structures on a flexible surface. When asked to rate the swimsuit materials out of 10, Gabler-Smith gave the FS Fastskin II and Lzr Racer Elite 2 a three and a seven, respectively, and her lab-made engineered surface an eight or nine.

“[The swimsuit designers are] doing a pretty good job of taking all of the information that biologists are measuring from actual shark skin, but there’s still so much to do,” she adds. In theory, she says, adding riblets or other bumpy textures to swimsuits or the surfaces of watercraft should reduce drag, but these surfaces are still a way off from functioning like the real thing.

Amy Lang, an aeronautical engineer at the University of Alabama who studies shark skin and was not involved in the research, says that replicating the drag-reducing properties of shark skin is even more difficult than just having denticle-like riblets. To actually decrease drag instead of increasing it, she says, the riblets must be the right size and depth. She adds that while it is interesting to use surface profilometry to directly compare shark skin with engineered materials, it’s equally important to test how synthetic materials actually work in the water.

But now that scientists have updated information on the 3D structure of shark denticles across a variety of different species, engineers may be one step closer to mimicking one of nature’s most efficient swimmers.

Oct 21, 2022

From Phillip

From Don

Paul- meet Khai from Portugal. He rips 3x overhead Maldives on a short board . His dad is one of Europe’s most famous ski instructors, Felix Tanguay. He just jumped off our boat with a mat and got the biggest barrel imaginable for his first ride. Rinse and repeat for two hours . It was incredible to see. You couldn’t chip the smile off his face with a crowbar. Thanks for making it possible. He’s 10 years old.

Best regards,

Don

Oct 19, 2022

From Jon

Hi Paul

I was making a “long-time-no-see” visit to Surfmatters yesterday and noted that several travelling mat surfers (Remember Uncle Travelling Matt from Fraggle Rock?) reported a common reaction of incredulity, surprise and delight from other surfers and tourists (often European?) perhaps observing for the first time a surfmat under weigh.

I had a the same reaction during a trip to Lohi’s in the Maldives a few years ago. After one nice ride I came in at the narrow keyhole to be greeted by a round of applause. Now I know how Kelly feels! :-D

Regards

from Queensland Australia

Photo: Richard Koch

Oct 17, 2022

Bi-Coastal Mat Meets, Early Reporting

A sample of the fun down in San Diego...

Oct 12, 2022

Surfmatters Retrospective #1 From the Tusked Beast

The Tusked Beast, known to the non-matting world as Jonathan Hess, is ''multi-verse renaissance-person'' of many talents...from professional dog walking to library science to talented wave rider. Jonathan has generously offered to cull through the past 14 years of Surfmatters and select his favorite postings...and add his personal thoughts.

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Hey Surfmatters readers!

TuskedBeast writing. Paul started this blog 14 years ago and there’s been a ton of energy invested in contributing to it from stoked mat riders (the most interesting surfers in the lineup, as you know) and of course from our fearless leader (he of countless published articles and a stint at the head of Surfer Magazine)!

There’s some real treasures buried in the musty basement of the Surfmatters archives- let’s dig up a few to enjoy in 2022!

Here’s a great entry written by Paul from December 22, 2011. Ever wished you could ride that crowded point break with a few mat friends? Maybe you can… if you dare….

Hyperlink with comments ... https://surfmatters.blogspot.com/2011/12/longest-night.html

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Today is the winter solstice in the Norther Hemisphere, and the conventional sentiment goes something along the lines of, "This is the shortest day of the year."

But, it's also longest night of the year!

Since we have a lot of time in the dark tonight, that brings up an interesting topic...night surfing on a mat.

Paul Masiel (right) and me (PG) getting out of the water at Rincon at who-knows-what time of night. George had his still camera with a flash on the ready to document the epic event. This was taken on Tom Adler's porch, right at the top of the Indicator at Rincon. PM has on an Animal Skin wetty, but I was sporting thin cheapy...and I remember being so cold I was getting a little delirious. I'm carrying a Merrin mat with an unpeeled bottom, so that would put the date around 1978/79.

The first night surfing I was aware of was Greenough surfing Rincon in the dark, although surely nocturnal sliding was being practiced elsewhere...Malibu in the summer being the obvious spot for that kind of stoke.

George loved to surf at night -- usually at Rincon -- and by the 70's, there was a whole squadron of mat surfers who joined him for late evening/night go outs. Off the top of my head, a typical night-time lineup was populated by Paul Masiel, "Charthouse Duke," Bob Gillette, Greg Huglin, myself, and of course our ring leader George. Having a lot riders out at one time was a big advantage at night, because there was always someone sitting at the peak, so you would know what area to paddle back to.

Plus, it was less spooky when there were more matters in the water...the odds of being eaten by a shark went from a million-to-one to 6-million-to-one if 6 guys were out! (At least, that was our existential rationalization.) Of course, George's legendary "sense of humor" usually revolved around telling shark stories on moonless nights during long lulls. ("I was out drop line fishing right at this very spot in the water once when a 15 foot White cruised under me...and he reeeaaallyyy looked hungry!) Thanks buddy...

Night surfing at Rincon (on boards) picked up in popularity as the crowds of the 70's increased. Also, surf leashes made riding a board a night a lot more feasible. There were plenty of nights where just a few board surfers in the water would make it less fun (and a bit more dangerous) to ride a mat.

But, I've been thinking lately that maybe it's time to start surfing a mat at night in quality waves, rather then a steady diet of daylight junk. Both situations are uncrowded, but maybe the trade off of light for dark would be worth it now and then.

So how hard is it to ride a mat in the pitch dark? For me, the issue was picking off waves in the right spot. Mats have a more limited range for gliding into waves (compared to, say, boards over 7 feet long) and if you take off too far back, or too late, then it's hard to get your rail set and grab enough power to make it past the first section. I usually waited for a wave to break further out, and then caught the edge of the whitewater. Just wait for a mound of white water to come to you, and Bob's Your Uncle.

I found that I liked running a bit more air in the mat at night, to emphasize holding over skimming. I also tried using contact lenses back in the 80's to bring my 20/200 vision into better focus for enhanced surfing, day or night, but managed to loose a lens every other go out...and I ended up riding with a more upright style to keep my eyes further out of the water. I didn't like surfing a mat that way, so I went back to my natural blurred vision.

My contact lens riding style...boo!

As for actually riding a dark wave on a mat, I always thought that part was easy and fun, even if there wasn't any moon that night. There's usually enough ambient light (from cars on the highway, street lights, etc.) that you can make out the shape of the wall as you go along. That said, I was never good at cutting back and re-establishing my trim line. I preferred to hang high on the wall, and if the waves slowed, just slow with it. Then accelerate as the wall steeped in front of me.

George's primary riding technique was to simply go by the feel of the wave underneath him. If you ride a wave in the daylight with your eyes closed, you can really feel how fat, or how steep, the wave is through the mat. It's pretty dramatic, actually. George would go almost entirely by feel.

I had lunch with Sally Yater about seven or eight years ago, and we started taking about surfing in Santa Barbara in the early 60's. She and Renny had moved up from Orange County several years earlier, and ended up living right on the point at Rincon. Bob Cooper was renting a room from them, so there was a lot of positive energy emanating from what had to be the bitchin-est surf pad on the face of the earth. (Or at least the Northern Hemisphere.)

One of Sally's fondest recollections revolved around the nights when George would come around their place after going door-to-door in the Rincon neighborhood selling the fresh fish he had caught that afternoon...then he would suit up on their porch, launch with a mat in the cove, and surf in complete darkness. On nights when the water was filled with phosphorous, Sally said they would sit on the porch sipping beers, and watch George's glowing green track as he streaked across the bay on perfect, empty walls.

I can't think of a single reason not to give that another shot...the waves are still out there when the sun goes down!

How about a night-time Mat Meet at a point break near you???

Oct 10, 2022

One Weekend, Two Coasts, Two Mat Meets!

Two mat meets are on tap for this upcoming weekend.

One in NY, at East Jetty, Beach 84th St. The other in OB in San Diego. The San Diego crowd gets going at 7 AM, while the easterners can sleep in another hour.