Speed Thrills

You have probably played with a postcard or index card, gliding it on ground effect across a smooth desktop or glass table. Amazing how well they go. Especially if the front edge is bent up a bit to gather air pressure. Plus you can concave the card just slightly. Then put a load on it like a coin. The loaded and contoured card skims even better, goes further, and faster, with some mass aboard to provide compression and momentum. Well, you can do the same with your surfmat. Gently lift the nose to gather pressure, both hydro and aero, and ride on a pressure cushion of increased lift. Press the outer pontoons down to make a concave cross-section, and your weight will more easily be carried across flat water. This skimming ground effect phenomenon is the key to shifting into higher gears.

I reckon that first gear would be kicking and paddling around. Second gear is simply riding the wave in a normal fashion. Third gear seems to result from extra pressure building up under the mat to provide a mysterious form of jet propulsion. One clue is that sometimes air accumulates under the mat in the grooves between the pontoons. This effect promotes super-acceleration, due to less fabric touching the water, and from high pressure air shooting out the tail ends of the channels. The feeling is most definitely like shifting from second to third gear in a fast car or on a quick motorbike.

On rare occasions I have experienced the good fortune of having strong offshore winds combine with perfect long walls to lift the whole mat clear of the surface to levitate like a hovercraft. Could this be fourth gear flying? I certainly assume so. At that point, with no drag on the water, and reluctance to trail my flippers on the wave face, the optimal method of steering seemed to be using my flippers as aerodynamic rudders, sort of like pushing the pedals in an airplane cockpit. The rush of wind and free floating sensation of skimming weightless was a major thrill!

As for fifth gear, or overdrive, well I'm still trying to get my head around what that might be...

The Heart Of The Matter

When I was a little kid, we all rode airmats pumped up much as possible, and were incapable of cutting across fast waves. Our biggest stunt was to stand up on our rock-hard rafts, perched on the crest of a six foot shorepounder, then kamikazee over the falls in heroic or comical stances.

Bellyboards served for angling and tuberides. Of course we borrowed nine-to-ten foot 35 pound longboards to paddle out and emulate the surfstars of the early 60s. No one in Malibu was onto deflating mats to slide along the various cobble points. (Although, legendary waterman Pete Peterson was able to bodysurf underwater all the way down First Point, holding his breath like a dolphin.)

Hawaiian Paipos didn't satisfy us kids. When footage came out of mat surfing in Santa Barabara and Australia, we were too wrapped up in our psychedelic evolutionary shortboards. Boogie Boards were okay but not really getting it. Pretty soon local surfers in North Malibu were all riding 7'-8' singlefins. Then thrusters came out, and everything got very generic. I was over herd mentality by that time, and have kept at it with the thick railed pintail miniguns ever since.

Fortunately, when tiny trifins were proliferating, I got turned onto black nylon mats. I must have had a dozen of them over the years. Not one blew a seam. Some ripped open on the rocks. One blew away in Hawaii. Most I gave away to people who begged. Some were sold to pay bills. My last threadbare leaking tarbaby got thrown out during a garage cleanup by a friend's wife in Australia, when she though it was useless old camping gear.

About a month and a half ago I found out that 4GFs were available online and bought some. Now the 12' standup paddleboard (21st century goat-boat), 9'8" log, 8'6" gun and two sponges sit gathering cobwebs. I've got a raging matitis infection and refuse to undergo any sort of matectomy.

There is no rational explanation for this unusual addiction. It's certainly not for fame and fortune. I can't even get someone to take my picture on the silly things. When I tell people it's because I'm a nerd they don't buy it. And there's not all that much of psychological complex attempting to revive pre-adolescent memories by fulfilling subconscious desire to regress into deep mega-retro pseudo infantilism. Or is there?

Nah, mat surfing is just plain interesting. Making them go is interactive. Getting it right is an achievement. Letting it happen is zen satori. There's no pressure to perform. Who expects anyone to rip on an airmat? No one cares what you do. And they freak out when you zoom past them at thirty mph! It's a blast.

But is matting a healthy obsession? Is it worth shunning boarding for? Sometimes I worry about myself. Then I remember all the bumps and bruises and fiberglass cuts, fin slices, stitches, snapped surfboards, folded bodyboards, ego trips and altercations...

Yeah, I reckon that surfing an airbag actually goes straight to the heart of the matter...

Touching 3rd Gear ... Part II

My "Touching 3rd Gear, Part I" post (10/12) and Jamie's "Note From The Dunes" post (10/14) address co-dependant ideas...that generating speed on a mat is both a sophisticated and highly individual process of discovery. What Jamie experienced the other evening -- a spontaneous variation of his mat's firmness during a ride to generate speed -- is the classic example of what mat riders learn over time.

"3rd Gear" is a term Greenough uses frequently in describing high speed mat surfing. In simple terms, riding straight-off is 1st gear, while trimming across a wave at curl speed is 2nd gear. 3rd gear is moving beyond simple trim speed and running past one section, over a flat area, and through the next section.

One of George's favorite descriptions of a ride on a small wave is, "I touched 3rd Gear." What he means is that just for a moment, he was able to break loose from trim speed, hit 3rd gear, and shoot around a distant section... only to have to drop back into 2nd as the wave slowed.

What makes 3rd gear a challenge -- especially in smaller waves -- is that no single inside-rail-tension (the amount of air forced onto the inside rail by the rider) will net a 3rd gear run. A constantly fluctuating level of firmness yields speed from moment to moment as the wave changes. I would compare this to a musician playing a song...the notes, rhythm, and volume vary from bar to bar. Each bit has to be learned and practiced before the performer brings it all together in a way that ultimately tells the story the composer intended.

If you look at the second frame in "Touching 3rd Gear, Part I," you'd be hard pressed to explain what Greenough is doing at that moment. His weight is forward, yet the nose of the mat is elevated. The rear of the mat is firm, and clearly not in "flattened-out-trim." All this may seem counter-intuitive, but he's extracting an incredible amount of power from the wave. This level of sophistication is along the lines of what Jamie did on the ride he described...

"The unexpected bit came when I took the third wave of a set, which didn't double up, but rather had a nice right wall with more taper and peel. I took off easily down the open line and I simultaneously squeezed the front end and pushed the mat down against the face...instead of the usual lifting of the outside corner. (See B/W photo for an example of these opposing techniques being used.) The back end foiled out completely and I jumped up into the next gear and drifted out sideways across the face. It was easy to regain traction by slightly lifting the outside corner and giving another squeeze to finish out the section and fly over the back cleanly.

For as small and relatively gutless as the waves were, it was great to feel the freedom and speed that I've until today only experienced in much larger, more powerful waves!"

What Jamie is describing is touching 3rd gear...and it was on a waist high wave!

A Matter Of Time

Right, well I've got to post something, because PG has been carrying the weight around this blog lately. Okay... First off, I reckoned that at least a few people would step right up to author their own posts on Surfmatters. Ten signed up to do so. Not to worry. Give it time.

I really like the post about the night at the races when I met PG. A while after that I got a racing kart with an 18 horsepower Yamaha engine and not very good tires. I had no idea as to what to expect and was fishtailing all over the course. PG gave the kart a go and had a spectacular crash (due to improperly matched tires), landing right on his helmet, and sustaining a month-long headache. Needless to say, I scrounged some better rubber and had fun learning how to drive a miniature racecar. The point being that mat riding and kart driving are actually quite similar in terms of chassis dynamics and potential crash damage.

You see, just as how the unbalanced grip developed by mismatched tires on my secondhand go-kart put PG on his hat in a vicious kartwheeling flip, I had to deal with tremendous wipeout-oriented repercussions from having no clue as to properly inflating my first 4GF to meet the surfing conditions.

Only after picking through used tires from the storage shed at the kart track, and then dialing in them in pressure-wise to balance chassis dynamics for quick lap times, did I actually see that the same attention was required to suit specific matting conditions in the surf.

Previous posts on this blog and others have mentioned the basic glide vs grip soft/firm airmat inflation tradeoff. However the amazing bit is how mat pressure (actually air volume) is readily adjustable in flight! Someday racing cars will be equipped to adjust tire pressure to suit each turn and straightaway. Well, guess what -- surfmats already feature this ultra-advanced technology!

It's really worth watching the Airmat Tech Talk video a few times to get what's expressed. Especially important is the bit about how even after years of matting, there are still endless lessons to learn and new challenges to face. Mats are ultimately interactive, requiring evermore sensitivity and intuition to make them really go as well as they can.

I reckon that this difficulty factor, combined with the immense satisfaction of getting it right, makes matting a highly technical esoteric pursuit similar to auto racing. But then, on the other hand, more often all one has to do is point and shoot and the mat makes it come together. I most like simply assuming the Sphinx position and motoring along, forearms resting atop the outer pontoons, with ease. Then, when the wave steepens and the lip throws over, sliding back into Crouching Tiger whilst simultaneously gently compressing the outer pontoon gets the job done.

So, anyway, I went to Australia last week and got some OK waves, but none over over two foot. Head high maximum, as I was matting. No one around to take photos. So, I still have no mat action shots to show. Maybe that's part of the deal. It's a very personal activity. Sure, I had tons of fun, but it was out of the limelight. Same here at home. Good enough waves, no one around to shoot surfmat pics. Someday. It's just a matter of time...

(I did get these artistic images!)

Touching 3rd Gear ... Part I

Jumping from 2nd to 3rd coming off the bottom...

...and running across the wall in 3rd gear. Notice how far forward the rider's body is, and how little of the mat is touching the water at this point.

Using the 3rd gear speed to come off the bottom again...

...but redirecting the energy into a lip bounce, which is used as a stalling manuever to drop from 3rd back into 2nd as the wave slows.

As A Matter Of Fact...

Why ride a mat? Hmm.

Well, it's a hoot! And they don't hurt like hardboards. There's more feedback than from a sponge. Mats go faster than bodysurfing. Surfmatting is rebelious in it's own way...

The big attraction is simply working out how to make the things go. There's a fair amount of thinking involved. And heaps of intuition is required to be sensitive enough to wring out the true performance potential.

Probably the most intriguing aspect is matching fabric to water in terms of form and tension. You have to actually sculpt the mat to work in partnership with the wave. Much more interactively than boarding. Here's part of how it works:

Waves stretch the surface of the sea as they move. Pitching waves pull tremendous water tension up the face. And lined up surf, especially bowling barrels, also pulls tension across the face in a horizontal direction. These lines of tension adhere to the fabric of a surfmat and pull it taught. It's this lateral tension effect that shifts a mat into the next gear, providing tremendous acceleration and traction -- while simultaneously manifesting a mysterious and unstoppable force of nature that inexorably, and universally, forces the rider's mouth into a ridiculously wide smile.

Air pressure in the mat must be in proportion to the suction on the fabric to really cooperate with the surface of the wave. As well as choosing proper air volume in the mat to start with, one must also monitor and adjust this pressure by squeezing the envelope to adapt to the constantly changing pull of tension as the wave morphs. (There will be a quiz on all this next time you go matting in quality surf.)

Small perfect surf is not all that tense, so low air volume suits it. Fatter waves like a fatter mat, so pump it up a bit. Big fat waves like a full mat. The more air the rounder the rail and the more suction to hold in for turning and tracking. Less air creates thinner rails for more speed/glide but less grip in steep faces and hard turns. For unknown reasons, squeezing a soft mat is not the same as riding a pumped up mat in gnarly waves. You have been warned as I was not. I went with a soft mat in sucking out shorebreak for a while until I saw the light an went ahead with a hard mat. Much better grip on the face and less sore neck from going over the falls. That's the beauty of it. -- You have to think for yourself. There's no set and forget with surfmats. It's fully interactive on all levels. Yes! That's what we like!!!

How you perch on a mat determines what the wave feels. And waves have feelings, as we have all experienced. There are infinite ways to place your various body parts on the mat. Inside elbow tucked alongside torso to make a clean hard rail line? Hands off the inside pontoon to allow it to shape itself? Pulling up on the forward pontoon tops to stretch the bottom fabric? Pushing down on the nose to flatten entry rocker? Squeezing the outer pontoon for traction? Pulling up on the outside edge for traction? Laying the mat flat to use the channels for traction?

This is the Zen game that makes matting such a endlessly educational pursuit!

And there's a bit of frontside/backside to deal with as well. Turn your shoulders one way and you're regular foot, twist the other way and you're goofy. Some people have a holdover forehand and backhand standup surfer advanatage/disability. Not me, as I learned how to switch stance as a grommie. But I use the concept of facing toward or away form the wave as a technique to deal with sections and such.

This is also accomplished by how one places one's hands on the mat. Hands replace feet for walking the mat. Pressure equals velocity. Push down and go. Push too hard and slow, because of making drag with protrusion on the hull. Isn't this great, actually having to design your own craft as you go? Well anyway, these are some of the facts of the matter. More soon...

Click on Mat Tech Talk on YouTube for more info on riding surfmats.

Inflation: To blow mo' or go really low?

Fortunately, one can raise the pressure in a mat by squeezing it. For really small or extra smooth waves, I let out air until I can fold my mat to look like the number 7. Even less air often frees up the mat in little bowly waves. You can always compress the outer front corner with your fist to hang in through steep sections and make hard turns. I find that the 90 degree L-bend is good for 3-4 footers. Then, as the power and steepness of the surf increases, I tend to add liberal amounts of air. For scary suckouts, I'll inflate my mat as hard as I think it will go without popping. A soft mat gets long glides and a hard mat will resist slides...

Rubber Duck Riders!

Undoubtedly the first hard core air mattress movie ever made, 1970's Rubber Duck Riders was a home movie in the best sense. It was made purely as a party film for George and his friends.

And you thought you knew how to rave... :)

Some of the images in the film were point-of-view water shots taken by George, but the bulk of RDR was shot by film students from Brooks Institute of Photography. At George's invitation, they came down to the beach on a few occasions, and got some shots of George, Michael Cundith, the Brown brothers, and a couple of other local mat rats.

The running time was brief...about 8 minutes. But the cutting was tuned to the music, which was Keep On Chooglin' from Creedence Clearwater's second album, "Bayou Country." If you read the lyrics to Keep On Chooglin', http://www.metrolyrics.com/keep-on-chooglin-lyrics-creedence-clearwater-revival.html, well, they don't have much to do with mat surfing! But the throbbing beat really captures mat riding. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsehyyYjVg0&feature=related

RDR was shot at Rincon, on the kind of days George loved best...with a southeast back wind cutting through it, keeping the crowds at home (at least back then.) The mats, of course, were Converse/Hodgman's. The riding was state of the art, and would remain so for the next 10 years.

The original footage that made up Rubber Duck Riders was disassembled and re-edited for the mat riding segment in Crystal Voyager. No prints of the original Rubber Duck Riders remain, but the footage is in C-V ...just watch it with Keep On Chooglin' on the turntable, and you'll get the idea!

Mad Matters?

I grew up riding "rafts" in the sixties. During the seventies, canvas airmats faded out. Then, in the eighties, lightweight nylon mats came in! I thought they were the coolest thing ever. Very few people got what I was doing. Some surfers thought I was mad as a hatter... A mad matter... Mat Max! Maybe I was, getting ragdolled by shorebreak on an inflatable. But not to worry, I loved the feeling of surfing on air and knew exactly what I was up to.

Soon, a tiny core group of us got into playing surfing bumper cars, immensely enjoying our rediscovery of rafting. "Real surfers" shook their heads. Some even scoffed. We just laughed politely and carried on... Those days are long gone, and now I'm in New Zealand, where people can more easily get their head around a grown man riding a "lilo". I'm usually out there all alone on my floatie, sometimes sharing the lineup with orcas and penguins. And it's better than ever. The technology has really progressed, with comfortable traction decks, fully-developed designs and easy purchasability. I'm loving modern mat riding. Now, if only there were NZ matters to do go-behinds and slingshots and crossovers with... Give it time.

More people are getting it. There's a minor mat movement in progress. ASP Pros are freesurfing on mats. Surfmat websites and video clips are popping up on the net. Mat riding is generally well regarded in Australia (at least that's been my experience). Surfmatting is turning out to be not so mad after all.

A complete matting kit fits in a daypack. The whole operation is simple, small, friendly and huge fun. Anyone can buy top-quality mats for resonable prices through the internet, and have them shipped anywhere in the world in days.

Part of the reason for this blog is to turn people onto the joys surfmatting. More matters would be a good thing, as we are mostly empathetic types, with not all that much ego. Crowding is a non-issue, because on surfmats, it's way more fun to share waves than to go it alone. The zen focus inspired by mat surfing is a pure lighthearted meditation. I would tend to doubt that there is such person as a really serious matter.

As for matting being a form of surf madess, the classic Jimmy Buffet lyric sums it up best, "If we weren't crazy, we'd all go insane." Maybe this lightweight, sociable, cheap and cheerful ethic is actually a metaphor for smaller and better things to come on Earth. Nonetheless, no matter how many matters there are, it's going to be our good clean fun little secret. Mainstreamers will most likely always be somewhat perplexed when they see us blow up our Neumatic Surfcraft or 4th Gear Flyer, or whatever inflatable debatable, and set out to explore the innermost limits of pure fun.

El Salvador, 1977

From Paul Gross...

"These shots were taken in 1977 in El Salvador. George G. and I were there working on the second unit for the production of 'Big Wednesday.' Along with Bud Browne and Dan Merkel, George was shooting water footage of Jerry Lopez, Bill Hamilton, Peter Townend and Ian Cairns. They were doubling for the actors who played the main characters.

Anyway, most of the primary shooting was done during "Golden Hour," which is (or was) Hollywood shorthand for the morning or evening. Around noon on this day, George talked Greg MacGillivray -- who was producing the second unit stuff -- into letting him take his waterproof 35mm military gun camera out and ride some waves with it on his back. The idea, obviously, was to try to get some point-of-view footage to intercut with the surf action.

No one could believe that George would even attempt to ride these waves on a mat, let alone with 15-plus pounds of camera on his back. The surf looks mushy in the photos, but it had a serious thump to it. And there was no surface tension on the face whatsoever...the worst kind of wave to ride a mat on. The sets were relentless that day too, and it was a battle for George just to get out through the white water kicking a mat with a large, heavy camera strapped to his back. I think he ended up only riding this one wave.

I sat up in the lifeguard tower with my still camera and banged off a few photos. Only a mat surfer could appreciate these shots. George was riding a stock Hodgman raft. In retrospect, it was too stiff, too wide, and too thin. And yet, look at that long, clean track! It was a graduate course on how to ride a mat...and I was lucky enough to be there to witness it.

As I recall, none of this footage ever got used in Big Wednesday. In fact, the entire El Salvador second unit production project yielded only a few shots in the final cut of the film."