Author: Alistair Taylor
18th August 2006
Source: ATD Bodyboards
This particular wave was shot at Cave Rock in Durban. It looks like a pretty good wave for what I did with it, which brings up an important point – doing good stuff in bodyboarding often depends on having a good wave to work with. Cave Rock throws out some good hollow barrels, and on the right swell has fun little air bowls on the end too. It's pretty hard to get a good barrel and do an air revo on a mushy wave, so to be fair to yourself, realise that the waves are a limiting factor on what you can do – to get radical, radical waves are a must.
On this wave, you can see I take off, and then do this sort of double pump thing to line up the oncoming section – this is one of the hardest parts of riding a barrel – judging how deep to set yourself up – too deep and you won't come out, not deep enough and you'll just get a little in'n'out and not make the most of the wave. I should add here that riding closeout shorebreak type waves are actually a pretty good way of learning to ride barrels and maintain control in the pit with all the shockwaves knocking you around.
Once I have set my line, I move slightly forward on the board to set my trim speed. I enter the barrel pretty much mid-face, which is a good place to be – too high and you'll go over the falls, and too low and you'll get lipped or knocked around by the shockwaves in the tube.
After this you can't see what I am doing, but in a barrel, I just try to stay a couple feet behind the breaking lip, so I'm fully in the barrel as long as possible. You can use subtle motions of moving slightly forward or backward on your board to speed up or slow down (forward to go faster, or drag your legs to slow down and get more control).
When I come out of the tube, I am still mid-face, but I see the section with a bowl looming ahead, so I drop down to the bottom of the wave so I can make full use of the bottom turn. I then crank out my turn and have my eyes on the lip where I want to hit it. It's very important that you hit the section just ahead of the breaking lip – if you hit the lip itself, you will lose speed and make a nice big splash, but a lame maneuver. Hit it too much on the shoulder, and you'll just go over the back of the wave.
If you look closely, you will also see that just before I hit the section, I turn my head and look towards where I anticipate landing. Don't ask me why I do that, but it comes instinctually, so it must be right, and I also do it for rolls, ARSs and so on.
As I am hitting the section (NOT after), I am twisting my body into the motion of doing a reverse – assuming you know how to do one of those, this is basically the same thing, but in the air. To crit myself, I should have rotated my body a bit more, and I might have completed the whole revo in the air... but anyway, I'm still learning too.
It is also important to try to bring in your legs as close to your body as possible while doing the rotation – this helps speed up the rotation as it tightens up your centre of gravity. You also need to keep your legs up when you land (unless you complete the full rotation in the air) so your tail doesn't dig when you land (also applies to landing ARS's/backflips). And there you go, Bob's your uncle, easy as pie, a walk in the park on a Sunday afternoon ... if you believe you can do it, you will. Having some self confidence will help you be relaxed in your surfing, which will also make your maneuvers easier and more fluid.
Good luck and visit my website to email me if you have any questions – soon there will be a sort of message board/knowledge base on www.altaylordesigns.co.za where you can also exchange info/ideas and questions with other riders or myself and Karla.
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