SURFING ELOQUENCE PART 9
By Corky Carroll
Finally the last segment in the surfing terminology series. I honestly only meant this to take two or three week and here it has wandered its way into the ninth installment. But this is the last one, I promise. Even if I have to leave a few out I am wrapping this up this week. We left off on the letter “S.”
SEX WAX: this is actually a brand of surfboard wax. Somebody told the guy who started to make it that he needed a “sexy” name for it. So he called it Sex Wax. Once when I was working in a surf shop a couple of girls from France came in and asked what that was. I told them it was something else and giggled, bought two bars, and mentioned something about “Pierre” and “Henry.” It’s the small things that make me smile.
SHRALPING: this means to surf well. Or get a haircut. You can also use “shredding” or “ripping” for this same use.
SOUL ARCH: this is a surf pose that was perfected by David Nuuhiwa during the noseriding era. My favorite was in infamous “hood ornament soul arch” performed by Craig “Owl” Chapman more than many times back in the 1970’s. Surfer/musician Donavon Frankenreiter has been known to excel in this classic stance at times too.
SOUP: the broken part of the wave, also called the whitewater.
SPONGER: anyone riding a body board. Or the dude who works at the carwash finishing up your car.
STINKBUG STANCE: this was made popular by certain legendary big wave surfers who had more nerve than style. It is sort of a squat with arms out wide and resembles a stink bug.
TAIL: the back end of a surfboard or a hot surf chick. A popular surf move used is the “tail slide.”
TALK STORY: what I attempt to do hear each week but usually wind up in some rambling nonsense that makes no rhyme or reason to even me. Like, “Once upon a time at surfcamp…..”
THRUSTER: a three fin surfboard design developed by Simon Anderson back in the 70’s and still used today.
TOMBSTONING: this is a very bad thing to happen to you. It is when you get held down so deep and strong that your leash pulls the tail of the board underwater, leaving the nose sticking up like a tombstone.
TOES ON THE NOSE: the act of noseriding where you hang your toes over the front of the board.
TWIN FIN: a classic surfboard shape made popular by myself and Rolf Aurness in 1970. Later this shape was copied with a “swallow tail” and they named it the “fish.”
I still claim its better in its original form.
VICTORY AT SEA: windy and choppy conditions.
WOODY: not what you think with your dirty minds. It refers to old station wagons that had wood panel sides and surfers used them because they were cheap and you could sleep in them.
WIPE OUT: what the series of surfology has tuned into. I am done.