Native alaia surfers
I love this discovery of a native crew that has been surfing independently of the Western World.
There are two comments I would like to make about the surfing: first, what style. These kids have GREAT posture on the board. The photos do not express the speed they are going – those boards are FAST, and they’re infinitely harder to ride than a foam fun shape.
Second, look at how they paddle into a wave. One arm is paddling while the other is pushing the nose down. This is to get reverse rocker in the nose so the board slides into the wave early. Watching them reminds me of the scenes in ‘Endless Summer’ when the boys went surfing with the natives in Ghana (I think it was Ghana) and all the kids had to try the boards. Then the older guys hoped on and they were paddling into the waves the same way – one hand paddled while the other was pushing the nose down.
This is the way you do it with thin wood boards. It looked silly on the foam boards, but it definitely suggests that the natives had been surfing like the crew in these photos.
