3. Work The Line-Up
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No free pass for Kelly at the Superbank. Photo: Luke Marsden via goldcoastbulletin.com.au
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Joel Parkinson on a casual 32-mile paddle from Molokai to Oahu. Photo: WSL
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The SW France dog-fight. Photo: Christie
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This great white shark was spotted off the Cornish coast just yesterday...
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Aritz Aranburu gets a shit-ton of waves, but is never anything less than a gentleman in the water. Photo: Victor Gonzales
3. Work The Line-Up
Don’t get stuck in one spot, unless of course you find a good spot. Sometimes it helps to rove the line-up, to “work” it as a well-practised socialite might work the room at a party, bouncing effortlessly from group to group. Let fly a witty aperçu then move on before the conversation grows stale.
Don’t scratch around nonstop like a maniac though. That’s about as socially acceptable as groping strangers, and will not win you friends at the party.
Instead think of yourself as an attacking midfielder with a license to roam — a David Silva, perhaps, or a Wesley Hoolahan, ranging languidly from wing to wing and slipping elusively between the lines. Find the empty pockets of space and inhabit them, then pick out the decisive pass no one else can see.
Think of yourself as a molecule in a multitude of unevenly dispersed molecules, constantly migrating of its own accord from a region of high concentration to a region of low concentration via the process of diffusion.
Think of yourself as the surfer without priority in a heat, free from the burden of having to wait for sets, from the pressure of identifying the best wave and then not fucking it up. Look at how Slater and more recently Medina are able to build first momentum and then solid heat scores just by picking off the insiders. This is known in webcast speak as “staying busy”. The longer it’s been since your last wave, the harder it will be to catch your next one. Find a wave, any wave, if only to get your “feet in the wax”, to use another webcast commonplace.
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