Individuality and the surf stance

It wasn’t hard coming up with a nickname for my buddy, Brian. After taking a few photos of him surfing, his surf stance pretty much did all the work.

With his long arms dangling from the sides of his body, it recalled a familiar image from the tabloids:
The elusive North American sasquatch.

Or, as some know him, Big Foot.

Check out this famous photo of the sasquatch — which I reversed in order to give perspective — and compare to one on the right of Brian dropping in on a wave in Morro Bay.

Scary, right? Better check the foot prints on that guy’s board.

So you can see where the nickname Sasquatch would be appropriate.

That got me thinking, though, that one’s surf stance is sort of a unique thing. Sort of like a fingerprints but not really because, well, fingerprints are really not at all like surf stances. But still — you get the point.

Here’s my friend Dan’s stance, for example. If Brian’s stance looks like a sasquatch, I’d have to say this stance channels the sleestaks from the 70s show “Land of the Lost.”

Remember that show? Future NBA star Bill Laimbeer actually portrayed a sleestak — sort of a half dinosaur, half alien creature — when he was a teenager. Which was easy because pretty much all sleestaks did was walk around all stiff-like, with their arms out, as if they had a really bad sun burn. And their hands are usually splayed, as if wearing frozen mittens.

Dan’s brother, John, has an interesting stance. As he’s popping up, he’s almost in a sitting position. And at one point it almost looks like he’s imitating a bird crouch.

Then we have Joe, one of our photographers here at the Tribune. When Joe’s on a wave, he’s sort of hunched over and forward, with arms in front, like this:

Basically, it makes me think of the second guy in Darwin’s Theory of Evolution chart.

Of course, it might seem like I’m making fun of these stances. You know — comparing a guy to Big Foot or a sleestak. But really I’m just celebrating their uniqueness. Their individual style that makes them stand out from other surfers in the lineup.

Heck, I’d even show you a photo of my own stance, beside a photo of something funny. But, you know, this post is already pretty long. And I know you’re probably pretty busy. So maybe next time.

Meanwhile, I’m gonna work on my stance.

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