Dances with Waves

(Main photo: this is how you do it. Supplied by the Noosa Festival of Surfing in Australia)

While you surf, you dance. You pirouette. You crouch. You twist. You lean and sway. Some people even twerk, though it may not be their intention.

Normally, you dance with a shape-shifting partner: the wave. Sometimes you lead. Sometimes you follow. Then you merge together in the ultimate dance move: the tube ride.

In tandem surfing, you surf with a human partner, and the wave is relegated to third place. I spoke to Glen Thompson, the co-founder last week of what is believed to be South Africa's first tandem surfing club.

He had just come from a meeting at the Xpression on the Beach shop in Muizenberg to formally launch the Earthwave Tandem Surfing Club, which will be chaired by veteran surfing promoter Paul Botha.

The club can pretty much owe its existence to the BOS Earthwave Beach Festival, which has a tandem surfing contest within the broader umbrella of events that include the bid to break the world record for the most people surfing a single wave. The festival takes place this weekend at Muizenberg.

Thompson - himself a passionate proponent of surfing's variety (he SUPS, longboards, shortboards and tandem surfs) - says that like ballroom dancing, tandem surfing works best when you can practise your moves a lot, and that is best done out of the water at first.

A tandem pair paddle out two-up on a big longboard - around 12 foot long, and thicker and wider than normal longboards. While still a niche, he predicts it to grow due to the proliferation of SUP boards, which are ideal tandem craft.

True tandem surfers follow a beautifully choreographed sequence of dancing poses and stylised lifts and crazy looking contortions. In competition, the difficulty and duration of these lifts earn them points.

According to the International Surfing Association, there are only three rules: teams must comprise one male and one female, the female cannot weigh less than 50% of her partner and lifts must be held for three seconds.

The first rule is a curious throwback to convention in our hipster times. Can a muscular woman not surf with a wimpy little man? Why not two men together, or two women? It could be a dad and his son. Thompson foresees that tandem surfing will move beyond old fashioned rules. As he points out, it began in Hawaii after the 1920s, when the beach boys taught tourists - male and female - how to surf at Waikiki.

One of the most popular poses, which you may have seen in photos or video, comprises a man with arms akimbo, holding a woman aloft. She lies horizontally in a rigid pose across the top of his upstretched arms with upper leg bent to lower knee, upper arm in the air, and lower arm entwined in the arm of her anchor man. Called the Front Arch, this looks pretty hard.

But it gets better, or worse, depending on your perspective. One of the most amazing to look at, they call the Arabesque, named after the ballet move. The woman stands with one leg in the man’s hand (the other clutches her waist), her other leg up in the air, while her torso leans over his head.

"There are five levels of lifts," says Thompson, "from easy to near impossible."

He's not joking. Level five is literally called Impossible. There are 17 possible, or impossible, lifts in this category. These are moves that look mad to attempt on land, let alone while balancing on moving water. Check out lifts such as Extreme Arabesque, Space Needle or Extreme Contortion.

Moving down the ladder of difficulty, you get Expert (22 sanctioned lifts), Confirmed (16), Intermediary (13) and Beginners (17).

A popular lift for those just starting out is the swan. You lift your partner onto your shoulder like a sack of potatoes, and she turns into a swan by arching her back and stylishly brandishing her arms like wings.

"A pair with some dance experience will pick up the lifts quickly if they know them from practising on dry land," Thompson says.

And I had to ask, can you get barrelled while tandem surfing? Of course, he says, directing me to a Youtube video of Vanina Walsh and Bobby Friedman getting tubed in Hawaii.

Who said you don't learn something new every day.

TANDEM SURFING QUESTIONS

Full transcript of interview with Glen Thompson 3 October

What will the name of the new club be and when is it being launched?

The new club is called Earthwave Tandem Surfing Club. The club's name acknowledges the role of the BOS Earthwave Beach Festival in providing a platform for tandem surfing last year during the 2012 Similasan Tandem Surfing Championship. We have a Facebook page for the club and launched the club formally on Thursday, 10 October at the Xpression on the Beach shop in Muizenberg.

Where did tandem surfing orginate?

Like modern surfing, tandem surfing has its roots in Hawaii, although following in the 1920s on the popularity of stand-up surfing. The Hawaiian beachboys took tourists out to the waves of Waikiki to teach them to surf. Tandem surfing gained a bit of revival in the 1950s and 1960s, and was included in Hawaiian and Californian surf contests. It all but disappeared during the first two decades of the shortboard revolution, after the late 1960s, before returning as a recreational and competitive surfing style in the 1990s. It has gained some popularity in Hawaii, USA, Australia and France.

In South Africa, Derek Jardine’s newspaper clipping of a 1949 photograph of surfers at South Beach, Durban depicts Bruce Giles and Wendy Hall two-up riding on a 16ft wooden “Aussie” board. This picture is featuresd in Spike’s Surfing South Africa (2007). My first experience of seeing tandem surfing in South Africa was the exhibition by a top international tandem surfing couple during the Ocean Action Beach Festival in Durban in July 1996. There may be other local events where tandem surfing was exhibited. I recall the Coreban Summer Series, a SUP event held in Cape Town, had a fun tandem surfing heat in December 2011.

Until recently in South Africa, getting access to a 12ft plus foam blank to shape a tandem surfing board was near to impossible. A traditional 9-10ft longboard lacks the width and stability to carry the weight of two surfers. It has been introduction of SUP surfing and a range of more buoyant 10-12ft SUP boards in the local market in the last few years that has made tandem surfing possible in South Africa.

What is cool about Tandem Surfing. is it like tandem cycling?

Tandem surfing is two-up on one board, attempting lifts and poses. It’s about sharing the stoke of riding waves with another person. In all surfing disciplines generally, dropping in another person is a no-no but in tandem surfing dropping into the wave and riding it together is the thrill. So tandem breaks with the surfing’s individualistic norm. That is what makes it cool.

In a way tandem surfing is similar to tandem cycling, where two people ride the same bike. Sharing the same technology, coordinating physical effort and skill to reach a common goal are characteristics of a collaborative sporting activiity. But I’d say tandem surfing is closer to paddling a double surf-ski in the ocean as the pair are dealing with shifting seascapes.    

Who does tandem surfing?  Does it have to be boy / girl ?

Tandem surfing is for anyone who is keen on surfing, whether you have stand-up surfing, bodyboarding, SUP or any other wave-riding experience. It’s also a great way to introduce someone to the surf, just like the Hawaiian beachboys did nearly a century ago.

Tandem surfing’s essential ethos is two people on the same board. So, any two people who want to give it a go: mates, couples, dads and daughters, daughters and mothers, mothers and sons, sons and dads, etc.

The traditional view is that is must be a male and a female on a board. This practice is adhered to in contests, especially those sanctioned by surfing bodies for the selection of national team and competing in international events. My view is that tandem surfing is about exploring two-up surfing and not being prescriptive about it being a boy/girl couple surfing. While many may point to surfing’s heritage and history for advocating a traditional or “purist” approach to tandem surfing, the historical evidence does show the beachboys at Waikiki surfing two-up with male tourists.

Do you think there are enough people who do tandem surfing to make up a club?

We only need a few tandem surfing enthusiasts to get the club started. And we then hope that we’ll be able to create enough interest in the sport to grow the membership through fun, social event. Hopefully, the Earthwave Tandem Surfing Club stimulates interest in other surfing centres. It would be great to see something similar happening, for instance, in Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London or Richards Bay.

What does it take to be a tandem surfer?

The desire to try out two-up surfing initially, to have fun with someone else out in the surf riding the same board. Then, as you get more proficient with lifts, learning the dance of riding waves together.

What kind of board do you need to tandem surf?

The dimensions for a tandem board range from 11 - 13ft. For those who are not keen to shape their own tandem board or import one from overseas, using a SUP board in the 10ft to 12ft range will offer a great way of getting started with tandem surfing. Last year, I rode an 11’6” SUP board in the championships. It paddled easily into waves and gave us the stability we needed to try out tricks and lifts while riding the wave.  

Wow, it seems so hipsterish. The first formal tandem surf club in SA? What are your plans with it?

I guess the hipsterish vibe is there as tandem surfing creates a social scene around a retro-chic surfing activity. That’s what makes surfing such a dynamic sporting lifestyle. Tandem surfing is a return to an older and less visible form of wave-riding. Its part of the re-discovery of surfing heritage and alternative styles of surfing that started with the revival in longboarding in the 1990s and continued with the experimentation with alaia’s and other wooden boards, finless surfing, and the emergence of SUP surfing in the 2000s. The club aims to promote this hipster-stoke by space for tandem surfing.

Contests or social vibe?

It’s about the social vibe and contests create a space for that vibe. This is similar to the local longboarding and SUP scenes where contests are used a way of making the sport visible and providing a place for participants to get together socially.

Does tandem surfing have defined moves, and what are the most popular?

Tandem surfing is about riding the wave to allow the pair to do perform lifts. Like figure skating, ballet or dirty dancing, movement leads to sequence of lifts. In tandem surfing, there are five levels of lifts, from easy to near impossible. A popular lift for those just starting out is the swan. A pair with some dance experience will pick up the lifts quickly as they already know have to do lifts on dry land. Which, of course, is the best place to learn before paddling out into the surf.

How do you judge tandem surfing?

The judging criteria is similar to that of longboard surfing where wave selection, length of ride and manoeuvres are taken into account. In tandem surfing the lifts, and the difficulty of the lifts successfully executed are important criteria. A lift needs to be held for 3 seconds and then be completed, that is a pair cannot fall off the board during a lift. Other criteria are the sequence and style of lifts, for example, is a difficult lift held for longer or are several lifts completed gracefully in a sequence. During a contest, the best two waves count, out of a score of 30 per wave, made up of 10 points each for wave-riding, lifts and sequence.

Which formal surfing bodies will you affiliate to?

The club will affiliate with the Surfing South Africa, the national surfing body. This will allow us to run sanctioned events and look to holding inter-club contests in the future with clubs in other surfing centres.

What is the deal with international tandem surfing? Is there a world champs?

Internationally, there is the annual International Surfing Association (ISA) world championships as well as the International Tandem Surfing Associations (ITSA) world tandem tour, which is pro-am in orientation.

Do you tandem surf?

Yes I do. It is part of my passion for wave-riding and another way I find to explore riding waves besides also doing bodysurfing as well as shortboard, longboard and SUP surfing. I tandem surfed with Margeux Kalil at last year’s Similasan Tandem Surfing Championship, where we were placed second.

Is it like ballroom dancing in that you train for one event with a specific partner?

This is the best way to train, as you need to practice lifting the other person and have verbal cues for when a lift is to happen out in the surf. Communication is the key to tandem surfing, as one of you has to call the lift so the timing is spot on when riding a wave.

What is the future of tandem surfing?

Tandem surfing is a niche sporting or recreational interest and will always remain a small but part of the vibrant surfing world both locally and globally. It will attract those who like to experiment with surfing equipment, are open to wave-riding experiences that have links to surfing’s past, or simply like the idea of surfing two-up whether for romantic reasons or just for fun. As long as there are boards in the market that make it easy to try out and do tandem surfing, then I see tandem surfing being part of the mix of surfing in the Muizenberg line-up or elsewhere in South Africa where the waves are gentle and conducive to tandem surfing. For those who wish take tandem surfing as a sport seriously and aspire to participate in regional, national or world champs, then the club will provide a way of getting official recognition for possible selection through competing in sanctioned events.  

Who are the best tandem surfers in the world?

In the amateur tandem surfing world, the best would be Rico Leroy and Sarah Burel of France, the winners of the 2013 ISA World Tandem Surfing Championship held in July in Biscarrosse, France. Runners up to the world champions were Chuck Inman and Lauren Oiye (from Hawaii) followed in third position by Alban Meric and Lydia Roess (from France).

Can you get barrelled tandem surfing?

Yes, its possible to pull in under the lip and ride the tube tandem surfing. There is video footage of Vanina Walsh and Bobby Friedman getting barrelled in Hawaii.

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It has been reported that Bobby Friedman and Anna Shisler charged Pipeline in Hawaii during the Winter swells of 1995/96 looking for barrels.  

What is the most incredible feat every achieved in surfing by tandem surfers?

I’ve come across two reports of tandem surfing Hawaii’s Waimea Bay in large waves. This would be classified as extreme tandem surfing. Friedman and Shisler rode waves with 40ft faces at Waimea Bay during the same Winter season they surfed Pipeline. More recent footages in 2008 shows Vanina Walsh and Bobby Freidman riding Waimea Bay in a smaller, though still challenging swell for most surfers.

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Who is your partner for the Earthwave and why?

I’ll not be out in the waves this year. Rather, I’ll be on the beach assisting with the organising of the tandem surfing contest this year.

Who is going to win at Earthwave?

Going on last year’s performances, I’d say the dad and daughter pair of Paul and Pippa Jones is in contention for a win. But you never know, the contest is really wide open as we expect many more entries for this year’s Similasan Tandem Surfing Champions.

For more information about the club and the upcoming 2013 Similasan Tandem Surfing Championships:

Contact Glen Thompson

Facebook: Earthwavetandemsurfingclub

Email: earthwavetandemsurfingclub@gmail.com