the cutback – what to look for
A cutback is just the sum of a couple of things –
speed
speed
– and what’s touching the water.
Sometimes a man tries to devine what exactly is going on in the pro surfing competitions and comes up with no result. Watching two guys surfing it out over, what .. eight good waves, eight manoeuvres a wave so they have 68 scorepoints each. Something like that, this could be minimum – what does a punter know. Surfing doesn’t have gridlines, there’s no Out.
So we are going to look at just one scorepoint here – the cutback – that’s a cutback with no sub-definitions. A cutback.
I hope that we’re square on this.
so this one .. worthy ?
pic by dj struntz
Not really.
One day contests will be judged by judges who judge competitors on the pic of their best Nominated Manoeuvre of their heat. The image. They don’t even have to leave their hotel rooms. American hotel rooms.
Nominated Manoeuvres like a cutback, a forehand turn and then brace of current stuff. Maybe about eight of them in all.
What this means is that the boys get pointed to some break somewhere and go compete – there’s one official camera in the water and another on the beach. Everyone else is out of a job.
– and the judges get this ‘ best cutback pic of his heat contestant 2 heat 1 ‘ emailed over – they print it and pass it around, score it on the back. Stack it in the pile. Then they get ‘ best cutback pic of his heat contestant 2 heat 1 .. etc. Like on like.
Not losing you am I ?
Forty eight heats, six re-percharges, thirty contestants – it all gets boiled down to ‘ how good did I look on that ? ‘ This is a big stack.
Finally everything gets put onto the spreadsheet and somebody wins and somebody draws the cheques and winners are grinners. Then they all go home. All of the hype is out of the pipe.
So we have this ^ guy – and his pic. Quarter final / his best cutback.
Let’s play judge –
This is not a good surfing manouevre – it doesn’t matter what happens next; our driver has thrown on a lot of brakes way ahead of the corner. Where is there in a cutback technique that obliges you to sink half your body in the water in order to slow down.
Slow down .. !
This is how easy scoring is. Because this is a three out of ten. Pathetic.
So there you go – and of course your choice (just check the box) of the best pics of all the competitors is immediately available in a handsome bound publication – limited editions.
petebowes.com 
i only cutback when i cutback
through i like to think my cutback is really more a cutback than a simple cutback
i saw midget cutback once
though i like to cutback when i cutback i sometimes simply cutback
i saw a surfboat cutback once
Though i like to cutback i think a cutback should be a cutback to cutback