Longboard Clinic: The Stall #3
The move comes from the days of single fins with much less rocker. As anyone that rides this style of board intimately knows, these boards are fast, real fast. They very little drag, they want to run, the steeper the section the faster they go. Left to its own devices the board will eagerly outrun the section before it, leaving you way out on the fatter part of the wall. This is a place where most singles don't really like to be, unless being pivoted back into the pocket. The Stall is the answer, yet it is so much more than just that.
The stall when executed correctly allows a board to slow or even come to a complete halt when need be. By applying pressure to the inside rail and tail of the board the nose lifts, the tail sinks and the rail is edged free from the natural fall-line. The board slows, the section behind catches up, positioned perfectly in the pocket we reap the rewards. That is why we use the stall.
Waves are not really water moving through a larger mass of the same, but rather wavelengths of energy moving through water. The upshot of which, is that as energy moves through a body of water, the water surface stretches. It then moves up and over the back of the wavelength, rather than moving down and in towards the beach. While gravity causes us to drop down a wave, the surface tension aims to drive us back up. Scissored between these opposing forces a board is thrust forwards down along the fall-line and into trim.
To stall is to make a calculated break in the tail from the upward force of the water’s surface. The end result is ones board begins to drift downwards in the tail while gravity as always remains constant. The wave continues its path down the line. Yet the board, liberated from one of the opposing forces is no longer compelled forwards into trim.
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