From now until this summer, we’ll be getting you summer surf camp ready by explaining some of those surfing expressions to you which those long-haired surfer dudes throw at each other in and around the surf camps. For today, it’s “hanging ten”.
Before we started working for a surf camp provider and got into surfing regularly, most of our surf holiday crew had heard of “hanging ten” and had a faint idea of what it meant, but didn’t really know what was going on until…
Once upon a time in a surf camp in beautiful Moliets, I was watching a friend surfing who was standing right on the edge of his surfboard. How the heck was he managing this? I thought he was sure to fall off straight away, but he didn’t! He carried on gliding and surfing away without a care in the world!
He told me this style of surfing was called “nose riding”. This is where the back of the crumbling wave is forcing down water around the back of the surfboard, which allows very skilful surfers to balance their weight on the top of the board, looking incredibly stylish in the process.
I’ve been doing a bit of research and, turns out, nose riding is one of the most difficult manoeuvres in surfing and, in 1964, it captured the attention of pretty much the entire surfing world and every surfer on the planet when a guy called David Nuuhiwa refined the style and simply owned the manoeuvre with such style that it became an art form! Ground-breaking stuff at the time. Anyway, that’s also where the phrase “hanging ten” comes from; it’s when a surfer has all of his ten toes on the very edge of the surfboard.
Perfecting nose riding should be attempted when there are small clean waves, but it does take quite a lot of patience, time and experience to pull it off, so do not be down-hearted if you find yourself in the water a lot more whilst you are surfing on your surf camp holidays. Nose riding is just another example of how sliding around on top of the water can be experimented with on different surfboards and in different surfing conditions. It is yet another way of expressing and enjoying yourself whilst surfing. Nose ridging is a great challenge and fun skill to develop in a surfer’s repertoire.
So, on your next surfing holiday, on a fine day for longboarding in Moliets or Oyambre, look out for those regular chaps quickly stepping up and down their surfboards, chasing that beautiful balance between man and ocean whilst surfing!
Hang ten & lang loose,
Your Star Surf Camps Crew
