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SURF'S UP by Corky Carroll

From time to time somebody comes along and invents a totally new move in surfing. I have seen tons of new maneuvers pulled off for the first time, named and become part of the whole surfing picture. Back in the early days of surf movies and magazines, it was a lot easier to come up with new stuff than it is nowadays though. The door was wide open. With new and better equipment being developed, people were breaking ground with new stuff on a daily basis. Mickey "The Mongoose" Munoz coined a whole slew of moves all in one afternoon surfing at Malibu while John Severson was filming for his surf movie "Surf Fever."

John took still photos from the film and used them in the first issue of Surfer magazine. There was Mickey featured proudly introducing his new "El Quasimoto," "El Mysterioso," "El Telephono" and a couple other "El somethings." Not too long after that, I had one of my own go on record, the "El Rollo." It took about 40 years for that one to actually start to get done right by guys who can actually do it.

One of the more well-known moves coined over the years is the "Cheater Five," which actually started out as the "Paul Strauch Stretch." It was invented by the great Hawaiian surfer Paul Strauch.

There are also such great maneuvers such as the "Turtle Roll" (not sushi), "Duck Dive," "Roundhouse Cutback," "Off the Lip," "Hanging Five," "Hanging Ten," "Stinkbug Squat," "Layback," "Reverse Bird," the "Fireplug Pullout," "Barrel Roll" (also not sushi), "Drop In," "Side Slip," "Spinner," "360," "Shredding," "Ripping the Place Apart," "Pearling," "Gagging," and the always popular, especially here in Surf City, "Huntington Hop." The list is endless.

I bring all this up because a good friend of mine just came up with a new one of his own. I won't use his real name here because it might embarrass him a little bit. I will just say that it is very close to the name Lloyd, and he is a goofy-foot dude who lives in Marina Del Rey. Lloyd is a mellow guy who has surfed his whole life and traveled all over the world surfing and studying various forms of various other stuff. He is an excellent hand drummer, also knows at least three yoga stretches and has the ability to talk softer than any other human being I have ever met. When I am with him, I never know what in the heck the dude is talking about because I don't hear all that great anymore and his loud voice is something just below a normal person's whisper. I just nod a lot and occasionally throw in a "wow," or a "yeah," or maybe a "no kidding?"

The other day Lloyd and I were out surfing one of my favorite local breaks and having a nice peaceful session. The waves were about head high and peeling off pretty fast. There were quite a few beginners out on that day and some of them were sort of getting in the way a lot. But it was a nice day so everyone was mellow and happy.

My pal Lloyd took off on a pretty-fast-peeling left and was working his way down the line when he saw some dude sitting on his board and facing the beach. And the guy was right directly were Lloyd had to go to make the wave. At first Lloyd thought he was going to make it past him, but at the last minute he realized that he wasn't gonna make it. So he tried to pull to the top of the wave. But it was too late for that, too, and it looked like he was gonna run the dude over.

At the last second Lloyd tried to jump over the guy's head. He almost made it, too. But not quite. Just as Lloyd was flying through the air, the guy sitting on his board turned his head and Lloyd's butt connected directly into the dude's face and broke his nose. It was a bloody mess.

Lloyd was feeling pretty bad about the whole thing when he got to the beach. But I made him feel better when I clued him in that he had just invented a whole new move. It is sort of like "Head Butting." But in this case it would be "Butt Heading."

He had to smile when I told him, "Heck Lloyd, it's a first. You just Buttheaded that Barney into submission."

Corky Carroll is a three-time international surfing champion. Send ideas, suggestions, donations or rude comments to him by e-mail at corkysurf@aol.com.