Shane's surfing is smooth as butter, so smooth in fact that it's easy to miss the subtleties of it, as he flows effortlessly from turn to turn. Then all of a sudden you'll realise where he's just been and you'll think: "Shit, how'd he do that? How'd he get there?"
Most of us surf for pleasure alone. We don't really know how we look on a board because we don't have people following us around with video cameras. But when we do a turn that feels good, we assume that we're ripping, and that's usually good enough. Enter the world of Shane Powell.
Powelly is one of the foremost competitors on the planet. In his hands, surfing is not so much an art form as an exact science. He's seen so much footage of himself surfing that he's able to disconnect his emotional responses from the visual, and concentrate purely on what looks good. He has studied the footage over and over, and eliminated the boggy, gougy, on-edge moves that most of us thrive on - the one's we're feeling good because we're pushin a lot of water, and we thought we weren't going to make it,but we did.
Shane takes a proffessional approach, because contest success depends on it. He understands something about the objective judging system that most people don't. Namely that it is anything but objective. The system favours people that perform as many moves as possible, closest to the breaking part of the wave. It's a specific and fairly narrow definition of what constitutes good surfing. Which is not to say that you don't have to be a good surfer to make it work to your advantage.
Shane understands all this shit perfectly-he's studied it. While the punters may prefer the Egan-Occy-Carroll approach of full commitment, full rail turns and throwing the body weight all over the shop - contest or no contest - the judges don't always reward it. While this may appear to some as a travesty of the sprit of wave riding, to a pro like Powelly it's just one of the rules of the game. A rule to be learned and mastered, in the quest for the world title.
That's why his surfing is so damned precise, and so successful. He deliberately favours the moves that he knows look good, and works at putting them together in new and interesting combinations. If you watch him surf, there's very few self indulgent sprays of whitewater,or over-commited turns. Which is not to say that what he is doing is not difficult , it's just that he has the rare gift of making everthing look easy.
He'll flash together a combination of dazzling complexity that implies almost a fore-knowledge of how a wave is going to break, in the way that only the best surfers seem to be able to do. MR was famous for it, as is Currn - surfers that are rarely caught wrong-footed by any wave. Not because of any psychic ability, though the heightened awareness gained by any detailed study of nature cannot be discounted, but because they never take their eyes, or minds, off the wave. They remain fluid and adaptable to it's mood swings, and so never seem to exhaust the repertoire of eye-pleasing turns. You could call it a Surfing Intelligence.
Powelly's a thinker, that's for sure. Almost a brooder. What else do you call someone for whom a thing as natural and spontaneous as surfing has become such intricate work? His favourite hobby is fishing. Fishermen spend heaps of time just sitting quietly by themselves, starting into the murky depths. It's an introspective activity by it's very nature and surfing, in a sense, is not too different. Man vs the Ocean.
You know sometimes when you're sitting out in the line-up, just enjoying some time in the water, and some stupid song or ad jingle will worm its way into your head? And you'll just sing it over and over a million times, even though you don't even like it or even know all the words? It allows you to zone out and relax, like in meditation, where you just repeat a word, or mantra, over and over again to achieve a state of conscious unconsciousness. That's as close as most of us get to surfing on a higher plane.
But Powelly's approach, like that of all great craftsmen, is based on a complete assuredness in his skills, to the point where he no longer has to think about them. If you do a thing often enough it becomes second nature, and the mind is then free to progress to more esoteric concerns. In case his case that means style. Shane's surfing is as smooth as butter, so smooth in fact that it's easy to miss the subtleties of it, as he flows effortlessly from turn to turn. Then all of a sudden you'll realise where he's just been and you'll think: "Shit, how'd he do that? How'd he get there?"
What impresses is not reams of spray or last ditch recoveries, just increadibly fast, precise surfing that aspires to remain ever in control , whatever the wave may throw up. When he's not surfing , Shane is pretty much like any other bloke from small town Australia - quietly spoken a bit shy, but none the less sure of his own direction.
Pro surfing has given him an opportunity to see the world and experience things that a lot of his mates probably didn't have, but for all that he still likes to come home and throw in a line with them. In a game where you're only as good as your last heat, it seems Powelly has no intention of taking it all for granted.
**The Christmas and New Year period is no time to put your feet up for the pros - it's contract time. The biggest deal completed so far this year is that of world no. 3 Shane Powell, whosigned a three year contract with French clothing giant Oxbow for a six-figure sum. Powelly is stoked.
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