Mikey February, the king of high lines at J-Bay. Photo: WSL
You may have noticed a growing trend in surfboard manufacturers releasing twin fin and midlength models and other boards built for speed and glide? You might have watched Mikey February highlining at J-Bay, or Torren Martyn highlining a twin-fin midlength at a secret spot somewhere on Earth, making the most of the speed those types of boards can generate?
And it seems many surfers are beginning to realize that, unless you’re Jack Robinson throwing buckets of spray under the lip, the simple art of generating speed and glide down the line can be a seriously enjoyable path on any wave with a nice bit of wall. And the best way to do this is with a good old fashioned highline.
If you’ve never had the feeling of generating lightning speed by zipping and gliding a surfboard across the uppermost, and steepest, part of a wave, with the powerful pitching lip behind you as the wave rifles off down the line, your highlining speed allowing you to power over and around and to outrun sections that most surfers would consider a ‘closeout’ – then you’re missing out on one of surfing’s greatest pleasures. Sure, it’s not quite the intense euphoria of getting barreled, but it has some similarities.
Highlining is exactly that – riding a high line on the wave face and doing your surfing in the top third of the wave, where it’s steepest and quickest. With a good highline, you’ll feel like you’re gliding with a bird’s eye view; being able to look over the back of the wave and down on the gutter, seeing the shallow reef or sand below as you weave on the crest.
It’s fun. And that’s all that matters right?
As surfers are progressing from novice to intermediate, most of us tend to take off and head towards the bottom of the wave face then fail to lean over enough in the bottom turn to generate enough speed to get the board back in the pocket at the top of the wave. The result can be a wasted wave, stuck riding with the whitewash on your tail and flailing about, straight-lining to get away until that whitewash inevitably swallows you up or sections out in front of you – yes, we’ve all been there.
So, the first thing to learn about highlining is that you’ll have to give up on the old mindset: drop in, bottom turn to a 3 o’clock (or 9 0’clock depending on the wave direction) with a mid-faced top turn. Instead, you want to ditch the bottom turn and take the high road.
To do this you ideally want to be riding a wave that has a long wall and steep face but not necessarily steep enough to barrel. Or a wave that tends to section out in front of you just out of your speed range, unable to outrace, like a beach break.
You want to be getting into the wave as early and as deep as possible. Getting in early means you can build your coasting momentum before you even rise to your feet. While being deep allows you to stay “in the pocket” as you’re beginning your ride – generating speed from takeoff.
Now comes the hard part.
We all know there’s a very, very fine line between taking off without enough angle on your surfboard and nosediving straight into the trough or taking off with too much angle and having your board skip out beneath you as your fins disconnect from the wave face – and getting this balancing act wrong will result in an inevitably sketchy wipeout. But navigating this fine line is something anyone can improve on if you focus on it. Like everything, the best thing to do is try.
If the wave does happen to have a more critical and steeper take-off, then the most important thing is to make the drop while maintaining the maximum amount of down-the-line direction as possible, without skipping the fins out of course. Push your fins to the limit and lean into the wave face, drag your hand for extra balance, and you might be surprised how much your fins can hold into the wave, even when it’s steep.
But, thinking of highlining on your forehand for example, depending on the wave and how deep and early you get in, it’s not necessarily about angling your board parallel while you paddle down the face and take off. You simply need to make sure your board doesn’t go below the bottom third of the wave and has a starting point that will help generate power (e.g. in the pocket of the wave).
You might take off straight and flick a quick bottom turn as you stand up, you might be too far out on the shoulder and need to quickly weave back into the pocket before beginning your highline, or you might stand up crouching on a tight angle towards the shoulder as the wave drops out beneath you. All you need to remember is that you’re surfing in the top two thirds of the wave face.
Now that you’ve taken off and positioned into the highlining part of the wave, it’s time to stand tall and pump or glide (depending on your board and fin type) as high on the wave as possible, lifting your arms and shoulders like wings as you rise to the point you feel you might fall, or get caught up in the lip, or unintentionally float over a closeout barrel wondering why the hell you read this article in the first place.
But if it all comes together perfectly, you’ll feel the glide, you’ll feel ten feet tall, and you’ll generate so much speed that the only way out is either ejecting at a closeout section or swooping into the longest and fastest cutback of your life. Either way, it’ll be fun, and that’s all that matters right?
Editor’s Note: Matt Beahan is a writer, musician, and surfer from Dunsborough in Western Australia’s south west.
