Dru Harrison's "SURFER Tips" article on speed surfing ran in the May 1969 issue of SURFER Magazine. "Speed surfing" was invented by Joey Cabell a year or so earlier, the result of Cabell trying to bring his downhill skiing experience to bear on his wave-riding. The concept was squishy at best, and never caught on, but in 1969 it was a hot topic, and Harrison was Cabell's #1 speed surfing acolyte. Despite the detail Harrison gets into below, 

 shows that, while he narrowed his stance a bit, he was otherwise riding in a conventional regularfoot position and doing the same turns as the rest of the top surfers. Cabell's version of speed surfing can be seen 

 The article below has been slightly edited.

I want to talk about a new approach to wave riding. The best way for me to do this is to review the development of my own approach to surfing. At first, my philosophy was to surf for contests: whip turns, action on the inside rail, then the outside rail, noseriding. I approached every maneuver as an isolated occurrence; I planned each move before I executed it. My surfing was a series of single maneuvers. At this time, my feet were placed in the classic hot-dog manner: parallel, pointing straight at the inside rail when going right, towards the outside rail when going left.

Then I took a karate class, which taught me more about how to stand on a surfboard than anything else. I assumed the classic Hawaiian stance: front foot pointed towards the nose, back foot towards the rail, feet medium spread, with 75 percent of my weight on the back foot. The only movement of the feet for climbing and dropping was done with the rear foot moving back and forth from the inside to the outside rail. The karate stance taught me how to be powerful in my surfing, along the lines of Barry Kanaiaupuni. But still, I was considering maneuvers in isolation and had not learned to flow.

Then Joey Cabell told me about speed—he told me everything he believed in, and it was all so simple because he was so honest. Cabell showed me how to use the ski stance, and it put me on to the most righteous surf trip of my life—a whole different arc! But I had to start surfing all over again, and for a while, I was a kook.

The first step in speed surfing is to modify your stance. Cabell told me I should learn how to ski so I could surf better in the ski stance: feet close together, knock-kneed, rotation out of the knees, working from the waist down. The top part of the body is just for looks. When you first start in on speed surfing, you’ll fall off a lot and think you’ve lost it all and become a kook. But if you’re really a surfer, you’ll be as eager to be as good at speed surfing as you were at hot-dogging.

I have modified the stance slightly since I first began speed surfing. Now I stand, ankles touching, feet parallel, pointing at a 45-degree angle, and it's like I’m right into skiing when I surf. I use a forward-backward motion, leaning forward for speed and drop, leaning backward for stall and climb. There is no longer any motion to the inside and outside rail for climbing and dropping. The surfer’s weight, if he wishes to speed surf, must be kept over the center of the board, along the stringer.

Dropping into a wave, the speed surfer bends forward at the waist, arms spread like a bird, head erect, the chest as close to touching the left knee (if you are a regularfoot) as possible. This stance will produce the ultimate in speed and will draw the lines and arcs of a turn out to their maximum.

Equipment is important: in the Islands, the 13-19-9 shape is a good speed board, though 11-17-7 has been used with success. [Note: Harrison is referring the three classic board measurements: nose, wide point, and tail.] In California, I use a round tail with wide dimensions but in the same proportion. I’m not afraid to say that I was the first to use the teardrop roundtail board, and I believe it is the ultimate California form.

The outcome of the speed surfing development is spectacular. After going through the phases from hot-dog to speed, a surfer can ride any way he wants at any time, on any wave, on any day, and never be jerky. Your body becomes finely tuned to moving perfectly. Then go back to whichever board and style you like, and you will be better for having brought speed and the ski approach into your surfing experience.

"GOING THROUGH THE PHASES," DRU HARRISON ON SPEED SURFING (1969)

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