McCarthy vs. Worsley Interview

"He makes his face look like Jacob Zuma"

These are two of the most talented guys on the SABA Tour at the moment and two of the funniest. Whenever you spend time with one of them searching for waves you'll laugh all day. But when they both team up on a trip then you're guaranteed to be sore from giggling the next day. I think it’s the competitive drive as well as the love of waves and having fun that ensures anyone around them is giggling at their constant attacks on each other. And if you hang around laughing too long you will definately be dragged into the action.
So if you're ‘comebacks’ aren’t up to scratch keep a safe distance or maybe just read this interview…





"What are you better than him at? - Controlling my Facebook..."

If I had to make a glossary for you to refer too when one of their quips seems random we would be here all day, so I’ll just give you one clue to help you get there. When they constantly mention anything to do with “Cutting Onions” think what happens to you when you cut onions.

Daniel Worsley
Age: 23
Weight: 65
Height: 171 cm (I’m a carpenter, I work in centimeters)
Reach: McCarthy's face
How are you? Oh I’m just great. How are you?

"Mark stop riding gold boards!"

You know that this is the McCarthy vs. Worsley interview so is there anything you would like to get off your chest?
Just when I though I was too old to peruse a Bodyboarding career, I saw a “has been” (or should I say a “ has never been”) who is way to old, become top 5 in the world. If that's possible, then anything is. Thanks Mark, you've opened my eyes

What are you better than him at?
Controlling my Facebook,
Bodyboarding, this list is going to go on forever, can't you just ask me what I’m not better than him at? ;)

Why are you better than he is?
Well, you couldn't get much worse...
Plus his ex girlfriend just dumped him for a guy who owns an island in Australia so he's pretty vulnerable right now.
Just give him time and he'll be back on his game.

What’s your favorite thing about him?
How he makes his face look like Jacob Zuma on land, (hehehehe)

What’s your worst thing about him?
How he makes his style look like Uri Valado in the water.

Why did you decide to hang around at SA Champs last year after being knocked out?
Haha, to find out the true story about Mark and Jocelyn. Believe me, it was worth sticking around for.

What have you learnt anything from each other?
How to cut onions.
How to watch each others back (especially in Backline)

Do you have any advice for him?
Come on Mark, it's been so long now, just get over her and move on.
You must also move on from your rebound girl, Suzie is now married.
Stop working in the onion factory, and stop riding gold boards.
Phil me up!

Stay tuned for Marks side of the story...it'll be up soon!

Wesley Fischer in 2 minutes...

"Hawaii is just so sick, the crowds obviously suck but the pipe event is all worth it!"


Hey bud, we missed you at SA’s last year. Did you miss not being a part of the Reef SA Bodyboarding Championship 2009? What have you been up too?

Boet, I missed it big time... I love being with my team, all the people which had such a huge part to do with my BB... all the different coaches that I have had while being part of the team... I been doing heaps of flowboarding, I mean a lot! I made the SA team for flowboarding as a standup, which was rad and we went to Singapore to compete in the world champs there and I won, as a standup! It’s been a good year...














On the SABA tour, which contest was your favorite and why?
Very, very hard to say, every event has something special about it... Durbs cause its home, Margate cause its always got waves, cave rock cause its cave rock and CT cause of the roaming venue, Plett cause its a wedge! Probably the bluff event, cause its one of the few events I have seen in SA where the sport was really incredible to watch and all the top riders were there to perform properly!

Hawaii this winter? And any plans for next year’s tour?
I hope so man... Hawaii is just so sick, the crowds obviously suck but the pipe event is all worth it! I really would love to give the tour a full go this year but backing is needed, I would love to see the tour getting a blanket spono, which there is some talk about... so I’ll see closer to the time


Which events we likely to see you at next year?
CT, Margate, Durbs! Peace

For more on Wez checkout www.sixty40.co.za

(photos by, Barry Tuck, Andy Gold,Maurice Aubuchon)

Tactical Thoughts

“The inconsistent nature of the ocean and the relentless time pressure means that you must be constantly reassessing your strategic approach to the heat in order to maximize your wave catching potential.”

The first thing that should enter your mind when a heat starts or even after you’ve just finished a wave is where is the best take off point and am I in it? If you have studied the contest venue or even just ridden there a couple of times you should be able to gauge what the best waves at that break look like. Now all you have to do is make sure you are in the correct position to get them.
Next you must understand what is going on in the heat and there are three questions that Dr. Martin suggests that you ask yourself. Firstly, you should ask yourself “What have I got?”


“This question relates to the wave scores that you have up until that point during the heat. Your scores will subsequently impact on your strategy for the next wave. For example, if you only have one high scoring wave, then it is important that you return to the primary wave location as quickly as possible to get a second wave in order to go through to the next round.”


If you have two high scoring waves already you might want to push other competitors deeper or put some sort of pressure on them in order to limit their wave scoring potentials. Alternatively, you can seek to improve your lowest score. This also works if you only two low scoring waves in a heat and should be repeated until you are either happy with your heat score (don’t think this has ever happened to me personally), or until you run out of time. Which brings us to the next important question – “How long is there to go?”

Wearing a watch and noting flag changes during a heat can ease your nerves if your heat strategy is going as you had planned. However, if you’re out of sync with your strategy you may be inclined to panic and not use your time wisely. That’s why it is very important to have a ‘Plan B’ and ‘Plan C’ ready when things aren’t going your way. For instance, if you need scores and are running out of time you may want to make your waves shorter and “Go Big”, but as I’ve said in a previous post the most important thing is that you have two scoring waves. Also, “checking the amount of time remaining throughout the heat allows you to change locations, pressure or shut down other [riders] accordingly.”

“What do I need to do now?” this is the next question you should be constantly asking yourself during a heat. And it will be based on the answers from the previous two. If you have only got one scoring ride and are running out of time in the heat it might be better to find the position that will allow to catch another scoring ride quickly. “The process of reviewing your scores, the time remaining and then determining your subsequent strategy should happen while you are paddling back out and waiting in the take off zone”

In the next post we will cover Dr Martin’s “Positive Self-Talk” and his take on “Mental Practice or Virtual Surfing”













(Dr Mike Martin is widely acknowledged as the leading expert in surf psychology. He is author of Six Steps to Surfing Success: How to Create Heat Winning Strategies, and Head Honcho at www.SurfSuccess.com, this post was written after studying one of his papers, “Heat Winning Secrets” How to Consistently Win Heats by Fine Tuning Your Thinking.)

While we wait for the busy guys on tour to deliver some insights I would like to get started, so you can be prepared for the new year of competing.

The first thing I would like to say about competitive riding is that in a SABA run competition there will always be two waves counting in your total heat score (The only time this changes is when there are tied final heat scores). So usually you either make it through your heat or win a final with a score out of twenty from each judge. But the point I am trying to emphasize is that “regardless of how many waves surfers ride during their heat, only their highest two scoring rides count in the final wave tally that decides the eventual heat winner”.

I have seen guys making it through heats on one score but in tight competition this will usually never happen.

Dr Mike Martin is widely acknowledged as the leading expert in surf psychology. He is author of Six Steps to Surfing Success: How to Create Heat Winning Strategies, and Head Honcho at SurfSuccess.com, after studying one of his papers, “Heat Winning Secrets” How to Consistently Win Heats by Fine Tuning Your Thinking, I would like to share the highlights with you.

Here are four mental processes that any aspiring competitor should be aware of before and during any competition.

• Technical Thoughts
• Tactical Thoughts
• Positive Self-Talk
• Mental Practice or "Virtual Surfing"

But for now we will only discuss the first aspect of his teachings:

Technical Thoughts (Make it ‘slow-mo’ in your mind)

Often when you are watching a heat or even a free-surf, you will look at sections and decide what move should be done on it. In a free-surf there isn’t the same amount of pressure to complete moves as there is in a competition. And this pressure is why riders often sacrifice style and smoothness/fluidity in order to simply ‘stick’ the move and look for the next section. As a judge I can’t explain how many time competitors have complained after a heat because they were the only ones in the heat doing ARS’s or flips and they didn’t win. This is because execution is pivotal to the judging panel, you cannot expect to be scored highly if the move doesn’t look good, is messy or legs are dragged. So, in order to combat this, riders should realise that there are different phases in every move and these can be broken up “into small chunks”.
For instance, a roll should consist of:

• Entry Phase: a hard bottom turn (focussing on maintaining speed throughout and the section you have chosen to launch off of or through)
• as you get to that section move your weight into your chest and arc your neck to assist your rotation (the weight distribution may sound funny but it works – watch Hardy air reverse and see how ‘heavy’ his fins appear, ensuring his fast but fluid rotation)

• Action Phase: hitting the section you can decide what you like best to do with your arms and board, while still paying attention to where you will be landing (some guys like to extend the arms, tweak a bit of tail or ‘hug’ in tight. Bear in mind that this can influence the score, for example extending arms might make a small roll on a small wave look bigger, hugging or holding the board in tight on a big section might focus everyone’s attention on the power and your control [Rawlins does it well])
• Your weight distribution is critical to your rotation. (if you force it too much you could over rotate – digging rail and loosing points)

• Recovery Phase: As you approach your landing you should decide on your weight distribution and where the impact will happen. The landing of a move can often be the deciding factor that determines it scoring low or high with the judges, so make sure you let them see that you are in control. (On heavy landings it is often better to spread your weight, making sure that there’s not too much weight in-front – that’ll ensure a nosedive and you don't need that)

“The major key to success when attempting aerials is in the Entry Phase. You need to have good speed before launching off the wave. This allows you to stay connected (Action Phase) and centred over the board (Recovery Phase).”














So, you can see how one move can be broken down into four parts and possibly even more if you want too. This “Slow-Mo” approach doesn’t mean that you slow your riding down or do less moves on the wave. It simply means you should be focussing almost entirely on each ‘chunk’ of that move, in order to ensure that the final combination is fluid. However, Dr Martin does suggest that too many cues “would simply over load you”, so it is important to decide what works for you. Some riders might not need cues for simple moves like spins and cutbacks, others might.

The problem comes when actually riding in a heat and attempting to concentrate on these cues under pressure. Competitors start thinking how much this move counts if they ‘land’ it or how they got the harder heat, but “these thoughts are actually “off task” and irrelevant to riding a wave and nailing high risk major manoeuvres.” Because these ‘pressure’ thoughts are not focussing on the components of a move it is less like that the rider will complete that move in the finish they would’ve wished too.

The addition bonus to having these cues in your ‘back pocket’ is Confidence through control - “Your perception of control is one of the primary keys in boosting your self-belief, and with clear “tech” focusing cues you know exactly what to do to get results in critical situations. You know what cues to focus on and you know that by focusing on those cues you will nail difficult manoeuvres on a regular basis.”


Next we’ll discuss ‘Tactical Thoughts” and how catching the best waves in the heat can assist you in acquiring the best scores of the heat.
If you want to read more, Gareth White has posted some really helpful stuff on Sixty40... check these out:
Judging series
Competition series


(photos from www.sixty40.co.za (Vaughan Deacon), www.fluidzone.com)