Laird’s Laws
Seventeen commandments from water god Laird Hamilton, who says fear is good, failure isn’t bad, and you should treat your body like a truck, not a temple

By Michael Roberts

1. I base everything on how I feel. You can tell me, if you’re 43 years old and six foot this, that’s going to do that to you, this will do this—but your body is the best instrument for reading how things affect you.

2. You want strength that you can actually control and apply. When you sit down on an exercise machine, with your back against a chair, you tend to shut down the rest of your body. When you stand up and your body has to hold a position to actually support the weight, you’ll have a hard time. So you need to incorporate other elements. I’ll do machines where I hold my legs up, or stretch while I’m on them, or add leg lifts while I’m doing presses.

3. It’s really about keeping in shape for life. Think about your body like a car. Once you park a car, it might not start again. But if you just keep driving it, it’ll keep going. It likes to be driven.

4. If it’s potato chips in, it’s potato chips out. You eat garbage, you’re probably going to perform like garbage.

5. Vacation is an opportunity to get in a good routine. It’s like mini–boot camp. I just got back from a heli-snowboarding trip in Alaska. I’d been wanting to work on my legs, so I go up there and board all day for 12 days. If we didn’t get enough, we’d chop firewood or take hikes in deep snow. I come out of that and my legs feel strong.

6. This is something I’m trying to learn: how to rest. Going full steam ahead all the time is not always the most productive approach, because then you’re always trying to play catch-up with recovery.

7. You have to go and try different stuff. The thing is, when you reach a certain level in any sport, you become so efficient at it that the effort level is really diminished. Your body has adapted. So what are you getting? Snowboarding has helped my surfing. Windsurfing has helped my surfing. Biking, for sure, has helped my surfing.

8. Above everything, sleep. I’m an eight-to-ten-hour guy. Not that I can’t operate with less, but for my overall well-being, I gotta have at least eight.

9. I like espresso. It’s good stuff.

10. I have friends who eat healthier than anybody, but it takes them all day. And if they don’t have their sprouted bread, they go into a seizure. I can eat a Big Mac. I’m not going to love it, but it won’t put me into toxic shock. It’s like if a car is too high-performance, then it’s sensitive to any kind of fuel. I like being more like a truck. If a little diesel gets in there, maybe a little water, it’ll cough and burp a bit, but it’s gonna get through it and keep running.

11. Chew more. That’ll probably do more for your ability to absorb nutrients from your food than just about anything.

12. It’s always more enjoyable to train with other people. It’s going to be more stimulating, but it also pushes you because you have accountability. You can’t just think, Oh, that was enough. Your partner will say, “That was only 29. I thought we were doing 30.”

13. Fear is an unbelievable motivator, but it also makes people freeze in their tracks. Once you start to understand it, fear becomes something you can tap into. Fear comes from the understanding that you can die. It usually makes me make really good decisions and gives me power.

14. If you aren’t able to be scared, you either haven’t been hurt or you’re completely ignorant.

15. We are each our own greatest inhibitor. People don’t want to do new things if they think they’re going to be bad at them or people are going to laugh at them. You have to be willing to subject yourself to failure, to be bad, to fall on your head and do it again, and try stuff that you’ve never done in order to be the best you can be.

16. In the end, if you’re still just there, doing it, you win.

If Getting cold and putting that wet winter suit on is getting you down, then why not join SUP Gower and Wavehunters for some Warm winter surf exploration to Morocco this coming february 2010. 

Morocco has warm winter sunshine (sometimes 22 degrees) and you can easily surf in a shorty on a SUP at this time of year. If you fancy feeling some sunshine in your face and warm water between your toes then come on a  surfing holiday this winter with stand up paddlesurfing Gower and Wavehunters who have been surf guiding for 4 years. We have built up good local knowledge & experience taking trips out to the famed surfing villages surrounding Tagazoute. We have all the equipment to introduce you to the fast growing sport of Stand Up Paddleboarding or Surfing.

Transport usually is by 4×4 or mini van

Accomodation is a villa which offers western style bathrooms, sea views

Day to day consists of :

• Breakfast after which you will have the choice to stay in the villa or taken on surf safari
• Morning Surf
• Lunch- (usually baguette and bottle of water)
• Afternoon surf - where we will either stay or move on depending if everyone is enjoying.
• Transport back to the villa
• The evening is up to you ! (there are plenty of traditional clean restaurants in the area)

Extras

• Stand up paddlesurf / surfing lessons are priced at 25 GBP per hour
• We will rent SUP boards for 40GBP per day

Flights

• Easy jet fly to Agadir DIRECT -where we will pick you up from the airport

The Currency is Dirhams

BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL 

Drops 8′11 ‘Vulcan’ SUP review
Length : 8’11 = 272 cm
Width : 29″ 1/3 
Thickness : 4″ 5/7 
Volume : 142 litres

In brief

The Vulcan will have your nerves twitching, a powerful fast board with little limitations and suprisingly easy to paddle.
At first the board feels sluggish compared to a Longer style SUP board, This lack of glide is the only drawback of the board which needs solid controlled paddle strokes to keep the row effect at a mimimum.
Plenty of volume for 85 kilos, the board can be seriously pushed into some inspiring curves and also ridden off the nose for those who appreciate some Longboard style. As with the ‘Furious’ Fins can drastically change the boards performance- comes with quad fin US Tuttle box configeration

Waves-5/5
Stability-3/5
Construction-5/5
Style-5/5

Drops 8′10 ‘Furious’ SUP review
Length : 8’10 = 270 cm
Width : 29″ 
Thickness : 4″ 5/7
Volume : 138 litres

In brief

This is a ‘furious’ Shortboard style SUP board
This board commands some serious practice to enable the user to utilize its amazing performance in the waves. Whilst a 85 kilo paddler may find easy to flat water paddle, in any chop this board is very hard to bring back from a rail dive. In waves the board is ridden hard off the wide tail and therfore paddle length is important because of the lower riding style the board adopts the rider to approach.
Great performance in 2-6ft surf - Fins can drastically change this boards performance- comes with quad fin US Tuttle box configeration.

Waves-5/5
Stability-2/5
Construction-5/5
Style-4/5

Drops 10′11 ‘Spirit’ SUP review
Length : 10’11 = 330 cm
Width : 28″ 3/4
Thickness : 4″ 2/3
Volume : 185 litres

In brief-
A brilliant competition SUP board which will amaze surfers into how  manoeuvrable a Stand up board can be but still easy for a beginner to gain their balancing techniques.This board is fast and aggressive to turn , a great longboard style board which can be pushed to its limits with tight cutbacks and noseriding style. Very stable even at 28 ” wide- This board is a great allrounder and will easily please the Beginner wanting to get into SUP to a Surfer worried about getting a SUP board they will outgrow.
The ‘Spirit’ is a SUP board you will remember for years to come ! 

   
Waves-4/5
Stability-3/5
Construction-5/5
Style-5/5

DROPS SUPS FOR SALE

The conditions were overcast with a Light to moderate NW breeze which slightly hindered the 16 strong Paddle crew  as they Paddled across swansea bay from Mumbles, heading towards Swansea Baefest festival site approx 6.7 k away at 4pm on saturday afternoon.
The race soon spread with Jock patterson Charging ahead of the pack followed by Adam England on a unofficial 15ft Starboard, by BSUPA rules. The conditions looked still from shore but reports from the safety boats mentioned a side Chop from the massive 13m tide that day.

As paddlers came to shore Jock Patterson still lead and decided to put in a few extra paddles in past the last marker - but even this was not enough to allow unofficial Adam England  to gain 1st .Andrew Wickens officially 2nd and Matt Argyle put in a great paddle  finish for 3rd.

1st -Jock Patterson - 48:00 mins

2nd Andrew Wickens- 51:48

3rd Matt Argyle- 54:39

4th Mark Slater-56:48

Ladies Race

Two ladies entered the race, Claire Blacklock  and Wendy McGee

1st Claire Blacklock

2nd Wendy McGee

Llangennith SUP Gower/BSUPA surf Comp
The surf on the sunday was a great little 2-3 ft clean swell which gave the competitors a Really fun little selection of left and right beach break waves to SUP on!
Late afternoon brought on a slight onshore which slightly messed the conditions, but a great day of Small SUP action was had on Gower.
Results were-

1st - Matt smith- stoked !
2nd -Jock patterson
3rd - Matt Argyle
4th -Mark slater

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Come and join the fun and contact www.bsupa.org.uk for details
For entry fee to compete in the Distance and Surf series of the event please see this link

http://www.bsupa.org.uk/news/1-event-news/39-round-three-swansea-enter-online.html