Jordan Rodin has spent a year of his life pursuing the difficult art of riding finless surfboards. Since accidentally discovering the joys of wave sliding at his inauspicious home break, Mullaz Point in Perth, Jordan has become a devotee of fins free. He’s already travelled to J-Bay with mentor, Derek Hynd, and favours riding the intricately designed craft that Derek makes, although Jordan can’t tell you too much about those because Derek likes to keep the details a secret. Jordan is so respectful of Derek’s wishes that in J-bay, Jordan wouldn’t even allow Mick Fanning to see the bottom of his board. (Check out the break out story on his J-Bay trip) These days Jordan is based around Margaret River, but regularly takes his wave-sliding quiver on the road. Below he explains why he keeps chasing the fins free buzz.
JORDAN RELISHING THE FRICTION FREE LIFE IN BALI. PHOTO: GIANG
Tell us about the day you decided to ditch the fins.
Well it was like any other day, didn’t plan on ditching the fins or going out and hunting a finless board, I just forgot my fin that I was using in my single fin at the time. Maybe if it was pumping that day I would of probably have packed it in and gone home, but there was only about an hour of light left so I went for it. I basically ate shit for about 40 mins until my last wave; I kinda held my line for about 20 metres then slid out, but from that day on I just tried to hold on for another 10 metres or more until I could ride the wave start to finish.
What’s the attraction?
It’s pretty funny everyone thinks I do it because Derek Hynd does it and it’s cool. I didn’t even know about FFFF (Far Field Free Friction) until after I tried riding my board without fins, I guess the biggest attraction for me is not having to generate your own speed, it’s flat out from start to finish, and it opens a lot of windows to waves that aren’t so good for surfing with fins.
How long have you been fins free for?
It’s been almost a year surfing without fins. The first six months I was riding a bunch of boards and never focused on one type of equipment. But in the last few months I haven’t really surfed anything else but finless
Are you actually consciously pulling moves and drifts or just kind of semi out of control and going with it?
At the start yeah for sure it’s all kind of outta control not really knowing what the board can do when you put it in new position on the wave. As of now after riding it for a while it’s just like going surfing now, you’re in total control – it might not look that way but it is.
What’s the slam-dunk of finless moves?
It has to be getting barrelled right…? But I get stoked out on riding a wave not doing a lot and going really fast so I don’t know if there is one move that stands out to me.
Are you actually travelling faster or does it just appear that way?
Good question, from the feeling I get when riding a finless board to a board with fins, is that it’s got way more pick up speed from the get go; it’s almost like you want to slow down with a slide or spin otherwise you will just out run the wave completely, but I think it’s faster!
You mentioned you have been riding Derek Hynd’s boards is he a kind of mentor/inspiration?
Well he is the king of free friction surfing, so I didn’t really want to be on anyone else’s finless concept! But for sure he is a huge inspiration, I was staying with him in J-Bay early this year and he was doing things that I didn’t know were possible, so it was pretty inspiring for me to see that first-hand.
Are there lots of concaves and channels in the base?
Yeah it’s got all that jazz in there!
CHASING THAT DRIFT FEELING AT MAXIMUM VELOCITY. PHOTO: GIANG
JORDAN’S J-BAY JAM WITH DEREK HYND
It’s a cold and dark day here in Perth. As I look at the sea I watch the roaring forties rip apart the ocean, shifting sand dunes and making new sand banks. Seems like every time it’s onshore here I know where the wind has come from and it reminds me of South Africa.
This feeling came to me six months ago as I was about to fly out to Jeffery’s Bay for what would be the surf trip of a lifetime. But perhaps first I should explain how I came to set my sights on a trip to Africa.
A few days before leaving I received a message from Derek Hynd saying, “Jordan, your board is ready, you can either pick it up here or freight it out.” Instantly I replied, “Yep I am coming over,” not even thinking if I had enough money or would be able to get time off work.
I remember Derek trying to stop me from coming because the WSL contest was only two weeks away and it wouldn’t be worth the hassle. I didn’t care, I booked my ticket and I was off. Twenty hours of airtime and customs checks later, I was in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, entirely uncertain about what I was getting myself into. The only thing I had organised was a place to stay, but that got turned upside down when I received a message from Derek saying, “You can crash at my place if you like.” I jumped on it and called to cancel my pre-booked accommodation!
As I caught my ride to Derek’s place I remember I was shitting myself. I was about to meet the one guy I looked up to the most”. As we were about to pull up to his place I could see him sitting on the top floor, looking out for cars driving by. I open the door, “Jordan right?” he exclaims, and I’m just glad he remembered my name.
I threw my stuff down and paid close attention to what Derek was about to say next. “The house rules are, this
is your drinking cup, and that’s it.” It lifted a huge weight off my shoulder seeing how cool and friendly Derek was. As a few days went by before the first genuine swell bump came up. I couldn’t sleep all that night. It could have been the jetlag, but I think it was more nerves. Knowing I was going to surf in front of Derek, I just didn’t want to fall or do stupid shit out there.
I remember there was so much hype around that Mick Fanning was in town, returning to the scene of the incident that fleetingly made pro surfing the most watched sport in the world. All the shark talk played on my mind, but it didn’t phase Derek one bit, so that morning we suited up in the pitch dark, running down the street towards the keyhole. “It sounds big Jordan, Don’t miss the paddle out whatever you do,” Derek warned. I ended up paddling out without wetting my hair. “You got lucky,” Derek assured me.
After surfing for a few hours I saw Fanning paddling out. The line up froze for a minute, everyone taking in his next move. I must have stood out like dog nuts on a cat out there, spinning and sliding around while the pros took the wave apart. Paddling back up to the point I stopped half way and Fanning joined me.
“Where’s your brother Louie?” he asked. He must have thought I was Luke Hynd’s brother, as I was surfing one of Derek’s boards, or maybe it was just Mick’s way of making a joke because I’ve got long hair like Louie. After we established I wasn’t a Hynd, he asked to see the bottom of the board. I didn’t know what to say to the world champion, as I knew Derek didn’t want anyone to see it. In the end I blurted out, ” Look I’m sorry Mick but I just can’t.” He looked shocked that someone would deny a surfing world champ the chance to see the bottom of a surfboard.
After I told Derek he couldn’t stop laughing. “Great stuff Jordan that’s classic,” he chuckled. Afterwards he treated me to dinner at the local restaurant and I breathed a sigh of relief. It was like I did good and he could trust me.
The next few days developed a similar pattern that involved me surfing my brains out – sometimes for nine hours with no break! It was free-friction para- dise. The things Derek was doing out there no one could explain. The lines he was drawing were so far beyond what anyone else was doing out there, particularly when you take into account the fact that the who’s who of surfing were out there too.
The week flew by pretty quickly and because I wanted to explore beyond J-Bay, Derek rented a car for the day. He took me down these seedy, dusty roads, showing me around Seals Point and Cape St Francis. To me, the land looked similar to the Kimberly’s region in the North West of Australia.
On our way home Derek started slowing down in the middle of the road all of a sudden and said matter of factly, “Okay, now we are going to pick these hitch hikers up and take them home. You have to get in the boot cause there isn’t enough room.” I couldn’t believe it; trying to fit in these little rental cars wasn’t easy particularly when the hitchhikers were laughing at me as I struggled to get in. “Alright are you in?” Derek asked abruptly. “I think so … boom!” the boot drops. After about 20km of driving we finally dropped them off and I could breathe fresh air again. I jumped back in the front and was greeted by a grinning Derek who asked rhetorically, “Now wasn’t that good?”
“What do you mean?” I responded.
“Seeing the countryside from a backwards view,” he quipped and I half wondered if anyone had ever thrown Derek in the back of the car like that, and given him a rear view appreciation of the country.
As the days narrowed down to hours it was soon time for me to depart this beautiful place. I didn’t want to leave, two weeks just wasn’t enough. I said my goodbyes to Derek, thanked him for everything – the hospitality and the surfboards – but most importantly just that he was so humble in the way he goes about everything. He assured me, it was a pleasure to have me along and made left me with a classic sort of Hynd parting comment. “If I ever go to your funeral I will tell them he showed up and went for it.” It was the perfect way to end it.
Six months later I am looking out off the WA coastline waiting for the next time I visit that magical continent.
Is Derek protective of his design ideas when it comes to finless boards?
I just think he is really passionate in what he is doing. All shapers want their ideas or concepts to be theirs and original, and to his credit he has done just that!
Any wave you really want to ride?
I really want to get over to Morocco! Looks like free friction paradise with all those long, walled out points, but also want to try some bigger, heavier stuff just south of were I live in Margaret River.
Is it possible to ride big waves and slabs or just dreamy little down the line walls?
I think anything is possible, it’s just you have to find a slab that lets you in early, maybe somewhere like North Point where you can race for a while and shoot through it, but for fun, yeah dreamy points are the go!
Can regular Joe pick it up or does it require absolute devotion?
It’s definitely a challenge, but hey if you live near a perfect point I don’t think it would take too long before you start trimming and riding the wave, but if you don’t have those set ups like I did, yeah it’s pretty hard and you have to be devoted I guess!
Will you ever go back to the fins?
Yeah, I am sure I will go back to fins but at the moment I am having way too much fun riding free friction; just something different!
