The Rundown

Bodyboarders Get Booted

Durbanicus Rex, the double point-break flow barrel at Wave House Durban, has been open for almost 10 years, and in that time the "D-Rex" and the many flowboarders that frequent the wave have been at the forefront of flowboarding's evolution.

It seems that even as FlowBarrel®'s begin to spring up across the world, the South Africans are still innovating and finding new ways to utilise the wave, the latest of these coming from the bodyboarders.

Known as the Rundown, the crew of evolutionaries essentially sprint through the pit that the wave washes into and then dive onto the wave, using the extra speed and momentum from their run to boost bigger and scarier airs. The three guys at the forefront of this new attack are Wes Fischer, Stephen Janssens and Michael Ostler (AKA Ratt). The trio can regularly be found standing against the back wall of the pit waiting for a gap on the D-Rex's left. When one opens up they sprint through, dive onto the wave and launch skywards, getting unheard of height and air time.

Of course heavy bails are part and parcel of the rundown, and all the guys have experienced some solid wipes, regularly landing hard in the flats on the back of the FlowBarrel. This hasn't dampened the crew's enthusiasm, and they're now being joined by other riders all focussed on getting the Rundown dialled.

"More than anything it's a lot of fun," says Stephen, "and it's giving us the opportunity to boost the sort of tricks we'd only ever dreamed of doing on the D-Rex."

Ratt has a crazy inverted air spin, while all three have perfected the air reverse, a trick nobody originally thought possible on a flow barrel. Then there's the usual combos of rolls, inverts and ARSs, but all done metres above the lip of the wave.

"It's still early days and we're learning more with every session," says Wes. "The potential of what we can do is almost limitless, and we're amped to keep pushing it and seeing where this can take us in the future. There's just so much we still need to learn and then we'll be able to start doing some really crazy stuff."

Watch this space...