I find riding a backhand rail grab tube impossible. As in all tube rides, the line you take is critical.
Ride too low on the face and the lip pounds you in the back of the neck, rips you off your feet, flings you out in front of the wave and then lands on top of you.
If you ride too high up on the face, you get sucked up into the lip and thrown over the falls.
If you grab the rail too hard, you can flip the board upside down and sit in among your fin cluster with many sharp edges looking for something to cut.
I nearly lost my chances of fatherhood on one of those wipe outs.
But not Tom Lindhorst. The young man is incredibly elastic, dexterous, quick witted and can thread the eye of the needle with style, panache and flair.
His tube riding is sublime. Forehand tubes are easy, but rail grab backhand tubes is where he really shines.
And on his off-the-lip backhand attack, Lindhorst is strong, confident and he goes for all the big moves and completes them in the critical section of the wave with excellent levels of control throughout.
I was a little jealous of him going to Taghazout, Morocco, to surf in the Africa QS event.
The many right point breaking waves there are legendary but on hearing about the crowds from Lindhorst, and the aggressive locals, perhaps I am OK to give Morocco a miss.
One can identify with the locals though — 124 four of the best surfers in Africa and Europe pitch up and your local break is completely overcrowded.
Lindhorst was not there as a tourist, he was there to compete. He had a job to do. He has six selection events and three are done already.
For the first two events, one in Durban and one in Ballito, he was only halfway paying attention but Morocco cost a lot of money to go to, so he trained hard and gave full effort.
What do you know? He gave a scintillating performance and only just missed advancing through the quarterfinals by the narrowest margin.
Ninth position in an international event is a good shout and looking at teammate Luke Thompson taking third position in the final, Lindhorst knows his standard is good enough to get to the finals.
With his Morocco result added in, Lindhorst is now lying #2 in the SA ratings.
The big deal is: four SA surfers get invited to surf in the World Qualifying Series.
There are still three more events to take place in SA for Lindhorst to hold or better his place. Thus far he is well in.
The pressure is on. Gqeberha, Victoria Bay and Long Beach Cape Town will still be surfed by the end of March, before the SA component of the WQS is selected.
Lindhorst’s four best results out of the six events will tabulate for his final selection rating.
If you told me to bet R100 for or against, my money is on he is going to make it.
Once he makes the WQS, he is in the big time.
The QS starts in Australia in June, then Ballito SA, US Open Huntington Beach California, Portugal and Brazil. Five events.
Make the top 11 surfers in that and then the following season (2026) you are in the top select 34 in the world surfing the WSL — world surfing league at Kelly Slater/Gabriel Medina level.
The system is Africa selection, QS selection and then the WSL.
It is a long and hard road. Living out of suitcases, costing a bomb for all the travel and battling it out tooth and nail with the best, most excited, motivated, lean and hungry surfers in the world.
If a money tree falls over in your backyard, send a big branch to Lindhorst, he is going to need all the help he can get.
The pressure is on and every break you arrive at is crowded to the hilt and extremely competitive, even in the free surfs.
While Lindhorst said the waves in Morocco were fantastic and he loved surfing there, he commented that our uncrowded Nahoon Reef and Port Alfred are freakishly uncrowded and diabolically good by comparison.
We are very spoiled here at home. Still it is very nice to know that your performance is at international standard and how can you know how far you can go if you never push your boundaries?
Lindhorst is a shining light for Buffalo City and SA.
All young athletes from all sports can take a leaf from his book on how to be a gentleman, sportsman, excellent, humble and an ambassador.
A more likable young man you will struggle to find. Make us proud.
Weekender
