A Paipo Interview with Shaun Rosen

Like many others, Shaun has developed his own style and approach to wave riding. The difference is that Shaun surfs one of the great waves of the world, which affords an enviable opportunity to ride long, fast open-faced quality waves. Hovering in the lip is one of the features of his surfing, which is impresive in larger waves, playing with gravity.

1. South Africa has a long history of bellyboards. Was this an influence on you riding bellyboards? If not, how did you become exposed to bellyboards?

When I started surfing I started on mats and then started surfing polystyrene boards because the mats kept popping. There was no boogie boards invented so I started surfing a fiberglass Knee-board. I never was influenced by anyone - I wish I had been - I would've stood up.

It was a kneeboard shaped by a friend for another friend. The shaper was a guy called Eric Steadman who still lives in Cape St Francis. This would've been in about 1974/5.

Were there other bellyboard riders around or did you have to figure it out yourself?

There was one but it was myself generally trying to make waves that surfers found easy. Cape Town was a difficult place to learn to surf because of the water temp, the varying quality of waves and the distance we travelled to find good waves. Moving to Sydney was much easier as the quality of the surf was incredible compared to Cape Town.

The biggest influences on me was a guy called David Ravenscroft (Lofty) from Avalon who designed a board and got Simon Anderson to shape it. It changed everything for me. Then Pierre de Villiers saw the Simon and refined it adding bonzer set ups for the fins. Pierre (who pioneered Dungeons) shapes for me and lately Hugh Thompson of Jbay as well. All the shapers have influenced me from Jonathan Paarman to Des Sawyer and especially Simon who wanted to hit my friend when he found out I was a bellyboarder!! But he changed my surfing life.

4. How have your boards changed over the years: longer, thicker, narrower, different bottoms? What are your current boards?

Yes. I started surfing Kneeboards then Simon changed that and now I've been riding similar shapes for about 15 years. I have concaves and square tails and noses. The boards I ride now are a bit longer (as I was very ill for a few years and lost a lot of strength after multiple rounds of Chemo) so I can paddle in easier. My boards are now thicker (2 3/4 to 3") than they were and I ride boards from 5'10 to 6'2. The main thing that changes for me are the concaves, the rails and the fin set up. I love my Pierre de Villiers bonzer set up as I get turbo speed.

5. What is the fin set-up on your boards? Do you have a favorite type of fin set-up?

Yes. I ride a bonzer 5 fin set up and 4 fin. When it's big sometimes I'll ride a thruster. Mainly bonzer though.

6. Do you need a different board to ride J-Bay compared to other places that you have surfed?

No. Jbay is an easy wave to ride but difficult to master. So I pick my line and go and just try to go as fast as possible. I like Jbay because it gives you a long ride and when it's a bit bigger the wall is so much fun. It also seems much faster than it looks on film.

Every session at Jbay is special as is every session at Cloudbreak or Restaurants. I also have had incredible waves in Indo and Australia over the years. One session at Ben Buckler in Bondi stands out as being the biggest surf I've probably been in. Also a session at Cloudbreak with two boatmen and me at a solid 10' plus was one of the most incredible days of surfing I've seen. And I had one session recently at Restaurants where it was my buddy Antony and I surfing the bottom non stop for about 2-3 hours. And one memorable day at Skeleton where I went with Giggs Cilliers and didn't make one wave all day.

8. What approach do you take to riding a long lined wave like Jeffreys Bay? Do you use any specific techniques to generate speed or tube ride?

Yes. I take off deep and sit very high to generate speed on the first section. Once (if) I make that, I drop to the bottom and turn to the top where I keep a high line on the sections. I tend to drop down when it slows down and I come off the bottom. I try not to do too many turns as Jbay runs away from you. I trim on top and use the rail to hold me in the face so I get a feeling of weightlessness when I'm cantilevered on the face of the wave. I call it hovering and it's what I aim for on a wave. I think it's unique to bellyboarding because of the distribution of my weight across the entire board. I cannot ride barrels. I'm useless. If I get barrelled it's a fluke except at the wave pool or Restaurants where I have more time and make about 1/20.

Yeah. I think if I had my time over I probably would've learnt to stand up and surf as well because I'm limited with towing and foiling etc. I have to stand up anyway so I wish I was better on my feet than the kook I am. But I do tend to go faster than a lot of surfers on my boards so that's a plus.