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Ride by Kalle Carranza, trim by out the window. Photo: Aichner
Ride by Kalle Carranza, pic by Scott Aichner, trim by out the window

The “El Nonchalanto” has only really come to prominence with the advent and pairing of digital cameras and waves that are wholly capable of murdering their riders: Pipeline, Teahupo0, Shipsterns, etc…

Young Kalle (pictured) demonstrates a classic Nonchalanto at Teahupoo: a fine example of “Look at me look at me, I’m so fine, here’s me crankin, down the line.”

What begs the question here though is who is in the biggest danger of getting belted, Cool Kalle or poor bloody Scott? And what is the water snapper’s equivalent of the Nonchalanto, after all, he is in an arguably worse predicament. How does he look cool?

He’s just (1) taken the shot and (2) dodged El Bueno Supremo Hombre on his path to a moment’s righteous glory; the lip is now up there somewhere out of sight and heading south with malevolent intent. He also has to avoid getting sucked over and nailed to the reef. Then it’s a struggle to swim in with the gear, and later on he’s got to buy all the drinks and beg someone to buy the photo. That is, of course, if he manages to get his kit out of the water free of impact damage and salt water immersion.

This is all hardly acceptable.

The El Nonchalanto itself though, as a technical function, does not appear to be in any way a valid form of enhancing The Ride.

In fact, subtracting all that weight (the arms upper and lower) from the delicate balancing membrane of mass transfer and velocity displacement required in this particular situation, and then deliberately placing them in a non-advantageous position (as per pic), is foolhardy. Plus you usually end up looking like a dag.

The genus of the phrase El Nonchalanto is down to Mickey Munoz and his El Quasimodo – another silly thing to do on a wave.

 
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