"Rolf Aurness: Opening New Doors," by Steve Pezman, ran in the November 1970 issue of SURFER. Aurness was 18 and had recently won the 1970 world championships. This version has been slightly shortened and edited.

What’s going to happen to board design in the future?

Tell you what I think; I can see surfing becoming very similar to waterskiing. Boards will be strapped on, shorter, and at least for the near future, two fins are going to be a must. You’re still going to need flotation and paddling, but once you’re up and riding, you’re going to be riding similar to waterskiing. I’ve tried being towed into a wave on a board like a water skier; waves could be ridden that way on a waterski right now! It would be insane. Riding with your feet strapped down, you could do unbelievable stuff. You could fly—instead of hitting the lip and letting it bring you back down, you could just hit the lip and tuck up and just fly over sections.

Actually leave the water? You wouldn't be confined to the wave?

A surfer’s riding seems to reflect his personality. What do you try to reflect in your surfing style?

Well, I’m not sure what I reflect in my personality. I suppose when I’m surfing well, I’m trying to be aggressive. I don’t know if that has anything to do with my personality—it probably does.

How would you describe your relationship to the wave?

Functional maybe. Using the wave for—I don’t know, not working against it at all, I guess you could say. The wave might be kind of a framework that you can use, but you still can go beyond it.

And now with new shorter boards, you’re trying to escape the framework of the wave?

Sure—even more! The shorter boards are going to help that out a hell of a lot, ’cause you can stay a lot closer to the hook with the shortboard and do a lot more things.

How do you find your rhythm on a wave? Is it something you search for?

Yeah, it’s something you search for. I mean, if you don’t got it, you definitely wish you had it. It depends on the waves—some are tricky, but on any wave you can get it.

What does your wave rhythm feel like to you?

Just surfing well, and not catching edges. Actually, just speed. Continuous speed would feed me, but it’s not easy to have continuous speed in all kinds of waves.

If you could get continuous speed by holding a trim on a wave in one direction without the turns and all that, would that satisfy you?

Then every maneuver you make on a wave, every turn or bank or change of trim is just trying to gain more speed?

Right! That’s all. It all focuses around speed.

What do you get out of a good wave or good day?

You’re peaked out. On a good wave, you're using everything you’ve learned about surfing, physically, but your instincts take over. You’re not consciously turning here or there, you’re not consciously doing anything; you’ve completely lost that. You’re not trying to do anything. You just lose all the attachments and get it on.

How do you charge yourself for a go-out? Does music do it? Do you think of anything?

No. Just surf. If the waves look good, I might go out. Sometimes I won’t be interested in surfing at all. On the other hand, sometimes it will be windy and blown out, and all of a sudden I’ll feel like going out, so I just go down and surf.

Where have you traveled during the last year that . . . .

What other surfers’ ideas or styles have influenced yours?

I’m sure Corky has, ’cause of all the time I’ve spent with him. And David, too. And Nat a little bit, and probably my favorite surfer for a while was Jock, and this year it was Cabell. You know, every surfer I see I take something from.

Is there some formal way of presenting surfing other than the present contest system that you would like to see happen?

Not particularly. Personally, contests, as far as surfing goes, [are mostly] only be good for kids. Other than that, I suppose it’s necessary for professionalism, but I’d rather not see any surfing competition at all.

What did you think about the world championships?

It was really weird because nobody really seemed to be surfing good. Nobody stoked me down there at all. Reno looked pretty sharp, but that’s it. Other than that, I don’t know if I was just better, or surfing hasn’t progressed, or what. I used to watch people like Jock and it would just blow my mind, but in Australia, nobody stoked me at all.

You seem to successfully stay out of controversies in the surf scene.

As far as I’m concerned, that stuff is all bullshit ’cause it's got nothing to do with surfing. That’s just all the other aspects of people’s personalities and everything else that’s entering into it. Contests, professionalism—they have nothing to do with surfing.

Wasn’t it a stoker to win in Australia, though?

Yeah, it was. About half of surfing, for me, has for been about competition, and that win was the peak of my teenage thing.

Did you get any interesting offers as a result of your win?

Ahhh, nothing in particular. A few TV shows and general bullshit that I wasn’t interested in.

Do you have any trips or travels coming up?

Well, I was planning on going to the Islands this year, but I’m not now. I was going to spend the fall over there.

Has surfing led you into any other experiences or ideas?

Not directly. But surfing has opened me up artistically, you might say. Music, in particular. It’s given me a different perspective on other art that I never would have had before.

Could you pick out some of the highlights of your surfing career?

It’s kinda mixed between contests and other times. The world title would have to be one. Since contests and proving yourself were a big thing [to me], I naturally remember some of them. But there are so many regular days that I think about, days outside of competition. Riding Waimea this year—that’s something I’ve always looked forward to doing. Finally getting it on in the big surf this year was a big deal for me.

It seems that your approach to big waves is similar to your small-wave style.

That just comes from watching Jock, because that’s what he does. I mean, Jock wouldn’t take any shit from a big wave. They’re just not that scary to him, and Jock will just rip it up; he’ll use all the wave surface. He’ll take advantage of a larger wave. Here you’ve got this huge face to work over, and where other guys just drop straight down and turn ’way around it and wait for it to crash, Jock is just wailing up and down and using all of it. It's a whole new world! That seemed to me like getting it on, where the other cats were just wasting time.

How do you think the new twin-fin design is going to work in big Island waves?

I have no idea. I’m really not up technically on all that board design stuff, but according to that Eaton cat [Bing shaper Mike Eaton] who made my boards, it sounds like he’s going to have some really nice guns. I’ve had them in 8' to 10' surf over here, and the bigger the better—so far. If Eaton starts whipping out some guns, with 12" tails and 18" wide, it’s just going to be insane. I can’t wait to get one of those out at the Pipeline. It’s going to completely revolutionize the place.

What were you looking for when you started surfing?

Fun. When I first started, that’s all it was.

Right now it’s purely for recreation and pleasure. For a while, it was for competition.

How long do you plan to surf as much as you do now?

My surfing will probably die almost to nothing when I go to college—like one weekend out of the month. But up until that point. I’ll probably be surfing a few times a week. After that, I just can’t tell; I’ll be surfing all my life. I was planning on going to the Islands, but it’s dawned on me lately that I’d just be going back through the same old doors.

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