“Watching Jeff surf is one of my favourite things to do,” says his wife, Kim Enslin.
In all truth, one of this writer’s favourite things too.
Jeff Enslin is an electrical engineer by trade and his surfing has a calculated, measured, controlled vibe about it.
One of the things I like most about his surfing is his flow. His turns are smooth but radical at the same time.
He is almost always in control and has a deep awareness of the fulcrum. This translates into trim, and good trim at that.
Like a seesaw, a surfboard has a fulcrum. Too much weight on the tail or the back end of the board, behind the fulcrum, and the board is going to drag and be slow.
You might do some radical turns every now and then but the moment there is a dip in the power of the wave or a slack spot, you will lose speed fast.
Up front on the board ahead of the fulcrum, you are going to go very fast but struggle to do turns.
More than this, the odd nosedive is going to happen pretty quickly too.
Jeff Enslin has a great sense of the fulcrum, athletically shifting his front foot and back foot accents by weight, maximising both his speed and turning ability.
Along with this he turns on his rail. That is the side of the board, rather than lifting the nose and pivoting off the fins and tail. Rail turns are more highly regarded by surfing judges.
Marius Steenkamp, alias Magic Maras, was highly respected in his day for flow and these days here at home Jordan Dalbock is the flow master and leader of the pack when it comes to mimicking the butter-in-a-pan effect.
At an international level, the champion of flow is Rob Machado, along with South African Mikey February and American Tyler Warren.
Flow and carve are where it is at. Kim Enslin has got an eye for class.
The good news is Kim and Jeff have two sons, Griffin and Harrison.
Hopefully these two lads are fast adopting mom and dad’s love for surfing. At this point it looks like they are.
Both lads are taking part in the local Junior Summer Surf Series. The JSSS is a long-running support and feeder system into Buffalo City Surfing.
Junior talent is nurtured here and shaped, selected and groomed for inclusion in the Grom games team.
Youngsters who develop from this point will advance to the Buffalo City surfing team to compete at the SA Surfing championships.
Success there positions the competitor for green and gold colours or a WSL pro career.
The ladder is there. Climb as high as you want.
As for Griffin and Harrison, mom and dad chaperoned the boys and pushed them into waves at last weekend’s JSSS.
The end result was Griffin number 1 in the U8 boys and Harrison the highest ranked U10 boy.
All I can say is watch your dad closely, boys and you will become SA champions.
