Brad Gerlach on why Conner Coffin will be the world's best in two years!
For regular readers of BeachGrit, Brad Gerlach needs little in the way of introduction.
But, if you need a taste.
Click here for “How I Fucking Smashed Pottz” or here “Five Mistakes You Make Every Time You Surf” or maybe even here “Gerr: What I learned Watching a WQS!”
Our feelings toward Gerr veer dangerously close to a crush and, therefore, when he was transiting overnight in my neighbourhood, I moved the heavens and earth to get him in front of a camera to talk about his coaching of Conner Coffin, what he thinks of Kelly Slater in 2016 and the tendency in pro surfing circles to “work” on your surfing.
On Conner, whom he believes can be the best surfer in the world in two years: “He’s technically and intellectually ready to be the best surfer in the world. You haven’t seen the turns he can do. There’s a turn that we worked on during the off-season that nobody else can do. If he does it right, he’ll rewrite the judging criteria.”
On critics of Kelly Slater: “All these stupid fucking people out there, going, ‘Aw well, he’s lost three heats in a row. He sucks and he should fucking kick out and he’s not surfing as good and those boards look shitty… fuck you and your stupid dumb… you have no technical eye whatsoever. He’s fucking shredding!”
On working on surf: “There’s work and there’s play. What you tend to hear from a lot of these surfers is, ‘I’ve been working really hard.’ Working, working, working, working, working. Have they ever considered that watching someone…work…isn’t that much fun? We don’t want to watch you work, we want to watch you defy gravity. (But) Adriano de Souza worked his ass off! There you go, hard work won the world title. Am I impressed? I’m impressed? Do I want to watch him surf? No. Sorry man. I don’t want to watch somebody work on a wave.”
Watch here!
