The fresh and brilliant teenager Jack Robinson in a four-minute short film.
Late last year, I got employed by the big-waver Mark Mathews to ghost-write two e-books. For a week, I sat with Mathews and asked him…everything… to do with big waves.
Around the same time, Jack Robinson, who was seventeen at the time, was demonstrating how casually Teahupoo could be ridden, and survived, even when everything goes wrong. And, Mark, who’s not exactly unfamiliar with drama in big waves, was perplexed by his ability to safely eject.
“He’s the master of it,” said Mark. “Just watch how he does it at Teahupoo. The ejection is clean, and by clean I mean he jumps safely away from the lip, because everything he did prior to ejecting was perfect. He stayed in the zone, he paddled hard, he didn’t hesitate. He jumps clear of the lip and penetrates the wave at the bottom.”
A couple of months later, Jack beat Jamie O’Brien and Mason Ho and anyone with a name at Pipe, at the trials for the Pipeline Masters.
You want to call Jack Australia’s version of John John Florence, well, go ahead.
Watch this four-minute clip for further proof.
Wsl smarten up and just give this kid a spot, add some excitement to you wannabe tennis tour
Love your rants.
Not sure if I am alone but I always find that i get less smashed on front side closeouts compared to backside.
you can’t have your weight too far forward backside on a late one, get that front shoulder down and put all the weight forward and tug that rail, you can still get your board behind you if you have to abort.
Yup that’s me too.
He has the greatest Jersey carpenters haircut circa 89 ever. I mean all he needs is a pair of cut off jorts, high top Reeboks, and a tool belt.
Love the way he surfs.
No homo.
No Homo? Set the Tardis to 2016 my friend.
Thanks Snail. All good stuff. I’ve actually been surfing for 30 years and an ex-clubby too, so I have no problem with decent sized surf. It’s just that when I’m working with closing-out barrels I seem to specialise in being sucked over the falls and getting slammed on the bottom. Not so bad at home here in NZ, but it fucking hurts in Indo. I think I’ll practice your roll-dive thing though.
That first drop was mental!
can he do turns when its 3 foot?
does it matter?
not to me, but he wants to the make the Tour so the first time we’ll see him will likely be at 3 ft Snapper.
More of this content please Beach Grit
haven’t seen that footage before
Probably the only teenager where “wanting to be deep in the box” has a whole different meaning.
I’m still wondering, and this is a serious question by the way, how exactly do you wipe out safely in heaving reef death barrels?
I don’t know either. But if you’re on Instagram check out Laurie Towner’s profile. There’s a clip by Tim Bonython of Laurie ejecting from a big west set at Teahupoo. Great viewing, amazing how he punches out the back
Thanks jocks. Fuck knows how he did that. Probably more good luck than anything.
Oh and of course … “When wave breaks here, don’t be there”
I cant remember who it was but one of the CT surfers said its actually safer to wipe out when its massive because there is more water over the reef and you just get washed through. Thats why people only really get drilled at chopes on smaller days.
Cheers mate. It’s the shallow reefs that get me.