Filipe Toledo perfect ten
"Upside down, fifteen, sixteen feet across, four or five feet above the lip, fully inverted, 540 with a perfect landing. That was as snowboard as it gets when you’re surfing," says the commentator Chris Cote.

Definitive: The “Full-rotation” air is dead!

Are you a flat-earther? A climate change denier?

Boy is my face red. For a very long time, and to the eternal flattening of my dignity, I’ve been calling 540s “full-roters”.

For years.

Last February, I  engineered a video shoot where the current world number two, Filipe Toledo, would coach the women’s world number two, Lakey Peterson, into a “full-rotation” air.

In part two of that four-part series, A Brief History of the Full-Rotation Air, and which you can watch here, Chris Cote discusses the “FDLFCTFRA” or “Friends Don’t Let Friends Call Them Full Roters Association.”

Cote added, “A full-roter sounds like something a plumber does to your mom…they’re call 540s.”

Episode 2 A Brief History of the Full-Rotation Air

Now despite all that, I persisted with the line that since a surfer doesn’t exit the wave at, and let me use the imaginary clock here, twelve, but does so at around nine, an air that finishes with the surfer facing the beach is closer to a 360 than a 540.

If you had to give any kind of number the thinking person would call it a 450.

Just as Kelly Slater called his huck in Portugal that went Ebola-viral a few years back an 810. 

A few days ago, the snowboarder Todd Richards appeared on The Grit with Chas Smith and David Lee Scales. I listened to the podcast, as I do, over the course of a few commutes hither and yon, and finally got it.

I got it. 

I’m not sure if it was when Todd used his irritated white guy voice to dismantle the host’s mathematics posit, when he said it was like arguing with flat-earthers or when he explained that it was the… feeling… of the move that defined it, I was sold.

How could I have had it wrong for so long? So dumb. So dumb. 

(The debate starts around the twenty-minute mark.)

Anyway, once and for all.

A straight air is a 180.

An air reverse is a 360.

A…ahem… full-roter is a 540.

Still confused.

Watch here.

 

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Village Talkies
Village Talkies
7 years ago

Corporate Video Production Company in Bangalore and Explainer, Animation Video Maker in Chennai
In fact, this article helps me to gain some knowledge.

Jsamuels
Jsamuels
8 years ago

For all the idiots agreeing with Cote…
This air is a 360.
https://youtu.be/2DilYPxPT-8

This air is a 540.
https://www.instagram.com/p…

Please explain to me how in the fuck these are the same thing. And if you call the second air a 720 I’m killing myself.

Pierre Wikberg
Pierre Wikberg
8 years ago
Reply to  Jsamuels

What do you mean second air?
That’s a full rotation in surfing, you call it 360, he spun 450 while emulating a 540 that skate/snowboarders do when hitting a pipe/hip. It’s not a launch ramp. He re-enters the the transition just like on a pipe/hip and lands forward.
That trick has been called 540 for decades (even if you spin 399,2-463,8 degrees) in the sport surfers are emulating.
Why is this SO difficult to comprehend?!

Pierre Wikberg
Pierre Wikberg
8 years ago

If you ask 100 snowboarders what trick this is I bet 99-100 of them would say “frontside 540” even though the board only spins 420 degrees or something because it’s emulating a frontside 540 on a skateboard hip or quarterpipe (which can also be spun 410,3 degrees and will still be called 540).
You re-enter the transition. You don’t re-renter a launch ramp.
To do a backside alley-oop 540 on a wave (Albee’s clip from a couple of weeks ago where he lands backwards was an alley-oop 360) you’d spin about 540-630 degrees though but you don’t call it a 620. You’re emulating a backside 540 (landing forwards) but going alley-oop. Pretty sure I lost you there, but just trying to help.
How surfers called Albee’s a double-oop, 540 or 720 is very confusing, and amusing. Especially since the argument of “rounding up is lame” seems to always pop up.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…

small fins
small fins
8 years ago
Reply to  Pierre Wikberg

Albee’s oop was a 720. he rotated 360 degrees twice in total. doesn’t matter if it was in the air or on the wave the rotation was him spinning in a circle twice. im very confused that this is so hard to understand.

zaccyo
zaccyo
8 years ago

I don’t know of a single person in history who denies climate change. The problem is in the proposed solutions, which are actually just money making schemes and ways to take more control of the little guy..

The Positivity Generator
The Positivity Generator
8 years ago

The higher the number the better! Full rotors = dead. All hail Mr. Cote!

Dooma
Dooma
8 years ago

Skip to 2minute mark. 360. https://youtu.be/gavdg0hwaqQ

Pierre Wikberg
Pierre Wikberg
8 years ago
Reply to  Dooma

So that’s a 360 off a straight jump/launch ramp.
This is him doing (well almost) a 540.
Landing forward.
While spinning less than 540 degrees.
Just like surfers and snowboarders do.
If you spin say 199.3 or 313.2 degrees and you land backwards = 360.
https://youtu.be/9H09ic9V06U

Dooma
Dooma
8 years ago
Reply to  Pierre Wikberg

Damn it’s confusing!

Jsamuels
Jsamuels
8 years ago
Reply to  Pierre Wikberg

but if you spin 365 degrees=540!

Dooma
Dooma
8 years ago

So in street skating if they hit a gap and spin and land pointing the same way it’s a 540? That’s fucked up maths. Filipe might have spun 450 it’s still a 360 air or full rotation.

Pierre Wikberg
Pierre Wikberg
8 years ago
Reply to  Dooma

Not rotated a full 540 but it’s still a frontside 540 (and not Indy:)
https://youtu.be/cmBoinuevAo

Dooma
Dooma
8 years ago
Reply to  Pierre Wikberg

Okay now I’m sold… I think

Jsamuels
Jsamuels
8 years ago
Reply to  Pierre Wikberg

send me a video clip of someone leaving the wave at the same angle and landing at the same angle after doing the rotation.

Dooma
Dooma
8 years ago

Can we get Turpel to stop calling re-entries “jams off the lip”.

Eddie Haiku
Eddie Haiku
8 years ago
Reply to  Dooma

We’ll have to kill him to stop that shit.

zaccyo
zaccyo
8 years ago
Reply to  Dooma

Can we get Potts to learn a new sentence, and drop the “driving down the line” crap? The only way he is able to mix it up is by grunting while he says it. I feel like he’s a really stupid person..

Seas Nail
Seas Nail
8 years ago

180 – ride out fakie
360 – ride out normal
540 – ride out fakie
720 – ride out normal
Easy.

Pierre Wikberg
Pierre Wikberg
8 years ago
Reply to  Seas Nail
Jsamuels
Jsamuels
8 years ago
Reply to  Pierre Wikberg

you keep posting the same shit as alleged proof so let me say this again. As everyone who surfs knows, a wave is not a fucking quarter pipe and with the exception of dane, no one is popping straight off the top of the wave or even really at an angle. They are going straight off a section like a kicker.

Their nose faces down the line at the point of take off and they rotate and land with their nose facing down the land. That means its 360. We don’t add on 180 degrees just because there’s an additional 25 degrees give or take upon take off and landing.

Jonathan Utah
Jonathan Utah
8 years ago
Reply to  Jsamuels

If you can watch that vimeo video that goes through 180-720 and not get it, you are just dumb. +/- 25 degrees doesn’t matter. Can you figure out what happened with the name only, and not seeing it. Also, find me an air where the nose doesn’t start heading toward the top of the wave.

Jsamuels
Jsamuels
8 years ago
Reply to  Jonathan Utah

here’s an actual 540 in the manner you’re talking about…
https://www.instagram.com/p…

The other airs going straight off the lip and rotating 360 degrress with nose heading same direction are not.

Pierre Wikberg
Pierre Wikberg
8 years ago
Reply to  Jsamuels

Yep. Emulates a 540, lands forwards. It’s a 540 even if you spin 400 degrees and land forwards.
I feel like you’re getting it, or?

Pierre Wikberg
Pierre Wikberg
8 years ago
Reply to  Jsamuels
just_balyn
just_balyn
8 years ago

You’re playing right into their hands, Derek. We don’t need to measure the god-damned degrees at all.

They’re not 180s, 360s or 540s; they are reverse airs or alley-oops. Some are done with the rotation completed on the face of the wave, some are done with the rotation completed in the air. Some surfers even manage to spin twice.

Surfers ride a wave on their forehand or backhand depending on the wave and their stance, and, when spinning either in or above the water, they can rotate with the wave (admittedly called a 360 in the water or an alley-oop in the air) or against (a reverse for both). Skating/snowboarding has no such reference to the direction of the ‘wave’ for their rotations; all spins are either frontside or backside.
Also, surfers don’t have the option of finishing their whole wave (‘run’) fakie like other boardsports do, so our rotations are generally complete when we are facing back down the line (or towards the shore on an end-section). We already know when a rotation is complete; measures of the degrees rotated are a waste of time for us. Skaters/snowboarders may need it more because it is used to describe whether the next trick is fakie/switch/whatever.

Buttons and many others were spinning with or against the wave in 70s, well before Chris Cote’s or Todd Richards’ current points of reference were relevant (or even invented). What the hell did Buttons call them?

I peronally hate the term full-rotor, and if you don’t like it, don’t use it. But it’s still a reverse or an alley-oop. Some are just better than others.

astro
astro
8 years ago
Reply to  just_balyn

Upvote
There ya go. Simple.

?uzzled
?uzzled
8 years ago
Reply to  just_balyn

I never tire of seeing clips of Buttons doing a 360

Jonathan Utah
Jonathan Utah
8 years ago
Reply to  just_balyn

That’s not true at all. It’s like a snowboard halfpipe, travelling down the line, frontside and backside walls.

Nick Carroll
Nick Carroll
8 years ago

Jesus fucken christ on a bike with a flat tyre. what do skateboarders call Ramon’s wave at Cloudbreak? A 0? I mean he didn’t even rotate a bit

Eddie Haiku
Eddie Haiku
8 years ago
Reply to  Nick Carroll

I trim just like Ramon every day and no one gets too carried away with it…

astro
astro
8 years ago
Reply to  Nick Carroll

Must be a Cali surf writer/commentator thing.
No one else seems to give a fuck about it.
Surfing needs skateboarding and snowboarding in order to define itself according to them. ffs

Nick Carroll
Nick Carroll
8 years ago
Reply to  astro

I heard it’s been a v bad winter and spring in CA. And possibly a bad autumn.

astro
astro
8 years ago
Reply to  Nick Carroll

K – I can sympathise a little.
But this is desperate shit.
Todd the Yawn and Travis No Shoes to bolster their arguement is a fail in my book.

Dogsnuts
Dogsnuts
8 years ago
Reply to  Nick Carroll

It’s not a Half Pipe. It’s a Full Pipe.

astro
astro
8 years ago

Why don’t all you surf scribes and commentators go ask the surfers ? [SHOCK, HORROR]
Go ask JohnJohn, ask Toledo ask anybody that does em what they’re called.
I’ll accept whatever they say not what you think they should be called.

DavidC
DavidC
8 years ago
Reply to  astro

Is this Longtom’s is/ought thing in practice?

astro
astro
8 years ago
Reply to  DavidC

exactly and also the reverse completion principle in practice.

DavidC
DavidC
8 years ago
Reply to  astro

I’ve got a terrible feeling we’re moving into the Quantum theory space – but then again QT may actually explain all this!

astro
astro
8 years ago
Reply to  DavidC

Don’t worry, mate.
The cunts will have a book out on it soon.
They might even ask a surfer or two – just to lend it some credibility.

small fins
small fins
8 years ago
Reply to  astro

cause they’ll say that a full rote is a 360

Vegetable Lasagna
Vegetable Lasagna
8 years ago

Spin discussion aside…. How did i miss that Toledo lost his left hand..!!??

Tomas' silky smooth arms
Tomas' silky smooth arms
8 years ago

Bob Marley makes me so angry. Every little thing is not fucken gonna be alright!

Jen See
Jen See
8 years ago

“full rotor” never made a fuck of sense to me. so i’m down to rid my brain of it entirely.

david fffff
david fffff
8 years ago

The video at the bottom sums it up nicely. You know who else doesn’t always go off the quarter pipes perfectly straight? Snowboarders and skateboards, but they’re not fucking losers, so they don’t say things like 450.

channelbottom
channelbottom
8 years ago

THE REAL CONSPIRACY IS THAT THAT THEY ARE HIDING THE FACT THAT THE SURFER ISNT TURNING. THE REST OF THE WORLD IS TURNING AROUND HIM!!!

MY FOIL HELMET IS FUCKING IMPREGNABLE!! THE WSL CANT FOOL ME!!!

Jen See
Jen See
8 years ago
Reply to  channelbottom

hmm, that foil hat. do we tell him? idk, maybe we shouldn’t tell him.

Wiggolly's Paddling Style
Wiggolly's Paddling Style
8 years ago
Reply to  channelbottom

It obviously should be called a 360 regardless of fucken mathematics. Take off going forwards spin around once still going forwards that’s a 360. Spin around once come down backwards that’s a 540. No one is calling an over rotated front 3 on a skateboard a 400. Chris Cote is a fucken idiot and an embarrassment to surfing. Cunts like him ruin the world.

ricmatic
ricmatic
8 years ago

Yeah, but regardless of what you think of maths, maths is right. It doesn’t give a shit about you.
Its the new Hawaiian “back of the wave bullshit”
30 years from now we’ll be going “WTF were we thinking”
We will rue the day we gave some skater illiterates an all encompassing voice SMFH.
Not propping the 400 but Still want to book your cabin but. AC right?

Wiggolly's Paddling Style
Wiggolly's Paddling Style
8 years ago
Reply to  ricmatic

Surely you don’t want to live in a world where Chris Cote is alive and holding a protractor up to your laptop. Yeah yeah I’ll drag in the fan for ya.

ricmatic
ricmatic
8 years ago

No protractors. No Skaters. just want to explain to my argumentative 11 year old why 2 + 2 = 5. I blame Hawaiian machoism. And Todd Richards. And I have seen/heard idiotic Cotes music.

Eddie Haiku
Eddie Haiku
8 years ago

Kelly called it an 810? Of course he fucking did.

The Bitchy Crab
The Bitchy Crab
8 years ago
Reply to  Eddie Haiku

And that’s why he’s wonderful and why we miss him so much. That refusal to…lose.

ricmatic
ricmatic
8 years ago

That gammy foot might not’ve “competed with the worlds best” I reckon he would have won this Bali comp though.

Eddie Haiku
Eddie Haiku
8 years ago

That refusal to…tell the truth.

Dogsnuts
Dogsnuts
8 years ago

Cote is a flat earther.

The Positivity Generator
The Positivity Generator
8 years ago
Reply to  Dogsnuts

Perhaps a flat spin earther?

Great White
Great White
8 years ago

Don’t buy in on this shit Rielly, a full rotor is not a fucking 540 when you launch at 9 of the clock. Even hearing the insufferable Todd Richards express his frustration was enough to give me ear cancer.

The Bitchy Crab
The Bitchy Crab
8 years ago
Reply to  Great White

I’ve bitten the hook, the line, the sinkers. I can’t believe I couldn’t see it before. Join me. Join me. Take a sip. In the words of Jim Jones, “t’s not to be afeared. It is not to be feared. It is a friend. It’s a friend … sitting there, show your love for one another. Let’s get gone. Let’s get gone. Let’s get gone.”

Cue: children crying.

Tomas' silky smooth arms
Tomas' silky smooth arms
8 years ago

I’m crying too. Full roter crying. So confused.

Guilherme Herdy's Legrope
Guilherme Herdy's Legrope
8 years ago

I too have officially drunk the kool aid.
That being said I’m can see myself freezing up mid story as I go to state the air that was just done.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…

The Positivity Generator
The Positivity Generator
8 years ago

I don’t know about kool aid, but I’ve sure drunk the cordial!

Head Dip
Head Dip
8 years ago

Yes! I posted on the spit site telling Lee scales he is wrong. I even went so far as to post his images with arrows drawn in the correct positions. Then screenshots of snowboarders doing airs leaving the lip in a different direction of travel. He didn’t get it though. He also thinks judges can’t count to twenty though so I gave him up as a lost cause.

That Vimeo video is perfect. I just hope Chas doesn’t feel the need to be the bad cop and argue against you.

longtom
longtom
8 years ago

is that the actual Jonestown dialogue?

C4cereal
C4cereal
8 years ago
Reply to  longtom

http://employees.oneonta.ed…

It’s pretty dark, just a warning

Jsamuels
Jsamuels
8 years ago
Reply to  Great White

Exactly this…

This air by the always shaved Gabby is a 540. All the other airs Cote calls a 540 are not…
https://www.instagram.com/p…


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