Nothing more stately or gorgeous.
A few weeks back, I got into some hot surfing water. The J-Bay Open had just ended with a stunning Connor O’Leary victory right before David Lee Scales right I came together for our weekly chat, you see. Now, I am very much a fan of the Australian screwfoot. He is not shy around the microphone, is not afraid to charge and can really belt an end section. My problem, minor, was that I found his surfing monotonous on J-Bay’s forever long rights and concluded that all backhand surfing might be fun to do but is crap to watch, competitively.
Boring and ugly.
As you can imagine, many folk found my thinking ill-informed/sacrilegious but vigorously defended…. until one Clifton James Hobgood called in with a stinging rebuke.
CJ, as he’s more commonly known, is a former surfing champion and also man of letters. He not only argued that backside surfing is gorgeous, but the highest form of the surfing art, and pointed to Mark Occhilupo’s bottom turn:
And the hands-free barrel (as performed by Andy Irons here):
The reasoning was undeniable and I immediately felt shame and regret, trying to twist the conversation back to Joe Turpel’s participation Emmy.
But do you agree with CJ? Is back-to-wave surfing the peak form of the art?
Listen to him further extrapolate here.
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No hands backside tubes are peak surfing..
Anyone that disagrees has never done it..
You gay cunts say backside alot
Well my comments stand for themself, unedited and backhand. But maybe that just makes me a wanker? No homo but
backside surfing is like……doing it doggy style…or do you prefer the colonialist missionary style…….??
lets honor some originals, who from the start were responsible for todays backside vertical attacks…..
1) Wayne Lynch 1970 world titles …he was performing vertical backhand re-entries…when everyone was still trimming…
2) Marvin Foster…….backside pigdogs at Backdoor…..
3) Occy…Skins/J-Bay….
Let us not forget about Tom Curren on the backside attack. Curren going left is real nice to watch. Think Ke11y would agree.
The Andy stand tall at chopes is the absolute pinnacle of surfing. Closely followed by his big fuck off backhand off the top /carve/ hack whatever at massive Cloudy. Just timeless and all the cooler for being done backside. Almost like nailing a switch trick skate wise but not cause surfing is retarded as far as anything switch goes.
Epic photo, but it was a tow in. I’ll give you the cloudy snowboard carve, that was fucking amazing.
Dang I don’t realize it’s a tow in. Still, timeless shot. And while backhand turns are easier than frontside they’ look so sick.
He looks almost bored. Which is of course cool AF.
You are funny, well traveled and probably pretty smart Chas. But you don’t know shit about great surfing.
Watch 97’ Bells Skins w Occy going Ham then tell me ba backside surfing is crap to watch.
Go ahead and ban me you fucking kook I’m over this joint anywho.
If the bottom turn was a scoring maneuver occy would’ve won more world titles.
ah the backside Occy attack and the back story of the board in the photo…….??
backside surfing is like……doing it doggy style…or do you prefer the colonialist missionary style…….??
Always pigdoggy style!
Frontside turns and backside barrels.
That bottom picture of Andy might be the best surf pic ever taken.
It sums everything up, don’t it? Plus the fact that he was doing it while wearing a kilt.
What?
I thought that was Toledo.
“I immediately felt shame and regret”
SHAME! https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
I don’t think he did…..
Backside tube riding is peak art and skill.
Agreed and there way more variety – pigdog, layback no hands and, although im no a fan, that weird thing mason go does.
Goofy footers should go off and find their own tour. It’s not acceptable for them to be in events with natural surfers.
I not a podcast listener but am amazed at the insinuation. CJ has it right. You can add Luke Egan, Archy, Slater, JJF, Neal Purchase Jr. and Bobby Martinez to AI and Occy.
“…not a podcast listener..”
What do you listen to when you have the wozzle on mute ?
Crickets
My beef was mainly with robotic backhand bashes for scores… but decided to throw the backhand baby out with the bathwater while I was at it.