Glories and revelations…
I can imagine Mason Ho as a tent-show preacher, talking on the glories and revelations of the tube. Mason, who will turn thirty-one in three weeks and who is part-Chinese, part-Hawaiian, part-Euro American, is filmed, here, in Bali, going this way and that at Keramas and Uluwatu.
Mason has a very special magic, one that even Kelly Slater, who makes a brief cameo at Keramas, cannot replicate.
As Kolohe Andino’s dad, Dino, once told me, “He’s hot-dogging as big as Pipe breaks. He’s dragging his ass on 12-footers, slamming his shoulder down on a bottom turn, and slaloming the whole side of his body into the wave as he takes off on Second Reef. He’s got an uncanny ability to ride the tube. He knows how to control his speed and the size of the wave doesn’t matter. He’s not intimidated. He’s slowing down when everyone else is running for the hills. He connects with the wave, controls the wave. It’s always been happening, but now he’s taken it to a whole other level. His tube-riding ability is out of control. It’s stupid. John John is really gnarly, but I don’t think he’s as fun looking as Mason’s shucking and jiving. He looks down, looks back, does all that shit. He’s paying tribute to his dad on every wave.”
In this five-minute film, which was made by his best friend Rory Pringle, Mason casts his magic like a fishing line. And it’s a spell no man or woman can resist.
If you want to ride tubes better, it’s essential.