Happy days for surfing's Jan Brady!
FADE IN: We open with a sad boy in his early
twenties scrolling through messages from surf pals.
“Nobody wants to surf with me,” he mumbles, choking off the
words.
This is Nathan Florence, tall, sinewy but fleshy. He is the
middle brother between two-time world champ John John and little
Ivan whose rosebud lips and sleepy eyes mean he’ll never have to be
anything but cute.
In this short, which forms part of
Nathan’s learn-to-do-airs series, we follow Nathan’s
continuing efforts to add aerials to his repertoire.
Some years before, Nathan had told me, sadly,
“I’ve landed three air reverses in my whole life.”
I had asked if this failure was a lack of desire or a mechanical
issue?
“First, I never thought of them,” he said. “I didn’t care about
’em and then the way people started doing airs, like John, Matt and
Albee, those things are actually nuts and then I started trying to
do airs. And I just realised that I was a complete failure at them.
The mechanics are foreign to me. I can get myself in the air but no
matter what, when I land on my board, I’m eating shit.”
In this episode, Nathan slides off his robe and after much
yelling and grabbing of edges he is sanctified.
“It felt real nice,” he says, face scrunching up with happiness,
his long blond eyelashes fluttering.
