Watch: Mason Ho in “My mom said when I was a baby I used to bang my head all day and all night long!”

Mason's most exuberant film yet!

Mason Ho, the thirty-one-year-old surfer from Sunset Beach, Oahu, personifies all that is good and worthy in surfing.

Don’t you think?

When I watch Mason, Satan is temporarily exorcised from my thoughts, although I do want to dress him in a baby-doll nightie from Victoria’s Secret.

Kelly Slater says he’s “truly one if my favourite surfers to watch. You never know what he’s gonna do. He throws style points back to his influences and elders, and throws down maneuvers lots of new school guys can’t pull. And he surfs those weird waves nobody else does, which is probably my favorite thing about him.”

Dane Reynolds calls Mason “the king of stony surfing. The novelty tricks are rad, and he mixes them in with really gnarly tricks, which is even radder. I love that he rides 7’6″s at Pipe. And the whole Jimi Hendrix thing he does, recorded off YouTube with a phone for his web clips, really suits the vibe of his surfing.”

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.

Watch cliff-crashing, underwater rock licking, backside tube arm-switches, cannibalised takeoffs and much much, oh so much, more.

Essential. 


Watch: Italo Ferreira huck monster air at Keramas; torch ankle!

And a little fluff around the edges of this sub-two minute hit…

You might’ve thought your new favourite surfer and defending Bali champion, Italo Ferreira, looked a little undercooked at Keramas.

Turns out the current world number two, who has just turned twenty five, belted his ankle during his first freesurf at the contest site.

As Italo notes on his YouTube channel: “After a good result at Bells Beach I went straight to Bali to defend my title there. Unfortunately, not everything goes as planned and I had a first-degree ankle twist on my first freesurf in Keramas.”

It meant Italo couldn’t train, had to wear a boot, and flew his physiotherapist, Higor Siqueira, to Bali to try and right the wrong.

In this short, and by short I mean…short…, watch Italo hit a section and lift his undercarriage at the 1:20 mark. You can almost feel the earth tremble at the approach of that power.

Height, distance, style and all wrapped in a Balinese sunrise.

Your eyeglasses will quiver, I assure you.


Watch: Bethany Hamilton vs Bobby Martinez at Waco pool!

With dazzling cameos from Parker Coffin and Jett Schilling…

There hasn’t been this much fire and brimstone in Waco  since the FBI incinerated the prophet Vernon Wayne Howell and 78 of his Branch Davidian followers at the New Mount Carmel Center in Axtell, a little north-east of where the wave pool was built.

This short from the Coffin Bros’ YouTube channel was filmed by Dane Reynolds’ primary shooter Mini Blanchard and edited by noted director Blake Michel.

It is, therefore, a well-built six minutes with the usual pyrotechnics from Jett and Parker.

But if there’s an exchange, or a comparison, that’ll make you lie on your stomach on the dirty yellow rug in your living room and stare at the computer screen, it’s Bobby Martinez, former world number five, and Bethany Hamilton, the one-time tiger shark wrangler.

A welcome contrast in styles outside the TV dinners we’re usually served.


Watch: “Like queers around a rich old widow!”

A highlight reel from the Red Bull Airborne Bali…

Yesterday, if you missed it, Jack Freestone won the second (of three) Red Bull air series events. This one was a sideshow to the rapidly-being-forgotten-it’s-still-on CT event.

That’s the thing with these damn fixed contest dates, and waiting periods, and having to squeeze three contests into a couple of days of swell.

The sporadic nature of it all means that if the push notification don’t come through your phone, you could be buried in work (me), watching a kid’s cross-country race (Longtom) or piloting your vehicle around LA (Chas) oblivious to haunches being flexed and waves cuffed.

This three-minute package of the air event at Bali ain’t gonna take your breath away or put a bead on your hairline.

But if you’ve already made love today and you’re tired of Instagram and how-to videos on YouTube, it’s good enough.

Red Bull Airborne Bali Final Results:
1 – Jack Freestone (AUS) 5.93
2 – Kalani David (HAW) 5.63
3 – Eli Hanneman (HAW) 4.47
4 – Ian Crane (USA) 1.00
5 – Eric Geiselman (USA) 0.00
5 – Mason Ho (HAW) 0.00

 


Watch: Luke Davis in “Pretty Girls Have Problems too!”

"I'm pretty but I'm not a pretty girl," says Kolohe Andino's former San Clemente sparring partner Luke Davis.

Luke Davis is a name that’s partly familiar, if you like your pixies with suntans and glowering stares.

Davis, who is twenty-six, comes from the same San Clemente hot-house as Kolohe Andino, Ian Crane, Tanner Rozunko and Jeremy Carter, although his career trajectory has tended less towards accumulating tour points and more to “flexing” in VIP areas in LA nightclubs.

(Davis now lives in Mar Vista, westside LA.)

This clip, shot a few weeks ago in Bali and post-foot surgery, has a vibration that makes y’want to stick yourself in the water.

No, little Luke ain’t Italo, but the waves are pretty and the music sings, I think.

I asked Luke,

What can you give me?

I’m not sure what I have to give you. My soul? 

Does it hurt to be pretty?

Sometimes.

Do you know who your real friends are?

I have a pretty good idea at this point. 

Do you care what people think of you?

I stopped caring what people thought of me before I turned twenty-one. Maybe younger. I care what my friends think of me as a man but I don’t care about it otherwise.

Do you cheer Brother (Kolohe) via WSL webcast or do you wish bad things to happen?

Yes, I cheer him on. He’s family. I basically live at his house when I’m in SC.

Do you remember when American surfers were number one?

When did Kelly win his last title? (2011.)

What do you see when you watch yourself surfing?

I feel like my style is pretty decent and I’m not very good at airs. Which makes sense ’cause I never really try them. I’d rather get barrelled. 

Why do you like barrels over airs?

Getting barrelled is the best thing on earth, in my opinion.