I remember reading a quote from King Kelly many years ago that went along the lines of “the next great surfer will be able to do all the moves that are happening now, except switchfoot”, and I can remember thinking that he might be onto something, after all, what else was there to do in surfing?
Now the thing is, KS said those words back in the early 90’s, when the performance levels were being pushed with the ‘Momentum Generation’ and all that malarkey. But for some, now inexplicable, reason we were looking to skating and snowboarding for inspiration. Skating had undergone a renaissance with freestyle street skating and technical vert, while snowboarders were going big in the pipes and jibbing and bonking everything else on the mountain (and the chalets). Both of these sports involved a lot of riding fakie and because we were taking so many cues from those two sports it seemed natural that surfers (at least the most progressive amongst us) would at some stage start riding fakie.
And some did. Anyone remember Sunshine Coaster Nick Wallace and his double-ender? Or the fella in the US who patented a double-ended board with fins at either end to kick-flip or ride fakie? So while the staid Old Blokes frowned and said it would never catch on, the kiddies started experimenting. I never thought there would be a huge ‘ambidextrous revolution’ but I started to believe that we would see switchfoot and fakie incorporated in the surfing repertoire more regularly.
But then something happened. In fact a lot of things happened, and the combination meant that surfers no longer looked to other sports for inspiration.
The first thing was The Dream Tour; in 1994 the world tour split and the top 44 surfed on an elite tour held in good locations with long waiting periods. Then came Laird and the strapped crew at Jaws. Then Mavericks. Then Teahupoo.
We were once again awed by big, perfect, heavy waves. Waves where an air reverse to fakie would surely entertain the audience but the surfer would only get one shot at attempting it. Surfers were happy just to make the channel at Chopes, or just make the drop at Mavs. Skating and snowboarding dropped off our radar and we became proud of our sport again.
Airshows were a lingering showpiece from this era but they were just pseudo-hardcore frippery to entertain the urban masses. The real cutting edge was happening at the frontiers, and the Airshow phenomenon has just about died out now.
So…what now?
This might have seemed like a bloody long route to a bloody short question but I thought the background was important. Does switchfoot hold any place in modern surfing? Was Kelly right, will someone ride 20 ft Chopes switchfoot?
Laird switchfooting at, erm...a really heavy righthander.
