His opinions are grounded in experience. And we can get down with that. Photo: Michael Miller
Fresh from his global win in the World Surf League Shapers’ rankings, Matt Biolos was traveling through Bali on his way to his annual Mentawai retreat at Kandui Resort. That’s when I caught up with him at the White Monkey Surf Shop near Padang Padang. We sat down and I got his take on other great achievements in the surfing world. The result was some real food for thought. Here are Biolos’s responses to questions regarding some of the greatest things to ever be in our little surfing universe.
The Greatest surfboard ever made: Simon Anderson’s 1981 thruster. That was the biggest change in modern performance surfing. I mean you can look at the longboard to shortboard era, but this one design, Simon’s one board, changed everything. The surfing that the main guys were doing in the mid ’80s on those boards is still very similar to what is going on today. That single board defined modern high performance to this day. It was one of surfing’s greatest quantum leaps.
The Greatest surfer ever: There is no doubt and no question that it’s Kelly Slater. That is the easiest question in surfing to answer. Who is even close? I mean that whole Australian shortboard revolution era, Nat Young, Wayne Lynch, they were just a bunch of young, strong surfers with open minds who had slightly better boards than anyone else. Who has even come close to Kelly?
World’s Greatest surfboard shaper, ever: It’s all the backyard guys. I know so many that just have the touch. Just beautiful technique and intuition. Sculptors, really. But the greatest surfboard designer of all time? A lot of that depends on the company you keep. I mean there has been a lot of great designers but they didn’t have the right muse or the right test pilot to show the world. I mean Al Merrick could easily be called the greatest, because he had Curren, the greatest muse ever. Or Rusty Preisendorfer who had that steady stream of incredible surfers when surfboards were just being so refined for high performance. Brewer is…conceptually right there. But wait…you have to put Mark Richards in there. A meticulous champion who shaped, airbrushed and glassed his own boards and then rode them to four consecutive world titles? And not only shaped but designed those things so he could do those crazy maneuvers and go rail to rail like he did differently than anyone else from tiny Australian waves to the North Shore power. MR is my favorite shaper of all time. But the question of who is the greatest in history is just a big judgement call. All the innovators would have to be listed. But going back to my original idea, it’s the backyard guys that are the best. Mowing foam and turning blanks into pieces of art.
The Greatest wave in the world: Pipeline. It’s been the ultimate challenge since the ’60s. It’s always been the pinnacle even though now there are more difficult waves and heavier waves to ride, it’s still the pinnacle. You make a place for yourself at Pipeline and you’re somebody. And it’s real easy to see who those somebodies are. Pipeline is bullfighting. Whereas it’s really technical too. You know, just riding those big giant waves all over the place, yes, there are maestros like Laird and Dorian, but you also get the feeling any schmuck in pretty good shape with a big board and determination, a guy like that, he can surf those giant things. But send him out at pumping pipe? That answers itself. How are they gonna keep up with Andy and Bruce Irons, John John and Kelly? Who have all won the Eddie, by the way. And that wave gets pretty big.
The Greatest surfing country: Australia. Easy. The amount of waves, the coastal culture, the amount of great surfers it’s pumped out, the competitive culture, the discipline of the training that they invented, the surfing performance academies… you could argue Indonesia because of the waves, but Indo doesn’t have that huge amount of great surfers and a beach culture to go with it. Australia? All all those world champions?…It’s Australia. Easy.
The Greatest thinking mind in surfing: You have to judge everything based off of precedence. So you have to go back in time, to times before precedent was set. So it was the guys that visualized the future of surfing. Like a Tom Blake and a Bob Simmons or a George Greenough, because without much precedence, they still saw it. The first fins and then Greenough doing figure eights and filming inside the tube and all that original thought and experimentation that resulted in concepts still in use today. I mean Simmons made twin fins in the ’40s and Greenough inspired the entire shortboard revolution from his knees and then that high aspect fin of his? This was true original thought. These guys were like the Wright Brothers saying, ok, let’s get airborne. And they did. As for today? No comment. But we could use some thinking minds, that’s for sure.
The Greatest tube rider ever: Shaun Tomson. Simple as that. I mean what he was doing was totally unprecedented and original. A totally new approach. Tube riding went from propellor to jet propulsion. That pumping and surfing while in the tube? I mean guys today are still doing it exactly the same way Shaun was doing it what, 50 years ago? He figured it out before anyone. Of course now with the guys taking that technique to the limit, the greatest tube rider now would have to be shared between Slater and John John. And from what I’ve witnessed in person, I would lean towards John John.
The Greatest maneuver ever : I mean, those guys that do those corked out 540s in the wave pools are not the best surfers in the world, but these aerials, they have to be up there with the great maneuvers. Like when skateboarding and snowboarding went past vert and into the air. But I’m not ready to answer that question yet. First, let’s see where surfing goes next.
The Greatest surfing ever: Whenever a top surfer puts together a whole wave, just linking and smashing and turning and just really riding the hell out of the wave from start to finish. That is the greatest surfing can be. That’s where the top 10 surfers in the world really separate themselves from everyone else. And of course there is always an argument for those big hairy drops guys take on giant waves. Very heroic. But the greatest?
The Greatest wave pool ever: Boa Vista in Brazil. You can do every maneuver in the book on that wave.
The Greatest surf trip on Earth, ever: It was the Mentawai before the crowds, but today it’s the same as it has always been. Finding perfect waves with no one there and being the first to ride them. It’s still happening.
The Greatest female surfer ever: Carissa Moore. Bar none. Across all canvasses, Carissa is by far the greatest female surfer ever.
The Greatest wave field ever: Indonesia. But it has become so much smaller with all the speedboats and the airports…the access is there but all the waves haven’t even come close to having been discovered. But Indonesia is demanding. It is a young man’s game, generally. Although all the charter boats are filled with middle-aged guys and older, so maybe that argument has a few holes in it. I guess Indonesia is really just made for those who really want it. It’s not recreation. It’s a commitment. And something that everyone has become comfortable with. But it’s still very remote. People forget that it’s still a real adventure and that it’s just plain dangerous.
The Greatest freesurfer ever: That’s all about who is the best entertainer. And that’s Mason Ho. Hands down. With Nathan Florence on his tail. I mean Nathan is just on it. From slabs to 30-foot Tavarua. Different than Mason. Different kind of entertainment. There is something a little too self-aware about Dave Rastovich for me although he has been around longer than anyone. I think there’s a lot of romanticism around him. That helps. But…Mason Ho has really cracked the modern freesurfer code. He’s the man.
The Greatest surf movie ever: I gotta go with a stereotype. The original Endless Summer form the mid ’60s. I mean, that was the OG surf movie, not just clips and surf porn. I miss that kind of movie. But in today’s world no one would watch it twice without a heavy hand on fast forward, and that just doesn’t work in the internet age. Best surf movie? I say make your own pick. The one that really changed your surfing.
The Greatest surf contest ever: Pipe Masters. The great equalizer. No argument.
The Greatest surf brand ever: The big ones are all f*cked. Where once was core, now is just about more. The only brands that will ever mean anything have to be run by core surfers. All the big legacy brands all started core. Now they’re corporate. Just doing damage. The fallout from that and its effect on our culture is so profound. So it needs to be core or not at all. That’s how unique our surf world is. That is our treasure. The solution is to design and develop and market and target for real constituents. Quit going after non surfers. You have to wait for them to come to you. You can’t try to get non surfers. It has to be reciprocal. And that means marketing to surfers who love you back because it’s in their DNA.
I say we need to downsize and run a profitable, thriving business culture that can live and breath and make money and sustain its employees at a level where people that are enamored with surfing can reciprocally sustain it. Drop the conglomerate sh*t and just start thinking smaller. It’s like the WSL. I mean they do a job, yeah. It’s not broken, the money is good, the locations are good, they are pretty organized, the best surfers are in it, they make it happen, but the one thing is that they pander to non-surfers. And it shows. Why pander to them and not talk to us? And that weird muzzle they have on the commentary. I don’t know where that comes from or why. If they would give more freedom to the commentary it would be so much more interesting and authentic. And it would attract a better, more diverse group of commentators. Stop the pandering to the wrong audience. What are they afraid of? Basically just take the muzzles off. And haven’t we all been saying this for a 100 years? Who are they talking to? Not us. That’s their biggest negative.
The Greatest hope for the future of surfing: Make it smaller.
