Joel Tudor is not a word-mincer. He’ll tell anyone how he feels about just about anything, and he’s not going to care much either way what anyone thinks about it.
He’s also a pretty decent surfer, to say the least. Three world titles prove that, and it’s all the more impressive when you consider the fact that the first title he won was back in 1998. The last was in 2021 at the age of 45. Also on that mantel of his are eight U.S. Open of Longboarding trophies and, if there was such a thing, some kind of living legend award.
As is generally the case with people who don’t mince words, Joel’s not for everybody, a fact that was proven when the World Surf League suspended him for a few of them. It was a strange debacle that likely could have been avoided by simply staying quiet, but Tudor’s not that type of guy.
Whatever your thoughts are about him as a person, it can’t be denied that Tudor is a master on a longboard. He’s a deep well of knowledge around it, too, so LogRap recently pointed a camera at him, mic’d him up, and chatted with him in the backyard somewhere on the East Coast late in the summer of 2023.
“We talked about his current quiver of boards, what it’s like having his own board factory, and most importantly, how to transition your surf life into the next chapter,” LogRap wrote. “We always have fun whenever we talk to Joel on camera but this time for whatever reason it felt very insightful. Must’ve been the coffee that morning.”
