When Josh Kerr burst on the Championship Tour in 2007, his ascension to the Dream Tour had already been foreshadowed by his prodigious aerial game and dominance in Airshow events of the day. It’d be unfair to pigeon hole Kerrzy as an aerial specialist – over the course of his tenure on tour, he had success in all manner of waves from thumping tubes to peaky beach breaks – but, Kerr’s contributions specifically to aerial surfing are legendary. Not least of which his pioneering of maneuvers like the Kerrupt Flip – a trick Medina famously pulled on the end section of a wave at the 2018 Surf Ranch Pro that earned him a 9.3.
As we know, earlier this year the World Surf League announced that as a component of its partnership with Red Bull, it would breathe life into three specialty events, called the Red Bull Airborne Series, and place Kerr at the helm. Over three stops on the Gold Coast, Bali, and France, the series saw some of the best free surfers face-off against aerial-inclined CTers for bragging rights and it didn’t disappoint.
According to Kerr, the genesis of bringing back a variation of an air-specific contest series, much like the kind that gave him his start, was to give the world’s top aerialists, some of which have yet to join the ranks of the CT or have any inclination to, a platform of their own.
And if that goal sounds a little lofty, consider this. Until this time last year, Sunshine Coast native Reef Heazlewood was a virtual unknown and unsponsored. Then a giant punt at Rocky Point from last winter went viral, he later got third at the Volcom Pipe Pro, and then got the nod from Kerrzy to compete at the first Red Bull Airborne event on the Gold Coast in April. He ended up taking second and won the Quik Pro trials, signed with Hurley, and the rest is history.
The above is a brief look at how Kerr got his start, and how he pioneered an event series that’s giving professional surfing a much-needed hit of caffeine.
