Photo: Koa Smith // YouTube
In between star-studded super sessions at a North Shore sandbar, Koa Smith takes a minute to get deep in his latest video. “I’ve been reflecting a lot and I feel like I’m having some pretty cool realizations of my own surfing,” he said, during a break from the action. “I feel like I don’t have to be the best surfer in the world, but I want to explore the best version of myself, how aware can I be of my mistakes, like how I want to approach my surfing.”
He echoed a sentiment expressed by many former competition surfers: the relief of being freed from the confines of impressing judges on the beach. ”I don’t have to do three turns to the beach to score,” Smith continued. “What I’ve been really interested in is building my power and flow on a wave. Just every movement is at maximum torque and power and energy – almost building this ball of energy, so when I kick out of a wave, I’m feeling fully charged.”
To illustrate how he’s been going about accomplishing that quest, Koa pulled out a new board – an early model from “Resonance,” his recent collaboration with Matt Parker of Album surfboards. “It’s just so different, compared to a normal, high-performance contest shortboard,” he explained. The thick nose, quad layout and asymmetrical tail bear the telltale signs of a Parker design, but with a few unique twists for Koa’s specific brand of aquatic expression.
From there, the rest is just a good old fashioned surf edit – with a lot of famous faces making appearances, for good measure. Koa is joined by Griffin Colapinto, Kelly Slater, Seth Moniz, Jordy Smith and more for a super session that truly lived up to the name.
