Julian Wilson adds new trick #1: the Sushi Roll.
Whenever I hear webcast announcers, journalists, surfers, stakeholders, etc. talk about the “huge evolution” of progressive surfing, I wonder what they’re talking about. Especially when they talk about moves. “Back in the day”, “three to the beach”, “We weren’t doing that back then”… Huge evolution?
It gets boring to watch an entire day’s event with nothing but one air reverse after another. OMG bru, can you stop? Can you be more creative? Where’s the evolution? Where’s the skate transition? Are we technical?
We are not. Well, barely.
My video, back in the day, as a grom, in my freakish I-need-to-go-surfing-now kind of time, was Taylor Steele’s Good Times.
I watched it again lately, and I’m STILL more amazed when I see what’s going on today. The moves in 1995, 17 years ago, were almost like the ones we do nowadays.
You can see Kelly, Tim Curran, Shane Dorian, Kalani Robb flying frontside and backside. You can see them doing reverses and rail grabbing, full rotation airs, etcetera.
Since then, in 17 years, what we have seen is:
– Julian Wilson’s Sushi Roll
– Tim Curran and Flynn Novak’s Back Flip
– Kelly’s Rodeo Flip
– Aaron Cormican’s Gorkin Flip
– Chippa Wilson’s Big Spin
– Ozzie Wright’s kick flip (Zoltan is crap, Ozzie’s hasn’t been completed)
– Josh Kerr’s Kerrupt
That makes seven new tricks in 17 years. Is that a lot? NO. It would actually be a lot if at today’s Burton Toyota Pro there were back flips left and right, but that is not the case. I am watching talented Brazilian Filipe Toledo repeat the same air reverse over and over, just like Kalani was doing with the board that had a “K” in the deck 17 years ago.
And I don’t even need to go into what Travis Mellem, Bron Heussenstamm (however you spell that) and Mike Losness where pulling 10 years ago. It’s not that different from what we see today. Why? Please tell me why we say that surfing is waaaaay more progressive today than before.
What’s worse, we don’t do much to celebrate it. Chippa Wilson pulls a Big Spin in Lost Atlas and practically nobody talks about it. Julian pulls the Sushi Roll, the same reaction. And so on… Flynn Novak’s Back Flip is AMAZING. Does it gets the same media exposure as Tony Hawk’s 900? No! But it should!
Novak should be a millionaire for pulling off that move. He is pushing surfing’s limits. He’s expanding the sport, writing history, and what is he getting? Not much – at best he’ll be appointed Surfline’s Punt of the Year or something like that.
Still, the point is that surfing hasn’t evolved like everyone says. It probably has on the industrial level (sponsorships, prizes, etc), but the sport itself (in what has to do with moves-innovation) has remained relatively stagnant.
I repeat:
– Julian Wilson’s Sushi Roll
– Tim Curran and Flynn Novak’s Back Flip
– Kelly’s Rodeo Flip
– Aaron Cormican’s Gorkin Flip
– Chippa Wilson’s Big Spin
– Ozzie Wright’s kick flip
– Josh Kerr’s Kerrupt
I may be forgetting something, but those are the only innovative moves in more than 17 years.
And in the meantime what’s everybody doing? PULLING AIR REVERSES.
