crazy ozzie wright style, but the dude is seriously on another planet in the water... insane.. here is the first clip I found when I googled him just now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st73mpdZ4rM&NR=1
I am finding out the the board plays a huge part which I guess is obvious to everyone but me. I have been for the last 5 years or so strictly a fish guy. I got so used to a fish that I forgot how solid a thruster can feel. I bought a T.Patterson board a week ago and I am amazed at the feeling of being able to hold my line so much easier than on a fish. The fish tends to wander and slide out of position so it's harder to stay right against the wall of the wave while the barrel forms up over you. With this new board I have gotten closer to the barrel more times in a week than I have been in a couple of years. I have gotten covered up on the Patterson (never exited), but I can see that possibility more so now than I have for a while. I thought the fish was holding just fine but this is insanely positive (in a good way).
Great thread and I can tell people are being honest too. There aren't any posts like: " i get shacked on every wave brah!" Starting surfing when I was 12 (1994), got a couple accidental barrels in my early years (by being too slow and small etc.) probly didn't really start seeking the tube until 2001 or 02. Now if I see it sucking up, I stall, hug the wall, maybe run a hand through the face and see about at least a curtain call... Probly have gotten in the 100 range of barrels (planned, green/brown room time, gain speed and out to continue on). A lot more, doggy door escapes, or coming straight through the curtain... 1000's of closeout barrels and then just getting crushed in there... I don't mind the beating as long as I get a good view right before... One trip to Indo or Oz and your count will go through the roof whether you are good or not. (that's what i've heard, never been)
Yeah, I dont know how or if there is a video of him landing one. I just head through the local grapevine about 4 years ago that he was landing them... On his 50/50 skate surf board... I bet there is something somewhere with him doing it. Again, I am only going off of local folk lore also... Everyone has been talking about the guy in Oside that lands rodeo flips and kick flips... I have yet to see one, but who knows.... Maybe its just tall tales in socal... Although I did have video of a local amatuer land a backside rodeo flip at the OB pier during a contest a couple years ago... That was cool. It was on a head high beach breakk.... dude nailed it!
