Clip of the Day: Not An Air In Sight

Now don't get me wrong- I like a good solid air like the rest of you- like a big Julian alley-oop in Portugal or Marzo at some sketchy reef in Hawaii. But a big filthy man turn (that didn't sound right) is where we need to get back to in surfing. A bunny hop in 2' slop isn't surfing- but a gouging Richard Cram cutback is where it's at. Or where it needs to be right now. The Association of Surfing Professionals has taken note this year with solid rail surfing scoring just as much as reverse airs. That's why Mick Fanning leads the ratings, Kelly Slater is 2nd, Joel Parkinson is 5th, Michelle Bourez is 7th, and Kai Otton is 10th. Sure Jordy Smith is ranked 3rd and Taj Burrow 4th, but they can hack it with the best of the old school guys. And the young fly boys who have every trick known to man above the lip? John John Florence is all the way down the ratings at 14, Gabriel Medina is 15th, and Kolohe Andino is 23rd. So where am I going with all this?! It seems like every clip that comes out on the internet nowadays is 'who can do the biggest reverse air'. Well I'm here to tell you that today is a new day in the surf world and the crew at What Youth have put out a clip without an air in sight. They took Conner Coffin (who's coached by style master Brad Gerlach no less), his brother Parker, lead foot Tanner Gudauskas, and Richard Cram protege' Taylor Knox to Jeffrey's Bay. And it's damn good J-Bay no less- WAAAAY better than the ASP contests of the past few years. The clip is an astounding 19 minutes long (vs. the current 'air' clips of a couple minutes) and the juicy stuff is in the 2nd half of the clip- well overhead right walls and enough offshores to generate windmill electricity for New York City. Along with solid turns, barrels, and stylish surfing, it will make you want to pull your 6'6" out of the rafters and take it out this weekend for a spell. If we had surf that is. So put the kids to bed, crack open a PBR, and enjoy what surfing is supposed to be: man turns.