Surfing
Flying High — Five of the Best in the Air
The names are familiarly predictable. Julian, Kolohe, John John, Filipe. But… Kelly?
JW at OTW
© Trevor Moran
There hasn't been a shift performance-wise in the game of surf like 2014 since…since what… since 1992 when the 20-year-old Kelly Slater threw a generation in the trash?
Last year it wasn't one surfer but five, including Kelly, who gave the air game such a qauntum leap. Has there ever been such a richness and diversity of talent?
From Hawaii we have the uncoached gem that is John John Florence. California gives us Kolohe Andino. Australia brings Julian Wilson to the mix and from Brazil we'll take Filipe Toledo. Meanwhile, Kelly continues to demand relevance even in his fifth decade.
That's the top five. Gabriel Medina slips in at number six. When you chase a world title with any sort of seriousness it isn't about zeitgiest-busting but numbers, always the numbers. Just ask Mick Fanning or Joel Parkinson.
Now let's order surfing's five best men in the air. It's polemic. Argue with me.
1. Julian Wilson
I prevaricate between Julian, Filipe, John John and Kolohe as the number one surfer, air-wise. But, close, in the water, alongside Julian, it's his strength and his ability to stick…anything…anywhere… frontside, backside, oops, shuv-its, rote-and-a-halfs that make him an obvious contender not just for the world title in 2015 (Gabriel's natural successor) but for the best air surfer in the world. Yeah, he had a bad season, but redeemed himself at Haleiwa and Pipe. A Triple Crown half bought with airs? Stunning.
2. John John Florence
JJ is surfing's great sleeper cell. A dormant giant. Capable of anything, including moves yet to be defined and categorised, but so slow to rouse! Behind a face being eaten alive by freckles, behind glimmering eyes the colour of summer Pipeline, is a surfer with the chops to back-flip at Backdoor. And yet a surfer slow to rouse does not a champion make. So close, always so close.
3. Filipe Toledo
You want height in your airs? Ask Filipe. Eighteen years old, can you believe. A backside huck into the clouds at Trestles finished off with another air in the shorebreak earned Filipe a nine. Anyone else on tour would've walked away with a 10. The judges know how good he is. They need to have room to score his next rainmaker.
Brother x Surfing Mag
© Ryan Miller
4. Kolohe Andino
So. J-Bay. Kolohe rides a long barrel, comes out with speed, and hucks the alley-oop of his life. Nails it. Now, Kolohe doesn't normally do alley-oops but that section just…asked for it.
Kolohe had watched John John make a banger the night before and, sure, they don't like to say it but there's a rivalry there, and so when he launched his alley-oop he vowed he was going to make it. It's the wave of Kolohe's life so far. And if you listen to the 2001 world champ CJ Hobgood, who ain't prone to big calls let it be said, it might've been the best wave ridden. "It’d be hard to get your brain into another manoeuvre after two,” says CJ. “You could tell that when brother was done his brain was… warped. It was wow… and wow. You have to contain a high level of focus for that level of time and not be stoked with what you’ve already pulled. You’d have to prepare your brain for sure. It was a watershed moment for surfing.”
5. Kelly Slater
And then there's Kelly. Forty-two-and-a-half years old and he lands a full rote-and-a-half. "I was trying to rotate as far and fast as I could and see where I ended up," Kelly told me after. "Kolohe was talking about how good the wind was for airs and I was saying how scary it was cause there were ramps but with such hard wind you could take some stitches to the eye before you knew what happened. I’ve had the best air guys on earth and also skaters and snowboarders all weigh in so it feels like something special for me personally."