Surfing has always been at its best when it’s looking forward. Not just looking forward, but screaming forward, brake lines cut, engine red-lined, a drunk passenger hollering, shirtless, leaning half out of the window and heaving empty beer cans into the wind, no idea where the destination is, just knowing that it’s up ahead somewhere, just out of reach of the headlights, and we gotta get there now, like, right this very moment—dammit, can’t this car go any faster?! It’s that exuberant sense of discovery, be it waves, board designs, or performance possibilities, that have given rise to the very best parts of surfing.
It pains me to say it, but I think that surfing’s forward momentum stalled somewhere along the way. Sure, people will continue to find ways to…
