Longboarding in the single-fin, leashless style often gets the unfortunate label of retro. Embedded in that word is the idea that a traditional longboard approach – e.g. noseriding, drop-knee cutbacks, and the like – is regressive. That given the number of options of craft available to a person to ride a wave, selecting a longboard is like writing with a stone tablet and chisel instead of an iPad.
Those who hold such a belief, we’d venture to guess, have never had the pleasure of standing weightless on the nose of a nine-foot-plus surfboard seemingly defying the laws of physics and fluid dynamics. And the way some of the top longboarders in the world are doing it these days is absolutely progressive.
Intrinsic in longboarding is an appreciation for subtle adjustments that have magnified consequences. Because a twenty-pound longboard doesn’t turn on a dime like a standard shortboard, a micro-adjustment here or a quick cross-step there will impact your line not on the section just in front of you, but in front of that one. And to illustrate that precision look no further than Byron Bay-area aficionado Josie Prendergast.
In this short from Nathan Oldfield, Prendergast navigates a few waves with such elegant subtlety, it’ll make you yearn for putting your board in trim on a perfectly peeling righthander.
