A lot of surfers identify themselves by the kind of surfboard they ride. Shortboarders mutter about longboarders. Longboarders laugh at the muttering as they sit outside and catch the set waves. Goofy versus regular, blah blah blah. We like to put ourselves in groups of people who have a similar interests, don’t we? But in all honesty, a really good surfer is one who can rip on just about anything. And the equipment is — or should be, anyway — dictated by the waves, so if you’re able to surf well on anything from a standard shortboard to a 10-foot log… well, you’ve got your bases covered.
Enter Arip Nurhidayat, also known as Mencos. He’s the newest member of the Drifter surf family, and there’s a good chance that Mencos might be one of the most well-rounded surfers in the world.
“His skills on nine feet of foam exceed what most of us believed was possible, let alone with that much style,” the Drifter team writes. “His ability to transition to and from switch stance while cross-stepping solidified Mencos in our mind as the most technically skilled longboarder we’ve ever seen.”
From West Java (a very good place for a longboarder), Mencos isn’t just good at riding a longboard or a shortboard. He’s good at riding goofy and regular. He can smash a turn on a shortboard with either foot forward, cross-step his way to the nose facing either way, and by the looks of it, is having about as much fun as anyone can have on a surfboard. Any kind of surfboard.
