Shane Borland getting high. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Earlier this year, The Inertia caught up with California native Shane Borland and picked his brain about being a standout athlete in two board sports. Plenty of professional athletes are adept at more than one discipline, but Borland’s a unique talent when it comes to the transition from surfboard to skateboard and from skateboard to surfboard.
“I’ve always felt like a skater that surfs because I was sponsored for skating first and started getting paid for skating first and was going on skate trips way before surf trips,” he said. “But now I’m definitely more in the surfing world and could say I’m a surfer that skates so I don’t know, it’s all the same to me.”
From his own perspective, Borland sees surfing as something that’s helped his flow on a skateboard, and skating helps his aerial surfing in return. “It’s a lot scarier to land on concrete than water,” he explained.
With all that in mind, it seems a place like Saudi Arabia’s new Adrena Red Sea is a perfect playground for a guy like Shane Borland. A wave pool with multiple wave types on hand — rampy wedges for aerial specialists included — and a spacious skate park for time spent out of the water. He got a change to visit the new pool last month and his collection of highlights is precisely what you’d expect: an aerial clinic.
