Link: https://www.swellnet.com/news/reels/2021/08/06/watch-jonathon-gubbins-insomnia
Watch: Jonathon Gubbins // Insomnia
Warning: I’ve openly gushed about Jonathon Gubbins tube style before and I can feel another round of rhapsody coming on. Stop reading if you’re so offended.
For a sport that’s so dynamic, it makes sense that we have to see surfers in motion to appreciate their skill. The wave moves, surfers react to it, so spatial awareness and body contortions have to be viewed against each other to comprehend what’s happening.
Yet there are a few surfers who simply have the perfect stance, who could have a statue of themselves erected in Martin Place and passers by would say, “fine specimen”, “so much grace” and direct other felicitations toward the stone cold monument.
Occy is one of them. Seven billion people on Earth, who knew there was a totally unique way to stand on two feet?
Kelly is there too, owing mostly to hands and arms. Curren without a doubt – knees slightly bent, arms held low. And then there’s the vogueing nature of the old style tube riders: Lopez, Banksy, McCabe.
Multi-finned boards have made uniform the style of the modern tube hound, except for a few hold outs, and Peruvian Jono Gubbins is one of them. Watch the toes of his back foot dance like a ballerina en pointe, see where his feet are placed and wonder why he even bothers with deck grip, watch him use the front half of the board to accelerate and decelerate. The last one is apparent in this vid: not only does he use the flatter rocker under his front foot to accelerate, but he also uses the nose curve to decelerate. No tail stalls or double hand drags here.
It’s a classic tube stance.
Cast in bronze, stood alongside great warriors, Gubbins’ style and stance would be apparent to even the stiffest of suits. “Fine specimen,” they’d say, “so much grace.”
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