The Elusive Double Spin

Josh Kerr is on a personal mission. With the Kustom Airstrike removing its upload box in one week, time is running out for punters, and Kerzy still hasn’t bagged the 720. But contest or no, he ain’t giving up. When Stab caught up with Josh, he was pushing his way through a terminal in Paris, having placed ninth in the Lacanau contest after going down to eventual winner Wiggolly Dantas. The Kerr-upt flip pioneer was returning to Cali to await the Hawaiian season, and belted his answers down the line amidst the airport hubbub.

Stab: After eight months, the Kustom Airstrike is nearly over. How’s your journey been? Josh Kerr: It’s a good competition. When you go on a free-surf trip you kinda have it in the back of your head that it’s going on so you want to try and pull something big off. I always try and do something big and new, but now if you can pull it off you get rewarded for it.

Been keeping an eye on the clips? What’s your pick? I’ve checked out a few on there, there’s some sick ones. Flynn (Novak)’s one is definitely amazing, I’m just not into double grabs. That’s probably the only thing I’m off. But it’s a pretty rad rotation he pulls off. As far as innovation goes, that’d be up there for sure.

What repulses you about double grabs? I just don’t like them full stop. No other board sports do double grabs, so I don’t see why we should either.

Which of your clips were you most happy with? There’s one full-spin kinda-thing. And there’s one in my Innersection that I’m probably going to put up at the end.

Let’s talk about the elusive 720. I really wanted to pull one but didn’t. I’ve been so close so many times, it sucks. I’ve just tried too many. But I like trying them – they’re so fun. Especially when you get close to pulling them, but fuck, you just wanna make it so bad and pull it. It’s not really a case of concentration – when you’re a surfer, it’s just what you do.

Can you talk me through one? Every wave is different… you have to hit it kinda late. You wanna get projected back out to the wave, you don’t want to land off the back. I think that’s what kind of gets you – the sections you have to do it off normally have a pretty tough landing. You get the rotation right, but then the landing will just do you in most of the time.

How long have you been trying them? I’ve been really trying to actually do them and felt like I’ve had the rotation down for about a year. I just need that one wave, that right wave to pull it. It’ll happen… hopefully. I remember like, five or six years ago just trying them off the back of waves in Hawaii cause they’re fun to do off the back, but I don’t remember the first one where I really tried getting back on the face.

Are you going to keep trying right up to the closing date of the comp? I’ll be trying, but if I don’t pull it before I’ll still be trying them after. I just want to pull one off full stop, the competition doesn’t really have much to do with it. It’s personal. – Elliot Struck