What Makes The Perfect Sunset Board?

Sunset Beach has long been identified as one of the premier waves on the North Shore. However, in recent years, the youths have focused less and less on this lineup. Whether it’s the lack of contests since the emergence of COVID or the fact that the wave is just fucking daunting, the spot has been less frequented by traveling professionals and local surfers alike.

But there is one visiting surfer who tends to stick his neck out at the spot more regularly than the rest, and he does so with style. That person is Jack Robinson. If you’ve spent time on the North Shore in the past ten years, you’ve likely seen Jack making a name for himself along this stretch of coastline, specifically with his top-level rail work at Sunset, delivering a damn-near perfect performance in 2019 that’s enough to make grown men cry. And it did. Particularly, Matt Bemrose, Jack’s team manager.

Jack’s 2019 performance was unlike any we’d ever seen at the deep-water wave, as he asserted his dominance over Sunset’s boils and lumps with total poise and control. While we’d like to hash it all up to Jack’s innate ability on the water, we’d be liars if we said that the blade beneath his feet played no role in the Australian’s performance.

We hit up Jack’s decade-long Hawaiian shaper, Eric Arakawa, to investigate the mythical blade that sliced and diced its way into the history books, ensuring that we all see more of Jack Robinson with his birth on the Championship Tour.

This is a segment from our weekly North Shore news show, The Pick-Up. A Stab and Vans joint. Watch Episode 2 of The Pick-Up.