Watch: An Unseen, Two-Minute Display Of Jack Robinson’s Aerial Artillery

It could be argued that the public perception of Jack Robinson is that of a guy who can do terrific airs, but is not an “air guy”.

The statistics confirm this perception.

In last year’s CT season, Jack scored 30 excellent (8.00 or better) waves total — only four were airs (13%).

Let’s compare this to two publicly perceived “air guys.”

Last year, Filipe Toledo scored 14 excellent waves total — 5 were airs (36%).

in 2021, 17 out of Gabriel Medina’s 21 excellent scores were airs (81%).

The vast majority of Jack’s excellent scores last year came from tubes and carves. And Jack leapt into surfing’s collective gaze when he was a pre-teen under the characterization of a hard-charging, toe-headed tube scion who also power-surfed beyond his years.

But as the edit above reminds us, Jack absolutely has one of the best air games on tour.

In this fun-sized clip Jack does airs that, in most edits, are flyaway/wipe-out teasers, meant to excite (but not satisfy) the viewer. He lands them all in this clip.

I’m so used to this sort of bait-and-switch in clips that when Jack leaps up for a straightie at 0:27, I had already written him off. I knew he was going to fall. But he didn’t.

Jack started out this season with a win at Pipe, a third at Sunset, and a second in Portugal. He then placed 17th at Bells, injuring himself in the process. He then missed Margaret River (a favorite of his) and placed 17th at both the Surf Ranch and this week in El Salvador.

All of the clips you’ll see in this edit were filmed before this contest season and before his injury.

Consider it a tease of what we hope to see on display in Rio.