Alex Knost, Mikey Feb & More Star In Non-Conformist Waveriding Demonstration ‘Choice Glance’

Al Knost appeared on the Style cover of one of the first physical Stab Magazines way back when, so safe to say that our fascination runs deep and long. 

His influence is undeniable, an ever-present vein of cross-cultural connection who’s bridged eras, cultures, design, hair styles — just about every aspect of what it means to be “a surfer” for what seems far longer than his 40 years would suggest (likely because Al’s been on the scene since his teens).

Integral to the trad longboard revival that’s still going strong (but also so much more), Al’s squeezed as much juice from our relatively young sport/culture/hobby/whatever as anyone, and taken it far and wide, from playing in bands with Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon, to collaborating with Swedish fashion houses and beyond. What he is centrally and crucially, however, is an incredible surfer on boards of all varieties, and now (“now” meaning he’s been at it for a decade), an accomplished and forward-thinking surfboard shaper.

On the eve of the premiere of his new Vans film ‘Choice Glance’, I caught up with Al to talk wavepools, mowing foam for Stab’s E.A.S.T Fest and the eternal joy of a cross-pollination. 

“Yeah, just a good blend of my trajectory of boards from the get-go to now that are small enough or have enough curve to fit in the pool, because it’s very short, it’s very pockety,” Al says of the Palm Springs pool that features in the opening sequence of ‘Choice Glance’. “Even though I’m a longboarder who’s known for surfing San-o and Malibu and stuff, I grew up in Newport, and the pool’s kind of similar to surfing Newport: it’s a very short wave, so you’re trying to fit in the pocket. It’s kind of an interesting concept to blend those things.”

‘Choice Glance’ is a breezy 30 minute portrait of where Alex is at in his current surfing trajectory. Which is a chicken and egg of where surfing in general’s at. Meaning: there’s wavepools, varying surfers riding all sorts of crafts, a mixture of mediums, all with a nicely pre-apocalyptic overtone; burnt out at a seedy motel, half drunk on cheap beer after a day of surfing with your friends because, well, why not. 

“I was trying to figure out a title that you can balance a movie on and my partner—who’s far more well-read and articulate than I am—was reading this book A Glimpse of Nothingness,” Al explains. “And I always think about those Timothy Leary quotes about surfing being this ‘futuristic pursuit’, and ‘Choice Glance’ just came up. Surfing happens so fast it ultimately survives as fragments of the moments that connect you to this impulse.”

It’s an apt description of the film. And possibly Al’s life. The “fragments” in ‘Choice Glance’ that embedded themselves in me were, as before mentioned, how interesting it was to see a different take on the saturated wavepool medium (“Good skaters go to the skate park, but that doesn’t mean people don’t still skate street,” Al says of pools); how beautiful it is to watch Al surf a log in good waves (the thing that started this whole zany caper); what a crazy surfer the rubber-limbed Justin Adams is (and you thought Al was double jointed!); and finally, how well the boards he’s making now go under the feet of good surfers in good waves. 

The section in particular I refer to is Al and Mikey Feb surfing a flawless six foot Mexican pointbreak on alt(!?) equipment, getting drained and slicing through turns like absolutely no one was doing in the 70s. 

Al laughs when I compliment him on how well the boards look in good waves and explains that, whilst Mikey was riding a board Al made for him, Al himself was riding an edge board that he and Ellis Ericson shaped together after he ran through his personal quiver on a previous trip to Nicaragua. A board that had snapped itself and been repaired by, of all people, Aaron ‘Gorkin’ Cormican. 

When Al appeared on the front cover of Stab Style in the early 2000s, he and Gorkin (a hyper-competitive air reverse specialist) were at opposing poles of the surfing world. As Al explains: “I wouldn’t say we’re at war with each other, but we weren’t really grooving each other’s trip.” However, Gorkin now makes his own boards, and the two have become friends who go on trips together. 

“It was a Choice Glance of togetherness, you know,” Al explains. “I’m riding this board that Ellis made, fixed by Aaron Cormican, Mikey comes from a competitive background, I came from longboarding; it’s like the choice glance of the counterculture integrating.”

It sounds cosmic, but it makes total sense. Al Knost grew up in a (at the time) surfing sub culture—traditional longboarding—riding boards made by Robert August (of Endless Summer fame), and since then has constantly travelled the world shaping, surfing, jamming and generally hanging with the world’s most left-field and influential surfers. 

“In my lifetime I’d see Dale Velzy and Rabbit Kekai in the surf, and now I’ll go to Lowers and see all the kids training to be superstars, but then they’re getting sprayed in the face by Chris Ward, y’know?” Al says. “It’s like jamming with a good musician or talking to someone that’s far more well read or has travelled the world. That’s something that I always thought, you know, should be passed down.”

As for life post ‘Choice Glance’, Al’s plan is to keep on carrying on the way he has for the duration of his adult life. 

“Well the Stab event, and then I play in this band called Seventies Tuberide with my friend Sepe and, uh, Matt Correia, who’s the drummer in Allah Las, and we’ve got a couple of shows,” he says. “Then I have a couple of art shows next year with this great gallery China Heights in Sydney, then hopefully some groovy surf trips with some cool surfers, some of the younger crew I’ve been fortunate to hang out with like Kobo and Nick Melanson, who’ve got this fresh take on the whole situation.”

A “groovy trip” indeed. But very much a yellow brick road that Al’s incrementally built for himself. 

“The mind’s like a parachute, it only works when it’s open,” Al says, very much tongue in cheek, in parting. “And a rolling stone gathers no moss.”  

Amen to that. 

Catch Al and his Brown Microwave Television crafts at E.A.S.T Fest, Plan Springs, September 28.