The Pick Up: Pipeline Used To Be Dominated By Goofy Footers

The Tour’s no place for a goofy foot. On the 2018 CT schedule, there are five rippable, primarily-right breaking waves. With the loss of Cloudbreak in 2018, there are officially no lefts that fit this bill. 

But at least the goofies have Pipe and Chopes, right? Well…

What if I told you that only one goofy has won a Pipe Masters in the new millennium? Would that… surprise you? Or would it only reinforce your belief that goofies require afros to achieve greatness? (Rob Machado was the last winner in 2000.)

It’s been brought to my attention that surfboard design could be a culprit in this stance war. From the first Pipe Masters through the ‘90s, surfers rode long, pinny surfboards in anything above waist high. At the Pipe Masters, it wasn’t uncommon to see boards in the 7’6 range. This allowed surfers to get in early, set their line, and shoot through (mostly) lefthand tubes. 

Thanks to guys like Kelly Slater, boards nowadays are shorter to facilitate steep, late drops and technical tube-riding. The shrunken outline performs better than the older boards in Backdoor’s section-y caverns, thus giving the riders more incentive to go right.

And who loves going right more than regular footers?