Did This ‘Reel Surfer’ Just Bag Wave Of The Winter + Best Air?
Shion Crawford recalls his two viral waves at OTW and Rockies.
In just two weeks, Shion Crawford has produced two of the most spectacular, viral clips of the 2025 season — an enormous Indy grab full rotation at Rockies, and a monstrous Off The Wall cavern that has ‘Wave of the Winter’ calls being thrown around.
Stab caught up with Shion while he was in a less-than-ideal headspace.
“Yeah, I sent it last night,” laughs Shion, still throbbing from the celebrations.
Understandable — catching the wave of your life tends to warrant a few extra Hi-C coolers (Shion’s 19).
Alongside Eli Hanneman, Noah Beschen, Makana Pang, Kalani Rivero, and Finn McGill, Crawford is part of the Hawaiian strike force currently running riot on the North Shore.
It’s been a banner season for North Shore locals: Koa Rothman won the Shootout, Nathan Florence dominated the VPM, Barron won back-to-back Pipe Pros, Landon McNamara claimed the Eddie, and John Florence the World Title.
But Shion is having a moment of his own. After back-to-back runner-up finishes at Sunset and Haleiwa, he’s sitting #1 on the Hawaiian regional QS and is easily on track to requalify for the Challenger Series come May — where he’ll once again be working under the sage tutelage of Jake ‘Snake’ Paterson.
Born and raised in Haleiwa, Crawford’s dad is from North Carolina, his mom from Japan. He started surfing at two years old. “I stood up on a boogie board before I stood up on a surfboard.” As for how he splits his time at each break, Shion explained, “If it’s under four feet, I’m at Rockies or Sandbar. If it’s pumping? Pipe or Haleiwa.”
“My contract was up this year. I was like, dude, I gotta do something to get myself another contract. I got injured at OTW earlier in the season and missed the World Juniors. I had the worst surf FOMO and some self-inflicted pressure about keeping sponsors happy. So once I did the big air, I was like, ‘I have to post this thing right away.’ I don’t wanna get cut. Same goes for the Off the Wall wave. So yeah, I guess I’m a ‘Reel surfer’ now. It’s sick.”
While both clips could anchor a SEOTY-winning end section, Shion explained that by the time he got in, they were already online. The North Shore is a media circus — too many photographers, too many filmers with RAW SESSION Youtube channels. It’s a pain Stab felt when shooting Jack Robinson’s Stab in the Dark, when a bunch of his surfs were posted online well before the scheduled release date.
The silver lining? Both of Shion’s clips went nuclear. As a result, he’s renewed his contract with O’Neill and has been invited to attend one of their Maps to Nowhere trips with Surfline. “People were coming up to me and congratulating me. Girls too. I was like, holy shit.”
Crawford explained that his Rockies punt was inspired by his good friend Makana Franzmann, a lifelong friend he used to skate with, who recently dropped an incredible edit featuring a series of backside Indy grab full rotes. When Shion saw a huge closeout ramp, his fate was sealed — he was just flummoxed when he actually rode out of it.
His wave at OTW yesterday, however, was not just another mega ramp you can find at any given rock shelf. It was a bomb that broke on the second reef at Pipe, backing off just enough at OTW to allow entry from deep. He’d been waiting for a wave like that for years.
“An hour before I paddled out, I was watching Reef McIntosh’s 2016 Wave of the Winter, thinking, ‘Fuck, I want one like that,’ explained Shion.
“Then it came — second-reefing, backing off at OTW. I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m in the spot. I’m going.’ Whipped it without even looking down the line, just saw the double-up and knew I was packing it. Off the Wall usually gets weird, but this one was big enough to stay square — super square. I just held on to see what happened. Then the foam ball hit and lifted me. I almost lost it. I was completely blind, just telling myself, ‘Don’t fall, don’t fall.’ Somehow, I made it.”
Something tells us this is not the last we’ll see (or hear) from Shion’s 2025 winter season in Hawaii. And surely it’s just a few years before he’s alongside Jackson Bunch, taking scalps on tour.
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