Breaking In A Quiver Of Progressive Crafts At “Backdoor”

It can’t always be six-foot and offshore. Sigh. As much as Instagram tells you otherwise, the waves on Oahu’s fabled North Shore are just as fickle and moody as most any other reef break on the planet. That isn’t to say that the waves aren’t any good when they are “bad.” But it doesn’t mean that they’ll stack up to the posters you had taped to your wall throughout gromhood.

Truth is, you can almost always find a wave on the North Shore, especially if you’re willing to read between the lines. When Backdoor turned into a jumbled-up, righthand pointbreak rather than the firehose tubes you see on the ‘gram, we put on our optimism shades and measured the glass half full. The waves, although not perfect by any means, provided the opportunity for a handful of the antsiest Vans Triple Crown of Surfing competitors (and their friends) to test out the quiver of progressive crafts we had built.

To be more specific, we sent out the eagerest of beavers, Eithan Osborne, Tosh Tudor, Zoë McDougall, Tom Morat, Kobe Hughes, Al Cleland Jr., Kuio Young, and Justin Quintal to put a few strangely-channeled boards with alt fin configurations through their motions. With more swell rifling through since this day, trust that you’ll have the privilege to see these boards taken out at proper Backdoor very soon. Until then, press play on the video above and enjoy something that might feel a bit more relatable.

This section is a snippet from our weekly North Shore news show, The Pick-Up. A Stab and Vans joint. Watch Episode Two here.