Patty Gudauskas, Floating over Lowers, CA

“Kickin it old school bro,” cheers Californian Patty Gudauskas down the phone line. “Actually just steppin’ into a yogi class!” Patty’s one of the happiest men you’ll likely meet, all California Colgate smiles and endless witticisms. By ‘Yogi’, Patty means yoga, one of the avenues he takes to keep a finely-tuned rig between WT contests.

“It’s been ridiculous,” he says of the surf he’s been scoring at Lowers recently, where this sequence was shot. “I just got home from Portugal and since then, Lowers has been about as good as it gets for three days straight. Reynolds, Kelly, Taj and heaps of other guys have been out there, there’s been some super-sessions going down.”

So, does that make it harder to get waves? “Not for us,” laughs Patty, meaning he and his two brothers, Tanner and Dane. “If you weren’t used to surfing out there you’d probably be pretty rattled. But It’s definitely a local spot for my brothers and I. We usually mosey through the lineup pretty easy. Dane and Tanner go left and I go right, so we got that wired, (laughs).”