Jeremy Flores talks combo judging criteria for King of the Groms

Quiksilver recently launched King Of The Groms 2015; a search engine to find the world’s best under-18 on a surfboard. Round one is an Instagram play, in which entrants upload single-wave clips to IG with @quiksilver, #kingofthegroms and either #kingoftheair (if it’s above lip), #kingoftherail (if it’s a turn) or #kingofthecombo (if it’s a multi-move wave). While Craig Anderson will be picking some favs for #kingoftheair and Dane Reynolds will scoop a team from #kingoftherail, it’s Jeremy Flores who’s keeping a close watch for the best #kingofthecombo posts. Jeremy qualified for the world tour at age 17, and it’s his appreciation for big, well-linked combos that helped make it happen. And, he’s never slowed down. If you wanna be the #kingofthecombo, Stab suggests you dine on the below advice from the Frenchman. (Get a full breakdown over at King Of The Groms, here)

“I think to win the #kingofthecombo, you’ll need some variation of strong, different manoeuvres on the same wave: The best would be to have one good carving manoeuvre, followed by an air.

“I think you want, not necessarily a good wave, but just two crazy manoeuvres on the same wave. I think two is enough for a good combo. That includes barrels, airs or turns. If you can get all them on the same wave, even better. But if not, then a barrel with a big air, or one big air followed by a big layback or something would be good.

“Wave size does matter, because the more critical the wave is, the more critical the turns get. I’ve already seen some pretty crazy stuff happening on small waves (in the #kingofthecombo entries), but of course in bigger sized waves I’d be a lot more impressed. Unfortunately, a lot of kids won’t be lucky enough to surf really good, big waves, which I’ll take into consideration.

“I think linking really big, combination manoeuvres is the key for success. You see nowadays, the best surfers in the world like John John Florence, Gabriel Medina, Filipe Toledo and those guys, they have really good combos. If you have good combos of tricks in your repertoire, you’re able to do really well in the world qualifying series, and on the World Tour. It’s our goal, all surfers on tour, to have good combinations.

“I definitely think we’ll have a future world champ in this year’s #kingofthecombo. It may not be the one that wins, but there’s so much talent and this opens the world’s eyes to it. Some kids aren’t lucky enough to contest events, so as they just post their combination of good manoeuvres, and show themselves to the world, it’s a beginning. I think the best kids in the world are going to be posting some crazy surfing in this year’s King of the Groms.”

There it is, kids. Stab is also currently streaming the #kingofthegroms round one entrants RIGHT HERE. We’ll be starting to pick some standouts in the coming days, so stay tuned.

This is Jeremy at home in reunion Island, from an issue of Stab back when you could still surf in Reunion. Photo: Timo Jarvinen