Did The Self-Proclaimed ‘King of Waco’ Just Stomp Surfing’s First Christ Air?

You should know by now that Jacob “Zeke” Szekely is one of the best at Waco. Or if you ask him, the undisputed king of the Lone Star basin.  Zeke broke the internet earlier this year with a Never Been Done, landing a finger-flip and riding off into Instagram stardom. Now he’s back with the above video, which features the closest thing we’ve seen to a Christ Air in surfing (so far)*. A bit of backstory. In 2018, we held our inaugural Stab High with the express intent to push the limits of aerial surfing. Not one to back down to the challenge, Mason Ho almost pulled the below Christ Air (plus a few finger-flips) in the event. Legend has it that upon viewing the clip of this near-make, Mason said, “If I knew I was that close, I would’ve just landed it.”  When we talked to Zeke about where he got the idea to try a Christ Air, he said the following: “Watching Mason attempt a Christ Air at Stab High inspired me to go out and try it myself. I also skate all the time and have been doing these on the quarterpipe for a while, so I thought for sure it was possible on a surfboard.” Zeke has been accused of many things (and convicted of some), but no one’s saying the guy lacks confidence—which is something you need in spades when trying to land new tricks. When Tony Hawk landed the first 900, I can guarantee you he wasn’t thinking “fall”.  Speaking of Tony Hawk, he’s on of the long list of characters Zeke employed in this rollout, including but not limited to: Chris Cote, Zion Wright, Alex Midler, Todd Richards, and Greyson Fletcher. The correlation between skate and surf tricks is a touchy subject for some, but this maneuver is and has always been unequivocally “skate”, so we’ll take their thoughts at face value. The Birdman himself admitted that this wasn’t a proper Christ Air, but more closely resembles an “Axe Murderer to Airwalk” due to Zeke’s using two hands. Regardless, we haven’t seen anything quite like this in surfing, well…ever, so we’ll give credit where credit’s due. Click in above to watch the hype train and stay tuned for Zeke to stick a “proper” Christ Air soon. *It’s been rumored that within two days of Zeke landing his Christ air variation, that Mason went to Waco and completed the move using only one hand. While this isn’t confirmed, if true, the clip is all but guaranteed to be on ice for the upcoming release of Snapt4.