“I’m Fucking Done With The QS”

Shane Sykes surprised everyone — viewer and participant alike — at Vans Stab High: Lakey Peak.

Not only did the underground South African easily meet the requirement of sacrificing his limbs to the aerial powers that be, he carried with him a well-mannered degeneracy that was immediately likable. One had the sense that Shane would have been equally familiar with five-star fine dining as he would with wrestling outside a Sumbawan warung.

After one particularly perilous night of Indonesian lager, Shane showed up smiling for his sunrise heat — and won it.

This flippant directedness makes sense in the scope of Shane’s surfing life. He himself admits that he’s been caught between the freeform chaos of freesurfing and the focused bureaucracy of competition for some time.

“I grinded it out for like 6 or 7 years, but I’m fuckin’ done with the QS,” the South African tells me. “It feels so good. After hanging with the crew at Stab High in Lakeys, and then going to Portugal and Brazil and losing first round, I was just like “Why the fuck am I doing this?” It was making me so bummed with my surfing. Meanwhile, I’m stoked with my surfing, it was just the contests that were pissing me off.”

“The whole Stab High trip was a turning point in my career. Being around that crew and having people take note of my surfing was huge,” Shane reminisces. “I just want to be around people like that, rather than waking up at 6AM to go grind out a QS bank. I’m much more happy hanging with people who are like-minded as opposed to ones who are just trying to take my wave from me (laughs)”

“Also, every time theres a swell, I’ve been at a fucking QS,” he laughs. “Honestly, it was such a weight off my shoulders when I figured out my plan with Vans. They’re just focused on me doing good shit, they don’t care if I do contests. I’m stoked, I’m going on a trip in April to go slab-hunting with Eithan Osborne, Noa Deane, and Harry Bryant. Hopefully Micky Clarke will come too.

The above edit features clips from a two week HT’s stint, along with waves from Mexico, California, and home. As for the footage Shane stacked in Hawaii this winter, he tell us Hunter Martinez will be putting together a Chapter 11 snippet.

“The Chapter 11 stuff is epic.” says Shane. “Eithan is one of my best friends, and hanging with Dane is pretty amazing. Stoked to be going that direction with them. That’s what surfers wanna watch. Vlogs are what kooks wanna watch (laughs).”