Joel Vaughan Reminds Hughie Who Taught Him to Jump

It’s been a banner quarter for artificial surf. Stab High, The Nines, a public meltdown in Bristol, renewed interest in Yeppoon’s hydraulic plunger, and a Curren Caples shoe-launch rave somewhere in the Palm Springs dust where, according to loose-lipped sources, Harry Bryant danced alone, barefoot, for nearly 48 hours straight.

Wavepools, once novelty, are now cultural fixtures. Scoff if you must, but the Luddites are always charming until they’re obsolete.

The Vaughan name is by now welded to the tubs. Hughie won Stab High Japan, then, a few weeks later at The Nines, stuck what may be the best air ever done in captivity.

Who can stand, or better yet, fly with him? Aside from Meola, it might take a Vaughan to beat a Vaughan — big brother Joel, specifically.

With the Brazil comp done and dead, Jack Robbo, Seth Moniz, and Joel found themselves with time to burn. They burned it at São Paulo’s new PerfectSwell tub, home of the OG McFly air section. 

The whole edit is cinematically chopped together by Marcos Feijó, who makes the pool feel like a mystical pond in a botanical garden.

As pool edits go, this one’s worth your increasingly eroded attention span.