A Goofyfoot’s Guide To Better Surfing

Every time I’ve met Luke Swanson we’ve been in a different country. 

“Ah, another place I’ve met you,” he delivered matter-of-factly whilst bobbing out The Box in West Oz earlier this year, after two previous encounters in Lakey Peak and Hawaii.

I appreciated his deadpan delivery, for it reminded me of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot — a text set in a post-apocalyptic world in which two bedraggled acquaintances, Vladimir and Estragon, meet by a leafless tree and wait for the arrival of the mysterious Godot, who continually sends word that he will appear but never does. 

As such, the pair, with an undercurrent of existential dread, begin to fill the air with dialogue that asymptotically (always approaching but never reaching) broaches meaning i.e. “Let’s go.” “We can’t.” “Why not?” “We’re waiting for Godot.” 

‘Perhaps Luke is a Godot fan too,’ or so I would like to think. 

Having far more illuminating discussions were he and Parker Coffin — two surf nerds of the highest order — who went on this Monster Energy trip to Indo where they exchanged in trade secrets…

“We’ve known each other for years and we have this perfect synergy of alignment where we go way deep into these ideas and experiences as a surfer,” explains Luke. “He has one of the most analytical minds to pick in terms of technique and mechanics. It’s just been a full on surf camp for me.”

Parker is a student of Wave Ki and has helped launch two of Channel Islands’s best-selling models, the SITD-winning CI Pro and the Fish Beard — you can learn more about his interest in board design here. Luke Swanson is a Stab High veteran and freakishly talented 19-year-old who many claimed to have stomped the best air ever…

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Stab Magazine (@stab)