Watch: Kelly Slater Rides An EAST Finalist In The South Pacific

“Do you consider yourself the best shaper in the world,” asked Danny Johnson, while interviewing finalist Greg Webber for our recent EAST with Harry Bryant.

“Yep,” said Greg, without a breath of hesitation. “I know I am, which is not an ego thing.”

“I think probably my best example of it is another shaper who actually taught me early on, Rod Dahlberg,” continued Greg. “Once he showed me his board and I’m looking at it going, ‘Oh, beautiful’ and being complimentary in the normal way, he’s a great mate. And then I stopped and saw a couple of little things, but it’s so tiny. I mean, the guy’s a craftsman, there’s no question. Then he said, ‘Now tell me what you can see that you know I can’t see.’ Or words to that effect. I went, ‘No, no, no.’ And he goes, ‘No, I’m serious.’ He knew that I could see things that he can’t see. What an amazing bit of honesty.”

You can watch the whole Finale, featuring Greg’s board, here.

In it, he goes on to explain that Kelly has said ‘otherworldly’ things about his boards. Which is a nice segue into a COTM contender from black belt Disqusser Celine Dion who wrote ‘Greg Webber is the Kanye West of surfboard shaping’. 15 upvotes at present.

Above, master lensman Dan Scott delivers us an audiovisual portrait of the 11x World Champ riding a Greg Webber shape (among other boards) at the reef around Tavarua Island.

FWIW, the banana-rockered model Harry was riding in EAST isn’t the same one being ridden here in Fiji by Slater. Dan Scott explained Slater was mostly riding an Electra (Webber), “about 5’9” and 17 inches wide, while the rest of the pack were on six-footers plus. I texted him the footage yesterday and he wrote back and said, ‘that board looks terrible.’ Which is a pretty funny indication of the standards he holds himself to. If anyone else put together a few waves like that, they would be stoked.”

There could also be a few clips on Mind Crafts (TOMO) sprinkled in there too.

Also funny is that it was meant to be a content trip for Slater Designs and Outerknown, and Kelly spent most of the time riding a board with no affiliation to his own surfboard brand. Sam McIntosh clearly isn’t the only person who’s had his head kicked in trying to get Slater to do something with limited levers. He won’t even promote his own board brand.

Kelly does as Kelly wishes.

At the end, Kelly offers some simple, clerical insights into what it means to maximize the potential of a wave.

“Well, the problem is, I think a lot of high scoring rides are because the wave is good, and not because the surfing is proper,” he says. “I think you see that a lot. You catch the best wave you almost always win, but most people don’t use a good wave to it’s fullest potential. I think there’s only a few guys that have ever really changed that. Like Taj, Dane, John, Medina, Filipe. Like half a dozen guys who haven’t needed to catch the best waves.”

A typically compelling GOATism.

And, as always, Dan’s music choice is impeccable.

See you on the other side.