What’s The Secret To Taro Watanabe’s Layback?

Each May, as the South Pacific slaps its alarm clock and stumbles into work, footage of San Onofre’s mechanical cobblestone headland begins infiltrating every corner of our digital periphery.  

Instagram rip clips, soft-top takeovers, e-bike mania, and, of course, raw footage of Lower Trestles fills ridiculous amounts of space on our timelines.

By October, the Lowers fatigue is real.

Wisely, Taro Watanabe has decided to wait until January to drop a single session Lowers clip from this past summer — which you can watch above. 

It’s the first footage we’ve seen of the Southern Californian training ground in some time, and Taro’s refreshing approach does wonders for the attention span.

“His surfing truly is a thing of beauty,” says Brett Simpson. “I love how he’s able to delay his bottom turn growing up in LA on the righthand pointbreaks. Taro has very subtle body movements, and everything is super connected. Not many people’s bodies can do what he does. 

“Those frontside tail wafts have a lot to do with his leverage. He gets in the coil up, but he’s able to keep his spine very upright. He’s got great hip flexibility so that allows him to remain over the board and upright even though he’s corking his legs from underneath. A lot of times people tend to lay back, but Taro is able to stay centered through all of those turns.”

That tint on his board, by the way? Taro’s riding a Pyzel with a blank from Polyola, which featured about 66% recycled materials.

For those of you who thought the fin-drifting insanity Taro puts on display in his longer form freesurf edits was simply a product of months spent filming, allow the above single session to remind you that he surfs this good, all the time.