Does Polished California Logging And Classic Brooklyn Hip Hop Make Sense?

When Devon Howard sent over this clip, shot around San Diego and Orange Counties this last month, about three beats into the clip the office collectively asked, “Is that Mos fucking Def?”

Hip hop and longboarding might not be the most intuitive pairing, but damn if it doesn’t work. 

Anyone with an interest in logging will have Devon Howard on their list of most underrated surfers, his understated surfing representing the opposite side of the log spectrum from, say, Alex Knost’s jive turkey act. Devon’s surfing is the pinnacle of practiced, polished fundamentals—a smooth, swooping cutback, smooth footwork, and precise noseriding. Well-seasoned meat and potatoes surfing. 

According to Ryan Cannon over at Log Rap—who cut this clip, to Mos Def’s “Auditorium”—Devon is “riding a single-fin, 9’9” traditional “Involvement” style longboard shaped by Australia’s Thomas Bexon. This board is similar to what Aussie surfers were riding for a very brief time (matter of months) in Noosa Heads during 1966 before they abandoned this design and these type of lines for shorter boards and a tighter turning radius. Known as Involvement surfing, pioneered by Nat Young, Bob McTavish and a few others with design influences from George Greenough, Devon Howard and a few other modern day longboarders have been revisiting this niche form of traditional surfing. This edit was from two afternoon sessions amidst the epic run of clean, fun size waves in SoCal during mid December, 2017.”