It felt like Kauli Vaast took competition tube riding in a whole new direction in round one of the Tahiti Pro. The local wildcard had already put Ethan Ewing and Barron Mamiya in the rear view mirror when he literally switched things up.
Paddling in deep, the goofy-footer elected to take-off in a natural-foot stance and grab the rail as he side-slipped down the face. However, as soon as he realised the barrel was going to race away he instinctively – and seamlessly – switched back to his preferred goofy stance so that he could pump through the tube and generate speed. The ride inspired an excitable response from Pete Mel, who let the world know that Kauli is capable of pulling this kind of thing in much heavier conditions.
Kauli is not the first surfer to ride switch barrels in a heat; both Kelly Slater and Simon Law have toyed with similar hijinks in the past, and it’s a regular feature of Jamie O’Brien’s freesurfs. However, Vaast makes it look incredibly effective. Today we saw he doesn’t just call on the switch as a crowd-pleasing party trick, instead it’s a functional skill that’s designed to let him ride deeper in the barrel and more effectively manage his speed.
On his round one wave, the decision to drop in natural – almost but dragging – let him fade, slow down and sit deeper in the pit. He might have stayed in a natural stance had the wave not sprinted down the line. Vaast’s versatility then allowed him to nimbly switch to a goofy stance, which more readily facilitated the pump and trim motion, which ensured he made the tube. It’s crucial to reiterate that both choices on the wave were functional rather than affectatious, showboat tactics.
Although the ride didn’t drop into Kauli’s top two, it does raise questions for the judges. Does a functional switch-foot tube ride add a ‘degree of difficulty’ or represent ‘variety’, two factors clearly stated in the WSL criteria? Or should it simply be a case of how deep you ride and the variation in stance makes no difference? Either way there is no doubting that Kauli is one of the best switch-foot exponents in surfing and we hope to see a little more of his ambidextrous magic later in the event.
