Video Vacuum: There's nothing worthwhile out there for us!

Did anybody watch the final of the Reef Haliewa Pro Contest? If you haven't seen it, go to Surfline and check it out. The surf was absolutely firing and the guys in the final (especially the Tahitian Michel Bourez who eventually won the thing) were taking the place apart. Here's another one, ARC; seen it? ARC showcases Taylor Knox. If you want to see what a real, full rail, power turn should look like, go rent this one- it's what progressive stand up paddle surfing should look like.

Speaking about progressive stand up paddle surfing have you seen.... Uh yeah, there is nothing to see- scan the shelves, pull up all the websites it ain't there. There is a tremendous video vacuum in our sport. We've got nothing to show where the current performance bar is set and I don't see anything of interest on the horizon- do you?



To clarify, I'm not talking about clips of psycho guys paddling themselves over the ledge in giant surf, making a couple of turns and kicking out. Crazy yes, but not what I'd call high performance, linked surfing (charging, yes- ripping, no). Along the same lines, I'm not particularly interested in the long board cross over guys. Yes, it's smooth, cool and super fun but that's not the point here. I'm looking for fast, full rail, power carving in good, down the line surf. The kind of surfing that would be classified as solid, classic, radical wave riding with or without a paddle in hand.

I want to see the guy who's pulling full, Curren-style top turns. I want to see someone smooth a wrap-around, no-dip round house so perfectly that his white water rebound is more lip smack than mush bump. How about legit, fully-throated, behind the curtain barrels? Seen any? Not me! And I'm not talking about still photos here, video doesn't lie- show me the whole package, the complete trip.

And a trip is actually what we need. Give me an hour long DVD of some stand up pros taking apart Macaronis in the Mentawais or a group of hotties killing it in mainland Mexico. Shoot, what about Hawaii? Isn't there enough high performance riding going on out there to put something together? Why don't we have professionaly shot, edited and produced footage of our best killing it on the latest hot boards? Give me wide angle shots that show how the turns are linked; I want to see how the hot riders set up the tube. And I want to see if full rail power snaps actually exist on stand up boards.

I want to be inspired. I want to replay segments so many times that I burn a dull spot on the DVD. Where are the video professionals? Give me something mind blowing, a video purpose built to fire me up- isn't it about time?