After watching the comp in Newy last week and then this cool little clip right after, it was hard not to see the stark comparisons that exist in surfing today.

Nothing negative on either front, just a fifty mile wide gap in what is being called progressive surfing these days.

In the comp world obviously Italo, Gabs, Pip, and the ‘storm have their thing on lock. The Aussie battlers are always going to be there in some form, and, of course, we get a mix of the “Internationals” like Jordy, Michel, Jeremy, and others keeping it spicy. All the while the boys from the good ‘ol USA seem perpetually lost somewhere between I really don’t care and how long can we milk the GOAT?

Not even sure where Kanoa even identifies with these days.

Which begs, is there actual geo-socio-political reasoning as to why surfers from the various global regions seem to approach surfing in such vastly different manners and the obviously mixed results?

Take Micky and the Chapter 11 crew that Dane has loosely assembled. Ripping at the highest levels but not a comp bone in their collective bodies. Head south a few hours and the San Clemente crew are all about it with Kolohe, Griff, Crosby, and even Ian, to some degree, chasing scores. While the Coffin bros from SB split the peak and search for their path.

And that’s just Southern California.

Hawaii, East Coast, Nor Cal, we’re all over the freaking map

But of course, we’ve always backed the non-competitive route as a preference and we will take a Clay Marzo free surf clip over a beach break jersey grovel any day even when it does include one of the Brazilians launching their ridiculously progressive air wafts.

Which bring us back to why guys like Micky, who is ironically very logo-light in this one, will alway grab our attention.

Thanks for putting these together Dane.

Enjoy.

What Youth

We didn’t catch a filmer/edit credit so we’ll assume Hunter and/or Mini behind the lens and at the table.