Many people, mags, websites, journalists, editors and fans gleefully bought into the idea that Dane Reynolds was the best surfer in the world for a good few years. The reason that they all bought into it was because he was the best surfer in the world, in the Dane Reynolds media output that was made available to the general populace.
Finely edited clips on Marine Layer, crisp and carefully selected photos submitted to photo editors, and the editing processes of many such people thereafter resulting in only the best possible AV media of the kid being disseminated to the world. All this made possible by the fact that he possibly was one of the best free surfers of the period, he didn’t have to be bothered by the constraints of competition, and he surfed hard all day and every day to get those best possible clips. But we all know this.
Somewhere along the line, in 2010 to be precise, I was at the then called Billabong Pro JBay (now known as the JBay Open) and Dane was in a crucial quarter final heat against Taj Burrow, in good three feet and glassy Supers. Granted, three feet glassy Supers is not barrel city and carve central, it’s more long floaters and pumping furiously to make those stretched-out, feathering sections, but without that offshore wind blowing, Supers also starts opening up insane little ramp sections.
The crowd reached capacity for Danes’ heat, as it always did for Kelly, Dane, Jordy and Sean ‘The Nemesis’ Holmes around that time at JBay. Everyone wanted to be witness to some crazy, unheard of air move to flip to power gouge that only Dane could possibly do. Everyone wanted to film it, to shoot it, to write about it, to post it, sell it. Everyone was expecting something, anything…
Did he do something crazy? Oh no. In those decent, running Supers waves he managed a heat total of 3.66 for his two scoring rides, and TB had a free ride, pretty much, into the semis. (Taj was beaten by Bede in the first semi, and Jordy won the event from Adam Melling FYI)
Then the best surfer in the world told the gathered media on the deck at Supers that he ‘can’t really surf waves like that,’ and the he ‘doesn’t really like stabbing at waves to get points.’ Yep, it was all or nothing. His two big air and flip attempts came to naught, but he was only going to make that quarter by huge moves, and was not prepared to opt at any length for the more conservative, judge-friendly approach.
Last year at the Quiky Pro Gold Coast, Dane came up against ‘precision personified’ Mick Fanning* in decent but somewhat inconsistent conditions at Snapper, and although surfing good and tight and on point, seemed a little disinterested and not that hungry, choosing to kick out of waves instead of completing them, and always looking for the innovative turns as opposed to the big scores for complete rides. Mick, on the other hand, dedicated and clinical sportsman and competitor that he is, won through as was expected, leaving many still wondering what Dane Reynolds is all about.
What does all this mean? It means he’s probably going to choke in the earliest rounds of the Quiksilver Pro 2015, and here’s why. A no compromise approach to free surfing in a contest environment explicitly doesn’t work. It has been proven over and over again, mostly by Dane himself that it doesn’t. The only way to make it work is to find that slight compromise, and utilize the high-flying free surf moves along with an innate knowledge that you still need two to the beach, pretty much. Somewhere in between lies the rub.
In 1988 Martin Potter was the most extraordinary free surfer and aerialist in the world, yet he hadn’t figured out how to adapt his skill to heats. When he worked it out the following year, spurred on by Derek Hynd’s ‘Martin Potter World Champ No Chance’ prediction in Surfer Magazine, he became the 1989 world champion with the biggest winning margin ever in the sport. He figured out what Dane needs to figure out.
Things have also gotten a bit harder the last few years for a free surfing prodigy like Reynolds. While Dane has been free surfing and making his clips and perfecting his craziest moves, a few other surfers have come closer to melding their brazen free surfing with competitive surfing, with astounding results. The new best surfer in the world, John John Florence, could be on the cusp of a Potter-like run. When Jordy puts the two approaches together, like he did at the end of last year, he becomes unstoppable. There’s no need to elaborate on Medina here.
The question of whether Dane can figure it out is what most oft comes to mind and is most oft spoken about, but it’s actually kinda moot. The question should probably be, does he want to figure it out?
Does he fuck.
