Most people don’t often equate graceful longboarding skills with intense tube-riding skills but, then again, most people are not Tosh Tudor.
In the latest release from Foamballed, Fancy Footwork, Tosh shows that he can work the North Shore on small days, with a longboard, just as good as he can work the big days, with short boards. When it comes to a ride-anything approach, the world’s premier tube hound is as solid as can be.
The eight-minute film opens with stint of magical conditions, where fun-sized waves roll through translucent blue water shimmering under the tropical sun. Tosh puts his trusty Thomas log through the paces on lefts and rights in the kind of conditions that scream log me, please.
Sure, you could try and grovel and hop your way through the two-foot peelers, but , why? Tosh’s surfing looks effortless, poised and balanced from the peak to the beach, as he walks, noserides, and goes switch foot up down the beach at Elukai Beach Park.
The first track is an ambient and meditative groove, perfectly suited to the graceful surfing and tropical vibe. Tosh, being Tosh, still manages to find some shade. Well, more so a shampoo head-dip, but still. He knows how to find the inside of a wave — and the exit — as good as anyone.
Appropriately so, in the interlude between tracks, we see the young Tudor on a rope swing where he’s interviewed by the camera man, “What’s your name?” he asks.
“Tosh Tudor.”
“What do you do?”
“I get barreled b*&%h”, Tosh says as he laughs and jumps off the swing. Then it’s into the second track, “.38 Special” by Rattlesnake Milk, where an upbeat western riff sets the tone for more traditional longboarding with timeless finesse. He’s simply got it in his blood and in his soul.
Given the epic run of south swell this season, there’s no doubt Tosh has been scoring world-class tubes in Indo and beyond. It’d be safe to say that his next release will be another masterclass in high-stakes tube-riding. Whatever it is, we’ll be stoked to see what he does next.
Related: Invite Only: The World’s Best Invitational Surf Contests