Surely you know of Devon Howard by now.
Introduced to the world via Thomas Campbell’s classics Seedling and Sprout, the San Diegan has gone on to become WSL longboard tour director in later life and one of the world’s foremost mid-length aficionados, earning himself the unofficial accolade of Instagram’s second most appreciated 40 something surfer, after the GOAT of course.
His new clip sees him doing what he does best; flowing on long reeling right-hand points around his home in California.
Here’s what he had to say about the boards he’s riding in the clip:
“After a few decades of goofing off in the surf, I’ve whittled down what I ride most into two distinct camps—both of which are an obvious extension of the waves, culture and characters where I’ve lived all these years. For the cruisey, under shoulder high days (which there are many), I find classic style single-fin longboards (9’9 to 10’) with a ’66 Australian bent are hard to beat. When conditions finally push shoulder high on up to double overhead, my plan shapes dip down a few feet to a range of mostly egg-inspired outlines (6’10 – 7’2”), and the rails, bottom contours and fin set-ups take on a much more revved up form.
I dig how these two design groupings allow an easy transition from one to the next (thank you low rocker and generous volume), but offer discernible shifts in speed, accessibility to different parts of the wave, and maximize the available space on the face. This film short by Florida’s Drew Miller captures the back and forth pacing between long and mid sized equipment, the decisions for which are primarily driven by equal parts attitude and surf conditions.
There is absolutely nothing new here in terms of a “horses for courses” approach (thank you Nat Young, Skip Frye, etc), but although well into my mid 40s, I’m still passionate about learning what works, what doesn’t, then plugging that back into the never ending design loop. The stoke for staying on the surf prowl explains why the boards and the ride itself just keeps getting better.”
