As part of my ‘job’ we have to ask all sorts of questions to many people so when one gets asked back at us and we don’t have the answer it is a little disarming.
The question that I struggled with so much was “So who in the world do you most like watching to surf?” Pretty straight forward, right? Well no, as it turns out I am conflicted…
If you had asked me that question a year ago I would have said Kelly or maybe Gabby or even John John. No surprises there then. But something happened in the last year and it was scratching at the back of my head. It was called the Rip Curl Padang Cup and within that comp was one of the most amazing performances that I have ever seen, by a surfer we all know and love. A surfer that just does.
A surfer that oozes stoke. A surfer that has amazing pedigree. A surfer that at the time of writing this sits at 158th in the WQS! To whom am I referring? Well watch this.
Thats right, Mr Ho Jnr is my favourite surfer, not just because of the ridiculous talent he has, the seemingly zero respect for the laws of physics, or his wellbeing, but because Mason’s stoke has no expiration date.
I do have a question of my own though. Why is he sitting at 158th on the WQS?
We have seen him get a sponsor wildcard into the two Rip Curl events in the year and he even did pretty well at Bells last year. He has proven time and time again that he can beat the best and while we understand that everyone has to pay their dues to get on the big tour, you have to ask the question. Would doing the QS beachbreak tour to qualify suck the stoke out of Mason? Would he become just another one in the crowd?
Lets not get bogged down in all that but instead be entertained by (in my opinion) the world’s most gifted surfer. Just maybe not the most motivated to win.