Here’s a little number that’s sure to be divisive. During a recent trip to BSR Surf Resort in Waco, Texas, three-time Longboard Tour world champion Taylor Jensen took to emulating his shortboard-riding peers by launching himself and his nine-foot-plus performance log into the stratosphere on BSR’s now-infamous air section.
To be clear, this ain’t the first time we’ve seen a longboarder punt. So, why divisive you ask? Well, the move underscores an ongoing debate in the longboarding community that’s apparently getting pretty heated – one in which some would see Jensen’s frontside air as progressive and others would see it as a complete misinterpretation of the aesthetic longboarding is supposed to exude.
Not to get too deep into it, but those camps have become even more polarized of late with the World Surf League’s adaptation of its judging criteria and bringing Devon Howard into the fold – moves that illustrate the League now favors a more “traditional” longboard style versus a performance one. And for proof of that divide boiling over, look no further than France’s Edouard Delpero giving the judges the bird at the Longboard Tour’s event in Spain earlier this year.
So, what do you think about longboarding’s current crossroads? Discuss.