Best Sections of All-Time: Curren

Patience. Balance. Thoughtful placements. Divine movement. Tom Curren’s style is surfing’s David. And I’m realizing that I don’t think we’ve celebrated him enough.

Most of the young surfers I know devote more time to the Kelly’s and Dane’s and Fanning’s as their style deity — which is all good, I back that — but inside all of them is Curren.

I had a revelation over the weekend watching a local surfer (a great surfer with good style) riding a really long board. The waves were like 6-foot but he was riding an 8-foot plus board. Not only was he stroking past us all, getting himself in impossible places in the lineup, but it kinda worked when he took off…the place he was putting himself on the wave made it work. He wasn’t on a cruiser or a mid-length, it was a pinny gun. And for whatever reason it got me to watching Curren videos that night and I realized I need more Curren curriculem. We all do. It’s getting sloppy out there.

The Supervideo compilation below is just a classic celebration of Tom’s surfing — and features a bunch of eras mashed together and is crucial viewing, but the one to focus on that aided my revelation is Taylor’s Steele’s Curren section in One Step Beyond. It’s Tom in Hawaii riding a long…like really long surfboard and doing it like a bullfighting ballerina. Pure beauty.

I think if Hemingway wrote about surfing, he’d write about Tom Curren in this part.

I’m kinda realizing that as much as I know and appreciate Tom Curren’s style, maybe I’m only scratching the surface. Watch these videos and notice the nuance. The subtle dance he does. It’s really beautiful.—Travis