Josh Kerr won his round 4 heat today riding the "Bi Polar" asymmetrical craft he hand shaped under the guidance of Rusty. This would have to be one of the most obscure shapes anyone has riden in a heat and of all places Teahupoo. Josh jumped to the quarter finals in the event and put on a great showing at Teahupoo. Stab Mag wrote a sweet little article and caught up with Kerrzy after his heat and talked to him about the board. Here are a few highlights from the article:
"In the closing minutes, Kerrzy scratched in to a west bowl, travelling a long way through it (as it grew down the line) before getting shut down: “I didn’t even realise it broke my leash, I felt like I was floating inside my mum’s womb for a second there, then came off and felt like I got slapped by Kaiborg. A straight-up bell-ringer!”
Leaving aside the fact that few tour surfers could offer such unique post-heat commentary, Kerrzy was left wearing a leash with nothing attached. He grabbed his back-up board, which brings us back to the asymmetrical Bi Polar. “My brain was on another planet, even when I asked for this board to ride that I’d shaped, I don’t think I was thinking clearly.” Regardless, dropped into a bomb, draw the perfect line, let go of his rail and was blown out for a 7.87 and a won heat.
“I’m going to try for most events to shape my own board with Rusty (Preisendorfer),” said Josh. “It’s good fun shaping a board with Rusty, creating that surfer/shaper relationship and getting in the bay with him. So hopefully I’ll get to ride (each new board) in the events. Luckily enough I got to ride this one, my first trial one. The little thought in my head was harder rails on the bottom turn, channels, quad… made sense in my head when I shaped it. Then I looked at it when I got given it, like, What was I thinking? But it worked really good, I’ve actually had a couple of really fun surfs on it.”
“I’m auctioning it off for charity,” he says. “This one’s going to FleaHab, Flea Virostko’s charity up in Santa Cruz. He does really good things up there and I’m stoked to help him out. I got to travel with him many years ago when he was on the Rusty team, he’s a good guy.”
Read more from the Stab Mag write up here - http://stabmag.com/josh-kerr-wins-heat-on-self-shaped-asymmetrical-board/
