Josh's Winning Slob!

Call us anal-retentive as much as you like, but when d'you think the surfing media will start calling things what they really are? Sure, everyone makes mistakes, us included, but there comes a time when incorrect labelling should cease. How fierce do you surmise the backlash'd be if a cutback was labelled a floater? Or a tube-ride captioned as a re-entry? Very fierce, wethinks.

If you are surfing a wave on your frontside, and you launch a frontside aerial, grabbing your toe-side rail with your leading arm (left arm for regulars, right arm for goofys), then you are performing a slob grab. Same grab on your backside? That's called a mute. There is a distinct difference. Backside and frontside. Different. The grab that Josh Kerr gripped through his winning frontside air-reverse in the final of the Boost SurfSho last weekend? Toe-side rail, grabbed with left arm – a slob.

So why are we raising this point? Because not one media website, blog or publication, surfing or otherwise, has called Josh Kerr's winning manoeuvre what it actually was.

ASP – "Kerr surfed strongly in the final, with three strong waves. He won the event with a forehand mute grab air reverse that scored him a 9.0 (out of a possible 10) from the judges who said it was beautifully executed with great rotation."

Australia's Surfing Life – "Reining world junior champ Jack Freestone was close to taking out the event until Kerrzy earned the highest score of the final for huge mute-grab air-reverse."

Transworld Surf (quoting ASP press release) – "Kerr surfed strongly in the final, with three strong waves. He won the event with a forehand mute grab air reverse that scored him a 9.0 (out of a possible 10) from the judges who said it was beautifully executed with great rotation."

Surfline – Kerrzy won the event with a forehand mute grab air reverse that scored him a 9.0 from the judges who said it was beautifully executed with great rotation.

Coastalwatch – Josh Kerr laid on a show for the thousands of spectators lining Bondi Beach yesterday for the final of the Boost Mobile Surfsho, scoring a 9.0 for a forehand mute-grab reverse to claim victory and the $25,000 winner’s cheque.



The "Forehand mute-grab" does not exist. The term is an oxymoron.

source: stabmag