What Is Mason Ho Riding, Anyway?
It’s halfway into the 2022 Da Hui Backdoor Shootout, with two days of competition already completed and plenty of swell forecast to wrap it off in the following days.
And although Team Florence (John John, Nathan, Ivan, and Eli Olson) is presently in first place in the team rankings, Mason Ho is currently in first place in the individual standings. (If you didn’t see the mid-tube rail grab change-up, it’s definitely worth a look.)
A second aspect of Mason’s performance that distinguishes him from the majority of his opponents isn’t so much his technique as it is what’s beneath his feet. Mason has been known to ride unconventional craft on occasion, and he brought that variety to his heats at this year’s Shootout.
A 7’6″ gun, to be exact, which was inspired by the boards his father (Michael) and uncle (Derek), both of whom used to ride in the late ’80s and early ’90s, has been his main board of choice.
There are a slew of other athletes out there riding double overhead Pipe on boards that are a few inches longer or shorter than six feet. Mason, on the other hand, was always the innovator – or, in this instance, the student of the classics.
Mason received a phone call from Beau Flemister, who wanted to know more about his board of directors pick. Take a look at the talk – as well as some of Mason’s rides from the event so far – in the video below.
What Is Mason Ho Riding, Anyway?
According to Mason, his board is a 7’6″ baby-swallowtail built by Mayhem (Matt Biolos), and he has used the same board in each of his heats thus far. There are two of them; one is a rounded-pin and the other is a straight pin.
My father and uncle Derek used to ride a lot of longboards in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and Matt had a lot of fun building these longer, sort of old school late 1980s/early 1990s guns that we used to make for them. The boards they were riding were the ones I would always admire and wish I could be surfing waves like they were.
When I was growing up, we were into the’smaller boards in larger surf’ craze, so I didn’t get to surf as much as I would have liked. ” Despite the fact that my father constantly encouraged me to ride a larger board out there, it wasn’t exactly what was popular among my peers.
As a way to blend in, I’d only get one session a year on my father’s 7’10” or 8’0″ board, which would turn out to be the greatest session of the year!!
The reason behind this is difficult to explain. There’s something about those kinds of boards.”
It’s almost as if you’re driving a Cadillac or any other high-end luxury vehicle of that kind. On the safety of the tank, you can attack the wave in a completely different manner than you would with a smaller board….
When compared to a smaller board, you don’t have to worry about keeping up with the water. I believe that I can locate the best wave of the day a lot more easily with these large boards than I can with a smaller one.
‘These boards have a unique feel to them, in that they are less responsive to the pump and stall while you’re taking off.’ That feels excellent in the barrel because it’s more of a constant, one-speed approach.
Furthermore, the airbrushes on them are from Mike Hynson’s ‘Brotherhood of Eternal Love’ boards from when he visited Hawaii and hung out with Jimi Hendrix on the island of Maui in the late 1960s and early 1970s,” says the author.
That was the airbrush that was inspired by everything—the purple rails with the orange and yellow and no taping—and it looked like this.
Although, since these boards are really loose, I’ve been holding out for a beautiful day in Haleiwa or Sunset to ride them as well.
My favorite old movies are the ones where the guys are riding longer boards, like when Curren won Haleiwa one year and there’s like 6-feet of board in front of him…
something about how they’re still ripping and carving and blowing the tail out and getting barreled while you can’t even see the nose because they’re that deep…one that’s of my favorite old movies.
This is also a great board since there aren’t too many other men on it. “Perhaps Kalani Chapman [laughs], he’s been on the case for a while now, obviously.”
