Koa Smith Heads to Waco Surf, Logs Some Serious Air Time
While Koa Smith is best known for his barrel riding prowess (look no further than the 8-barrel ride in Skeleton Bay that put him on the map), he’s also no slouch above the lip. In a recent last-minute strike mission, Smith went to Waco Surf in Texas to practice his aerial maneuvers in chlorinated surf.
The trip to Waco truly was a surprise endeavor, as Smith explained in his latest video, “Pretty wild, so yesterday at 6pm, I get a call from Jay [Alvarez] saying, ‘I got two sessions at Waco tomorrow and Friday morning. If you want to come, you have to let me know right now.’”
Koa was down in San Diego – closer than his usual Hawaiian stomping grounds, but still far enough that finding a last-minute flight to Texas was a frantic rush. He found a flight the next day that got him to the wave pool just in time for the session to begin – only for a storm to roll in and put the whole facility on a lightning hold.
While he waited for the danger to pass, Koa went on to describe exactly what made the venture so exciting. “[This is] the rare opportunity to have the same section over and over again,” he explained. “In surfing, you have a couple tricks in mind and you’re just constantly searching for that section. That section might only come once a month, or even a couple times a year. To be able to get that section repeatedly, over and over, allows you to discover what you can do, your potential, and also apply that creativity. It’s pretty wild.”
The post Koa Smith Heads to Waco Surf, Logs Some Serious Air Time first appeared on The Inertia.
