Mike Stewart's EOS page just posted, and to mark the occasion I will now attempt to triangulate Stewart's woefully under-appreciated contribution to the sport using Kelly Slater and George Greenough. Nobody else will do. On the thousand-plus-year parchment scroll of surf history, this is the kind of lofty company Mike Stewart keeps.

Time and again, while making the clip you see above (filmed mostly in the '80s), my Slater ganglia were set a-tingle. The two have a similar flow and cadence, and a near-identical level of confidence. Both, of course, are competitive to the core—a superpower that occasionally doubles as an albatross necklace. Both are as loose and bendable as they are strong. They create on the fly—my favorite wave in the clip above begins at 00:43, where Stewart punches a midface cutback, Ollie-hops into the pocket, then does an extended 

 on the foam ball. Slater is on record somewhere saying that Stewart was one of his original tube-riding inspirations, which makes total sense. That freaky high-line tube Slater threaded in the semis against John Florence at Teahupoo a few months ago? The perfect 10? Stewart had that line figured out when Slater was still on Team Op.

Here is my list, in order, of the five most advanced wave-riders of all time: 1) George Greenough, 2) Mike Stewart, 3) Wayne Lynch, 4) Shaun Tomson, 5) Kelly Slater. 

The dividing line here, obviously, is equipment. Lynch, Tomson and Slater all proved that you can put some daylight between yourself and the rest of the world's best while riding more or less standard equipment. But to really break free—to not merely sail away from the known shore but to disappear right over the horizon line—requires a break with equipment orthodoxy. For both Greenough and Stewart, that meant short, blunt, and flexible. On his spoon kneeboard, Greenough invented the banked-pocket turn, the figure-eight cutback, the air-drop. Actually, let's just say he invented shortboard surfing. On his Mach 7 bodyboard, Stewart completely revised and updated the Book of Tuberiding. He didn't create the aerial, but up to that point the move was compelling in the way kids throwing glass bottles off a balcony is compelling. Stewart is the person who converted the aerial from a fun junk move, like the Quaisimoto, and folded it into his endlessly-progressive repertoire where it could be grown and developed—by people like Kelly Slater.   

I made my list, above, after recently coming across SURFER magazine's 2009 "50 Greatest Surfers of All Time" article. George Greenough at #19? A slap in the face. 

 A slap in the face, followed by a Muay Thai spin-kick to the nuts.

I bow down to the greater wisdom of Nat Young, who bowed down to George Greenough. I bow down to the greater wisdom of Kelly Slater, who bowed down to Mike Stewart.

Better minds than my own have thought these matters over.

I WILL BOW DOWN TO MIKE STEWART UNTIL I AM FULLY PRONE

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