How Do Pro Skaters Fair In 15-Foot Indo Surf?

Shane Borland is nothing if not committed. The rare pro surfer-skater hybrid from California is at the tail end of a marathon five month stint in Indonesia (not including a month in Australia) where he’s been hard at work refining his craft in both disciplines. It paid off big time in late October when he took out the inaugural skate-surf fusion contest, the Keris Cup, in Bali, in front of a judging panel comprised of his surfing and skating heroes, and a field that included multiple Olympic skating medalists (Keegan Palmer, Sky Brown) and pro surfers Jacob Szekely and Cam Richards, among others.

We caught up with Shane to talk about the past, present and future of skating and surfing, how he managed to combine both into a career, and what the best skaters in the world did when confronted with 15 foot plus Outside Corner steaming towards them.

SURFER: Tell us about the Keris Cup Format.

SHANE BORLAND: It was a good event. It’s the first of its kind so I think everyone was still kind of figuring out how it could work. But the format was: there was maybe 20 of us and six filmers or something. So it started on the 12th and it was almost a week long event.

We would pretty much all go surf but if you wanted you could just take a filmer and go surf wherever and try get your best surf clips for two days. I missed the first day because of Stab High but there was pretty much two days of surf filming and then the third day the swell was pumping. We surfed and filmed all day and then there was a skate event the last night.

So it was just judged on your surf clips and then the skate jam that we had. And they judged the overall impression, like who was surfing and skating the best. I don’t know how exactly but it was cool. There was a pretty legendary lineup of judges; Nathan Fletcher, Christian Fletcher, Omar Hassan, Christian Hosoi.

What is with the judging panels being like more GOAT’d than the actual competitions that are going on? It’s insane. Christian and Nate Fletcher in the same room? I didn’t know that was still possible.

I know, it’s pretty crazy. I think that’s what gets the riders there. When you invite someone to a contest and you’re like, the Fletchers and Christian Hosoi are judging, everyone’s like, ‘That’s pretty legit, I probably want to be a part of that.’ It definitely helps.

And then one of the biggest swells of the year hits right in the middle of the Keris Cup. How cosmic and epic was it to see the Indian Ocean stacking up like that?

Yeah, f–k we got pretty lucky. The first two days were pretty average, just surfing Nyang Nyangs, and it was fun. And then that swell came, and it was probably the biggest I’ve seen Ulus. I wouldn’t be there if there was a swell typically, but it was my first time surfing Padang Padang, and it was absolutely cooking. I think they’re saying it was the best session of the year out there.

And then we had a session right before the skate jam out at Outside Corner and it was fucking bombing. It was pretty sick. And it was sick to see some of the skaters out there and everyone kind of sending it. It was mental. Like the session out Padang Padang in the morning was literally all the skaters; Nathan and Christian Fletcher, Omar Hassan was out there, Keegan Palmer, Sky Brown, the Olympic medalists from skating were getting tubed. It was pretty sick.

I saw Keegan make a pretty sick pit out there and Nate Fletcher got a couple of mental ones. That snap to pit – got the line so perfect and got as drained as you can get out there.

He’s the f–king best. Like even we had some sessions at temples like after the contest and he was shredding so fucking hard. He’s the best. Christian Fletcher got so barreled at Padang on – I think he was running like f–king almost 40 liters on his board or something. He was riding this huge kind of regular shortboard but just f–king so beefed up and wide and he just stood in some pits. It was so sick

Talk to us about the Outside Corner session. Which of the skaters got out there? The paddle out on those big days is psycho. It looked like it was 15 foot out there.

Yeah, it was pretty hectic. It was my first time surfing out there too. Zeke was kind of firing it up to get everyone out there. And I think (pro skaters) Alex Sorgente and Alex Midler were the two skaters out of the bunch that paddled out, and they both went on bombs. Midler packed a bomb, like got fully drained. And Sorge ate shit on a drop, broke his leash and came in at the cave and everyone was like looking for him. His girlfriend was like freaking out on the cliff. No one knew where he was. And I was like, ‘He’s fine, he’s fine.’ And sure enough he walked up like 30 minutes later. But yeah, I wasn’t even gonna go out just because I had already like gotten surf clips and I was so cooked from the last couple of days, and I knew I was gonna have to do the skate jam in an hour. And I was like, fuck, am I just chilling? And then everyone kind of went out and it was so just perfect and pretty.

I didn’t have any big boards and I borrowed a 6’2 from Ulu Surf Villa’s boardroom. It was the Fletcher (Chouinard) guy that does stuff for Patagonia. He shaped it and it had some beef to it. All I had was a chippy 6’0 so I was like, I guess I’ll give this a go. But yeah, it was pretty hectic.

I paddled out with Alex Sorgente after everyone had paddled out and I think everyone got somewhat lucky on the paddle out, and me and Alex paddled out and I barely escaped through Temples and he got a fucking square one on the head but then still somehow managed to get out there and he got a few. That one wave I got was my first wave. I sat out there for five minutes, not even 10 minutes, and a set came and the first one a guy went. All the guys were on 9’0s, wearing (impact) vests and we all paddled out on short boards and Cam Richards paddled out too and Koldo, who was in the event and, yeah, I got lucky and just first wave this guy on a 9’0 didn’t catch it, and I just whipped it under him and packed it and got real smoked, but somehow got paddled back out and then just went to Secrets and went in and just called it a session because I knew I had to skate pretty soon. So I didn’t want to blow myself out more than I already was.

Wow, that’s so crazy. Surfing Padang, then outside corner, scratching through sets, packing one, doing a big loop back to Secrets, then coming in and skating straight away!

Yeah, it was a big day. I mean, it was a big couple days because every day we were surfing at least like twice a day and then we would skate just to kind of like session and practice and skating is not easy in Bali, let me tell you. Fucking like skating in a sauna. So fucked. It takes it out of you.

And there’s probably a few beers afterwards.

Definitely more than a few beers afterwards.

I don’t know how you did that, man. That is so impressive. A truly elite endurance athlete.

The craziest thing was the day after the contest we had the Ulu Surf Villas boat set up to go to deserts because it was gonna be cooking and a handful of us were planning on going. We had to leave at six or something and I had a pretty big night, woke up at like six and all the boys were getting their shit together to go and I was like, ‘Fuck I can’t make it boys, which normally I can pull through but even during the skate session I started getting the chills. I was so weathered and sweating so much. And then instead of resting and hydrating after that, I just got on the beers and we all kind of celebrated. I woke up at six in the morning not really feeling too ready to go to Deserts, but Zeke and Alex Sorgente, Alex Midler and Keegan Palmer all went to Deserts on a boat and Keegan got smoked the night before. We all had a pretty big one. Think he woke up and just had to get straight on the boat and he was like throwing up in between waves at Deserts and could only surf for a bit and then he couldn’t even do it and was just on the beach throwing up all day. I thought, ‘Wow,’ but it was worth it. They all got barrelled so it was worth it for them. I was stoked. They sent it. I didn’t have it in me but yeah, it was sick they sent it. Respect to them.

Epic f–king send. That is out of control. That’s one of the best I’ve heard. And man, skating is a big part of what you do. Talk us through your history there.

I started as a skater. I was sponsored originally all for skating at a pretty young age. And then when I was eight I got sponsored by Volcom and Powell-Peralta and some other brands for skating.

I was on Volcom for a while until I was like 12. I always surfed. I grew up with a dad and brother that surf. My brother was a pro long border, so I grew up around surfing but I just always gravitated more to skating. I was doing contests at a young age and going on trips since I was ten going like in the van on skate trips.

I got a contract and was getting like a little bit of money when I was like ten. And then I started surfing a lot and kind of met the surfers at Volcom like Dave Post and Jack Morrissey and some other friends that surf for them. They wanted me to ride for Volcom for surfing and skating. But then I think the skaters weren’t too keen on me surfing a bunch. They were worried it was going to take away from my skating, which I guess it would. So Volcom let me go when I was like 12, kind of because of surfing almost, taking away from my skating. And then I got picked up pretty recently after that with RVCA and they were stoked that I did both. Since then it’s of always been just keep doing both I mean, it’s just always what I knew, it’s always what I did. Even when I started skating, I probably got my first wave when I was like three and was riding a skateboard when I was three you know, but kind of went more towards skating and then surfing was always there. And then at a really young age I was doing contests, I had sponsors and skating was a bit of pressure for a young kid. And surfing was always less pressure, like the other thing I could do. And I was always hyped on that and then just kept into surfing. And then it’s always been just a balance since then, kind of trying to do both. It’s a good challenge, it’s fun. When the waves are flat, I’ll skate. When there’s waves, I’m not gonna go skate, probably.

They fully compliment each other when you think about it, but it’s just been the case that not many people have been able to combine the two. There’s been so many crossover surfers and skaters going right back to the beginning of both sports with Dogtown Z Boys and that whole crew. Nowadays with Curren Caples, the late Kalani David, Keegan Palmer, Mila Coco Brown – there are plenty of names who max out both categories. But yeah, congratulations on being really the only one who’s managed to combine the two into a career.

Thank you. I mean I wouldn’t say I’m the only one but yeah, appreciate it. It’s not easy for sure. I mean like Sky Brown honestly is insane. She’s probably the only one competing at the same level for skating and surfing and rips pretty damn equally, you know, I mean, there’s probably girls that surf and skate but she’s the only one that’s really doing it. So mad respect to her and

Guys like Kalani and Curren, it’s like, they have the ability to do both. It’s almost a choice, you know. It’s pretty hard to, it just depends how you want to do it. Like Curren has the ability to be a pro surfer if he wanted, but it’s going to take time from the skating. So it’s hard to balance the two, but they definitely compliment each other and that’s how I’ve always grown up. Both my parents are from Venice, so I grew up like literally watching the Dogtown documentary religiously when I was six and seven. So it’s engraved in me and I just try to keep doing both.

That’s amazing. You’re right in the lineage of Dogtown, you’re the descendant of that tree, and you find that flag well, brother. Well done. What do reckon the judges were digging about your performance in the Keris Cup?

I dunno. Everyone was ripping so hard. You got like Pedro Barros and Keegan who are obviously fucking up the bowl and they can shred too and then Zeke too who’s like more of a surfer, but he can skate the bowl too. I mean fuck it was probably pretty close. I guess it would be digging how equally I was able to you surf with the surfers and then have a session with the skaters too and be on par on both instead of being really good at one and maybe not as good at the other. It was cool the way they judged it cause I feel like it would be hard if you were judging a leader board of surf and then of skate. The skate contest, we weren’t doing lines and or whoever did the best run. They just let us shred for an hour or two and all the judges were watching and seeing what’s going down and then same with the surf. They watched the clips, but they’re also surfing with us so they were part of everything. So I It would have been a bit of feeling and what they were seeing. But fuck, everyone was shredding so hard. It. was pretty sick to see. I think it’s the first of many. I think the event went really well and everyone had such a good time and was shredding so hard and people were probably exceeding expectations and it was pretty sick to see the best skaters surf actually good waves, you know? And I feel like that’s why all the skaters were so hyped just to be there and surf and get good waves because they all shred and but they don’t always get the chance to go to somewhere and score waves. Like Keegan Palmer was probably more frothing than anyone to get good waves and he could he could care less about skating, you know, that’s just a a given to him. Obviously he could shred the bowl, you know, he didn’t have to worry about that. He was just focused on getting barrelled and he was so hyped when he got one at Padang Padang. So that was sick to see.

So classic, and it gives us a few of highlight moves or combos from the skating.

It was cool not having to do a run, you know, we were all just session’ing, so there were a lot of tricks going down. I was hyped to like nose grind through the corner of the deep end and some other stuff. But honestly, there was so much shit going on.

It felt like there was so much more I could have done, tricks and stuff that I just was blanking on but yeah, that bowl’s so fun. It’s just a good bowl for everything. So like good airs, lip tricks, the coping’s so good in the deep end so I love the corners. I did a lot of back tails through the corner, nose runs through the corner, couple Madonnas, a bit of everything, but it was a good session. Fucking Pedro’s back tail he did up on the top railing from the deep end was fucked up and Kieran Woolley’s backside boneless he did on the tree was fucking insane. Like so much shit went down. It was pretty sick to see all these skaters that were so fired up to do crazy shit after surfing all day.

And it helped that there was a pretty crazy crowd hyping everyone up too. It was a packed house, which I feel like, especially a guy like Pedro thrives off that. So it was sick to see him just on fire. He was doing all sorts, I mean, he always goes bigger than anyone, and he started the session off with – he boneless’d in from the top where the band was playing, like boneless’d into the deep end, which is so fucked up.

It got everyone fired up. It was a good session. I feel like also just having the judges, like we were saying, are such legends, it kind of fires up everyone to skate, knowing they’re watching, and just to fire them up.

Events like this and Stab High have brought skating and surfing closer than ever. Looking ahead into the future what’s your plan and how do you see this kind of relationship between skating and surfing progressing?

I’ve always found it to compliment each other and they should be together because I mean, it’s pretty rare you meet a surfer that’s never skated or a skater that’s never surfed. Maybe you’ll meet more skaters that haven’t surfed depending on where they live. Seeing the Keris Cup bring all those people together, it’s like it just brings the best out of everyone and I think they should be together, you know? It’s sick how Stab High included skaters, you know, at all the events. And I feel like there should be more events like this. And I feel like this event, you know, happened and it was like after it happened, everyone saw it and like was pretty hyped on it. And so I think next year could be even crazier, have more people involved. I feel like there’s so many people that could do both that should be a part of it. Hopefully just more stuff like that in the future. I feel like it only helps.

I have pro skater friends that are just so hyped on surfing and so hyped on certain surfers. Same thing with surfers. They watch more skating than surfing or they have homies that are pro skaters and they get more fired up on watching a skate event. So it’s sick when Stab High brings Keegan Palmer and Greyson Fletcher and all the surfers are hyped to hang with them. It gives it a different atmosphere, it’s not like we’re all just like surfers or all skaters. We’re all pretty similar and what we do is similar and it’s cool to see them blended together. It only helps things in both ways so I think it’s pretty rad.

Sick man. Thanks so much for your time.

Yeah, cheers brother, good to have a chat.