Don’t Worry, Shane Borland’s Joints Are All Good
photos courtesy of shane borland’s iphone.
If there’s one knock against Shane Borland from those who know him, it’s that he can be hard to surf with.
And it’s only because he’ll just make you look so, so, so bad. Seriously, you know when you see any empty wave and your mind turns the imagination dial up as far as it goes? Drop in, swooping bottom turn, big air, clean reentry, hit, spray everywhere and fins feeling some headwinds and then you pull it all back around before it’s two big pumps, a tuck in to a barrel, another big air to close it out, that sort of thing? That’s how Shane surfs. But, you know, for real. Oh, and he can skate like it too.
He recently dropped a new part for Rage that has a top-rated YouTube comment that just says, “surf parts are back.” We agree, surf parts are back. And so are formal announcements of already long-term relationships with a solid Rage crew, hitting the road, hoping for the best, and keeping the camera rolling, and unequivocal, wall-to-wall, 360-banger surfing. We liked it so much we decided to text him about it:
One, how are the knees? You put them to work in there it seems.
Haha body was definitely smoked after a couple months in Indo but the knees are holding up alright. Crazy how in surfing sometimes the biggest airs can have the softest landings compared to a random small air… not always but that one felt surprisingly chill.
Honestly so true. You always hear about people getting the most fucked up in like only two-three surf. Mental. All filmed around Indo and Aus (a little?) it seems?
Yeah all the surfings in Indo, just some b roll and skating in Aus.
Nice, seems like you’ve put up a bit of a residency in Indo? How long have you been filming for / over there now?
Yeah I just got home last week after a little over six months on the road. I was probably in Indo for like 4 months total but was kinda bouncing around. Started in Japan, went to iIdo for a few months, then went to Aus for a month and then back to Indo. But the filming for the rage vid was pretty much just from two trips.
Damn! Just two trips is kinda hectic. Helps being in Indo I guess hah. Any good stories from the road/boats?
Yeah the whole middle section of the video was from a trip with with the rage crew to this random zone in Indo I had never been and didn’t really know what to expect but we kinda scored for the first 3 days of the trip then stuck around for like a week to wait for the next swell but ended up getting skunked haha. The wave is in the little fishing village with like a few shacks. It was pretty grim living situations. Every morning the local fishermen would come in on their boats with tons of these little sharks that supposedly they sell their fins to china or something. We were staying at this local legends house who’s the only one that surfs around there. And we were just staying on little pads on the floor of his living room. Pretty much all we could find to eat was rice boiled eggs and mie goreng packets. Our shower was the hose outside and our toilet was one of those classic Indo style toilets in the ground. We still had an absolute blast but by the end of the trip everyone kinda started getting sick and the waves never got good so we were out of there.
That is actually beyond hectic. I saw that quick clip of Shaun on some mattress on a concrete floor that looked prison-esque there and I was like what the fuck is going on out there? Now I know.
Yeah, it was pretty classic, definitely one I’ll never forget.
I mean for sure hah. Are you still all on Blake’s (@pandasurfboards) boards throughout everything?
Yeah still riding for Blake, all the clips on the white shortys are pandas but a lot of the vid I’m riding that pink board which was a board Kobe Hughes shaped for himself and brought on a trip we did to kandui I had a few fun sessions on it that trip and Kobe ended up leaving it with me in Bali and I fully fell in love with it and couldn’t get off of it haha
I mean damn it looks like the ultimate Swiss-army knife board for airs, barrels, all of it in all conditions. Aight only two more questions: what are the plans for the winter?
Don’t have too much in the book at the moment, definitely hang around home/california for a month or two and probably do some road trips and just cruise. Maybe hop over to Hawaii or Puerto Rico at some point
Alright last question. If I surf with Rage grip I’ll be able to do airs like you too, yeah?
Hahaha fuck I can’t make any promises but pretty much yeah rage grips are the best grips on the planet and they will help you land airs 100%.