As part of a SURFER magazine survey a few years back, I was asked to rank, in order, the 10 greatest surfers of all time. I put George Greenough on top, even though I suppose what I wanted to say is that Greenough is the most influential, or the most progressive. Something more specific. "Greatest" is too squishy; it can be pulled in many directions.

I've been watching video of Greenough all morning, mostly shot in 1967. Fifty years later, the footage is still amazing. The laid-over bottom turns. All that spray firehosing off the rails of his weird little see-through kneeboard. How humbling it must have been to ride in the conventional stand-up mode when Greenough was in the water. Nat Young, a brute in many ways, was nonetheless always good about giving credit where it's due, and he called Greenough the best surfer in the world. Who would argue?

If you believe the shortboard revolution was the biggest thing to ever happen to high-performance surfing—I don't think anything else is even in contention, personally—then watch the two clips here (keeping in mind what was going on elsewhere in the sport in 1967) and see if you don't also think the entire movement can be neatly balanced atop Greenough's matted-straw head. Draw a line from Greenough, who had no surfing antecedents whatsoever, to Bob McTavish and Nat Young, and from there it's a long but perfectly straight shot to John John Florence. Greenough invented surfing as we know it.

Am I overstating the case? Oversimplifying, maybe, a little. Not by much.

Oh yeah. SURFER put Greenough at #19 on their "greatest" list. A travesty.

THESE LISTS ARE SILLY, BUT PLAY ALONG: WHERE WOULD YOU PUT GEORGE GREENOUGH?

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