Barefoot Revolution

The shortboard revolution rewrote surfing's performance handbook. The drop-knee cutback, an elegant weight-leveraging move where the surfer bent and lowered his rear leg like a proposing suitor—gone. Parallel-stance trim, gone. Noseriding continued for a year or so, just out of habit, but the shortboard’s thin front end didn’t offer much of a platform, and any noseriding was followed by a quick retreat as the board began pearling. Surfers were inching their way toward the tube, but hadn’t yet...