How Does an 18-Year-Old Ride Jaws Backside?

Originally posted on SURFER | By August Howell | Last updated Aug 6, 2024 3:39 PM ET

Like many of the best Jaws surfers alive, 18-year-old Eric Roberson doesn’t live far from the break. He grew up about a 10-minute drive away and was practically raised on the reef at Ho’okipa.

“Me and my brothers would get dropped off there and surf all day and my parents would come pick us up at the end of the day. So we pretty much grew up at the beach,” Roberson said.

Surfing runs deep in the Roberson camp. His father towed him and two brothers into Jaws for their first sessions there. Roberson’s younger brother, 15-year-old Steve, made headlines for being the youngest person to surf Jaws when he did so at age 10 in 2018.

Roberson followed suit a few years later with his father and got into the lineup at age 14. Four years later, he scored this gem on the Black Friday swell in 2023. A bargain entry into the 2024 SURFER Big Wave Challenge. So how does a young goofyfooter handle flying down those lines with his right foot forward?

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“Surfing at Jaws going backside is definitely not ideal,” Roberson said. “But honestly I kinda would rather be backside because I’m so used to going right because there are barely any lefts on Maui.”

Goofs have ridden some particularly memorable waves at Jaws, though given the absurd level of difficulty pulling those caves backside, they are fewer and further between compared to their regular-footed counterparts. In 2011, at the onset of the Jaws paddle movement, Brazilian Danilo Couto rode one of the defining waves of his generation. In terms of other notable moments, Francisco Porcella and Mark Healey come to mind.

Roberson is just starting out on his Jaws endeavors and has plenty of time to get his Kodak moment. This won’t be the last time he has to go backside on a bomb. Especially with a little brother in your ear.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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