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One of the World's Most Well-Rounded Surfers, Cam Richards Shines in “Free Time”

Originally posted on SURFER | By Zander Morton | Last updated Oct 29, 2024 4:13 PM ET

There’s style guys, tube specialists, and air dudes, but not many surfers that tick every box. Enter Cam Richards.

Already the best surfer to come out of South Carolina, Richards has transcended SC stardom to earn a much loftier label in recent years: One of the best (and most well-rounded) surfers in the world. Period.

Ever since his wave of the winter contender at maxed out Pipeline a few years ago, Richards’ stock has been pointing straight up. A 10-footer at Pipe will do wonders for a surfers career. In “Free Time”, Richards packs more bombs at Pipeline, before moving on to Portugal, Panama, Mexico, Indonesia, and Tahiti. A lot of surfers can flash on Instagram, but it takes someone special to pack a 9-minute film with nothing but A+ clips.

Speaking of which, at 4:50 Richards rushes a west bowl bomb at Tahiti that’s reminiscent of Gabriel Medina’s 10-pointer in the Olympics, and the end section from flexing HT’s (while riding a tiny board, no less), shows Richards’ range in heavy water stuff. Despite the endless tubes, the most impressive section is actually from Portugal (2:50), where Richards digs deep into his bag of above the lip tricks: Lofty straight airs straight in transition, full rote spins, grab, no grab… Richards in his flow state is wildly impressive stuff. This short film is all killer with no filler and it’s 100 percent worth your time. Go ahead and click play.

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

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