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Remembering the Radical Surfing of Shane Herring (Video)

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Mar 19, 2025 1:54 PM ET

Shane Herring, the innovative Aussie surfer with a bright career in the nineties, sparked by a win over Kelly Slater at the 1992 Coke Classic in Sydney, tragically died this week. He was 53 years old.

Reportedly, despite Herring’s demons with drugs and alcohol, which plagued his promising career as a pro surfer, he had taken a fall down his stairs, grabbed something to eat, then went to bed and never woke up. Following the news, massive amounts of tributes from surf world luminaries – including his one-time foe, Slater – began filtering in on social media for their fallen brethren.

Adding to that stream of remembrances, here’s a lookback at Shane’s meteoric rise and fall, courtesy of the folks at Tracks Mag, from a handful of years ago. And yet, the surfing still resonates.

“A perfect center of gravity didn’t hurt,” Shane’s brother, Brett, reminisced. “I know Slater worked on a lower center of gravity when he came across Shane. It wasn’t a new line – those lines had been drawn – but he was just doing them so amazingly. There were no double turns to get to the lip…like one line. No wiggling at all. Just pure. Pure surfing.”

Later, Shane himself is interviewed in the mini docco. Mainly about what happened with his career:

“Maybe there was a lack of self-confidence. Maybe drinking too much. Partying too much. Having too much fun, and too much money. It basically took three years to reach the top. Obviously, I didn’t win a world title. It took three years to get to the top, then it took three years to get to the bottom.”

The surf world lost a good one. Rest in peace, Shane Herring.

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

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