Watch: 1-10ft // Matt Chojnacki
If you've never cross-stepped into the longboarding world then your first exposure to Matt Chojnacki was likely his recent commentary gig with the Woz. For good or ill, leave all your judgements at the door.
You see, the Woz gave him a platform of sorts, to at least show he's a knowledgeable fella, a student of the sport and all its attendant cultural offshoots. Yet what you didn't see is that Matt is equally adept on all manner of craft from fish to logs to gliders, and also that he's an affable fellow to boot.
This project is a few years old, one of no doubt many projects that got shelved when COVID rolled around, but filmmaker William Hunt has salvaged a tale and spliced it among much great footage of Chono taken during those weird years.
Rather than chase the longboard world tour, Matt stayed at home through 2021 and 2021, gorged on the consistent east swell while riding a plethora of surf craft. The list including:
5'7 Quad- Ben McTavish
5'9" Quad- Ben McTavish
6'9"Blue Bird flyer single fin- Bob Mctaivsh
6'9" Assymetrical - Ben Mctaivsh
6'10 Blue Bird single fin- Bob McTavish
7'2" Rincon Single Fin- Bob McTavish
9'0" Blue G2 1+2 - Bob McTavish
9'3" g3 Gun quad - Bob McTavish
9'3" Pinvolvement- Bob + Ben McTavish
9'6" Noserider- Bob McTaivsh
Comments
Nice one Matt , a beautiful quiver of boards. Go ride em all.
Really, really enjoyable edit and so much to appreciate in the surfing prowess across the range of crafts.
Loved the way he was able to power up the rail on the drop and immediately build speed on speed whilst maintaining control of 9 ft of rail- even in steep, ledgey waves.
Thats an underrated skill and takes lots of experience riding big boards. Lots of nimble footwork and precise rail weighting.
Nice soundtrack.
I'm giving this 4.5/5 stars.
Bryce Young in Following the fall Line , shows great surfing from 4 ft something boards to long boards
Shout out to Bob McTavish.
Chonoski.
Who ever heard of a silent J?
so you say "mara-joo-wah-nah"?
(cool film, nicely done..)
Jmull.
hahah
I could have shot a wee movie about myself the last few days. Watch me surf boards from a 6'2 shorty to an 8'0 gun. Call it '1 to 3 feet'
This is good stuff though, and I totally agree on the quick rail engagement and speed drive. On his Insta there's a very nice clip with him at Sunset on a beautiful Diff single fin gun, and he gets nice drive out of that too.
That whole clip was really great viewing. The range of boards and the surfing was damn good.
the footage of him on that fish at dee why point is marred by the fact that i am painfully aware that dee why point is the shittest wave on the planet, whether it's 1 foot or 10 foot. before anyone wants to argue with me on it, i lived right on the point for four years and surfed it in every condition you could imagine and i can count on one hand the amount of really good sessions i had out there.. and i'm missing fingers.
that's hilarious and i agree after living in DY for way too long! (grew up surfing in coolangatta) I rarely surf the point and often find it really frustrating when i do.
I had no idea who this bloke was but i have seen him surf DY and he does have really great footwork on a board.
that's rad! there's something to be said about seeing someone surf a spot that you're familiar with really well
Howling southerly, big swell, limited options...
Kelly barrel @30minutes
Every wave has its epic day & rides... sometimes yesterday or in some years gone by ....or tomorrow ...., as swells & sand moves on.
https://www.eos.surf/videos/kneeboarding-in-the-1970s
Helps if you have a variety of good boards & legropes.
DY locals are lovely too
Haha as a long time blow in to DY they aren't too bad a bunch. Maybe i'm just getting old though lol. I take my 10 and 8 year olds out the point in the expectation i will get zero waves and it's funny how locals that have barely spoken to me before i had groms in the water are a lot more friendly. It's a bonus if i sneak in a few dad waves.
alex / john , you clearly haven't lived on the sunny coast,
really nice surfing in this video, cool clip
haha point taken
No but i get that the Sunny coast misses out on swell a lot of the time!
I don’t comment often, but when I do it’s to say geez that was good.
Enjoy watching the bigger boards in more solid waves. Watched a lot of the witzig trilogy films about 15 yrs ago. Loved and still love Lynch’s surfing in evolution. So much so, I had Ben Mctavish shape me a 7’5 inspired version based off that film and era back in 2013. Man what a dog of a board. Absolutely no drive out of a bottom turn. All the more respect for Wayne’s surfing.
Pulling in backhand on overhead close outs, never a good idea!
The wax head
Incredible log rider
Multi quiver master
Car restorer
Surf Historian
WSL commentator
really enjoyable
Great stuff Matt.
The best surfing is rail surfing and all the subtle adjustments of the rail.
Grew up doing similar to that on the west coast, singles and logs.
that was pretty sick.
Loved the surfing he was doing on the blue Mctavish towards the end.
Had to laugh at the Burleigh Heads call though "its only 4-5 feet" but still wears the flotation vest, its ok Matt you can say how big it really was..