Sometimes you have to go back to basics. And there’s nothing more elemental than a good, old-fashioned turn. Sure, a barrel is the best part of surfing, and aerials add excitement and progression, but for the ultimate bang for your surfing buck, nothing beats burying the rail. But one good turn doesn’t always deserve another, and not all turns are equal. We’ve collated those single manoeuvres that have transcended the sport and become iconic.
Molly Picklum’s Sunset Hammer
In the 2024 Sunset CT event, Australian surfer Molly Picklum gouged into the lip of a giant, thick West Bowl, busted her fins out, and dug her toenails into the wax of her board.
“I threw everything at it, fell out of the sky, and I was either dead or in the final,” Molly laughed afterwards. And, spoiler alert, she is still walking the Earth after what was described in the surf media as the best turn ever done by a woman.
John John Florence’s Ghost Carve
In 2017, John John Florence reached the peak of his powers.
He’d won his first World Title the year before and hadn’t succumbed to the ankle and knee injuries that would blight his next five years. Riding a new model Pyzel called The Ghost, he would unleash a series of carves on the powerful Margaret River walls that would redefine power surfing and be seared into the wider surf consciousness. It had speed, power, style, commitment, and rail work that, eight years later, hasn’t been matched. Take your pick from the first turns on these two waves.
Craig Anderson’s Kandui HighLine Carve-Down Thing
In 2016, the swell of the decade wrapped into the Mentawai’s premier lefthander at Kanduis.
It was 10-12 feet, and the huge aquamarine barrels were met by some of the best barrel-wranglers on the planet. One was Craig Anderson, the stylish goofy footer who was on his first trip to the resort. He paddled out on a 5’4” Hypto Crypto made by Hayden Cox and scored one of the biggest waves of the swell. “I bottom turned, and it was just a perfect wall to snowboard on. I didn’t turn hard or anything, just did a sort of highline carve-down thing,” he said afterwards. That highline carve-down thing featured on the cover of Surfers Journal and became one of the sport’s iconic images that would help sell more of a single surfboard model than any other in history. Of which his commission was, and remains, zero.
Andy Irons’ Cloudbreak Carve
Any mixtape featuring the best turns in surfing history has to include the late, great Andy Irons.
Picking a single manoeuvre that sums up AI’s style, power, timing, and flair isn’t easy. But his snowboard-like turn at Cloudbreak on a 6’10” six-channel bottomed Eric Arakawa is one that distils the pure essence of Andy best. Brian Bielmann’s photo captured peak Andy – where he is harnessing the wave’s energy, then bending it towards his will.
Kelly Slater’s Tomahawk Chop
Tom Dugan’s award-winning image of Kelly from the “Honey Hole” angle next to the Sebastian Inlet jetty went on to be on Australia Surfing Life’s “Best 50 Photos Of All Time” list.
It was also the model for sculptor Natasha Drazich’s life-sized bronze casting of the 11 x world champ that sits on Highway A-1-A in his hometown of Cocoa Beach. This was taken in the early 1990s when Kelly was embarking on a career that would earn GOAT status. But that’s the beauty, it has all the hallmarks of the power, style, grace, timing and Kellyness that would be the basis of his greatness. Kelly would do better turns, but this image of one done at home remains the most iconic.
Tom Carroll’s Pipe Snap
When a turn has its own registered trademark, you know it is important.
Tom Carroll’s vertical snap on a 12-foot wave ridden during the 1991 Pipe Masters semi-final is simply known as “The Snap.” With most observers expecting Tom to stall his pink 7’6” Rawson into the barrel, he instead drove vertically into the pocket. It was the attitude and audacity, combined with the execution, that first shocked, and then awed, surf fans. It remains not only the reigning example of power and performance at Pipeline but arguably the most memorable top turn in surfing history.
Tom Curren’s Backdoor Cutback
A quiz question for the WaterWays crew? What was the first wave of Taylor Steele’s classic Momentum film?
Many might have guessed it would feature one of the Momentum Generation’s key players: Slater, Dorian, Machado, or Knox doing a new school manoeuvre. But no, the opening is Tom Curren’s doing a cutback on a stickerless Maurice Cole-shaped 7’8”. The photo captured by Tom Servais became one of surfing’s most iconic frames. It perfectly captured all the beauty, mystery, and class of one surfing’s true stylists. “No graphic drew the eye away from those razor-sleek lines and the slightly jagged pinline and simple yellow rail,” wrote Nick Carroll. “It was mesmerising. And has only gotten better with time.”
MP’s Cutback, 1970
The Morning of the Earth was a seminal movie made by Alby Falzon in 1970.
Capturing the essence of a new country soul feeling, and backed by one of the great surf soundtracks, it has continued to inspire successive generations for over 50 years. The cover image would also become iconic, with a freeze frame of a young red boardshorted Michael Peterson at Kirra representing a new type of surfing. With the board all on one rail, and the large single fin dorsaling through the green wall, it was radical, aggressive, but controlled. It was the future.