For his latest project, the Australian Championship Tour surfer decided to combine the two in the water.
In essence, the plan was to surf a makeshift rail in the water as he might on the skate park, but the project was not without its challenges.
The project was a year in the making.
Wilson and his team first attempting it in the ocean before the volatility of the seas made that impossible, so they instead turned to a wave pool, Urbnsurf, in Melbourne.
“For a long time, I had the idea of combining the skatepark with the ocean,” the 31-year-old explained.
“To take something I have so much fun with in the skate park with my profession as a surfer that’s going to challenge me.”
To undertake the challenge, Wilson worked with shape Jason Stevenson from JS Industries to create a board that actually proved hard to surf but importantly had the minimal weight and maximum carbon fiber strength required.
The problem was trying to get the make-up of the rail and its weight in the water just right, so he could actually slide across it in time and safely without it moving too much in each and every set of waves.
A Tricky Surf-and-Skate Experience
In the water, Julian had a team with him, including a rescue diver and those able to move the rail back into position to tackle the next set.
And it was all captured by photographer Andy Green.
“It’s been about as challenging as it could possibly be. As much as I thought there’d be so many controllables in the pool, there ended up being so many challenges too,” Julian Wilson added.
After his close shave with the flying rail as he surfed past it, he admitted to himself: “This is maybe not going to work. It’s super dangerous.”
“I nearly got my head taken off. With an hour to go [of the allotted session time], I thought maybe I was going to be dead in the water.”
It required a late psychological boost from coach Luke Egan for him to have one final attempt at the water.
– But with an hour to go, he cracked it and successfully rode the rail, again and again, and again.
“It was super fun. That’s the feeling I wanted to create with the wave,” concluded the Australian.
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