In Their Own Words: Joe Aaron On The State Of Pro Longboarding:
I don’t necessarily like the way longboarding looks right now. A lot of kids my age are doing typical, high performance surfing without really taking the time to see what long boarding is—and was. Longboarding seems like it’s starting to blend into shortboarding too much. It doesn’t look like longboarding anymore. To be a well-rounded longboarder, you need to blend progression with tradition. Right now, there’re almost three ways to be a longboarder, which is sort of sad. There’re the contest guys, who are working out in gyms and only doing off the lips and floaters, there’re guys in the middle ground, and then there’re the anti-contest guys, who have their own artsy crew. I like to blend all these things together. I’m into art, I’ve designed my own fin, I noseride, but to legitimize all that I also compete. I think the future of longboarding needs an actual world tour. And hopefully, if we get one, the judges will recognize that longboarding should be a blend between progressive and traditional surfing. It’d be nice to have style and grace judged alongside performance.