HIGH CULTURE.
Lungi Slabb doesn’t simply ride the barrel, he dances with it. When the wave face bends, the lip chucks and the spinning foamball bites at his heels, Lungi uses his pliable frame to shape-shift his way through the hollowest sections, responding to every subtle bend and twist in the wave with a complementary physical response. “He’s just navigating out there,” explains Quiksilver photographer, Ryan Heywood, excitedly, “Full wheelies in the barrel and frontside laybacks.”
Watch Lungi surf at Snapper and it seems like each tube is a puzzle to which he must find the perfect response. Every time he takes off you can’t wait to see how he interprets the wave. “When I’m surfing, everything just sort of comes to me… just working with the wave and relaxing, that’s the way I like to surf,” explains the gifted Indigenous surfer who recently turned 17.
Lungi grew up in Fingal, but over the past five years he has made Snapper Rocks the stage for his rapturous wave riding approach. His connection with Snapper began when he was about 11 and his older brothers decided it was time to start driving their talented brother north of the
