The New York Times posted a great article about the history of aerial maneuvers in board surfing.
Surf Kayaking has experienced a similar revolution in it’s judged competitions. Aerials maneuvers in kayak surfing, and wave ski competitions are now a high scoring maneuver that does not count against the competitor, and instead scores highly. Judged competitions of course are always the tight end of the funnel for what is cool and acceptable in surfing.
The idea for board surfing was to begin mixing in skateboarding and snowboarding related maneuvers into the competition. The move in the video where it is an aerial loop is pretty out there, and I could see granting full points to a surfer who pulled this move off in a competition. The old guard had long held onto the idea that long duration rides, getting tubed, and pulling off good bottom turns and cutbacks was the bread and butter of the sport. As you can see from the video, it’s a totally different paradigm.