I love the way Dusty approaches surfing a wave. When you think you’ve seen every style of surfer someone like Dusty pops up and re-invents the cutback.

Sunset Beach high line hack from Dusty Payne. Notice the nose rocker? Mmm. Pic: ASP

A day after the Tracks office received word Hawaiian Dusty Payne had signed a new sponsorship deal with Electric sunnies we we’re asked if we’d be interested in spreading the news to the greater public. I felt inclined to do so simply because I love the way Dusty approaches surfing a wave. When you think you’ve seen every style of surfer someone like Dusty pops up and re-invents the cutback. While it may be his aerials that have won over thousands of surf fans and buckets of cash [Dusty claimed 50K last year for winning the Kustom Airstrike competition with a front-side air reverse], it’s his re-invention of base moves that caught my eye.

His smooth yet radical surfing helped him become the first Maui Island surfer to qualify for the ASP world tour. This momentous occasion achieved thanks to his solid core surfing and subsequent second placing behind Joel Parkinson in the O’Neil world Cup at Sunset Beach on Oahu in 2009 (no aerials going down out there!).

Dusty appears to ride boards with a shorter more extreme nose rocker than his compatriots, even at Sunset, and it’s working a treat in his free surfing (although on tour he’s sitting unimpressively in 31^st place). Dusty’s profile like his aerials continue to ascend. But the question remains, why did the blonde bombshell (possibly named after female country singer Patsy Klien?) leave Dragon to sign with Electric? Was it the money? Was it the chance to give his image a little edge? No. If this new commercial is anything to go by it’s the chicks. Ah, the young and the horny – some things never change.