WATCH CONNOR LEE IN 'PRESSED'
posted on Friday, August 18, 2023
Connor Lee is a perfect example of what happens when surfing is in your blood.
A 3rd generation surfer, where the influence of not only his dad but his nan and pop is there as well.
For the past few years Lee's been getting everyone's attention by cutting his teeth on the Australian high-performance scene.
Often compared to John John Florence or Steph Gilmore, but with a style all his own, 22-year-old Lee premiered his latest surf film ‘PRESSED’ in his local town of Newcastle last week among friends and family.
Enjoy these 12 mins with one of Australia's rising stars.
CURIOUS WHAT LEE WAS RIDING?
"The Shortie is a new shortboard by James 'Chilli' Cheal. As described by Jack Robbo from the 2021 Stab In The Dark, "this board is easy to ride. You don't have to think, you just jump on it and surf." Chilli's new performance driver packs high-performance surfing into a forgiving shortboard that caters to intermediate and advanced surfers. The Shortie was refined throughout 2021 with Adriano de Souza (and Chilli team riders) during his final year on the WSL championship tour, and James saw it a fit for this year's Stab In The Dark with Jack Robinson. James had "user friendly" mixed with "high performance" in his brief. He went to work combining a balanced rocker from nose to tail (creating a wide generous sweet spot), a moderate single concave (speed generating with drive), and a semi-rounded pin tail (control in the pocket at high speed). This created a forgiving performance shortie that is easy for surfers to jump on and immediately gel with (the most challenging part of Stab In The Dark, no second chances!). The generous sweet spot is the product of a unique extra bit of foam designed into the stringer line, making it an excellent paddler. You may notice the thickness in the dimensions compared to the length and width seems a bit high, but this strategic design concept creates a board that allows you to surf without thinking too much. The thickness is balanced out by a medium performance rail, allowing full control when surfed in critical parts of the wave. The Shortie fits into the Chilli range as a good wave driver for 3-6 feet. Choose your volume and this is the board for your next surf trip overseas, a great winter board, or your board for when it's pumping at home." - Chilli
Shop the SHORTIE here.
"Need a good wave, one board quiver? Well, this is the board you're after. The second incarnation of the Faded is designed for hollow, heavier waves. This board paddles like a step-up and surfs like a shortboard. Designed with Jay Davies and Balaram Stack with both overseas travel and pumping waves at home in mind, this board has been put through its paces in places from Costa Rica to West Oz. While it's primarily designed for hollow tubes, don't worry, it'll glide like butter in good waves anywhere from 3 foot to 8-plus.
OUTLINE: The Faded 2.0 has a full nose (paddle power) and smooth middle to relatively straight bottom 1/3 of the board which gives the board drive out through the rounded pin-tail.
ROCKER: The board has a flat-medium entry, and a smooth medium tail rocker. This compliments the double concave and vee bottom contour. In essence, it's fast with a lot of control in tight situations.
CONTOURS: Bottom contour is single concave from 12 inches down to middle of the board, a slight double concave from the midpoint runs down into a vee out through the tail. This gives the board hold and drive when you're in hollow, fast waves where control is necessary.
PERFORMANCE: When designing a 'good wave' board you need to ensure the performance attributes complement each other. The Faded 2.0 was built to do exactly that. Explicitly, it is the boards outline, rocker, and bottom contours which make this board work so well.
The top 1/3 has a full-ish outline and is packed with volume. Combine this with a flat entry rocker and you'll find chipping into big waves a breeze. Whether the waves are fast and hollow, or big and chunky, this board has the ability to paddle into it (insanity not included). Through the middle section the board "mellows out": a single concave, straight outline and low rail bite give this board both speed and bite to hold a line. The back-third of the board is where the control is generated. The double concave into a vee out the tail gives this board great rail-to-rail transition and also helps the board hold a line when you're racing across the face, drawing a controlled bottom turn or aiming to strike noon off the lip. All in all this board is a paddle machine at the front and controlled fun-park at the rear." - Chilli
Shop the Faded 2.0 here.
"A board that has been slightly modified over the past year through the Project Black program. Tried, tested and loved by the team, Chilli was excited to release it and knew you were going to love it too. The original cad file was named ai8curve.cet and has a creation date of 12/02/2003 - it sat in the archives of James' Macbook. This model back then (named A2 Curve) was developed with the help of Andy Irons who rode and loved the board throughout 03 & 04. Since then, machines and software quickly became outdated. With new technology James has resurrected some old faithful files, this being one of them. He tweaked it with a modern day outline, concave and with a few minor adjustments by the team, the board came to life. It sits in Chilli's Premium Performance category for a reason, the A2 likes to be pushed hard, it drives through critical sections with precision and is as smooth on rail through turns as you'd expect from a board ridden by AI. With a reasonably gentle rocker, single concave and tight squash with tail lift you can really give it some. The A2, a shortboard you need in your quiver." - Chilli
Shop the A2 here.
