Surfing Waves

Even though the movie was released 2 years ago, the Patagonia store in Ventura, California, is running the film tonight. It's a free and final showing following 2 years of showing around the world. There will be live music beforehand, too. Taking my wife and my best surfing buddy. Should be a good time!

so give us a report on the movie

It was magnificant, Old Man! The movie is told in a truthful story, rather than simply filled with surfing footage. It's not possible to come away with anything except admiration for Lynch. It was also especially fun to see and hear the "who's who" in the Australian surf scene.

The venue was terrific, too. Outdoors behind the original Patagonia / Chouinatd foundry for climbing equipment. Temperature was perfect, live folk music, popcorn, and about 175 mellow surfers in attendance. All in all, a wonderful night!

I met Wayne Lynch once - we were at a SurfRider Foundation meeting in Narrabeen. We did the meeting bit, and then there was Q&A session with Wayne. The thing that I took away from it most of all was that, not only is he a very nice guy, but he's mental!

DBB,
Mental as in more brave and more intense than a 90 pound pit bull?
Billie

billie_morini wrote:DBB,
Mental as in more brave and more intense than a 90 pound pit bull?
Billie

Yup!

I've noticed that a lot of the top surfers are either really really intense (Laird Hamilton, Slater, Tom Carroll) or way out there in the no fear semi insane category (Greg Noll, Ross Clarke Jones). I guess most top sportspeople are probably in the first category, thats why they are top.

I think in every endeavor there are those who excel, some because of incredible natural talent but most because they are driven to excel by something. Every famous artist or musician or athlete has some flaw generally that makes them want to excel, drives them to it. We might think they are crazy but they are just dealing with their flaw in their own manner. They have something to prove to themselves or to others.

For sure - there is a part of surfing that probably most of us occupy that doesnt see it as a competitive activity at all, so seeing an intense driven surfer is quite jarring (whereas seeing an intense driven golfer or team sport player is just taking the competition we all play with just a bit further).

That said, people like Laird Hamilton with their drive just to be better and bigger is probably more like a mountain climber or explorer than a competitor - I dont think he has surfed competitively (or windsurfed or swum or whatever else he does) for a long time if ever.

Oldman - a total tangent but Laird reminded me - was watching something the other day that had a section on the great Hawaii swell of 1969. I cant recall how old you are, you may have been a child then and not even in Hawaii, but is it something you do recall at all? I've seen some of the old footage, quite amazing

In 1969 I was 13 years old and heavy into bodysurfing but not on the north shore so I don't recall that swell in particular. The north shore has had a lot of huge swells. I caught one in 1973 or thereabouts on the northshore of Kauai. Hanalei was massive and ridable (30 plus foot faces). I have gone and looked at the swell on the north shore. That could be the time me and a couple surfers cut out of school and drove to the north shore to go look at the surf. From far away it is so difficult to tell exactly how huge it is but there was only one guy out probably Joey Cabell. How the swells hit Kauai is slightly different from Oahu which is what everyone is probably talking about. Laird is passionate about his surfing but I am sure he missed that swell (he wasn't born then).

I meant to say I was 16 not 13 can't change it now

OOps another mistake is Laird was born in 1964 so he was 5 back then

OMS you can go back and edit your own posts, but it's great to see you do a two step to catch up with yourself

I shouldn't post when I am working. The edit function only works for a few minutes after posting. I met Joey Cabell back when I was paipo boarding. I think my surfer friends wanted me to ask him to make me a foam and fiberglass board so they brought me along and introduced me to him. He was in the process of making a board and all I did was observe him making a board and then left. I never wanted a foam and fiberglass board for paipo boarding I used that information to make myself a board when I finally started surfing. He was a big wave guy and when Hanalei was so big that only one guy was out there surfing it was him

What about Greg Noll - he was the focus of the show I was watching (its called 'Riding Giants' - well worth seeing, and has a lot of focus on Hawaii)

Greg Noll surfed Waimea bay and other Oahu breaks. I am not sure if he ever came to Kauai to surf. He was known for charging the big waves at Waimea. He was also a surf photographer and surf movie maker. I recently posted a youtube video about surf movies and it mentions him a bit. The north shore of Oahu had a different set of surfers than the north shore of Kauai where I live. Even among Kauai surfers the north shore had it's own dedicated set of surf addicts. There were certain surfers who were usually out there when the conditions suited them. There was no surf forecasting back then and not even any reliable surf reporting on Kauai. Sometimes I would call a friend who lived out there and if he said it was up then I knew it was 4 to 6 foot and if he kind of hemmed and hawed and said it wasn't too good then I knew it was 6 to 10 foot. Usually I would just get in my car and drive there. If you passed a car with surfboards on the roof going away from the north shore they would often hold thumbs up or down depending on what they thought of the surf.