"It was the biggest waves I've seen paddling
for sure," says Shane Dorian of this session. Jamie Mitchell,
pictured here, didn't make the wave but says it was the wave behind
that shook his nerves. “I couldn’t see anything because of the
spray but when it cleared all I could see was a massive wall of
water. It was at least 70 feet, blocked out the sky and was about
to break directly on my head. I’d never seen anything like that
from that angle before.”
(Audio) “OK, this is serious!”
By Derek Rielly
Jamie Mitchell on wiping out on a sixty-footer and
being caught inside by something even more disquieting…
Yeah, so this wave is a year old, almost to the
day.
But what a wave of nervous joy it gives to hear Jamie
Mitchell, the 38-year-old big-wave surfer and peerless board
paddler (10-times winner of the 32-mile Molokai to Oahu race),
describe paddling into a sixty-footer, getting bounced then facing
a wave that is eighty-plus!
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Mason Ho and the art of dropping in. How do you avoid
collision, danger? "Frick," says Mason, "you draw a higher line
where you’re going extra fast and then you get the bigger,
high-speed maneuver right in front of their face." | Photo:
Manulele Incorporated
Lesson: Mason Ho on the art of snake!
By Derek Rielly
The world's most dynamic surfer on how to survive
(and thrive!) dropping in…
(This interview was recorded in 2010 and originally appeared
in Surfer magazine.)
Mason Ho, 20, is the most charismatic midget you’ll ever see
in the water. He rides Mayhem quads and bottle-nosed fish and
his surfs are punctuated by fin-throws, old-school air reverses,
even older-school 360s, chop-hops and even backside alley-oops. If
there is a Hawaii style, his is it: all warm-water, loose-limbed,
afro-swinging extravagance.
Mason is also the son of Hawaiian star Michael Ho, the nephew of
Hawaii’s first-ever world champ, Dez Ho, and brother to girls
champion Coco Ho. If he wanted, Mason could book an audience with
Fast Eddie Rothman at the tap of a few keys. Mason also likes, very
much, to drop in. See 5’5” Redux for visual evidence.
BeachGrit: I can’t remember the last time I so adored a
human who so flagrantly flouted the most basic rule of
surfing.
Mason: Ha!
BeachGrit: Have you always dropped in?
Mason: Let me see. Usually, I’m not too bad dropping in, but
when Joe Alani comes to film for the …Lost videos I just go on a
barrage and burn… every…single… person. He comes for, like, 10 days
out of a whole year and I figure I’ve got 10 days to work. And, if
that includes burning people, that’s cool.
BeachGrit: Do you like to see who your victim might
be?
Mason: Not really. My theory is that I just don’t look back so I
always end up burning my friends and my Dad and my Uncle and my
Sister.
BeachGrit: What about Hawaii’s famously ferocious
and livid regulators?
Mason: I accidentally burn them, too.
BeachGrit: What line do you take; obviously
dropping straight down the face would result in a
collision?
Mason: Frick, you draw a higher line where you’re going extra
fast and then you get the bigger, high-speed maneuver right in
front of their face.
BeachGrit: Are some surfers good sports? Does the
man or woman behind ever hoot your theatrics?
Mason: It used to happen all the time when I was younger. But, I
haven’t had one for a while because I got good at burning guys.
BeachGrit: A kid with brillo-pad hair dropping in
is cute; a 20-year-old doing it is kinda crook.
Mason: Yeah, I definitely think a 20-year-old dropping in is
crook.
BeachGrit: What is the best strategy for dropping
in?
Mason: My favorite theory is right when you burn someone, you
try and hide in the barrel as fast as you can. That’s the best, and
then you come out and they’re, like, more baffled. If it’s not
barreling and I burn someone, I figure I gotta do an air ‘cause if
I do something gayer that’s extra crook.
BeachGrit: What’s the best turn you’ve completed
after dropping in?
Mason: One time I burned this guy, got this big backside barrel
and I came out and did a big indy alley-oop backside. I kicked out
and said, “Sorry about that” and he said, “No, it was sweet!”
BeachGrit: Who’s the most famous surfer you’ve
dropped in?
Mason: Uncle Derek. I got him at Pipe one time and then I got
him at Desert Point a couple of times this last trip.
BeachGrit: How does Uncle Derek react?
Mason: He loves it. Because the next couple of fricken waves he
rides in front of me. He looks at it as a meal ticket.
BeachGrit: What about Kelly Slater?
Mason: Oh, I… have… dropped… in… on… Kelly. At Trestles, I
burned him. I heard: “Mason!” Then I heard, “Ho!” Then I heard,
“Mason Ho!” Huh, huh, huh! I looked back at went, “Oh sh**t,
Slates!” That’s my problem. I just don’t look back.
BeachGrit: From where did you learn the
art?
Mason: I learned it from Coco. I figure if my little sister can
burn everybody, I can, too.
BeachGrit: Coco copped it when she smoked Layne at
Haleiwa last year.
Mason: That was the funniest shit ever! I was on the beach
rolling. All the girls were paddling around Coco, just owning her.
Me and Dad were, like, “C’mon Coco! What are you doing?” Finally,
in that last exchange, we counted her out. We knew she was going to
let everybody paddle around her again, and she did. And then she
ended up going, anyway. I was laughing so hard, going, “That’s what
I would’ve done!”
BeachGrit: How should a reader of this
magazine, on his trip-of-a-lifetime to the North Shore react, if he
finds himself breathing your exhaust? Should he be grateful for a
close-up look at your charismatic styling?
Mason: No way! I don’t want them to appreciate me burning ‘em.
But, I sure do appreciate ‘em letting me surf in front of ‘em.
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Cluster (the mag) changed my life!
By Chas Smith
Print trumps film for the first time since
1923.
While the film left me wanting less, the accompanying
issue made me want more more more! Editor Travis Ferre,
Kai Neville, Scott Chenoweth and team put together a physical work
of art in a day and age when print has waning value.
The cover, and floral sleeve that it comes in, excite, the paper
stock feels sensual and the content thrills. Feminity and
masculinity are perfectly intertwined, creating the most perfect
dance. It is truly wonderful.
And why did it change my life? Because I still love print, for
one, and to see a group of handsome young men doing it better than
Vanity Fair is inspiring. Because I love having things on
my coffee table, for two. It is a repurposed trolley, or something,
all hardwood and darkened brass, and only the finest publications
will do. They must be gorgeous and
intellectually/artistically valuable in case someone opens in a
moment of conversational lull. An oversized copy of Death in the
Afternoon sat there for years. Now it is Cluster and I imagine it
will be there for years too. Because coherence is still important,
for three. With so many short clips/blogs/etc. these days, long
form coherence is on the outs. But it is so nice to sit back and
not be pinballed for a moment. To sit in one moment for, like, 20
mins. And because I like floral motifs, for last. I like them in
the French countryside and I like them in my grandma’s house.
Floral is coming back. What Youth led the way.
I stand my ground on the film and I know that I am right. The
film took an ill-conceived direction because surfing, as a pastime,
will never be “hard.” And Noa Deane will never “fuck” cops. But it
is ok. Kai will return to the cinema and this misstep will make him
stronger. But the issue is just exactly right. Bravo!
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David Bowie, a surprise, and welcome, inclusion in the
Cluster soundtrack. Kai says he was worried that the choice might
be too obvious for Creed's section and he tried other songs, some
uptempo Frank Black tunes, but…"You know what? This is fucking
Creed!"
Cluster is Kai Neville’s Magnum Opus
By Derek Rielly
Chas Smith got it so fucking wrong…
Three hours ago, 714 mostly young
men attended the Australian premiere of Kai Neville’s film
Cluster at a restored art deco cinema in Sydney.
Roughly a tenth of the young men there wore the headgear of
Craig Anderson, a perennial of Kai’s films (with varying degrees of
success. How do you snatch the style of someone as ephemeral as
Craig Anderson? How can you make hair that colour and fall in those
curls without the falsity of premeditation?). Others, though less
in number, wore savage blond bobs in the style of Noa Deane.
I came into the movie with BeachGrit’s Chas Smith’s
criticism whistling in my ears. Too long, too repetitious, too
derivative, too “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” I
downed each criticism by the spoonful.
And that fat old Lazarus Surfer turned on
Cluster, too.
“I’m not going to get all Nostradamus and warn of the impending
death of the surf movie, because that will never happen,” wrote
Todd Prodanovich. “But I do think that
this type of surf movie—a straightforward
montage of high action and lifestyle—is hurting. In a world where
we can pull up free web clips on our phones featuring surfing and
editing on par with anything in Cluster, you have to
wonder: if it isn’t the very best, then what’s the point?”
Oh Chas, loving you thus and hating you so, my heart is torn
in two!
In order, Mitch Coleborn, Brendon Gibbens, Conner Coffin (with
Taj Burrow and Jay Davies cameos) Dillon Perillo, Dion Agius and
Ozzie Wright (mutual open-shirt twerking), Jack Freestone, Chippa
Wilson, Creed McTaggart, Ryan Callinan, Dane Reynolds, Craig
Anderson and Noa Deane come along and noisily de-stud us.
All those skills Kai has developed from punching out films
for 15 years has been squeezed into Cluster’s
sixty-ish minutes. The cuts are switchblade sharp, the pacing
so submerged but so heart-racing, the clips dazzling in their
choice.
Oh, of course we’d like John John. Who doesn’t want to step into
his fire? Why no John?
Let’s ask Kai!
This interview took place just after the movie finished. It’s a
noisy little jam and the interviewer causes his subject some
confusion when he refers to the skate brand Baker as
Baxter. What can I say, skating ain’t my thing.
Cluster drops into the iTunes store on March 17.
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GoPro on head. Trace Action Sports Tracker on
nose of favourite sled. An experience that is just so… modern!
So Generaton Text!
Is this the best surf gadget ever
made?
By Derek Rielly
This crazy little thing measures the intensity of
your turns and even edits your clips!
To hell with cancer, malaria, AIDS, world
poverty, and every other disease and misfortune that besets
mankind. The brightest minds on earth are busy… doing
things that matter.
Doing things that make us feel warm inside and so very
happy.
Like this fantastic new device ($US199) from a company called
Trace. Affix a small plastic disc (couple of inches wide, less than
inch high) to your board, surf your brains out, come in, and it’ll…
well, how about we save my fingers and cut and paste the company’s
press release here…
“Trace is The Action Sports Tracker. Trace measures your
performance and auto edits your most exciting moments whether taken
from a GoPro, iPhone, Android or other camera. You connect
Trace to your skis, board, or helmet, turn it on, and go. Trace
connects to an app on your iPhone or Android where you can view
your stats, see yourself improve, and share your accomplishments
with friends.
“GoPro, iPhone, and Android video all integrate with Trace to
find your rides and cuts out the boring stuff. Trace then color
corrects your footage, adds your stats, and compiles them for
you.”
You ain’t even in the game anymore unless there’s some hunk of
GPS-enabled gadgetry or camera affixed to the nose of your
favourite board. Or, in the case of the remarkable Rip Curl watch,
wrapping your wrist in its electronics.
