“How Adriano (nearly) killed claims!”

"You just wanted to cut him out like a cancer so the body could heal," says Matt Warshaw.

What’s your take on claims? You like ’em?

Who started the game? And who almost killed the “whole enterprise”?

These important questions I posed to the man who cradles surf culture, its entire history, in his bosom. Mr Matt Warshaw. 

BeachGrit: I believe that claiming has become a beautiful art within professional surfing. Jordy, I think, is the master, his Christ the Reedemer or his Humble Butler bow are highlights. Do you have a current favourite? 

Warshaw: A claim these days, even a good one, will breeze past me until it hits Twitter, then it maybe gets fun. Better yet, if the claim is worthy you naming it. So like, Jordy’s little from-the-waist bow was worth a smile when it happened live, then a pretty full-throated chortle when I read “Humble Butler.”

Whose are the worst, in your opinion? Do you like it when seven-point rides are claimed, for instance? 

De Souza, five years ago, almost brought the whole enterprise down. Adriano was to claiming what Toby Keith is to country-western music. You just wanted to cut him out like a cancer so the body could heal. There is nothing inherently wrong with claiming. It’s like bad words. There are no bad words, just bad usage. What Adriano did in the name of “passion,” which in fact meant “throw me an extra .5 for this high-intermediate NSSA end-section reverse” was usage so horrible that it put a cloud over all claiming. A hundred thousand joyous and innovative claims died in utero from 2010 to around 2013. That’s on Adriano. Who, by the way, de-claimed his act a couple years back like the champion he is.

De Souza, five years ago, almost brought the whole enterprise down. Adriano was to claiming what Toby Keith is to country-western music. You just wanted to cut him out like a cancer so the body could heal.

Someone raised a good point the other day. John John claimed the hell out of his waves at Teahupoo. If Gabriel does it, cruel people on internet forums become apoplectic. Why is it okay for John but not for Gabriel?

The subtle and not-so-subtle forms of racism in surfing — let’s save that for another conversation. John earned the world title this year, no question, no doubt. But for sure, among some JJF supporters, there’s a whiff of Make the WSL Great Again. 

The surfer who doesn’t claim an amazing wave – I pity them. You’ve either ridden so many incredible waves that you’re numb to the experience, or your claiming by not claiming which is bullshit. Possibly unhealthy, like holding down a sneeze.

Historically, when did claims begin and who birthed them? 

Patient Zero, you’d have to go with either Greg Noll or Ricky Grigg in the late fifties, early sixties. Ricky loved bullfighting and would go to Tijuana to watch the blood and gore, and he picked up this toreador move where you raise both hands up and throw the head back. Very dramatic. Sexy. Two-thirds Manolete, one-third Fay Wray. Greg Noll, meanwhile, was claiming just by wearing black-and-white-striped jailbird trunks. Then he had this move where, after making a huge drop at Sunset or hitting the channel at Pipe, he’d make this whippy little cowboy motion with his right hand, like “Git along little doggies!” It was faster and most subtle than Grigg’s arms-overhead move. And funnier. Ricky claimed first, Noll claimed best.

How do they make you feel as a surfer and as the man who cradles the very culture in his bosom?

The surfer who doesn’t claim an amazing wave – I pity them. You’ve either ridden so many incredible waves that you’re numb to the experience, or your claiming by not claiming which is bullshit. Possibly unhealthy, like holding down a sneeze.

Do you agree, that if used sparingly, Slater for instance (the nose wipe after a nine-plus barrel), they can turn that nine five into a ten? That even judges can sometimes be overwhelmed by a moment. 

It’d have an effect, sure. Not at the six or seven point level, but up there in the nines, yeah, I do think the judges are probably, maybe unconsciously, looking for a sign, for permission, to nudge the score. Or maybe it’s almost more like, if the surfer doesn’t claim, the judge will be a little confused and keep the score a half-point lower than if the claim had come as expected.

Have you ever automatically claimed a ride? A barrel? And can you describe your emotional well-being afterwards? Shame? 

Again, it’s usage. I have a little clip of myself coming out of a longish but not stupendous barrel in Mexico, right before sunset, and I grab my head with both hands in amazement. For that I am very ashamed. But a couple of other claims of mine, more in the Wayne Bartholomew mode, some minor hand-jive and such, I’m totally good with.