But only when compared to ultra-stud Buzzy Trent!
You like a baited hook? They don’t come better than surf historian Matt Warshaw describing Tahiti’s hard-shelled Michel Bourez to a “consumptive eunuch fainting on a daybed.”
Ridiculous, of course. But let’s get to context a little later.
Recently, Warshaw posted an excellent short piece by the big-wave pioneer Buzz Trent on women in surf. The story is fifty-four years old and moves, every so adroitly, from adoration to real talk.
I enjoy watching girls surf. There’s nothing more beautiful than a well-shaped girl riding a six-foot wave with the wind blowing through her hair. But one thing I can’t stand is girls riding (or attempting to ride) big waves. Why? Well, girls are intended to be feminine, and big-wave riding is definitely masculine. You see, girls are much more emotional than men and therefore have a greater tendency to panic. And panic can be extremely dangerous in big surf. I have seen exactly three women in the past who had taken off on big waves and then panicked. There is nothing in the world more ridiculous than a girl who dares to show off and then panics out. Girls are weaker than men and have a lessor chance for survival in giant wipeouts. Girls are better off and look more feminine riding average-sized waves.
I’ve seen many girls surfing … in fact, I know one or two who surf better than many men. Each girl surfer has her own style. Some surf gracefully; some surf more jerkily and perform well. And, of course, some surf like he-men. But to each day every girl who surfs, I give full credit.
Now, I’ve had a fascination with Buzzy, who died ten years ago in Hawaii, after reading an excellent profile in The Surfers Journal. My memory has faded a little and the story ain’t online, but Buzz was a pioneer of riding big waves on the North Shore, could run 100 yards in ten seconds, was an all-state running back and a Golden Gloves boxer.
I figure, time to fill in the blanks with Warshaw.
BeachGrit: You describe Buzz in your fabulous EOS as “hyper-masculine.” And that photogenic frame! Is there anyone among today’s top pros with his raw athleticism?
Warshaw: Michel Bourez. Except Michel is a consumptive eunuch fainting on a daybed by comparison.
What about the rest of surf history? Who is Buzzy’s match?
Tarzan Smith, this lunatic paddleboarder and street fighter from back in the Depression. And Zach Weisberg.
Zach? The founder of the “the world’s largest digital community in the surf, mountain, and outdoor space”?
I saw Zach recently, he looks like he just got sprung from ADX, he’s huge; he could bench 300 with Chas dancing on the bar.
Buzzy’s childhood was horrible. Dad abandoned the family, his sister fell down a well and died, Buzzy was in foster care for a couple of years. Just brutal. Surfing was a godsend.
BeachGrit: Could Zach haven taken Buzzy, at his peak?
No way.
Could Tarzan Smith take Buzzy?
Oh man. I don’t know. That’s DC Universe business. Buzzy was the better athlete, strength-wise it’s probably a tossup, but Tarzan had a screw loose. My heart says Buzzy, but my gut says Tarzan.
Did he really, as Ricky Grigg, another big-waver say, kill a man in the ring? Or is that the typical of the exaggeration of that demographic?
I’ve heard that too, but I don’t know if it’s true. Buzzy never talked about it publicly. He was big on suffering, though. Being hard and tough was really important thing to him, and suffering was how you got there. Buzzy’s childhood was horrible in a lot of ways. Dad abandoned the family, his sister fell down a well and died, Buzzy was in foster care for a couple of years. Just brutal. Surfing was a godsend.
He was racist, for sure, and probably homophobic. Loved all things German, including, or maybe even especially, the German war efforts. I don’t know how much slack you cut a person like Buzzy, given the childhood he had, and the age he grew up in.
In that same article with Grigg it described a crash with his hang glider that I remember as sorta cosmic. Do you remember the details?
I think he flew into a water tank. Broke his back. He walked away from a lot of heavy things. My favorite one, and again, like the fight story, I’m not totally sure if it’s true — but my favorite one is that Buzzy got knocked off a high-rise while working construction, fell through air, grabbed onto an iron girder the next floor down, pulled himself up, walked back to his floor and kept working.
Buzzy, of course, came up with the aphorism “big waves aren’t measured in feet, but in increments of fear.” And did he really coin the term “gun” to describe a big-wave board?
“Elephant gun,” yeah. Buzzy wasn’t the first big-wave surfer, but he’s the guy who turned into theater. George Downing was the best when it got huge, but George did his thing and drove home without saying much. Buzzy kept the show going on land. “Increments of fear,” guns instead of surfboards, talking about Makaha and Waimea like they were battlefields. That’s all Buzzy. He invented the big-wave-man personality.
He also liked the words, “niggers”, and “faggots.” Was he a bad man or a man of his time?
He was racist, for sure, and probably homophobic. Loved all things German, including, or maybe even especially, the German war efforts. I don’t know how much slack you cut a person like Buzzy, given the childhood he had, and the age he grew up in.
We’re all going to get older. I can’t screw anymore. My prick doesn’t come up. It hangs down like a beat dog. But so what? I’ve fired that gun many times. It was a good gun. So the thing is, there comes a time, even in that, where you have to step down. You have to move on, or it gets ugly
Buzzy quit surfing in middle-age. Said he only liked big waves, done all he could etc. Is there a deeper story to it?
He didn’t like getting old, and didn’t want to be a lesser version of who he’d been. Here, I just found this quote from the interview he did with Ricky Grigg, in 2004. This might answer your question. “We’re in the twilight of our lives. Nothing beats age. Nothing. We’re all going to get older. I can’t screw anymore. My prick doesn’t come up. It hangs down like a beat dog. But so what? I’ve fired that gun many times. It was a good gun. So the thing is, there comes a time, even in that, where you have to step down. You have to move on, or it gets ugly. So I stepped down from that too.”
That ain’t gonna happen to me.
No kidding.
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your logic is ridiculous.
are you suggesting that a man who has dark-skinned lovers can’t be racist? ever been to the south? ever read history?
He sound so like a smart guy. Not wanting to take viagra when you get older shows wisdom and maturity. Moving beyond the constant desire for sex is something many will never be able to comprehend. Im afraid most people commenting are brainwashed liberals that know nothing of history.
He also liked the words, “niggers”, and “faggots.”
i say these words all day every day. i box, surf, shoot guns, have unprotected sex with multiple women and my childhood was filled with abusive alcoholics.
buzzy trent is my new favorite surfer
Yeah maybe that’s Lairds whole problem, no real cunt factor
“It is what a man does not what he says that matters.”
Poppycock. One could rightly argue that those who say things have done far more harm than the individuals who do them. Manson perhaps? Stalin? Pol Pot? All obviously worse than those who actually did the killing.
It was East side Oahu. Father Yod’s a whole ‘nother book.
What a dick. Wish I could send Rose Namajunas back in time so 110lbs of panicked female could break his arm.
So many posts arguing “but all men were racist sexist fascist homophobes in that era” when that’s not even remotely true. Millions and millions of people were on the right side of history back in the 1960’s – Trent sounds like not much more than a garden variety asshole.
Here, here.
It’s easy to judge a man from another era. Every man has a dark side. Better to judge Buzzy on his pioneering of big wave riding for which he has never gotten the credit he deserves. Yes we live in 2017 but we are now surrounded by the evils of racism now more than ever.
Exactly.
Compare Aussie’s from the same era and in the majority of cases you’d see a reflection between Buzzy and the typical Aussie bloke from a similar back ground.
We can all look back and question what was right wrong and otherwise, but circumstances attitudes and times were different.
great read, DR
Warshaw should be nominated for a Nobel for his work
More proof that surfers are generally racist, sexist, homophobic Nazis who behave like complete cunts at all times. I don’t cut such creatures any slack. Click!
He’s complaining about not getting a hard on in 2004? Fuck, Viagra went on the market in 1998…Buzzy wasn’t too sharp
Perhaps the twenty-five-dollar-a-tablet hit was too much?
If it wasn’t so important why did he bitch about it ? pony up , get the pills, and blow a big load, smile, and get on with old age…at probably half the cost of his bar bill
Anna and Ivan both told me their dad was “complicated.” Deep love all the way around, but not always easy, as it often goes with family. As for the racism, Steve Pezman at Surfer’s Journal transcribed the Grigg-Trent interview in 2004, and felt the need to run this disclaimer: Trent was “subborly opinionated, passionate, well-read, and shockingly racist. I had know of Buzzy unabashed bigotry, but the brutal fact of it slammed the entire tape like a sledgehammer.”
On the other hand, Trent was friends with Nick Galbaldon, the black surfer who died at Malibu. Buzzy went out and repeatedly dove for the body that day, in fact, while the biggest south swell of the year pumped through.
On the other other hand, Buzzy said things like this: “It’s like a nigger going down to a public school, and the guy’s never trained for track in his life. He takes off his boots and walks over to the track and asks, Hey, can I borrow your track shoes? And sets a city record. You hear me? That’s from pure ability. Niggers get that from the street, and from running away from lions. It comes to him from his home. Africa!”
Last word goes to Pezman: “The complete Trent would require a book.” It would be a complicated book.
..
He also liked the words, “niggers”, and “faggots.” Was he a bad man or a man of his time?
That’s a question not an angle.
Man of his time
Yes , when you take comments fro another era and judge them on todays standards , so easy to racist and Homophobic , which I would guesstimate that more than 90 % of surfers from that era would be guilty on todays standards , and when you bring sexual harassment into this argument , probably 90 % of surfings founding fathers should be jailed , ha, but that’s another story!!
Man, hard to be a woman in those days. Unless you look good with breeze in your hair.
Craig Anderson could have done much for women’s surfing. Born at the wrong time. What a shame.
snort-laugh
It’s still hard. Just read the comments below.