"Machado is chill, no surprise, fun to see him draw
lines. Tudor is a bully…"
How many times have you surfed around the best shredders
in the world? Maybe you were at Snapper or Pipe
or Lowers, maybe at some distant
Indonesian reef.
To experience that thrill when a top-tier pro, a Slater or a
Fanning, makes eye contact with the peasants, when he shows he
doesn’t have a distant relationship with them, smiling jovially and
showing all his white and strong teeth, is the sorta thing that’ll
stay with a man for life.
Recently, a Reddit thread was
devoted to readers sharing their experiences with the best surfers
in the world.
Here are my favourites.
Saw Kolohe out at T-Street when we were both groms. Heard
him scream “I RIP!” as he demolished a shoulder-high wave. It
doesn’t surprise me he’s grown up to be kind of strange. I was
coincidentally seated at a table with his sister at the Coach House
for a Donovan Frankenreiter concert. She was really nice.
Donovan used to also put on the Cosmic Creek and bring a
bunch of retro boards for people to surf. He would surf with all of
us kids which was pretty cool.
I knew Pat O’Connell growing up and watched him rip my local
from the shoulder when I was young. He’s as lovely as everyone says
he is.
Saw CJ Hobgood out at Lowers, but everyone was hassling each
other so much there I just thought oh, cool then went back to
battling in the gladiator pit.
Out of the Water:
I saw A.I. in talks to renew his deal with the
then-president of Billabong at my local. Some kid screamed “OH MY
GOD IT’S ANDY IRONS! GUYS IT’S ANDY IRONS!” and someone else
screamed “NO WAY! DID YOU SUCK HIS DICK??” Pretty gratifying to see
Andy laugh at that.
Ran into Mick at Oktober Fest in Munich which was wild. He
was shitfaced, but pretty mellow when I dapped him up.
Rob Machado came to our high school and hosted an assembly
when he came to install his eco-friendly water fountains. That was
ruined because a jackass decided it would be funny to sneak a Klan
hood into the auditorium and put it on while Rob was speaking.
Horrible look for our school. I’m still ashamed and will not be
mentioning that story or where I’m from if our paths ever cross
again.
Surfed with Jordy, josh Kerr, Rob machado, Occy and Slater who
were all really nice in the water, would let us kooks get waves
even calling us into them. Did 2 hours alone with Jordy at canguu
and he was such a good cat, he was no2 in wsl at the time but he
just seemed like a guy who liked to surf but did it super well.
Surfed with a young Medina the year of his pro junior win in
NZ he was a bit of an arrogant dickhead as you’d expect from a
young fulla on top of the world! He calmed down once he was
reminded in a calm but firm state there’s only one road in and out
of here and you have to drive past these 10guys houses.
In my experience the qs level pros are the worst regardless of
where they are from just want every scrap of everything for video
or just entitlement. The upper level pros usually a lot more chill
tho a mate who lived in Fiji isn’t a fan of several of the
Brazilians even a couple I thought seemed mellow after a few
sessions with them at cloud break
Machado is chill, no surprise, fun to see him draw
lines
Tudor is a bully
Growing up on Oahu, I ran into many pros on the North Shore. One
of the most memorable was when I surfed a small (6’) day at Pipe
with Kelly Slater. This was circa 1989-90 when he was the young
phenom before his world titles.
He was out with his local tour guide and fellow QS teammate
Perry Dane. PD was one of the OG enforcers back in the day, pre
Wolf pack.
Halfway through the session, some unfortunate person dropped in
on Kelly. Kelly paddles back out with the roaster about 20 yards
behind him. PD starts paddling towards the roaster with this ‘I
going kill this faka’ look on his face and as he paddles past
Kelly, he asks Kelly “Dat faka dropped in on you?” without taking
his eyes off his prey. Everybody knew what was coming. But Kelly
quickly replied to PD, “no no, I told him to go.” He was a class
act.
Jamie O’Brien burned me at spot on Oahus South shore that
breaks along a very sketchy lava rock wall. I was already up and
riding deeper, pretty much within arms length from the wall on the
takeoff. He was further inside and sitting on the shoulder but he
chipped into it on his big ass soft top and faded straight into my
line. It forced me to go straight pretty much directly into the
sketchist part of the spot. I got fully washed, came real fuckin
close to getting dragged along the rocks underwater and dinged the
fuck out of my board. Dude straight up just said “I didn’t see you
brah” when I was like “dude WTF was that about?” and that was it.
Dudes a prick.
To add to this story, him and his crew hung out of the
cliffs filming their SuPeR eXtReME lifestyle content making it seem
like jumping off these cliffs into the water was a totally normal
and safe thing to do. A 15 year old girl drowned and was
resuscitated on top of a surfboard in the lineup less than 30
minutes after him and his crew left. Seriously fuck that
guy.
Bought a used efoil. Turned out to be Stacy Peralta selling it.
Met up with him to complete the purchase and he was the absolute
most genuine, humble, kind and warm human. When I let on that I
knew that he was a legend, he offered to sign my board and
graciously smiled as the kook in me asked to take a picture with
him. Stacy even cut me off some pieces of jade and aeonium plants
from his garden–he’s got quite the green thumb and has some
wonderful specimens.
He still texts to check in from time to time just to make sure
I’m out there still ripping. Like just randomly texts to say hi.
Just such a genuine dude. Stacy, if you’re out there, you freaking
ROCK and I appreciate everything you’ve done for me and for sport
in general.
Alex Knost yields priority like a person should. Most
surfers used to hate on this guy for riding a long board and being
an indie kid, but when I was surfing almost every day in my 20s he
was the only pro I surfed around who didn’t try to pull rank or be
a dick even when he was filming. I never exchanged words beyond
hello but he’s infinitely cool bc he wasn’t an asshole in the
water. Never liked his music though.
Back in the fall of 2020 I was staying in Uluwatu for several
weeks, two of them at Ulu Surf Villas. In the span I was staying at
Ulu Villas, Slater & Lewis Hamilton were there, Machodo later in
the trip as well.
Dawn patrol was my favourite when surfing Bombies. It seemed
most locals didn’t like going out early and you can see the
afternoon crew paddling in from the cave. Was always a sign to grab
a good one in and hit a late breakfast. I would often see Lewis &
Slater out as well I think Lewis like the small crowd. Anyways, I
didn’t fan out, simply told them it was awesome seeing the two out
here and left it at that. Shared some waves, I’d eavesdrop on
Kelly shooting Lewis advice. Got a few sick ones over
that whole stay which got a few yeww’s from the boys.
I don’t know if it was the lack of verbal fandom or what, but I
couldn’t say anything better about sharing the water with those
guys. No elitism, profession levels on snaking or anything negative
about the session. If anything it made the sessions some of the
most relaxing times in the water given it was still a sizeable
swell. There was something so cool about being in the water with
people that could be anywhere else on the world. But they chose
this surf spot, and so did you. So really, it just made me
appreciate that trip even more. Because I doubt the majority of
surfers will ever experience waves outside their local.
Mid tier pros on the other hand, regardless of where you are or
they are from. Absolutely miserable, you get the feeling they surf
everywhere as if they’re being watched by talent scouts on the
beach.
And, you, reader? What have been your experiences, good, bad and
beautiful?
