Peter Mel

Legend has it that three Hawaiian princes brought surfing to the area in 1885.

My next guest is a giant in the sport and one of Santa Cruz's own.

Peter Mell is a decorated professional surfer who has conquered some of the world's biggest waves.

Peter, welcome to California Now.

We are stoked to have you.

it was awesome.

You had Potter, you had Peter Mel, you had Strider, of course, DePell, but like it was just more like Bart Lynch was even on there.

Ross Williams.

Yeah, Bart was great.

I think that was a little bit of around COVID times.

when I think he went out with the old and wasn't included in the new alongside Peter Mel.

Was it because

of

And it's a very small group of people that are there.

And so I would say like somebody like Peter Mel or Luca or, you know, Hunter Morrison and willem even these guys are the top of the hierarchy though so you know luca and hunter being locals from half moon bay right there you can see the wave from their house they have some of the top priority and so if they're turning and going on the wave they're going to go and sam goes with peter mel right he's been there for centuries at this point and i think it's pretty cool and then there's and also like there's Santa Cruz guys that have been up there forever and they've earned their spot in the lineup.

Ryan Augustine, Peter Mel, there's Willem for sure.

And, you know, they kind of get their pick and choose of the crop, but then there's also a huge local contingency and Half Moon Bay is a pretty small town.

They, you know, There's always going to be a little bit of a, I wouldn't say battle for hierarchy, but surf, big wave surfing has a lot of ego.

Favorite surfer

of all time? I'd have to say Laird Hamilton.

Laird Hamilton, Peter Mel, and probably Shane Dorian would probably be my three.

And I feel like we were witness to sort of the first generation of pioneers going out there, you know, for us, Laird, Dave, Derek Dorner, that whole crew.

Those were like the guys when we were growing up, and I'm sure it was similar for you where, you know, the Mavericks guys, the Peter Mells, Flea, like they were all in their prime and you could just like idolize them, watch all their videos.

How was that upbringing and how did that like affect your introduction into big waves?

Yeah, it's amazing.