Surfer

Yeah, Luke Egan, maybe? Yeah, Luke Egan won that event.

And I recall, of course, again, working at Surfer Magazine, there was a big, you know, sort of remembrance ceremony, if you will, prior to the event starting with everybody on the beach, you know, like maybe saying a prayer or a moment of silence, huge American flag flying over.

And it was also a year, and I'm gonna butcher this a little bit, but I recall staff photographer, a guy who worked with Jason Murray at Surfer Magazine, had a boat in the lineup.

And it was pumping, it was huge.

And somehow or another, he lost power to his engine, I believe.

All right,

welcome back.

So Surfer X, this is the portion of the show where I attempt to stump the audience, the duchess of the world, and David Scales here.

Again, not that I was invited.

Surfer Mag actually put together a pretty interesting list.

Of what?

Debunking...

From surfing, surf myths

...

Surfer Mag.

Okay.

The cloud break event ended yesterday.

And some other stuff, I have a Surfer X, which I think I might, it's actually kind of an interesting one.

I might stump you here.

I'm going to guess Shane Horan as the answer right now.

Jeez, what a gift.

And thank you, NVS Fins for the incredible Twinsers.

Yeah, I have a, who said that? Surfer X, if you will.

Are you ready for this? I am ready.

You know what's so funny? You know who kind of like stopped me from ever being able to get dressed here was Rob Machado.

Like early days when it was all starting to grow, there was like a Surfer Magazine article came out or something and Rob said,

if Jack ever put on a pair of shoes, I think his fans would disown him or something like

that.

Yeah.

Well, isn't she the daughter of John Severson, who was the Surfer Magazine founder and editor? Yeah,

yeah.

That's right.

And he went up and won it.

So when I got through the apartment project, that's when I thought, okay, what do I do? Do I do more rehab apartment stuff, which I liked at that time? I decided to open my brand in 99 and I rented a place in Casa de Porro, a little place that had been a dining room for a hotel and opened a loft.

And I went over to Maui and presented my sales at a magazine called American Wind Surfer.

I didn't have any sugar daddy or commercial uh assistants um but i knew john chow and uh he had his magazine and so i went with some wave sales and some slalom sales they had a weird test where they had like 15 normal windsurfers who would try out all the gear and give the report and um i had um two sales in the top two positions in that test.

Well, this is a portion of the show where I try to stump David and you, the listener, by giving you, um, reading you a little quote or something from somebody and you try to guess which surfer I'm talking about.

Here we go, David.

And I quote, Surfer X, there remains something disturbing and unsettled about Surfer X, something that resists a Frank Capra plotline.

Maybe it's just because Surfer X will still put on that fearful, dangerous look.

Maybe it's something deeper.

Without a doubt, the tension and anger that used to pour quietly from Surfer X's dark eyes has been subdued.

David, who is surfer X? Is it A, Dane Kealoha? B, Kobe Aberton? C, Sonny Garcia? Or D, Martin Potter? Jeez.

I'm going Dane or Martin Potter.

I saw the future, but I should have reacted to it.

That's why I said to everyone, you know, and I wrote it on my little Surfer's Code card, "I will never fight a riptide." And sometimes one sees these trends in society and sees these, these trends in consciousness that you just can't fight them.

I fought it and I, and, and, and I got smacked back.

Like that's the first lesson my dad taught me, "Don't fight the riptide.

When you're a world champion in the sport, when you've pioneered the way that the sport's gone, to then pivot and go somewhere else is tricky, and you've gone into such a unique space.

So can you talk to me about how you ended up in California? And I'd love to talk a little about this story of what happened with Rincon, with the sewage in the water, and this idea of standing up for environmental things, because that's something that I do quite a lot of.

But that's really where the Surfers' Code came from.

From my research, you started giving young kids little cards to put on their fridge or whatever with mom and dad saying, "Hey, we've gotta protect the ocean, but here's a few other things that we've gotta do." And then the Surfers' Code evolved from that.

Well, gang, it's Gary Wells from Vintage Leisure at soulrideblog.com, and I'm here with another book recommendation on Words With Wellsy here on Cocktail Nation.

This time we're looking at All for a Few Perfect Waves: The Audacious Life and Legend of Rebel Surfer Miki Dora by David Rensen from 2008.

I have followed surfing, the competitive sport and the culture and lifestyle, for the last 35 years, and one name I have always been aware of is Miki Dora's.

His name would pop up with reverence in the pages of Surfer Magazine that I subscribed to for years, but also in the credits of my beloved Beach Party movies.

This always seemed contradictory to me.

It was not until a few years ago that I found this book that explained it all, and so much more.

You- you're Walk of Fame, and he's Hall of Fame.

Surfer Hall of Fame, and you're the Walk of Fame, which is weird that we have two, but whatever.

Of course.

We got the handprint-

It is a quick-paced thriller that follows a surfer lifeguard as he cracks a code, but must convince investigators that the makers of recently detonated bombs are not only homegrown locals, but they're also hiding in plain sight.

It poses scarily plausible real-world scenarios that illustrate just how so much of this life of convenience that we all live nowadays also leaves us incredibly vulnerable.

So grab Near Shore from your local bookstore now and you may know Steve's work best from his time as editor at Surfer Magazine from 1990 to 1998.

It was during that time that I discovered surfing and I first subscribed to the magazine.

So it's fair to say that my initial view of the surf world was a direct reflection of Steve Hawk's curation of it.

He began surfing and skating in San Diego in the late 60s, and he even gifted his younger brother, Tony Hawk, his very first skateboard.

I actually did a deep dive with Steve about his origin story and his time at Surfer Magazine, and that was on episode number 565 of Surf Splendor.

So if you'd like to go back and listen to that as a precursor to this episode, that is probably advisable.