ONLY ONE KELLY SLATER 7-30-08
By Corky Carroll

I thought I had a great professional surfing career. Until Kelly Slater came along I would have put it up there next to anybody and would have felt pretty solid about it. But mine totally pales in comparison with what Kelly Slater has put on the wall. The guy is just light-years beyond everyone else and I don’t think anybody would argue with my view that he has become the greatest surfer of all time. At 36 years old the guy is charging toward a record ninth World Championship. The old record was 8 and held by him. As well as 7 and 6. He has taken it way farther than anybody ever believed it could be taken. The only other surfer that I think of in the same vein would be Laird Hamilton. And with Laird it is his beyond belief fearless attack on monster surf that puts him in his own league by himself. These two surfers, both completely in different dimensions of the sport, have raised the bar so high that it is almost beyond imagination.

I first got to know Kelly and see him surf when he was a little kid growing up in Florida. I used to be the M.C. every year for a sort of surf contest/ festival/ amazing party event held back there called the “Sundek Classsic.” This event was held at the Holiday Inn in Melbourne Beach every August and was one of my favorite surf events to attend. The surfing contest was a blast but the whole weekend was one massive party at the hotel. I think they finally had to stop having it when the hotel itself said “no more” after too many television sets wound up in the pool and maybe a few single rooms somehow became two bedroom suites. I don’t really know about all that, but I can tell you that it was one fun surfing weekend. When I first saw Kelly he was like eleven or twelve years old and already had moves and style. You could tell this kid was going places surfing wise. It has been like that with almost every great surfer. Signs of greatness at very young ages. Laird was the same way. Nuuhiwa, Shaun Tomson, and Tommy Curren too. Kelly would win the boys division every year when the truth was that he actually could have won all the divisions.

What made me really believe that he not only had the talent to make it huge but also the will and drive was something I saw one day when I was back in Florida visiting surf shops when I was working as Advertising Director for Surfer Magazine. I was sitting on the deck of Bill Yerkes condo, which was on the beach somewhere between Cocoa Beach and Melbourne Beach. This would sort of like being between Newport Beach and Sunset Beach here in Orange County. The surf was big and it was very windy and blown out. When it gets like that back there the north to south current can be like a river. And this was one of those days. As we were sitting there was saw Kelly and his brother Sean drifting into view surfing the lefts down the beach. They rode a few waves were we could see them and then disappeared out of view to the south. Kelly was just shredding these big sloppy and choppy walls. An hour or so later they came drifting back into view again. They had been dropped off up at Cocoa Beach and surfed their way probably the fifteen or so miles down to Melbourne and picked up. They drove back and did it again. They would do this all day long. The way I saw him riding those really bad waves reminded me of growing up in Surfside and having to surf horrible windy slop every afternoon. Nobody wanted to surf that because it was so bad. I loved it. It made me good. I could see that Kelly was exactly the same way. Just grooving across waves that most guys would not even think about riding. It made him beyond good. It made him amazing.

The years of conditioning in difficult bad surf not only made him great but also gave him the dedication to put in the enormous effort that it takes to be World Champion. Not once but eight times so far and very likely nine this year. Ten? I guess if he wants it then it’s possible. All I know is that we are seeing a really remarkable surfer as well as person at the top of his game and going beyond glory. Bravo Kelly.

I FEEL SO YOUNG ~The Wave 7-30-08
By Corky Carroll

I get a ton of email about these columns and about surfing in general. From time to time one is so good or so interesting that I like to share it with you. Recently I got the following one from a dude who simply identified himself as “Harry.” Harry has been around a long, long, very long time. When I read this it made me feel like a newbie on the surfing block. Normally I am like the oldest guy in the water or the one that has been surfing longer than almost anybody else, over fifty years now. Occasionally I will run into somebody older like maybe Bob “the Greek” Bolan who is way older than me, O.K. way, way older at that, and I feel kinda spry and nubile in comparison to that kind of crusty old geezer. But this dude Harry is a true old-timer and his memories of surfing here in California in days far gone by merit checking out. So, in respect to the historical aspect of our surfing culture and a true surf survivor here is the email from simply Harry.

‘I'll turn 90 this year and I've been witness to the
long history of surfing in California. Your recent
article regarding Bud "Barracuda" Browne, turned on a
light bulb. Your reference to the San Luis Obispo
film festival and the USC swim team lit up some
history back to the late 1920s & early '30's !!

I was on the Santa Maria High School swim team
1932-'36 and one of my teammates and body surfing
buddies (a couple years my senior) was John Paulson. John was on the USC swim team with Bud and swam on the
USA team in L.A. 1932 Olympics. During those days
nobody north of Redondo Beach knew what a surf board
was!!

Our S.M. high swim coach during those years was Paul
Nelson who was a surfer and coach from Redondo Beach.
Two of Paul’s close friends were Fred Cady, 1932
Olympic Dive team coach and Duke Kahanamoku, world
famous swimmer and surfer. As a special attraction at one of our high school swim meets Paul invited Duke to swim an exhibition. We had our pictures taken with Duke and he gave us a picture with one of his boards and spent time telling us kids about surfing. He talked about board design a little
which sparked a lot of interest.

Some of us were body surfing at Pismo Beach and
Avila Beach a lot in those days, however nobody ever
saw a surfboard at those beaches (your mention of San
Luis Obispo lit that candle) until Carol Johnson, Norman Johnson and myself built what we thought was a replica of one of the Duke’s, in our high school woodshop. Not having any balsa wood or other light wood we made the board out of Mahogany!! You can imagine the weight of that 9'-10" monster. It took two of us to get that onto the sand and into the water.

The board was built with out a skeg (who knew what that was) and technically would never work. We pearl dived or fell off every time. We were black and blue across the hips because of the squared off end our bellies were riding on when we pearl dived. Eventually we were able to stand up. So surfing was born at Pismo Beach !!

Not having much success at surfing we returned to
body surfing and diving off the pier to attract the "chicks" on the beach. I think the board ended in a fire to keep us warm on a foggy day at Pismo.

-Special note: I surfed until 10 years ago when I
couldn't pull my old body up on the board. Went back
to body surfing at Poche beach until 5 years ago and
now I watch the Poche breakers from my living room!!
All four of my kids are surfers. Perhaps you recall my daughter Sharon Saunders who was one of the "chicks"
that surfed Dana Point in '50's & 60's. Keep up the great work. Harry. “

Man, I hope I am kickin’ back on the deck watchin’ the waves when I hit 90. And yep, I remember Sharon. She used to surf with Loren Harrison’s daughter Marion. This is great surf history stuff. These days it’s hard to convince most of the pierced generation that there was actual surfing before they were born. And, before I was born at that. Thanks Harry, stay stoked my friend.