WHOSE BRIGHT IDEA WAS BLUE CRUSH ANYWAY?

By Corky Carroll

Surf babes are taking over the lineups in more and more surf spots everyday.  And for the most part they are young beautiful not cheerleaders who are in bikini bottoms and lycra rash guard tops.  This makes it extremely visual and it is really hard to concentrate on the oncoming huge set of waves when one of these hotties goes paddling by you.  And that is just what they are doing.  Paddling right by you and snaking you out of the oncoming wave.  You are so fixated on checking out their cute little round butts that you miss the fact that a perfect wave was coming and they are getting them and you aren’t.  “Is this all bad?” you ask.   I don’t know.   I am the first one to appreciate the vision of a beautiful surf babe in the lineup with me.  But at the same time many of them are taking advantage of the fact that they are girls and turning into real wave hogs.

Just this morning I was out in some really clean overhead waves at one of my favorite spots.   There was a small crowd out and it was actually fairly mellow.  Except for this one chick.  She was being so aggressive that guys were kinda getting irritated with her.  At one point I was in the right spot for a good set wave and she was paddling out behind me.  I turned around to take off and she saw that and turned to take the wave in front of me.  As she did that she just declared, “I’m going.”

Now in any sense of the word this is not cool.  This was a full on blatant drop in.  And this was not one of those young hottie surf babes either.  This was one of the older more gnarly ones that probably could, and would, kick your butt if you said much to her.  So I took off and rode the wave fairly deep in the pocket behind her as she did many turns on the shoulder in front of me, never even thinking about pulling out.  At the end of the wave she kind of glared at me and said, “I told you I was going!”  

I just had to laugh.  I mean really, what am I gonna do?  It was completely my wave.  Just because she told me that she was going to take it did not give her the right to take it.   But because she was a chick I guess she figured she could get away with it.

When I got back to my house I was checking my emails and I got a press release from my pal Allan Seymour about the upcoming 10th Annual Roxy Wahine Surfing Classic that will be held Friday, Oct. 6 through Sunday, Oct. 8th at San Onofre Surfing Beach just south of San Clemente.  This is a fun Longboard surfing contest for women of all ages and surfing levels.  

So I am sitting here thinking that I want to plug this event for Allan and for Roxy, both of which do a lot for the sport of surfing.  And also that I am a total fan of women’s surfing.  Well, I am more of a fan of women who surf than of women’s surfing.  I have to admit that.  There are some amazing women surfers, don’t get me wrong.  Many probably way better than me at this point in my life.  But I am a fan of Laird Hamilton and guys getting thundering barrels in Tahiti and real extreme surfing.  And I am one of those idiots that are too busy checking out the surf babe’s butts and getting snaked for waves.   For that matter, I was even saying last week that I wish that I was hooked up with a surf babe so that I could share my life with some girl who might have a little bit of understanding of how I think.   Maybe that would be good, maybe not.  

Anyway, I am sitting here trying to plug the Roxy Wahine Classic.  But the image of that surf chick who ripped me off this morning came into my mind and I feel that I have to point out that I feel, and I think many other male surfers feel too, that the influx of girl surfers is fantastic.  We love them out there.  But also it should be pointed out that just because daddy and mommy shelled out a zillion bucks for a new lightweight board, stylish surf gear, surf camps, private lessons, how to shred videos and the fact that young 15 year old Gidget is probably the most beautiful vision on the planet does not give her the right to ignore manners and take all the waves just because nobody is going to punch her out.   And actually SHE can have any wave she wants of mine… hahaha.  But the gnarly old crusty surf diva from this morning owes me one.  

For more information on the Roxy Wahini classic, and to sign up, please go to www.classicsurf.com or phone 949-496-8611. 

BAD ENDING FOR THE BEAST ~ THE WAVE

by Corky Carroll

I hate it when one of my friends passes away.  And the worst part about getting older is that it keeps happening with more and more regularity.  You see one of your other surviving pals and mention that so and so had just died and you comment on what a bummer it is and somehow you end up the conversation with some sort of joke to make it easier.  “Yeah, they are droppin’ like flys, good thing we are still here..hahahaha.”

But, it really is not funny and you know it.  You are sad that who ever it was is gone.  And that is how I started off one of my days last week.  I was doing my normal morning email reading and drinking my coffee when I got one that asked me if I had heard about Warren Bolster.  I wrote back saying no and asking what about him.  A few minutes later I got the reply that he had killed himself.

Whoa…  what?  Warren?  I was in shock.  He had been a really close friend of mine during the shortboard revolution years and also when I had worked at SURFER magazine between 1976 and 1986.   I ran the advertising department and he was one of our top surf photographers.  After I left SURFER and Warren moved to Hawaii we hooked up for many photo shoots and different jobs together.   Warren had been one of the first good surfers from Florida to ride a Corky Carroll mini-model, going against all his pals who rode local star Gary Propper models.  I always liked him for that.

Known to his pals as either “WB” or “the Beast,” Warren was a very complicated kind of dude.  He worried a lot about what people thought of him and his work.  He was very talented.  I remember I used to run into him at lunch at this place that used to be in San Juan Capistrano called Pete and Clara’s.   WB always had the same thing every day.  A triple cheese omelet and two giant cokes.  He drank cokes all day long.  I used to tell him that it was a race to see what happened first… all his teeth fell out or his liver gave out.  It seemed like he was always on some sort of deadline for something.   To say that the Beast was hyper would be putting it way to mildly.  He was super hyper. 

But then after he was in the islands for a few years he met his wife and had a family and he really mellowed out.   I never knew of the physical pain that I just recently found out that he was going through.

He had commented in a surfing book about how he had given up his body in order to capture the real extreme angles of surfing.  And thinking about that I can see what he was talking about.  He used to put himself way deep in the impact zone to get the deepest and most extreme surf shots.   That is sort of what defined him as a surf photographer.  “The beast always came home with the bacon,” was what was said about him.

Warren was also huge in the big rebirth of skateboarding in the 1970’s.  Along with working for SURFER magazine he also was top dog at SKATEBOARDER magazine. 

WB was 59 years old and evidently had been battling chronic pain for a number of years.  It was said that he was addicted to painkillers.  Nine days before his death he was involved in a car crash where he was rear-ended.  He told friends that he could not endure any more pain.  On September 6th he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.  He was at his home in Mokuleia on the north shore of Oahu. 

“The Legacy of Warren Bolster: Master of Skateboard Photography” is one of the many books featuring his shots.  That 2004 publication features more than 100 of his photos.

Pick up any SURFER magazine in the 1970’s and 80’s and you will see tons of WB’s great surf shots.   I will miss my personal pal and surfing friend very much.  Warren Bolster was a good guy and a good surfer.