“Surfing and art are the two things I like. Those are my hobbies basically. I painted this hat. I just do uh, like surf art, and other kinds of things. I paint some hats, I paint paintings, you know, I do things like that.
Surfing for 35 years. My oldest brother pushed me into my first wave when I was 11, and I’ve never stopped since. It wasn’t traumatizing at all – it was enlightening. I stood up and rode the wave all the way to the beach. I said ‘I love this. I’m going to do this forever.’ I just love the ocean and surfing, the health benefits and the exercise. I do a lot of contests because I like to, you know, meet people, some friends.
I just surfed my heat right now, and I have my finals coming up at 2 o’clock. So far I’ve made it into one final, and I’m going to see if I made it into the other final – in the open division. [The first] is the senior men’s division with this longboard. I’ve lost in the semi-finals in the shortboard already, but I have my longboard finals coming up. You just watch the conditions, how the wind and the weather and the waves are doing. And then you decide what you’re going to try to do, where you want to sit, and where you want to position yourself.
I’ve surfed all around the world. I’ve surfed in Hawaii, I grew – I went to college in Hawaii and surfed there. I’ve surfed in Indonesia. I’ve surfed all over Central America, Mexico, and Brazil. Best waves probably would be Hawaii, but there’s a lot of things involved. There’s like not necessarily the best waves but the crowd conditions, or you know, the scenery, or wherever. The location. Probably – I love Central America, down Costa Rica. It was wonderful. And I also love the Mentawai, ’cause it’s just islands way out in the middle of the ocean that you go with your boat. And you go island to island searching for waves. Yeah, that’s a blast.
I’ve been held under so long that I almost blacked out in Hawaii. I’ve surfed some big – Waimeia Way, where it was really, really scary, and it’s survival, and not that fun. More uh, like life and death than fun. Just learning how to not panic and keep a good solid state of mind and know the conditions you’re in, and … not panic.
I just like being out in the water because all my problems from land are gone – not that I have that many problems. I don’t think about anything else except being out in the water, and it’s just really so wonderful, a wonderful thing to feel. It’s just me and the ocean. ”
Excerpt may be edited for clarity.