VOLUME SIXTEEN, NUMBER FOUR STANDUP surf & sail

JOURNAL

Dan Malloy, Mentawai Islands, by Tom Servais THE PHOTOGRAPHERS III forging the way

FRESH LENSES Dahlquist • Schweiger • DeCamp • Rayburn • Moonwalker

$12.95 US/Canada LIVING LEGEND The Heavy World of Aussie Jamie Mitchell, by Steve Sjuggerud

SOJOURN Indo: Taking the Full Quiver, by Scott Bass, with Images by Swilly Williams

VOLUME SIXTEEN, NUMBER FOUR QUARTERLY $12.95 2 3 That’s Classic

razil is one of my favorite places in the world to shoot. There is a diverse range of waves, the women are gorgeous, and the culture collides with the waves at a place millions of people flock to every day: the beach. Rio de Janeiro runs right along the coast, and since it faces south the light is amazing all day. This beautiful wedge is near one of the poor slums. Most people have more important things to worry about, like food, water, and the constant drug wars. A pitching peak in the middle of humanity proves you can Bfind a wave to yourself even in the middle of a dense city. –Ben DeCamp, Photographer 5 6 7 Standup surf & sail Journal VOLUME 16, NUMBER FOUR, WINTER 2009 12 A DAY ON THE RUN Published by Clay Feeter The Maliko Gulch Phenomenon Associate Publisher: Steve Sjuggerud, 32 THE JAMIE MITCHELL STORY 74 THE PHOTOGRAPHERS III Photographic Consultant: Glenn Dubock By Karen Baxter & Michi Schweiger By Steve Sjuggerud Produced by Kerry Struble; Birchblaze.com 104 BIG ISLAND JACK GILLEN Editorial Consultants: John Dubock, Tom Byrnes, Clark Merritt, Kurt Feeter, Rob Driscoll 22 TOM JONES’ 1,250 MILER 47 LATITUDE ZERO By Scott Bass By Keith Holland By Teia Maman Featuring the Photography of Swilly Williams Columnist: Steve West Copy Editor: Zachary Ernst 114 PEOPLE WHO MAKE Marketing/Editorial Interns: Kira, Sydney & Anna Feeter 30 THE WEST SIDE 68 THE BOYS OF NOOSA Standup Journal is published quarterly in March, By Steve West By Moonwalker THE JOURNAL June, September and December by Clay Feeter, P.O. Box 360 TIM McKENNA “I was lucky enough to know ahead of time that I was being sent to Tahiti on business... I wanted a short board that could get 118 PUBLISHER’S NOTE Center Barnstead, NH 03225 8 into the waves quickly. Lightning Bolt Maui shaper Frank Forbes and I came up with a new design, an 8’4” that we both figured would stand up [email protected] 9 to the legendary Tahitian juice. It turned out to truly be a day to remember forever.” – Bryan Altham, pictured Subscriptions: www.StandupJournal.com/subscribe 10 11 The Maliko Gulch Phenomenon AA DayDay onon TheTheBy Karen RunRun Baxter

DAN RAYBURN A typical weekend on The Run is enhanced by an even larger than usual number of women during the annual Butterfly Effect each April. Started by Maui waterwoman Tatiana Howard, the “BE” brings women together for a downwind sup/windsurf/kite adventure that is “all for fun, with no contest pressure. It supports and encourages women to take on watersports,” says Tatiana. Pictured: DaKine Maui factory outlet store manager Yve Kuefner. RAYBURN (Below) Maliko’s deep channel extends well inland, allowing for dry-hair access to the ocean in all but maxed out surf.

aui’s Maliko Gulch Run is spectacular… Leaving making a couple calls on Maui. On today’s trip, our crew Maliko and looking back into the valley, you see of 17 included Ed Angulo, Mark Angulo, Bill Foote, Mark Ma picturesque bay with a panoramic view. The Raaphorst, Andy Whitman, Mike Richardson, Richard deep gulch of Maliko extends about 7 miles from Olinda Perry, Steve Roan, Rebecca Jakeway, Lani Gomes, Livio to Haiku. Then it broadens into a flat valley, and ends in a Menelau, Jeremy Riggs, Norm Mezin, Mark Winslow, Keith narrow bay with steep cliffs and a small rocky beach. Large Baxter, Ashley Baxter, and youngest participant 13-year-old boulders of lava rock jut out along the shoreline, giving it a Connor Baxter. treacherous appearance. Our sup fleet comprised a diverse range of custom and Looking down at the reef below you is amazing. Plate production boards from 10’6” up to 16’0”, included Angulo, and rice corals dominate the bottom. The colors of the water Foote, Greene, Naish, SIC, and Starboard, and varied from vary from turquoise long distance race boards to deep, dark blue. On with a rudder to a downwind run you wave boards. are bound to see some This time of the year sea life such as turtles, is the ideal time for a spinner dolphins, flying downwind run. You see, fish, and sting rays, as this part of the north well as windsurfers shore is completely and kiteboarders. exposed to the spring- Getting a group summer tradewinds that of standup paddlers make Maui one of the together for the Maliko world’s best 12 Run is as easy as venues. These tradewinds 13 also make for the optimum downwind run for standup paddle boards. These same tradewinds can make paddling out of Maliko Bay a challenge. Inside the bay you’re protected and it’s easy to head straight out. The trick is to hug as far to the right as possible to avoid landing on the jagged lava rocks on your left. Once you hit the wind line you can paddle on your knees or stomach, or the more advanced can remain standing up. The main objective is to get out at least a couple hundred yards before heading downwind or on a broad reach. This is when the fun starts. You quickly plane, catching wind swells and getting as many long glides as possible. The windier the better, as it creates more wind swell, making it possible for better and longer, exhilarating glides. When you first turn downwind from Maliko to go to Kanaha, a good reference point to look for is Iao Valley in the West Maui Mountains. One of the first well-known spots you come to is Ho’okipa Beach. Pass Ho’okipa and Lanes, and then aim at the smoke stacks at Kahului Harbor. Following the coast you pass Kuau, Paia, Baldwin Beach Park, and some spectacular views and landscapes, such as Haleakala Crater, which rises

ERIK AEDER/PENTAX (Right) Standup paddle cruising is all the easier for those who already have surf or racks; one more toy for the roof! AEDER/PENTAX (Below) Gear check ‘n go! Eight or nine miles later—depending on where you choose to come ashore—your feet touch the sand again.

14 TRACY KRAFT Maliko’s first leg: pure country. You can paddle as hard or as effortlessly as you’d like. The wind and rollers at your back take you towards your destination in the ultimate sightseeing position: standing on Mother Ocean’s escalator!

10,023 feet above sea level. Once at Sprecks, you can head to paddle on the open ocean and stop at different surf spots. Camp 1 through the waves, landing on the inside of the reef, You can cruise or race, have a group of friends with you, making it an easy and fun run to Kanaha Beach. Some of the or be on your own. There is beauty all around—above and best glides are between Specks and Kanaha. below the water. Today, scores of people in Maui partake in downwind Some do the Run for cross training, others a good standup paddle runs, launching from a variety of locations. workout, the challenge, and the enjoyment. The camaraderie So you inevitably meet up with other people you know and the breathtaking scenery make you forget the great along the way that you did not launch with. workout you’re getting. Being in the ocean with friends and family makes the The Maliko Run is one of the most awe-inspiring trips of a unique place for standup paddling. You can a lifetime. Put it on your list of things to do.

ERIK AEDER/PENTAX (Left) The final leg off Spreckelsville. NATHALIE VAGLIO (Right) Norm Roediger with son Bernd, 11, a semi-pro waterman, one of Naish’s youngest ever windsurf and standup team riders.

17 Poster art by Patrick Dunn Patrick art by Poster

The MalikoBy Run Michi SchweigerRace n the summer of 2008, all the big names came to Maui for the perfect wind and swell conditions. But they did not come for windsurfing or . North shore Maui, with its blasting tradewinds and Ibig, open-ocean swells, offers perfect conditions for downwind sup runs. Riders glide on the offshore rollers, combining brute paddling with surf technique. The combination of and paddling makes the most technical riders ultimately the fastest guys on those downwind runs. With just one glide you can separate yourself from the fleet. After that it is up to you to catch and connect as many glides as possible. You can be paddling your heart out, but if you are not catching any glides you will be slow and at the back end of the fleet. The annual Naish Maui International Paddleboard Championships is a 10-mile race from Maliko Gulch to Kahului Harbor, and is scheduled each year just before the 32-mile Molokai-to- Challenge. Many competitors have begun using the annual Maliko race as a warm up run for the big Molokai event. In 2008, over 200 competitors showed up for , more than 80 percent of them competing in standup classes. In classic paddleboard tradition there are different classes that are not only refined by age but mainly by the style of boards used. This distinction gives everybody a fair chance. Thanks to the rapid growth of sup around the world three classes have been established on an international basis: • Twelve-foot, 6-inch class: designed to give everybody on classic standup boards the chance to compete on the same level • Fourteen-foot stock class: up to 14 feet, no rudder allowed • Unlimited class: no length limit, rudder allowed; 19 make it as fast as possible.

TRACY KRAFT rd 3Every Naish race design Maui advancement Paddleboard leads to better Championships boards for us at home PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN RAYBURN & SERGIORIO 1st row Robby Naish and prone paddle winner Jamie Mitchell; contest HQ; SIC shaper Mark Raaphorst. 2nd row The start line. 3rd row Buzzy Kerbox; Maliko Gulch by TRACY KRAFT; Buzzy and his downcoast glider. 4th row Pre race; the start; Loch Eggers and 3 buds paddle a paraplegic friend. 5th row After the Naish event, Dutch windsurf pro Anne Marie Reichmann, on right, went on to complete an 11-city tour thru Holland, paddling her sup all the way. On her right is American Olympic skiing gold medalist turned core sup woman Julia 20 Mencusa; SIC’s Ding King mobile; Standup class winner Dave Kalama finished 10 minutes ahead of 2nd placer Scott Trudon. Buzzy Kerbox was 3rd. Andrea Moller won the women’s overall. S the Longest Paddle Tom Jones’ epic 1,250 mile open ocean journey by Teia Maman

knew I was in trouble then,” Tom told me. “I was in ‘victory- at-sea’ conditions. I had a 12-foot northwest swell at my “I back and a gale force wind in my face. For all I know, I was moving backwards. I’d already paddled seventeen miles, but I had nowhere to go…” Months before, endurance athlete Tom Jones had decided to tackle standup paddling the entire length of California. He 22 thought he knew what he was in for… but he didn’t expect this... GLENN DUBOCK GLENN The problem started just as he made it to Point the same time as Zolie, wanting to know where the hell Arguello… “The 45mph tailwind suddenly shifted to a I came from. They told us they saw the whole thing—us south wind, and started pushing me back around Point trying to get into Jalama. I explained “The California Arguello. Zoltan Torkos (my Waverunner escort that day) Paddle,” and they knew instantly who I was and what I and I knew we were in major trouble with the big swell was doing.” and the opposing winds.” Meet Extreme Endurance Athlete, Thomas Jones Rather than continue, they chose to run for Jalama In early August last year, Thomas Jones set out on immediately. “The California Paddle.” He started on the Oregon “We needed to get in. Zoltan faced the worst ordeal border. Three and a half months and 1,250 miles later, he of the crossing when the wind suddenly switched. The reached the border of Mexico. south wind was pushing the wave runner’s nose up and As an extreme athlete, Tom has achieved seemingly sometimes even down into the ocean as we were trying impossible feats, such as running 121 full marathons in 121 to get back around the point into Jalama. days from his home in Huntington Beach, California, to “I kept telling Zolie to turn into Jalama, but he couldn’t New York City. He ran the entire length of California until we were well past the deadly reef on the north end. —three times. Tom is also a martial arts expert and world It was low tide, kickboxing luckily, because champion. But that meant we his “California could see some Paddle 2007” wrecked ships was a whole on the reef. ‘nother story. “We were so The 43-year- f&*%!+> scared old now says when we saw he had no idea the wrecks and what he was realized we in for when he couldn’t just launched at the pull into Jalama California-Oregon to escape the border with his gale winds. We 14-foot standup had to make board, provided it around the by Joe Bark, and reef that had paddle donated claimed these by Quick Blade. ships, in these “I may be same weather a world class conditions!” athlete, but I was “Zoltan had only an average the ski close to waterman then. full throttle, and “If I ever do the trip again I will probably use two boards, one similar to the Surftech Laird The first day was as I looked over model, with the nose pulled in a bit, and the other would be a 14-foot board, which works peaceful, fun, but my shoulder nicely when it’s flat and there is no wind.” Jones did the challenge in order to promote “A the trip became there was a set Campaign for a Plastic Free Ocean.” Donations can be made at EduranceIsland.com. progressively wave bearing more difficult. down on us I was just from behind. I screamed ‘Oh my God, run for it!’ smart enough to surround myself with a great team.” “He hit it even harder and outran the wave, and we The Jalama experience wasn’t the only adrenaline finally worked back and forth with the swell and made overdose… it in to the bay. But we weren’t safe yet! Jalama was breaking 10-foot solid shore pound. I had to wait about Greg Noll’s son Rhynn, Mickey Munoz, and Whitey 20 minutes outside, until I caught an in-between set that “Klamath was nuts,” Tom said. “My partner Rhynn Noll, came in, and I safely landed my board. I was exhausted big wave legend Greg Noll’s son, is from Crescent City and frightened. and he knows that area down to Santa Cruz like the back “But now it was Zoltan’s turn. We coordinated his of his hand. landing on our VHF radios and he did a masterful job of “I’d paddled about 15 miles that day, and was landing the ski on the sand. supposed to do a beach landing to make it easier for “As we came through all of this, we’d noticed two Rhynn and Zoltan to come into the river mouth on the tow-in surfers and jet skis just killing it. They landed at skis, as it was breaking about 5 to 6 feet.

(Previous page) The hairiest stretch of Jones’ marathon paddle down the entire California coast came during a sudden weather change, a wind shift that threw 40+ mph winds at his face against a big following sea at Point Arguello, north of Jalama Beach. DUBOCK (Previous page inset) Tom showing the wear of his latest feat: circumnavigating Oahu 3 times in 20 days via biking, running, and finally standup 24 paddling ashore at Waikiki, intentionally chosen because it is the home of early Hawaiian “beach boy” style paddling, the original sup guys. 25 DUBOCK As a mountain biker goes uphill so he can coast down, Jones starts his training routine off his Southern California house with several miles against the wind.

Big Sur-f “Big Sur—so majestic, so big, so much energy,” he said. “I was torn between being awestruck and frightened for my life! “Sean Van Summeran, a shark expert from Santa Cruz, was to accompany us through Carmel and Big Sur on his 12-foot rubber skiff. We thought it would be better because there are hardly any places to land or get a wave runner out of the water. But Sean was kind of sketched after the first day out with us. We were to set out from Point Lobos on the second day, but Sean hesitated about launching, saying it was too dangerous. “He said he was worried about his equipment and his professional reputation if anything was to go wrong and we had to call mayday. “‘Your , your reputation?!’ I told him it was his life he should be worried about! He decided to go. The wind was about 10mph from the NW, with a little fog, and a 4 to 5-foot NW swell. It was to be a 19-mile paddle around Point Sur. About four hours into it, Sean started to get real nervous. We had spotted a couple of great whites patrolling, and the wind and swell were picking up. He asked me a couple of times to do a beach landing along the way, but each time the spot looked like 12-foot Waimea shore pound. I told him that if he could land his boat, I would land my board. “He’d go in and take a look, but come back, knowing it was certain death. I told him, ‘See that light way down there? That’s Point Sur, and once we get past that, we’re done.’ We’d planned a beach landing at Andrew Molera State Park, the only place to land short of continuing another 20 miles south. If we missed it, we were screwed. “By the time I finally rounded Point Sur, the swell was over 10 feet, and the wind had really picked up—to about 50 mph. It was blowing me off my board as I came up over the waves. We decided to make a run for it, and I got into the skiff. I told Sean not to overshoot the landing, as I knew it was blowing too hard to fight back upwind. I was exhausted, laying on my board in the skiff, with half the board sticking out over the bows. We motored along for a while, and then I saw we’d overshot the landing by a half mile. “Sean tried to turn the boat around several times but “As we approached Klamath, surf legend Mickey the bow kept blowing downwind. We couldn’t go back Munoz radioed us to say that great whites had been north. Sean told me to get out of the boat then, saying it spotted in the area that day. I was terrified just to do the was too heavy with me aboard. He pushed my board out beach landing there, let alone be breakfast for a great and threw my paddle in too. I had to jump out, get on my white. I took off on the wrong wave and got the hell beat board, and start paddling against a 50mph head wind. out of me. Sharks were undoubtedly all around. I realized that I was in thick kelp and would have to go “Rhynn and Zoltan came into the river mouth on the through that too. skis. And the Indians, who we had heard were pretty bad “I was afraid for my life by then. Shoreside literally types, had actually pulled their nets out of the Klamath to looked like a river flowing south. I paddled through that make it easier for us to pass. They were lined up along the kelp for over an hour and finally made it in. The kelp river mouth, waving hello and clapping.” actually kept me from being pushed south. I watched Tom nearly met disaster another time, when coming in Sean trying to turn his boat and land the whole time I was 26 at Big Sur... out there struggling. I made it before he did.” 27 Help from my heroes—Laird and Dave Kalama feet behind me—this 1-foot dorsal fin of something very Another day, foggy, with an eight-foot swell, he lost big locked right on me. his rig. There he was, stranded in the water, . “It ran straight at me with its fin sticking up out of “I made it to shore, but I had to get another board in a the water for about 20 feet, then it disappeared! F^&* hurry. I called Laird and Surftech sent me a board the was I scared! I turned completely around on my board very next day.” expecting the worst. Rhynn was trying to get in between He used that 12-foot Surftech “” model us but couldn’t make it in time. I saw the orca turn into for the rest of the trip. Tom said he “really bonded” with shore about 25 feet from me, plain as day. It was well Laird who, along with Dave Kalama, taught him the over 15 feet long. Just then, Danny came close to my basics of standup paddling, how to use a , and board wanting to help me out, but he accidentally called him often to check on the progress of his journey. knocked me into the water! I was back on my board in a “They took me under their wing,” he said. “Laird also flash. worked with me many times here on the mainland. He “After about 15 minutes or so, we all settled down and took me out on the board and the wave runners and I continued to paddle.” taught me about how the ocean worked. I did nothing And then down south, he witnessed close hand the but listen and learn.” fires burning the hills of Southern California. Choking in Laird also took Jones swimming in the impact zone the fumes, watching the glow of the wildfires, wondering at Peahi (Jaws), definitely a good training spot for about his dear family, while trying to paddle mile after extreme athletics. mile towards home and his goal… Ah, but that’s “He drove his cart through the pineapple fields, another story. climbed down the cliff to the beach and straight into the What’s next? , of course! impact zone! He told me to stop fighting the ocean. Flow Tom said that if he ever does the trip again, he will with Mother Nature, work with her. He was right.” probably use two boards. “One would be similar in shape And one day, he faced Mother Nature in the raw, in and size to the Surftech Laird model, with the nose pulled Northern California, when an orca took a run at him in in a bit, and the other would be a 14-foot board, which Shelter Cove. worked nice when it was flat and there was no wind. But Dodging Orcas as soon as the swell and wind picked up, the front of the “Local fishermen warned me to stay out of the middle board would not track properly. The Laird board was of Shelter Cove, as it was a favorite hunting ground for great all around because it’s so stable, and I had to ride it orcas, and they had been spotted recently. The day I for long periods of time.” was to paddle across, there was a 7 to 10mph south wind His California Paddle was one segment of his in my face, so I didn’t mind hugging the coastline, even “Campaign for a Plastic-Free Ocean,” to help end the though that made it a far longer paddle. dumping of six million tons of plastic into the world’s “About a third of the way into the paddle, the wind oceans every year. Tom then took up an even more died and I made a bad judgment call—I decided to cut demanding challenge this past summer in Hawaii. His across the cove. My team reminded me of the locals’ goal, once again, was to bring awareness of plastic warnings, but I reminded them I was the one busting my pollution in the ocean. ass and wanted to save the mileage. So I stood on the Called “Endurance Island,” Tom ran 134 miles around tail of my Surftech 12’ Laird board and proceeded to cut Oahu, then jumped on his bike and did the same loop. across the middle of Shelter Cove, orca or no orca. He then paddled over 200 miles right around Oahu, “About 2/3 of the way across, Rhynn Noll spotted gliding in at Waikiki Beach, the original home of a fin about 100 meters off my right bow. He went standup paddling. over to check it out, while Danny Misken, on “I was going nuts,” Tom admitted. “Training for three the other ski, stayed close to me. When sports at world class level, at the same time, is intense. Rhynn got close, it disappeared, But paddling is my passion. It’s great to be able to but reappeared about 80 do something I love, and to be able to use it as a tool to bring a message to people makes it even more enjoyable.” S

28 DON CURRY Conditions eased after the Point Sur ordeal, giving Tom and his team a breather for a few days. MOONWALKER Me and My Big Schtick by Steve West

ast week I bought a small phone. It fits inside of my This standup-paddle-surfing-ke-nalu-beach-boy-old-school- ear. Yesterday, a doctor sent a miniscule camera on an new-school-flat-water-wave-sliding-whatever you call it... is really exploration up my friend’s colon. Today, I found myself a blast. Doesn’t this great new/old sport deserve a better name? standing on a board large enough to float me, Paul Bunyan Standup paddling? SUPing? Abbreviated or not, those names andL Babe, his Blue Ox. While everything else has shrunk, standup suck. Suck big time. After all this big fun I get to say, “Hey, I just paddle boards are big. Big as a picnic table. Bigger than many New went SUPeeing!?!” Sounds like prostate trouble to me. In 1991, a York City apartments. Riding one makes me feel like a 13 year-old Japanese beverage company launched “Calpis” soda. Good fizz, kid learning to surf all over again. flat sales. Relaunching as “Calpico” in English speaking countries Want to put the thrill back into surfing tiny waves? Find new put the sizzle back in the pop. In 1925 the marketing department places that aren’t surfable any other way? Are you ready to escape of the Green Giant Food Company introduced a huge man with the ratpack mentality at your local surf spot? Get yourself on a a memorable name. Fifty years later, the town of Blue Earth, 12- foot board. One that’s as wide as a front porch in Savannah Minnesota paid $43,000 to erect a 55-foot fiberglass statue of his and as chunky as a railroad tie. Pick up an oversized paddle. likeness. Thousands visit the statue every year. The Jolly Green One shaka taller than yourself is the general rule. Schlep board Giant lives up to his color of money with serious staying power. and paddle to water that’s at least as deep as the John Holmes-sized And nobody calls him JGG. fin. No small task. Though these boards are light, their enormous In 1978, I started windsurfing. In an effort to sell ads to surface area has as much windage as a small airplane wing. manufacturers that were competing with the original Windsurfer, Rule #1. When carrying a very large board in a crowded parking lot magazines began to refer to windsurfers as “boardsailors.” We be mindful of even the slightest of breezes. (A big “Oops! My bad!” weren’t buying it. Boardsailing was something performed on small goes out to the white Toyota truck.) English lakes whilst wearing colorful wetsuits and tennis shoes. By Rule #2. When on the beach, look high and low as you lug your 1984 we were all happily windsurfing again. In 1998, kite-surfing gear to the water. (To the parents: Technically speaking, “YOUR arrived in the USA. “Flysurfing” is what the French had been kid ran into ME.”) calling it for many years. Americans loved the concept. The name Rule #3. Learn to share. Standing up and paddling into waves is as made them want to pick up a can of Raid. Renamed kitesurfing, its easy as burning toast. The hard part is not burning all your friends. popularity soared. Being a wave hog is bad juju. Not all names are marketable or memorable. This riding of A big board equals a little learning curve. It also equals glide. ridiculously large yet incredibly fun boards deserves a better handle. Now, the smallest of waves can be ridden. Any tiny bump is fair If I read, “What’s SUP?” one more time, I’m gonna hurl. Check game. Today I caught a pint-sized wave that never really broke. Craigslist for the words stand up paddling. Your search will yield Never would have stopped except for the dry sand. My girlfriend is a buffet of kinky activities, none of which I’ll want to watch you known to surf the long wake coming off a Coast Guard boat on her do in broad daylight. Stand up now for a name change. Paddle 30 big, red Laird board. The wake is only as tall as a garden gnome, and surfing is my vote. A name that should stick around longer than 31 at least twice the fun. yesterday’s Calpis. S Heav HEAVYJamie Mitchell y Water talks about the past year+ WATERBy Steve Sjuggerud

t was the heaviest situation I’ve been in, I reckon . . . Maverick’s COLIENA RENTMEESTER “This is the morning of the big day at Maverick’s legend Jeff Clark said the buoy (See photo, pg. 46), an omen of things to come.” readings were some of the BASTIEN BONNARME “Revelations, on Oahu, is really hard to score because it’s a super windy place. biggest he’d ever seen—and This day was two to four feet and really glassy. A lot of fun with just me and my buddy Billy Watson [Billy is there I was in the impact zone. I took one featured in this issue’s Indo story by II Scott Bass]. Standup is really booming in Hawaii, but in it has gone big wave right on the head . . . and before huge. It used to be me and a few mates out on standup boards with my jet ski partner, Billy, could pick me everyone looking at us like we were idiots. Well, now you can’t look out at a lot of the spots here without seeing up, I got two or three more on the head. half a dozen in the lineup.” 32 In no time, I was like 20 or 30 feet from the rocks—the paddling. Just to see if I can. You know, for my own real danger zone at Mavs. Billy swooped in, and I got on the peace of mind. rescue . But we weren’t safe yet… We immediately had It’s been hard. Guys like me don’t exactly make Kelly to punch through 10 feet of whitewater. We got hit so hard Slater-pay. And there are plenty of others out there pushing by the wall of water that the we twisted mid air and Billy the limits. I don’t know how I’ll make it all happen. But I’m jumped from the ski. I stayed with the sled and tried to keep going to try my best. it from flipping. Honestly, I could make more money as a lifeguard back He jumped back on, but we home in Australia than I do chasing couldn’t start the ski! We finally got waves and racing my paddleboard. But the lanyard in to start it… but another it’s not about the money… It’s about wall of water was coming! We had to chasing my dreams. And money or not, do a u-turn... now is the time I have to do it. Now what? We were facing the Standup Journal asked me to share danger zone—the rocks. with you some of the “heavy moments” We actually just drove through the from my life in the last year of chasing rocks. We immediately thought, “Oh my dreams… So here goes… my God, what just happened?” It was heavy… On what some call the biggest Everything turned out fine. We got Maverick’s ever surfed: so lucky. But it was one of those things December 2007 where if we didn’t get it right, we Surfing Mavs is a whole different would’ve got washed on the rocks, experience... or worse. For starters, just having to put on a 4mm wetsuit, hood, It was definitely one of the heaviest situations I’ve been gloves and booties is so foreign to me. Then there’s the in. But these are the moments that I cherish—and what I’m thought of Mr. Great White lurking around… then the living for now… rocks… plus the kelp mid face as you’re trying to paddle in… In the last 12 months I’ve definitely tried to go for it, It all adds up to an intimidating wave. And that’s before you chasing big surf… Credit card out, let’s do it—no matter even catch one! what it takes. The wave has so much power. And the water has a I want to try and push my own limits on everything in different feeling about it… It’s like it’s denser… Like big waves—standup paddleboards, tow-ins, and traditional hitting concrete.

TONY HARRINGTON “Todos Santos: It’s funny ‘cause all the were in the channel and one boat would blow its 34 horn when a set was coming. When you heard the horn you paddled for the horizon as hard as you could.” 35 (Inset) “Me on my first day of school. Like the sticker? ‘NO SMOKING.’” MARK OBLOW “This is one of my I had another wipeout at Mavs that big day. The favorite shots. It was taken on the wave slammed me so hard that I actually went numb North Shore. I love banyan trees. You can really see the outline and shape under water. I thought I might have broken my of my paddleboard and the knee back or something. It took about five seconds… then pads and rudder. The board is 18’ I got feeling back again. That was scary, for sure. long x 20” wide. Quite stealthy.” It’s so dark under water at Mavs that it seems like you’re being pushed down into the abyss. You don’t know where up, down or sideways is. That’s why our PFDs (life jackets) are so important… Because they will bring you up to the surface. That December day I actually wore two lifejackets... Just in case one got blown off me! Backing up to the beginning of the story… When we saw the swell coming in Hawaii, it looked good. I just had to get over to Mavs for it. We really didn’t have anything set up when we landed… No jet ski, no place to stay, no nothing. I borrowed a car. I got a jet ski from a guy I usually stay with in LA for the paddleboard races. I rang up Peter Mel and asked him if I could borrow a rescue sled. I was lucky that my tow partner Billy was in Hawaii with me (Billy—his real name is James Watson—is a lot like me… He’s a lifeguard on the Gold Coast and really good surfer and standup paddle surfer. He spent three months in Hawaii with me this past winter and I pretty much dragged him along to every swell. Obviously I trust him A LOT to put him in the situations we get ourselves into!). We brought three of our tow boards and two of our Waimea guns and a whole bunch of stuff. We jumped on the plane midday Monday and arrived at LAX Monday night. We got about two hours of sleep. We left LA at two in the morning and drove the long drive straight to Mavericks, which is not far from San Francisco. Actually, we took a couple wrong turns and finally got to Mavs about 11 a.m. When we got to Mavs, it was really foggy. We saw Flea and a couple of those real Mavs guys. They were deciding whether they wanted to stay at Mavs or go to Ghost Tree. We had a small crew at Mavs… My partner Billy and me, Jeff Clark and his son, Garrett McNamara and Keaalii Mamala, Mike Prickett and Larry Haynes, the film guys, and Tony Harrington the photographer. We all just kind of convoyed out there. Then there were a few more teams when we arrived. We really scored… It wasn’t really that crowded because everyone went out to Ghost Tree. We were so lucky, and we got plenty of waves. When we went out, I would’ve been stoked just to get one wave. But we ended up getting a bunch each. Sounds cliché, but we had the session of our lives. 36 BASTIEN BONNARME “Riding on the inside, La Nord, Hossegor, .” KARL MEINHARDT (Below) “This photo was taken at Makaha; classic West Side shot, just cruising at the beach with my girlfriend, Jocelyn, and a mate, Kamalani – boards and BBQ in the truck.”

On making it as a finalist in the Billabong XXL I found it hard. big wave competition, paddling into a wave It was just so hard to catch a wave at Todos Santos because estimated to be nearly 60 feet in height the swells were so big and moving faster than I’d ever seen. After that day at Mavs, everyone was talking about I asked around afterwards. I talked to Greg and Rusty Long, following the swell to Todos Santos. I said to Billy, “We’ve and they said it needed more north in it. They said the got to go there; we’re already this far.” It was organizing direction was so west, and that those are the hardest days to time again… try to paddle it. We went on the internet at like eight o’clock that night You had to be right in under the hook, which was nearly and got two return flights from San Fran to . impossible, or you had to be way out back and ramp into it We dropped our jet ski off at Jeff Clark’s. We drove to the really early. I think I got three waves the whole day. It was airport, got on the plane, got to San Diego, got picked up, and really hard, but I think I got one really good one, probably drove to Todos. We arrived down in Mexico at 3 a.m. At six the biggest wave I’ve paddled into for sure. we went out on the boat to Todos. There were probably 8 to 10 guys out there at the time... As for the session at Todos, it was the first time I’ve been and I was inside everyone and just looking at (the wave) there, and it was big… coming and said “I’m going to get this one.” There were a few tow teams, but it was pretty much a I was in the perfect spot and I got in to the wave really paddle day. early and got on my feet. It took forever to get to the bottom.

39 ERIK AEDER “This sequence is from the Makaha big wave sup contest. What a beautiful wave. I was stoked to be part of the event. For me, my major thing is pushing the limits. Trying to catch bigger waves on the standup board is challenging and exciting.”

On paddlesurfing big waves in the Sunset and Makaha contests I was helping out with water patrol for a surf contest at when Garrett McNamara said to me “Hey man, during the break between the semi- finals and the finals, we’re going to do a standup expression session.” I hustled back to the house I was staying at and grabbed my Surftech Takayama 10’3”—the only standup board I had at the time. It was a classic Sunset Beach day, with big open ocean swells and hard side, offshore winds. If I had known I was going to be in a standup contest at Sunset, I’d have been ready with a bigger, heavier board. ALLEN MOZO “The impromptu contest at Sunset last winter. It’s deceiving because it was really windy that day and very hard to get in.” We were all getting blown out the back of waves when we were dropping That big wave is the one that was a finalist in the in… sometimes even when we were a Billabong XXL biggest wave competition. “When I saw the Basically, I’m surfing through most of the race. In last third of the way down the wave face! photos I was like “Oh my God, was it that big? What was I year’s race, I probably spent two-thirds of the time surfing. I didn’t know we’d have a contest… doing out there, haha?” Most people think we’re just lying on our boards, it was just sort of thrown together on Then we did our whole mad dash in reverse. We woke up paddling. But the guy who surfs on his knees the most, the beach. at three, got a ride back to the airport in San Diego, jumped wins. I get up on my knees on my 18-foot paddleboard, On the Makaha big wave contest, I on a plane, got to San Fran, hooked up and drove all the way and I glide. I connect swells. Sometimes I’ll glide for 50 was thankful that Quiksilver got me on back to LAX. yards. Riding waves is much faster than paddling, and the invite list. I was stoked to be in the We got back to LA Tuesday night, saw all of our friends gives me a quick rest. company of the Hawaiian legends from LA, got totally smashed, woke up the next day and Technique takes some of the work out, but the event and the new big-wave standup flew back to Hawaii. is still brutal. If you take 10 guys all with the same level of paddle chargers. It was the trip of a lifetime, for sure… It took me a long fitness and put them at the starting line, it’s going to come I’ve had my heaviest standup paddle time to recover from it! down to who’s mentally tougher. wipeouts at places like Sunset and On Super Bowl Sunday 2006 at Waimea, Actually, I would love to standup paddle the Molokai Makaha. There’s just so much water race one day… moving around and so much power in where Surfermag.com called Jamie “one of the But until they do the two events on separate days and standouts of the day” the waves. Also, wiping out at outer they don’t clash, I will likely always paddle my paddleboard. reef waves like Phantoms on the North For the last few years, I’ve spent three months in Hawaii I don’t think it will be too long until they are separate. Shore—which I have surfed on a standup over the winter. As for my tactics… The better you surf between the board—is pretty heavy too… I’ve pretty much tried to catch every swell at Waimea islands, the faster and less painful the race will be! I’ve Standup paddling wipeouts are Bay. I love surfing big waves, but where I come from, the paddled with standup paddler Dave Kalama on a number different than wipeouts while surfing Gold Coast of Australia, we don’t have any big waves at all. of occasions… and he is awesome in the runners—the big Mavericks or Waimea... I think the That day was sort of my “coming out” in the surf surf. That’s where Dave and his cousin Ekolu are in their worst part of standup paddle wipeouts press. The first shots of me surfing. Before that, I was “the element. They excel when it’s downwind and rough. They is having the leash attached to such a paddleboard guy.” I’m still the paddleboard guy… had an awesome Molokai race last year… They showed just big board… On winning the 32-mile Molokai race six how good they are in the bumps and, because they were in a When you wipe out on a big wave years running team, they did it in a super fast time. you feel like a fish being dragged under The Molokai to Oahu paddleboard race is my Super Molokai is definitely the test… the Super Bowl. Even water on a lure—you just travel Bowl. I love surfing big waves, and I love standup paddle though I’ve been fortunate to win it several times, I so fast horizontally underwater! Then surfing. But they’re just fun for me… The Molokai race is still always start with the mindset that it would be an you have the paddle to deal with as well. 40 what I live for. It’s what I train for. This is what I do. accomplishment just to finish. Standup paddling has been great to 41 me… Thanks to standup paddling, I got to surf big Sunset I’m from the Burleigh Heads area on Australia’s Gold MEINHARDT “Dave Kalama is a good friend, and big Makaha with only three other guys. I also met Tom Coast. The surf is consistently good here. But it doesn’t but more importantly he’s a role model for me—super humble, super talented, a Curren while standup paddling alone in France… and the list get huge. family man and someone I look up to. He goes on. To start from the beginning… As a kid, I had terrible is awesome in the runners [open ocean Back home in Australia, standup paddling has gone asthma... One of the common “prescriptions” for kids with rollers]. That’s where he and his cousin huge… It used to be just me and a few mates, with everyone asthma in Australia is to get ‘em swimming. So that’s what Ekolu are in their element: when it’s looking at us like we were idiots. Now you can’t look out I did. I started nippers really young. Nippers in Australia downwind and rough.” at a few spots here without seeing half a dozen in the lineup. is like surf lifesaving for kids. We compete in all kinds There are people everywhere on standup paddle boards, of things. Ed note: Dave and Ekolu were the first relay team to finish in the 2008 Quiksilver Edition especially on the Gold Coast... A lot of people are making I started competing in ironman (swim, board, surfski), Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard sup division them and trying different designs. and I did pretty well in a lot of stuff. I’m a competitive guy. with a time of 4:50:02. By comparison, It’s a versatile thing too. I love doing downwind runs And sports came relatively easy to me. But I got stale on the Jamie finished solo prone paddling in outside the surf zone… You can also just cruise down surf lifesaving competitions. Then I went to Molokai in 1999 4:57:14. Duane De Soto, of Oahu, won the waterways, creeks, and canals. But for me, the major for the race after my coach and good mate Mick Di Betta solo standup paddle division with a time of 6:17:06. thing for standup paddle surfing is pushing the limits had won it in 1997 and told us about it. That was the turning in bigger waves... point in my life.

KARL MEINHARDT “Finishing Molokai in ‘07. Always a relief.” MEINHARDT “That’s me and my mate, Billy, talking story with Kimo from the Hawaiian water patrol, on the west side, Oahu.”

Trying to catch I wanted to race in Hawaii, and bigger waves on the I wanted to try and ride big waves. standup is challenging… I didn’t get sponsored until 2 years and exciting. Big Sunset, ago, when I was 29 years old. Makaha, and Phantoms So up until two years ago, I are just the beginning! was still working as a lifeguard BONNARME “There are a lot of places I want to go do sup.” There are plenty of spots in Australia. all over the world I think Now I can chase my dreams… have the potential to My dreams always included let us TRY and catch Makaha, Sunset, Waimea, “The locals and me getting close back some waves. Mavericks, Todos… but I never home in Coffs.” How to go from thought I’d catch ‘em all in one 12-month span. “My Dad taught me lifeguarding in Oz to So I’d say “So far, so good…” how to fish. He is a charging big waves surfer and loves to fish. worldwide –Jamie Mitchell • July 12, 2008 He loves the ocean.” I don’t know why… but I’ve always loved “Me as a young tacker in Coffs Harbour, big waves... getting used to what I would see plenty 42 of in the future: dolphins.” 43 with Jamie Mitchell

by Teia Maman How did he do that? met Jamie and his brother Justin right “It’s up here,” he said, tapping his head. Lessonson the beach here at Hossegor, France. “The determination, the will to win… it’s your They had a standup board, so I asked mental strength that makes all the difference them for a lesson. It was the summer in the end. I think you’re born with it; you can’t Paddlesurf of 2006, and I’d wanted to try standup all of a sudden try to get it. But if you go out Ipaddling since seeing Laird Hamilton do it and do something difficult, and get through that May on the Basque Coast. it, you can go and do it again. Once you try They came down to the water with but give up, it’s easy to keep quitting. The best me, dragging the board, and Justin thing is never to quit.” demonstrated. It looked easy. They shouted Jamie trains hard for paddle races five instructions as I awkwardly climbed on and months a year. He knee paddles four times started paddling (like a windsurfing debutant, a week, standup paddles a couple times with my behind sticking out and knees a week, and swims five kilometers several wobbling). times a week. He winters in Hawaii to surf the I made it out through the swell. It was biggest and best waves he can find, on an hot, and the ocean was so glassy it seemed “outstanding” visa for exceptional athletes taut, like a giant waterbed. Listening to their or people of special merit (or in Jamie’s encouragement, I fell and climbed back on case, both!). again until I got the hang of it. “It’s not just surfing a shortboard every Jamie was here competing in the day. There are so many craft to go into the 2006 and 2007 editions of the 34-mile San ocean, which watermen provided, guys like Sebastien-to-Capbreton paddleboard race Laird, Gerry, Dave. They provided them and in France. (Two more wins to his roster.) From now we can use them—you got to thank my view in the press boat, he looked like a them! There’s so much to do in the water machine, paddling flat out… arms pumping —you can have fun on a 40-foot or a 10-foot mile after mile. wave. And the lady out on a boogie board— In 2006, just minutes after winning, he she may be having more fun than any of us! had already rinsed off the salt that built up You can be getting just as much enjoyment over seven hours of quasi-immersion and was swimming or as the guy out there signing autographs on the dock. surfing perfect, unreal waves!” He was not red in the face, nor was he Jamie Mitchell inspires me to improve my breathing hard. He was smiling, relaxed and skills, my strength, my self. A few weeks after Zen-like, as if it were nothing much to power meeting Jamie on the beach in France, my through 37,800 paddle strokes from to sons went to Hawaii and I had them pick up a France across the Gulf of Gascony. paddle for me. I’ve been hooked since. Like The 2007 race was more grueling than the Jamie’s “lady on the boogie board,” I can year before, with headwinds and no waves have just as much fun as “the guy out there to help push the paddlers north. Running the surfing perfect, unreal waves!” waves is Jamie’s specialty, so without them, Jamie is modest about his even he had to make an extra effort. accomplishments, with that certain humility Jamie’s brother Justin, also a champion the ocean teaches. I can’t help admiring paddler, was partner on his escort boat, his competitive drive that led him to six slipping into the water to pass him food and world championships, sometimes winning by drinks, and shooing away tourist boats. extraordinary margins. “It worked really well because I When it gets difficult for me in the ocean, I PETE HODGSON/A FRAME (Above) “Unless you’ve paddled from Molokai to Oahu you don’t know how good it feels coming around the understand what he’s going through,” Justin remind myself of Jamie’s determination and I point at Portlock, into the flat water of Maunalua Bay knowing you only have a mile or so to go. I’d had a great race and was feeling strong said. “If you lose your concentration for only square my shoulders. When I feel tired, I’ll turn still. I knew I had a pretty good lead, so I could enjoy it a little bit. People were yelling and cheering, which is a good way to keep your mind five minutes towards the end, you can lose back out one more time. If he can paddle off the pain. My tactic is to surf across as much of the 32 miles as possible. The better you catch and ride swells the faster and less painful the race, even if you were well in the lead. seven hours, I can catch one more wave. it will be. This is a classic shot showing what a good feeling it is to be moving towards the finish line without having to paddle at this point Communication is super important. I yelled And when the conditions are not ideal of the race. I would love to do Molokai on an sup, but until they are on separate days and don’t clash I will most probably always compete out, ‘He’s attacking!’ and Jamie got going!” for standup paddling, I’ll follow his classic on my paddleboard. But I don’t think it will be too long until they are held on separate dates, and I’m ready! I love paddling on the standup, The attacker was French champion doing downwind runs, it’s so much fun.” waterman advice, put on my fins, “and just Ludovic Durou. He’d fought neck-on-neck get out there and learn some more about (Next spread) “When you get out to the lineup there is so much power in the water. Because it’s so cold the water feels more dense, like with Jamie the entire race, and was ahead of the sea…” 44 hitting concrete. During the December 4th swell I actually wore two lifejackets just in case one got blown off me. My tow partner is James 45 him near the end, but Jamie put on the juice Thank you, Jamie! “Billy” Watson, a lifeguard on the Gold Coast, a really good surfer and standup paddlesurfer. He spent three months in Hawaii with me this and defeated him by just 100 yards. past winter, so I trust him a LOT when we are in the situations we get ourselves into.” Photogragh by Tony “Harro” Harrington Jamie Mitchell, Maverick’s, December 4th, 2007 This wave was fairly shifty, and though we all got a few, it wasn’t the best sup wave. Every wave in a set would break somewhere different to the previous one. It was shallow and quite slabby. After a while we realized that we were either going to break a board or ourselves. Swilly made the call for us to get out of there before someone got killed. Despite all that, here’s Damon Eastaugh on a pretty sweet one.

n ten years time you will be flying directly from LAX to The Mentawais. 747s will be landing Inear the perfect lefthanders of Telescopes. You will step off the plane, straight onto a speedboat, and be whisked to your favorite island resort. Getting away from the crowds will mean moving south. Or north, toward LATITUDELATITUDE ZERO°ZERO° 48 Bringing the Entire Quiver on an Indo Sojourn 49 By Scott Bass • Photography by Swilly Williams Captions by Courtenay Gray ’ve been intrigued by the linguistic nuances that They’ve invented an organic linguistic code based differentiate Americans and Australians since entirely on humor. It is the Aussie brand of humor that my days in Terrigal, on the central coast of New really opens up the chasm between Aussies and Seppos. South Wales some 25 years ago. As a server in a The term ‘Seppo’ is derogatory for American. I’ve been littleI restaurant called ‘Swells,’ I wondered why they told it’s origins date back to the co-mingling of Aussie pronounced aluminum as “el-e-mine-um.” Or tomato as and American troops during the Vietnam war. Sick and “ta-mot-o.” More than just spelling divides our character, tired of the apparent tripe that came out of the mouths of course. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of of Americans, the Aussie lads cast a generalization over unique Australian phrases. For instance, if you hear an all Americans; we are, according to the Aussies, full of Aussie ask for a Dog’s Eye, a Horse’s Ass and a Pig’s Ear shit. As in full to the brim, like an overflowing septic tank. he wants a meat pie with sauce and a cold beer. The Aussies, by way of their nature, abbreviate any

(Left) Harley Ingleby and Scott Bass paddling on the protected side of Matt Cruden’s island. The visuals from the standup perspective, both below the water and shoreward, are amazing. (Below left) I look a bit concerned here, probably wondering how many more righthanders I was going to have to surf! (Below) That’s Scott on his fish. He was absolutely flying on that thing; just doing these huge pumps down the line on these racey righthanders and then throwing big glancing hacks. –Courts “That’s my magic Hynson twinzer. She’s six-years-old and beat to hell, but I can’t get anybody to properly replicate it. Why is it we can send men into space, clone sheep, and split atoms but we can’t replicate magic ?” –Scott

50 51 (Left) The Mango! She is such an That, and the seemingly never ending use of the word Billy seeks the large and powerful and was one of the awesome boat. Matt, Wally and the “f#@k”, which never refers to fornication or procreation. jet setting swell chasers that rode Waimea, Mavericks rest of the crew have it so dialed in. From the waves they put you at In America we say “um” or “uh” or perhaps we mix in and Todos on the same swell in December of 2007. through to their hospitality, it’s all a “yeah.” Now, don’t get me wrong, American surfers Damon Eastaugh and mate Cort Grey are from Western five star. spice our language too. It’s just that Australian surfers Australia. Both are hell men as is almost requisite when “Eighty four feet of solid ironwood, prodigiously salt every sentence with the F-word. After all, you hail from those parts. Damo has ridden the infamous teak and stoke.” –Scott no word unites the Australian middle-class like the word Outer Bombie in Western Oz in the 60-foot range and (Below) This place surfed like a West ‘f#@k’ followed by the word ‘mate.’ twice taken home 1st place and the $20K check in the Oz wave in that it had more of an open ocean feel to it – a big playing Our crew consists of four Australian ‘mates’—all ASL/Oakley Big Wave Awards. field. You could head up the point professional surfers. Harley Ingleby resides in Coffs On the American side my friends Dennis Pennell and and wait for one to line up or just Harbor, NSW, and is currently the number one ranked Dave Daum have joined me. We have no special ability, hang on the end section and look for longboarder in the world. Fact is, it’s not fair to although according to our Australian counterparts we the right lump to swing in onto the reef and ramp up. This is Damon on pigeonhole Harley or any of us. We ride all craft. Harley have a flair for self-promotion. The difference between the end section, about to crank it does so with cool aplomb, style and precision. James the Americans and the Australians is quite noticeable. off the bottom. ‘Billy’ Watson is a Burleigh Heads local and lifeguard. Of course in the water Aussies rip. But there is more than

word or phrase that is too long and lengthen any word or phrase that is too short. So the abbreviation for all Americans, full of shit or not, is Seppos. The Australian nature is amusing. I envy that. Aussies put a premium on having fun, mostly at another’s expense. In Australian parlance it is known as ‘taking the piss’ or ‘paying out’ or ‘writing off.’ Americans call it ‘being an asshole.’ But what do we know? We are, after all, full of shit. Australians never let anyone get too high on the horse. Everyone is brought down to the same social level via verbal assault. At first these tongue darts could be mistaken for insecurity. Taking a deeper look, it has more to do with the Australian socio-economic stratification. Within Australian society you’ll find one large middle class. There are very wealthy people in Australia. And there are very poor people. These are the exceptions. By and large the middle class is where you’ll find the three pillars of Australian culture: Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Which I’m convinced is Aussie slang for Tax! Tax! Tax! Australians are taxed. But they are also kept. Health care, education, retirement, unemployment, vacation—it is all covered. The taxation that keeps them secure in the middle class also keeps them securely in the middle class. Even if Australians move up economically, it is not Australian to flaunt or to promote your good fortune. Better to keep the middle class airs about you; that’s the Australian way. And if you don’t keep your mouth shut our Aussie counterparts will do it for you. A never ending quiver of verbal arrows and darts keeps everyone’s self-promoting egos in 52 check, and it is the foundation for Australian humor. 53 (Left) Scott on a wobbly one. This wave was on the end of an island and was affected by water passing between it and another nearby island. The water movement created ribs that would lurch through the wave face making it a challenging ride. The serrated lip line does nothing to hide this.

(Right) James ‘Billy’ Watson, putting his Burleigh knowledge to good use. (Middle right) The bump on the point. A view and a time of day we never got tired of. (Bottom right) Billy laying down a heavy track at Missionaries.

surfing ability that divides us. Whether we rip or not is and prayer five times a day can’t be a bad thing. A by a sincere and overwhelming bout of irrelevant. How we explain our ability or inability is where pause from the daily grind, a time out from chasing the survival laughter that was grounded in the the intrigue lies: the language, the vernacular, the almighty dollar, or Rupiah, as is the case in Indo. For us, relief that we were on the ground. When the pronunciations, the accents, the self-promotion or lack a little reflection from chasing the almighty perfect pilot jumped out quickly and took a piss on thereof—and the humor. wave. In my hotel room, the loudspeaker blares. I say the tarmac I took it as a sign that the fasten Or is it humour? a little prayer. seat belt sign had been turned off. We step off the plane in Jakarta and instantly the We flew up to the Telos islands in the northern reaches While many have surfed up the latitude nauseating clove cigarette-infused Indonesian air ties of Sumatra via a double prop 12-seater. If you’ve ever zero region, I’m quite sure this was the first my olfactory nerves into a bolen knot. Mix in humidity like been on a small plane like this, you know the feeling. It’s official sup boat trip into this region. Granted Saran Wrap, the non-stop ‘honk-honk’ of scooters and either excitement or excrement; often times both. Either a few have standup paddled further south, prayer by loudspeaker and a sensory stew boils over. way it’s loud as hell. Upon our descent the flatwater in the Mentawais, most notably standup Every place has its own unique essence: either strong or exploratory sup opportunities became abundantly clear. icons Laird Hamilton, Gerry Lopez and Dave faint. Indonesia’s ranks high on the pungent meter. Inlets, hamlets, deltas, and endless bays of the aqua blue Kalama. But this was an official standup They pray by loudspeaker five times a day. In my variety passed by my vibrating window seat. The mission. We loaded seven standup boards opinion it is a good thing; their culture and society is realization that I was excited to simply paddle, to get lost onto the Mangalui Ndulu, Matt Cruden’s grounded in spirituality. Whether the associated dogma at latitude zero, the idea that I wasn’t looking for peeling fine-lined 84’ sailboat known affectionately is right or wrong doesn’t matter. I read a joke in the white-water lines, that my idea of the ideal had shifted, as the ‘Mango.’ The only thing nicer than Jakarta Post. It went something like this: “Christians are well, it caught me by surprise. And then we approached the accommodations onboard the Mango so close to God they call him Father. Muslims are so far “airport”—1000 meters of asphalt cut into a dense was Cruden’s crew, and it trickled down away from Allah they have to pray by loudspeaker.” tropical jungle. There would be no venti double white from the skipper himself. A stand-up guy, Obviously a Christian penned the joke. The concept latte splash carmel with room for crème. No sir. Instead, pun intended. The Mangalui has been out 54 of the general public recognizing a time of reflection we received a white- knuckle, sideways skid job followed in the for a long time. Matt and his 55 wife Jen are raising a family, and their young children horsepower speedboats will have you in perfect lefts (Above) Billy preparing for landing. Unfortunately his board wasn’t very spent their early years in diapers aboard ‘Mango.’ Their before you can finish lubing up with sunscreen. The entire blessed. No sooner had we got there oldest is growing up quickly, as they do, and now spends Telos island chain begins and ends at latitude zero on the and hit the water, his leg rope plug time in the port city of Padang on Sumatra’s mainland nautical charts. In between are roughly 70 islands of the ripped out giving him a trip across the attending preschool. But that will change for the Cruden rich, healthy, stable variety with cliffs and idyllic palm- reef. Some repairs between sessions saw Billy back out on it the next day at a new family. Matt’s new island resort (Resort Latitude Zero) is lined beaches. wave, only to be caught inside, which due to open next April. Set on a typically beautiful Telo Further south, in the Mentawai island chain, what left him with two matching pieces. island with a world-class shallow ‘experts only’ right- was once a region filled with surf crazed charter boat (Top right) Damon highlining while the hander on one side and a fun sup left-hander on the operators has evolved into a series of land based Indian Ocean erupts behind him. other side, this island will be home to the Cruden family resorts—filled with surf crazed charter boats. With the “Damon is a big wave charger. He works for half the year. It will also be a vacation destination for challenges of internal infrastructure being met in the as a marketing executive at the family vineyard, Flying Fish Cove Winery, in ocean sports enthusiasts of all types. Centrally located so Mentawais, big money investment has taken notice. Margaret River.” –Scott you and I can do it all: surfing, sup, flatwater exploring, There are plans, approved plans, for an international (Middle right) Scott and Billy working on kiting, scuba, sport fishing, —think Tavarua but airport on the Mentawai island of Tupaget. Granted their synchronized SUP routine. 56 for regular foots. True enough though, Cruden’s dual 80 it takes a while for things to happen in Indonesia. But (Right) Scott’s smooth footwork 57 had us all impressed. it has been reported to me that large amounts of investment capital from Singapore are on the way to the Mentawais—the writing is on the wall. Eventually the concept of boat charters as we now know it will be a thing of the past. Instead, there will be speedboats. Eliminating the run from mainland Sumatra to the Mentawais effectively eliminates the need for large boat operators. In 10 years time you will be flying direct from LAX to the Mentawais. Sevenforty-sevens will be landing near the perfect left-handers of the Telescopes. You will step off the plane straight onto a speedboat and get whisked to your favorite island resort. Getting away from the crowds will mean moving south. Or north—toward latitude zero. There are plenty of great sup waves in the latitude zero region. In fact, although the shallow, hollow, and often times vicious surfing spots are fairly well ‘on the map,’ great sup spots dot the islands by the hundreds (no exaggeration) and have never fully been examined by the discretionary eye of one who stands with a paddle. To be honest with you, riding a standup board in the rip-able, often times hollow waves in this region seems a bit misguided to me. Eightfoot spitting Indo on a standup board? At the very least it seems askew. Nevertheless, if it puts a smile on your face and challenges you in a new way, who am I to throw my surfing ethos on top of it? As Tom Morey says, “it’s all surfing.” In my mind though, for this trip to be a successful sup mission we had to find the big, deep-water waves. It wasn’t a problem; one simple scout of the horizon and we could tell—they were out there. Not only that, but Mangalui skipper Cruden owns a standup board. He’s keen. After a quick speed boat ride we found ourselves in ideal sup conditions. The waves feel the bottom bathymetry and stand up early, letting us know of their arrival well before actually breaking. This allows us to pick up the rollers and weave to and fro for a good 50 meters before the waves begins to crest. The waves peel flawlessly then dissipate into deep water. There is no drama. We rotate through set after set not surprised at our good fortune. These are not ‘quality’ waves by shortboard standards. They does not ‘spit.’ They do not break in eight inches of water. They are, however, prime sup waves. Surfing

Courtenay Gray blending into the scenery: “This was a little left that we had a session at early one morning. It was a really playful wave where a wide range of craft was used. I opted for my sup and had a ball.” 58 59 (Below) Scott in early and striking a timeless pose. When talking to fellow sup enthusiasts, a topic that always seems to come up in conversation is the early entry into waves that we get benefit from. This allows us to set up a huge variety of options that are unavailable to the conventional surfer. The possibilities the early entry allows parallels tow-in surfing. (Right) This wave was perfect for stand up, it had down the line push, a really approachable lip and a great end section for cutbacks. I’m going through the middle section here. (Middle right) These guys were amazing. They had the tiniest gap in the reef to navigate out into the ocean. There were waves pounding all around them and they had the most questionable motor looking after them, yet they would nail it every time – in and out. It was impressive. (Bottom right, l-r) Damon Eastaugh, Dennis Pennell, Courtenay Gray, James Watson, Harley Ingleby, Scott Bass and Dave Daum

60 (Left page) Missionaries land view. The boys on the Mango explained the wave was named after the missionary position, meaning it was a good fun wave but got a bit boring after a while. “A church in the jungle is a special place because the people who go to it have very little in the way of possessions. Either does the surfer paddling out, just his board and his God, the ocean, guiding him along that magical path, where all else but the next wave coming through has any significance. I have shot this place a lot and it is special to me. I think of it as God’s Land and to tell you the truth I just loved the light at the time of the shot… and what a nice addition to catch a surfer paddling back out.” –Swilly (Top right) Packed, stacked and enroute to more perfection. Evening means time for sunset beers and bar snacks as we head off in search of tomorrow’s playground. (Middle right) Billy pacing some false killer whales. (Bottom right) Sups, fishes, single fins, an , quads, shortboards, longboards and mini guns… as many characters as there were on the boat there were boards to match them.

62 (Below) Scott Bass digging deep. (Bottom left) Damon Eastaugh. (Top right) Billy on top of it, and (Bottom left) posing forIndonesian GQ.

in this region is like using a dating service that matches you up with women from a New York modeling agency. You can break out your six-foot tri-fin and date Gisele Bundchen—shallow and sharp and likely to cause harm. When riding standup boards out here you want to meet enlightened, full bodied, robust, voluptuous women. You want to spend the afternoon with Catherine Zeta Jones. The challenge of this trip was that many of the known spots are ideal for shortboards. Most boat captains and guides don’t even consider sup waves as ‘go to’ spots because for anorexic tri-finned surfboards, they aren’t. I’ve always believed in letting the conditions dictate my board choice. The waves dictate the dance. Cruden and the crew of the Mango put us on an ideal sup left-hander. Three of us paddled our standup boards toward a verdant, blunt headland where we were greeted by shoulder high, peeling lefts. Later, during a sunset cruise, we surfed the topic of the 2008 presidential election. I quickly jumped into the fray and told the Aussie blokes that I was leaning toward a vote for Barack Obama. “A sweeping political shakeup in Washington D.C. is needed. Although Obama will no doubt raise taxes (something I don’t look forward to), I believe that in the big picture, a good shake up is needed.” I explained this seriously to the four Australians. They seemed mesmerized by my firm grasp of the matter as they shook their heads in what appeared to be agreement. “Besides,” I pontificated, “This is the most historic presidential election in my lifetime. Mr. Obama will be the first African American president in United States history.” There was silence. The Australians seemed to be contemplating the social and historical consequence of an 64 Obama presidency. Then, out of the 65 (Top left) Surfer: Courtenay. deep silence, an Aussie swigged his beer and dead- weight moving through the rip current. Wilmot yelled at I love the leverage you get in a panned, “who let the black asshole in?” pro surfers Tom Carroll and Troy Brooks, who both quickly turn by using your paddle as a pivot point. (Left middle) Curious I scrunched my eyebrows and pinched my lips in rushed over to the broken board. Brooks pulled the leash locals. I can see standup paddling scorn. My facial twist was met by the wry smiles newly up to find Cort’s leg attached, then his torso, then Cort’s becoming a mode of transport in born on the Australians faces. That’s when I realized bloodied skull with his brain falling out of it. Cort was Sumatra in the future. (Left) Tall tales between sets. (Above) This the joke was on me. The comment wasn’t meant to unconscious. No breathing. No pulse. He was clinically wave was nuts. First mate Wally be racist, but to bring my attempt at lofty ‘look-at-me’ dead. Once onshore, the quick work of North Shore pointed out that every time they political discourse back down a few notches. This, in a lifeguard Terry Ahue resuscitated Cort. Nevertheless, had taken people here someone had been hurt. A broken back, nutshell, is what makes Australians Australian. Cort’s head was gashed wide open, his brain clearly endless stitches, eyes rolling Ten years ago, while surfing Hawaii’s Pipeline, visible through the split in the cranial bone. back into peoples heads – gnarly Australian Cort Grey died—at least clinically. This story, It was rather surreal. This Aussie bloke sitting next to stuff. It is extremely shallow and told to me by Cort and his mate Damon during a long lull me in Indo and sharing waves with me was at one point fast with the tube the only safe place to be. Anywhere else and as a soft warm rain fell, had me almost in shock. dead and had come back to life. you’re pretty much dry docked. It was 6’-8’ at Oahu’s notorious Pipeline and, as is We were quiet and contemplative. The moment was Everyone showed it plenty often the case at Pipeline, all the locals were getting powerful. of respect and chose their waves carefully. all the waves. Cort had had enough and paddled for “I’m really sorry to hear about it,” I said sincerely to an in-betweener to get himself to shore. He made the Cort. He looked at me in a reflective manner and quietly drop, hit some backwash chop and wiped out. Cort’s nodded. body didn’t penetrate the surface and he was quickly Just then a set wave rolled right to Cort. His best mate sucked over the falls and landed head first on the vicious dryly and calmly said, “Go for it Cort, looks like a good Pipeline reef. His head split open like a watermelon brain drainer.” and he instantly lost consciousness. Cort drifted lifelessly Damo’s comment, in a nutshell, defines the Australian underwater with half his board attached to his leg, character and use of humor. I’m not sure it means much ‘’ into the Eukai beach park. Photographer coming from a Seppo, but I thought it was brilliant. S Dean Wilmot saw the broken board with obvious dead 66 67 THE BOYS OF NOOSA Words & Images by Moonwalker ustralia is renown for sun, surf and sand as well as hosting some of the best surf setups on the planet. But it’s the state of Queensland that’s Point Break Central. Everyone’s heard of Snapper and the Superbank on the Gold Coast but a couple of hours north is the Sunshine Coast and the small holiday town of Noosa. A lot less crowded and commercialized, it Aprovides one of the best series of point breaks in the country. But before I start ranting about how great the place is, I should really fess up and be honest here. If you’re looking for powerful waves and dodging coral reef closeouts Noosa ain’t the place. However, if you’re looking for some fun, non-life threatening world-class point waves with lips you can slap with impunity, there’s bound to be a swell here with your name on it. Prime time for swell is between February and June—if the points are flat the more exposed beaches will be working, and if the beaches are closing out the points will be firing! With 80 kilometers of open beaches stretching to the south from Noosa, the rivermouth and five (yes five!) sand-bottomed point breaks lying next to each, you’ll find the wave you’re looking for. The open beaches hold up to six feet of solid swell before they start closing out. And the points will hold whatever’s thrown at them— usually best at two to five feet—but rarely get big. The water is always warm— in summer and a 3/2 short arm/short leg wetsuit for winter—and crystal clear. Water pollution is unheard of. The bay is a haven for dolphins as well as bikini clad tourists. It’s worth noting how fast the waves break even if the points are only waist high—a section may be collapsing in front of you, but it’s pretty easy to use your paddle and turning speed and just rocket around it. Another of the wonders of Noosa is flatwater standup paddling the vast network of canals and rivers winding around town, providing a peaceful and beautiful place for some sunset cruising. –Neil “Moonwalker” Armstrong

68 (Previous Spread, main photo) Chris De Aboitiz is one of those characters who gets hold of a sport or a pastime just as it’s rearing its head (Previous Spread, inset photo) Noosa Heads is a jewel in the crown of Australian surfing. Sure, there’s the much vaunted Superbank, and quickly masters it long before it becomes mainstream. He’s done it with , the re-emergence of tandem surfing in the mid Snapper Rocks, Burleigh Heads, Lennox Head, Angourie, Cronulla, Bells Beach, Margaret River, but Noosa Heads, while known, is often ‘90s (Chris was world tandem champ in ’99) and now sup. Having also completed long distance paddles in Australia and Indonesia, Chris is ignored by traveling surfers – it’s rarely powerful and far from super grinding, hell-man status waves. But that suits many people just a true waterman. fine—long, easy rides and a family friendly atmosphere. It can get crowded but it’s not too hard to get a wave to yourself.

(Above) Sunrise, early winter on Noosa’s open beaches – boardshorts and a vest, you rarely need more. Tully St. John and Chris (Top) Paddle scraping the surface, pre bottom turn swoop – Noel Woods eases into it. Function with a dash of flair. An all boarder for many McHutchison, two long time locals take to the water with 9’0” sup’s. As for the onlookers? Well, the newness of standup boards still raise years, Noel recently lost his enthusiasm for and stuck with his shortboards… then sup hit. an eyebrow, even here. (Above left) Josh Constable, just perfect … wave, lighting and positioning. He rarely holds back – paddle becoming buried and rail set. (Above right) Eugene Marsh, otherwise known as ‘Woogie’, has been at the forefront of both surf and flat water sup R&D since its inception 70 in Oz. He was the first person I saw on a 9’0”, pulling off shortboard type cutbacks. 71 (Top left) Tully St. John, rides wafer thin high performance shortboards and sup’s, rarely anything in between. He’s the head shaper and (Above left) Annie Broomham’s been riding First Point for years on a longboard and knows the wave well. She’s made the transition to owner of Noosa Surfworks and is one of the only shapers on the east coast of Australia really pushing the sup boundaries. Paying attention sup seamlessly. to detail as only a craftsman can, he’s dropping the sizes of his high performance wave sup’s and adding length to his distance sup’s. The (Above middle) Not content with pioneering sup in Oz himself, Chris De Aboitiz had to get his dog, Lani, up to speed with the program. one he and Woogie are currently working on for ultra long distances is 18’9”! His boards feature anything from intricate resin tints and Now she jumps on Chris’s board as soon as he’s at the waters edge and gets a little peeved whenever she’s left behind. And as you patterns to plain, light-as-a-feather epoxy creations. He’s working on carbon fiber creations as you’re reading this. can see, she’s mastered hanging five. However, rumors that she and Chris will be entering tandem contests are, as of this moment, (Top middle) Taking a 10’0” topside – 2006 World Longboard Champ and Noosa icon Josh Constable puts it up there at the first sup unfounded… mainly, I recon, because Lani hasn’t found a bikini she likes yet. competition outside of Noosa, marking also the first time standup boards had appeared en mass at the Superbank – May 2007. That’s the (Above right) Standup made its official debut in Noosa and Australia at the 2007 Noosa Festival of Surfing, held in March each year. Burleigh headland in the background. And just in case you were wondering, yep, Josh won that one too, taking down a couple of sup- When the sup boys first paddled out people were openly saying, “Oh crap, what the hell is this, a joke?” and, “So this is the next fad huh, experienced Hawaiians along the way. it’ll go the same way of tandem surfing.” Then the invited Hawaiians blew the crowd away by doing full-railed, paddle-aided cutbacks, (Top right) East Coast Oz. Yep, it’s pretty densely populated (for Australia) but generally it’s far from being a concrete jungle; still many areas tucking into little spinning barrels and pulling off floaters. The crowd was agape. By the end of the festival there were far more orders where bush meets the sea. For the most part beach access is pretty easy, local councils provide stairs, ramps, showers and nine out of ten placed for sups than there were boards in the country. The boom began back then and has still showed no signs of slowing. This shot is 72 times: free parking. from the 2008 Noosa Festival where the standup division was looked upon more in admiration. S 73 3

Forging the Way TIM DITTY “A hurricane was passing to the north of us at Puerto Escondido this past summer, making the waves super thick and doubled-up on the inside section. It was a solid 10 feet on the sets with no channels to paddle out, so we used our skis to give each other taxi rides. “The ride out was far from easy because the driver had to make super wide turns out through the punchy beach break. The sup boards are twice the length of a surfboard and every time we rammed through the whitewater the ski would turn and the board would catch a rail and rip you off the sled. Once we made it outside, we would get dropped off, paddle to the nearest peak, wait for the right one and go. “At Puerto or any other solid beach break you never want to wear a leash. If you fall or get caught by a close-out set you don’t want the board anywhere near you because most of the time your board ends up in two pieces—as happened to my bud TJ Saeman on his first wave of this trip—or you take a big chance of having your board knock you out!! This wave I’m on in Tim’s photo broke off the side of one of Puerto’s many rip currents and then doubled up on the inside, making it a heavy, bumpy mess to set your rail for the bottom turn.” –Chuck Patterson GLENN DUBOCK Surfer, windsurfer, kiteboy, and all-around “standup guy” Will Brady, with his wife Liz, owns and operates Floras Lake House Bed & Breakfast on the southern Oregon coast. He joins his 15-year-old, kiteboarding wildman son, Josh, on a rare springtime glass off. “Finally...no wind! Jumping trout, a rogue otter pestering us. Paddling along the northern end of the lake as the sun begins to set. Think we’ll stroke towards the Pacific, peek over the dune75 THE PHOTOGRAPHERS and see how the surf is?” –Will TRAVELER TERPENING Tom Fredericks heads into a summer solstice sesh on Kachemak Bay. A 10-foot longboard got him through the morning wind lull.

TERPENING All wound up at KiteFest Alaska HQ: Traveler Terpening, James Dell, Jeff Brown, Tom Federicks and Scott Amy. “KiteFest Alaska 2008 gave 75 kiters from as a far away as Isreal the chance to ride this famous spit—a five-mile-long sandbar that protrudes into Kachemak Bay. Homer, Alaska is an unlikely place to kitesurf and though it may never be a destination that draws the masses, it’s ours and we love it. Our beaches are black instead of white, our water is steely blue and sometimes black instead of turquoise and our women wear down jackets instead of bikinis. We do like to get outside the state for some mid-winter riding in Texas or , but when we get back, we wouldn’t want Alaska to be any other way. Kiting Alaska means being surrounded by huge mountains, battling the ever-changing 35-foot tides, we gliding over near-polar water, and sometimes dodging icebergs, marine life and fishing nets. We love these conditions! Where else can you be so thoroughly challenged and stoked?” –Traveler CLARK MERRITT December 21st, 2005, 11 a.m.: “Winter solstice meets a historic west-northwest swell. The entire West Coast was firing. Punta San Carlos regulars opted to tow... not me, I chose to shoot safely from the shore. You can imagine what happens when 20-30 foot faces pound on sheet glass all day: it makes it almost impossible to shoot with a telephoto because of the haze created by the waves, so I went up in pilot Mike Botello’s plane for this shot. Later, I stood in camp and watched a tow-in surfer dropping into a monster behind the 76 island. He was visible the entire time as he rode the wave the width of the island past the lee side of the Bombora. That’s about a quarter- 77 mile ride on a northwest swell.” –Clark TERRY REIS “I had just gotten into the water here on Oahu and was kicking out to the lineup when I noticed this standup paddler named Mike riding waves way inside the main break... I positioned myself for a shot that would allow proper lighting and some sort of interesting back drop to boot. It all came together. One key point I learned this day is when shooting sups you need to track them longer down the line 79 since they’re able to ride waves until they actually go flat.” –Terry BRYAN ELKUS “By the time late summer rolls around in North Carolina we’re usually pretty overbaked, especially when we look up and the BEN DeCAMP “I was on a photo trip to Brazil with two Australians. We took a bus to the corner and one stopped to buy a hacked coconut work clock reads 5:59 p.m. On this day, a group of buds raced out of work, found an empty break and were in the water for a refreshingly to drink from. The swell was too big on the other side of town so I walked across the busy street and looked down the coast. About a mile cool waist-to-chest-high session. Sets were starting to show from then still-far-off tropical storm Ike. The sky was lit and beautifully textured away I saw a massive whitewash rebound off the headland and collide into the proceeding wave. I started screaming, ‘Wedge!!! Wedge!!! by the falling sun. It was too much for me to take, so I surfed my last wave into shore, bolted across the beach to my truck and swapped out Let’s go!!’ We all started running like it was a mirage in the desert and it would dry up if we didn’t get there fast enough. It was 10-15’ a board for a camera. My friends Brandon Scheid and Trevor Murchie, Real Watersports instructors and riders on Hatteras, were so beat all morning, just three guys out. The craziest aspect of this wave was that no matter how big it got there was always a perfect side wave 80 that it was easy to assemble them without a fuss for this portrait.” –Bryan leading into the peak. Newport Wedge turns into a gigantic peak without a sidewave, so this wave was the perfect wedge. The lifeguards 81 said we had stumbled upon something that happens once every 10 years, and we couldn’t believe our luck!” –Ben RON DAHLQUIST Talented waterman, Alan Cadiz, took a break from his windsurf and kiting school, HST, to compete in this past summer’s 2008 Naish International Paddleboard Championships down Maui’s north shore. We caught up with Cadiz afterwards to ask a few questions. Q Describe what you like about doing the Maliko and other runs on an sup board? A Its another way to surf and enjoy the ocean. I like the low-impact, cardio workout. Q What are the dimensions of this board? Did you work with SIC’s Mark Raaphorst personally when he shaped it? A It’s 17’7” x 27” and yes, I had input on some of the particulars of that board and have been working with him for a couple years, as have a lot of other paddlers. Mark is a superb craftsman and the leader in design and construction of standup paddleboards for racing. Q How lightfooted do you have to be when a swell picks you up on this big board? A It’s important to be smooth and keep the board flat, but it’s more about timing—how hard you paddle, and when you paddle. Doing the downwind run, when you are running with the waves, it’s far more technical than most NATHALIE VAGLIO Cadiz eyes the channel to the sea that opens realize. It involves reading the water, choosing your path so beautifully from Maliko Gulch. through the waves, directing the board, and knowing how hard and when to pull. –Alan DAVID PU’U Island evening ritual

“Alan is on an F-18 prototype during this year’s Maliko race. In the middle of the board, just above our logo, is a carrying handle and below that is the foot pedal for the Active Steering System (ASS), a spring-loaded foot pedal that acts like a steering arm. Two stainless steel cables connect it to the rudder in the back. Goofyfoot surfers have it mounted on the right side of the board.” –Mark Raaphorst, designer, Sandwich Island Composites, Maui

82 83 RICHARD HALLMAN “Cold, rugged, and unforgiving—these are the words that first come to mind most days I stand on the Oregon coast and TODD PATRICK “Charlie MacArthur charges rivers so prepare to head off the beach. But opening day of the first annual Nelscott Kiteboard Rodeo, last July, provided plenty of sunshine to put hard that his sponsor, C4 Waterman, has named their some warmth between the elements and the the 50 riders that showed up. Located in Lincoln City, this reef is also home to winter’s big wave latest river board after him: the specially designed 10’6” Nelscott Reef Tow-in Surf Contest. Capturing the essence of kiteboarding can be challenging. Things happen fast! You have to anticipate the CMac/ATB (all terrain board that includes footstrap riders’ moves while dealing with an ice cream headache and the thought of sharing the water with sharks.” –Richard inserts). The first (Top) image is of Charlie entering Ed note: As we went to press, American kitesurfer Rob Douglas had just beaten the outright World Speed Record over a 500-meter Superstition Rapids in Colorado’s Glenwood Canyon course, recording a 49.84 knot run at the speed strip in Luderitz, Namibia, in southern Africa. The previous record of 49.09 knots was set in section of the upper Colorado River. It’s early May and March, 2008 by windsurfer Antoine Albeau, and at the rate kite technology is advancing this could be the last time sailboards ever hold the the spring runoff is churning. The second shot is of coveted title. As we always like to tell buds who don’t “get” the importance of this feat (or how scary it is!), we like to suggest they get their car CMac doing ‘the coffin:’ getting horizontal on The Wave, up to the new record speed of about 57 mph, open the door and place your head a foot above the pavement... now you get it, right? –Clay a manmade feature in Glenwood Springs.” –Todd

84 Of her board, a 9’2’’ x 27-1/2’’ x 3-3/4’’ moon-tail, quad fin, Flyin’ Hawaiian model shaped by Shane Reuber of Tropical Blends, Candice says, “I’ve got three words to sum it up: Fast, Light and Loose.”

GLENN DUBOCK (Left page) “Born and raised in the gentle surf of Southern California’s San Onofre Beach, Candice Appleby went off to the University of Hawaii where she studies soil sciences, but returned to her surf roots with a summertime visit to SanO, where I saw her for the first time. It was immediately obvious that she rips, is super cool and is beaming with aloha spirit. A month later, mid August, she was back at Waikiki for the Duke’s OceanFest where I learned she’d won the C4 Waterman/ Honolua Surf Co. Pro—beating all the guys!—it was no surprise.” –Glenn FRANKO TRAMONTANO (Top) “The key element to standup surfing is the paddle! It allows you to complete maneuvers that you thought were otherwise impossible and put your body into positions meant for acrobats. My favorite part is making the paddle disappear.” FRANKO (Middle) “Before every heat I prayed on the beach with my Aunty Sweety. I wasn’t praying for victory, I just asked God, ‘Please keep us safe, send us some fun waves and let your will be done.’ In the end, I guess He put me where he wanted me to be.” KOLAIAH (Right) Nobody knew the results as all four finalists were called up to the awards stand, with 4th going to Brian Keaulana and 3rd to Noah Shimabukuro. When C4’s Todd Bradley announced Nolan Martin was 2nd, Candice realized she had won—emotion overtook her: “This was the moment I had been training for. And even now, after all the dust has settled, I’m still pinching myself. I thought about 1 Corinthians 9:24, 26, 27: ‘Remember that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize. You must also run in such a way that you will win. So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it 86 should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I 87 myself might be disqualified.’” –Candice JOHN MADERE “Ruff” Waters “This is a single-fin, 10’10” x 28 3/4” Wave Rod Hawaii. It has a nice double-barrel BEN THOUARD “‘Shooting at Jaws!!!’ Just those three words describe it all for the photographer. My heart pumps as loud as the surfers’ concave for stability and it releases the water so when you paddle you get a nice glide. And on this day on Long Island, even before entering the water. On a ski is the place to be if you really want to realize how powerful is this wave and how intense the New York, it’s also the perfect cruiser platform for Rex, Roscoe, Remi and Roxy.” –Jeremy Fry, Wave Rod Hawaii moment is while the guy is having a ride... everything goes fast, which makes the ride so radical! There is this short moment when you can see the wave from the shoulder and watch the lip throwing, an insane, up-close vision into the barrel. In this shot, Jason Polakow is going for a radical top turn in the pocket, while Maxi, from Quatro Sailboards, is driving the ski and holding onto filmmaker Michele Maldini while steering clear of this white mountain of explosion. I like how everything together makes this shot a good single-image description of how these moments go down out there... the shoulder, the spray, the impact zone, the explosion, the rider and his sail, the video ski... 88 everything comes together in this shot!!” –Ben 89 JESUS “EL ZORRO” DE CHICAMA (Clockwise from top left) Chicama, : The takeoff from “El Barca.” The wave is a machine. It has peeled endlessly for thousands of years, and the trails to the surf have been trekked by the local fisherman for the last 30 millennia. Simon Russell (pictured) of Kauai wintered at Chicama this past peak wave season—June through August—becoming the first person to standup paddle the world’s longest point wave. “I was at the point one day and I asked the surfers where they were from: Canada, Japan, Germany, Ireland, Brazil, Peru, California, France and lastly Hawaii (me). It was truly a worldwide gathering of surfers. We were all smiling; the waves peeled endlessly.” SIMON RUSSELL A mile later you kick out at “El Pueblo.” RUSSELL You can see the takeoff point way in the distance. RUSSELL It’s a real haul for a surfer to paddle back while laying down, but with your standup gear paddling provides a moving view of tube after tube peeling along the sandy bottom. DAVID PU’U (Above) A west swell skirts the Channel Islands and brushes ashore at County Line, Southern California.

90 91 GLENN DUBOCK One Wave, Three Perspectives “A golden canvas to lay some artsy tracks on. The windsurfer sees the offshore breeze and figures if the drop can be made, the lip can be slayed. The surfer sees the pitching lip and knows that a tuck and run through the tube is the cleanest line to draw. For the standup paddler the early entry allows time for the turn, the tube and the chance to paint the face with the paddle.” –Glenn MATT McFARLAND Buttery smooth, three-time world longboard champ Colin McPhilips initiates a roundhouse during the summer C4 demo days at San Onofre State Beach, California. ALLEN MOZO “This is Jamie Mitchell at Makaha this past winter. It was actually the day they had [contest] on standby at . It was 20-feet-plus on the North Shore but the winds were onshore so that was perfect for the west side—we jammed over there and had the whole day to surf Makaha. It was 15-18 feet and awesome the whole time. I think I surfed for like seven hours… and got a few photos, too.” –Allen 92 MARILYNN YOUNG Twelve-year-old Blair Conklin is among the leaders of the “skimjoring” movement at Laguna Beach, Calif., driven by 93 his German shorthair buddies Trigger and Poncho at Victoria Beach. RON DAHLQUIST Less Work, More Paddling: Sandwich Island Composites shaper Mark Raaphorst and Sharon Dahlquist share a serene JAKE MEYER On a rare coastal dune lake in the Florida panhandle, the local crew waters the moment over a coral garden on Maui’s south shore. “I’ll remember that day for a long time. It was my birthday. When I walked into the growing sup roots at the YOLO board Thursday evening race series. YOLO stands for “You Only Live office to do a little bit of work before we took off to go paddling, I discovered that one of my computers had a virus (I’m a Mac girl but I Once.” Company co-founder Jeff Archer started the evening series on Oyster Lake with the goal of have one PC for some old business programs). I spent all morning trying to fix it until finally the whole computer imploded. I gave up and “contributing to the culture of our local Emerald Coast community, bringing people together while blasted out to where I was meeting some friends. One of the guys unloaded a board from his truck, put it next to me and said, ‘Oh by the celebrating the sport of standup paddling.” It seems to be working, up to 70 participants grabbed way, Ron wanted me to say Happy Birthday!’ It took me a minute to get it and then I realized that I had a brand new standup board and I paddles and got out there this past summer. was really stoked. It was a total surprise! We all headed out on the water on a a gorgeous day. The coral reef sparkled through the water and there was a gentle, 5 knot breeze. We had so much fun and I couldn’t help but think how my day had totally turned around. As I was paddling around, I realized that I spend entirely too much time in the office. Less work, more paddling!” –Sharon 94 95 MOONWALKER Meandering in British Columbia. ROBERT HYLAND (Above) The US Open at JESSICA KIMMEL (Right) The big screen Huntington Beach Pier featured a 40-minute broadcasted the sup moves of surf legends like Corona-Surftech-sponsored exhibition, opening Mickey Munoz, Lisa Anderson and (Below left) sup to 100,000 sets of eyes on the beach. newer names like Aussie Jesse Faen HYLAND.

MIKE MARSOUN Dan Shoemaker’s JARED CHANDLER Off the start at the 2nd annual Tahoe Classic. thresher shark lapdance. DARRELL WONG Rock legend Eddy Vetter schoolin’ with professor Laird. ANDREW BRUSSO The 2nd SEA NYC Paddle around Manhattan. JULIA SCHWEIGER Actor Owen Wilson, Maui downwinder. ANDREW BRUSSO Darian Boyle, one of 72 who joined in on the 28-mile Surfer’s Environmental Alliance children’s autism awareness paddle around Manhattan.

97 The JuliaWords and SchweigerImages by Julia Gallery

Flash photography amazes me It strengthens and brings out color contrast. It also freezes Kona blast: Ho’okipa There are those few days in a year where Maui gets hammered with Konas, heavy southerly winds—the exact movement and makes the object or person seem more 3D to me than naturally lit shots. This opposite of tradewinds. As rare as Konas are it is really unusual for them to combine with a massive swell. When that happens there is no shot was taken at the Hawaii Kai boat ramp on Oahu. That’s my good friend, German windsurfer place better to be than the cliff at Ho’okipa. The side-offshore Kona winds hold up the waves and blow spray sometimes over 100 feet high. Peter Garzke. Peter uses windskating to study and practice tricks for later on the water and of During a session shooting guys sailing Lanes I decided to turn around and snap this shot with the empty Ho’okipa lineup—something you course also to have fun. He always dresses colorfully, which makes this shot pop even more. don’t see very often. 98 99 Tradition and heritage (Left) Outrigger have a tendency to awaken classic South Pacific tradition feelings. This image allows me to hear the sweet tune of a ukulele close by. This shot was taken at a spot called “Swimming Pools,” which is a reef break at Namotu, Fiji. I was sitting on the bow of the canoe with my wide-angle lens as the gang was just getting ready to catch some waves. It was a bit of a scary feeling and we actually did “huli” as my weight on the bow was just a little too much, but it was still mega fun and I would definitely do it again. Coordinating the shot (Above) This photo was taken on my fourth boat trip to the Cabo Verde Islands. It was during the “Austrian Wave Championships,” which is a contradiction as there is no ocean in Austria (my home country), but the guys simply decided to go on a boat trip and have a rider-judged event for 10 days with me as the photographer. The boat itself is called the “Itoma” and is owned by friends of mine. I was taking images from the boat as well as from shore, which was very challenging at times as there is no harbor where I could just get off the boat. For this particular photo I told the guys to just come blasting towards the boat and jibe right in front of it—shot with the wide-angle, I really like the composition of it: the island in the background, a bit of the boat and the dynamics of windsurfing. Defining “Paradise” (Right) I never thought going on vacation to another remote paradise island would be different from Maui—the paradise I’m living on now—but Namotu, Fiji is a magic and special place with its insane watercolors and a lifestyle based simply, almost purely, on the ocean and the surf. These hammocks are super comfy for sunset cocktails but they didn’t even need a person in them for this photo. The breeze blows through the woven strings and makes them swing just like if someone was sitting in 100 them—very relaxing just to watch them sway. 101 The Julia Schweiger Gallery Merged freestyle sequence (Top left) This image was taken at a place close to Diamond Head on Oahu, which only works at high tide and offers completely flat water. Peter Garzke was doing some freestyle and I was shooting from a ladder trying to capture the entire sequence. Later on the work was transferred to the computer, where I merged the images into a map that lets you actually follow and understand the entire move—almost like a video clip. Flatwater freestyle moves nowadays do not provide really good single shots. The moves are so fast and rather low that the impression of what actually happens gets expressed better when showing all the pictures. No handed flaka shot (Middle left) Anthony Ruenes was just 16 when I took this photo. I believe it was his first time on Maui. He probably believed he could fly—just spread your arms like wings and take off—perfect balance, an unbelievable image of “new school” freestyle. Fiji board shack (Left) Everything on Fiji’s Namotu Island is made to make things easy. So instead of having to carry your boards back up to your little hut, you can just leave them in the board shack. Kind of ridiculous considering that the walk around the entire island only takes about 10 minutes, but still very convenient! “Da boys” around Dave Kalama always find something to do (Above) This photo was taken on a “small” Jaws day—not worth tow-in surfing but good enough to fool around with Dave’s canoe. Laird Hamilton, driving his jetski, hauled them all the way up to Jaws from Maliko Gulch. Once at Jaws, Dave and Loch Aegers got in the canoe, Dave in the back steering and Loch in the front. Loch held on to a regular tow handle (that you usually use on a jetski to tow-in surf) with Laird on the jetski towing them into the wave. It took them a couple of tries to figure out positioning, but they caught some pretty good size waves. There was so much water coming off the crossbeam that Dave probably didn’t really see much of anything directly ahead of him, which made steering much harder. If you have ever seen the force of water at Jaws you will be even more impressed that these guys were riding it on an outrigger canoe. There are lots of people doing what others might call foolish, but to me it is impressive seeing guys like Dave doing things that seem impossible and having full control over it. –Julia 102 The Julia Schweiger Gallery in Cincinnati. Art called one bleak Cincinnati day and told Jack if he wanted it, he had a job, teaching tourists to scuba in Oahu’s Haunama Bay. Jack quit making donuts on the graveyard shift and flew to Oahu. It was at Magic Island, on Oahu, that Jack looked out over the turquoise water, walked the warm sandy beach, looked up at the crystal clear, bright blue sky and said out load, to nobody, “I am NEVER leaving.” At Makapuu Jack’s connection, relationship and bond to the ocean became permanent. As a competitive swimmer and scuba instructor, Jack says, “It was natural to put fins on and body surf. It was total love, sliding down the big faces at Makapuu, just me and the ocean… and at one point, it was like an epiphany. I realized I was actually connected to nature and the ocean. My life as a kid with no direction was over. I got a new start somehow, a clean slate.”

MIKE MARSOUN (Left) Mid-channel energy bar toss during the Molokai-to-Oahu race. DAN RAYBURN (Above) Jack (on right) in the Sandwich Island Composites shaping bay with Maui designer Mark Raaphorst (in back) and New Zealand’s Campbell Farrell (5th in the Naish Maliko race), discussing Gillen’s new F-18, a 17’6” x 26-1/2” distance-racer, displacement bow that features a planing tail for wave riding. “How do we go faster, farther with fewer strokes? That’s always the ack question,” says Raaphorst. BIGJ Gillen notes, “Raaphorst’s F-16 was the original standup board with a rudder. I like a rudder for paddling inter-island, you can use the steering mechanism to direct the board ISLAND and paddle on both sides. However, I prefer Going the distance the simplicity of a fixed fin. It’s more like a By Keith Holland surfboard. Mark does the Maliko run almost every day, is a very good standup paddler ack Gillen attended Princeton High School in (finished 4th behind Buzzy Kerbox in the Cincinnati Ohio, and by his own admission, was Naish Maliko race) and knows what works in open ocean swells.” a somewhat directionless, underachieving, often- in-trouble kid. Fortunately, Jack found solace and camaraderieJ on the high school swim team where he was an average swimmer at best. Jack’s teammate, Art Miller, became of one his closest friends. It was in 1973 that two previous Princeton High grads, Jeff Lischer and Mike Miller (Art’s older brother) moved from Cincinnati to Oahu. Mike would tell his younger brother tales of Hawaii. Art would filter those tales to his close friend and teammate, Jack. In 1977, after graduation, Art followed his older 104 brothers’ footsteps, and went to Hawaii. Jack stayed Jack’s backyard and about half of his sup 105 quiver, Kaloko, Big Island, Hawaii. Jack eventually did leave Oahu, to push his limits body surfing. good the Big Isle lineups were gnarly Jack ordered his first standup board, and but not Hawaii. He went south to Jack eventually got into six man and crowded. When the conditions after months of waiting finally got his Ron the Big Island. Other members of outrigger canoes. Soon after, single were bad, surfing wasn’t really an House, a 12 foot by 26 inch wide, 50 plus the Princeton High Swim Team had man outriggers got his attention. option.” pound glass board. The first day Jack went moved there from Oahu to “get away After 25 years of body surfing and So Jack moved on. to use it, he couldn’t get it off his truck, it from the city and all its various forms paddling canoes, Jack saw a picture of Determined to keep his connection was too big for him to handle by himself. of temptation.” someone surfing perfect overhead Pipe. with the ocean, he bought a stock “So here I am,” Jack says, “I got my new On the Big Island, Jack landed a Jack instantly felt that there should be 12-foot prone paddleboard from board, I’m in Kukio, near the Four Seasons, job life guarding at the swank Mauna something under his feet, so he took legendary prone (laying down) and I can’t get my board off the roof of my Kea Beach Hotel. Sweet waves break in up surfing. He gave surfing a year or paddleboarder Bob Hogan. Seven truck. I find some tourist and ask for help the bay off that Hotel, and when Jack two but says, “I never really got it. days later Jack entered a three-mile to get the thing down. The tourist was like, wasn’t rescuing tourists, he continued When the conditions were paddleboard race on the Hilo side of the ‘you look like a surfer, but you can’t get Big Island. After the race, Jack returned your board off your roof?’” Jack continues, the paddleboard to Bob and said “The wind is onshore, there is this two foot “ is way to grueling” and junk wind swell rolling in off the point. Of he was “done with it forever.” But Jack course no one is out. I somehow manage to eventually gave paddleboarding another get my board to the water, try and stand up shot, and the second time around he on the thing, and it’s way too tippy. I’m just actually trained before racing and falling off. So I lay down, and with my prone realized “it was doable…” paddling experience I head out through the Jack paddled 12-foot prone boards chop—spray coming over the front of the then moved to 18-foot Australian knee board—and see if I can get a wave off the MARSOUN Via sup boards, Gillen and others—Laird included—escorted the paddling. Once on the knee paddling point.” swim portion of last year’s Ironman World Championships held on the Big Island each October. “Standup boards have become the perfect Ironman security and boards, things changed for Jack. “I That first ride is etched into his memory. race vehicle,” says Jack. They are also utilized as pace care: guys on sup boards could see what was going on, look “There was so much happening when I linked “paddle in front of the swim pack dragging a long pink tape which the swimmers around a little. I could change my body up those first few glides…. Before I knew it, use to guide them along.” “I realized I was actually connected to nature and the ocean”

position more, it was more comfortable for me, and the glides were incredible.” Fast forward to the 2004 Molokai to Oahu race where Archie Kalepa decides he’s going to be the first guy to ever standup paddle the race. As a knee-paddling competitor in the race, Jack saw the spectacle and comments: “It definitely was not love at first sight, though for me the timing was perfect. I’d paddled six man and single man canoes. I had been prone paddling for a few years, and now was knee paddling, but none if it was surfing. Prone and knee paddling were great, but I also was missing holding a paddle, though not enough to get back into it.” 106 107 I’d made it back to the beach, and it wasn’t actually until I hopped off my On Kauai, Kevin also had Jack try a board that it hit me. The feeling was like I had just received some gift, like I 9’6” fish. That fish board enabled Jack found money on the sidewalk or something, and immediately I thought ‘this is to get what he describes as “unbelievable IT,’ and ‘I want more of THAT,’ so I paddled out for more…” rides… That board changed everything. It was at Jack’s second Molokai to Oahu crossing (again in the 18-foot knee It felt like surfing… It was not at all paddle division) that he saw Kevin Horgan of Kauai become the first ‘official’ like riding a twelve foot single fin.” As solo standup entry in the race. After the event, Jack found Kevin’s contact soon as Jack got back to the Big Island, info and gave him a call. Kevin invited Jack over to Hanalei Bay, to talk story he called Ron House and asked him to and check out standup gear. He also let Jack know the board used to do the shape a 9’6” by 27.5” quad-fin, winged crossing was for sale. Jack’s immediate response was, “I’ll take it!” swallowtail fish. That board made it to Jack just before Christmas of 2005 and he could actually stand up and paddle the board, get to where he wanted and ride some waves. After that, Jack wanted talk to anyone who was willing to shape him a board and he started acquiring boards as fast as he could get them. An earlier sale of property Jack had, and a booming Big Isle window cleaning business created the means to stockpile boards at will. Jack’s understanding of the sport, ability, and TERRY GILLEN (Above left) Jack, Ekolu Kalama and Mike Marsoun at Flemings Beach, West Maui, preparing to paddle to collection of boards, escalated rapidly. Kaunakakai, Molokai (26 miles). “When the tradewinds are blowing over 20 knots this is one of the best runs in the world. You glide on waves for hundreds of yards at a time. We were escorted by Ekolu’s parents, Jerome and Choppie Kalama, in their boat.” (Above right) Jack took third and Kevin Horgan (on right) won the solo sup division of the 2006 Molokai-to- Oahu race. Gillen holds Horgan in high regard: “He is from Hanalei, Kauai and is one of the top distance standup paddlers “It was like in the world; the first guy ever to complete the Oahu-to-Kauai channel crossing on an sup (about 65 miles).” Tiger Woods asking me if I wanted to join him for a round of golf” –Jack on being asked by Ekolu Kalama to join him on a paddle to Molokai

The 2006 Molokai to Oahu crossing was approaching. Jack was going standup, as were a few other competitors. Ekolu Kalama was one them, and he gave Jack a call suggesting that they train by crossing from Maui to Molokai on their standups. The week prior, they had entered the Maliko to Kahului race, and their boards now needed to get from Maui to Molokai. “That call from Ekolu was like Tiger Woods asking me if I wanted to join him for a round of golf. Of course I said yes I’d go Maui to Molokai. I felt like it was an honor just to be asked.” 108 109 RON DAHLQUIST Jack, using his bamboo paddle, placed 11th overall in July’s Naish International Maliko race.

Ekolu’s cousin, Dave Kalama, dropped the two at Flemings Beach, on watermen.” Jack speaks humbly about a Maui, and off they went. No escort boat, no one else, just the two of them, no session he had on the Big Isle with surf problem? pro Rob Machado. After being invited Halfway across the Alanuihaha Channel the wind is howling, the rain to paddle out to an outside reef by Rob, squalls are blowing through, and the channel has a building swell. Ekolu is Jack got to “see just an unbelievable and riding one of the first foot steering standup boards available, while Jack is riding incredible display of standup surfing. a traditional open ocean board. Ekolu can stay upwind more easily than Jack, The guy just took it to another level.” and the wind is pushing hard. At one point, the two get separated. Between the Jack also realizes his good fortune at swells, they cannot see each other. Ekolu has a higher line, while Jack is being having Ekolu Kalama take him under his pushed downwind. “And did I mention I didn’t exactly know where we were wing. And the time on Kauai with Kevin going?” Jack asks with a grin. “Ekolu’s parents were going to pick us up on Horgan, that was a privilege to Jack. Molokai, and Ekolu knew the beach and the course to get there, but I didn’t. And he realizes if it weren’t for standup, I was trying to follow him, but was having a hard time staying upwind. Then the excitement of working with notable we got separated for what seemed like forever, and after some time, I honestly shapers on new designs would not have thought I might die.” happened. Jack continues, “I just tried to stay focused on what I was doing, riding these Another interesting aspect Jack enormous open ocean swells, just roping it across the channel. And finally, I’ll ponders is that individuals currently never forget it, in the distance, I see Ekolu, dropping into this BOMB and just involved in standup paddling are actually riding it FOREVER, and I think ‘Wow, that swell is HUGE, and Ekolu is just making surf history. “Think about RIPPING! This is followed right away by ‘and I’m going to LIVE!!!!!’” it” he says, “The sport is evolving so Jack’s connection to the water is at the core of what drove him to pursue quickly, it’s exploding really, and I am standup with such passion. And he’s totally stoked about the crossings he’s lucky enough to have been there close to done, the waves he’s gotten, and the boards he’s collected. But Jack’s greatest standup paddling’s birth, or rebirth, put rewards have been from the people he’s met through standup paddling. The more accurately. I’ve been blessed with 110 opportunities he’s had to, as he puts it, “rub shoulders with some truly great the means to pursue it. And though I 111 “I might not have all (NCF), paddles with a carbon blade and bamboo shaft, and Wave Chi, which combines Tai Chi, Indian club swinging, and standup paddling. The guy is the talent that some totally fired up with no sign of slowing down. He’s just doing what he feels he was, and is, meant to do, and that’s standup paddle in all its forms. of the guys I get to paddle with have, but I am for sure just as stoked”

might not have all the talent that some of the guys I get to paddle with have, I am for sure just as stoked. Maybe even MORE stoked on standup than they are.” And stoked he is, his collection of 35 boards attests to that. Yes, 35 standup boards! Jack has the boards spread out, some on the Big Isle, some on Oahu, and a few on Maui. He’s teaching standup to anyone who will let him, and constantly looking at whatever new product is available. Jack’s created two businesses in the industry: Nature’s Carbon Fiber MAKENA MARSOUN Gillen with wife Terry, a world class hula dancer, after Jack completed the ‘07 Molokai to Oahu race. “She has been at the finish line for all seven of my crossings,” notes Jack.

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Scott Bass is San Diego.” California; when not pulling into 15’ to West Java, Japan, paddle. Watch for Gerry’s 2nd sup saga the founder/ At 21, he tubes in Puerto or exploring his passion Thailand and Hong on our pages organizer of the became for National Geographic sea life shots, Kong… Richard next issue… annual Sacred one of the Tim’s gunning for that magical big Hallman is a certified Teia Maman is Craft Consumer youngest wave classic shot wherever the swell emergency nurse an American Surfboard Expo staff photo- takes him.”… Glenn Dubock wants to who worked in photojournalist in Del Mar, CA; graphers be a candidate for “the next Wheaties Oregon ER rooms for and all-around also hosts “Down ever for box,” says Rob Driscoll, one of our team 7 years before trading waterwoman The Line” every Surfer… guys. “Dub” says he’s “now a full-on in his stethoscope for enjoying the Sunday on San Dr. Mark Trisectual, courtesy of Santa Barbara a camera... French beach Diego’s XTRA Dimalanta sup guru Randy Racich,” who loaned culture; is Sports 1360am, Glenn a Pope Trisect (3-piece sup board), Gerry Lopez writing a Surfers Environmental Alliance’s ‘Round “Prefers to choose “that fits nicely into my Honda. People shocked his science fiction podcast on iTunes... Manhattan lifestyle over ask me where the rest of my airplane is North Shore novel, does Skip Brown is a core Paddle—works livelihood, so he when I assemble it in the parking lot... surf bros and regular features kayaker and overall as a conceptual left a promising the rest of for magazines and a French newspaper, waterman who has & environmental career in the surfing and “to relax I paint large wooden been watching portrait photo- medicine to chase world when folding guys sup through grapher for “Mr. Pipeline” screens.”… the Potomac River Rolling Stone, moved Karl Meinhardt rapids near his DC Newsweek, to central is an Oahu- home; just returned People, HBO… Oregon many based Ron Dahlquist years ago watersports was shooting to absorb photographer fall colors in a passion for surfing himself in the and sup surfer from a “pretty Colorado as and photo-graphy mountain life focusing on intense and cool” we went to press; lives on Maui, and is when not at home in ”Courtenay Gray is from Margaret River, around Bend. Tahiti, Fiji, descent of the “drawn to anything on the ocean.” … Huntington Beach… Western Oz, where he operates Sup Surf But he kept Cook Islands, Congo… Ben DeCamp was raised in upstate NY, Tim Ditty is best feted Australia with partner and renowned surf/ his fingers Australia and Andrew Brusso is a self-taught photog “learning through by a main subject, windsurf/kite shaper, Martin Littlewood… on the surf Hawaii; covers a surfer based in years of trial and error. I found a love for Chuck Patterson: Margareta Engstrom had a good summer pulse, now prestigious NYC; volunteer the ocean at Narragansett, RI, which led “He’s a world traveler, in her native Sweden before “resuming redefining his surf events and goes for the dramatic up- helper at the to a move to a BA in Philosophy from UC residing in Southern my nomadic ways” with photo missions stoke with a close profiles of surf professionals…

ur associate publisher, Steve Sjuggerud, has been part Oof the team going back to our Wind Tracks magazine days... writing two cover stories for us, including a feature on his home state of Florida. Steve’s been lucky enough to surf many of the world’s great surf spots by taking side trips from his career as an investment analyst. Sjugg’s sense of who we are and where Standup Journal is going comes from his lifetime of saltwater exploits, and from walking the waterman’s walk. For ex- ample, over a year ago, before our first issue came out, Steve said we had to do a major feature on Jamie Mitchell. Jamie wasn’t known in the surf world yet. But Steve insisted. As Sjugg began compiling background info for his story Jamie was re- ally turning it on. Mitchell was everywhere: Jaws, Mavs, Sunset, Waimea, Todos. Steve sought Jamie out and met with him

114 115 did the unthinkable (for most formative schooling years Jeff Horton. surfers), he moved from his in NZ and the UK, which “My secret is to home north of Maverick’s/ would account for his wake up, look Half Moon Bay to the Sierra absurd, dry and cynical in the mirror, Mountains with his wife and sense of humor. He lives and tell myself oldest son. But his eyes are for the thrill of long plane ‘this is the best grilled to the computer wave flights and has a horrible day of my life,’ models for strategic returns fetish for airline food… and then make to the northern Cal coast… Todd Patrick lives in the it happen.”… Moonwalker, aka Neil Colorado Rockies, never Julia Schweiger Armstrong lives in Oz when far behind the core crew started out as he’s not chasing his girlfriend immersed at play during a beginner Don Montgomery is a near legendary (and epic Vancouver Island all four seasons… windsurfer Maverick’s photographer who just surf) to Canada; spent his in her native Dan Rayburn Austria, quickly shoots and becoming plays at home competitive on the pro world circuit. She on Maui. “Those continues to expand to sup and the ocean boards in this life sports of her Maui home, immersing shot of me herself completely in photographer with are custom work seen in Rip Curl, Quiksilver and Naish Tom Parrishes: ads, and in windsurf and watersports mags the greatest around the world… shaper to ever live. When I first moved to Maui, I bought and rode his single fins. Magic carpets my friend, magic f#%*g carpets.” Dan observes: “I can see where the flatwater aspect of sup is going to go Michi Schweiger, Julia’s husband, most big in this sport; recently added Indonesia to his sup full zen mode resume, on assignment with Robby just gliding and Naish (he’s Naish’s product manager), checking the orchestrating a “crossover” sup, windsurf scenery!”… & kitesurfing Terry Reis is an IT pro, photo-videographer photo feature… and owner Steve West of Kahiwa was a windsurf Kiwi Media household Productions on name in our Oahu; US Navy 15 years of (Retired), ex- publishing Wind lifeguard and Tracks, but avid surfer… has decided Simon Russell with the new runs a startup audience of company in our broader, “naturally powered standup Kauai called watersport” mag it’s “time to change Total Health Maui in partnership with my byline from S. West to Steve West. I Olympic swim coach and personal trainer think I have to build up a bigger following before using a one name handle. Maybe I will just be ‘S’ one day.”… Swilly Williams grew up riding short surfboards, “So it was natural to start by shooting that. I later discovered I loved shooting any watersport, finding art in all forms of surfing, with the exception of . 116 I just don’t get it.” 117 “I think it’s admirable you recognize surf photographers are considered athletes as well.” –Photographer Ben DeCamp OCEAN MINDED

MOONWALKER Duane De Soto during the Puerto Escondido sup tube contest, September, 2008. PUBLISHER’S NOTE FULL-PAGE AD

’m writing to you this morning with saltwater … and when the most stoking photos.” Then we will ask you still dried to my eyelids… I kicked out in to ‘lay the shots on the table’ and talk story Hurricane Kyle just delivered clean, long the channel about each one. lines to our point breaks in New Hampshire, and began In other words, we try to combine top notch theI home of Standup Journal. paddling images with compelling stories. Associate Solid overhead sets came through, back, yow!: Publisher Steve Sjuggerud and I have kindly occasionally cleaning up the other surfers out the views but adamantly sent captions back to with me. But from my standing position I could from atop photographers and surfers for “the real story.” see the sets on the horizon and was able to jam my board In all cases they’ve responded admirably, not out to the peak, getting into the waves way were sweet… with a re-emphasis of what we can already see outside, making these nice, gliding drops and I grew up in the frame but what is really going as the shot then trimming down the line. The inside bowl on the West was fired. was lining up all the way into the cove… Coast, in With Santa Cruz, internet, so seeing ALLAN CHEATEAUX Surprise us! radio and the classic It’s not just the beach, it’s also TV we are the journey. New England inundated homes on the cliffs provides a similar feel to by a daily back home. It’s a good reminder that it’s explosion not just about California and Hawaii… stoke of words… is where you find it. And just like the views I so much SCOTT CHANDLER In your dreams. had from the top of the point, we at Standup so that just Journal want to share the exceptional a little well-crafted copy and a ton of dripping angles we get from the world’s finest surf and wet photos are what we all really need to watersports photographers. keep us tracking the weather, pouncing when In fact it is the imagemakers we honor most conditions turn magical, and falling asleep GLENN DUBOCK Surf legend Mike Doyle with Clay at the San Diego surf show. “The Waterman” is the only on our pages, now and every issue. When dreaming about the day’s session. way to describe Doyle, a surfer, kitesurfer and standup somebody contacts us asking if they can “do See you on the water, paddler who gave us two thumbs up and a warm a story,” my reply is always, “FIRST, please send welcome to the surf mag scene. Thanks, Mike! 119 120