Crunch

GATHER ROUND FOR SOME GNARLY SURFING YARNS

The Things That Happen That They Don’t Tell You About

Are you thinking you’re going to hear about huge waves with lunatics in wetsuits screaming down the face of a giant wall of water? Or maybe you want to hear about blond young men with bodies like Greek gods racing across the face of a wave, getting locked into a curl and then flying out of it.

Well, you’re not. Instead, you’re going to hear my story about some of the ridiculous situations I’ve gotten myself into. The kind of story that the serious surfers won’t tell you. (Which doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened to them.)

The Birth Of A Surfer

I grew up on the beaches southwest of Los Angeles. Which meant that, as a 10-year-old, I had no choice but to learn how to surf. The coolest kids in school, by far, were the few that had already started surfing. I guess I thought that surfing would get me into that group.

It didn’t. But that first surfing lesson hooked me, and surfing became the focus of my life for the next two decades.

There’s nothing I’ve done in sports or life that compares with catching a wave and careening down its face. (Try combining the speed of downhill skiing with the free fall of a roller coaster. Closest I can get.) There are surfers much better than I who have probably found greater thrills, but that…