Episode 7: Alo Slebir

Get ready for an electrifying ride as we sit down with legendary big-wave surfer Alo Slebir, known for fearlessly charging the monstrous waves at Mavericks. In this episode, Alo opens up about the impact of climate change on the world’s most iconic surf breaks, reflecting on shifting weather patterns, rising ocean temperatures, and their effect on wave conditions and coastal erosion.

We dive into the thrill and danger of California’s dynamic geography, from riding towering waves to living on the fault lines that shape the coastline. Nelly & Alo share wild stories from growing up in an earthquake-prone state to chasing swells in California and Hawaii. 

But the heart-pounding highlight? Alo recounts an insane week of surf adventure, racing between Jaws in Maui and Mavericks in California to chase the same historic swell. The episode crescendos with a jaw-dropping moment—Alo's ride on a potential record-breaking 108 ft. wave at Mavericks.

How do elite surfers prepare for waves of this magnitude? Alo breaks down the science of reading buoy data, the intense mental and physical training, and the unbreakable trust between surf partners like Luca Padua. Plus, we shine a light on the unsung heroes—the Mavericks rescue team—whose courage and quick thinking make big-wave surfing possible.

Join us for an adrenaline-fueled deep dive into the world of extreme surfing, where nature’s raw power meets human resilience. Whether you’re a seasoned surfer or simply fascinated by the ocean’s might, this episode is one you won’t want to miss! 🌊🔥🎙️

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:03

this is Nelly's magic moments podcast Nell dog all right.

Speaker 2 0:10

Well, today I'm super honored and super stoked because we got alice sliver in the house, my friend and somebody I've watched grub since. They're just a little grum and pretty excited to hear some stories. And you know, for anybody that doesn't know, most people do Aloe just charged one of the biggest waves ever ridden at Mavericks, if not the biggest wave, I mean I'm calling it the biggest wave. So Aloe, what's?

Speaker 3 0:40

up. How are you doing? Thanks for having me, guys.

Speaker 1 0:42

Let's keep these guys around for a little bit. Let's not talk about the wave till at least. Maybe this is like a good tv show.

Speaker 2 0:47

Right, that happened, everybody knows it well, we can talk about this run as well.

Speaker 1 0:52

We've been having there we go as well, it's been like what 60 days straight.

Speaker 3 0:56

Maybe even longer, I don't think. I mean. Last year we had south wind, stormy, ugly, rainy mass, who knows three months straight. This year it's been sunny and gorgeous for the last feels like two months.

Speaker 2 1:12

I know Maybe. I'm a little biased going to Maui but I can't be more stoked because you know I don't like rain or fog. But we know that, yeah, it's been that.

Speaker 1 1:23

Were you over at Jaws. Where were you? Yeah, I was over at Jaws, yeah, right on.

Speaker 1 1:27

Yeah, it's been. I think it's this the trippy thing about the whole world we're in and we never this is for sure a no political zone. It's never see, I broke my own rule. There's no political, anything like that. But the whole kind of like current of this global warming, all these things creating these weird events that haven't existed before, you know, sun for a longer period of time, rain where it's not supposed to be, or no rain, like down south right now, it's just this accommodation of weather's trippy. The you know, and our ever-changing coastline here adds to sort of this weird kind of seasonal world that we're living in. Every year it it's just changing right, it's been nuts.

Speaker 2 2:05

You know what I mean. All around the world, like biggest Waimea, biggest Jaws, biggest Mavericks, most sand erosion.

Speaker 1 2:12

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 2:13

I was just tripping out the other day. I was riding my bike over the little thing by the slab down there like the bike trail over by the closed roads, and I was just watching this. It was like a three, three foot swell and like a three foot tide and the waves were going up and under that thing and I was just like this thing is not going to be there.

Speaker 1 2:32

It's not going to be there and and we'll let's play a quick game here, for you know, the young kid and then the old dog. Here is, like, what's the biggest change from the first day you got in the water to like 2025, right now? Like, is there a significant difference in the water to like 2025 right now? Like, is there a significant difference in the water here is when you were first a kid, or is it? Are you in one environment right now?

Speaker 3 2:48

I'm a little bit in one environment yeah maybe besides the localism, what about?

Speaker 2 2:54

lane crumbling at the left the lane too.

Speaker 3 2:56

I mean there's been rocks falling everywhere right it's just right kind of how it rolls but, since I was a kid and bees used to be able to walk around the ark right there and we'd need some boogie board right right but I'm too young, I think 100 like too much of this has changed because it's like but even still there's a little bit, even in a short period of time, and then for you, first time in the water, here for instance, to now what's?

Speaker 1 3:23

is there something that's like blows your mind, or is it just gradual?

Speaker 2 3:26

there's so much that blows my mind, you know. I mean, and some of it has to do with, you know, sea level rise, for sure, and some of it's just sea walls and stuff that they're building. But you know, I've never seen west cliff, west cliff, cave in like that right and like I was talking about that trail at the, I mean that road at Closed Roads is victim, you know, and it's going to take one big 60 foot swell and that thing's going to be gone.

Speaker 1 3:52

And then we're going to have no, east Cliff. And then from a standpoint I'm not on it day to day but I can, you know, hear the stories in the magazine. We have a lot of articles. Working with Sean Burns and stuff. Are we losing surfing spots?

Speaker 2 4:03

Well, the land is definitely different and it's definitely going to be different if the sand ever comes back there, because the cave went down there and pieces of that cliff are falling in for sure.

Speaker 1 4:13

Right.

Speaker 3 4:14

It's interesting, though right, because, like for me, I look at down at the harbor, there's so much more sand there than there's ever been, and it's kind of like one of those things where I'm like all right, the sand's here, it just needs to be moved, gotcha like it's the administration of it, exactly yeah, I got you like we have all the elements, I think personally, but we just need to move them elsewhere.

Speaker 3 4:34

And I know it's unnatural, but anything that we do to try and do help this is going to be unnatural, unfortunately. Like you go from, you could say, okay, we're going to make it a one-way, or you could take out the road totally still unnatural. Like yeah, no matter what we do, we're and you can't get away from it.

Speaker 1 4:52

Eventually, there's a part of this that it is santa cruz and it is it. There's a business side of this, too, where we're known for a couple things, in one of them being surfing, surfing, and so I do think there's a part where you kind of meet in the middle. It's like there's nothing we're doing as a species that's super natural to this planet. So carving out a little sand, I don't think that's going to be the tipping point. There's a lot of other shit going on right now.

Speaker 2 5:15

Yeah, the sand flow is not the issue. I think it's the sea level rise. That's the issue. And erosion. You know what I mean. I go down on 26th Avenue the beach there where there used to be big fingers of reef that stuck out like 30, 40 feet.

Speaker 1 5:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2 5:27

That I used to sit on and shoot when I was 30, 40 years ago, when I first got my first camera.

Speaker 1 5:32

Yeah.

Speaker 2 5:33

And those fingers are gone and the cliff is gone and the riprap rocks that they put down there. There's now a huge cave that goes under that where all the water Nuts Rode it and those cliffs are just waiting to like chunk off Crazy. And it's pretty nuts because like that's where I hung out when I was a grom, from you know in my 20s, all the way up and that was just not like that then.

Speaker 1 5:59

We're the stressors. It's a beach, yeah. We're the stressors, though, because we've got these places. We've got these locations that we're used to. We've built houses really way too close for it and then expect the ocean to stop being the ocean. We ran an article a couple issues ago on managed retreat, and it started in Jakarta, but it's a concept of not much more than what the title is is leave, and it's a weird thing to say, because there's a lot of investment, there's a lot of things, but we need to kind of let the ocean be the ocean and it'll create natural new spots, things like that. The stressor is us. The stressor is our roads and our houses and our expectations of that simple or special spa we had. The reality is it's not going to stop doing its thing.

Speaker 3 6:39

Yeah, and like we were saying too, like the unnatural side of it is, we've built houses all over these places, right One. We've had trees that we cut down, we have roots that held together a lot of this stuff, right?

Speaker 1 6:53

Super smart, that's right, it's limestone yeah.

Speaker 3 6:55

You know, and so it's. You look up the coast the erosion is there, but it's not as fast moving. We've literally scraped everything off, strip mined it moving.

Speaker 1 7:05

We've literally scraped everything off. Strip mind it. That's a, that's a great perspective.

Speaker 3 7:07

I don't hear that enough as far as, like, we've done this to ourselves a little bit exactly that's why I'm like and the limestone composite of it, like I was kind of laughing the other day. I'm like I'm looking at the mavericks rocks photos of way back in the day. Those things have not moved, like they haven't chunked, they haven't fallen like that's why it's pure there it's pretty crazy yeah it is crazy you want to write an article for vibes?

Speaker 2 7:29

that's one of the things aloe said I'm young, you know I mean, and so it's like he, he doesn't look back like we do, like 40 years, you know, I mean yeah I always trip out because how old are you? 23, 23, yeah, I've always tripped on on that, like I remember when aloe was just this little guy, stocky guy threw huge fans and just ripped, but I'd be like, oh, you want to shoot tomorrow morning? And he's like no, I got school. I'm like school. And he's like yeah, I'm a sophomore in high school.

Speaker 1 8:00

I'm so fucking distracted right now because I just went to that barney thing and all I saw was like 23 year old nelly shots with his golden locks of hair flowing all over the place. Young 20-year-old Nell dog.

Speaker 3 8:11

I haven't been around on this earth too long. Okay, keep going, Nell.

Speaker 1 8:14

Sorry, I don't know how we got there, but we're trying to save the planet.

Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Surfing Feats

Speaker 2 8:17

It's good, it's good, it's good you know, I could.

Speaker 3 8:30

Could hear some of the rad things that aloe just said. You can hear your education. I know that you crazy. What? Four years of college already? Yeah, graduated from ucsc is that right? I did. I got a legal studies degree at ucsc and I dabbled with some other stuff. I mean like, but the only reason why I know this about the limestone is because I took a couple earthquake classes and they were kind of explaining all that and they were like even these micro earthquakes with yeah structures and no roots and yeah nothing.

Speaker 3 8:49

They create a lot more damage than we think like. They even brought up the point of swell, where they were like hey, swell does a lot but we have earthquakes non-stop and there's fault lines all over it's terrifying, dude.

Speaker 1 9:02

If you actually look at that map, it it's terrifying. It looks like a spider web of fault lines. Right, it's insane.

Speaker 3 9:08

It's insane I did a report at Año Island. So there's a fault line there from the county line all the way out to Año.

Speaker 2 9:16

You can actually see it. Is that the Hayward fault, or San Andreas, or which one is that? I forget the name of it. No, it's a runoff fault.

Speaker 3 9:22

It's a stone little fault line, but it goes up the cliff at Waddell, that huge cliff on the right side, and they don't know which type of fault line it is.

Speaker 1 9:31

Yeah.

Speaker 3 9:31

So it either can converge on itself and actually take out the road or it can go back and we have like a slopey mountain. But you can see out to Anyu Island these rocks just off this way that we serve called pubes. I see out to Anyo Island, these rocks just off this wave that we serve called pubes. I don't know who named it that.

Speaker 1 9:47

I thought you said we can keep it PC In the first nine minutes you drop pubes.

Speaker 3 9:52

Sorry Surfers, we named some waves for ridiculous things. I don't say that.

Speaker 1 9:57

You don't tell people where it is and you give them fucking weird names is what you do. I get that.

Speaker 3 10:02

But you can see the rocks and how they're formed and you can literally visualize the fault line all the way out to the island.

Speaker 1 10:09

And it's pretty I mean amazing that we have a road right there yeah, and then, and the power of that, when you see those formations, you see it over, you know, but the, the reality of that is like I wish I could remember and I'll google it when you guys are having a good conversation. But the speed of those plates underneath the, the earth, when they're moving, it's way you're talking like eighth of a mile, quarter of a mile, plates moving at a high rate of speed, and so when they do what creates an earthquake, is this like Godzilla, kind of like magnitude. It's crazy to me, terrifying in a way.

Speaker 3 10:41

Terrifying. I mean we're one earthquake away from like everything splitting apart.

Speaker 1 10:45

There's no doubt there's two things you hear growing up in California. One of them is I mean, I feel terrible. You got to shout out for all of our friends. We've got so many friends down there in SoCal right now that are going through it right now. But the two things being born and raised I always heard from my friends there is eventually LA is going to burn because there's no stopping it. If it ever get bad luck with the wind, they don't have a plan for that. The firemen will tell you there's no plan, they just get lucky, the wind just stops. And the other one is that earthquake is going to happen, we're going to fall off.

Speaker 2 11:13

And we're going to fall off. That's the scary one, that's the. It's hard to even imagine. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's just the big one is the scary one.

Speaker 3 11:26

It's coming.

Speaker 1 11:27

My professor was like.

Speaker 2 11:28

We're overdue.

Speaker 1 11:29

I'll tell you what, though. I've been all over the country and people think we have the biggest balls living out here. If you're not from California, you talk about earthquakes the way we do. Oh yeah, they can't get their mind around. We're like whatever. You're dealing with hurricanes and tornadoes and ice storms.

Speaker 3 11:44

A tornado to us is way more terrifying.

Speaker 1 11:47

There's only one more thing. For me, it's like If I were to rate them outside of it. The only other one that trips me out like earthquakes Are basically tsunamis. Essentially, the power of both of those Is unstoppable and you can't. You have no control over it, and so it's almost not it can. Maybe eventually we'll get to one of the questions I have about surfing, and especially the type you do is it goes almost past a tipping point. It's so ridiculous that you go beyond fear. That's where we are with earthquakes, cause if we keep having this conversation and the shit's in your head that you know that I don't now I'm going to get nervous about it, but we just live with it and you go past a point, like my wife's, terrified of it. She's not from here, she's from Colorado. Yeah, that ground, we get Something happens. I'm like that was like a 4.7.

Speaker 3 12:37

She's freaking out and I'm just giving it a number as it's happening I mean, believe me, my mom's from italy, so the ocean to her is like she's from the alps no thanks, yeah, she's like one toe in, only crazy insane yeah, so.

Speaker 2 12:53

So I guess one of the things I wanted to mention is uh, alla was like one of my first choices to be on this podcast. I remember you know yeah, I think you were the second one planned and you know, for many different reasons, that we just do too many things a day. It just never happened and I'm kind of glad it did, because this last run of Swell brought some mega swells with it and Ala went on a hell run at Mavericks for three days. Then what Jaws for three days, and then back to Mavericks for three days, then what Jaws for three days and then back to Mavericks for the mega swell.

Speaker 2 13:29

And I know you made everyone in Santa Cruz super proud and it's pretty. One thing I want to say about it is is Al has been always been pretty underground and that just makes you more real to me. You know what I mean. You do it for the passion and you do it for all the right reasons and I think that's going to end up rewarding you in the end to like all the beautiful benefits that you get from doing something like what you did.

Big Wave Surfing in Jaws

Speaker 2 13:57

You know what I mean and it's like I don't know. Just this last month has been wild watching some of my favorite people do crazy things in surfing, and your accomplishment was at the top top of the list, along with Landon's win at the eddy yeah, I appreciate it. Yeah, no doubt so tell us a little bit about that run. You know it must have been crazy, you must have had some crazy night flights. And and what were you eating? How do you?

Speaker 3 14:27

I know, you work out a lot, a lot. I was eating a lot of food. I'll tell you that it consisted of too many trips to get ribeyes, but it's always a good thing yeah but yeah, I've never been to maui and I was super curious. I've been curious about that wave since I was eight years old. You always see it in pictures. I used to watch Step in the Liquid, watch Laird, and those guys surf it and I'm just kind of in awe of it.

Speaker 3 14:55

Mystique yeah it's just blue water. Everyone's in board shorts. I'm like, how does a wave that big look so nice? I know it's terrifying, but yeah. So we were out of Mavericks little three-day swell it was awesome, nothing crazy, just paddle fun, sunny, crazy sunsets, just as dreamy as it gets. And then I had a good buddy of mine, krister, who lives out in Maui, and he kind of I texted him. I always used to text him and be like hey, like what do you think? Like what do you think. And he was just like you got to come over here. It's going to be the glossiest.

Speaker 2 15:34

Krister is the man yeah.

Speaker 3 15:36

He's the man and I was nervous. You know I've never traveled for big waves like that was. I was just mavericks, mavericks, mavericks, just going to ucsc, going to high school here. That's like all I did, yeah, so hyper focused. So it was kind of a weird thing for me just being like yeah all right, you're finally that guy that's chasing.

Speaker 1 15:56

Yeah. Yeah, that's amazing.

Speaker 3 15:57

You always see your heroes doing it, yeah you don't ever envision yourself getting out, but flew over there solo. My second and third grade teacher, Miss Kai, who is Krister's wife, picked me up from the airport. Rad Kai's so cool.

Speaker 1 16:15

That's amazing. I love their whole family.

Speaker 3 16:17

Oh, amazing family, great hospitality. It was awesome. But pick me up from the airport straight to the you know grocery store, first thing I got was a poke bowl there you go.

Speaker 1 16:29

That's what we do when you go. That's exactly what we did.

Speaker 3 16:31

We go there I was like I'm going full tourist vibe, I'm good and everything, yeah you know. Straight from the poke bowl into a wetsuit. Christer picked me up, straight out to jaws, wow, and there was just gonna ask you like, how long was it before the swell hit?

Speaker 1 16:46

I was just about to ask did you spend like two days getting local knowledge or no?

Speaker 3 16:50

just whatever was straight off the plane like I was, like I need to get in the water. I'm also like a fish where it's like if I don't get in the water every day, I start to get a little antsy yeah and especially being on a plane, you're like all, all right.

Speaker 1 17:02

Yeah.

Speaker 3 17:03

I just sat for five hours, Like I need to move. And right when we got out there, I'm like there's nobody out and I hadn't seen a set yet and I was kind of like oh maybe it's just like a small fun day and whatever.

Speaker 3 17:18

And all of a sudden just walls of water came in and I was like holy crap, oh wow, yeah, nobody of water came in. And I was like holy crap, like oh wow, yeah, like nobody out. There was literally eight guys out and in big wave surfing. That's like nobody. So it was a paddle day, straight paddle day got out there. You know, really didn't have a lot of pressure, it was just yeah I wanted to go look at it.

Speaker 3 17:38

I just wanted. Even if I just sat in the channel for three days and watched waves go by, I I would have been happy I could have flown home smile stoked. But I saw willem out there banks. Good friend of ours, incredible surfer, yeah I mean that guy is like if I want to paddle surf like anybody in the world, it'd be will right on like they're good because we have so many people that we spread this out.

Speaker 1 18:06

It's like, why, like, what fun, just the way he does it.

Speaker 3 18:10

I mean it's just his style his, you know, he's so agile on the surfboard.

Speaker 1 18:16

Yeah.

Speaker 3 18:16

Like he kind of has the fleenies, like he really has Daryl's style, and it's so cool to watch and it's not like I'd always want to be like pete, mal flea, all those guys that came before me, but seeing somebody in my generation do it like that way, yeah it's like super special. Yeah, but sorry I got a little bit off track there, but that's what I do that was actually the third person that I going to say, where that was.

Speaker 2 18:44

The third big thing that happened in this little short month was Willem got that huge bomb. Huge wave and I was just like wow, like all my boys are doing big things and it's making me so proud. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 18:56

My job here is to keep a pin in it when I fuck us up and go a different direction direction. So the last word you said was you see, will I see willem, I was, you know you're excited.

Speaker 3 19:07

I went up to him, gave him a hug and we kind of laughed. We're like we're finally here, like we finally made it yeah jaws. We've talked about it forever yeah and you know you talk about it in your five mil suit with just freezing cold out in the in the bowlvericks. And now we're sitting there in spring suits, like baking. We're not used to that.

Speaker 1 19:28

We're like this is too warm. Yeah, exactly, I need swim trunks right now.

Speaker 3 19:32

But caught a few waves that evening and got to witness. You know somebody like Albie and Torrey Meister and all these guys that I've always looked up to as well, and they're super kind. You know, it's like any lineup in the world you go up, you introduce yourself and just watch and observe and if you get the chance to ride a wave then go for it and tons of aloha right, yeah, I love that.

Speaker 1 19:58

Super nice, that is the coolest ever. And just going back one step, you know kind of guide me along a little bit, do ever. And just going back one step, you know kind of guide me along a little bit. Do you have a? Is there a? Is there a process? Is there a? Feel it, measure it, watch like, do you have a process? When it comes to that, like in a new environment, do you? Do you need to see it and feel it, or what's what's going through your head?

Speaker 3 20:16

so, yeah, that's kind of interesting because that's like I kind of said before, is the first big wave that I've really traveled. So, mavericks, it took me, you know, two to three years of really watching it when I was very young, like 14 and 15. You know, I'm just kind of observing Maui. It was kind of like, all right, there's only eight guys out here. This is never how it normally is. I kind of got to take advantage of this.

Speaker 1 20:45

Yeah.

Speaker 3 20:45

And try and catch a couple waves and feel it out, and I only, you know, it took me probably an hour to catch a wave, which is really short in a big wave session. Yeah.

Speaker 1 20:56

Yeah.

Speaker 3 20:58

And people were giving me pointers. They're like, hey, if this disappears, you're in a bad spot. I'm scared. And that singular tree disappeared quite a bit and you're like, oh, all right, is it sucking you the rough? Yeah it sucks you into the bowl Into the bowl, so that was another thing is really Mavericks. It comes from directly out in front of you and marches in, while Jaws comes from the channel.

Speaker 3 21:27

So where you sit on the West Bowl, you'll look to your left as you're facing out to sea and the waves are coming this way.

Speaker 1 21:34

Oh shit, Kind of plays with your head a little bit.

Speaker 2 21:36

That's why it bends so hard right? Exactly that's why the barrel's so hard yeah.

Speaker 1 21:39

That's the physics of it.

Speaker 3 21:41

That's the physics of it. That's the physics of it. Crazy, and it's also really interesting. The first wave I took off on, I thought I was way too deep On a wave. At Mavericks you can kind of tell how deep you're going to be.

Speaker 1 21:51

Right.

Speaker 3 21:57

Jaws is like you want to be way deeper Because of how it bends so hard. You'll take off and all of a sudden you're on the shoulder of the wave and it could look like a stretched out wall to timbuk2.

Speaker 1 22:06

But you're, you're gonna be on the shoulder.

Speaker 3 22:08

You're in it, yeah, yeah so that was another thing that you had to adjust to. It was like, okay, I gotta sit deeper than I want to be, but also not so deep that I'm gonna get cleaned up on the first set that I paddle out to. So yeah it it was. It was completely different, just new environment. But again, like awesome, people really took care of me. It was cool to see that. I mean, I want to do that as much as I can out at Mavericks as well, and it's, it's refreshing for sure.

Speaker 1 22:39

Is that a you thing? Is this is that a from a business standpoint? Is that just you buying your ticket, going there for your own stoke, or do you have a team or a sponsor that kind of says let's go, or how does that work?

Speaker 3 22:50

Yeah, I have a sponsor. It's Drink West Peak, yeah, and you know they really help out with a lot of the bills.

Speaker 1 22:56

Yeah.

Speaker 3 22:56

It's awesome. But you know I've worked with a good friend of mine all summer, russ Smith, and sledge concrete and just did the manual labor and I was like all right, this is you know right before you're going to do it.

Speaker 1 23:10

Yeah.

Speaker 3 23:11

I got to click that button to buy that ticket.

Speaker 1 23:12

A hundred percent.

Speaker 3 23:13

I've got the money now, so yeah, yeah, backing out, that's rad.

Speaker 2 23:19

Back in the day it would have been like yeah, I mean, when I was traveling with russell, the guy you're working with it was just no-brainer, you know? I mean like the surf industry was booming yeah every, every one of your sponsors would pay for you that's what I'm asking.

Speaker 1 23:33

I mean, it's just like is that dried up a little bit?

Speaker 2 23:37

oh, definitely, you know I mean, but for someone who's doing what I was doing it, it's going to open up.

Speaker 1 23:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2 23:43

That's why I was just talking about that, especially after doing this podcast. Doing it for the right reasons Worldwide. You know, yeah, anyway.

Speaker 1 23:52

Yeah, and I think the other thing too is it's just like any other pro sport. I take this back. You know part of it. There's that sort of like you know, meteor chance that your talent outweighs your personality and your ability to kind of promote yourself and your sponsor. But a lot of times, from what I'm seeing from the outside working with Garen, working with you and looking at people that actually can make it, you got to bring that asset you kind of eventually to kind of get that eventual kind of cheese. You've got to be able to have a personality, be able to, you know, promote the brand, do things like this for the brand.

Speaker 1 24:26

I think back in the day, like it was just hand over fist and if you could, if you could basically perform, there was money for you because they were making money, I think. I think, looking at these brands right now, even working with O'Neill on the thing you've got going for vibes, there's just a lot more boxes to check, you know, with. You know just just working with them, and so I think I agree with him that you know, if you can, it doesn't hurt that you know you kind of went to school for four years that you can sit here and talk on a microphone and also can blaze over and hit jaws.

Speaker 2 24:56

I think it's all going to come back. We just got to ride it out, just it out. Just like you know, it's happened before in the skateboard industry and the surf industry, where it kind of goes through these roller coasters and right now it's on the the downside and then it's just going to come booming back. You know, and I hope it's sooner than later for guys like gallo. Yeah, you know, as far as riding for west peak, um, you work with Nick over there, yeah, at West Peak. So you guys got John Mel.

Speaker 3 25:25

John Willem myself Burnsy Burnsy.

Speaker 1 25:28

That's a good crew.

Speaker 2 25:29

Yeah, we got a good crew. That's a good crew. It's an awesome crew.

Speaker 3 25:32

Autumn still ride for West Peak. I think so. Yeah, I believe so she does now. Yeah, it's a cool program. He's been really supportive and it's pretty awesome. Like Natalie was saying, there's not a lot of money in the industry anymore. No doubt, but he's really helped us fund with a lot of things. It's just been really awesome. And I've kind of explained it to him. I'm like, hey, I'm going to be doing this regardless, and he knows this. I'm like I could care less about having sponsors 100% yeah.

Speaker 1 26:05

I think there's a little getting into the high weeds a little bit. I think Nellie and I talk about something similar to this. I just think it's a matter of kind of forecasting where are people conversing? Where is, like, the human species conversation happening? There is like the human species conversation happening, and I think there's a way to kind of reverse engineer it through platforms even like this, where, if you can be smart about it and you have a deliverable asset and you have a skill set and it's got all the right, look for an average, everything they want, you know. Especially, it's all the way down from, um, you know, from the color of the water, the intensity of the sport, the danger of the sport.

Speaker 2 26:57

It's just low hanging fruit for DeNiro. The good news is is that we've had a pretty nuts year, like we were just talking about earlier, and some big stuff has happened this year and it's gone pretty mainstream, including Aloe's A Wave which we're going to talk to.

Speaker 1 27:11

And even shit like Garrett's show on HBO helps. You know that kind of like. You know you get to a renewed series on HBO, 100 Foot Wave, which you know. Now it seems small compared to what happened last week, yeah.

Speaker 3 27:28

I mean, where were sorry? No, I was just about to say like there are people that do it for the love of it and there are people that do it for the money. Yeah. And it's you kind of always. It always goes back to the people that do it for the level 100 like luca and myself. We do it because we 100, like there's no, there's no. What if like oh, we're not making money doing this, then we're going to stop like it's not a goal it's a it's like, it's a passion it's almost.

Speaker 1 27:58

It's almost organic and beautiful, because there was a time before the heyday when people had no expectations of money for doing something they loved, and then it merged with, you know, the kind of the apex of surf and skate, where money was flowing into it. There was a time before that where there was no money there, and then it kind of like it hits an apex, and now it's a settling of the market, and I think now it's kind of. There's so many people involved in it. It, though, that I just can't get my mind away from. When you include Red Bull and all these, there's so many people on the outside of this sport. Um, it's almost too much energy around it, including the Olympics and all of that. That it's uh. There's a whole new generation coming up right now that are every four years, are watching an event on that. They can represent their country for, and, and they're they're five, six, seven year old watching that TV. Those are little dreams, you know.

Speaker 3 28:50

Yeah, for sure. And I think in surfing too we have so many good surfers. I mean, just look at Santa Cruz, it's like it's insane, it's wild, it's wild, it's insane yeah, and a million heroes here.

Speaker 3 29:01

Yeah, a million heroes, a million legends, like it's just, it's nonstop. And I don't see that in a lot of sports I mean, other than, like, let's say, football or, you know, basketball. There's so many good of those players, but it's like we have it honestly pretty lucky still, totally Considering somebody like that does track. It's like unless you're that person who won the gold medal.

Speaker 1 29:25

Yeah, that's exactly it, yeah.

Speaker 3 29:27

There's not a lot of opportunity there, yeah, it's. I always kind of have to like remind myself and other people it's like we're still pretty lucky, even though it is feels like it is a you know, a dying industry. You could go out there tomorrow and go do a giant backflip or an air reverse and all of a sudden you have a sponsor. So somebody that does pole? Vaulting their entire life, they're passionate about it and they don't make it to the Olympic team.

Speaker 1 29:53

Yeah, swimming everything or winter curling, yeah, just ain't going to happen.

Speaker 3 29:59

They just you know they get. They go straight to a desktop right after. That's exactly it.

Speaker 1 30:03

That's a really, that's a really interesting way to look at it. Like and I, like the integrity that you talk about it with is like so let's just stay with your, your pole vaulter. They grow up, they go to high school, they're a good pole vaulter, they make it to the Olympics or don't, and then when life ends, that's sort of just something they did. You don't go to work at 38 and then say you dudes want to go pole vaulting after. It just doesn't happen. But this one you came in whenever. Do you remember the first time you were in the water with a board?

Speaker 3 30:31

Sort of. I don't remember entirely. My dad reminded me of it about a year ago, but it was giant cows and he had me in a life jacket and on the front of his longboard.

Speaker 1 30:41

Amazing.

Speaker 3 30:43

Just pretty much said he ragdolled me until I got up and then life started calling us in and that's amazing.

Speaker 1 30:49

But I guess my point, like from the standpoint of like a timeline still keeping the pole vaulter in your mind, is like you had that moment with your pops and life goes on and you now you, you do these amazing jaws and mavs and your whole career, maybe sponsors. You have a sponsor, it keeps going, but you still, when this is all done, you can still go out to cows and grab your board and you still, you still own it exactly. It's still yours and I think that's the there's two years old. Because here's the thing about that sport that's not talked about enough is like, unlike every other sport that we're talking about, including skateboarding, it's powered by the planet Earth. It's crazy, crazy, basketball, baseball, you know, just name all the major sports. Hockey. It's us as a species matriculating an object and moving it around. It's a sport that we look at. The battery for the sport that you're in and that you're in is powered by nature. It kind of blows your mind a little bit.

Speaker 3 31:49

Yeah, it blows your mind and also you just got to be thankful.

Speaker 1 31:52

Totally.

Speaker 3 31:52

Yeah, all of a sudden nature could really backhand you pretty quick too, and that's the beauty of it as well. Is like you start getting a little cocky?

Preparing for an Epic Mavericks Swell

Speaker 2 32:01

Yeah, slaps you down, she'll put you right back in place, which brings us back to we didn't finish the story. You got back from jaws. You saw the mega swell coming to mavs. Tell me a little bit about that. Like, who was your surf partners? Who's your main mav surf partners? I know you surf a lot with augie and john and pete mall and and luca right, luca's your man. Yeah, um, did you know how big it was going to be? What was your thought process? Yeah, I mean we?

Speaker 3 32:32

I mean I was in maui and everybody was kind of looking at me like I was crazy for leaving. They were like, hey, I mean I'm. Yeah, I could have stayed and got you know, got to witness willems wave, which would have been awesome. Yeah, I could have stayed and got you know, got to witness willems wave, which would have been awesome. Yeah, I mean that's probably one of the best paddle waves at jaws in my opinion, from a guy from santa cruz 100. Yeah. So it was a little nerve-wracking leaving there not knowing if the conditions were going to be good enough at mavericks. But luca and I my tow partner from half moon bay. We're the same age and we both have the same drive, and not only that, without surfing, he's just also one of my good friends.

Speaker 3 33:10

This is a Luca Padua right. Yes, sir, and we always have a feeling that it's going to be rideable. I mean, with a tow rope and a tow board, it's pretty hard not to ride a wave out there. It has been too bumpy, we've been out there when it's pretty hard not to ride a wave out there. It has been too bumpy. We've been out there when it's too bumpy but we're always still trying. And that swell.

Speaker 3 33:28

Just it hit hawaii hard, but it seemed like it was hitting california focused in here very focused and I saw some of those buoy readings and I was like there's just no way that I'm not going to get there a day early to just prepare, yeah. So I took the red eye on the 21st the night of the 21st, from Maui, got back on the 22nd, probably around 6 am, and as I was driving down the coast, you pass this beach called Monterra and it was rugged, like it was blowing offshore, which there means howling south wind at mavericks, yeah, which is not good.

Speaker 3 34:05

Not good, horrible, worst wind you could pretty much get and I started getting a little nervous. I was like seeing all these swells about to hit jaws, thinking, damn, did I make the wrong decision. But as kurt meyer is a good friend of ours who films for power lines, always says like mavericks is your guys's home yeah you always? We always talk to him. We're like, oh, it might be too south wind, like maybe we'll go somewhere else.

Speaker 4 34:29

He goes no, no, no you guys are gonna stay here.

Speaker 3 34:32

Yeah, fair enough, but I remember seeing the buoys around 6 pm that night on the 22nd and really seeing the 24-hour buoy hit, and I had never seen anything that big in my life wow and what was it like?

Speaker 2 34:50

24 feet at 21 seconds or something. It was crazy, I think it was bigger than that.

Speaker 3 34:55

I think it was almost in the 30s 28 feet at 21 seconds explain that to me.

Speaker 1 35:00

What do you mean by that?

Speaker 2 35:01

So that's the interval of the swell and like, basically it's a ground swell. So you can measure the distance in between waves and when it gets those size buoys at that interval of seconds, you know it's a really big ground swell.

Speaker 1 35:15

Got it. And they're moving fast, it's like counting the time between thunder and lightning. Exactly, it's the same kind of like measuring, kind of like how close it is Amazing.

Speaker 3 35:24

Exactly so.

Speaker 1 35:26

And you'd never seen that. That's, that's.

Speaker 3 35:29

I've seen that on those buoys, but you don't see it that consistent for several hours. Gotcha, gotcha.

Speaker 3 35:35

Also with the wind pattern that we have. When we have storms that big it's normally blowing 100 to 150 mile an hour winds outside. You know that 24 hour buoy and that buoy is way out to sea, but those winds were fairly light out there, which is very rare. So that morning we kind of, you know, we saw the buoys and they were small, but once they actually hit I think the buoy reading was something like 21 at 22, with a 13 at 25 and a 16 at 17 overlapping overlapping.

Speaker 2 36:11

Oh god, that's sketchy.

Speaker 3 36:13

That's how dorian scorpion yeah, one time when I was out there and I was looking at those buoys just like holy crap, like there's gonna be some meat cleavers. But yeah, I mean again never seen anything like that at this.

Speaker 1 36:31

I want to stop because he's going to keep going. This is really compelling to me. But, um, from a nerd standpoint question, I'm thinking about this timeline. You're just telling me, jumping on a plane five hours, red eye, five hours in a car going up. My first thing is respecting, even on the smallest stuff I've ever served how exhausting that can be, you know is that I'm starting to think of hydration and your mental, because the mental capacity, just even through your proteins, your car, all of that stuff, is, um, that. So you're going into this thing. You've got trepidation because it's huge, might be the biggest you've ever been in in. Where's your from an athlete standpoint, are you ready? Like from a, from a, yeah, so that's.

Speaker 3 37:13

That's exactly why I gave myself the day to prepare Cause. I just knew I did not want to get off a red eye. I know Pete did it Okay.

Speaker 3 37:21

I mean it's crazy, yeah, not want to get off a red eye, I know pete did it okay. I mean it's crazy, yeah, coming from the eddie just surfing a big contest, straight onto a plane, straight out to mavericks into that swell. But we had, you know, photographers, filmers, jet skis, everything to just prepare and I I hate being that guy at the launch ramp that all of a sudden I'm like I forgot something at the house.

Speaker 1 37:41

Yeah.

Speaker 3 37:42

So yeah, exactly what you're saying Try to get some rest, try to eat well, just slow your heart rate down, just breathe. I didn't get a lot of sleep on the red eye. In fact. I got on that plane from Maui and I was kind of confused why I got upgraded to business. I was like all right this could be a nice flight. Maybe I'll be able to sleep a little bit yeah, and once I got on that plane there was only like 13 14 people in the whole flight yeah and I was.

Speaker 3 38:11

I was like, well, this is a little odd. And the minute we got on the plane the guy goes hey, we're going through this storm. It's gonna be a bumpy ride so I didn't sleep a wink, it was like.

Speaker 2 38:22

And is that the storm that created the swell?

Speaker 1 38:24

Oh, shit you were literally. So you go 550 miles an hour through the storm and, yeah, with a tailwind.

Speaker 3 38:34

With a tailwind Just getting. Just getting rocked Like the plane was rocking the whole time and I was.

Speaker 1 38:39

That's an amazing part of the story.

Speaker 3 38:44

That you rode the storm back back which is pretty cool.

Speaker 1 38:45

That is, that's a very cool part of the story hopefully my sister's not listening to this because she's terrified she's terrified and she's coming to hawaii in like 10 days high weeds again, though high weeds again. So in a crunch time like that, a 24-hour cycle, it sounds like possibly meditate a little bit, or do you? How do you, how? How do you slow yourself down? Just just chill.

Speaker 3 39:03

It's hard, I mean we're like you said, we're surf geeks as well. Totally we're checking those buoys every three seconds.

Speaker 1 39:10

Yeah.

Speaker 3 39:10

New update. We're checking it. Yep. And for this swell it was. Every time you checked it it was bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. And your mind's just and your mind starts to go a little racy and you get a not. I mean yeah, you're always nervous, Like anybody that tells you that they're not nervous is either a psychopath or they're lying. Yeah, they're lying.

Speaker 1 39:32

I think that's the third. I think that's three for three.

Speaker 2 39:41

I think that's the third big way surf man when I checked that swell, so there's red right yeah, the swell is coming in, red it's big, and then there's purple, and then there's magenta, and then there's purple, and then this one was black and it was just giant. It wasn't just a little black dot, it was like black merging into california, which means 60 to 100 feet.

Speaker 2 40:03

You know what I mean. That's what it means, and I was just like whoa. And then Keala told me she wanted to go out to Mavericks with us and I was like I don't think I'm going to take you out there hon, you know what I mean we drove up there and we were in the fog and you couldn't see it. But I was not going to take her on a boat on a swell like that. You know, we didn't even know what it was going to do.

Speaker 3 40:23

You could be in closed out boat channel right there, and that's the first time I thought mavericks was a close-up. I was like, really I saw waves. Yeah, that broke in nothing like hundreds of feet deep of water and you're just in awe of how that even happened.

Speaker 2 40:40

But we don't Anything sketchy happen Like any jet skis go down, Anybody capsize.

Speaker 3 40:46

No, it was a little it was a lot calmer than last year's giant storm that we had. Yeah, last year we definitely had a few crazy situations, but this year it seemed like there was less boats in the channel A hundred percent, I think. There was only one smaller boat. You couldn't bring a big boat out that day and I think a lot of the captains were like we're not doing that, yeah yeah like I don't care how I felt I was, like I ain't taking my daughter out no, it was.

Speaker 3 41:14

Yeah. I mean, if you were in a bad situation that day, you could have drowned 100 like there was. There's a reef south of Mavericks called Black Ham. Yeah, and I, that's one of the. I just got chills thinking about it. We went to go pick up Luca's board and I know I'm fast tracking, but I look over to my right as Luca's grabbing his board and I swear I saw a 60 foot wave and the lip must have been 20, 30 feet thick. Oh my God, at Blackham, at Blackham, yeah.

Speaker 1 41:45

Just like it'll break you in half kind of feel right.

Speaker 3 41:47

If you were underneath that wave. Yeah. Every single one of your vertebrae would have just popped out of socket Like there's just no, it's thousands and thousands of tons of water moving.

Speaker 1 41:58

This is the problem with your education is you know that A lot of my buddies growing up? There's a long period of time you do things because you don't know things. The problem with knowing things is that thought that went through your head.

Speaker 3 42:12

It was. Yeah, there was waves. There's a green can out there. It's a buoy marker. Yeah, and I'll show you guys the photo later. There's a wave that didn't quite break but feathered, and I remember watching it and I heard waves were actually breaking out there, but we never, ever saw them. But this photo is wild these sea lions still on the can and watching this 60 foot wall just almost break right over it insane and that's at 200 feet of water, maybe more. That's like wild that that's just.

Speaker 1 42:46

It can't get my mind around it like it's. Like. That's that nature, shit. All right, hey, I gotta tell you doing an amazing job stretching this shit out. It's 42 minutes. This is exactly what I wanted. I was afraid we were gonna go to the wave like in the first six minutes I'll tell you right now I had major foma for not being out there. I know yeah.

Speaker 2 43:04

I'm glad that friend Fred, my boy Fred Pompamire, he got when I got out there, scored it Eric Nelson, I'm sure all the boys from our lines were up there, but I am glad I feel now I feel great that I wasn't out there, there's no doubt, because you're sitting here talking right now. So scary there and I wasn't out there.

Speaker 3 43:22

There's no doubt, because you're sitting here talking right now, so scary.

Navigating Big Wave Tow Surfing

Speaker 1 43:23

There's no doubt All right, so keep us going. We're getting close.

Speaker 3 43:25

Yeah, I'll start with kind of that morning. Yeah, it was small in the morning. Like when we got up in the morning we were sitting there drinking coffee in our wetsuits and we knew the buoys weren't going to hit until around 10. And Buoys weren't going to hit until around 10. And it was kind of funny. Luca's dad is not a surfer and he walks into the kitchen. All of us are standing around in our wetsuits and he's like isn't today supposed to be the biggest day on the history of planet Earth? And we started dying laughing. We're like you're right, gino, like all right, maybe we should get a move on. But we kind of slow rolled it. We were up at four just checking all the boxes, really making sure that we didn't miss anything yeah and we got a report from out in the water and guys were telling it, but it was.

Speaker 3 44:12

I mean, there's no such thing as small mavericks, but it was small for that day and so we put down the launch ramp. Luca lives maybe three minutes from the launch ramp, like super close in Half Moon Bay. So get on our jet skis, start going out and once we get out there we're like all right, it's going to hit any second.

Speaker 3 44:35

now and we know it's going to hit any second now and we played a good old game of Rochambeau to see who goes first. And I remember getting on the rope and getting out there my first wave felt pretty big, nothing crazy out of the ordinary, and 30 minutes later it looked like complete different wave. Like that long interval, that 25 second interval, just started sucking water off the reef. That 25 second interval just started sucking water off the reef and you could tell because also the boats the boat and the jet ski in the channel started moving out farther and farther and farther and everyone was a little bit on edge, like nobody really knew how big it was going to be until that 10 am window hit and then it was game on, like we just didn't stop towing for six, seven hours, just nonstop.

Speaker 1 45:25

And just Stoke. Is it just like euphoric Stoke, or are you still on edge the whole time? I'm trying to understand, like your day. Is it because your life's on the line? You have this opportunity, you're doing something you love, but what's the dominant emotion?

Speaker 3 45:38

We were as happy as could be.

Speaker 2 45:40

Adrenaline? Probably pure adrenaline yeah.

Speaker 1 45:43

Pure adrenaline, yeah Like pure adrenaline, smiling.

Speaker 3 45:46

Couldn't stop laughing.

Speaker 1 45:47

It was the day of days.

Speaker 3 45:49

Day of days Like Luca and I, we talk about it now. It's like some guys surf Mavericks for you know, 40 years. That's exactly it, and they've never seen a swell that big. So to be out there during it and we've only been surfing, it's crazy.

Speaker 1 46:04

I think that we've been almost surfing mavericks for 10 years now, but to be out there for that day, yeah, we had to capitalize on everything and we were having a blast doing it can you, can you explain, because I just I watch it and talk to nelly, but can you explain to me, like, just like, um, the, the responsibility of the toe and the strategy, like, like, what, like, what's the? I just you know, like, like I'm a fifth grader, never even seen explained to me, like, what that responsibility is, what is the actual angle, the strat with the how's that go down?

Speaker 3 46:32

Yeah, so your toe partner and for me it was Luca that day and, and it has been for the last two years you work a lot of the days prior, right, you go and train everywhere else before you go to Mavericks to really learn your driver, because you're relying so much on that jet ski to tow you into the wave and know exactly where to put you.

Speaker 1 46:55

Yeah.

Speaker 3 46:56

That you have to have the most amount of trust in that person that you might ever have in your life.

Speaker 2 47:02

Not to mention to pick you up when you fall.

Speaker 1 47:03

You, that's what that's it, and that's exactly it. It's like I'm thinking like it's the shittiest comparison ever, but it's like a caddy with a putt read with massive consequences. Yeah, it's like it's everything's got to be just right for do it, but this one and so and this is something you talk about when you train and you're sitting there on even before you go in the water. You're talking this through over and over again about.

Speaker 3 47:27

Yeah, I mean, for us it was just so Instinctual.

Speaker 1 47:31

Yeah, instinctual Gotcha 100%.

Speaker 3 47:33

Because we've just been doing it for so long together that we kind of know what our guy's going to do. But and with the Mavericks rescue safety team that we have out there, there are two, three other jet skis, strictly doing safety. So if your guy goes down, you as the tow partner are responsible to try and go get them first.

Speaker 1 47:53

Gotcha.

Tow Surfing in Big Waves

Speaker 3 47:54

If you can't get them first, the next wave around you'll have one of those rescue guys coming in to get you and we coordinate with them and they know the drill. We have radiosios, we have everything.

Speaker 3 48:05

normally we have spotters up on the cliff as well yep that day it was so foggy and so much sea spray that you could not see anything, so we were a little bit going in blind. But you always see your guy. You just want to be calm, relaxed, go into the soup, and that we call it the soup because it literally looks like boiling water yeah, those waves breaks.

Speaker 1 48:28

Yeah, it's just air pockets everywhere.

Speaker 3 48:31

Um, but that day it was pretty crazy because the jet skis were cavitating so much in the foam yeah that you could not go. Really go get your guy on the first wave that he fell on. I tried on one with Luca and it was just not. It was just not going.

Speaker 2 48:46

So he doesn't even go? Yeah, just cavitate.

Speaker 1 48:49

That's amazing. And so and again going backwards. I just love this visual in my head. So you get them in the I'll call it the pocket, you get them in the pocket and you get them in the right spot, and then you exit and then enter.

Speaker 3 49:05

Yeah, in the right spot, and then you exit and then enter. Yeah, so you what?

Speaker 1 49:07

we do luke and I do, and people do different. Yeah, that's what I'm asking, yeah they have different strategies.

Speaker 3 49:09

We'll whip the guy into the wave, yep, and then we will pin those jet skis out into the channel and try and ride the ridge line of the wave to see your guy surfing right over your left shoulder or whatever. Exactly. That's amazing. That's amazing. So you can really see one. You geteline of the wave to see your guy surfing right over your left shoulder or whatever exactly.

Speaker 1 49:23

That's amazing.

Speaker 3 49:24

That's amazing so you can really see one. You get one of the craziest visuals you've ever seen in your life and you've still got your dopamine. You're, you're in it exactly and you can see you when he goes down, because another thing is when the guy goes down in the bowl or wherever, the people on the channel normally signal you yeah, he fell, but if you're riding that ridge line, you know right away and you know where he fell, so you can kind of eyeball where he's going to pop up rather if you're just on the back of the wave

Speaker 1 49:53

it's just like all right. So, and on this day you're saying you weren't seeing shit is like you weren't seeing the shore.

Speaker 3 49:59

Clearly with that no, you could not see the, but you could see the boats in the channel.

Speaker 1 50:02

Gotcha.

Speaker 3 50:03

And they could give you kind of a reference if your guy did.

Speaker 2 50:07

So it was probably kind of good that there was less skis and less boats in the water, so you could actually take that line on the edge of the wave and watch the guy without worrying about running into somebody. Yeah, it's pretty zooey out there sometimes.

Speaker 3 50:20

I'm all fucking jittery right now, so you're in, and then I'm in, I'm on the waves and Luca whips me into a couple. Yeah, 10-15, 10-30,. I think we saw our first set that day. Yeah. And it broke. We were, you know, half a mile out from the normal bowl that we serve and a wave broke 300 yards outside in front of us. Wow, and just mowers through the lineup and we were looking at each other like what is that like?

Speaker 3 50:56

and it wasn't a top to bottom wave because, that outer reef just doesn't have enough energy to really hold it, but that white water must have still been like 40 feet tall and just mowing all the way in and then from that set on it was game on like it was just like non-stop waves. I don't think we took a break for more than five minutes and you would kick out of a wave or if, if your guy fell, you would get right back up on the rope and tow your guy all the way back out, because on your way back out 50% of the time there was a wave, so you would just whip over your guy.

Speaker 2 51:30

So what's your guy's program? Do you do like three waves each and switch off, or do one each?

Speaker 3 51:36

So it's kind of funny because I myself I like to do three waves and I actually don't mind driving, I'd rather see my friend get one of the biggest waves of his life, and then me being there is just awesome to watch.

Speaker 1 51:50

It says a lot about you, but yeah, it's rad.

Speaker 3 51:52

So, luca, that day was the majority time on the rope, but it didn't really matter. I mean, I got that one wave and then I got plenty of other waves that day that were the biggest waves of my life, like yeah.

Speaker 1 52:04

I was going to ask that because leading up to the wave that's sort of the story of this whole thing was were they all the biggest waves of your life leading up to it?

Speaker 3 52:11

Probably. Yeah, I got a wave last year, um in December that Luke and I still talk about and it wasn't recorded. It was only recorded at the very end of the wave.

Speaker 1 52:24

but it was only recorded at the very end of the wave but it was one of those that, still to me, might have been the biggest wave of my. What do you think it was?

Giant Waves at Mavericks

Speaker 3 52:28

ish I have no idea. No idea, I was going fast. I'll tell you that ginormous, yeah, um, but it was the only thing that we've really seen that kind of compared to that day. But in regards to your question, that was, you know, you're watching John Mel, jojo, pete Mel, all these guys and every wave, ryan Augustine we saw Ryan Augustine get a crazy wave right as that session started. We knew right away it was just like every wave that we're going to go on right now could be the biggest waves of our lives that's, this is incredible and it's only getting bigger.

Speaker 3 53:03

So what, like? We kept laughing where's this going? Yeah, out the back, luke, and I kept laughing. We're like, oh, I wonder when the swell is going to show up.

Speaker 1 53:10

Yeah, because it's compared to 11 am. Yeah, yeah, that's crazy okay.

Speaker 2 53:15

So I have a question. So the one that came and broke way out 300 yards outside of you did it burger. I mean, what was the difference between that set and the good ones? It was a burger, it was just a straight burger, but it missed it, just a little bit different direction.

Speaker 3 53:31

A little bit of a different direction, so far out that it just couldn't unload and really go onto that bowl. So we were kind of looking at the uh, the symmetry of the reef there and there's these knuckles that kind of lift the wave Right and I think one of those knuckles. It was so big that day that that knuckle actually lifted it far enough to where it would break, yeah, but it couldn't unload on that really deep to wall Right. Um, cause there's a huge difference between the waves that were breaking out there and the waves that were breaking on the bowl. We caught some of those way out there and they were just giant mush burgers, yeah, or rather the ones that came in more onto the bowl were just skyscrapers Unloading.

Speaker 2 54:17

So how loud were those? Because in my time out at knob shooting I was blown away on how explosive and loud when those things crack.

Speaker 1 54:27

The actual sound of it.

Speaker 3 54:28

Yeah, it's just like, yeah, I tell people that all the time. I'm like the craziest part about Mavericks besides the barrel, if you're just a spectator is the noise. Wow, it is the loudest slap you have ever heard. And then straight into thunder. It's crazy.

Speaker 1 54:44

It is crazy and again, you can try to describe it, but you're saying it and I can tell you you're not describing it.

Speaker 2 54:49

Yeah, there's no words for it.

Speaker 1 54:51

Yeah.

Speaker 2 54:53

So the one wave.

Speaker 1 54:55

Well, before we get there, one question. It's fundamental to my 37% of our audience Burger and mush burger.

Speaker 3 55:03

Yes, sir, same thing. Same thing Burger and mush burger is regarded to a wave that doesn't stand up.

Speaker 1 55:12

I got you All right.

Speaker 3 55:14

Let's say you're on the beach, right?

Speaker 1 55:15

Yeah.

Speaker 3 55:16

And you see a wave that just kind of morphs into nothing in whitewater.

Speaker 2 55:19

Yeah, that's a mush burger.

Speaker 3 55:21

Gotcha when you see it thump onto the sand. That's a wall. Got it yeah.

Speaker 2 55:26

Got it. That's a proper one yeah.

Speaker 1 55:27

I'll never forget it. Now All right, so go ahead, nellie.

Speaker 2 55:48

So the wave that was that midway through the session. Did you know how big that thing was? Because it looked to me like it was a hundred feet? I mean, yeah, it was twice as big as any wave I've seen at mavericks in all my years shooting out there first sign, this first sign of a big wave is when the picture looks fake yeah, and in fact, humbly, I said that's the same thing.

Speaker 3 56:10

I sent it to a few people and I was like, is this ai?

Speaker 1 56:14

I was like you were on it.

Speaker 3 56:16

I was like yeah, I was like all right and our good buddy of ours took that photo, frank yardy, and I was like I almost texted him. I just texted other people. I'm like you think this is fake and they're like no, that's so good it wasn't fake. And then I saw other photos from the day and I was like holy crap, and you kind of you see it all day, so you're just so like one full of adrenaline, so you kind of just black out the whole day.

Speaker 3 56:41

So you don't remember it. Two you're watching your friends get their waves and you remember those a lot more than you remember your own.

Speaker 1 56:48

Because you're in it. Yeah, it's like life, exactly, it's like life that way. But the funny thing about it is, I think, what happens to your brain when you see that photo is there's two things happen at the same time. One of them if that wave's real, why is that dude there? Yeah, why would that? Why would he do that? It doesn't, because most of the ones in the 30, 40, 50 there's. There's something about, there's a, there's a coziness to it. And it's a weird thing to say because I've never done it, I've never been in waves, but being around, nelly, and kind of seeing it, there's a, there's a, an expectation, you know, and but that one, that picture, and you start doing the math. You can't help but start doing the math. I don't know how tall you are, but I always say that guys gotta be just short of six foot, whatever you are, yeah and then you start doing generous.

The Maverick's Epic Wave Experience

Speaker 1 57:30

Thank you that you start to be close enough. That's a rounded up. And do the math and you're like that's a big way.

Speaker 2 57:36

So the funny thing funny thing about that is 99.9999% of people will never understand anything about that wave. No. Because he's going so fast, your fin can skip out. There's a million things that could go wrong. Or there's a million things that go right and everything went right and you know he's like. You have that for the rest of your life. Dude, it's like one of the sick.

Speaker 3 58:04

I love when something happens that, like, no one can ever take from you all, right now, that was, that was one of those, and now we give you the floor, and so you let go of the rope so before I even let go of the rope, I remember sitting on the back of the ski and we saw the set coming and I don't believe there's any jet skis out at that point out in the so-called pecking order, and I jumped off and right as the first wave of the set came by. We look and this is what I was talking about earlier I was like, does Mavericks close out? Because it was a wall from this reef called moss beach all the way to half moon bay. And I kind of looked at luca and he looked at me and he said yep, and I just got up and I was like, all right, I'd give him a nod. I was like let's do this.

Speaker 3 58:53

And he was. He didn't have to track in. So tracking means like following the wave and reading with the jet ski and I let go of the rope. And the minute I let go of the rope I had so much speed or ready that I didn't even know what the speed was going to feel like going down the wave. Yeah.

Speaker 3 59:14

That wave had so much water ripping up off the reef that it actually made me feel like I was going backwards. It's this weird feeling, like I've never had that before on a tow board. It felt like sandpaper getting dragged on concrete where I could feel the fins. I could feel everything. You're going at such a high speed and you're praying that you don't fall, first of all. Second of all, you're praying and God bless Stretch for making that toe board because that thing held and it gives, like what nelly was saying if it doesn't hold, you're skipping. Yeah, and I couldn't imagine falling on a wave that going that fast. It's your. You wouldn't penetrate for a while, I guarantee that. But back to the wave for a while, I guarantee that. But back to the wave. Right as I was going down to the scent, it felt like I wasn't even in the bowl yet and I thought I was maybe going to be on the shoulder.

Speaker 3 1:00:08

So I faded it pretty deep right when I let go of the rope and I did this like mid-face bottom turn because I knew I was so deep and I could see the bowl like way out into the channel and luckily it backed off a lot and it bent at me and that's what made that like crazy picture of that big bowl yeah because, mavericks, when it hits that bowl, it'll bend and just morph and eat itself.

Speaker 3 1:00:36

And I was lucky enough, you know, to. I've read the wave to the best of my ability and when the minute I kicked out on the channel like luca can describe it as well there was people like smiling and clapping and then there was people like just staring and he was like where the hell's my?

Speaker 3 1:00:54

dude like yeah is he down or like what's going on? Because, what we talked about earlier too, with you know the wave and how it all went out. He couldn't track the wave on the channel because the wave was moving so fast and he's never felt anything like that either, and so he had to ride the back of the ridgeline until I kicked out of that wave. That was the first visual he got.

Speaker 2 1:01:18

So you both had a singular experience yeah that's amazing yeah, that sounds scary wow I'm just I mean that is that was a payoff that was worth it sorry for the rant, but it's hard to describe.

Speaker 2 1:01:33

That's not even a rant that was that was anything we want more but it's just you know I've spent years and years shooting out there and I've never seen a wave, especially like you described, one that walled all the way to halfman bay. It was just like I immediately had my arm hair was standing up right there and like it looked like you got a little bit like dry mouth to tell the story again, right there for sure.

Speaker 1 1:01:56

It's just, it's, it's a lot. I mean it's, it's, it's, I don't know it's it and I, I think I just it's that part of it. You feel, um, you know there's a, there's a dna around this town. I know your dad, you know nelly, you guys have this relationship. You have this moment. Now we're here and I'm sure this will be one of 30 you'll do of these, but I, I don't think this is that experience. You know, eventually it, eventually it depends on the format, but it's, it's um, you own that moment and now it's yours and there's a lot of eyes on it. But I don't think, um, I don't think you can get too tired of talking about it in the near future.

Speaker 3 1:02:31

I've definitely gotten a little bit tired of it. I will not lie, just doing so many news stations and like, yeah and like, my phone number got leaked through the news stations. Oh, that sucks, I've had like thousands of text messages and emails and like just crazy stuff and I mean it's cool. But then I also get why these athletes, like real high-end athletes, go crazy.

Speaker 2 1:02:57

Or you get a secretary and an agent. You know what I mean. You deal with all that stuff.

Speaker 1 1:03:00

But I'm feeling what you're saying, cause you don't want it to eventually carve away from the moment.

Speaker 3 1:03:03

No, and that's and that's what I've told every single news station and everybody that I've talked to is just like listen, I'm. I'm here to ride big waves and that's because what I love to do. I'll do this interview for sure, and I'll continue to do them if you guys would like, but I'm still going to go out and ride big waves and we're still going to go out there on those small days and those lumpy days and we're going to go have fun, because without that— that's what life's about?

Speaker 2 1:03:29

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 1:03:30

It's also why you want to make the worldwide announcement that this will be the last time you talk about it on the Nelly's Magic Moments podcast.

Speaker 2 1:03:42

You guys are my friends, exactly, nelly, so I have a few things. I have, uh, first of all, well, there's, yeah. So who was the crew out there? I know ryan augustine, pete mel, john mel luca, yourself, jojo roper. Yeah, he's a beast, san diego yeah all the crew who else?

Speaker 3 1:03:59

lucas chumbo came out, yeah, with his toe partner lucas fink, and then there was a couple other guys, but for a day that big there was nobody out. Like that's it. That's the crew. Luca and I were out the back at one point surfing the biggest mavericks I've ever seen for hour, hour and a half by ourselves and people were taking breaks and stuff and Luke and I just couldn't stop. We were just like a dog with a bow.

Speaker 1 1:04:25

Yeah that's the magic. It's weird, like in a five-day period you had two experiences in your life here. Which is surfer soup and priorities are this one to go all the way to the islands and have seven or eight people out at Jaws, which is essentially in your world that you used to no one yeah, you owned it.

Speaker 1 1:04:42

Then to come back here, to your spot, home, and go on the biggest day in history and to kind of be again as as relates to it, alone out there yeah, I mean it was wild just sitting out there on the jet ski.

Speaker 3 1:04:59

Like I was saying about maui, I would have been so happy, just like seeing these waves come in.

Speaker 1 1:05:04

You're just in awe the entire time, and to have it with not many people around is just the most special thing, and that's one of the questions I had penciled down that I forgot, but that reminds me is like in those moments and the pace of big wave surfing, things like that, do you, do you? Are you allowed a moment to like just kind of like recognize your place in nature? Do you have any of those moments out there? Is there some time in between where you're like really like thinking about the moment?

Speaker 3 1:05:33

Like outside of? Okay, yeah, talk about that a little bit. They're brief, right Like you'll get split seconds that feel like 30 seconds. Yeah.

Speaker 3 1:05:41

In particular, getting into one of those barrels. That day was like time slowed down and you really get to feel like Mother Nature at its finest. Yeah, just a dark hole that it makes and Luca, I bet, can attest to this but that was some of the darkest, meanest barrels I've ever pulled into in my entire life. And that day was, you know, we we kept laughing about it now, but we didn't want to let that day go by, yeah, and not feel that yeah like we were like we have to pack one, pack one, like we gotta pack one, and it kind of took a while.

Speaker 3 1:06:17

And then Luca did it and I was like all right, he did it, pete did it, and then it was finally like I saw the wave that I wanted to do it on and I got to like feel that just time morph.

Speaker 1 1:06:30

Hey, Nell Dogg, who's the official final arbiter of what size wave that was? Who says that? Who says this is blank foot wave? I?

Speaker 2 1:06:39

think that's still in the works, right, but I heard some hundred and something.

Speaker 1 1:06:42

I know, but how does that go down? Who does that?

Speaker 3 1:06:45

I don't know and I'm like I'm just curious yeah. And I'm staying out of that.

Speaker 1 1:06:50

I know, I get it, I get it. It's people like that.

Speaker 2 1:07:04

It's people like that, but did they just take the surfer and do the math? Yeah, and that's what I was gonna say is is you know for, like, frank curati, who's in charge of the maverick safety out there, but also the best, arguably the best photographer ever from mavericks? Yeah, um, I was gonna ask you like, like, whenever I've shot photos from my jet ski yeah it shrinks the waves by like 10 at least, if not 20 interesting. I mean so like a 60 foot wave will look 40 feet gotcha so I was curious what angle he had.

Speaker 2 1:07:26

Where, you know, I mean because I think, he was more in front of it and he had the jet actually see, okay, because that's the the one angle, that's more true gotcha like I've had photos from mavericks, where I shot it from my ski, and then I see the land angle from Don Montgomery or something and I'm like that's the same way. It looks like twice as big.

Speaker 1 1:07:45

I get that though.

Speaker 3 1:07:46

It's because you can never get the trough, like in any wave out there Exactly, and at Jaws and every wave besides Nazare, honestly, is because Nazare, they get that cliff angle.

Speaker 1 1:07:55

Totally yeah.

Speaker 3 1:07:57

Jaws when you're up on the cliff and you're watching it. It is crazy, yeah like wow, yes exactly spooky haunting mavericks same thing. You watch it from the cliff and you're like, oh, wow, yeah, we paddled out, it was fun. And then you get a little picture from somebody and you're like, whoa, that's pretty big yeah but it's actually a 40 footer yeah but mavericks, the channel is just like yeah, frank was just in the spot, I think, and I'm thank you to him.

Speaker 3 1:08:25

I mean, he's been doing all this like really, I just was happy to ride that wave yeah, and they can get it documented.

Speaker 1 1:08:31

Now, do you have any tight anything to tie up?

Speaker 2 1:08:33

I do I do, actually I'm we're not done I don't care, this is good um, I wish, first of all, I wish that we had a line to angle of your wave that I could look at, because I can just only imagine how nuts that would be Shout out to Frank and all the boys for helping you guys for all these years and saving lives. Basically I mean he saved me once when I was going in after Dorian. During that, after that Scorpion that he did and I was, I had zero idea what I was doing. You know what I mean? I don't have jet ski training.

Speaker 1 1:09:07

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:09:07

I've driven on jet ski a lot, but like saving guys at 60 foot Mavs wasn't one of them you know yeah. And Frank came buzzing out and basically saved Dorian's life.

Speaker 1 1:09:18

Wow.

Speaker 2 1:09:18

It probably saved my life because I would have probably gone in and gotten ragdolled into the rocks.

Speaker 1 1:09:23

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:09:23

That's what was about to happen, yeah, so big shout out to all those guys for keeping you guys safe. And then I was going to say one more thing, so Liam McNamara called me today.

Speaker 1 1:09:34

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:09:34

And I just happened to be standing next to Nat and aloe and all the boys at the lane, which was really cool. By the way, yeah, I love the different generations of legends that hang at the lane, you know, I mean, and we had flea there and and nat and just all you know, and it's like it's always been cool over the years to see people that have just done something huge, like yeah, just did yeah I mean that's a huge thing.

Speaker 2 1:09:59

And uh, you know, like not making the tour or winning an event or what you know, I mean like flea winning mavericks and three times in a row the guy won. So anyway, you're you're kicking it there with these guys who have done just major things in the surf world. And uh, liam calls me and I just happen to be standing next to al and he's like, oh what, you're standing next to al, let me talk to him. Let me talk to him and so you know.

Speaker 2 1:10:25

So I hand him the phone and the next thing I know he's you know al is over there on my phone for 20 minutes and I'm like okay time for my phone back. So uh, so what eddie invite? What do you think's gonna come like what? What's going on?

Speaker 3 1:10:40

I don't know. I really don't know what's gonna happen and I'm just like liam, I'm sure, and and a lot of other people in this world will say it's just, I'm gonna keep doing what I love to do and if it takes me there one day, that'd be awesome, but if not, I'm happy just doing, just riding big waves and Mavericks is my home. Your home yeah it's home and for the people.

Speaker 1 1:11:04

It's almost like that kind of concept of like you're going down this path, who you meet along the path. It's amazing. Exactly. And that could be an event. Exactly, I love that.

Speaker 3 1:11:13

Yeah, I think it's special and it's pretty cool to talk to people like that. Totally You've grown up watching them and then, like they're hitting you up on Instagram or calls, just random calls, down the lane.

Speaker 1 1:11:24

Liam's just popping off right now. He's having a really good life on Instagram. He's writing, like you know, books on Instagram about the meaning of everything, and then he gets this news. He's just living his best life right now.

Speaker 2 1:11:36

That was the last thing I was going to say is how sick was that. Like Landon's, like my surrogate son, you know what I mean, and a really really good friend of mine, and we've had a really tight relationship since he was a little boy, like three years old. So how cool was that to watch him win the Eddie. Awesome, because for me that was a religious experience. You know what I mean.

Speaker 3 1:11:54

Also the wave that he caught was just phenomenal, like in the wave that he caught was just phenomenal, Like in the way that he rode that with a lip landing on you. Like we talked about a lot in this podcast. It'd be hard to describe to somebody how impossible, that is, to pull off. How hard it is.

Speaker 1 1:12:08

Yeah, there's no doubt, and even in my kind of like layman stance, knowing it's impossible when you watch it, yeah, and to do that, that's another thing, it's just like yours. It's impossible when you watch it, yeah, you know, and then to do that, that's another thing, it's just like yours. It's this commonality in that culture and that's why I think you like being on those cliffs is that you know there's a lot of, you know, singular time and place moments in this sport. It's a singular time and place and I think you know to connect the whole ecosystem together. It's yours, you own it, but it's kind of amazing when it's documented. And it's kind of amazing that not only there's people out there to help you if you get in trouble. That's part of the ecosystem.

Speaker 1 1:12:49

You're performing and guys like Nelly you're out there putting yourself at risk to document these events. And what that means in the big scheme I don't know, but it means a lot when you're standing on Westcliff with five or six dudes. It means everything, because that's your people, that's your family and that's the unique part of it I think you were getting at with Santa Cruz is a trip. Santa Cruz. There's not a lot of place on the planet like that because a lot of other places, even when you're at that spot you know North Shore is probably closest you know and similar to like a confined little space with a lot of the shared stories and culture. But you start running out after that With as many places to surf and a short little stretch of water. It's a lot of stories.

Speaker 3 1:13:31

But we also again, like in Hawaii too, it's that confined space of people that just love to surf. That's the essence, right it's not like and I don't want to compare it to anywhere else, but it's just like there's certain areas where people are just doing it to try and get the fame, or trying to do it for money or something like that. It's like Santa Cruz is like no matter what, you still see these guys surfing.

Speaker 1 1:13:54

That's exactly it, they're not getting paid to surf. That's exactly it.

Speaker 3 1:13:56

And they're like out there every day committing yeah.

Honoring Surfing Legacy in Santa Cruz

Speaker 1 1:14:00

I felt it. I so felt it for the first time in my life, because I'm just not in it the same way, Nelly. The last few years we've really gotten to know each other. But at that Rio Theater, for that Barney tribute, I felt it for the first time like observing it, being in the middle of the audience, sitting next to Nelly, and feeling that community singular kind of spot, watching this thing. You kind of felt that it's, it's unique and it's and it is, it's, it's a very we got a lot of characters.

Speaker 1 1:14:26

There's. There's no doubt about it on the surf world.

Speaker 2 1:14:29

You know, there's just characters everywhere, but man, thank you for thank you for coming on. And also thank you for doing what you did, because it makes me proud to be from Santa Cruz. It makes me proud to know you and your dad and the whole lineage and all your friends and your whole surf circle. It's just a great thing too. I just love it. It makes me love surfing, it makes me love everything. You know what I mean and it's like Did you have any other call outs?

Speaker 1 1:14:58

We got West Peak. Anybody else Pacific, it's like did you have any other call outs?

Speaker 3 1:15:00

We got West peak, anybody else? Or Pacific wave.

Speaker 1 1:15:01

Oh, right on yeah.

Speaker 3 1:15:02

Yeah, they've been supportive of me since I was a young kid. They're awesome. Right on Nelly and pops right and pops and mom, always family comes, we're going golfing at Pasi media.

Speaker 1 1:15:14

Let's go tell pops.

Speaker 2 1:15:18

They.