Big Names of Surf - A Blog by Fausto Intilla (WWW.OLOSCIENCE.COM)

Andy Irons

2007-09-23T06:24:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Irons

Andy Irons (born 24 July 1978) is a professional surfer. Irons, a Hawaiian, was reared on the dangerous and shallow reefs of the North Shore in Kauai, and has 3 world titles (2002, 2003, 2004).
An inspiration to many young groms, he and his family host the Annual Irons Brothers Pinetrees Classic, a contest for youngsters, to give back to the community that has given them so much. The governor of Hawaii deemed February 13 forever 'Andy Irons day'.
The 2004 movie 'Blue Horizon' (directed by Jack McCoy), paralleled his life on the WCT tour with that of free surfer, David Rastovich. The film also touched on his long-time rivalry with 8 time world champion Kelly Slater. There has been some debate over whether or not the film was an accurate and fair portrayal of Irons surfer lifestyle.
In 2006 he won his 4th Triple Crown Championship title, and is now tied for second place with Derek Ho on the all-time list. Irons will begin the 2007 Championship Tour in 2nd place trying to win another world title against the likes of Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Taj Burrow, Cory Lopez and the Hobgood Brothers.
His brother, Bruce Irons, is a fellow competitor on the World championship tour (WCT).

Fausto Intilla

www.oloscience.com

Bruce Irons

2007-09-23T06:29:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Irons_%28surfer%29

Bruce Irons (born November 16, 1979) is a regularfoot professional surfer from Hanalei, Kauai and younger brother of three-time world champion Andy Irons. Best known for his radical aerial maneuvers and fearless tuberiding abilities, he claims he will surf any wave on the planet.
Born in Lihue, Kauai, he was raised on the North Shore where he began surfing at age seven. After a successful amateur career with several wins in the United States Surfing Championships, he went pro shortly after graduating high school. After placing second place in 1998 and third in 2000, he defeated eight-time world champion Kelly Slater to win the 2001 Pipe Masters event. on October 3rd, 2004 after qualifying for the WCT tour, he again defeated the seven-time champion in the semifinals at the ASP Quiksilver Pro France event, only to lose to his older brother in the final. Later, on December 15th, 2004, he won the " Quiksilver In Memory of Eddie Aikau" event in waves that exceeded forty feet (12m) at O'ahu's Waimea Bay. Soon after, he dazzled crowds by making the final and placing fourth in the Pipe Masters, barely re-qualifying for the 2005 tour.
Bruce is sponsored for life by the skate, surf, and snowboard clothing line, Volcom. Bruce also rides for wetsuit sponsor Body Glove International.

Fausto Intilla

www.oloscience.com

Edward Ryan Makua Hanai Aikau

2007-09-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edward Ryan Makua Hanai Aikau (May 4, 1946 – March 17, 1978) was a well-known Hawaiian lifeguard and surfer. As the first lifeguard at Waimea Bay on the island of Oahu, he saved many lives and became famous for surfing the big Hawaiian surf, winning several awards including the 1977 Duke Kahanamoku Invitational Surfing Championship.

Life:

Born on the island of Maui, Aikau was the third child of Solomon and Henrietta Aikau. Aikau first learned how to surf Kahului Harbor on its shorebreak. He moved to Oʻahu with his family in 1959, and at the age of 16 left school and started working at the Dole pineapple cannery; The paycheck allowed Aikau to to buy his first surfboard. In 1968, he became the first lifeguard hired by the City & County of Honolulu to work on the North Shore. The City & County of Honolulu gave Aikau the task of covering all of the beaches between Sunset and Haleiwa. Not one life was lost while he served as lifeguard of Waimea Bay, as he braved surf that often reached 20 feet high or more.

Death:

In 1978, the Polynesian Voyaging Society was seeking volunteers for a 30-day, 2500 mile journey to follow the ancient route of the Polynesian migration between the Hawaiian and Tahitian island chains. At 31 years of age, Aikau joined the voyage as a crew member. The Hokule'a left the Hawaiian islands on March 16, 1978. The double-hulled voyaging canoe developed a leak in one of the hulls and later capsized about twelve miles south of the island of Molokai. In an attempt to get help, Aikau paddled toward Lanai on his surfboard.[1] Although the rest of the crew was later rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard, Aikau was never seen again. The ensuing search for Aikau was the largest air-sea search in Hawaii history.[2] The last person lifeguard Eddie Aikau rescued at Waimea Bay was a young TV producer named John Orland, who had just wrapped up production on a TV pilot called the "Hawaiian Experience," starring Bob Crane from "Hogan's Heroes." It was on February 28, 1978, a little over two weeks before Eddie Aikau was lost at sea.

Memorial surfing invitational:

In Aikau's honor, the surfwear company Quiksilver sponsors the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational in Memory of Eddie Aikau at Waimea Bay. The idea of the Quiksilver Big Wave Invitational was created by Bruce Raymond and Bob McKnight. Since its inception in 1984, the tournament has only been held seven times, due to a precondition that open-ocean swells reach a minimum of 20 feet (this translates to a wave face height of over 30 feet).[3] The most recent tournament was in December 2004, when waves in the bay reached 30 to 50 feet high. The contest only invites 24 big-wave riders to participate in two rounds of competition. This event, also hold true to big-wave riding because it does not allow the use of jet skis to tow in surfers into the waves. Surfers must paddle themselves into the waves, using their own arm-power to get themselves over the waves.

Popular culture:

In the 1980's, bumper stickers and T-shirts with the phrase "Eddie Would Go" spread around the Hawaiian Islands to the rest of the world. According to maritime historian Mac Simpson, "Aikau was a legend on the North Shore, pulling people out of waves that no one else would dare to. That's where the saying came from -- Eddie would go, when no else would or could. Only Eddie dared."
Another variation of the aforementioned popular phrase is "Eddie wouldn't tow." This phrase is in reference to the method of big wave surfing in which one surfer must accelerate another surfer (the former on a jet ski, the latter towed on a surfboard) to the speed of a large, fast wave. It is also partially in response to the controversy over the "unnaturalness" of tow-in surfing; many surfers feel that being towed in to a wave, as opposed to paddling, is against the spirit of the sport.

Media:

Books
Coleman, Stuart. (2002). Eddie Would Go: The story of Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian Hero. MindRaising Press. ISBN 0-9706213-7-X

Film
Goes, Sergio. Eddie Would Go: The Story of Eddie Aikau, Hawaiian Hero

Robert August

2007-09-09T08:51:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert August (born 1945) is an American surfer and surfboard shaper. He is most famous as one of the subjects of Bruce Brown's 1966 surf documentary The Endless Summer, along with his friend Mike Hynson. The film follows the two around the world pursuing their hobby during the California offseason, meeting other surfers and discussing surf culture.
August picked up surfing in the 1950s, when the sport's popularity had just begun to grow. His enthusiasm and his involvement in The Endless Summer influenced the growth of the sport over the following decades. He currently works as a board shaper for Surftech, a company that manufactures lightweight epoxy surfboards. He continues to travel the world promoting surfing, and in 1994, he was involved in the filming of The Endless Summer II, in which surfers Pat O'Connell and Robert "Wingnut" Weaver retrace the places visited by August and Hynson thirty years earlier.

Lynne Boyer

2007-09-23T00:49:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://www.lynneboyer.com/bio.html

Lynne Boyer was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and moved to Hawaii as a young child. Although her talent in art showed early in life through her skillful sketches and drawings, Boyer's aptitude in sports lead her into the world of professional surfing, earning her two consecutive World Championship Titles in 1978 and 1979.
However, her interest in drawing and painting has never ceased. Through continuous practice, as well as the help of a few university courses and workshops from other established artists, Boyer became a successful painter. Her preferred medium is oil on canvas. She works both outdoors on location (en plein-air) and in her studio.
For Lynne, painting is both fun and challenging. As a long-time islander, her mastery of realism radiates through her work and captures the "mana" (spirit / mood) of her subject, expressing the beauty, serenity, and power of our beautiful Hawaiian landscapes and seascapes. Boyer's paintings seldom fail to bring an emotional response from the viewer. Her passionate love of nature reflects in her vibrant use of color, values, brush work and compostional ability that render her paintings full of life.
As an established painter, Lynne Boyer has a growing list of clients from Hawaii, the mainland U.S.A and throughout the world. Her original paintings and reproductions of selected works are showing at various galleries throughout the Hawaiian Islands.

Fausto Intilla
www.oloscience.com

Jeff Clark

2007-09-23T01:10:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Clark

Jeff Clark (born March 26, 1957 Redwood City) is one of the most noteworthy and respected big wave surfers, famous for surfing Mavericks alone for 15 years before it was widely discovered by the big-wave surfing community.
Clark is the only active ambidextrous big wave surfer in the world, and one of the few in history. A natural goofyfooter, Jeff spent ten years learning to ride regularfoot. This allowed him to ride frontside (facing the wave) when he started taking on the more-dangerous right-breaking waves at Maverick's.
Labeled one of the "world's best big-wave riders" by Surfer magazine in 1994, Clark, along with Maverick's and the Half Moon Bay surf scene has been featured in such films as Riding Giants.
The annual Mavericks surf contest is now co-managed by Evolve Sports (a San Francisco-based sports marketing group) and Jeff Clark after surf clothing manufacturer Quiksilver withdrew its sponsorship of the event.
Clark also runs the Mavericks Surf Shop in the Princeton Harbor neighborhood of Half Moon Bay, not far from the famous break; he sells his own custom-made surfboards at his shop.

Fausto Intilla

www.oloscience.com

Tom Carroll

2007-09-23T01:21:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Carroll

Thomas Victor (Tom) Carroll (born 29 November 1961 in Newport, New South Wales) is a former Australian surfer. He won the Australian Junior Title in 1978, the Pro Juniors in 1977 and 1980, the 1983 and 1984 ASP World Title, and the 1987 Pipe Masters. He was the first surfing millionaire after signing a contract with Quiksilver in 1989.
A portrait of him by artist Jan Williamson was hung in the Archibald Prize in 2000.

Fausto Intilla

www.oloscience.com

Ross Clarke-Jones

2007-09-23T01:27:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ross_Clarke-Jones

Ross Clarke-Jones is a well-known big wave surfer. He originally came from the Central Coast, of New South Wales, Australia where he enjoyed surfing Terrigal Haven, a point break that produces rare waves lasting for up to 300 metres on a big swell.

Fausto Intilla

www.oloscience.com

Shane Dorian

2007-09-23T01:42:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shane_Dorian

Patrick Shane Dorian (born July 19, 1972), or "Shane", is an American surfer from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. He spent 11 years touring on the World Championship Tour surfing.
Dorian was born to Patrick, a former Hollywood actor and stunt double for Elvis Presley, and Susan, who competed in female bodybuilding events. When Shane was three, his parents opened a restaurant called "Dorian's" on the beach. Being a child, Dorian was too young to wait tables, and long hours at the restaurant resulted in him turning to the ocean for amusement.
He started out on a bodyboard alongside friend, and future bodyborder champion, Mike Stewart. Dorian received his first surfboard, from his dad, on his fifth birthday. He soon abandoned the bodyboard to focus on surfing.
Surfing and surfing education became a priority for Dorian. Dorian's mother, who had divorced Patrick when Shane was 12, worked out a system where Shane would spend the second and third quarters of the school year on the North Shore of Oahu (the peak winter season) and the first and fourth quarters back home on the Big Island.
In 1987, Shane Dorian had his first major success a the Gotcha Pro competition at Sandy Beach. He was able to beat some big names, made it through four rounds, and received some media exposure. More importantly, he became friends with a couple of the up-and-coming surfers on Oahu, Brock Little and Todd Chesser who played a role in the development of his surfing.
Dorian joined the ASP World Tour in 1993 where he hovered outside of the top 10 for a number of years before cracking the barrier with a fourth-place world finish in 2000. He's also won a number of events in his career, including the Rip Curl Pro in 1999 and the 2000 Billabong Pro at Mundaka. In 2004, Dorian retired from the WTC tour, but not from a being a professional; choosing to focus on becoming a better surfer.
He has been a long-time member of the Billabong team, his main sponsor.
In the documentary "Solid: The Two Days That Teahupoo Blew Minds," fellow surfers gave him a standing ovation for his wave conquering rides.

Fausto Intilla
www.oloscience.com

Michael Eppelstun (Eppo)

2007-09-23T01:55:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://www.worldsurfers.com/profiles/eppo/profile.htm

In 1993 an unknown kid from Port Macquarie, New South Wales pulled off the first double roll ever seen in competition and clinched the Bodyboarding World Title at Pipeline, Hawaii. This was perhaps the biggest win ever in bodyboarding because to win at Pipe that year, ‘Eppo’ had to also defeat the previously unbeaten 8 times World Champion Mike Stewart at his home break! Eppo broke Stewart’s dream run and took the title thus becoming Australia’s first and, so far, only World Champion bodyboarder.

Since then Eppo has consistently competed on the World Tour, always ending the year in the top ten or better. His Reader’s Poll and Peer Poll ratings are unequalled by anyone except for Mike Stewart and Eppo has really earned his worldwide fame by charging hard.

It’s a big task for a young guy with a lovely wife (Krista) and two energetic kids (Bree and Taya) but Eppo is nothing if not up to such challenges. In fact, he’s a handful himself. Known for his larrikin antics on the road, Eppo has driven many a photographer and travelling companion to tears with his merciless teasing and his beloved little tricks! Luckily his heart of gold and his honest smile seem to keep him out of hot water most of the time.
The most well known of Eppo’s abilities is his creative surfing. Very few surfers can say they have invented a new manoeuvre but Eppo has invented and perfected several.

The Double Roll (he’s not done with that one yet!), the Back Flip and the ARS (Air Roll Spin) are all a part of his traffic stopping repertoire. And it’s insane to see him pulling them off in big, slamming waves like Pipeline. Massive, big airs have also been an Eppo trademark for years, sometimes taking their toll on his back but luckily, with a history in gymnastics and plenty of training, he’s still at the top of his form, in good nick and charging.

Fausto Intilla

www.oloscience.com

Mark Foo

2007-09-23T02:00:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Foo

Mark Foo (born Mark Sheldon Foo on February 5, 1958 – December 23, 1994) was a professional surfer. Born in Singapore to a Chinese photojournalist for the U.S. Information Agency he relocated to Hawaii at age 4. Foo spent his early childhood surfing the South Shore of O'ahu. His family moved several times during his adolescence, but Foo ultimately returned to Hawaii just before finishing high school. He continued surfing throughout his teen years and in 1977 he joined a professional surfing tour, the IPS World Tour. In the early 1980s, Foo quit the IPS World Tour, stopped competing, and began surfing Waimea Bay, a famous big wave surfing spot on the North Shore of O'ahu. Foo's passion for surfing big waves led him to surf larger and larger swells.

On December 23, 1994, Mark Foo died in a surfing accident at Mavericks, a big wave break off the coast of Northern California. During take-off on an 18 foot wave, Foo experienced a seemingly innocuous wipeout which resulted in his drowning. Foo's death shook the big wave surfing community, as one of its pioneers had died. On December 30th, over 700 people arrived at Waimea Bay in Hawaii for Mark's funeral. Approximately 150 surfers paddled into the Bay and formed a large circle. One of the participants, who was carrying a container with Foo's ashes, paddled into the center of the circle and placed the ashes into the ocean.

Foo helped elevate the popularity of the sport, with his talent, courage, and enthusiasm, and was certainly recognized as one of the greatest big-wave surfers to ever ride the waves. Mark was a favorite subject of photographers, and he had his own cable television surfing program. "If you want to ride the ultimate wave, you have to be willing to pay the ultimate price" was Foo's philosophy, which he certainly lived until the day of his final ride.

The epic battle between Foo and Ken Bradshaw in the 1980s is chronicled in Stealing the Wave by Andy Martin (Bloomsbury Publishing).

Fausto Intilla

www.oloscience.com

Skip Frye

2007-09-23T04:48:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skip_Frye

Skip Frye (b.Harry Richard Frye September 7, 1941 in San Diego, California) is a surfer, board shaper, and environmental activist.

Skip attended Mission Bay High School and began his professional surfing career in 1958. His first board was a balsa board shaped by legend Mike Diffenderfer. Skip rode professionally for G&S surfboards, and eventually created his own model for them in 1967. Skip captured national titles and represented the United States team internationally in 1966. Frye has appeared on many magazine covers including Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue (1969, with model Jamee Becker), The Surfer's Journal, Surfing, and Surfer Magazine. Skip is known for his gliding, fluid style as well as some of the most in demand surfboards in the world. Though he is perhaps, best recognized by his iconic logo, a set of wings commonly referred to as "Frye Wings". Iconic images of him surfing with his dog, silhouetted against a setting sun, and paddling alone into "The Ranch" have appeared in books and magazines; and have been printed on clothing and surfboards. Skip is also known for his innovation with foiled surfboard fins. After a surfing trip to Australia in 1969, he developed his trademark board shapes, the Egg, Fish and specialized longboard shapes. He has also developed a moderate temperature surf-wax ("Man Wax"), ideal for his native San Diego waters. Skip still surfs daily and shapes in the San Diego area. His attention to detail and careful hand-shaping practices have created high demand and long wait-lists. His boards have slowly become much sought after collector's pieces often passed down through generations.

Frye married his first wife, Marcia Metcalf in 1963. Together they raised their three children (Lauren, Donald, and Braden), before divorcing in the late 1970's. Following his divorce, Frye experienced a period of personal struggle but submerged himself in his sport. While visiting France in 1990 he experienced a life-changing event which led to a renewed sense of faith; and a profound personal change. Upon his return to the US, Frye married his long-time girlfriend (Donna Sarvis); He became a devout Christian, and along with his wife (Donna [Sarvis] Frye, a California politician who narrowly lost the San Diego mayoral election in 2005), a public supporter of various environmental and clean-water acts. Skip currently attends Coastlands Church in Pacific Beach.

Fausto Intilla

www.oloscience.com

George Greenough

2007-09-23T04:56:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Greenough

George Greenough is a surfer from Santa Barbara, California who now resides in Byron Bay in N.S.W Australia. He is known for creating the modern surfboard fin. He changed the design from a useless keel to a more powerful fin. His equipment was different from the longboard design of the day. George rode short kneeboards under 5'5" and rode surf mattresses regularly. He is credited as being the best mat rider ever. George still surfs air mattresses.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s George released his films "The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun" and "Crystal Voyager".

Fausto Intilla

www.oloscience.com

Jeffrey "Jeff" Hakman

2007-09-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Hakman

Jeff Hakman is an ex-world surfing champion and multi millionaire founder of clothing giant Quiksilver , who lost it all to a heroin addiction - twice.
Jeff started surfing in 1956 at age eight in Palos Verdes (California) and at the age of ten moved to Hawaii with his parents. He surfed Waimea Bay at fourteen years old and at seventeen won the prestigious surfing title, The Duke Kahanamoku Classic. From twenty one to twenty seven he won the most major surfing titles on the planet including the first Pipeline Masters, 1976 Bells Beach and was 1974 and 1975 unofficial World Champion.
In 1976 Jeff founded Quiksilver America with Bob McKnigh and in 1984 founded Quiksilver Europe with Harry Hodge, Brigitte Darrigrand and John Winship.
Today Jeff Hakman is travelling continuously, living in France half the year and Hawaii the other half. He is the Marketing Director for NaPali SA (Quiksilver) in France and still enjoys surfing big waves.

Fausto Intilla

www.oloscience.com

Fred Hemmings

2007-09-23T06:19:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hemmings

Fred Hemmings (b. January 9, 1946) is an American surfer, politician, and author. He is a 1965 graduate of Punahou School. As 1968 world surfing champion, Hemmings is considered one of the most successful surfers of all time. After a career of professional surfing in the 1960s and 1970s, Hemmings won a Republican seat in the Hawaii State Legislature. He has served in both the Hawaii State Senate and Hawaii House of Representatives.
In 1991, Hemmings was inducted into the International Surfing Hall of Fame, and in 1998 the Hawaii State Sports Hall of Fame.

Fausto Intilla

www.oloscience.com

Rell Kapolioka'ehukai Sunn

2007-09-23T07:32:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rell_Sunn

Rell Kapolioka'ehukai Sunn (1950 – January 2, 1998 in Mākaha, Hawai'i) was an American world surfing champion. Known as "Queen of Makaha" and "Aunty Rell," she was a pioneer in the world of women's surfing.
Rell Sunn was born in Makaha on Oahu in 1950, the fourth of Elbert and Roen Sunn's five children. Her father Elbert is Chinese, and her mother Roen is Hawaiian-Irish. Her Hawaiian middle name, Ka-polioka'ehukai, means Heart of the Sea.
Sunn started surfing at age 4 at Makaha, and was entering competitive surf meets by the age of 14. At the time, not all surfing competitions has women's divisions, in which case she would enter the contest and compete successfully against her male counterparts.[1]
Sunn was a pioneer in women's competitive surfing and water sports. She became Hawaii's first female lifeguard in 1977. In 1975, Sunn was one of the original members of the first women's professional surfing tour. Faced with what they saw as frustrating inequities between male and female surfers, Sunn, along with other female surfers, founded the Women's Professional Surfing Association in 1979.[2] She also founded the Women's Surfing Hui (organization) in Hawaii. In 1982, she ranked first in the international professional surfing ratings.
In 1982, during a pro surf meet in Huntington Beach, California, Sunn felt a lump in her breast which turned out to be breast cancer. When she was diagnosed in 1983, her prognosis was for one year. Sunn continued to surf everyday after her diagnosis, despite the pain and chemotherapy associated with the disease.
Following her diagnosis, Sunn became a radio disc jockey and surf reporter, a physical therapist at a Waianae care home, and a counselor at a cancer research center[1]. She helped pilot a program for breast cancer awareness at the Wai’anae Cancer Research Center that involved educating local women about the causes and prevention of breast cancer.
During the next 14 years, her cancer went into remission three times, and she underwent a mastectomy and a bone marrow transplant.
Sunn died on January 3, 1998. Over 3,000 people attended her memorial service, where her ashes were scattered in the ocean off Makaha.
Sunn was married three times, most recently to Dave Parmenter in 1995. She has one daughter, Jan (who is married to Tony Kaumana), and two grandchildren, Kamalani and Caiden Kaumana.
In August 1996, Sunn was honored with a granite stone on the Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame.
In 1997, an award-winning documentary about her life titled Heart of the Sea was filmed by filmmakers Charlotte Lagarde and Lisa Denker.

Fausto Intilla
www.oloscience.com

Joel Tudor

2007-09-23T07:42:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Tudor

Joel Tudor is a world famous longboard surfer from San Diego, California.
He started out in skateboarding and, while in his early teens, gained both recognition and sponsorship for this. On the water, his apparently effortless skill saw him win his first professional ASP competition at age 14. Unlike the vast majority of his contemporaries who were riding only modern short surfboards, he also rode the out-of-fashion longboard, and it was the longboard that catapulted him to worldwide fame in his mid-teens. His reputation was such that, when he was on a break, other surfers would sometimes leave the water to watch his silky mastery of such skills as nose-riding ("hanging five" and "hanging ten" - riding with the toes of one or both feet hanging over the nose of the board[1]). Admiration of Tudor was a major factor in the longboard revival of the 1990s.
Despite wide recognition as the doyen of modern longboard riders, and regularly competing in the longboard world championships, it took seven attempts before he finally won this event in the Canary Islands in 1998.
Joel now has his own surfboard manufacturing company, as well as selling wetsuits in Japan.
Due to his skill on both longboards and shortboards, on big waves and small, Tudor is widely considered to be one of the best surfers alive, and is also known for being unusually open-minded with regard to the diverse equipment that can be used for wave riding.

Fausto Intilla
www.oloscience.com

Laird Hamilton

2007-09-23T05:19:00.000-07:00

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laird_Hamilton

Laird Hamilton (born Laird John Zerfas on March 2, 1964 in San Francisco) is an American big-wave surfer and former male model.

Laird was born in San Francisco on March 2, 1964, in an experimental bathysphere designed to ease the mother's labor. Laird and his mother, Joann Zyirek Zerfas, moved to Hawaii when he was still an infant, after the departure of his Greek birth father, L.G. Zerfas, before his first birthday. Laird hunted pigs and worked in taro patches as a boy. Even as a child Laird showed an unquenchable thirst for adrenaline; footage has been released of him jumping off a sixty foot cliff into deep water at just 7 years old. While a young boy, Laird met legendary 1960's surfer Bill Hamilton on Pupukea beach of the North Shore of Oahu; saying "I want you to be my daddy, so you have to meet my mommy," Laird introduced Bill to his mother. Bill Hamilton went on to marry Joann, and become Laird's adopted father, eventually moving the family to a remote valley on the island of Kauai. JoAnn and Bill divorced after ten years of marriage, having given Laird a younger half-brother (and surfer), Lyon. JoAnn died of a brain aneurysm in 1997.
Laird thus grew up in the 1960s and 1970s with one of the greatest surfing locations in the world on the north coast of Oahu as a playground with a legendary surfer as a father and coach to mold him into the art of conquering big wave surf.
At school, Hamilton had a difficult time in classes dominated by darker native Hawaiians, where he was often the only Caucasian person in the class. At the age of sixteen Hamilton quit the eleventh grade at Kapaa High School to pursue a modeling career and work in construction (with a little help, he can build a house from scratch). At the age of seventeen Laird was discovered on a beach in Kauai by a photographer from Italian Men's Vogue magazine L'Uomo Vogue which subsequently saw him land a modeling contract and later a 1983 photo shoot with the actress Brooke Shields.

1980's
By the age of twenty, Laird had already become an accomplished surfer and could have easily left modeling to pursue the well-worn path from clothing endorsements to dominance on the prized World Championship Tour. However, competitive surfing and contests never appealed to Laird, who had watched his father Bill suffer thoroughly in organized championships. Bill Hamilton regarded surfing more as a work of art rather than based chiefly on performance. As a young Laird once quoted "Contests are less about the one big wave," he says, "than about your performances. Surfing is about your body of work. It's about art. I would snap if I was letting someone other than the audience determine my fate. How does a musician judge his thing? By how many people love his music?" In the 1987 movie North Shore, Laird played the antagonistic role of "Lance Burkhart."
Despite further success in modeling during the 1980s, Hamilton, with his professional surfing upbringing, had always intended to venture into a life of surfing. But, Laird's rejection of, and disposition toward, the contest circuit meant that he had to devise an alternate route to fame and international recognition.

1990's
An early attempt at media recognition was his quest to be the first surfer to complete a 360 loop while strapped to his board. The attempt was chronicled in the ski film Groove - Requiem in the key of Ski by Greg Stump (1990). Thus he embarked on famously, in the early 1990s with Maui's legendary 'Strapped' crew, a group of eight or so friends that included fellow all-star Rush Randle which aimed to push the restrictions and boundaries of contemporary surfing beyond people's wildest imaginations. The Strapped crew amazed spectators by tackling bigger wave surf and featuring stunts such as launching 30-foot jumps on sailboards, then mating the boards to paragliders to experiment with some of the earliest kiteboards. The video "Strapped" chronicles their feats.
In late 1992, Hamilton with some of his companions, such as Darrick Doerner and Buzzy Kerbox, started using inflatable boats to tow one another into waves which were too big to catch under paddle power alone. The technique, which would later be modified to use jet skis, was a revolutionary innovation. Tow-in surfing, as it soon became known, pushed the confinements and possibilities of big wave surfing to a whole new level. Although met with mixed reactions from the surfing community, some of whom felt that it was cheating and polluting, Laird explained that tow-in surfing was the only way to catch the monstrous sized waves such as those that can be seen at Jaws (Peahi) off the coast of Maui and the coastline of Tahiti. Using tow-in surfing methods, Hamilton quickly learned not just how to survive 70-foot waves but to carve arcs across walls of water that could literally sink ships. This put a high level of drama back into a sport long preoccupied with small-wave hopping tricks that had become a cliché in competitive surfing.
Soon, Hamilton was receiving the recognition he had long craved. In 1994 he appeared on both ESPN (with his first wife, Brazilian bodyboarder Maria Hamilton) and the cover of the magazine which gained him attention from a number of sporting agencies who recognized his potential, landing an exclusive sponsorship from the French beachwear company 'Oxbow' surf later that year which he still endorses, modelling their clothes and featuring in their adverts.
However, in 1995, Laird's life took an unexpected detour. He left his wife and baby daughter and moved in with professional volleyball player and model Gabrielle Reece in Los Angeles whom he met following an interview by her on American television. He went on to marry Reece in November 1997.
Hamilton's climb to fame was greatly helped by Gabrielle Reece's expertise in the media machine who "knew all about being in a sport where you had to create something out of nothing," as she says. She soon set Hamilton up with her own talent manager, Jane Kachmer, who recommended that he needed some professional organization and publicity to achieve his potential. In short order, Hamilton's career began looking a lot more like Reece's. In 1996, People magazine named him one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World, and he replaced Reece as correspondent for the syndicated cable series 'The Extremists'.
By the late 1990s, Laird, whilst gaining more attention, had become a truly all-round waterman, gifted in a number of other watersports such as windsurfing, waterskiing and developing his kitesurfing abilities as a pioneer of the sport. In 1996 Laird and Manu Bertin were instrumental in demonstrating and popularising kitesurfing off the Hawaiian coast of Maui.
Demonstrating his superb ability in the water, in 1999 Laird sailed his windsurfer between the Hawaiian islands of Oahu and Kauai, some fifty miles away, an endeavour he completed in just five or six hours. He later sailed his windsurfer back again. Hamilton has also been credited with inventing the foilboard, which he has also developed in, an innovative surfboard which incorporates hydrofoil technology allowing a higher degree of precision and effectiveness of aerial techniques within the water. Most recently, he has become the most public practitioner and proponent of stand-up paddle surfing, an ancient Hawaiian technique that requires an enormous longboard and a long-handled paddle, as well as considerable skill, strength and agility. Some "purist" surfers have blasted him for this, but Hamilton has called it a return to an old, traditional Hawaiian way of surfing, some say practiced by King Kamehameha and his queen Ka'ahumanu almost three hundred years ago.

2000 - present
However, it was Hamilton's death-defying drop into Tahiti's Teahupo'o break on the morning of August 17, 2000 which became the benchmark in his career and his life, and cemented his reputation as the greatest big wave surfer of all time. A wipeout in Teahupo'o, a particularly hazardous shallow-water reefbreak in southeast Tahiti, means almost certain death. At Teahupo'o, Laird dropped into what is widely considered to be the most dangerous wave ever ridden. His ride there is known by surfers worldwide simply as 'The Wave', and a shot of him riding The Wave made the cover of Surfer magazine, accompanied by the caption: "oh my god...". Afterwards even Laird admitted that even he was pushing himself to the "max, max, max, max". Hamilton is now widely regarded as the best of the best at big wave surfing, regularly surfing swells of 35 feet (11 m) tall, and moving at speeds in excess of 30 miles an hour (50 km/h) and successfully riding other waves of up to 70 feet high (22 m), at up to 50 mph (80 km/h).
He has often been credited for being able to conquer such enormous 'big wave' surf because of his exceptional physical conditioning and stature. At 6'3" (1.90m) and 220 pounds (102kg) he is able to take on larger waves which many smaller surfers could not physically handle.

Laird's first marriage was to Brazilian bodyboarder/clothes designer Maria Souza, with whom he has a daughter, Izabela, born in 1995. He is at present married to model/pro athlete Gabrielle Reece, with whom he has a second daughter, Reece Viola, born in 2003, and another child on the way, due in January 2008.

Laird appeared in the 2004 documentary Riding Giants about surfing and the opening sequence of the 2002 James Bond movie Die Another Day, as Pierce Brosnan's big-wave surfing double. He also appears in Waterworld, as Kevin Costner's stunt double in numerous water scenes. During the making of "Waterworld", Laird, who had been commuting to the set via jet-ski, was lost at sea when his jet-ski ran out of fuel between Maui and the Big Island. He drifted for many hours before being spotted by a Coast Guard plane and rescued; when the abandoned jet-ski washed up on shore on the island of Lanai, he went over to fetch it and drove it back home again.
In 2007, Hamilton, along with his wife Gabrielle Reece, appeared in the ABC reality television series Fast Cars and Superstars: The Gillette Young Guns Celebrity Race, featuring a dozen celebrities in a stock car racing competition. In the first round of competition, Hamilton matched up against tennis star Serena Williams and former NFL quarterback John Elway. Laird was eliminated in episode 5.
He has appeared in the television show Iconoclasts with Eddie Vedder from the popular American rock band Pearl Jam
Footage of Laird is used on the video for "Dayvan Cowboy" from Boards of Canada.

Fausto Intilla
www.oloscience.com

Kelly Slater

2007-09-09T07:51:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kelly Slater (b. Robert Kelly Slater February 11, 1972, Cocoa Beach, Florida) is the most successful professional surfer in the history of the sport.
Slater is an eight time world champion, and competed in the X-Games in 2003 and 2004. In May 2005 in the final of the Billabong Tahiti Pro contest at Teahupoo, Slater became the first to score two perfect rides for a total 20 out of 20 ASP two-wave scoring system (the corresponding honour under the previous three-wave system belongs to Shane Beschen from 1996). In 2006 Slater tied Tom Curren for most career tour victories, 33, at the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach.

Biography :

Syrian-descended Kelly was born "Robert Kelly Slater" on February 11, 1972 in Cocoa Beach, Florida.
A videogame by Treyarch and Activision named Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer was released September 17, 2002[2] (he also appeared as a playable character in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 prior to this, complete with a surfboard). In 2003 he released an autobiography called, "Pipe Dreams: A Surfer's Journey.", which was written by Jason Borte.
In 1999 he appeared alongside Garbage singer Shirley Manson in the promotional video for the Garbage single "You Look So Fine". He played a man washed up on a sea shore, rescued by Manson.
Slater has been romantically linked in the past to Pamela Anderson, and (in 2005) to Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen and more recently Cameron Diaz, after her split from Justin Timberlake. His favorite waves are Pipe in Hawaii and Kirra in Australia He also says he loves the wave Dee Why Point.[3] Slater is passionate about preserving oceans globally and protecting temperate reefs in California through his relationship with Reef Check. He is also involved with poverty reduction organization such as The Borgen Project.
In his spare time he plays guitar, and during the 90's he formed a band called The Surfers which released an album of surf music, Songs From the Pipe. He performed a song with musician friend Ben Harper during Harper's concert in Santa Barbara, California on August 15, 2006. He also performed "Rockin' in The free World" with grunge band Pearl Jam on the July 7, 2006 in San Diego. Slater is good friends with lead singer Eddie Vedder. He also enjoys playing golf, at which he has become very accomplished
Slater has had a long time rivalry with top surfer Andy Irons since he lost the world title to Andy in 2003, but has been running for the title against his friend Rob Machado and others.
Is good friends with recently retired Australian Rugby League player, Andrew Johns.[4]
Slater was chosen as part of the 32-team ESPN Sportscenter tournament Who's Now, which is a bracket-style elimination games where fans and judges decide which athlete is more "now", having on-field and off-field presence. Slater was the 8th seed and was paired with 1st seed LeBron James, who beat him by 70%.
Has a daughter named Taylor, to which Jack Johnson wrote his song "Taylor". He played "himself" in the 2007 animated picture "Surf's Up".

Career:

Stats
Career victories:36
WCT victories: 33
World titles: 8
Slater is currently sharing the first place for most WCT victories with Tom Curren (both have 33 WCT victories).

History
2006
The Sixth Element movie
Quiksilver Pro (Gold Coast, Australia)
Rip Curl Pro (Bells Beach, Australia)
2005
Billabong Pro (Teahupoo, Tahiti)
The Globe WCT (Fiji)
Billabong Pro (South Africa)
The Boost Mobile Pro (Trestles, California)
2004
Snickers Australian Open (QS)
Energy Australia Open (QS)
2003
Billabong Pro (Teahupoo, Tahiti)
Billabong Pro (South Africa)
Billabong Pro (Mundaka, Spain)
Nova Schin Festival (Brazil)
2002
The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau (Specialty-Hawaii)
2000
Gotcha Tahiti Pro presented by Globe (Tahiti)
1999
Mountain Dew Pipe Masters (Hawaii)
1997
Coke Surf Classic (Australia)
Billabong Pro (Australia)
Tokushima Pro (Japan)
Marui Pro (Japan)
Kaiser Summer Surf WCT (Brazil)
Grand Slam (Specialty-Australia)
Typhoon Lagoon Surf Challenge (Specialty-USA)
1996
Coke Surf Classic (Australia)
Rip Curl Pro Saint Leu (Reunion Island)
CSI pres. Billabong Pro (South Africa)
U.S. Open (California)
Rip Curl Pro Hossegor (France)
Quiksilver Surfmasters (France)
Chiemsee Pipe Masters (Hawaii)
Sud Ouest Trophee (Specialty-France)
Da Hui Backdoor Shootout (Specialty-Hawaii)
1995
Quiksilver Pro (Indonesia)
Chiemsee Pipe Masters (Hawaii)
Triple Crown of Surfing (Specialty-Hawaii)
1994
Rip Curl Pro (Australia)
Gotcha Lacanau Pro (France)
Chiemsee Pipe Masters (Hawaii)
The Bud Surf Tour (WQS-USA)
The Bud Surf Tour (WQS-USA)
Sud Ouest Trophee (Specialty-France)
1993
Baywatch television series, 10 episodes
Marui Pro (Japan)
1992
Rip Curl Pro Landes (France)
Marui Masters (Hawaii)

Megan Abubo

2007-09-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Megan Abubo (born January 28, 1978) is a professional female surfer from Hawaii.

Biography:

Born in Connecticut and raised in Hawaii, Megan Abubo showcases a style honed on powerful reef-breaks and deepwater ocean waves.
Growing up in Hawaii, Megan quickly became one of the "beach boys" and worked her way to a spot on the World Championship Tour ranks in 1998. She has been on the WCT ever since and in 2000 she was runner up for the world title. She has had many victories both in and out of the water. In October 2004 Megan won the WCT Rip Curl Malibu Pro and shot from 14th to 9th in the ratings. In 2002, she won the WCT Figueira Pro in Portugal, and in 2001 she won the WCT Roxy Pro in Fiji. Throughout her career she has had 5 other WCT victories.
Megan joined a handful of the best women surfers in the world on the first all-female boat trip with Transworld Surf to Indonesia in 2004.

Breast Cancer Activist:

Today her work includes being spokesperson on behalf of Roxy for Keep A Breast - an art initiative that raises money for breast cancer research by auctioning art-decorated breast casts of famous female athletes and artists. Megan has developed a passion for breast cancer awareness since her sister, a 2-time breast cancer survivor, was first diagnosed at age 27. Megan headed up a Keep A Breast fundraiser in Hawaii of 2004 at the Roxy Pro.

Professional Surfing:

Megan has 6 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour victories to her credit, the 2001 World Champion runner-up title and a no. 4 finish in 2005.

Motion Pictures and Media:

Megan has appeared as herself and as a stunt double in the motion picture Blue Crush as well as several action sports TV shows and surf videos, such as 7 Girls, Roxy Surf Now, and Shimmer. She has also appeared in magazines including Rolling Stone, Fitness and surf publications.

Lisa Andersen

2007-09-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lisa Andersen (born March 8, 1969 in Ormond Beach, Florida) is a four-time world surfing champion from the United States. She won four titles in a row from 1994 to 1997.
She won the US amateur surfing title in 1987 and turned professional the following year. From 1994 to 1997 she won successive women's world titles before injury forced her to stop competing. She returned to the sport in 2000. She has two children, Erica and Mason.

Simon Anderson

2007-09-09T08:34:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Simon Anderson (born 7 July 1954) is an Australian surfer and surfboard shaper, noted for creating the Thruster design of three equal-sized fins on a surfboard, a design now used on practically every shortboard made.
Anderson grew up in Collaroy, Sydney, the second oldest of four brothers. All four were surfers and strong swimmers, and competed in Surf Life Saving competitions. Anderson's surfing skill stood out from his brothers, and in 1972 he was a surprise winner of the junior division at the Bells Beach Classic Easter competition. In that year he also started shaping, with Shane Stedman and Fitzgerald in the Sydney suburb (and surf-factory hotbed) of Brookvale near his home.
Anderson's surfing style was powerful and graceful, reflecting his size (over six feet tall, the same as his brothers). His laid-back attitude to life seemed to limit his success in competition though. In 1975 he started his own surfboard factory, Energy Surfboards, in Brookvale.
In 1977 he had a burst of competitive success, winning first the Bells Beach Classic competition, then the Coke Surfabout in Sydney. Those wins, on single-fin boards, put him into the top 10 on the world championship tour and gave him a chance of taking that title, until the twin-fin intervened. Mark Richards had created a twin-fin design which greatly helped sharp turns on steep waves, by always having one fin deep in the wave. Within months surfers on this design were winning all competitions, but it was badly unsuited to Anderson's size and style.
Over time he experimented with various board and fin setups, and in October 1980 arrived at a three-fin system with approximately equal sized fins, one centred at the back and one on each rail about 11 inches forward and angled slightly inwards, a design which Anderson called the Thruster.
This wasn't the first time three fins had been used on a board, Anderson was aware of the Tri-fin by Bob McTavish from 1971 [1] and the Bonzer from 1974 [2], both of which were like a single fin with two small outer fins. But the Thruster was the first with equal size fins. The idea was to have the manoeuvrability of a twin-fin, but the stability and drive of a single-fin, in particular enough stability to prevent the tail drift found on twin-fins in big waves.
He took that first Thruster to Hawaii for that 1980/81 winter on the North Shore, then on to California where he signed on to be sponsored by Gary McNabb at Nectar. McNabb wanted an Australian surfer because they were making a big splash in the world of surfing at the time.
The Thruster was met with scepticism initially, thought perhaps merely a gimmick, or only for Anderson's particular size and style. Back in Sydney in early 1981 Anderson made two more Thrusters at his own factory and using those he won the double of the Bells Beach Classic and the Coke Surfabout in Sydney, for a second time, then later the Pipeline Masters in Hawaii.
Those victories silenced the critics and brought the thruster to everyone's attention. For the rest of 1981 competitions still had single-fins and twin-fins in use, but from 1984 onwards every world champion has used a thruster. Today practically every shortboard made uses the design, and some longboards do too (mainly smaller ones).
Anderson began to sell his new design with Energy Surfboards and it is thought that Philip Briggs from Nsw Australia was the first to buy the design. All the thruster boards are now worth about $2500 as they are very rare
Anderson never sought to patent or trademark his design, so despite it becoming ubiquitous he never directly profited. He labelled boards from his factory as "The Original 3 Fin Thruster. Concept and Design by Simon Anderson."[3] but that was all. He said in later years that he "couldn't be bothered" exploiting the concept commercially. Though Nick Carroll remarks that perhaps his natural generosity meant it was simply not in his nature to deny it to others.
A small kind of homage to his gift to the world of surfing holds that every surfer with a thruster should give Anderson $1 as thanks.[4] Derek Hynd did that circa 1993, $55 for the boards he owned. Lost Surfboards USA did it for every board they sold in 2003, which was about $5000.[5]
Today Anderson lives with his wife and two sons in Newport Beach, Sydney, a few suburbs north of where he grew up.

Greg Noll

2007-09-09T08:38:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greg Noll (born at San Diego, California on February 11, 1937) also known as "Da Bull" is a pioneer of big wave surfing.
Noll became famous after surfing Waimea Bay in 25-30 ft surf when it had previously been thought impossible. It was at Makaha, in December 1969, that he rode what many at the time believed to be the largest wave ever surfed. He and other surfers such as Pat Curren were viewed as the most daring surfers of their generation.
Noll is readily identified in film footage while surfing by his now iconic black and white horizontally striped boardshorts.
The surfing exploits of Noll and other big wave legends were chronicled in the documentary Riding Giants. Noll (with Laird Hamilton and Jeff Clark) also provides his highly entertaining and significant perspective on Hawaii big wave surfing that is indexed as a colorful commentary track found in the Riding Giants DVD special features.
Noll is also one of the greatest longboard shapers to ever live and his boards are some of the most sought after and expensive in the world.
Today Noll lives in Hiouchi, California with his wife and shapes re-creations of some of the historic boards from the sport of surfing. Some of these are: Olos and Alaias, a replica of a Duke Kahanamoku board, Malibu Chips, Guns, Da Cats, Pacific System Homes and others.

Fausto Intilla - www.oloscience.com

Rochelle Ballard

2007-09-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rochelle Ballard is a professional surfer who appeared in several movies, most notably Step Into Liquid, and Blue Crush.
According to imdb.com Rochelle Ballard was born on February 13, 1971 in Montebello, CA.
She surfs for Team O'Neill on the surfing World Championship Tour.
She also co-founded International Women's Surfing (IWS).

Layne Beachley

2007-09-09T09:02:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Layne Beachley born May 24, 1972) is a professional surfer from Manly in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. She is regarded as the best female professional surfer in history, having won the World Championship seven times.

Biography:

Born Tania Maris Gardner to a 17-year-old unwed Scottish mother then living in Surry Hills, Sydney, Layne spent six weeks in an incubator as a premature baby, before being adopted by Neil and Valerie Beachley from Manly.
When Layne was six years old, her adoptive mother, Valerie, died from a post-operative brain haemorrhage, and Layne was raised with the help of a family friend. Perhaps as a way to deal with her loss, Layne started surfing amidst a crowd of predominantly young male surfers.
Layne made a remarkable rise through the ranks in the masculine world of surfing: at the young age of 16 she became professional, and by the age of 20 she already ranked sixth in the world. Then in 1993 and 1996 she suffered from two episodes of chronic fatigue, which threatened to end her surfing career altogether. But she recovered, having dealt with her personal issues, such as her adoptive mother dying and has achieved her goal in life which is being a famous surfer and became the Women's ASP World Champion in 1998. She won the title again in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2006, securing her place as the most successful female professional surfer ever.
In 2004 Layne was given a wildcard entry into the Energy Australia Open held at Newcastle, one of the rare occasions a woman has competed in a men's surfing event.[1] She was drawn with Andy Irons in the first round and at the press conference the day before he wasn't particularly welcoming, believing the women have their tour and the men have theirs. But if it was supposed to be a showdown between top male and top female surfer, then someone forgot to tell the other two men in the first round heat, Bede Durbidge and Bernardo Pigmeau. They surfed better, Andy and Layne both hardly got a wave and were both eliminated.