1. Where were you born, and what year?
Baltimore MD. Um….. I ride a 6'4" Firewire Alternator when it's good and I'm thinking of trying
out a quad for groveling, but I ride a Miller Waterskate {thruster} for crappy
waves lately. Trying to stay off the Log.
2. Where do you live now and what is it like?
I rent an apartment in Brooklyn and a year-round bungalow in Rockaway Queens,
which is my home break. I love both places for different reasons. Brooklyn has
good people and good food, Rockaway has good people and the Ocean.
3. When & where did you start surfing & who influenced you to do so?
I started surfing in the late 70's in Ocean City Maryland. I grew up in
Baltimore MD but I saw real surfing footage of Chuck Noll in the movie Ride the
Wild Surf and The first Pipe Masters on Wide World of sports and I knew I had
to surf. I became a skate rat skating halfpipes, drainage ditches and pools
until I graduated high school at which point I moved to OC MD and started
working restaurants and surfing full time.
4. What was your first board?
I don't remember the brand, but it was a 6'6" full shaped swallow tail, single
fin. Yellow with a maroon streak design on the deck.
5. Who do you admire most in all of surfing?
I admire a lot of surfers but I'd say a few guys kind of stand out because
besides being great surfers are good people. I got to meet Garrett Mcnamara and
Jamie Obrien at a Surfers Healing event on Oahu and the Aloha/compassion they
showed as well as skill handling big boards in the surf with Autistic kids on
board were as impressive to me as the feats of surfing skill they have
demonstrated in other venues like Pipeline and Peahi. I really like Jamey's
style too.
6. What are some of your favorites? (color, food, drink, book, movie, musician,
artist)
Colors: Green, Purple, Grey.. Food: Sushi and other seafood, veggies. Books:
lately I like Jim Harrison, Haruki Murakami and some of Rushdie's stuff. Movie:
I like movies but I kind of forget them pretty quickly
….Musician: no particular favorites I listen to a LOT of different stuff old and
new, I just like what sounds/feels real to me.
oh yeah good balck coffee, favorite drink
7. What's your most memorable surfing moment to this day in your life.
Probably catching the wave of the day {at least 15 feet} at relatively unkown
spot in the Virgin Islands. We were surfing this place on a consistently double
overhead day but were getting cleaned up by these much bigger cleanup sets that
would come sometimes. I finally just paddled way out and waited for about 30
minutes until one of those sets came. I took off on this bomb with my friends
paddling up the face, and a few boards floating at the bottom of the wave that
guys had ditched as they dove deep. I hit a bump while doing the longest
backside bottom turn of my life and split my lip by kneeing myself in the face
but I stayed on, got up into the pocket and rode it to the channel. I was
pretty stoked.
8. What is one of your most proud moments and why?
I love the feeling after a good surf session where I've had a breakthrough and
done things better than before, like making it out of a longer barrel than I
have had before. I guess that's the only thing I can think of since when I do
other stuff in life that I feel good about, I believe that it's just what I
should be doing. So it's more like satisfaction in a job well done than pride.
9. What are the goals you are still working toward?
Surfwise, I'm trying do more critical turns and get longer barrels.
In life I'm just trying to be useful, find my purpose.
10. What do you want more than anything out of your love for surfing?
Well I do love it, so I just hope to continue progressing as long as I can and
surf until this life is over. Sharing it with other people who fall in love
with it is also a really wonderful thing and the use of surfing as therapy is
something that interests me.
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