Ghost Wave - Chris Dixon [127]
This point became even more personal in the provocative 2006 story penned by Susan Casey in Sports Illustrated called “The Jaws Paradigm.” In it, Laird Hamilton, and Casey herself, pointed the finger squarely at Bill Sharp and the XXL contests for what she described as “the goat rodeo” at Jaws during a massive swell on December 15, 2004. Casey wrote:
No, it’s not the desire to ride the biggest wave ever that Hamilton dismisses—it’s the fact that the bounty will inevitably attract some surfers whose main motivation is the cash. And the cruelest irony is that Jaws, his home break, is the place where the bounty seekers are most likely to catch the winning ride…
People had worried that the 100-foot wave prize (now called the Billabong XXL) would lead surfers into situations that were over their heads, and the chaos at Jaws seemed to prove them right.
Bill Sharp was also quoted in the article, and he defended the way the Billabong XXL was organized—restricting participants to an approved list to avoid this exact problem—but beyond emphasizing safety, the contest, he said, can’t police foolhardiness and stupidity. Sharp was quoted as saying, “It’s really disappointing to…see how some people have decided to be a little reckless…It’s a sport that’s just not regulated—it’s about freedom, and if someone wants to be a little unwise, it’s difficult to stop them.”
Hamilton has continued to make his argument up to the present day, as loudly and publicly as possible, reiterating it in Susan Casey’s 2010 book The Wave (on which Hamilton partnered to help her write): Laird and his fellow Team Strapped members blame Sharp for crowding the lineup at Jaws by making big wave surfing about the bounty. Emotions over these accusations run high, even to the point of alleged physical confrontation. According to The Wave, during the 2009 Waterman’s Ball, surfing’s annual black tie affair at the Dana Point Ritz Carlton hotel, Dave Kalama supposedly put Bill Sharp in a headlock, growling, “You represent everything I hate about big wave surfing.” Both Sharp and Kalama, though, have different recollections of that night. Sharp told me, “Anyone who was there knows that’s not what happened. There were no physical assaults at the Ritz Carlton. But Dave did walk up to me, shake my hand, and tell me he thought I was the biggest asshole in the world.”
For his part, Kalama said, “I think I spotted Bill walking into the room from across the way. I was a little fired up, but not in an aggressive way. I mean, I went to shake his hand and with that I sort of pulled him into a headlock—like you would with a brother or sister. I mean, I didn’t know the guy. Already I was pressing the envelope for not knowing him. And I go, ‘Look man, you represent everything I hate about big wave surfing.’ I didn’t call him an asshole. He’s got his spiked hair, and he’s just pushing it so hard for Billabong and just milking the thing to death. It was me being frisky. It just wasn’t a big thing.”
“I just don’t remember ever being in his armpit,” laughs Sharp. “I must have blocked it out as a traumatic experience. But his recollection of the discussion is right on.”
Even though this one incident was overblown, the underlying issues invoke strong feelings because surfers believe so much is at stake. The argument reaches into the heart of the sport, and even into each individual’s motivations and basic philosophy of life: