Ghost Wave - Chris Dixon [167]
2. Regarding Walter Munk’s film Waves Across the Pacific (1967): Archival video files are available on the Web site of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (http://libraries.ucsd.edu/locations/sio/ scripps-archives/resources/collections/movie-clips.html).
3. Surfline’s video Making the Call (2003), available for purchase on Surfline.com, contains fascinating details on what makes Waimea, Maverick’s, Todos Santos, Jaws, and the Cortes Bank work.
4. For insight into California surf culture “BG” (Before Gidget), the book Gidget by Frederick Kohner (1957, reissued in 2001 by Berkeley Trade) is a must-read.
CHAPTER 7
1. This lede quote comes from Dave Parmenter’s seminal “On the Shoulders of Giants,” Surfer, August 1999.
2. Considerable background was provided by Matt Warshaw, The Encyclopedia of Surfing (New York: Harcourt, 2003).
3. The Keaulana quotes in this chapter came from spending a few days with the Keaulana clan in August 2008 for a story in Men’s Journal magazine. The comments from Greg Noll came by phone and during a visit Twiggy, Greg Long, and I paid him in 2010.
4. Kepelino Keauokalani’s description of Hawaiian surfing appear in the book Kepelino’s Traditions of Hawaii by Kepelino Keauokalani (Honolulu: Bishop Museum Press, 2007).
5. The descriptions of Abner Paki and the recollections of Woody Brown appear on legendarysurfers.com—the incredible Web site of Malcolm Gault-Williams: (http://files.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/woody.shtml; http://files.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/ls01_volume1_06.pdf).
6. I interviewed Randy Laine on motorized big wave surfing by telephone in late 2010. I spoke with Herbie Fletcher on the topic back in 2008.
7. Brock Little described his epic Waimea wipeout to Evan Slater for Slater’s blog on the Hurley.com Web site and in “Pressure Drop” by Brock Little, Surfer, May 1990.
8. Sean Collins’s Todos recollections came during an interview at his offices in Huntington Beach in October 2009. I first understood how long period waves worked when I traveled with Sean to cover the Reef@Todos contest in 1999 for Surfermag.com.
9. Rob Brown and Mike Parsons described Mark Foo’s death personally in 2009. Evan Slater described Jay Moriarity’s wipeout personally in 2009. Ben Marcus’s seminal story “Cold Sweat” introduced Maverick’s to the world and appears in Surfer magazine, June 1992. The film footage of Parsons immediately after Foo’s death appears in Mark Matovich’s 1994 film, Monster Maverick’s. There’s a clip of the moment on YouTube.
10. The interviews with Laird Hamilton were conducted during work for stories for Men’s Journal and The New York Times in late 2007 and early 2008. The result of some of those interviews appears in a Men’s Journal story, “Beneath the Waves” (March 2008). The rest of the Laird interviews came about through a piece I was to write for The New York Times on the XXL Awards, as a follow-up to the story on the January 2008 Cortes surf mission. A few quick questions with Laird on the premise of the XXLs instead became a full-blown philosophical discussion on big wave surfing in general. I then became buried beneath another story, and the Times piece was, unfortunately, never published. Interestingly, this same abandoned story produced the trip to Maverick’s where Rob Brown and I learned of Peter Mel’s methamphetamine addiction (Chapter 8). I greatly appreciate Laird and Pete Mel’s time—and honesty.
11. The “This changes everything” quote from Ben Marcus actually came about watching prerelease footage that would appear in the video Wakeup Call with Ben in 1994. In the ensuing years, I would listen to spirited and occasionally angry debates between Sam George, Ben Marcus, Evan Slater, and Steve Hawk over what towsurfing meant and how it should, and should not, be covered in Surfer.
12.