Ghost Wave - Chris Dixon [169]
CHAPTER 10
1. In-person interviews were done with Greg, Rusty, and Steve Long, particularly in the fall of 2009. Steve spun a fascinating history of San Clemente and the point break holy land of Trestles. He pointed out, among other things, that Trestles and the San Mateo valley just inland and behind San Clemente were long inhabited by a peaceful tribe called the Ajachemen who farmed, fished, and probably surfed aboard canoes made of the dense reeds that still grow along the rivermouth. Their 10,005-year reign ended after the arrival of Gaspar de Portola and the Spanish in 1769. Portola’s men christened each river valley they encountered based on whatever day the next Saint’s feast fell. San Mateo Creek honored Saint Mathew while San Onofre was an obscure Egyptian holy man. “Onofre began life as a very pious woman who was to be wed, but she didn’t want to marry,” said Long. “She went deep into prayer and overnight grew a long beard and men’s attributes. She was the first transsexual saint.”
2. The videos What’s Really Goin’ On and What’s Really Goin’ Wrong are classic snapshots of not only San Clemente, but American surf culture in the 1990s. They’re available from Lost.com.
3. Laird’s “Oh My God” wave at Teahupoo appeared on the cover of Surfer, February 2001. It also anchors the film Riding Giants.
4. To see Mike Parsons’s January 7, 2002, Jaws Tow-In World Cup wave that opens the film Billabong Odyssey: visit http://tinyurl.com/parsonsjaws and you’ll understand why it’s so heavily viewed.
5. I interviewed Rush Randle on not competing in the Jaws contest in 2004. Parsons and Gerlach described the Jaws contest to me during an interview in San Clemente in 2004.
6. A great deal of work I would do for The New York Times in the coming years—surf-related and otherwise—started with a story called “A Machine Age Clash Among Surfers,” February 5, 2002. The story dealt with the unfolding controversy of Jet Ski-assisted surfing through the eyes of Jeff Clark, Peter Mel, Mark Renneker, and Grant Washburn. Some other surf-related Times stories included a now tragically timely look at San Onofre, “Atomic Plant Casts a Pall on Paradise,” May 12, 2002. An interview with John Parodi, best friend of a victim of the Bali nightclub bombing, appeared in “Lives: The Last Wave,” New York Times Magazine, November 10, 2002. I described a XXL controversy over a French big wave discovery, “This French New Wave Finds Few U.S. Fans,” April 7, 2003. And visited Monterey’s deadly giant in “For Daring, Ghost Trees Is Ultimate Thrill Ride,” April 3, 2005.
7. A terrific piece on The Billabong Odyssey is by Steve Hawk, “Surf & Destroy,” Outside, April 2004 (http://outsideonline.com/outside/features/200404/surfing_billabong_odyssey_1.html)
8. I interviewed Dave Kalama for this chapter by phone in early 2011 after reading Susan Casey’s The Wave. I once interviewed Dave on Maui back in 2001for Surfer on the remarkable “foilboard” surfboard he and Laird had been testing. Kalama then took my future wife and me outrigger canoeing at a rainbow-laced surf break called “Thousand Peaks.” My wife still calls the experience among the tops in her life, and said to be sure I thanked Dave again.
9. Results for every XXL contest, including the