The Cold Beer Surf Club welcomes in guest Chris Malloy, surfer, filmmaker, and one-third of one of surfing’s most notable families. Host Conner Coffin and Chris dive into some of the surf movies Chris has helped create over the years, including “September Sessions” and “Thicker Than Water,” which first inspired Conner, gave him the urge to travel, and truly captured the essence of surf culture. They look back through Chris’s career in surfing and dissect the things that most set him apart, how he carved his own path, and how he charged every heavy spot from the Pipeline and Waimea Bay to Mavericks and Mullaghmore. The two surfers also discuss the responsibility of teaching kids how to go through the world, fishing trips with family, how the Central Coast of California impacted them both, and advice for today’s young surfers.
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It’s the cold beer Surf Club heck yeah Chris well thanks for coming down yeah super to do this we’ve gotten to hang a bunch I feel like I’ve probably gotten to talk to you and just gotten knowledge and surf history and all the rad [ __ ] that you’ve shared with
Me over the years so hopefully maybe we can share a little bit of that with someone who who is interested oh heck yeah they better be I mean shoot we always hang out weing to fishing at home and um the idea of like doing a quick
Drive down here super fun and I mean you know when we’re out on the boat waiting for tide to change or whatever there’s a lot of people when you start waxing about the old days and that kind of stuff they kind of like really don’t care actually kind of annoying you know
And so like you’ve always been like can tell you want to hear a good one you know oh yeah it’s my favorite and you don’t mind that like we never let the truth get in front of a good story too so yeah I’d be so pumped always when I
Ran India on the beach and no one around nothing to do I’d be like yes like hours would blow by and couple beers deep and still getting more stories so yeah that’s kind of what I think our zone is a like it really is like kind of like
You go down and then you know you’re going to know everybody and like I don’t know you people you grew up with you know their parents like you you know you feel pretty comfortable it’s like there’s not going to be some it’s just you guys you know sot I think in our
Zone it’s Surfers like you know you have a lot of three four five decade friendships you know um I mean I was thinking about it the other day like this is kind of crazy like I’ve known guys for 40 years spent a lot of my really really special sessions together
Know them I know they have kids don’t know their names you know what I mean like like I know them better than some of my first cousins you know because you and you because you’re you’re there every day for that same thing you know and so it’s kind of interesting I think
All of us as Surfers have that where people are like oh no way that’s my buddy and they’re like oh what’s his name you’re like I don’t know he’s just my buddy he was there yesterday he’s there today and I know he’ll be there for tomorrow for sure just sort of I
Mean you worse for better worse connecting through surfing which you probably don’t even know anything about each other outside of the water maybe but just the fact that you shared a couple special sessions or something there’s like a bond that’s created there is there is and it’s also like you know
It’s almost like a family you know to even go there like you’ve got like your like your your [ __ ] relative you’re like oh him you just kind of know what’s H how he moves and his way of being and then you oh there’s my favorite aunt you
Go hang out with her and you know it’s it’s yeah it’s like a big weird family so I know you’ve done a couple of these podcasts so I was trying to figure out like what I wanted to talk about with you and I think uh I mean to me when I
Was growing up I mean I can I can remember watching thicker than water I first the first movie I I pra surf movie I ever watched was like Endless Summer sure I was like okay Endless Summer this is sick you know and then Pat and Wingnut cloudbreak and everywhere and
Then like the next film I remember really connecting with was it was like Thicker Than Water Shelter and September sessions were kind of like somewhere around the same time for me MH and uh I I don’t even you know like today there’s so many high five shredding movies but
When I watch those films like there’s amazing surfing in them but I got this feeling of like wow like that’s there’s something happening in those films and there’s this culture around surfing and this group of people and this like Creative Energy and just all this stuff
It was like kind of that like intangible stuff and I was like I got to be a part of that how do I how do I get on a boat and Indo with my friends and surf all day and body Surf and just all the [ __ ] that you guys captured in those films
Was like super influential to me as a kid so oh man that means means means a lot you know and and I think um I think now there’s been a little bit of time since we made this so I can kind of have a um a better perspective on
That sort of like 20year window where it was yeah I’m appreciating it more every uh every year that goes by because it was like yeah it was like 20 years of non-stop travel never being in the same place for more than two months and it wasn’t predicated plan what had nothing
To do with the tour or it was like literally like I literally spinning the globe being like what is that there’s got to be something you know that it was that era and I know how old I make myself sound but it it was a really it was a good
Experience in that um like that that feeling of mystery like you really like for all the good waves we got like there was tons of mean we’d hang out somewhere for in Ireland for like a month you know and so um less scoring I think in our generation but like really special stuff
You know really like like stuff where you’re like ah there’s no waves let’s go we’re in Peru let’s go to Chile why I don’t know there’s just more Co L let’s just move you know a lot of that kind of stuff um caused us to
Um yeah i’ be you know that was just a that space between the generation before us like Tom and oi and Jerry every every generation of pro Surfers had to figure out some kind of side hustle or in the past you know something and that made some of the most unique characters in
Surfing cuz it you know it was it’s just like in there’s an element of like you really let’s say you really love basketball and like of course you’re going to know the heroes the Legends but like the real basketball um you know fans they’re going to know all kinds of stuff and
College and you know like the you know you want to know more if that’s what’s what you’re doing man you just want to know more you know so it’s always that like I sort of came to it that way um with I always felt like I was just
Freaking lucky to be where I was you know like with the with the crew that we ran with and getting to be in the lineup at that time you know like being in the lineup with Jerry Lopez and Dan koha you know like I none of that was lost on me
So I was was like a sponge for it you know and if I had been more focused on maybe I maybe I should have had focus on other things but I was really just like man I shouldn’t have this opportunity you know and I and I got to be there so
I really such a sponge man I just like soaked it up yeah with no intention of mean anything other than just I guess doing what we’re doing right now telling story totally what so when you made thicker than water that was the first film you ever made M yeah which is
Pretty insane to think about how rad that film is you had zero experience before that we did we we did and and Jack had ran a bullock a little bit my cousin was editing so we had like you know I think what you what you should have when you set out to make
Your first film like not enough information or money like that’s how we were like we had no right to do that but then if you if you think about the process it’s like if I can get to the Bay Bal with 12 rolls of 16 and Jack and
We like you know toile Perry Josh Bradberry Bradberry um Hans Hagen just such great guys I’m like if we can just get physically get to this place these places I know like Jack would you know you literally jump off the side of the boat um is when pelican cases like
Really started to happen and we were like it changed the game right you’re not getting cameras into the jungle with plastic bags and you know half full of beer half full of Bullocks whatever kind of thing it was like you know um Jack you could push him outside
The boat on a on a and he’d surf it in you know so like those things weren’t at the time like those weren’t challenging you know those weren’t a challenging part of it that was the fun of it you know and so uh so yeah we I mean it was it was we
Were just basically just going off of like Alby felon and and the wits and seers and like that aesthetic was um just ingrained into us so it wasn’t I don’t feel like we were the only thing that was really fresh about that stuff was um some of the spots and and I think
The surfing was good you know I think it was a good period of time for all the all the the crew that wanted to wanted to go you know cuz there was nothing there was never on all those trips there was never anything other than like Hey we’re going
To go here do you want to come that was it was there was no like well that’s going to dob tail with this campaign and we’re going to have this we’re going to do that it was like get your [ __ ] and like if you’re at the airport we’re
Going you know so yeah that was like and how old are were how old were you in that I don’t know let’s see 97 like at 97 was when I started like seriously wanting to do film film and suring M 97 so the math on that yeah and then that
Movie I think came out in 2000 or something I know I’m terrible just let the record say I am terrible with dates yeah I was seven when that came out which sounds right in my like growing up of where I was at surfing like okay seven yeah that was like you’re so
Easily influenced at that point you know and seeing that so and that was like what was your real inspiration to to make that or you know was there like a draw towards film something in particular you know or was it just like hey I want to tell this story about my
Buddies and this Vision you know like where didd you come up with that I I be I was very I was always very interested in light and composition and kind of like storytelling and um and I felt as though like I did see a little like part of Surfing I felt like
It wasn’t really had kind of sort of faded that was my favorite part of Surfing you know and the places and and the people in them and um and so yeah just it just I didn’t I wasn’t married you know and I was making a living
Surfing and I had saved up and it just felt um doable you it felt doable and it felt like well we’re in our 20s and um we’re around people we want to be around and like it was that big thing of like 18 months later when we got it
Done I was like you know what I had gotten hurt you know and so I was like that was a great way to spend that 18 months it’ll be a fun little like thing you know like a fun we made it we did it you know like almost like out of respect
For the the like the Bruce Browns and that you know like like we we we were listening you know we were watching it informed us you know it was almost kind of like that and then yeah and then of course it was fun and people seem like
They appreciated it so we kept doing it and here we are yeah I think those I mean those three films to me well I mean all your films but those three that really influential to me I mean those are like something that’ll stand the test of time and surfing forever and for
Kids out there who haven’t watched those they should [ __ ] watch them because that’s you know I think I sort of which is weird I think maybe as you get older and you see things change and at felt what fall you were inspired to try to like carry on some of that tradition
Yeah and now it feels like things just change so fast but I would agree like that’s when I think about what I love of Surfing it’s it’s that you know and I feel like that’s kind of dwindled to yeah that’s the thing though the thing though I think is that like there’s only
So many people that are really going to like like live like live it you know like and um and like for the for that kind of those kind of some kinds of film and music and stuff that people like it misses a lot of people you know like
When we first started making we had there hadn’t been much slowmo in a long time when when we made our first movies you know and and so a lot of people don’t get it and that’s totally okay I’ve always like kind of been like man I know somebody’s going to get this like
My friends would dig this you know like I sit around and watch this you kind of like make it for yourself and for your your crew you know and if they like it then it usually like when you’re trying to make something that everybody’s going to love it usually sucks you know that
Goes with everything so with that with with that little that group of of films that was truly like you know like we always went under the Moonshine conspiracy right and somebody one day was like what is that I’m like I don’t know I just made up like just made it up doesn’t mean
Anything we needed something to put on the beginning of the movie you know like we were just kids like literally literally um getting the processing all some of the film transferred and all that stuff trading Sur fors like Al Merck didn’t know he was making a movie
At that time or funding a movie no it was it really was that you know and and I borrowed money from Bob early and paid him back very proud of that paid him back every penny and um so yeah that that’s kind of um it’s only been in this last year I’ve
Kind of looked stopped to look back you know because it’s been 20 years or whatever it’s been a long time so that’s pretty wild I mean obviously at that point there had been people who were free Surfers you know now that’s like a very coined term like to be a free
Surfer but uh at that point when you I was listening to the the conversation you with Jamie and yeah Bob Bob hurle believed in me and I was like Chris you’re not making Heats but your [ __ ] rad like why let’s just go this way you know and at that point I mean there
Couldn’t have been too many guys that were in that position to be getting paid to Surf and not compete and like be storytelling and like I mean you were in a way like probably one of the first free Surfers yeah I mean I yeah I’ve always kind of like struggled with that
That term too because like basically I mean that I couldn’t make Heats it wasn’t I wasn’t having a bad run I sucked in at contest and I knew it more than anybody did you know I did and uh and um yeah and so it was like um I was
Hanging hanging out with stesk a fair bit and CRA yeah Craig stesk and and uh hornbaker and art Brewer and Teddy Grano and like they they they like kind of were Elders for me that like understood that I wanted to know more you know like
Like I want I would needle them for for more stuff you know know and um and so they definitely were informative for me I lots of lots of people inspired me that I don’t know but those guys were like you know having breakfast with and like talking about stuff and Uncle Craig
Pushing me pushed me pushed me away you know for a long time and he’s like you little [ __ ] I’m not giving that [ __ ] away for free and he still doesn’t he still makes me earn it you know um and and but it’s it’s it’s uh yeah you either you either like like
That [ __ ] or you don’t man like you know like I I want to know the details of what kin was riding at that year at that spot like I care about it I kind of wish I didn’t because I’d probably be more productive in the rest of my life but
Like you know it’s like I have a few friends and we’ll just totally waste an hour on like so wait like free ride that I thought that board was who shaped that board and and and again it’s useless information it’s a as Mark Cunningham so eloquently uh put via his shrink um
Surfing is just a beautiful diversion so I think that’s important too surfing to not take it too serious the second feel like the second you take it too serious it kind of wrecks the whole thing for sure yeah you know so it’s that balance of like oh man this
Isn’t I’m freaking out on this is amazing but like I don’t there’s only a few of us that are are that froy you know and and then when you and then you put the films out and then you go and we for walled those films all across the country I mean like
Gymnasiums you know School gyms all the way to super fancy setups in New York got to see it all you know and and it turns out um more people are are yeah more people are are in like like get that you know that sort of way
Of of of uh sharing surfing yeah so and you pretty much we we were talking too recently uh just about all sorts of Surfing but I mean it’s wild to think coming from where we come from at home I mean there’s not a lot of there’s not a
Lot of big waves there’s not a lot of big waves but a lot of people from our Zone sort of charge and you really charged and we were saying you you told me that you were the first person to ever paddle out it um mmore well I it
Was more it was a kind of like a cuz I’m I’m I let’s see so with mull Moore like to watch what those guys are doing right now is so incredible to me it’s so amazing and as a as you know my my my fascination with
Ireland and goes way back you know my grandmother came over on the Lucitania right so and then made her way across to Kentucky then all the way out to the US and Ireland has always been a huge thing for me and that was probably like a pilgrimage for you the first time there
Right it kind of was and um yes it it was and there was lots of rumors floating around about that wave I had bumped into Joel Fitzgerald in France a couple years before I think and he’s like [ __ ] I [ __ ] and he had a big
Bang on his like a big divot in his face and I’m like if cuz people underestimate Joel fitzgeral that guy at one point I think was top three big wave guys in the world no way I really believe that and I seen it I’ve seen it I saw it like and
And he was off like doing whatever you know he just was like doing his own thing but really underestimated in big ways for that period of time um but so I talked to Joel in the parking lot and I saw his face and I’m like that’s what I want to go there like
That looks like he’s like a there’s [ __ ] slabby laugh and so got that got me thinking I’m like cool I know there obviously had to be waves but then Joel confirmed that and then um I started to talk to Rob Gilly and Gilly had been there with Curran and seen mmore oh way
Massive imperfect like Gilly still talks about it but it was like Tom had like a 6’4 so there was no it wasn’t that he didn’t P out he didn’t have anything you know and so it was just like and at that time all we were doing was traveling for
Waves so it was just like I ink that I’m just like we’re going going to Ireland you know so um long story short so that was early 90s and the wave that Joel had surfed Joel Fitzgerald the way that he had served um is right next to mmore it’s so
Funny to be talking so freely about this saying this out loud because because for a long time you know like I went back five times to try to get it and I just didn’t have the right forecasting didn’t have I brought a ski the last time but I
Put a lot of lot of heart into trying to get it you know anyway I’m bouncing around but so we went and surfed that that way that Joel surfed but you can see mol more from there it’s just a big version of it like the way that Joel’s a little it’s a
Smaller version mental standup barrels but it’s not M more so um I just kept seeing it and I’m like dude that thing’s capping and that and I mean it gets way bigger here and um so I believe the crew I was with including including Rob Gilly thanks to
Rob for that first trip like kind of organizing it all um those guys went home and I’m like man it hasn’t we’ve been here for how long it hasn’t broke it’s that thing’s going to do it you know so U I stayed with Richie Fitzgerald so he was the kind of
Surfing mayor of almost like I would say like Ireland at that time you know like you good goofy footer um they had a little store there in Boran so I stayed back with him and his mom Peggy sweetest Irish woman in the world made us shepherd’s pie and spent a
Lot of time with their family I was even doing runs like um for their little surf shop like driving the little van going doing pickups down in slago and like it was it was such a neat little period of time waiting for that thing to do it you
Know was like looking back on it um I was such a the uh wb8 is buried right there under Ben bolman and uh I used to like get like and this like cuz whenever he left I was solo right and and Richie Richie was off working
And doing his thing so I’d be cruising around with like Guinness in the back go sit at wb8 under bin bulin and just hang out and wait for the freaking spirits to come out of the hills it was just like everything about it man I just felt so
Good and then that dig happened and I had where it was breaking and I had just polished like a beer and a giant like Irish bread butter [ __ ] I was just like W I was at the Y Old Bridge Bar I’ll never forget it and
I look out the window and I’m like [ __ ] this is different outside right now when kind of started to switch a little bit I’m like [ __ ] burping and I had the 710 owl it was a pipe board cuz we used to ride these freaking giant boards at pipe
You know and it was a really good pipe board and then so I had done winter in Hawaii as usual and then I had stopped at chopu and before I Ireland and brought that board which is stupid you know like I don’t know we were just trying to
Figure it out at that time at chopu like what can work what’s possible it was before L did his you know showed us all what you could do out there um but I ended up taking that board I came home and then took that board to Ireland because I
Just was like there’s got to be a need for this so I had the right board that had been ridden in the right ways for a slab like that’s all that board really was you know um yeah and I got my [ __ ] together and like I’m sure they have a better way
Now but you pull up you know you pull up and um all these pastures and then there’s Lord mount batton’s Castle on the point like it’s out of like a freaking like Middle Earth [ __ ] man like you you pull up his Cliffs and pasture this crazy castle so Lord mount baton
And by the way any and I can mess up details at any time so but anyway he the Irish didn’t want this Ro English royalty at that zone and it’s a proper castle like a real castle and the Irish blew it up blew him up they didn’t blow up the castle but they
Literally bombed him I think he was in his boat so so he pull up and it’s like Ben bulin is this sort of like buttress this feature in the mountains so proud and snow capat right below lays wb8 M Moore is right there like it’s just a
Crazy part of geography like the the layers there so anyway I paddle out the first time I paddle out was the biggest um to this day I ever remember trying it and um I just paddled out basically and you’re by yourself 100% by myself no one around nobody around and
Um but I mean it wasn’t like some I wish there was nobody around I would have loved it love there was a [ __ ] helicopter I didn’t it just didn’t have it yeah has sm10 so that first session I just got my [ __ ] ass kicked like there’s no like
I was the first guy to Surf it and get bar do the whole thing like I paddled out and witnessed it and like was just thinking of the guys at that time that I wanted to get back there to bring them back cuz I couldn’t do I couldn’t I
Didn’t want to surf It Again by myself you know I would so that seemed it’s got that the takeoff thing then it’s got that the whole that thing like I was sitting wrong I was sitting between those things yeah and I knew better I should have either just nutted
Up and sat on the spot the main the Deep spot or and what I ended up doing is just catfishing that second section so I got some but you know what I mean so then back back I took my brother’s back we had a ski with Dana Brown and we got
It like 8 feet so rad but not so when I saw the footage of the thing coming in that way of happening um I was just like it was so Bittersweet same with chu you know same with chu like those early days man like
We knew what it could do we knew what we could do and it was like either like bad timing or we didn’t have enough heart maybe we should have gone harder you know we could have we could have that’s the cool part that’s the cool part is like in your heart you’re
Like I know we can go harder like at the time you know like and but I’m physically can’t like I don’t know you know and then 15 years later you’re like I [ __ ] knew I was doable I knew you could do it and I gave it all I had just
Didn’t you just it was like there’s no road map you’re just going who look at that like I’m going to try I don’t know what [ __ ] let’s go well it reminded me of my like the first time I pad out to like like big pipe I was like okay
Nothing here equals up to me making a wave and and getting a barrel like physically and everything like I just but I only did it because I was watching humans do it I’m like it’s possible I mean yeah that is Johnny Boy Gomes but you can get down the face like
I can I can at least try you know I remember so vividly the first time I ever saw pipe firing I was hurly I went over with hle I was like uh 13 14 maybe yeah and uh we were staying at log cow this is a total departure from where we
Were but we’ll go back but uh I I couldn’t sleep but we’d been like on the Nar Shore for like a week and it was small and we were Sur and like little logs and Rockies and then everyone’s like oh swells coming sw’s coming it was
Like November mid November and I I went to bed that night and I was sleeping on the couch at this house at logs and freaking it just started cracking in the middle of the night and I was like oh my God and I could not sleep I was so just
Nervous and just fired up I was like oh my God oh my God oh my God and I it was a full moon and I was laying there I was just like [ __ ] it and I got on a bike and I rode down to off theall I didn’t
Even know where off theall was sure I just down to the beach I was like okay I don’t know what this is there’s a place to go down to the sand I just walked down there it was probably 2 in the morning I was like 13 14 I sat at offthe
Wall and I watched these sets just come in like these huge lines just in the Moonlight and I was just sitting there going oh my God this is what’s the NorthShore is all about is that feeling you had that feeling once dude and I sat there and I was just like
Oh my God how how do people surf this [ __ ] and I went back to the house and I don’t even know I can’t really remember if I fell asleep or not but finally it was like everyone was getting up and we went down to beach park and we looked at
Pipe and there was one guy out and I was just watching these huge like 10 like in hindsight you know firing 10 to 12 foot pipe like as good as it gets pretty much one guy out kind of wash throughs probably but and I was just looking at
These things going like I can’t I can’t Ser how does anyone make a drop on that wave it was the weirdest only it’s a leap of faith truly in the best sense of of the term like knowing what I know now it looks so much gnarlier looking down
The beach into it cuz it just like goes inverted and crazy once you’re straight on like the hydro dynamics of of pipeline are are um truly like you know the whole world moved you know they ran for Cho pu and some of as they should you know like there’s holy [ __ ] there’s
More big giant barrels out there but I maintain that like there’s a the the hydrodynamics at pipeliner just like man there’s such a thing to behold they really are it’s such a crazy wave because it because of how much variance is in each wave and that’s the thing I
Sort of tell people I’m like like so imagine like a spot and like you pick that you’ve everybody’s got a spot they’ve surf where if you pick the wrong one you’re on the rocks or you’re going to break your board or whatever imagine it’s like that but like
Then and then there’s like the that element the wave can kill you whatever that’s and but the crowd man like you can’t it’d be like it’d be like going into a like battle with with like blinders on like the most important Nuy thing of that shoulder that little rivulet that’s happening that’s your
That’s a make a break thing that 6 ounces of like Chip Shot thrust that six whatever that is in the that situation more than anywhere I’ve ever surfed is like it is the most high pressure moment on who’s going to go and there’s all this unsaid [ __ ] in eyes
When you’re looking at guy’s eyes and it’s happening right now it’s happening right now and you’re looking at your best friends or or your sort of nesis in some someone who wants to kill you yeah and everybody’s out there to make or break their whole [ __ ] deal and
So the idea of a perfect 12ft pipe wave coming to you is like pure joy the idea of doing it with 40 really good Surfers or 100 or 100 yeah probably 100 now yeah that’s crazy like the idea of doing that and then within the pipe
Crowd and again I know I’m going to date myself because it’s probably shifted a little bit but like there was such there was such an important hierarchy and you had to know your place in that right because I’ve Le everything I’ve everything I’ve learned about all that
I’ve learned the hard way you know like maybe he’s maybe and I won’t name names but so and so might have been on a bit of a bender last year and now he’s back and I don’t really remember him but yet it’s someone says nephew that you should
Know or you know and then you end up with your friends broken at best you know what I mean so there was such a neat hierarchy within that though man you still there was always a contingency of dudes that were like kind of like really good Surfers but hadn’t surfed
Didn’t really know how it was happening and they thought it was basically you know like the north side of the Pure or whatever and so it’s like every man for himself kind of thing and then so you’re fighting those guys and then you then you all you get away with
That’s not that’s for sure doomed but you don’t know till the guy pulls back and there’s no going back now you know what I mean so that’s that’s the tricket pight you know and I mean you’re sitting there and it’s so like a a fraction of a
Second could be you getting tossed on a 10-footer a fraction getting really really hurt or dying yeah or getting the way of your life or getting the way of your life and the best ones are usually the ones you’re like I don’t know it worked almost always unless
You’re and that’s a paddling is a huge factor and like if you’re like the D the Magic paddlers Man like the colani robs and reef ma the irons’s brothers um Derek like I get so jealous of their I’m a horrible paddler like I’m pretty bad too for somebody who’s like done it for
40 years like I and I believe me I get made fun of it always have got made fun of it so for me it was always that like um no matter what it was a late drop for me like if I was a good I got really good
At late drops because I couldn’t every every drop was a late drop you know what I mean so you put all those factors together and um and uh I put all those factors together and it reminds me why I never got like the one I was waiting for
At pipe that’s how I feel I still feel like there was still one that I was and I kind of I kind of like it that way you know kind of like I don’t I’m not good at going like okay boys we did it and let’s move on like I like having those
Things in my life where that like every day you think about you move towards the that goal and you ship away it’s kind of a let down when you pull it pull it off whatever it is in life you know what I mean like it
Just sort of I want I like to have that thing that little Mis mystery about the thing and I’d rather have something to chip away on it forever you know some things in your life you should chip away on forever I think have things like that
Yeah I’m I’m similar to you in that way for sure like I love the the the Chase and the feeling of getting better and the feeling of like oh there’s more out there there’s something there and like the Improvement and the work that goes into that I mean that’s and I think
That’s a good way to be because yeah then you enjoy every day you’re not waiting for this like I achieved this okay I always felt like I W a contest I was like that was it okay cool next you know and I feel this that’s how I feel
Like there’s a few like way points in my life where was time to celebrate or something you know time make a thing about it and I always felt like well [ __ ] dude of course like I had every opportunity in the world to do something I love like this is if
Everything goes smooth that’s what that’s that’s what happens like you get together with crew you work really hard whatever it is and any any Walk of Life and then you get to the thing you’re like cool we did what we said we were going to do you know what I mean kind of
Thing I never yeah I never it’s I think if you stop to I don’t know I don’t know keep going you can’t stop SM that’s why I never check the wave reports never I never check this check the forecast like I want every day to be like a surprise that I’m Pro and
Probably um get skunked and then you get to every day is like no way there’s way was like there’s Corners look at that little thing I have a buck for every U whiny guy in the lineup That was like good fun waves like talking [ __ ] about this well cuz it wasn’t the computer
Promised him yeah I’ve probably done that a few times and the other thing is all my friends know that I’m I’m I’m a little bit behind on the technology so if something really really good happens like that last SW of you guys at ringcon I was getting like real time footage of
You guys like cheering I was like cheering well [ __ ] Conor better get another one dude hold it down dude hold it down this is you like come on like uh just for fun you know that like so I get I get the good stuff
I want to go back to uh Hawaii for a second though because uh you guys spent a ton of time over there and I think like Parker and I always were we knew we were pretty lucky to get to know you guys from I think a pretty young age and
Looked up to you you guys probably more than you ever knew uh but and I was always really inspired by like it felt like you you know you maybe leading Keith and Dan I don’t know they could maybe say El otherwise but like you guys were always sort of just blazing your
Own path it felt like to us and I always thought that was super inspirational and um but yeah I mean I feel like that when we were kids there was this thing of like you had you had to go to the NorthShore and you had to charge cuz if
You went there and you sucked it was like oh this that’s got done next you know like you weren’t going to make it as a pro Surfer and so you know like coming from our area you know maybe brownie had spent some time there probably like was pretty close with
Uncle do he like brownie charged and had respect on nor Shore um and then you guys I mean like Dane and Bobby served really well over there but I never really thought they didn’t put like as much time in there but like post it up
Yeah we post it up for sure like my my my Hawaiian family is I I’m very close with and and you know the hill family and um they took care of so many of us guys they really really did like we used to be oh so that’s so great we got to
Crash all those years and eat all those years and and meltdown at your house for a you know like you were like like it was a a really um to this day say stay in close touch and it’s a the getting to be with the wions meant a lot
To us to this day yeah M and I mean like the I think that someone you and me and you know there’s those of us who really appreciate the history of surfing and like the roots and kind of like the way like I I love the way that the hierarchy
Worked in Hawaii you know when I was a kid growing up I was like okay we I get it yeah like there’s those guys there’s I fit in here somewhere you know like okay like I could you know boom boom and it just was like you know you kind of
Had to like respect it and you had to respect those people and it kind of just everyone sort of like fell in line and if you didn’t it was like I you know yeah and I think that’s just like taking deep breath and like realizing that that like um that
Just shut the [ __ ] up and do what you’re told and there’s plenty for everybody and do that for a while and you’re going to end up with friends you know what I mean it’s not complicated you know what I mean like you’re you’re just perceptive and you grew up at ringcon
Where there was an order and you’re like okay I get this you know what I mean and it’s better for everybody you know I mean it’s crazy now I think lineups maybe I don’t know there’s got to be somewhere where it still exists but I
Mean even at home like even I was just on the NorthShore like it’s sort of gone this that the way it was you know gotten back to how it was no no it’s like that that order and like sort of that hierarchy in a lineup just feels like
It’s it’s like a freefor all now most places I actually think you know it’s R like I’m all for I mean we all love surfing like more people we want more people love surfing right it’s a great thing to do but there’s definitely something to be said about that kind of
Hierarchy and and I think it’s safer in a lineup you know when you have like kids out who are like eight and 10 and haven’t served pipe and they’re out there just like oh yeah I saw that one kid get an Instagram clip and blah it’s
Like dude like the kids are getting hurt and people going over the falls and dropping in and boom there’s no like that order of it’s kind of gone yeah and I’ve noticed in the last like you know like for a while now you know you have people come in to surfing and
Um react you know and usually it’s a headline surf rage right like they love it right they have nothing to do with surfing like to them it’s just another thing to sport [ __ ] you know they’re like here for the story let’s see how we can make people either pissed off angry
Jealous mad whatever you know what I mean um and so you know you you read all the different stuff get everybody’s opinion everybody’s experiences right you know um at the end of the day a lineup a respectful lineup um you can’t [ __ ] with that like a resp having like nobody can say well
You know we’re going to we’re we don’t know if that’s the best for everybody no it starts with respect you have respect for the place you’re at the people you’re with and it’s better for everybody in the long run you know like these people don’t realize they’re
Saying like no we just want to make a free-for-all like we want to make a free-for-all that’s what we want and and um it’s not about violence it’s about beating people up it’s not about yelling like you and I have grown up surfing with the silver backs that like you know
Everyone every place has a different brand of of of um garnering or but like in our Zone like those the dudes that that you really watched out for um didn’t talk you know like you could read a dude and be like o as a 12-year-old ain’t [ __ ] with that
Dude I’m not sitting at indicator anymore I’m not sitting on the reef up whatever I’m like and did that for 10 years and it was still fun yeah you know it was still fun and then one day the guy’s like you’re up next like how incredible is it for those dudes to even
Talk to you and that feeling of sort of like working your way up you know being a kid putting time in on the inside the gromble where I belonged you know and watching sort of this thing that okay someday maybe I’ll be out there with the
Boys like get in a real wave you know and then the day that that came was so rewarding you know in the in the and the and the thing that like theoretically you know we talk like U I forget somebody compared it to tragedy of the commons and we talk about like
How important surfing is to us in terms of just like if you know being getting to go jump in the ocean for a day is means a lot to us you know and we all we all cheat right cuz man like it’s like that thing but if we’re all of the same
Mindset then it’s like um you can just have a lot more fun man and like there’s no [ __ ] [ __ ] talking there’s no none of that you know it’s like how fun is it when you’re in a lineup of chaos and you don’t want to be the dude like you have
All the bonafides you do to go out and just like hold court and get every single wave just like some of our friends have done um but you have the restraint and and you’re like your example is going to you know your example oh this is what I was
Getting after so you growing up how fun would it be when you don’t want to be the enforcer you could but you don’t want to and one of the boys paddles out and just everybody sits up like chirps or barks everybody sits up and it’s so great
Because just by him telling you how many beers he had last night or some chick some people go oh okay there’s order out here I can’t be a dick I can’t be a thief I can’t be a walleyed freaking like uh [ __ ] in this lineup like I will
Be held accountable and that goes back to my other thing is like an order with respect in it and accountability you can’t [ __ ] with either one of those things and that’s all all the guys that have been born and bred in that world it’s like that’s all
That’s all they’re asking for like take your [ __ ] surf rage all your your taglines all your headlines are stir in the pot every Walk of Life has [ __ ] we I I’m not I’m not going to say any names but I know a few guys that like they they were actually padding out to
Fight they didn’t serve that good so they and they they were hung up about it and um they would no exaggeration fight every session you know this is not at home but other spots and um there there’s that that that’s not surfing that guy’s gonna fight in a at Food Land
He’s going to you know what I mean and they did so that got confed as as a surf mentality and then you get like Nat got got mucked out bad in Australia one year he was being n in the lineup you know and for all the thousands of beautiful
Waves that that that man has caught you know like his little Zone like a like that’s the thing that the whole world knows about you know is that was being that and somebody somebody had had enough of it you know and then it was it could have been done there but the media
Just loves white sharks fights [ __ ] 100 foot [ __ ] whatever like that’s what they go to it’s okay yeah classic huh did you uh when when you were young and you started surfing pipeline I know um we’ve talked about this you know like you’re not going to get a good you’re
Probably not going to get a good wave it’s almost worse like I remember when I was young feeling like it was almost bad to get a good wave right because I got the good wave that someone else wanted like Fu I oh [ __ ] I didn’t get that wave
You know like it was almost better to be the guy getting the shitty clothes out and the boys would be like oh yeah sick yeah sick clothes out you know like and I remember Parker and I sitting on the beach with you when we were kids and
You’re like yeah boys like freaking go over there And just pack some big clothes outs we were like all right let’s do it and I look back now man I I was like this the year Andy passed away we flew over to his memorial en Quai we
Flew back to the NorthShore and there was this just mental swell it pipe the next day and it was like everyone was on it like all the boys were out uh and it was firing but it was really crowded and I was like I’m going to go surf Off the
Wall yeah cuz there was no one out sure I was like I remember like oh I remember seeing a couple guys I didn’t barely knew where it was I’m going to go sit over there and like I pulled into these clothes outs like I got a couple pretty
Good waves actually too but I packed a couple cloth outs that were so big and gnarly I look back now and I’m like what were you doing what was I thinking like how did I survive those waves cuz now I I won’t do that well the the here’s the
Thing is it’s a precarious way to get um to get a spot to get an opportunity right very precarious um but no you got to imagine all the other guys even the groms you’re surfing with like they grew up going to Sunset Elementary and so everybody even if they’re like
All right Grom you’re sitting in the back of the line they know who they are probably know their dad the GU our age you know at that time um so like again I don’t suggests this that that method that that we did just go out and just
Get a bunch of and and what it does is it puts you on the radar and they’re like if that little [ __ ] gets a chance he’ll go we know that and it pipe that’s kind of a big part of it so they’re like cool check you’ll go and then they’ll give
You something like a little I’ll never forget it meant a lot to me and kind know I probably wouldn’t even remember it but we’re sitting I think they like call it like the Wakita Bowl now or something that that deep like almost left off like ANS it’s almost like
Cutting from ANS was that was like where I like to sit too you know and Wakita what a freaking Legend dude I have stories about him in okanawa me and him just like for another time but that guy’s a legend and when I heard they’re calling it the
Waita bowl I was so happy because he came into it oh pipeline Hawaii like you know very like this is the thing you know and um but but anyway I’m just happy that about that so I’m sitting that in that zish you know and K McGee sits there a lot to he
Sits whatever the [ __ ] he wants cuz he’s going to make it um he’s all this one came in and he was just like he like gave it a Sniff and he was like up and I’m like oh [ __ ] you know it was one of those just like not a lot of
Ways like that but this one like I don’t know it was makeable and it was like probably not going to be a good thing you know and like 20 minutes later um I I saw him we were sitting in the same spot and he was like [ __ ] did you break
Your board Reef Cuts what and I’m like made it and I think I was more surprised than he was but after that kind of always Bo like and then because kooa is treating you like a human being then other guys are like cool I’m not going
To kick his ass I’ll yell at him fade him I’m not going to kick his ass K came with kaoa or he’s with K you know what I mean and so I’ve had really good luck with that and and just kind of kind of hustling you know like Marvin for some
Reason really liked my brothers and I I used to I used to mess around um with the uh those lefts that we may a little bit and he had started that project maybe Jose Angel may have back in the day but I know Marvin was so that that was kind of our little
Like’s the left watching the left we go and like you’d be like oh D if he says that thing at the end then we have to which is we go what’s it you know so that’s super helpful to have and and and that just doesn’t come free you know you
Have to like show that you’re that you want that you want to be a part of it you know you want to that you’re willing you know the odds you know and so um that helped us a lot just having that respect and gave us opportunities you know but I I also
Didn’t I I actually haven’t even thought about this in a long time but there certainly was a palpable point when it was like how’s these three holiday kids they’re freaking they’ll go like they’re fun they likeing they buy beer whatever they’re fun um that lasted for a long
Time and was like really felt taken taken in by the Hans you know and there was a point and it would have been in like 2000 early 2000s to where it’s like okay we’re on the NorthShore we’re all hustling kind of for the same piece of pie right we’re all serving pipe back
Door the reefs when they break sneaking to Naru in the summer chopu whatever hustling and I felt like there was a point where like boys were like all right you guys got enough like you know like did you think part of the plan that you were going to get the best waves out
Here like cuz that’s not part of the plan in there was no conversation there was no nothing but that’s kind of how I felt so that’s when um I was like man we’ve been hanging around the equator a lot at that point you know and then every you know
People were hanging around the equator and the whole like Choo thing just kind of was like such a huge part of my life that just disappeared overnight you know when Cory got that well when lar got his way and then I was somehow like somebody came home with a cheet of
Slides and they’re like check this out and imagine like projecting chopu for the last four Summers and then he got that one and I was like that’s the one we’ve been waiting for this whole time or hoping for a chance at cuz it was either too big or just fun medium it
Wasn’t that like magic size but it spooked me off I kind of Never Never kind of was like cool the kids they’re going to do [ __ ] I can’t do out here you know so you know I just think what those kids are doing at mmore
Is just amazing it’s so neat to see and like um this batch of kids man like Nick von rra and you guys and I’m not in that batch of kids I never got into the but you guys charged but I’m like those those guys in particular Nick and uh Luca
Padua um right before them was like Cole and Ramone but like I share like this like cool kinship I don’t even know um Nick and Luca but the other guys I I I keep in touch with those with those guys but they have that thing where they’re
Like big giant water epic let’s go fun rippable waves but they’re they’re they’re there for that slab that thing that left slab and like H it’s just so fun to watch watch that progression you know of those spots that you project for so long and then you just you’re like
I’m tapping out man I got I got a kid do in like a month like musical chairish boys I can’t do it that first few years not chasing it was really hard MH super messes with your head um I had luckily I had a friend his name
Is Steven Cotler who’s uh really he wrote a book called The Rise of Superman and it really talks about that sort of relationship with big waves in terms of like dopamine serotonin all those quarters all those things that as a kid you don’t you’re like you know you don’t know you’re so
Driven or so amped or what keeps pulling you back and I thought it was kind of Hocus Pocus stuff you know how he was breaking down the physicality you know in the Neuroscience of of why we keep going back and doing that thing yeah and again I didn’t I was like
Okay that sounds cool man like let’s just have dinner I didn’t understand it and now um these years later I’m like you know that totally makes sense now you know like there’s always something I don’t know something about like Roger Erikson or Mark Fu barshaw Brock Ross Clark like all the guys that
That um see that and decide that’s what they are going to do they’re a little I think they’re a little little off little off did you feel like that oh yeah like what what Drew you into that what drew it into into the big wave you know like going
Suring all this czy to PD out at M with no with no one even you know like today it’s like there’s cameras everywhere oh yeah I got it goes viral on the internet you know you’re just I’m just going to go surf that by myself if you no one would have even
Known if you never came back I think that I might get credit for like trying these big lefts but like it I’m goofy foot so if if the the big wave and there’s any possibility to be on my front side it just made sense I always say that about Mavericks it’s like it
Wasn’t a leap of faith for me as I just felt like I saw that thing was just um could go square and I knew you couldn’t get in on it um so they just to thread it through the through the right you know I’m like figured that out figured
That part out and it and at that time there’d be five guys out you know um and so yeah just goofy foot and it just felt no with no that goes back to the pipeline thing of like the crowd and how big a factor it is on on the big ones on
On real ones and there was just never nobody nobody going left so that’s kind of and then mull Mo and those waves are just great and it does have something to do with um growing up where we grew up you and I grew up is the land of Rights
You know so to to I got good at Pig dogging you know but then it wasn’t until it got equatorial that I was able to like you know that’s where where kind of every Gand and macaronis chipu all a lot of good laughs out there so you know I haven’t
Been surfing lately I go outside with a cold hose on the ranch and just sit under a freezing cold as the sun comes up no way really yeah I’ve just been body surfing pushing kids into waves and uh cold hos in it you got to go surf let’s go but see
The thing is I don’t want to go surfing with you because I want to go fishing with you so because I’ll never forget one time you so cool and humble and you were like hey man would you take me fishing I’m like yeah sure you know like I yeah I’m like
Great like that that’ll be fun you know we had some beers and stuff within like 20 minutes I’m like you could outfish me all day and you’re like no no I can’t so fast forward like yeah last summer was in was such a I mean obviously to
Um to get to go for Coupe especially to get to go fishing with you and then you put us on so much it was so much fun fishing and such good harvest and Hooper just like talked about Connor every day every day and what would Connor think
Dad can we we’re going to go bass fishing can we take Connor like just like you’re part of his fishing lore forever I mean those fish that were we were getting on the deck were literally bigger than him yeah that one hit you guys caught was bigger than CP it was
That was so fun it’s so cool sharing something that you love with I mean a kid you know just seeing how fired up he was and also like I was so impressed on how fast he learned I couldn’t believe it I’ve taken some people fishing a few times and like they’re
Still and coup was like Conor I think that I think that Rod’s hitting the bottom a little bit and I’m like yeah yeah go wind it up he’s so H it it was insane he at yeah nuts it was so cool well he’s youngest in the family and he
Um has grown up with older siblings and his Godfather on the ranch side of things is like you know same with fishing same with like on the ranch side it’s like he’s rolling with dudes that like they’re going to show you once so he knows like learn now or you just get
Left behind you know so so he’s um yeah he’s a quick learner and um like we’re still eating that halit by the way and like CP on like a Wednesday be like Dad can we have a halit night and he so this is was kind of cute he doesn’t like fish
Really no he does not like fish and he is the fishiest fishing kid you will ever meet in your life and he’ll eat it but I know him and he’s just like this is so good like usually at like 12 you start getting into like fish more you
Know he’s still in still eating little kid food you know like give him he he’ll fish like a man and and you give him a capri son and he’s psyched you know I I remember that day I had to literally like you guys met us at the harbor at
5:30 so you probably were up at 3:30 oh yeah I literally Cooper did not stop fishing the whole day at night he was in my I have a the trash can it’s like a whatever you know extra tough trash can filled with hot water off the engine
He’s in there in his board shorts with a fishing pole in his hand at 9:30 at night I’m like Cooper go to bed tomorrow’s a new day he’ll be 10 miles away from the um the coast in just be like have like okay Dad if we’re fresh
Water today I got my salt water I got I got these CHS I got he’s like super I have to go like hey bud so for sure 100 million per we aren’t we don’t get the fish today so we can’t that means we don’t talk about fishing you can go to
The barn and like do whatever you want out there and like find a water trough and fish in it whatever I’m not taking you fishing today cuz he will not stop it’s like that little mouse in the cartoon are we going are we going are we
Going are we going is the wind good dad is the wind good are there waves are you you going to just surf or are we going to fish like he surfing to him is like kind of like like uh like why you know he’s like but you know like so then this
Summer I’m like you know what I need to get him surfing just so he can just like with all my kids I’m like you don’t have to shred but like you have to be able like I want you to be able to get barreled because we’re going to be
You’re going to be in places where you’re going to you’re going to want to get Barrel right like for sure um and uh I take him and like I’m just laying on the back of this old like this skip fry thing I have and so and he’s like riding
This wave it’s all crystal clear and like I’m like yeah man he’s getting hooked like I’m like a I’m getting him hooked you know selfishly because if he’s into surfing I get to Surf more like every dad does and I’m like after this session it’s going like he’s going
To be like he’s going to be hooked so at least when we you know he’ll be ready and right as we’re getting getting ready to kick out uncle Keith had smacked a super nice white seab bass in like 10 ft of water and he’s coming in and Lucas
And me and Cooper about to kick out and uncle Keith just holding this big giant white seab bass that’s not even dead yet right in Cooper’s face and I’m like there went any chance that the surfing is going to be talked about at the end of the day a surfing just yeah yeah
Class so I think that when it comes to the point like Surfers get um they get they get the chicks and stuff so I think that maybe maybe that’ll be his his draw knowing Cooper I feel like there’s no way he won’t end up being a surfer in
Some capacity some capacity yeah for sure he likes to have fun and someday he’ll be all whoa that was fun totally 100% well he loves his radio and that’s his his big thing but uh I mean he’s eight he’s eight so we’ll see you know what in 10 years who knows what that
Could be up to what was epic about Cooper was I love the part when we get to the dock maybe the second trip the second trip I think it was and um so great and so we’re at the dock we got like so much fit we’re at the dock we have so much
Fish and like it was just the best day ever and then I’m we’re like doing a quick cleanup not like a full clean up and then um Coupe starts angling for the bigger like so now what do we got we got like we probably had like 15 fish on the
Boat probably 13 or 14 or something and Cooper starts angling for like the biggest fish like he he’s going to take the two biggest like you know when we at the end of the day and split up and I love I loved it um do you remember
Saying this you’re Grom Grom put that back he’s like I was just going to I think I caught these two ones and you’re like no we all caught fish together those are all our fish and you handed him two fish that were killer hit but he wanted the big
One and then you said uh y you know what when you get a boat and you get all all the fishing gear buy Fuel and and and go out there like you get to pick whatever fish you want to and he it was so great because I didn’t say anything and I was
Just I just kind of was like I was just like perfect perfect keep going keep going and CP just stood there like wideeye and it soaked in his head so good like and I never and I never said anything that was the end of it that’s
Funny I I wanted to talk one more thing about maybe people don’t really know about you Chris I mean you Keith and Dan that you you told me that you pretty much managed you guys I don’t know you ever talk about that does anyone know
That um that what like you were you were your you and your brother’s managers oh yeah well so when we were when we were coming up there was there really like manager things like if somebody Tommy Carol had one for a little bit um who else like uh well Kelly had
Some support and stuff you know but it wasn’t really I don’t it wasn’t really a thing so it wasn’t like okay we need to get our manager okay we’ll just do it it was like Hey we got to do this we got to kind of navigate this stuff and um and
Then there was a couple times where managers approached us and they were like yeah this is going to be cool we’re going to do this we’re going to do that and like and then we get like 15% and I’m like I don’t understand what that
Dude gets it and then he and then those those are the same dudes that try to put you in like Arby’s or put you know like do something you don’t want to do you know uh and so I just sort of like was lucky to have like whether it was
Like Bob Hurley or Paul Gomez or Brandon Lillard or Evon shinard like make a promise and like in one way or another stay tribute to it and they just took a like Gamble and then we just I was able to like work with Keith and Dan and like sometimes as open like
Conversation where really focused on like how something was going to go but a lot of the times more of the times it was like hey um it’s going to be pumping I’m going to go see what’s happening at Mavericks and like Keith’s like [ __ ] I’m GNA go to Hawaii and Dan’s like I’m
Going to go to toos and it was like unwittingly where we were just like everywhere at once you know so it was fun to help negotiate some of that stuff there was not there was never for us much negotiation like there was such a momentum moving towards kind of where that cottage
Industry that surfing was like it was I don’t think you knew where it was going but it was going there was a lot going on and and um and so it really was more personal relationships and that made me as the one that was sort of figuring that stuff
Out to like sit with a Chad denana you know um or a Dave Kennedy those guys were all like not on only like you know supported us enough to get to the next spot they were um kind of like mentors in a way like they not mentors they
Weren’t mentors they were they saw what they could see what was going to happen in surfing over the next 20 years probably is you know where we just saw the the next day or the next swell you know and those guys were like no come here you guys you know like early on
Back early like in my early 20s I having Dave Kennedy take me aside and be like so you you guys got a thing here that you could do and I’m like I don’t know man and he was he was definitely um like good timing for him
To s be like no you if you keep doing what you’re doing there’s good you know you’re going to get to make some cool stuff and see some cool stuff and so those it wasn’t a tumultuous weird antagonistic type relationships that we ever had um during that so like it
Wasn’t and and those the people that we were working with like they they acted accordingly cuz I didn’t I didn’t sick a dog on them like I didn’t bring in somebody to just that was solely focused on more you know and I think that they
They were like cool if we can just be people about it and not be [ __ ] like I really you know I you you’re doing something that’s great for what we’re doing and we want to be a part of it that’s how it always felt like hey we
Want to be a part of that and um for the most part those people always just took such good care of us and we maintain we we relationships you know to this day that’s cool yeah it was it was it was man I would never say I’d manag my
Brothers I just helped kind of connect a few dots you know they were out surfing better than I could I’m like good shoot those guys like like I’ll I’ll go t I’ll go you know do some some meeting some place that you know in Costa Mesa or
Something that was that was never I’d seen hard work before you I grew up with my dad and I was like this ain’t hard work you know go sit and have a nice lunch with somebody that wants to help you you know um yeah I think that was real
Informative for sure it seemed like back then because even when I started writing for Hurley yeah I felt that you know we went down and me my dad brought Parker and I down like Brian oresco was the first person who per set us up with Hurley and uh Brian Orosco we got to
Talk about that legend for a second after though uh and so Brian brought us down and you know we met uh Bob Bob Hurley and Jeff and all those guys and it was such a cool experience and uh it felt like you were a part of the
Same the goal was the same you know sure sure the even though they were on the business side of it but they were creating this brand they were creating something to support the thing that we all loved right and uh it’s interesting somewhere along the way it seems like it
All it all changed in the surf world for the most part I’d say like now it’s like okay the people that had these visions and we all were kind of like on the same like okay well how can we all like what’s this thing around surfing we all
Just loved surfing let’s make this a living you know and obviously someone’s we’re all making money and we’re all living off this thing that we love to do like that’s the dream right and then you get the guys that come in and buy the brand and they squeeze him they don’t
Give a [ __ ] that Chris Malloy wants to go make a surf film they’re like yeah cool we’ll take that 100 Grand and we’ll like stick that with the investors or in the bank at the end of the year and it’s crazy to have just seen the way the
Industries from all sides you know all the major brands now it’s like this thing that we all love and care about totally it’s not really like supporting that isn’t really the goal it’s like the Surfers want to make enough money to Surf and live and the companies want to
Make all the money to give back to the investors because they bought this company for a certain amount of money so it’s it’s just a crazy shift I feel like to where before it was kind of like a like-minded mentality from the company and the Surfers you know sure and I
Think I think like be to get your take on that if it’s no that’s great I think that that’s insightful I think that uh the shift happened in my eyes when like when Surfers so before the guys that own the companies were just like they saw that that could work to
Get them they’re like sell less Drugs sell t-shirts more t-shirts and that was a viable kind of shift in in somebody’s career you know what I mean yeah and so we were all in on it we were all in on it even when like in the in like ‘ 89 90
Early 90s like we were all in on it like Bob Hurley’s a surf junkie like all the guys that like supported us back in the day like they were we were just part of their scam to have do cool [ __ ] and surf you know so they
UND we were we were we were drinking the same cool Aid in terms of like manage family pay your bills and surf maximum amount of Surfing traveling going making [ __ ] like that and it was like they understood because they’re the same guys and the shift happened when
Dudes were were running [ __ ] that didn’t they weren’t as Telly to Surf to be in the ocean to like really like like forsake so much else I’m like this is what this is my lot in life I’m I’m going to do that so when we
Go in all all freaking got the crazy eye about a project and we’re like D [ __ ] the shit’s about to go down in the next three days like it is never going to happen again and we need I need 50 Grand right now just don’t ask any questions like you could do that
With ion like most of the film that work that I did for Patagonia I started production on that before Patagonia knew I would go in there and be like we’re making such a cool film this spring and they’re like cool what are your ideas I’m like well I’ll just show
You because I’m almost done and then they would be like you like you know better you can’t just springing this on us and then and then every time every time they would be like this is really cool okay next time tell us you’re going
To because that the at had to go any the CL where it was climbers Surfers you know so I was like you freaking good scam they’d like wink at you like good job like you got another day on your trip or you got you know before you had to
Go help open up a store in Japan or New York or whatever that was a you know during that happening during that time uh so now guys don’t get that I think I’ve when I when at sometimes in the surf world that have kind of come to it
They’re like like they’re not they’re not crazy like like we are they’re like that doesn’t really add up and you’re like oh man you’re missing the whole thing like this this whole thing is about Taking Chances you know and and um that’s uncomfortable understandably for for the business aspect that’s involved
In surfing now and like I wouldn’t bet on me if I was them either so whatever can going to get up early and make cool [ __ ] every day that’s all I say like I’ve walk I’ve been blessed to work in all kinds of different stuff you know
And I’m always like never been to the point where I was like I don’t want to I I I don’t care about getting up early and checking the checking the conditions like wherever I am and like go do cool [ __ ] today you know that’s like kind of
What it blows down to and and if there’s like and if a dude gets tied to come into this thing that is so nuanced which is you know Sur Fe all the trappings that come along with that you know it’d be like they don’t they’re not going to take a chance
They’re not going to has got to add up and and and we as we as athletes have to understand that too because at the end of the day like like if the lights go off and we’re off on some hairbrain [ __ ] like and the part’s party stops
Right there in lies the scam yeah like how are you going to how do you well like what’s your how did you how you it used to be more creative for sure on how guys would pull off and a lot of the stories will never be told but yeah I mean it’s it’s
Everybody’s got their own kind of like um it’s fun for me to watch too because it isn’t it is a sort of a a unique life path you know and I’ve always been watching the older Surfers everybody from you know Peter Cole and George greo and Bob M like W hung and
Watched and like and you go like oh all these guys and they you know all picked different ways of of pulling it off and keeping keep keeping going and manage you know family life and everything and um that’s been super informative for me to be like
That’s kind of tragic in the end we all know the guy that’s like try trying to make it for too long and he he knows it we all know it but he keeps doing doing that for another 5 years and that girl finally is over it and
Then he’s like left at a you know just being like [ __ ] it’s not that you can surf too much you can’t surf too much it’s just like how like how when and I tell you what all you groms out there teach your wife or your girlfriend how to
Surf because is like it goes from like are we going to the beach today to like no for sure we’re going to check the waves you know little tip of a married dude with kids get them all surfing get them all surfing on that note would you have any
Advice for kids who are you know maybe coming up in today’s day and age who want to be a pro Surfer try to carve their own path through surfing and take that yeah yeah like I think for the Next Generation coming up like if you have a True
North in terms of like you know it’s it’s not weird to question like why you’re surfing right you know and hopefully it’s a few things you know but it’s like if you stay true to like why you’re surfing and why you’re pushing yourself um that allows you to really focus and
Get better and when you’re when you’re doing really well like people want to be a part of what you’re doing you know and so I think focusing really more on just kind of what you’re you’re doing like what if you like what you’re doing and and um because I think right now
Kids are just getting so scattered right you see like a kid do something and then the world was in love with them and then like next week that kid’s worked so hard he did the thing he got famous and it’s just like kind of over and it just never
Ending thing so it’s like that has to be I imagine for the you know the the kids now the generation right now is like overwhelming you know so it’s like de at why like focus on your surfing and everything that goes along what you you
Know what you want to do where you want to go you know how like what boards you’re going to be riding like focus on that you know and and um I also think that if I was going to say to the Next Generation like you are
On the road all year your life is the road it’s trains planes Automobiles and tide and wind and everything like you there is no excuse that you don’t come out of 10 years of surf travel um with like 18,000 lbs of books that you’ve read like it’s a such a
Amazing way to like it’s like a free education you just take like six books wherever you go if you can you know what I mean like that is um because surfing you’re surfing Life like at the end of the day it’ll be yours and you’re going to get
You know like it’s a personal thing on what you really draw from it and how you know what it how that plays out over time but um your surfing is better and you enjoy it more when you when you do have a fullblown other other
Stuff in your life you know like we all know guys without naming names that like you know all year sitting at that one at one spot you know and just hanging like kind of no nothing else going on which is amazing in its own way the the those those characters but
Like you can surf all day and still have a total life you know you can you can and it’s easy to get caught up I think with social media and everything now where it’s just like you feel like I imagine the kids just feel like they’re
In this tornado of like no certainty you know like the like and it’s all in The Ether so simp it I so much simpler for us guys you know like there was this tactile there tactile magazine came out once a month you you lived all through that you
Know you remember it and it was like cool that happened there it is it’s on the coffee table and that is surf history now that happened you know what I mean and like now it’s like I mean there’s like crazy stuff that’s happening right now and um I’ll be like
Did you see the one and like super informed people that are on it are like no what what happened because because there’s all these like different um galaxies of information out there and like you can’t you can’t you know the surfing is splintered off which I think
Is healthy but it’s um to be like a a pro these days like it’s hard it’s got to be hard to satiate all the demands you know yeah I feel like you just said so much cool [ __ ] in the last three minutes there was like 50 different
Things that I thought of talking about there but I I mean a couple big takeaways for me and like I agree um it is because I lived through that transition maybe even more like than you you did as a pro serer that’s a good that’s a good point Y and it is
It’s really hard with the social media it’s like you post some clip and it’s like oh cool everyone loves it then there’s like but there’s 50 million other ones that day and some then some guy got some crazy wave at M morning you’re like oh that cutback I did at
Ringcon stupid you know and I feel like if you get caught up in that like oh likes and followers and all this [ __ ] on there you know it’s like yeah I maybe in some weird way some of that stuff matters but like if you go back to what
You said and you just really go back to focusing on like you’re surfing what you believe in what you’re inspired by and then like creating the person that you want to be and then just trying to be more like you and walk through life more like you every day I
Just feel like at you know you’re going to be interested in what you’re going to be interested you’re going to do your thing surfing whatever that is but like people are going to want to be a part of that if you’re a good person and you’re
Doing rad [ __ ] and like I think that was kind of like I something I took away from you guys like probably more than anyone was you guys were really [ __ ] good Surfers but you like did it in your own way and you were always doing cool
[ __ ] and you know maybe that was also like a bit of the ranch lifestyle and just like really embracing like where you were from and what your family was about and like all these ideals I was like oh that’s I want to be like that you know and it’s like well what what
Matters to me and then you said that thing about reading books you know it’s like I always had this kind of I always wanted to be a surfer that was what I wanted to do cuz I didn’t want to really like go get a job yep a real one I I do
That cuz I went and work for my dad a few times doing construction I was like [ __ ] all right surfing is pretty sick I got to do this for a while which was great great perspective but like I always had this uh this thirst for like knowledge and being more than just a
Surfer because I wanted to be able to roll into a room with like someone who didn’t Surf and not have them think I’m SPI in Fast Times you know sure like I wanted to be able to talk about [ __ ] you know like real life and interested in
More than just surfing you and I don’t know maybe that’s like a bit of a weird insec because I felt like growing up we were pigeon like as oh your kid surf like right on you know like [ __ ] smoking weed and throwing Shockers like you know but little did they know we
Were like having this insane life experience like saving some dough and like meeting these [ __ ] amazing people like learning about business and marketing and the world and culture like all this [ __ ] through surfing you know like I can’t think of one other thing in this life that I probably could have
Done that would have given me this life and I just think that’s so cool about surfing you know absolutely it scares me when I think about like if I didn’t like somehow land into like getting to do this you know like cuz um yeah think about it for a second you I
Mean it’s a lot of things that I wish I had done and that like I could have done that could have that but like I don’t know it just seems like it fits and all the cool stuff like because of Surfing and your upbringing with your dad and your brothers
Like then you went on to do all this other amazing things that sort of stem just for this love of Surfing you know like you may never have gotten into making films and this whole career that blossomed out of your love for surfing absolutely no it is it is
Um it definitely like going back to what I would say to the kids is like if you are you know blessing enough to have the ability to get to to get paid to Surf it’s just like the people you’re going to meet like you might not even sit
There and like um talk for a day with a person but you meet them and they have something that’s amazing and you’re like hey you know in 10 years I could call that person I’ve done that so many times and be like hey um you know I’m going to
Be in this Zone and try to be reciprocal and like there’s so much at the end of a pro surfing career there’s so much there and I got see firsthand a lot of dudes who had got a few dudes that had World titles that were super miserable dudes
You know so that where like you’re having breakfast with these dudes you know what I mean you you can tell what they did last night you can tell their whole thing and like that was definitely and they all they they they seemed and their presence seemed like they had been robbed of
Something even though they were world two guys in particular and that was a cautionary tale of like getting to see all that like up close got got a kid thinking got a kid thinking I thought about that a lot like hm you and that’s one of those reasons I
Like to like I never like to completely solve the mystery on a spot or a region or a place or something even like that even like like songs and music and writing and stuff like I like that little bit of like never figuring it out you know and it that gives you something
To ponder when you’re out doing your stuff you know yeah Don Henley that Eagles documentary says that he’s like there’s all this [ __ ] people think Hotel California is about this and about that and they’d always ask us and he’s like dude it’s it’s supposed to be like that
I’m not supposed to tell you what it’s about it’s supposed to be there to evoke something out of you and have this mystery about it I thought that was really cool and like dare I put Curran in with Bob Dylan but like those guys have a similarity in that like whenever
They’ve been sat down for for the big interview they just like let all the air out of the room like for a second like and they just Dro bombs like just the best [ __ ] you’ve ever heard that totally in its own art Artful way is like I don’t really give a [ __ ] about
You and I don’t want to talk about this you know but then they spin these amazing quotes like what was in in like searching for um Sunny’s film searching for Tom Curran he think what’s that I I should know it by heart by the end of
The movie they’re like so how do you do this and he’s like um I just like like riding a bike or jugging or something I don’t know like it’s the end of the movie it’s like my favorite so R I don’t even know if I’ve ever quite picked up
On that nuance and I’ve watched that so many times well he’s basically and like Sunny has to ask that question but he’s basically being like he’s basically like shut the [ __ ] up like there’s no I just did yeah and we’re not you know yeah I want to say again like that reminds me
Of Sunny Miller who was one of my my biggest mentors and truly one of the best surf cinematographers ever and um he always had a fun banter with Curran like those guys knew each other like old there was like Grumpy Old Men almost in a way MH
Tom always just kind of stuck and then just dropping these like $10 million dry wit little snarky retorts just like maybe one a day and like so genius so good yeah Legends um well what are you up to these days Chris I kind of know but for the rest of the
People that sat here and listen to us talk shop for a while so I’m getting to do a bunch of fun stuff right now I mean my the vast majority of my days are are are up in well Al where we live on our little ranch up there and that’s always
The Romanticism of of of the ranch is like more like fixing PVC and like something with fleas or something you know there’s definitely not a bunch of cowboying going on it’s more Gardener work which I really love you know um and then uh there’s a couple films that I’m like kind of excited
That’s how they always start with an idea and then you talk to somebody that you know well and you’re like what do you think and they’re like [ __ ] that’s that one will go let’s go let’s do it and then okay we need how we going to do
This you know like the I’ve got a couple ones and they’re not Sur filming but they’re they have they’re surf surf adjacent I know people using that word a lot um and then I am um Kelly and Todd Glazer are doing a book with roli and it’s like 15 years of Todd’s
Footage and he traveled people don’t realize like he traveled with Kelly this whole time they’re like brothers it’s it’s such a cool thing and they um Kelly and Todd came to me and they like they basically were like hey we would just love to have you in the edit and so I’m
Helping I’ve been down to hung with Todd and Kelly and we’ve gone through photos a million times and Todd doesn’t realize like every photo is good like even his like second third pick are like still so good and I’m like he like I don’t know
About that photo I’m like it made it all the way to layout like it’s good photo you know and he’s just such a Todd is just such a such a dedicated frothy person and smart and I feel like there’s kind of only one person and that’s Todd that could handle
Kelly for 15 years on the road like um and we all know Kelly like like best guy in the world brother to me for sure um but like when they’re surf or there could be surf like you got to hand it to the dude like he is the froest kid in
The world so like Todd had to like there when Kelly travels it’s pretty crazy how he does right like it’s always last minute and it might he takes off in the air and he’s like [ __ ] I’m going to Barbados but I know this spot’s going to
Be good maybe I can book a flight I mean he’s just and it’s all in the name of surf it isn’t for photo shoots like that’s the thing is like if it weren’t for Todd a ton of this [ __ ] would never the sessions would never even be seen
You know I mean there’s the the one in uh well I I’ll save it you guys check it out it’s like it’s going to be it’s going to be neat there’s a bunch of of good stuff and so I I’ve been able to run down and and hang with those guys
And yeah Ed it yeah so I’ve known Todd since I was 12 oh no way he went to Brooks in Santa Barbara and he used to pick me and Parker up and take a surfing down at like Shores or something we’d go pull into Closeouts and he’d shoot flash
Photos of us and when he was going to Brooks and then he’d take us to In-N-Out and he’d just trip out that we’d eat like eight In-N-Out Burgers each and milkshakes and [ __ ] that is so cool I had no idea and then when I started doing the tour they were traveling
Together and I would I was like Todd you’re like what what are you doing here I’m with Kelly where’s Kelly yeah dude he’s like all there and there and I’m like well we’re at J Bay like the waves are firing so you just be shooting photos cuz he was frothing he like I
Don’t know if Kelly’s going to show up or not but he’d be all the way at J bit for Kelly to show up he’s just a he’s just a great guy and and and it comes down to all those things we’re talking about like he knows what he wants to do
You know and and and he um isn’t singular in his vision of life either you know but he knows what he’s going to do and he um he just has that internal furnace that runs hot in a good way you know I mean like yesterday sent me a
Picture of this like ridiculous like a mountain down in North County or something and like he’s been mountain biking this thing and like just this he’ll get up and do that like he’ll be like I know I can’t get up that I haven’t I’ve been trying for a month I’m
Going to get up and do that you know and then Stars day he just froy yeah I want to get caught on here someday you should me and him me and him when we we have to curb ourselves because when we get around all the photos and there’s caffeine involved
Like we’ll go like an hour and a half and be like we didn’t look at one photo and and and it’s a lot of it’s my fault cuz you know it’s just too fun they all the images spark there’s so many neat characters that Kelly has has um grown
Up around you know and like some of them are included so I see see when we’re editing I’m like H that takes me into that world and that time and it’s hard to stay focused because there’s so much good stuff for sure well fired up to
Check out the book well I don’t know I mean we could sit here and talk all day with me and Chris so I don’t know is there anything else that you like really wanted I feel like we covered a lot of cool stuff so this is just fun and
Random I’ve told it before I remember you and your brother because I was running around with your Uncle Jason baffa and we were down in Mexico and he was shooting 16 and they just had such a great time and he was telling me about you guys and I’m like all right we’ll
See you know like that’s my job is to be like all right whatever we’ll see and then um and then I did that movie one track mind which we which I still feel terrible about and I wanted to get I got had like Koh bunch of those so I wanted a trip
With just like you basically your guy’s age but we had never surfed together yet I was just hearing all this stuff and like there was some obvious ones and then like at the last minute everybody like Evan like everybody was like wait how’s Conor not coming I’m like I don’t
Know and all I would have ever had to do is you surf I just I don’t know I didn’t know I didn’t know so um and I regret that I apologize here on camera that I didn’t U and then I hear more about you
Guys and I think it was like on like a Thanksgiving Day so it was a Thanksgiving day and we were cooking on the on um we were I was living on the San Jan Ranch at that time and my good buddy Jim Brady goes we’re going surfing I’m like dude I can’t
Today like I got so we go down and he had a mat and I had like a tenno like Single Fin longboard and um it’s just pumping As Good As It Gets like 200 300 yard long just as big and good as it gets it was
Just he and I and then like I just see like these little like figures up top and and I’m like oh wow that guy got it like right on the perfect spot like that guy surfs here whatever and he said like eight of the biggest man hacks like you
Were pretty you were a lot smaller than you are now it was just fullblown man hacks all the way and like kicked out by me with a big smile and I was like okay I’m in this kid’s [ __ ] awesome and we surfed our family surfed together that
Day and that was Jason was with us that day he was he was looking like he was looking kind of pensive yeah oh [ __ ] it’s kind of big out here I think I I think he was like uh he’s taking it all in he got some screamers
He got some good ones that was I will never forget that session that was freaking pretty all time probably partially cuz you were out there and I remember that exact moment of like K I was like that’s christm like I kind of knew you at that point but not like not
Like we do now where we talk [ __ ] for hours you know sure there was one other time I I remember we were like at a we were groms and I mean I was really young at this point and someone had like brought us like I used to do this after
School surf thing and there’s probably six of us kids and we went down to where you guys lived and we were out and we’re were surfing and you kind of paddled by and kind of grumbled at us a little bit cuz we were just being like little
Freaking you know just frothing GRS and it was like you know probably this big there weren’t that many people but grinding on the sand and we were probably being annoying and kind of like said something to us and we’re like oh [ __ ] I’m doing my duty yeah no like
That’s funny because to me as a kid growing up like I never I was never like oh Chris is Chris MO is a dick I was like yeah well he he should have told us sure to stop being annoying you sure it’s just like with it’s kind of like
Think of it this way think of like if you’re if you’re Nita surfing and um you know you’re trying to figure out that whole like thing and like you know it’s got to be an exciting time in anybody’s life right and like the and then and then to have like these people
You know that are like whoa there’s certain there’s certainly A vibe there and like like not no you know that’s got to be hard you know you feel for for for people because it’s confusing and my my advice is just be like again you know
Shut the [ __ ] up and get out of the way and listen and within no time you are going to be so proud of yourself that you pay that you that you garnered respect from the people in your local lineup then go out with the mentality of like the ocean’s everybody’s the oceans
I read it I read it on a websit it’s everybody’s well that was cool though because you said that little like and it wasn’t some big thing like it was just kind hey you know hey guys you know yeah and and like I learned that from you in
A nice way compared to sure some of the other experiences I had in my life like one other one I was a kid and I you know the age-old thing of like oh there’s someone in the tube and you’re paddling this way and you got to paddle to the
I was like I didn’t know I’m ping this like oh my God this in the barrel ditched my board ran it over came up we like tangled up three huge fin marks through my like one shortboard you know at that point and I’m like and the guy
Wasn’t like are you all right he’s like what the [ __ ] are you doing Gro and I was like I don’t know and he’s like you never he’s screaming at me you never paddle that way you always pile the white water and I was like sweet went in
Board’s like ruined and I’m like I’m never going to paddle that way again done deal done deal and it’s safer cuz you paddle to the White Water done deal you could have said it a little nicer but I got the point right I feel like people people um should um think of it
As like think of it as like your dad if you get a come up into the lineup think of it as like your dad or your best friend when you do something that’s clearly not right whether you knew it or you didn’t and they’re like hey they
Check you super hard and if it’s your brother or your best friend you’re like that sucks that hurt that sucks but um okay okay like I’m I’m going to take I’m going to take that advice and um and deal with the uncomfortableness around it and like words aren’t going to fix
Anything like I’m going to prove how about I just act accordingly in the lineup and watch watch what Watch What Happens like kind of instantly how people um you know they they play off that like weird Intruder kind of sketchy no eye contact like catfishing super hard when
Like the girls go [ __ ] like that you know like you’re it’s it’s it’s reciprocal dude like just totally don’t be an [ __ ] yeah hell yeah well I think we talked about a lot Chris yeah I think so too well thanks for coming down well [ __ ] I’m thoroughly stoked I made the mission
Down here and I felt like it was like pretty much all like fishing all summer with you like all the conversation we had like waiting for fish to move around like that’s pretty much that’s what this was pretty much so I hope that works and I’m just super stuck to be down here
Thanks Chris yeah thanks for sharing all your knowledge and stories and all the good stuff that all us kids need to hear we’re just getting going huh pass it on it’s on yeah okay thanks fellas
9 Comments
Conner, you gotta keep this going. The young kids need to hear from the real people, not the agenda driven scams.
Thanks Malloys for keeping it in order.
P.j.Carpinteria Calif
Psyched for this one. Just dug up Chris and Keith's old Surfing posters not too long ago after ages in storage, seems appropriate.
💯
No matter how rebelious or counter culture always make sure to wear the sponsors hat.
This is it keep them coming truly enjoyed
man Thicker Than Water and the films that they made were really the most inspiring films ever for me
Grew up watching the Malloy brothers. Fond memories.
Are the Olympics trying to kill these kids? Yep. Let's call them The Machine. Poor surfers. Go Caty. Go Baron. God bless the rest. 3:16
This is the show we've all been waiting for….Rad