Avoid This Deadly Surfing Mistake: 2-Wave Hold Down! | Billy Kemper DSH #642

A 50-foot wave, if you miss it and you get caught in the wave, how long are you underwater?

Like, how many seconds?

That's where

a lot of people don't understand

how long 10 seconds is.

So, if you fall in the first one, most of the time you're coming up before the second one.

If you don't, that's called a two-wave hold down.

And that's where things get

sketchy.

Yep.

All right, guys, we got big wave surfer Billy Billy Kemper here today.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Uh-huh, no worries.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, we were hitting it off before.

You got quite the story, man.

Yeah, man.

My life is

been a pretty wild ride to say the least.

Yeah, because you're balancing the partying with the surfing, and then now you're on a health kick, right?

Yeah, I think it's,

I look at life as kind of like a map.

It's like a monopoly map, and I'm just making my way around it.

And I think now I'm past the partying and going into more of the health and just prioritizing the longevity.

Like we're talking, biohacking, being a good father, being present, and just focusing on myself.

That's cool.

Did you start seeing some health damage from all the partying and going out late nights doing drugs and stuff?

Yeah, you know, I mean,

it's just not sustainable, that lifestyle.

When you throw, when you're single, you can do whatever you want.

You can go out, stay up all night, go surf the biggest waves in the world the next day, and don't really give a shit because you have nothing to be really responsible about.

You throw a girl in the mix, and then you throw a couple kids in the mix,

and then things start to, you know, change.

Yeah, I lived that lifestyle for a little bit of

just not really having priorities, even though I had a wife and I had kids.

I was just a fucking lunatic.

Wow.

You know, I was,

yeah, I just kind of wrote my own

way, and I started to see that road really end fast and had to clean everything up and just give myself a reality check.

I was never a drug addict or like an alcoholic.

I was just an abuser and

just a hard party.

I just like having a good time.

I wasn't a bad person.

I just like having a good time.

And those times had to come to an end, had to put my kids in front of me and just really prioritize my career.

I wanted to be a multiple world champion.

I wanted to be, you know, I wanted to have a legacy.

It was something I always dreamed of.

And that was kind of when I was like, all right this

july will be five years for me no uh no hard drugs no alcohol wow and no cravings for it

definitely i mean fuck i'm in las vegas right now are you kidding me i'll just tell you one thing um

it'll never ever get easier you'll just get a little stronger yeah the partying thing and addiction for me it's like That shit's never going to get easy.

You're going to see it.

You're always going to want to be there, but you will get stronger for sure.

Yeah, because you see it on social media every night, right?

The partying and people at the club.

So it's always in the back of your head.

Yeah.

But what do you think caused you to like it so much?

You think you were just working so hard during the day on surfing that you wanted to cool off?

No, for me, I think it's adrenaline.

I really am addicted to like

just

being in the moment where you kind of black out.

Like, whether it's from being in a flow state, adrenaline, being high, being drunk.

I don't know.

I felt like maybe partying I could reach those levels that I was reaching with big waves.

And that's a recipe for disaster.

Yeah, that's tough.

How long have you been catching those waves?

I got introduced surfing big waves at a pretty young age.

That's kind of how I really got my foot in the door as far as a professional surfer.

Always grew up competing.

I just...

didn't really have the natural talent that a lot of my other friends did.

And right around the age 16 years old i towed into like a huge wave that put me up for like one of the biggest barrels ever ridden wow and got me a bunch of publicity but uh i was just parting 16 17 18 19 20 years old like really enjoying myself partying and then I kind of bloomed later with my career right around the age 24, 25, I got a wild card into the first ever big wave paddle event at Jaws, which is like Jaws is the pinnacle of big wave surfing.

Like it's it's that's the Super Bowl of surfing.

It's the biggest arena.

It's the biggest wave.

There's nothing bigger.

There's nothing better.

And to be a local kid, like born and raised there, and I get a wild card to surf in the first ever paddling event.

I went on to win that event.

That got me on as a wild card onto the world tour.

The following year, I won the world title.

Damn.

At 16?

No, this was 20.

I was 26.

Oh, 2016.

Okay.

2015 was the event, and my career just like skyrocketed.

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Wow.

And all of a sudden, I had my first kids right around there.

I was like, holy shit.

And

yeah, a couple years later, I realized that

just lifestyle and the way everything was taking off that.

sobriety and just kind of like going down that route of focusing on my body and realizing, like, having a couple serious injuries, that health was definitely something that I needed to raise up to the top priority.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I saw a couple of those injuries.

We'll dive into that.

So, what's considered a big wave?

Is it by feet?

For me, no.

For you, yes.

Okay.

What does that mean?

Waves are different, man.

It's hard to explain.

Like, somebody who skates, their surface never moves.

My surface is, you can never predict it.

It's always moving in different directions.

got it it's mother nature um

where i start to consider waves getting big is like

in the

30 foot range holy crap

once you get in that like 30 foot range and then

upward into the 60 70 80 that's like really fucking big dude they get up to that big yeah holy crap like that wave in

that would have been 2006 i rode it was up for ride of the year.

That was when I was 16.

That wave was probably like easily 60 feet.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, my parents didn't even know I was surfing that day.

You didn't tell them?

No, fuck no.

Did you know it was that big from your point of view or you didn't know until after?

It doesn't really feel that big when you're out there.

I don't know.

Especially towing in, you're using a jet ski.

Now I rarely use jet skis.

We're morely

more so doing paddle and surfing.

So tow and surfing, basically, you're using a jet ski.

Those things go 60 miles an hour.

You got a rope, like you've seen a wakeboarder hold on to that rope behind.

Same kind of rope, but you're on a surfboard with foot straps.

It's very made for speed, heavy, like high-performance, and you get whipped into the wave by a jet ski.

You're going 50 miles an hour, you let go.

The board's easy to ride, you're strapped in.

Where there now, I'm doing paddle and surfing.

I have to ride a 10-foot board that's huge just to match the speed.

And I can barely match 15 miles an hour with my own two arms.

There's no jet ski.

It's just you and Mother Nature.

So that is like where the performance in big wave surfing has just leveled.

We're at a place that

nobody ever thought this was possible.

Like what we're doing now, it's so far out of anything people thought was really at reach.

So it requires a lot more skill because you're not tied to the jet ski?

Definitely.

100%.

There's people towing into like 70, 80 foot waves right now who can barely surf on a normal paddleboard.

What?

Yeah.

Like if you gave me like a month, can you swim?

Decently.

Have you ever surfed?

No.

If you gave me like

three to four months, I could tow you into like a 60-foot wave.

No.

Yeah.

Dude, I can't even stand on a skateboard.

I'll get you there.

That's crazy.

It doesn't take that much skill.

Okay.

Yeah.

For tow and surfing.

Yeah.

So on a 50-foot wave, if you miss it and you get caught in the wave, how long are you underwater?

Like, how many seconds?

That's where

a lot of people don't

understand

how long 10 seconds is.

Oh, it's only 10 seconds?

Well, in between waves, when they're normally at that size, it's like 20 seconds, roughly, in between each swell that's breaking.

So if you fall in the first one, most of the time you're coming up before the second one.

If you don't, that's called a two-wave hold down.

And that's where things get

sketchy.

You got to take into consideration,

imagine standing across from Jamal Hill, and this guy's bouncing at you.

Your heart rate is probably going,

and then he hits you one time as hard as he can in your body

and drives you under a waterfall that's 80 feet

and you are trying to swim to the surface as that waterfall is driving you to the reef.

Right.

That's kind of your situation.

So that being said, after that body shot from Jamal, holding your breath for 10 seconds feels like five minutes.

Wow.

Yeah.

Yeah, because the pressure, you're fighting it.

So you're the pressure and also just the adrenaline, your heart rate, that's what...

doesn't get people is the waves are so big while you're out there that your heart's just going douche douche douche douche you try to hold your breath after getting the the wind knocked out of you or taking one of those waves.

It's really, really hard.

Yeah.

And I saw one of the waves actually physically knocked you out, right?

Yeah, I've got unconscious.

I've got to kick out a few times now.

So, what happens in that situation?

Someone has to be on standby to save you?

Yeah, when we're surfing these waves, I have a complete safety team.

I have like two jet ski drivers, spotters on the cliff.

Everyone's on radio.

Like,

like I said, I got kids.

I take this, I mean, I look up to people like Kobe Bryant.

I look up to people like, you know, Conor McGregor, people who are greats, like obsessed with their craft.

And that's what I've become with what I do, like complete obsession down to

nutrition.

It's weird what I've invested into out of surfing compared to where I was 10 years ago.

It's so much different.

I've just become

obsessed with.

the entire realm of it and like

looking at myself now as like a professional athlete rather than like just a surfer.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I feel like you're changing the whole stigma around the term surfer.

Yeah, I've wanted to.

You know, I've always had an interest to martial arts, to physical training, like just strength training.

And I was kind of one of the first ones who was pushing it in surfing.

And

then it was kind of weird.

And now it's like, that's the cool thing.

That's what everyone's posting now.

Like, oh, I just got done with my training session.

I'm like, all right.

Yeah.

But that's the thing.

I heard Kobe Bryant say this, and this is why I always use his name is the gift of giving back and seeing other people win is way more rewarding than winning yourself.

Like getting a trophy yourself is cool, but seeing somebody who hasn't ever felt that and helping them in some way get them there, like that's ultimate feeling.

Yeah.

Inspiring, motivating.

Like,

if you can, that's...

That's the goal of life.

That's cool, man, because you could have just kept all that information to yourself.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, and you know, I mean,

what are you going to do?

Take it to the grave?

I mean, that's what OJ did.

People are saying.

Yeah.

I don't know.

If you got money, spend it.

Enjoy it.

If you got passion and great knowledge, share with people.

Love it.

You grew up in Hawaii, right?

Born and raised.

Is that sort of the mentality around there just to be sharing?

Yeah, the hospitality.

Yeah.

The community there, it's...

It's like coconut wireless.

It's real small, but it's real grounding in down to earth where, you know, we're kind of all one family.

Yeah, that's why I was surprised you're a big partier, actually, because you grew up there, and I feel like that's

a lot of distraction there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, like Max Holloway's fighting on the CFC card tomorrow.

Yeah.

Talking about that,

where he's from in Hawaii, is

it's

ghetto.

Really?

It's beautiful, but it's, there's a lot of distraction.

It's really hard for kids to get out of there.

And a lot of people, when they think of Hawaii, they think of vacation, blue water, sunny skies, Hawaii, Waikiki.

Fuck, Waikiki is ghetto, too.

Damn.

Yeah, there's a lot of drugs.

There's a lot of violence.

There's a lot of, like, there's shit goes down.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, I always assumed Hawaii.

The murders lately, like, the shootings in Hawaii, especially on Oahu, it's like, it's been

way too high.

Holy crap.

I don't see any of that in the news.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

I always just assumed it was a paradise for tourism.

Yeah.

People see that, but I think when the tourists get there too they also see the other side of it as well i mean but it's just like everywhere you know you can find trouble if you look well that's true yeah are you still there right now full-time nice yep so that's home that's home that's cool um

so injuries are pretty common for surfers yeah very common and what are the typical injuries um

I would say pretty similar to most action sports.

Like ACL is the big, I mean, that's kind of all sports.

You know, that's the big bad one.

I've done my right side ACL, MCL, and meniscus, all completely restructure.

Damn.

Left side MCL two times.

Broke my pelvis in half.

Jeez.

Collapsed my lungs.

Broke my arm three times.

Holy crap.

Stitches everywhere you can imagine.

Torn labrums, both sides.

bulge C5, C6.

Broken tailbone.

Oh my gosh.

This sounds worse than rugby.

I thought rugby was the worst.

Yeah, I mean, I've, like I said, I started surfing big waves at a really young age.

Yeah.

And I'm 33 now.

So

I'm deep into it.

And,

I mean,

play hard, work hard.

You know,

it comes with it.

But yeah, injuries are fairly common in surfing.

I think the way people treat them is

very different, though.

Surfing is really like behind in just like interest of biohacking and just the technology of speeding up recovery.

You know, it's like I have a hyperbaric chamber at my house and people are like, what are you doing?

I'm just like, you know, nothing.

I'm healing.

Like this is part of it.

I love that.

Yeah.

And there's so much like, you know, we're talking about it.

from just injections, avoiding surgeries and going with things like stem cells and just looking into the other ways of healing.

That's where I'm transitioning.

And I feel like a lot of surfers are starting to follow, which is a really cool path because of just the success rate and all the feedback that all these athletes are coming back faster and stronger.

It's really changing the game.

And I love to see that the surf industry is starting to follow that path.

I love it.

I think surgery should be like a last resort instead of like the immediate fix.

Yeah, my surgeon, Massey Reynolds,

orthopedic surgeon, sports medicine, like guru.

This guy probably, or he does do, I think, around six to eight ACLs a day.

Damn.

He will,

like, beg to go the injection route before surgery if he can, if he has a chance.

And to me, that's like, that's how I met him.

Big time famous doctor that everyone goes to told me, My labrum was torn in half and it was going to be five months till I was surfing unless I did the surgery.

This guy, Mossy Reynolds, up in Silicon Valley, tells me, Let me try these stem cells and PRP ozone exomes.

If I can't get you back in 20 days, I'll do a surgery for free.

I was like, I'll see you tomorrow.

Wow.

27 days later, I won

a big wave world title in like 60 to 80 foot waves.

So you won a month after getting that?

Less than a month.

Holy.

And my right labrum was like completely in half.

And that surgery probably would have taken a year to recover from if you got it right.

Corn labrum, yeah.

Not a year, but it's it's long.

It's uh, it's not an easy one.

Yeah.

I broke that pelvis a few years later, and that labrum stayed intact.

Like, his work was proven.

Wow.

Yeah.

And with these waves, if you're mistiming by a second, is that when the injury happens, like just one little slip up?

It all depends.

You know, honestly, a lot of, I think most commonly in surfing, injuries are coming from like the torque of the body at like doing a turn or landing like compressed and knees buckling something snapping and ankles rolling.

My injuries have came mostly from impact.

I mean, I train a lot.

Like I invest a lot of my time into my body and like being really strong, fit and just mobility, like not just strength, like full well-rounded.

And I haven't knock on wood wherever.

I haven't had too many injuries as far as like torque or compressing.

Mine have come from impact on big waves.

Wow.

I hit a rock in Morocco in 2020.

Jeez, a rock?

Yeah, huge rock, like

big, six, probably like a 10-foot by 10-foot rock underwater.

It was actually almost out.

I fell in the wave, got slammed, hit on the right side of my body, broke my pelvis in half.

That was ACL, MCL, meniscus in half.

Jeez.

Lungs collapsed.

That was really bad.

I had to get medevaced out of there during COVID.

Locking down, shutting down borders.

It was like a private plane.

They medevaced me from Morocco, Bordeaux, Bordeaux, Greenland, Greenland, Canada, Canada, U.S.

When I landed in Canada, they declined me my entry into L.A.

because of COVID.

This was

the ending of February 2020.

Somehow, by the grace of God, we got led into Van Nuys, went straight into surgery in L.A.

and started my recovery through COVID, which was really rough.

That was my biggest injury.

Yeah,

that sounds crazy because you're like flying for what, 18 hours probably.

Yeah, I kept having to stop because I was like, I couldn't breathe.

My lungs were filled with water.

Like I was fucked up.

Yeah.

They're checking every stop.

Ambulance would come on,

check my vitals.

Okay, he's good to go.

That is scary.

What's what's going through your head?

Did you think that might have been like might have been it for you at that moment?

That was the only time

in my life that I ever told somebody, like,

I'm kind of giving up.

Wow.

Yeah.

And it's really rare.

Like, if anyone knows me, there's, fuck, I've had

my upbringing to say

was rough.

I mean, you know, I'm really lucky.

I grew up in Hawaii.

I surfed for a living.

I have a beautiful family.

I'm married.

Beautiful wife.

But that being said,

I had a really rough like parent situation starting at five.

Then at eight years old, my older brother overdosed on heroin.

Wow.

A year after that, my stepsister got shot.

Holy cow.

A few years after that, some of my two of my best friends passed away.

Just five years ago, my mom died to cancer.

I don't really have anyone left in my family.

I got one brother left, and he's like my dad.

He raised me.

So that being said,

that childhood...

just like grooming was um

was pretty rough i would say yeah but it's really kind of molded me into kind of the person I am.

Like, I really believe like that, that upbringing has kind of created me to be who I am and really,

yeah, I don't know.

Hawaii is home for me.

It's

to have that upbringing the way it was and surfing that culture.

The community always supported me and backed me.

And I think that's kind of where I've kind of groomed from.

Damn, that's so traumatic, man.

I'm sorry to hear you went through all that.

Yeah, I mean, it is what it is.

I think adversity is kind of

my reason of sobriety.

It's my reason of success.

Like, I, nothing I had ever came easy, but I think that's when I perform my best, is when things are hard.

Yeah.

It's like literally gives me a reason to fight.

That's massive.

Did did those incidents kind of desensitize you, kind of numb you?

Did you feel like your emotions you were putting to the side going through all that?

Yeah, I kind of reacted differently to all of them.

And more recently, I've I've learned that

I needed to like I think so like just stopping partying was part of a like way of me healing after my mom I handled my mom's passing very poorly like very poorly just drunk high just numb and I think

trying to heal with a bunch of band-aids is just a cover-up you know you're like you got to heal from the inside out and that that's what it was for me of just being surrounded by people like Laird Hamilton and

yeah, just really inspiring people who motivated me more on like the family side of things and the surfing of like be a solid man.

Yeah.

And just don't be a pussy.

Like fucking look yourself in the mirror and be a man.

You know, be a man of your words.

Stand true to who you are, to your kids, to your wife.

And that's what it was to me.

I think I was hiding from a lot of demons and just bullshit.

And I think just having clarity and sobriety, it really like it let me heal and understand my mom,

just a lot of things in life that i needed to let go of and just move forward with yeah and i think a lot of professional athletes they they give so much of their craft that they put aside family and friends sometimes you do and that's like

you know i'm 33 i don't want to be surfing 80 foot waves in my 40s and there's still a couple people that who are doing that and i'm like fuck i'm

when i'm like

When it's my season to compete and put a jersey on, I'm not who I want to be.

Like, that's not, I'm not a good person.

It's not who I want.

Like, that's not the person I want you to meet.

That's not the person I want my kids and my wife to be around.

It's just like, to be a champion is one thing to like to want to be the best in the world and to like literally

nothing else matters but that, but you and your legacy,

it's a really selfish way of living.

Wow.

But that's the only way to do it.

And

yeah, for me, it's just, it's, I'm trying to figure out a balance like with the mental health of things and like trying to position those moments.

If I can control that switch where I can put that in a window of my year, that's the goal for me.

Yeah.

Yeah.

There must be a lot of pressure because there's also a lot you can't control with the surfing, right?

Because how do you know if the wave's going to be perfect?

So it's kind of, is there a lot of luck involved in those competitions?

100%.

There's a ton of luck.

It's just Mother Nature.

Obviously, now there's wave pools popping up all around the world.

I think

now that they're like in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, who knows?

maybe they could make like a 60-foot one to where every wave is repetitively the same.

Then it's giving like an equal playing field.

When you're out there, you know, there's 10, 20, 30, sometimes 50 of us like in

a like smaller area than a football field.

Wow.

And we're all fighting for one wave.

And you don't share waves.

Like you don't, that's a rule.

You don't want two people on one wave.

That's like...

Yeah.

No, no.

So how do you signal to the other 20 people?

The person the farthest to like the breaking part of it has priority.

Oh, got it.

It's kind of like that's scarier.

It's heavier, gnarlier to surf like deeper.

Yeah.

So the deepest guys always kind of has the right away.

Interesting.

Yeah, I feel like they should make it more fair somehow, but it's kind of impossible right now.

Yeah, well, that's just like free surfing.

When you're surfing competitively, you're normally there's just like it's either four-man or two-man.

So man-on-man or four-man, and the playing field's a lot bigger.

Got it.

Yeah.

And they just score you on your top two waves.

And you get to pick the wave, or they tell you when it goes.

Oh, no, you get to pick them.

It's kind of your job of positioning yourself in the lineup.

So when the wave does come, you have priority.

It's kind of like a little bit of a dogfight to get priority.

And that's how you establish, you know, how the heat runs.

They're normally 45-minute heats, and they judge us on our top two highest scoring waves.

Wow.

So it's like a game within a game.

Yeah.

And you can go on to surf four or five times in a day.

Damn.

So fatigue, like the training stuff really comes into play with that.

Yeah, and how does the scoring work when you get on the wave?

Through one through ten, ten being perfect, one being horrible, a ten, you know, you got to complete the wave.

It has to be perfect, crazy, exciting.

Style comes into play, power.

There's a lot of different things that come into play as far as when you judge it.

Have you gotten a 10 before?

Yeah.

Nice.

Yeah.

That's cool, man.

I got to see some videos.

This is really exciting.

It's a whole new world for me.

Yeah, I'll send you a couple videos online of some tents.

Yeah.

Show the people watching.

Watching, bro.

You ever get nervous or scared?

Yeah.

I mean, for sure.

But I think that's what I'm attached to.

Are those feelings of like, what is this discomfort?

Yeah.

Like, I thrive for...

not knowing what's going to happen.

Wow, most people hate that shit.

Yeah, I just think my decision making is so much better unplanned.

Just like bang, bang, bang, anything in life.

I'm like, don't tell me what we're going to do.

Let's just go.

Interesting.

But then I'm a super routine person.

So it's really weird.

But I like being on the fly with like as far as like interview or competing or just like, I don't know.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So you're not an overthinker.

You just like to.

Yeah,

I mean, I maybe I will,

yeah, I don't know.

I'll over-evaluate something for sure.

But as far as just like being in the moment, I just like reacting on the spot, just like boom, boom, boom.

Filled up, you got plans after surfing, of course.

That's good to start now, right?

Because a lot of athletes finish and then they get lost.

Surfing is so bad with that, and that's like where I note on.

Is like, I don't want to be in my 40s trying to surf 80-foot waves.

Like, I want to be enjoying it.

And I see, you know, I'm even starting now with coaching some younger kids and helping give back.

I just want to help give back.

Like, that's what I really want to do.

I've studied a lot of stuff in fitness with pool training, with strength training, just about everything.

I think with

my world, my life was definitely going to move towards the health and wellness and coaching side of things.

Nice.

That's a big market.

I love that.

Which

area is your favorite to surf other than Hawaii?

I love Fiji.

I love Tahiti.

Morocco is where I got really injured, but I love it there too.

I've traveled everywhere with ocean.

Okay.

Yeah.

And which country has the biggest waves?

I mean, I think Hawaii.

Okay.

I mean,

country, U.S.

I mean, you know, there's time people are going to watch this and be like, he's fucking full of shit.

Nazare, Portugal.

Okay, that might be the tallest wave consistently, but it's not a top-the-bottom wave.

Like for you, I could show you a wave there, and I could show you a wave where I, like Jaws, and you'd be like, Jaws is Jaws.

It looks like Jaws.

Got it.

Nazara is a huge standing teepee that stands tall and then just fades away.

So you can't really surf it.

You can, you can tow it.

Got it.

But it's just, there's so much risk for such little reward.

Yeah.

Where Jaws, so much risk, but for the wave of a lifetime.

So if you catch a Jaws wave, how many seconds are you on the board on that wave?

That's a good question.

I might have to look that up or watch one of my clips.

It is a fairly long big wave.

But yeah,

it's really not about the length.

It's about the intensity.

It's just a strong...

Very strong and like top to bottom.

It looks like a shark jaw.

Wow.

That's crazy.

That's why it's called jaws.

So you just focus on balancing and staying on it.

You're not even worried about anything else.

I mean, for me, I'm focusing on riding the ride of my life.

A barrel, I'm sure you've seen, is like a surfer riding in the curl of the wave.

That on a big wave is like, that's how you get a 10.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And it's weird, like, to tell you that one wave could change somebody's life, but it really could.

Like, if you ride a wave nowadays, I guess you say it goes viral.

It goes viral.

You end up on a couple magazines.

It gets on a commercial.

Nick seen, oh, this kid's got half a million followers.

And

yeah, he's blown up.

So

one wave can change

somebody's life.

Yeah.

I mean, that's pretty much what happened to you, right?

You said you won those competitions back to back off one big wave.

Yep, exactly.

It's cool.

Have you seen social media change the surfing space yeah for the for the good or for the worse

there's two sides of every conversation you know um

i fucking hate it

but

it's awesome too for some of these kids man but then again like it just really sucks that we lost like magazines like print yeah nothing like I was fortunate enough to land a couple covers.

There's only two, three magazines in all of surf.

And like back then, it's like, that's huge it's like winning an event right and

yeah that

that's a really bummer without print anymore it's taken away and also

there's just something about like with action sports when somebody lands a trick or rides this wave or you know does this crazy line in the snow not seeing it and like that like

buildup to like a movie part coming out is so rad like when somebody's holding all their footage all these crazy waves or these crazy tricks and they release it that anticipation and buildup was so rad as a kid that now it's like a rush like land it upload it like

oh oh he rode the wave he made it oh wave of the day post it right now

everyone's looking at Fiji it's going viral yeah it's just taking away some of the prestige which is a bummer but then again I guess it's good for the fans it's good for people to see it kind of while it's happening yeah pros and cons because it probably does attract more It attracts more people.

It brings more crowds, which kind of sucks.

Yeah.

Oh, it sucks.

Crowds in surfing, like spectators are fine, but

for like

when we chase, like,

I mean, for instance, we call them strike missions.

Let's say tomorrow, like, my phone could go off, and I could get a text from a forecaster saying, South Australia is going to be 60 feet in four days.

The winds look great.

The tides look great.

Get on a flight.

I'll tell my wife, I got to go home right now, which this could happen.

Yeah.

Like it has happened.

Really?

Oh, yeah.

You'll fly all the way there.

I'll drop everything.

I'll go to my house, boom, pack my bags, and just leave that day.

Like, I've left day of, like, getting calls, fly across the world.

You have four hours to get ready and paddle out and perform.

Wow.

So there's a way of doing it like that.

And you bring a film crew.

And that's all your content.

And there's no competition.

Right.

But there's a handful of these guys who are doing like strike mission content trips for

for me it's like a brand tenori um my sponsor right now like you know reef shoes like some of the my sponsors i do content trips for them where i take a film crew i bring all their product for holiday or whatever it is shoot it i bring it back to them they give me you know this monthly salary got it for a few years and i'm contracted to them and i'm basically a billboard that's cool for them that continues to like flow them fresh content of all their new product wow I didn't know it was like that.

So that's the other side of pro surfing to competitive surfing.

Yeah.

And that's where I'm in right now.

It's like, yeah, I'm a big wave world champion and I do compete, but I'm also in this like free surfing content like strike mission situation, which is great with social media.

And that's smart because the money in competitions is hit or miss.

You have to win to make money, right?

Exactly.

And then I have like...

With social media, you have these companies that reach out and they want to do this.

Okay, perfect.

Yeah,

we'll send you here, shoot this for one day, send it back.

And, you know, here's a stack of cash.

Yeah, a lot less stressful, right?

Oh,

running your own show is the best.

Like, and that's what it's taken a while for me to get here.

But the fact that I can kind of call my own shots and drive my own ship now,

it's really an honor.

Like, I'm very grateful.

And I got a great team of people around me from...

My coaches, my trainers, my family, my friends, everyone.

Yeah, it's awesome.

That's great.

So when you win a competition because i know you won some big ones is the money pretty sizable

yes i've won i mean

definitely not like dana going with 300k

freaking bonuses you've never done that though yeah my biggest win was 100k okay that's pretty good yeah 100k but you do have four kids so i do have four kids 100k can only last so long exactly um you know what it's it's more the longevity like the long-term contracts that we bank our money in with surfing.

I just signed on three years with Tenori, new brand that's launching.

And those are the things.

It's like annual or monthly pay.

Yeah.

And you're just kind of like a walking billboard supporting them, doing stuff.

And that's where the money comes.

Got it.

That makes sense.

Yeah.

Dude, it's been fun learning about the surfing world.

Anything else you want to promote or close off with?

No.

Fucking enjoy life.

Yeah, at some point you got to get healthy.

But enjoy life.

I recommend it to everyone.

Enjoy it.

And thanks for having me out here.

And yeah, if you guys ever come out to Hawaii, come check me out.

Awesome.

Thanks for coming on, man.

No worries.

Have a good one.

Of course.

Thanks for watching, guys.

See you tomorrow.