During El Niño when the wave‘s sprays were hitting the top of the Chart House and trowing rocks over Coast Highway, there were only two who managed to paddle to the outside. Son Oly and Josh. I wasn’t there but Tom English took some video’s of them from up the hill. As a father, I had this sick feeling in my gut looking at the conditions and wave size. Then the (ex) surfer in me made it all seem right. These two were stoked beyond explanation. Both Josh and Oly have families now and have slowed Down a bit but they still get it on and share the stoke! Wish I could still join him but... Thanks for the kudos for my son, Josh was a good influence and someone Oly truly respected and enjoyed trips to Mexico with!
I remember that day, it was a rare mean day. I was ten yards behind, got crushed and washed in. Oly caught two waves and came in, too big for Cardiff.
manbearpig said:
Four pages on a hate thread and barely any gossip of substance?
Errb is slackin.
Like I said above, were good frenemies. Here's some incidents over the years.
*At fourteen, having Papa Joe taking off way too deep and yelling, so's Joel could shoulder hop and get the wave.
*Poor tactics in a contest at San Miguel, he received the interference and was out. Mom sure gave me an earful, until one of my buddies said something like, "Soup pays his own rent and doesn't live at home, you think he's just going to give it away?".
*At a PSAA Bud Tour event at Seaside, he actually did burn me, got the interference, and still advanced.
*After waiting for a loooong time at Todos Santos, sitting super deep (it was high tide). Finally getting a set, only to be stuffed by Joel from the shoulder. To make matters worse, one of the guys on my boat got a large facial cut on the previous wave, we had to leave before words could be exchanged.
*As revenge, years later, intentionally stuffing Joel so hard it was redonkulous on a pretty large slabber. There was talk about me turning into a pretzel, didn't happen. Best part was it took Joel off his game, he couldn't buy a wave after that.
*The Hawaiian's teaming up to deny Joel the world title at Malibu. I forget who the associates were, but Russ K. won in the fix.
We laugh now about all that crap.
Say what you want, he has lots of friends in way higher places than just about any of us. Surfs all the time and all over, he's got a good gig.