Wingnut: Interview of a Surf Legend!!

We recently caught up with a true Surf Legend, Wingnut, and tried to finally get the skinny on the nickname! (unsuccessful, sorry we tried)  But, we did get to hear how a 65year old woman taught him a few things about surfing, why the surf industry needs to focus less on competitions, and the one surf spot that he said “was the best trip of his life”.  This is good stuff folks, read on.

DAILYSTOKE.com :  So the nickname, how did…

WINGNUT:  You are not going to get fuck all on that one….

(laughter)

DAILYSTOKE.com:   We had to at least try to officially unlock the mystery!!….OK, in your instructional book, Wignut’s Complete Surfing, you say the best way to start out surfing is on a boogie board, why?

WINGNUT:  Too many people want to skip that basic step, standing up is easy, we stand up all day long, but catching a wave takes a lifetime to figure out.  Bodysurfing and boogie boarding help you figure out how fast you need to paddle, the whole dynamics of catching a wave are explained to you on a boogie board.  Don’t not boogie board because it isn't cool.

DAILYSTOKE.com:  You got a late start surfing, and started by bodysurfing right?

WINGNUT:  Yes, I was taught by a 65 year old woman, Ms. Haberman, she taught me to bodysurf, learn how to catch a wave, to catch an angle.  She taught me and my brother.  She would see us and say hi, go for a swim, and bodysurf in, this little old lady would come buzzing by, and we’d say how the fuck is she doing that?

DAILYSTOKE.com:  Let’s talk about competing on the pro tour, what did you dislike about it?

WINGNUT:  Competing kind of brings out the worst in you as a surfer.  Back when it was the top 3 waves and you had 15 minutes, there was pressure to keep guys off waves, take waves, and it brought out the worst characteristics in surfers.  The benefit of being a longboarder in the ‘80s and ‘90s was that a professional career was not possible, we were doing it for fun, so we didn’t care as much about the competition, and we only had a few club events.  Even when the pro longboarding tour really got started, were we going to battle to the death for $1,000?

DAILYSTOKE.com:  Let’s talk about surfing as a sport, and the industry.  If you could wave a magic wand and change things, what would you do…or like to see happen?

WINGNUT:  To get surf companies to support the surf lifestyle, and not the competitions.  Promote the concept of a surf festival and lifestyle rather than the competition.  At the end of a competition, one guy is happy and everybody else a loser.  That sucks.  Look at Duke’s Oceanfest 2010 in Waikiki (http://www.dukefoundation.org/) , they do canoe races, family races, that is a festival that’s fun, that gets people involved.

DAILYSTOKE.com:  Endless Summer 2, everybody asks about it so we will too, but what did it really allow you to do?

WINGNUT:   I was handed a huge opportunity since there wasn’t a competitive tour worth a damn, so I became the traveling longboarder.  I was traveling with Donavon, he was the traveling shortboarder.

DAILYSTOKE.com:  What did you have to do?

WINGNUT:  If you’re a traveling surfer, you need to prove you can get the picture, can get a story and can get the story placed.  That ultimately has more value because it's an editorial trip, with a real surfer, using real equipment, there is no extraneous equipment, it’s what they pack themselves and that is true advertising.  In the Art of Longboarding, the second video I did, the Traveler, the whole segment is about how to pack boards and pack my stuff, wrapping my rails with pipe insulation, people still tell me they do that, they learned how to do it there.

DAILYSTOKE.com:  Curious, what’s your view on shortboarding vs. longboarding these days?

WINGNUT:  Shortboarding pushes the boundaries each year, but the reality is its purely aspirational for everybody other than the 3% of the public that can actually do it. Back in the days of Clark Foam, 50% of the blanks they made were over 7’6”.  At the end of a year a shortboard dissolves if ridden on daily basis, but 90% of longboards survive, there is exponential growth in the longboard (population) each year because they aren’t in landfills.  Kids consume shortboards like you wouldn’t believe.  Overall, this is the best era ever to be alive, guys are making custom hand planes, fish, single fin retro eggs, this era is fun, that’s what makes it bitchin!

DAILYSTOKE.com:  You were just at Sacred Craft, what caught your eye there?

WINGNUT:   The 4-way stretch boardshorts are neat, but they are still polyester, and unless you are only surfing in them they aren’t comfortable.  I am old school, I like cotton, shorter inseams.  Long trunks, you can’t swim in them.  I don’t wear a leash, I swim after my board.  I actually cut the length of my shorts.  I get the shorts free from sponsors, but pay $10 to have custom hems.  So it ends up being a $10 short!

DAILYSTOKE.com:  What’s the toughest move on a longboard and why?

WINGNUT:  Hanging 10.  The control position is back on the tail, that is where the rudder is in the water, you have to transfer your weight, water rushes over the tail, you counterbalance the weight on the nose, and over changing bottom contours the tail wants to slide.  There is a lot of knee and ankle work.

What’s cool is when you’re hanging 10, there is nothing in front of you, you’re hanging in the pocket of the wave, you don’t see anything in front of you, driving the whole thing with side to side motion, its bitchen!

DAILYSTOKE.com:  We have a section on our site dedicated to “Celibrikooks”, celebrity surf kooks, so on the celebrity topic, of all the celebs you have taught, who is the king of all celebrities?  Who should we name the celebrity non-kook?

WINGNUT:  Ha…I just went on a great surf trip with Mike D (Beastie Boys), and his growth as a surfer and his skill level has been impressive.

DAILYSTOKE.com:  Where were you guys?

WINGNUT:  We were in Maldives, it was the best surf trip I’ve been on in my life and I’ve been to a few places.  It’s so good because it’s a muted dead atoll, the reef is not razor sharp, and it gets big barrels.  Then in the southern atolls no one is there.

DAILYSTOKE.com:  Let’s talk about some products, you are working with the goofboard guys?

WINGNUT:  Yes, it’s definitely simulates surfing, if you stand on a goofboard (www.goofboard.com) and get on the nose, you can feel the side to side control I talked about earlier (when hanging 10).  It is the best surf simulator out there.

DAILYSTOKE.com:  What pisses you off?

WINGNUT:  I hate when people are unhappy in the water, when they kick out of a wave, and say sh!t or f!ck.  It’s unrealistic expectations, a lot of them want to draw attention, kick out and be the big bad guy that paddles back out.

DAILYSTOKE.com:  So what’s your advice to the world?

WINGNUT:  You get what you give, have a smile on your face, give it, and you will get it back.  And as corny as it sounds, have as much fun as you can, we’re not catching cancer, we’re just catching waves.