My undisputed teenager idol was the great Tom Carrol. I was (still am…) a goofy footer and liked those bigger days. I even changed my skateboard stance to improve my goofy skills and try to emulate his power rail to rail surfing. I still remember those issues from the Hawaiian winter report where he would always be featured somewhere, either dropping some bomb in Sunset, always on focus at the Pipeline Masters or like Brad Gerlach (if my memory does not betray me) once described: “doing a full cut-back under the lip at Backdoor, no one does that!”. This I appreciated the most; he is not exactly a big guy and would tackle Waimea, Sunset and Pipe as any veteran Hawaiian would, this was my dream, to surf Hawaii like Tom Carrol. Tom Curren never surfed Hawaii like Carrol, and that was why I admired Carrol the most.
I guess I never really appreciated the competitive surfing as much as I did the free surfing especially in the place of birth of the sport of kings. I knew who Eddie Aikay was, and Renno Abelira, and Bobby Jones, and Mark Foo and Sunny Garcia, Jonny Boy Gomez and Brock Little and so many others. They charged Hawaii and kept my big wave riding mystic alive, but Tom Carrol was my idol.
Then Kelly Slater came along and that’s when things got complicated. He just was the best surfer now (then an now..), but like any “fanatic” it was not easy to admit it, I didn’t admit it, period. I did not like Kelly because now my idol was no longer on the spotlight. I have to say that I lost some interest in competitive surfing.
Last year I moved to a new house. While I was packing boxes I found an old pullout poster from Surfing magazine maybe from 1987, I can’t tell for sure but it is definitely from the 20th Century, the wetsuit was an O’Neill… This was a two page poster that featured a teenager Kelly on a backside bottom turn and said: “Kelly Slater has it made: travelling all over the world, surfing the best waves on the best days, breaking competitive records – his pro career plotted before him. But he pays the price, and that’s going out and ripping like a champion, regardless of his moods or fancy. And there’s no turning back – he’s in the limelight to stay.”
I remembered this poster but this was not the side I had showing on my teenager walls. I turned it around to see what I wanted to see and there was him! Tom Carrol somewhere in France on a backhand arm stall about to be behind the curtain, it said “Anticipation: sweet, divine anticipation. There is none more sublime in surfing than the anticipation for the tube.”
I was amazed to discover an almost relic item with both of my idols today. Both quotes are still valid today. The one regarding Carrol about an experience that only surfers know what it means, the other about Slater reminding us why he, more than 20 years after that poster, became the best surfer ever.
Two sides of a changing passion
Text and image: Marcos Bairros
Surfing Pullout Poster Date Unknown, mid to late 80's.
