Dutton John - No bad waves: talking story with Mickey Muñoz

Yvon Chouinard. Mickey Muoz

In 1957, six young men made surfing history by being the first to ride the giant waves at Waimea on the North Shore of Oahu. One of them, Pat Curren, went on to father the World Champion, Tom Curren. Another of them was Greg Da Bull Noll. People who were there cant remember whether Harry Church or Greg Noll caught the first wave, but without doubt, a young kid from California by the name of Mickey Muoz caught the second wave.

Mickey does not look like hes a big-wave rider. Hes my size only 5 feet 4 inches tall and about 130 pounds. Since then, Mickey has become one of the greatest all-around water sportsmen in history. He is an excellent skin diver, fisherman, multihulled boat sailor. He also skis and snowboards. Mickey surfs every day there is swell and makes his living shaping some of the best surfboards in the world.

Like me, Mickey believes in never putting more than 75 percent into any endeavor. He would rather become proficient at a multitude of sports than become an expert at one.

For a while in my climbing career, I specialized at climbing only cracks; then I climbed only big walls; then I specialized in ice climbing and, eventually, Himalayan peaks. When I felt satisfied with my abilities, I would move on to another aspect of the sport or maybe even into another sport altogether. Mickey takes the same approach, but he has been involved in surfing since before the shortboard revolution, pioneered multihull design and sailing, and dabbled in everything from stunt doubling to underwater demolition work to designing soapbox racers to wrestling bears.

I took a surfing trip to Indonesia with Mickey where we surfed some of the most exciting and dangerous waves either of us had experienced. On the last day of the trip, at Desert Point on the island of Lombok, I took off on the first wave of what turned out to be the largest set of the day. It was one of my best waves of the trip. I slid in and out of the tube twice before I finally punched out just before the curl crashed onto the reef. Bad mistake!

I tried to paddle outside before the next, and larger, wave caught me. No luck! That 3-meter wave broke on my head and snapped my board into three pieces. The next wave was even bigger, and Mickey was on it! He was completely locked into the tube, racing for his life. He passed between the reef and me, and went for another 75 meters before kicking out.

Here are Mickeys words about that ride: The sound of the water sucking off the reef, roaring as it sweeps down hundreds of yards of coral shelf, draws you into the eye. Time becomes timeless, as if faster than light. You emerge younger, mindless, uncluttered like a child laughing with stoke! Hooting! Hooting! Hooting! A-w-w-w-o-o-o-o!

Today, Mickey is just as stoked as ever to surf, shape, boat, dive, or just hang out on the water. What follows is a selection of his stories.

Get Out There and Ride Those Waves

Cub Scout Den 2 on parade. Thats me second row back on the right, with Ricky Grigg right in front of me. The shorts were wearing are all the same length, on me though they came down below my knees. Santa Monica. Mickey Muoz Collection

There was an advertisement that had a small guy in a beach chair sitting in the sand next to his date. Up comes a big muscular guy who kicks the chair over and kicks sand all over the little guy and takes the girl. Well, that was me; I was the weak little kid.

My mom was very conservative by nature, and in reality I was fairly conservative myself in my early years when we first came to the West Coast. Then I met Ricky Grigg, and he changed everything.

We moved from the East to the West Coast in 1943 into a house a couple blocks from the beach. My mom was athletic, and she enrolled me in swimming lessons at an early age and got me into competitive swimming. Thats where I met Ricky and we became friends; we were both in the third grade and were in competitive swimming together.

Ricky lived on the beach just south of the Santa Monica Pier at Gorilla Park, it was called that because thats where all the weight lifters hung out Muscle Beach. He bodysurfed, belly-boarded, and rode air mats at Santa Monica and Will Rogers state beaches.

Ricky started board surfing a little bit before I did, and he got me into surfing and then into progressively bigger and bigger waves. Ricky would intimidate me and scold me into the surf: You asshole, get out there; get out there and ride those waves.

I eventually bought a Surf King Junior, which was a kook box, a lifeguard hollow paddleboard. The same company made the Surf King Senior and the Surf King Junior. The Senior was 12 long; the Junior was 106. It weighed just about what I did at the time about 65 pounds and I could just barely drag it to the water.

After surfing, I was too tired to drag it out of the water, so I would have to end-for-end it to get it back up the beach. The lifeguards at State Beach let me keep the board in their station when I couldnt get it home. This was in 1947 and 1948. The board was an awkward surfing vehicle. Like Ricky, I bodysurfed and rode surf mats and belly boards. When I got that 106 paddleboard, I started to ride 1-foot waves inside the Santa Monica breakwater.

In the winter of 1950, I conned my mom into loaning me money to buy a new surfboard. I bought a brand-new Joe Quigg board that Joe had made for his wife, Aggie. It was 810 long, 24 wide, with a 16 tail block, and a very light for the time balsa board. That was my first real surfboard.

I have loved Joes approach to design ever since. He is a dedicated waterman who has spent a long life thinking about design a long life filled with intelligence and artfulness. And all along, Ricky was pushing me and pushing my conservative nature, encouraging me to ride bigger and bigger waves.

Mom took this shot of me at Malibu in 1950, when I was 13, riding my first real surfboard, an 810 Joe Quigg shape. Virginia Muoz

The Uplifters Ranch and Early Santa Monica