"Yep, my original board, it started out to be a Yater, then I got a Webber Performer, shaped by Harold Iggy himself- the master! Could barely fit it under my arm, you know one of those type of boards you dragged everywhere you went."
Darrick Doerner is a legendary surfer in Hawaii at a relatively young age. We spoke to Darrick recently on the beach at his favorite surf spot, Sunset Beach. Darrick shared his thoughts on the evolution of surfing, his surfing heroes, "Tow-in Surfing" and Tow-Board designs, the K-2 Challenge, the movie, In God's Hands, and advice for upcoming surfers. Read on to get to know a little about the man himself.
Where are you from, Darrick?
Originally, California.
When did you first start surfing?
When I was five years old.
Where was that at?
France.
Oh, you first surfed in France?
Started in France, then went to California, and when I was about 13 years old I moved to the Big Island, went to Jr. High School, High School, barely graduated, moved to the North Shore in 1974, its 1998, been out here a long time, seen a lot of changes. Definitely we enjoyed our youth out here very much.
Did you originally ride longboards, and then when the sixties came along with shortboards, convert?
Yep, my original board, it started out to be a Yater, then I got a Webber Performer, shaped by Harold Iggy himself- the master! Could barely fit it under my arm, you know one of those type of boards you dragged everywhere you went. The fin was duct taped on, so that, you know, everytime I hit rocks and stuff, it would pretty much bend and stay on. Dings, you never fixed dings, but then it was hard to ding a board back then because they were built so strong. Products were really, really heavy duty. The resin out there was just very inexpensively hi-tech. So, boards didn't break like they do now back then. But then you only needed one. Now you've got a fleet of twenty and you only use about three or four of them, then you give the rest away. It's definitely not as soulful as it used to be.
How have you seen surfing evolve- say from the sixties, seventies, even the eighties, up to the present?
Well, surfing when I started was purely recreational. It was not for career orientation, it was just for fun. You know mom, dad, and friends go to the beach, camp out, with hotdogs, marshmellows, go surfing come in, dry off in the sand. It was a lot of fun. And there were a lot of beaches you could surf. The oceans were clean. It was happy times to me.
Along come the sixties, and you might say surf movies started getting evolved into the public. Gidget came along and everybody saw Gidget, and the next day, everybody wanted to surf. And from then on its been a very "upclimbing sport" you might say. Everybody wants to do it, for the right reasons and the wrong reasons.
The sixties were great. There was a lot of style in surfers, beautiful style- drop knee cutbacks, grab rails, it was really a beautiful art to watch. Then the sixties and seventies came along, and it was really cool because you had guys like Lopez, Owl Chapman, Sammy Hawk, James Jones, and the Downings, and Buffalo, and you had family that were really cultured into surfing. And it was a beautiful sport to watch and surf. It was gorgeous to watch those guys surf, what can I say, I'm not too good with words!
Through the a seventies we got a lot more aggressive here on the North Shore and along came "The Bronzed Aussies". They were from Australia, and of course being from Australia, you had to be competitive, in everything you do you have to compete. Of course in Hawaii it was a lot more soulful, yeah, it was . . . cruising. Along came "The Bronzed Aussies" for the right reasons they brought competition, and competition brought money, and money brought hostility, and in hostility there is aggression, and so forth, and all that stuff that ties together with that wrong reason. If it wouldn't have been for them, pro surfing might not have evolved to what it has now. I think they pay the children men's salaries. You might say, a guy's been surfing 35 years and the neighbour down the street who has been surfing 4 years is making 100 grand and getting everything for free. You wanna definitely set yourself up in life, but don't forget that surfing is a soulful thing and it represents your lifestyle, in the water, on the beach, with your friends. I personally don't like competitive surfing because it brings out the wrong feelings in people - people get aggresive, and they get upset, and then they get in fights . . . Its like "Whoah, dude! Try another sport if it brings you to that!"
We've seen a lot of changes out on the North Shore. We've had surfers from Brazil, surfers from Japan, surfers from all over the world come to this little coastline right here! There's a lot of dangerous situations out in the water- there's a lot of disrespect, and you must respect your elders, because they're the ones you learn from.
When you were a grom, who did you look up to as a surfer role model?
I always looked up to Duke Kahanamoku because he had the right lifestyle. He traveled all around the world and surfed, and taught surfing. Even though he was before my time, he was Hawaiian and he represented a soul surfer. And also Eddie Aikau who was probably one of the most gifted watermen in the world. The you came along into the Dick Brewer era, the Peter Cole's, Dewey Weber's, the Owl Chapman's, Reno Abbeleira was probably the number one surfer in my book, along with Sammy Hawk. In that seventies generation- those were my idols, even though I wasn't that far behind them. Of course there's Gerry Lopez, but who doesn't say Gerry Lopez!
What are your thoughts on drugs and surfers getting caught up in that, ruining their lives?
Well, drugs are definitely a dead end road. It leads you down one way, and ends. For some you can bounce back, and for others they never do. I definitely advise anyone to bypass that whole scene and focus on the ocean, because the ocean keeps you on a direct line. It makes you want to enjoy your youth. It keeps you out in the sun and the wind. Its definitely a good trip. A lot of my friends in the seventies aren't here. Most of them are dead. And others have moved away because they have no time and interest in surfing. You can see the guys who love surfing - they're doing it everyday! And you can see the guys that are here but they're not into it because they are into other things (drugs), so its really an obvious… trip.
Where do you see surfing today with big money, the contests, the North Shore crowds, and Brazilians everywhere? What do you think about this situation on the North Shore?
Well, we all know that the world definitely has a people problem, and the North Shore definitely has a crowd problem. But then, its everybody's world so everybody can come here. Yeah, immigration doesn't do their job. The city and county doesn't get paid enough for the lifegaurds to get the facilities they need . . . Once again, you've got very little support.
As the North Shore turns money had been brought into the sport . . . you've got guys practicing for a contest at Pipeline every other week. You can't even go down there to surf anymore without getting dropped in on by a boogie-boarder, or three surfers, or four boogie-board girls. There's no real respect in the lineup. When I was brought up it was, "Go braddah, your wave!" "Nah, nah, you go, brah!" "Oh, shoots!" Paddle back out and talk about it! Now, if you blink, you get eaten alive! You don't even have a chance out there. You go out there and you get upset. There's no respect in the lineup. People are very unhappy. They are not smiling.
But there's this new generation coming along. And they don't give a crap about money. All they want to do is go out there and have fun. There's a lot of local kids now that are coming along, and they are devastating anything that moves in the lineup. You've got Ron Barron's kids, you've got Jamie O'Brien- Mick O'Brien's son, you've got little T.J., Kalani Robb. You got kids over here that are really representing Hawaii well, even though some of them are stuck on the tour.
But the North Shore has taken a turn for the better for the surfing world for our children- the future. And its taken a turn for the worse for the population and how many people can barely fit out here, and people doing it for the wrong reasons- and no respect in the lineup. If we could change all that, this place would be a beautiful place- but it is still the best place in the world.
In response to the crowded conditions, where do you see tow-surfing going?
For one, I just want to apologize for creating what has become "The Daytona 500" out on our outer reefs! If this is what it is gonna turn to, I don't want to have nothing to do with it! Its definitely out of hand. I think we should just outlaw it all and start back the way we were. But then again, we went out there to get away from all the crowds and the aggression, and all of that, and it just followed us out there. And I'm not happy with it.
I mean, I love it but I haven't tow-surfed all year! Everytime I walk out in front of my house I cry. Its just horrible, there was fifteen jet-skis out on the outer reefs, one day there was thirty of 'em out there going everywhere. I was just blown away! It hurts.
Any thoughts on the K-2 Challenge? (see World Big Wave Championships)
Well, surfing big waves is definitely the final chapter in surfing. Some make it and some don't. They'd have to pay me a lot more money than that to risk my life. That's peanuts! You don't catch very many big waves in your life, maybe three or four huge ones! And that's it. To throw money into something like that really made it a messy situation as we say down at Waimea the day they were gonna have "The Quicksilver in memory of Eddie Aikau" - which didn't happen again. Once again, you throw money into it . . . its a bad scene.
Todos is a big wave, Mavericks is gnarly wave, extremely cold, the conditions are very elite- its for an elite group of people. I prefer to stay here, down at Waimea or Sunset, or two foot V-land, its all the same - for fun. But if you throw money into it, you get guys doing it for the wrong reasons. Its like dangling a golden carrot in front of people.
What about the surf sponsors, are they giving back to the community?
Oh, obviously not. Oh yeah, they're here, and then they're gone. They don't do anything for this community. I mean, there's more crime out here. There's more drugs. There's more foreign people out here. There's more vandalism. I mean, "What's the community doing for itself?" and "What are these sponsors doing for this community?" I tend to shy away from politics and all that. I couldn't give you a real good example of if sponsors are doing right or wrong. But, I just generally don't want to have anything to do with them.
What kind of board are you riding now? Who shapes your boards? Are you researching and developing new equiptment?
Yeah, I do a lot of R & D- a lot of research and destroy, a lot of research and develop. I've been working a lot with shapers like Allen Byrne, and exclusively with Dick Brewer, who is by far the best shaper in the world. I've worked with shapers like Pat Rawson, Bill Stonebreaker, and Bill Barnfield. Basically, right now I'm working with Brewer and Allen Byrne exclusively. We developed the tow-board. Without us these guys would still be yankin' around without straps. We developed the templates, the thinness, the thicknesses, fin placement, footstrap placement. We're windsurfers, snowboarders, and surfers. We combined all those three sports to get tow-surfing, to get our tow-boards. It just didn't happen overnight. A lot of wipeouts were definitely on the scale. We played, we payed, but I think we're coming up with a really strong tow-board right now. And other shapers like Bushman and Dennis Pang are starting to ask questions and we're starting to give them answers. Its just something that you don't develop overnight. You have to get out there and ride it and feel it, and not like it and like it, and keep developing it. And that's where it gets better and better. Believe you me we've got some nice toys here!
What is your favorite wave to ride?
Sunset Beach is my number one wave in the world. No matter were you go in the world, you always come back to Sunset. Its the biggest, baddest barrel. The peak is the most powerful thing in the world. The crowd is the most aggressive in the world, but they're just a group of guys that you know and I know that have been out there for twenty or thirty years. And its got to be the number one wave for me in the world.
In God's Hands has just been released. What are your reflections on that and your asperations for the film?
We had alot of fun with the movie. Zalman King gave us the script and said, "Do whatever you want with it, but follow these guidelines." We made our own scenes. It was a lot of fun. The whole group of guys that I worked with was great. We lost a couple of guys along the way because of other reasons- other personal reasons.
The movie itself was once called Forces of Nature but that just didn't ring the bell, so we changed the name from that to "In God's Hands". It's a C graded movie, no actors at all- just a bunch of surfers, but that's what made it unique, you know. We weren't actors, we were surfers, and we did really well. The producer was really stoked with us. The director was stoked with us. We had a ball!
So you're a natural actor, if you get the Academy Award are you going to "go Hollywood"?
I sure would like to be able to buy a house. That would be my goal- to buy a house and put it in my son's name. It something that I really would like to do. I know that I won't be able to so it surfing, so maybe if I can do one job, into another, into another- maybe it could be a possibility.
What does Soul Surfing mean to you?
Soul Surfing is what its all about! Your style expresses your lifestyle . . . in the lineup and out of the lineup. Its about being free. Its about paddling out with myself and my friends and leaving all the political bullshit - all the bad stuff - on the beach, going out in the water, and feeling the motion of the waves. Everything about it is soulful. I mean, there's no money in the world that could pay for the feeling that you are going through. And I think Soul Surfing is a beautiful name for this show.
Any advice for upcoming groms?
I would say, for any kids that are coming into the surfing world; Respect your elders. Always ask questions when you are in doubt, because it could be some really good advice. There are a lot of people out on the North Shore that will give you a lot of good common sense advice that could cut years off of learning. Be careful for other surfers! Watch out for their boards! Don't drop in! And smile as much as possible. Aloha!
