i posted this photo on my blog a while ago when i wasn’t supposed to. why? because the magazine this photo was published didn’t even come out yet. haha. so i deleted the blog and am now reposting it. this photo was taken by my sister at a secret spot only a few know about. her son Joshua pulling into one of the heaviest waves on the south shore of hawaii. yes, south shore. it was back in the early 1980’s when i first paddled out to this spot. it wasn’t no secret to us back then because we lived right up the street. i was 14 years old when my friend Eric Young took me out there. i will never forget that day seeing him pulling into the heaviest barrels out there. yeah, Eric Young was the most talented underground surfer that use to ride his twin fin better than most of the pros. he told me back then to keep it a secret which i did. then a few year after that, a local photographer took out pros like sunny garcia, hans hedemann, and tony moniz out there and published photos in surfer magazine. this was way before my sister started dating tony. years after, some of the locals thought it was me that told everybody about this spot. yes, sunny garcia is my friend now, and tony moniz is my brother in law, but i didn’t even know them back then. but since i had had ties to them years after that spot was published in the magazine, they really thought i was the one that let out the secret. one of my best friends back then even thought it was me. he called me outside of a bar one night and wanted to fight me. i don’t fight friends so i walked away. we never talked since then.
so this spot cost me a friend. that’s why every time i surf there or see photos published in magazines, it reminds me of a great friend i lost because of all the confusion. but to see my nephews surfing out there now makes me happy. i just have one thing to say. “it wasn’t me that told them about that spot, it was their dad tony moniz.” haha.
