took this out of a book written about Jose Angel. Gerry Lopez explains paddling out to big second reef Pipeline when it was huge. he’d be out in the lineup and would see Jose paddling out from his house at Log Cabins. for those of you who surfs the north shore, you will know it is impossible to even make it past the shore break at log cabins, especially without a leash. Gerry goes on explaining how Jose would bodysurf over the falls on 20′ waves just laughing at them.
back in 1975, i will never forget the time we went to check out sunset beach after school. the waves were huge and closing out the channel. a tourist got sweep off the beach and got taken in the current way outside to the lineup. Jose said “wait here!” he jumped in his truck, went home to grab his surfboard, came back, paddled out, and saved the tourist. the helicopter came after and picked up the tourist, then asked Jose if he needed to get picked up too. Jose said “no thank you” and caught a wave in. i was only a young kid but already had a hero as my Step-father. i will never forget that day.
check out this video that was taken in the late 60’s early 70’s of Jose. back then, there were no sponsors and there were no contests. every body was surfing for the glory. no leashes and no high performance boards. it was pretty much man vs. ocean. watch Jose take off and do a backflip off a couple of waves at Waimea Bay. he was nuts!
[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/44638686[/vimeo]
