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Momentum Generation (2018)
DAENERYS TARGARYEN:
Shall we begin? ("THIS IS WHAT I LIVE FOR" BY GRAFFITI GHOSTS PLAYING) We are on a journey. To the future. So what happens now? Something extraordinary. So what's the damage? Have you got bones With what I said? Elena! The public hates what we did, 'cause it's un-American. KATHRYN MCSORLEY-JODELL: Checking in. Party of nine. Eight adults, one child. Four nights at the Groupon rate. I'm the one who asked about both the birthday cake and the fire extinguisher. I don't want to see That white flag waving SURFER: We were pushing each other beyond having fun. This is to the bitter end -Dracarys. -(DRAGONS ROARS) 'Cause this is What I live for I'll never quit, no no -Life is about taking a risk. - This is what I live for Second time's the charm! -Uh, it's actually the fourth. -Fourth. Yeah. No, this is what I live for It's time to kiss the ring, oh I'm trying to get gold 'Cause this is What I live for This is what I live for All of America is talking about nothing else. This is what I live for I'm freaking out. Hi. ANNOUNCER: Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams! -Welcome, welcome, welcome! -(AUDIENCE CHEERING) This is what I live for I want more! This is what I live for I never quit, no no This is what I live for ( music playing ) ( waves crashing ) ( chatter ) Shane Dorian: It's didn't seem like we were making an impact at the time. We were just a bunch of kids livin' the dream and traveling around the world. Rob Machado: It was our bond as a family that enabled us to become as successful as we did. Kelly Slater: We were all feeding off each other, pushing each other beyond just going out and having fun. Dorian: The competitive thing was a real cutthroat business. Pat O'Connell: You're competing at every level. Ross Williams: The surf industry pit us against each other. Slater: All's fair in love and war, and we're at war. O'Connell: You have to be a bit of an asshole to win. - Machado: He was being a dick. - Slater: Fuck him! If I can just do this thing better than everybody, then I win... (echoing ) Machado: Friendships... relationships, happiness-- is winning worth giving up those things? ( seagulls calling ) Slater: I was born in Cocoa Beach, Florida, in 1972. My dad owned a bait and tackle shop, so we just grew up fishin' and surfin'. ( chatter ) I liked to build forts and go camp on the islands, clamming and shrimping. ( chatter, laughter ) I was pretty tough as a kid. I remember we were riding our bikes one time down the street, and for some reason I turned really sharp and I just ate it and hit the ground super-hard. And the people stopped their car and they were like, "Are you OK?" and my brother goes, "He's the toughest kid on the block," or something like that, you know. And I was, "Yeah. I'm fine." Ya know? I'll kick your butt, man. When I was eight years old, a lot changed for me. I'll kill you, man. That was when my mom was trying to kick my dad out. My mom just couldn't handle the drinking and stuff. - ( siren wails ) - They would have these crazy, screaming fights in the house. I feel like I changed as a person. I went from fighting and being aggressive as my way to get out my feelings, to real overly sensitive to everything. I was really insecure, ya know? Taylor Knox: I grew up in Oxnard Shores. It was a rough Hispanic town. ( police radio chatter ) My dad was a talented musician. I think he made it to a point where he was a big fish in a small pond. But then he got sucked into the drug scene. He and my stepmom, they would have knock-out, drag-out fights, wake up with black eyes, and I was just like, "God, Dad," ya know, "What are you doin'?" I didn't want to be like my dad-- a talented guy that just couldn't get out of his hometown. And I didn't want to be as strict as my mom. I needed to get out from under my parents' thumb. Shane Dorian: I was born and raised in Hawaii. I'm from Kona. Growing up, my parents ran a restaurant. My dad was a pretty gnarly alcoholic. He was drunk every day. One day he got in a car wreck and lost his arm. My parents split up when I was like 12 years old. My dad wasn't in the picture anymore. Times got really hard. I felt a little bit lost. But following in my dad's footsteps was never an option for me. Benji Weatherly: I was born in Los Angeles, California. My father was a pro football player. He was very macho. Big, intimidating guy with a beard. It was really tough love with my father. He'd always grab us and throw us around. All his emotions came with physical stuff. He beat up my brother really bad. It was-- whoo-- it was a big deal in our life. It's still hard. Kalani Robb: I was born in Kailua, that's just the east side of Oahu. My mother would probably get arrested for child abuse for the shit that she did. I'd get dropped off at like 5:00 a.m. at Waikiki with $2 in my pocket, if I was lucky, and then I'd get picked up at 6:00 or 7:00 at night. What are you gonna eat with $2 during the day? Probably not a fuckin' whole lot. There was this pizza place, and there would be a display of a pizza. "Hey, come eat here!" We would steal that pizza. I was a ghetto-ass kid, man, as ghetto as it gets. I had nothing else to do. Get in a fight and steal some food, and surf. My way out was surfing. Ya know, "Things are chaotic? Go out in the ocean." Which is funny, 'cause the ocean is chaotic. But I felt calm out there. Dorian: All these problems were happening in my life, and the only time I felt really good was when I was surfing. That's when I had a real sense of purpose. "This is who I am." I was that surfer kid. I wasn't that bummed-out kid at home. O'Connell: I grew up in Chicago in a very regimented schedule, so that independence and freedom to be able to shed your parents and it'd just be you in the ocean-- that's what I just completely fell in love with. Machado: For me, surfing was total freedom. - Hello, dear. - Hello. - Getting ready to go surfing? - Yeah. Good, good, good. Machado: I just remember standing up for the first time. All of these elements, just like rushing by you. You're away from everything, all of a sudden, you're above it, and you were gliding and it was just-- I don't know. I was sold. Ross Williams: Growing up on the North Shore, one of my first memories of surfing was late in the day, so the sun was shining down the wave, and I remember standing up and having that perfect image of the sun glistening on the barrel. I remember feeling entranced. Your first barrel, you're gonna remember it forever. Slater: Surfing was my savior. All my challenges at home and parents splitting up, I channeled all that to my surfing. I could go do something on my own that no one else could tell me how to do, and I completely understood it. Every day was something new, learning something new on a wave. And it made me hungry. Surfing comes first, and that's my life and they gotta respect that. Announcer: Vertical one more time, this kid is just rippin'. Unbelievable coordination on a surfboard. That is as good as it gets. It doesn't get any better; that's perfect surfing. Kelly Slater! ( crowd cheering ) Announcer: Kelly Slater, one of the bright superstars of the future, there's no question about it. Machado: The first time I met Kelly was at the US Championships, Kelly was 13 and I was 12. Square tail, no wing-- looks killer. Kelly was already kind of a superhero, like Michael Jordan, at that point, everyone was just like, "Whoa. Kelly." And my dad's like, "Hey, let's go take a photo with him," I'm like, "No, no, no." He's like, "Hey, Kelly!" And I'm like, "Ohhh!" That awkward moment when your parent embarrasses you. Slater: After that, Rob and I became good friends, and we would see each other at contests. Announcer: And the winner: Kelly Slater! But back then, surfing was not a career path. It was just something you enjoyed doing. Shane Dorian: When I was a kid, my local break was a lot of hard characters drinking beers and smoking weed on the beach. Announcer: Shane Dorian! Dorian: I started competing in the little local contests. There would be like three kids in my division. And talking to those guys, they were like, "Oh, yeah, we're all gonna be pro surfers." And I was like, "What are you talking about?" They're like, "Yeah, that's what we're doing." I didn't know that was an option, you know? Taylor Knox: I remember hanging out with a friend, looking at Surfer magazine. I said, "I'm gonna do that. That's gonna be my job." And he was like, "Yeah, right." And I just, "No. I'm gonna be a pro surfer someday." And the blueprint for me was Tom Curren. Machado: I started surfing in 1985, and Tom Curren won the world title that year. He was the first American to win the world title since the inception of professional surfing. It had been dominated by Australians. If you ask anyone in our generation, Tom Curren was our inspiration. He showed us what was possible. Announcer: Rob Machado winning the heat and advancing... Machado: As a kid... - Man: Did you get barreled? - I got barreled. ...I did pretty well in a few contests. And by the time I was 18, I was offered my first sponsorship deal. Announcer: Another youngster rapidly rising through the ranks is California's Taylor Knox. Four thousand dollars richer... You don't know how this helps. After finishing fourth at the World Amateur Titles, I got the contract I was looking for. I think I ended up with $1200 a month, and that was a big deal. Announcer: Look at that! Slater's first big win. After a tremendous amateur career, Slater has dedicated himself in the world of professional surfing. ...signed the biggest sponsorship deal ever. It was a big jump for me, because I get nervous in front of the big crowd... I was getting 75 grand a year at 18 years old. Coming from not having anything when I was a kid to getting paid anything to go surfing? And to be able to buy my own lunch was a bonus. Announcer: Well, Rob, your first win must give you momentum. Yeah, definitely. Gives me a lot more confidence. Moving up in the ratings. I was kinda scared about the whole concept of being a pro surfer. I was just a little kid. goin' surfing every day. I was just out there for the pure enjoyment of it, like, there was no stress. And now you put a piece of paper in front of someone with money attached to it, and expectations and obligations, and everything changes. I saw it as a huge amount of pressure, for sure. But I also thought, "This is my duty to go and earn these dollars." It was based on that world title. They wanted you to win that world title. Dorian: I wanted to win so badly, because I never went to college and had zero backup plan. I was either gonna make it on the world tour, or I'd fail, and that was it. Machado: The end goal was always to go on the world tour and be a world champ. That was the pinnacle of the sport, win a world championship. But at the same time, you gotta go to Hawaii, you gotta do good in Hawaii. Back then it was like, "Hawaii?" Scared the shit out of me. ( music playing ) Proving that you were going to be able to surf in Hawaii-- that was a really big part of the deal. Knox: You want to make a name for yourself, you go Pipeline. You can make a career off of just surfing one wave. It's so powerful and so beautiful. Palm trees swaying, the white sand beach. It's an amazing arena. But when it's in a bad mood, it pulverizes you. ( crowd cheering ) Knox: It picks you up and just slams you down, and that reef is so hard. It feels like you're hitting a sharp sidewalk. Kalani Robb: Pipeline is definitely the most dangerous spot on earth. I've seen a lot of guys die there. That's what makes it such a proving ground. Dorian: It's prestigious just to do good in the trials. But the real reward is to be able to go and surf against the world's best at Pipeline. If you're on the North Shore and Pipeline was good and you weren't out there, and you were some hot kid, everybody knew about it. Everybody saw you as someone who was avoiding Pipeline. Slater: Coming from Florida, being a small wave guy, there was a lot of eyes on whether I could surf in Hawaii. You can be the king of your beach, wherever that is, but if you can't surf well in Hawaii, it doesn't mean anything. I grew up surfing the Great Lakes on a giant surfboard. The first couple times I went to Hawaii, I hated it. It's "big fish, small pond" to "small fish, big pond." And at 5'6", 130 pounds, I ain't getting anything. The waves are bigger, stronger, they move faster-- it's so dangerous. It looks like everyone should go to the hospital. Like, "No way I'm gonna paddle out at Pipeline. Like... no chance." And then you had some super-heavy locals. When you're a 135-pound skinny haole, the intimidation factor is super-high. Slater: I was pretty terrified of Derek Ho and Dane Kealoha, Johnny Boy Gomes, Sunny Garcia. These were the guys who could put you in your place real fast. Robb: Like Brazil is to soccer, Hawaii is to surfing. So it's territorial. You can't just come into Hawaii. That's the hardest place on earth to fucking infiltrate. Hawaii is like, "Respect? Door is wide open. No respect? Door is closed and your ass is kicked." Woman: My God, someone stop it! Sunny Garcia : Some of these tourists that show up, they just seem to leave their brains at home. If I see someone acting like a privileged prick, if I feel like somebody needs a good beating, I'm down to give it. Either you can go home while you still can walk, or we're gonna beat the shit out of you and send you home anyway. ( man singing in Hawaiian dialect ) Ross Williams: The land and the culture was stolen from Hawaiians not that long ago. Queen Lili'uokalani was held up in her palace at gunpoint and forced to hand it over. I am literally from the North Shore, this is where I was raised. Being a white person in Hawaii, you're the minority, and you can feel it, it's tangible. It's like a reversal from almost anywhere else. Taylor Knox: We were all over there by ourselves. I don't remember anyone's parents being over there. People were getting beat up-- it was kinda like the Wild West. "You're on your own, kid." Shane Dorian: I was from the Big Island where the waves are small, and here I am on the North Shore of Oahu. Scary locals and the waves are gnarly, and I'm terrified. Knox: And then in the winter of '88, Benji and his mom rented a house right there at Pipeline. And that was like the epicenter of the North Shore. So everyone was gravitating towards Benji's house. Benji Weatherly: When my mom and dad split up, she went to Hawaii on vacation and came back and said, "Hey, boys, get in the car, we're movin' to Hawaii." And it happened to be the North Shore of Oahu. Barbara Weatherly: When we first got ahold of the Pipeline house, we didn't even know that Pipeline and Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach were down this way. I mean, this is how naive we were. Benji: I was 12, livin' at Pipeline. Ross and Shane Dorian started hanging out there, I'm like, "This is rad, they're hanging out at my house." And then it became where all the boys started hanging there. No way, guys, this is so rad! Taylor Knox: When Benji had his house there at Pipeline, he was like, "You need a place to stay? You can stay at my house." And I went from staying in some rat-infested crack den to Benji's house. Hang out there, watch Pipeline, jump on the trampoline, bodies just everywhere, sleepin'. It was like a slumber party. Machado: We all knew each other from surfing different amateur events. But it wasn't until we all stayed at Benji's house that we became a posse. Man: What do you think about Rob? He's got a real attitude problem. Ross Williams: It wasn't just this little core group from Hawaii anymore. All of a sudden our group went from this big to this big to this big. It just snowballed. ( music playing ) Barbara: There were 80 surfboards left at the house every day, all the surfers were showing up and there were 15 people at at time sleeping on the floor. Benji's mom was so welcoming to everyone. She never asked for a dime, everyone eating all her food, leaving all their dirty shit everywhere, making the house a wreck, loud, staying up late-- it was just like free-for-all fun zone all day long. The sand was this thick in my living room. And after a while my mom just let go of the whole control thing and just said, "I love it. I love it." Barbara: I'd always felt the more the merrier because I had nobody growing up. My dad had died and our house was empty. So to me, we were just a family, and these were my boys. Benji: There were kids that were leaving their parents on the east coast of America and spending their holiday season with my family. I mean, what were their parents thinking? Like, "Our kids aren't home for Christmas!" Every year for, like, a decade. Right about Christmastime everybody goes home to see their parents, and there's more waves for me. Slater: A lot of us come from broken homes, but over at Benji's house you felt like you were with your family. Shane Dorian: Most of us went through some gnarly hard times when we were young, so to go somewhere where there was a really positive, loving, accepting home, we felt like it was safe there. One day I met Rob surfing where we surf, our little spot. And he brought me into Benji's house. Without that group, I would have guaran-fuckin-teed been in jail. That single-handedly changed my whole life. - ( cheering ) - Whoo! Pat O'Connell: When Benji had his house at Pipeline, it would be ten of us on the deck watching the waves, boards in the racks. We knew we needed to get out there and surf. We just needed someone to push us. Rob Machado: We'd all stand out on the deck, everyone's questioning the waves, yourself, and here comes Todd. Benji: Todd Chesser would walk through the yard, and he wouldn't even ask if he could come over. He was just such a gnarly dude. - Yeah! Did you do anything yet? - Man: Yeah. But not with me. The day's not any good. It's gettin' good. Dorian: Todd Chesser and Brock Little were already completely established pro surfers at the time. We looked up to those guys so much. We wanted to be just like them. Williams: Brock was the first guy that pioneered surfing Himalayas and Waimea. He was so fearless. Behind him, slowly but surely, Todd Chesser started surfing big waves as well. Brock was already starting to take off in his career. And when he would travel around the world, Todd hung out with us. Pat O'Connell: Todd Chesser was a couple years older. He was the one that pushed all of us. He was brutal. Knox: You'd come in after, thinking, "Oh, man, I just got such a good wave. I wonder if Todd saw it." Todd didn't talk about any of the waves I got, it was like, "Why'd you paddle in?" You know? Like, "OK. Well, um, 'cause it's easier?" "No. Don't wuss out. Get through it." Machado: I remember watching Chesser letting waves land on him. He was laughing, almost to say, like, "What's the big deal, grom?" And you'd just be like... looking for an out. "Oh, my ankle's kinda sore." "Shut up. Grab your board. Let's go." Todd was like a sensei to us. He was always one step ahead of what we were doing. Knox: He could see that you could do it, but you couldn't see yourself that you could do it. And he would say little things that would get under your skin, like, " You probably won't make it anyway." And you'd be like, "Fuck that. I'll make it." Now, looking back on it, he knew what he was doing. He knew how far to push your limits, dangerously close to life-or-death. Slater: Todd Chesser would surf any size big wave, and he had a huge influence on all of us. Eventually we were all feeding off each other, pushing each other, in a friendly way trying to outdo each other. We always used to say, "Oh, you won't go." Just that challenge, like turn around on a big wave or a late drop and just go. If you heard "You won't go" in our crew, you're goin'. And if you don't go... Aaah! That's like a month of getting heckled. And being heckled-- ugh-- is the worst. I'd rather split my head open. Just kicked his ass. You're not nervous. Don't chew your fingernail, man. He's a little mad right now, It isn't like, "Hey, man, you'll get the next one," it was verbal beatings. And you felt this big. And all you would do is think about, "OK, when's my next chance? Because I can't let that happen again." Machado: I remember eating shit on a 10-foot wave at Pipe and Chesser actually acknowledging it. Like going, "Dude, that was sick. So stoked you went on that wave." "Yeah, but I cartwheeled down the face and ate crap." "Yeah. That was killer." It changed the way we perceived safety. I mean, at 15, we were surfing 25-foot waves. It was unbelievably dangerous. Male Vocalist: Flyin' up to heaven and I fell from the clouds It was pretty freakin' sweet until I blacked out ( song continues, lyrics indistinct ) Kalani Robb: I remember one day as we were paddling out, this enormous set comes in. Man: Yee-haw! Man 2: Oh, my God! ( hysterical laughter ) And I couldn't even take a breath in. I was like hyperventilating like I'm gonna fucking die. And I remember looking over at Benji, and Benji laughing. "Haaa!" Like a fun ride at an amusement park. Benji: Todd Chesser, he taught me that if a wave breaks in front of you and you laugh, it calms your heart rate so you can breathe more. Ross Williams: You can't afford to surf big waves if you're scared. That just means your adrenaline's running, your heart's pumping-- odds are you're not gonna be able to hold your breath as long. It's just simple science. A number of guys got hurt really bad. Benji had a really bad, scary one, he caught a second reef wave one day and just got hammered on the inside reef. Benji: I got held down for two waves. I was down, scrambling for my life, and I felt the give-up-- the give-up is where you just kinda go "Not gonna make it," like, "Uhh! Uhh!" Dorian: I remember when I hit the water, the lip hit me and knocked all the wind out of me. And I immediately was going... ( grunting ) I was underwater forever, and then the wave finally started letting me up and I started swimming up, and I felt like this was it, like I need to get to the surface. And the next wave broke like this, over me, and that was the last thing I remember. I opened my eyes, and time had passed, I was crying hysterically. I was just sitting in the foam on my board and I was coughing up all this gross shit... And I look, and Dorian is running, he's like, "Aah!" And he comes and grabs me, "Oh, my God, we made it!" We hug, we're laughing, and my ears are messed up, my body hurts, and I'm like, "I almost died!" And Dorian's like, "I'm goin' back out." And I'm like... ding! Like, "Arghh!" O'Connell: It's a fine line between having the best wave of your life and actually getting hurt. Jack Johnson blew his face up one time on a Kelly "You won't go." Slater: I went to Jack's house, and he looked like the Elephant Man. His teeth were missing. The only think I could do was almost laugh because it was uncomfortable-- I don't even know what to say. That wave you hurt yourself on-- why you told everyone that I said you won't go on that? Why did you do that? Trying to make me feel bad? I didn't tell anybody that, Kelly. His life was altered, like, he almost died. Williams: Almost dying in big waves, as morbid as it sounds, is one of the things that's exciting about big wave surfing. It's that kind of junkie vibe you get from it that keeps you coming back. - ( groaning ) - ( laughing ) Machado: We've all had stitches, we've all bounced off the bottom. You go out when it's 10 feet, and you're like, "Oh, wow. I took a couple on the head, I hit the bottom, and I'm OK." So then you go out when it's 12 feet. Next thing you know it's 20 feet. I couldn't get out of the barrel. The whole way I'm just going, "Whoa!" And I'd think I'd be coming out, and it'd keep peeling, like, "What?! What?! What?!" I remember being out on this huge day at Pipeline and watching Shane Dorian catch a 20-foot left. I'm like, "Oh, my God. Dude, that's my friend! He's on a 20-foot-- Well, if he got one, then I can get one." Spectators: Whoa! Whoa! Benji: Before long, our crew was ruling Pipeline. I mean, we were catching all the sets, and it all came from putting our time in and taking our place. ( all cheering ) Man: Whoo-hoo! One day Surfer magazine calls me, "Hey, we're gonna do a photo of your house." And I was like, "Cool. Why?" And the photo is legendary now. When I look at it, I'm like, "Oh, I get it. I know what everyone was saying-- 'Benji's house!'" That day our crew was set in stone. Ross Williams: We were a brotherhood. We had our own language for a long time. We'd all just speak in weird tongues and just had so many code words that were like four layers deep. Peter King: Get up, boolay! The contest is on, bro. Get up and get some cereal. This is your sock on drugs. This is my sock on PK. Kelly Slater: Kalani was like a younger brother who doesn't know where he fits in sometimes. And so he would be like a little shit to us. One time we were jumping on the trampoline, and for absolutely no reason whatsoever, on an up-bounce he just pushed me into the bushes. I got up and I wanted to kill him, but he's so small, I'm like, "Why did you do that?" He's like, "I don't know. I just felt like doing it." ( laughs ) We sponsored Kalani when he was ten years old. He was really wiggly and really fast, really squirmy-- wiggly, wiggly, wiggly! I'm like, "This guy's so wiggly!" He was this big-- he was like an action figure. And he was doing things that no 12-year-old's ever done. He's got the genes of Superman. He could eat cinnamon rolls and get ripped. We all had different diets, completely. Shane eats protein and raw deer and stuff that he kills-- Arr! Arr! Arr! Like that. Machado, quesadillas. All day! That's it! Ranch quesadillas. Kelly eats raw almonds and air. Ross is on a paleo-anorexic-heroin diet. I eat carbs-- unhh!-- out of beer bottles. Slater: Benji's the class clown. ( chatter, laughter ) Williams: Benji doesn't have one competitive bone in his body, so he's like the extreme-- there's Kelly, and there's Benji over here. ( laughing ) I thought we were boxing! I'm outta here. I gotta surf tomorrow. Williams: Kelly is hell, because we all think he sold his soul to the devil. He's always been freakishly flexible. He's got scoliosis in his spine. Man: That is so wrong. Benji: Triple-jointed, the weird nugget calves with the twig legs. He's got a body that no human's supposed to have. Like, he's creepy body. Kelly's lucky he's Syrian. He's meant to be in the sun. Slater: Shane is just Shane-o. Machado: Shane-o! Slater: He was super into his hair. I think that's a bad thing for a guy who's bald now. I'm glad I was never that into my hair. Williams: Whenever a camera would come out, Shane would kind of pucker his lips. We used to all give him shit, like, "What are you doing with your mouth, dude?" Shane did the frickin' "Zoolander" Blue Steel before that movie came out. ( laughter ) Taylor Knox: Ross. Really sarcastic, dirty sense of humor-- I like it. O'Connell: Ross is super-gross, says horribly inappropriate things, but looks like the nicest guy you've ever met. Slater: Pat is like a little garden gnome. He is the happiest guy in the world. When Pat has a bad day, he's like, Man, I'm so bummed right now." That's Pat being mad right there. Dorian: Pat's balls, he had a fascination with his balls when we were young. You'd look over at him at lunch or lineup or when we're waiting for a flight, and he'd just have his balls out. He was proud of his balls. He was like a little guy with big balls. ( both laughing ) ( laughing ) Yeah, I don't know. I just would-- they'd always just drop out. Is anyone there? Where the hell am I?! Benji: Taylor Knox is the biggest jock of our crew. The quarterback guy in high school that pulled underwear up the guy's butt? - He was that guy. - Machado: Taylor Knox, his nickname was Bonehead. We're not supposed to say that, though. Anyone else call him Bonehead? Am I the only one? Benji Weatherly: Rob Machado, we just call him The Fro. Fromo. Peter King: It grows fast, dude. You got a pretty fertile head. - You said "head." - You said "fertile." Benji: Let's be honest, the white Jimi Hendrix. They would see him walking down the street in Japan, and it was like Elvis sighting-- you'd just see the afro. You would see that thing going through, it'd be, "Aaah! Rob Machado!" And then there was Taylor Steele. Every morning on my way to school, I'd have to walk right by this old van, it looked like a rapist's van, 100%. One day, it's almost Christmas, and my mom goes, "Why don't you invite those two boys in that van out there for dinner?" And I go, "What?! No way!" She's like, "Come on, they don't have their family here." So I go out there, I'm "Hey, guys," ya know? ( imitates creaking hinge ) The whole door comes open, I'm like, "Whoa," they lived in there, it was kind of gnarly. And I'm like, "You guys want to have Christmas dinner here?" They're like, "Yeah!" Yeah, that story's not true at all. Benji only let me stay at his house because I was doing his chores for him. Benji: Are you having fun doing dishes? Steele: We were shooting Pipeline every day, because that was the spot to shoot. Seeing yourself on video was a huge novelty at that time. There was no one on the beach with cameras. That was way before videos were videos. We weren't in videos, only big-time corporate companies did videos. Benji: After each session, Taylor would only let us watch it one time through, and we couldn't stop to rewind or pause. 'Cause it would destroy the tape. Slater: There's be like 25 of us, all screaming, "Look how smashed Shane-o got!" Or, "He had the best one, he won the session today." So that could be like five hours. Dorian: One day, I remember Taylor telling us "I'm gonna make this movie, and you guys are all gonna have parts." So then we started working on our parts. None of us really knew what was about to happen. The guys were surfing faster and more energetic, and I wanted that kind of feel to it. ( punk rock music playing ) Steele: Punk rock and surfing were never merged before. And I didn't know it until I put in the first edit, and once I saw it in an edit, I went, "That is the perfect mix." ( music playing ) But my parents, they just didn't get it. The footage didn't look that great, it was kind of grainy. Pat Steele: I'm old school. All the surf movies I'd seen had scenery and locations. O'Connell: At the time, surf movies were built on going to an exotic destination that only a handful of people could afford. But Taylor's movies were built in everyday conditions. Benji: All of a sudden, the kids could relate. They're like, "Oh, my God! I just got to watch the best surfers surf waves that I surf every day." ( music playing ) Betty: We didn't relate to it, but we said, "What we'll do is we'll pay for the first thousand, but you have to go sell 'em." Man: This is Taylor. That's an attack dog for ya. - What have you been doin'? - Makin' movies. - You doin' this for school? - Just for the hell of it. This guy, he's from Bubblegum. Come in on Monday. I'll take care of ya. When Taylor came back and said he sold all of 'em, we were in shock. We started liking it. My husband would work out to the music. Man: Wow, look at all those people coming! Holy shit! ( laughs ) It was such a success that Taylor immediately was like, "We're gonna do another one of these things." We're gonna film for a year-- try and make the best part you can." Kelly Slater: Taylor's movies were like the glue between us. They were the thing that bonded us, kept us together, traveling together, staying together, filming together. ( laughter, chatter ) You're taking your seat belt off again. Sorry. I didn't even know they were filming me this day. I was just out there. The sun was too bright, so I'm like, "Aah!" Then somebody snapped a picture of me. I just want to sleep. ( laughter ) We started touring the movies with the bands that had songs in the films. If there's more than five people in this bar, I'm not doing it. Tom DeLonge: It was all about having a heart that is beating really fast and it's gonna explode out of your chest if you don't make something of yourself, because you're driven to change how it was when you were younger. ( music playing ) DeLonge: We were all disenfranchised youth trying to find our own way. ( band playing ) Scott Russo: There would be no Unwritten Law without the Momentum and Focus videos. When we recognized we had fans across the planet, we just kind of celebrated every night... since then. Taylor's movie was the biggest thing that ever happened to our band. Jim Lindberg: It changed our lives completely. It meant that we could put out records and go on tour for the rest of our lives, and that's what we did. Especially those who weren't with us too long Life is the most precious thing you can lose Canton, Colvin, Nichols, this one's for you! Oh, oh, oh, oh Oh, oh oh oh ( song ends ) ( crowd cheering ) We wanna thank Taylor Steele for making this all fuckin' possible. Give it up for Taylor Steele! Bob Hurley: Taylor Steele's movies made the Momentum crew all pretty big and pretty popular. But there wasn't a lot of belief amongst the old guard that these guys were actually gonna make it competitively. Rob Machado: Back then, there was two things that were important to us. Getting a good section in Taylor's movies, and making it on the world tour. The world tour used to be the top 44 surfers in the world competing through a series of 10 to 12 events, all over the world, and only one guy is crowned World Champion at the end of the year. The Australians were dominant, like the Hawaiians in Hawaii. That's their zone. ( crowd cheering ) Mark Occhilupo: Well over 50% of guys on tour were from Australia. Australia and America had a great rivalry going. When we drew those guys in the heats, it made us try that much harder. Whatever happens, I'm gonna get a chance to beat him, and I'm just really looking forward to that opportunity. Dorian: The Australian guys were so dominant at the time, so many world champions, they were this old guard on the tour that we all looked up to. I'd see these guys I'd seen in the magazines. I was so star-struck. Then we'd get in heats with them, and they were so willing to do anything it took to beat us. And I mean anything. Martin Potter: Paddle through the pack, growl at everyone, give them stink-eye, make sure that every good wave that comes through, you're on it. You don't give a shit about anyone else. It's a selfish sport-- "Get out of my bloody way. It's my day." Dorian: It was like our generation versus their generation, and those guy saw us as a total threat. There was so much on the line. Potter: This is my career, my lifestyle that's setting myself up for the rest of my life, so I'm not gonna let some little twerp take it away from me. Dorian: I had a heat with Martin Potter, ended up winning right at the end. He ran up the beach and bashed his board into a big fence there, ripped out all the electrical cords, throwing a fit. I was so stoked that that was the reaction to him losing. My first year on tour, I took down Martin Potter. I remember hearing him yelling on the beach. And I was just sitting out in the water-- giggling. Kelly Slater: My first win on tour was against Gary Elkerton, and it was in France, where he lived. It turned into this big protest, his wife came and rushed the stand, he starts throwing his board and screaming at the judges. I thought it was great. I loved it. I loved every second of it. Potter: The first time I ever competed against Slater, before the contest, Kelly's standing right there and he sort of puts his hand out to say "Good luck," and I slapped his hand away and said, "Get the frick out of my face, mate." But the whole surfing world knew he was the messiah. - ( crowd cheering ) - It was like, it's not if he's gonna win a world title, it's how many he's gonna win. Knox: Kelly was always by far the best surfer in our group. No one disputed that. We were all rooting for him to win the world title. Machado: In '91, Kelly finished 44th. And then that next year, he won the world title. ( crowd cheering ) We were just trippin'. It was a victory for all of us. Slater: We were working as a unit. Our levels were all rising, and in the successive years after, I won, '93, '94, '95. Basically all my friends started winning events. Announcer: Kelly Slater! I just needed one wave, and thank God I got it. Announcer: You seem to have found a new confidence from winning. Feels unreal. Announcer: Taylor Knox, taking home the gold... Slater: I think it's really important for American surfing, because our level of surfing has improved drastically compared with the Australians over the last few years. Announcer: Rob Machado celebrating... Announcer 2: And the money goes to Rob Machado as the crowd roars its approval! ( announcers continue, indistinct ) Machado: I'd just like to thank all the fans for coming out and supporting-- it's just a great feeling. Do you have any messages to your mom or father or...? Yeah. I lo-- I lo-- I love 'em. Well, thank you very much. ( choked up ) Thanks. Machado: It was surreal. It wasn't a dream anymore. All of a sudden, being a pro surfer was a reality. Taylor Knox: We were just taking over the tour. Different lines being drawn... different boards being rode... more aerials, more tail slides, faster. The judges had to adapt. Everyone had to adapt. It was a different way of surfing from what was being done before, where everything was sort of on the wave. OK, we've got that, but now we're gonna start going above the lip. Al Merrick: Kelly and I were really working on the narrower, thinner boards, so they could more easily be thrown into the air. I remember one time Kelly came down the line, surfing this wave, and flew over my head doing a helicopter, and landed. ( laughs ) And I went, "Oh, my gosh, things are really changing." Hey, bud, let's party. Fletcher Dragge: Back in the '70s and '80s, if you surfed, you were a fuckin' loser, you were a hippie, a stoner. You didn't get respect if you were a surfer. Pat O'Connell: At that time, there was a major drug culture within surfing as a whole, but in our group, nobody was doing drugs, it was a clean lifestyle. I've been asked to talk about how bad drugs are. O'Connell: To us, it was a real sport. And that was the thing that you could also package up and say, "These guys are actually athletes, they're taking it to this next level." Hey! ( rock music playing ) Right before Taylor's movies came out, there was a pretty big recession in surfing, and then the Momentum Generation put a whole bunch of new energy into the sport. And surfing had a boom period. Surfing used to be a subculture, then it became a counterculture, and then it became an action sport. - Jumped it... - Beat it... - Surfed it... Hurley: You bring on the X Games, throw a little punk rock in there, all of a sudden it's on ESPN, ABC... MTV, youth movement, the industry changed, magazines changed, fashion changed, sponsors were popping up everywhere. The Momentum guys just leapfrogged all the expectations, all the boundaries. The surf world just went 180 degrees-- broop! All of a sudden, these guys were it. Ross Williams: Those magical years when you saw all of our names growing together, Kelly paved the way, because he was crossing over into mainstream media. As embarrassed as Kelly is by doing "Baywatch," he went into how many millions of homes? That turned a light on for surfing, because you had some average family in Kentucky turn on "Baywatch" and like, "Who's this Kelly Slater guy?" "Oh, he surfs." "What's surfing?" Benji Weatherly: Fuckin' "Baywatch." I mean, everybody made fun of him. It was unbelievable. It was the corniest thing ever. I was really insecure about it. I was like, "Fuck, why did I do this thing?" The whole things was so outrageous and ridiculous. We'd be surfing a place where we wouldn't have leashes, right in front of a cliff, 'cause that's what you do. And we would lose our boards and it would just perfectly go into this cave, which is what happens, and there would be an octopus in there, which is, of course, believable. ( screaming ) I looked at the guy who wrote that, I'm like, "You did not-- Did you write this?" Kalani Robb: The bottom line is, my boy was on the hottest TV show around, hooked up with the hottest woman on earth. Man: Kelly Slater has become the envy of guys the world over for snagging the ultimate beach beauty, Pamela Anderson. Man 2: ...Pamela Anderson, supporting her latest beau, contestant Kelly Slater. But is it serious? A bit too early to say. Woman: They're both extraordinarily attractive people. Slater's agent says Anderson and Slater are just very close friends. ( music playing ) Evan Slater: They would hand out Photo Slut of the Year award to the guy that just tried too hard. ( music continues ) 'Cause Chesser would make fun of you if you got too many photos in a magazine. No photos, please. Evan Slater: Todd was like the moral compass defining what was cool and not cool. Listen here, Spielberg, turn off the camera. Chesser was the guy that kept everybody honest, kept everybody real and humble. If anybody got on their high horse, he would just level them. I want to ask you about your morals and if you feel cheap about using women for sex. - No. - No? - Not at all. - No remorse? Taylor Knox: You ever puffed your chest out, Todd would be the first one to pop your bubble. He was really a soulful guy. He didn't seek out the limelight. "Don't just surf when there's cameras on the beach, like, who are you?" Man: Say hello to your family. I'm putting music over all this stuff. Janet Rollins: To all the guys, Todd came across as so macho, but really, when it was just me and him, he was such a softie. ( laughter, chatter ) One night, Todd kept saying, "You should go to this one bar." So me and all my friends were there, and all of a sudden, the singer goes, "We have a special guest here tonight. Mr. Todd Chesser, come up." He has this white '70s ruffled tuxedo on. And he got down on one knee and said, "Will you marry me, honey baby?" ( laughs ) And the singer said, "Now you've gotta answer." And I said, "Yes!" Ooh! - Todd: How glad are we? - So glad. Everything was coming into place. He found the girl of his dreams, he had a good sponsor, everything was going just terrifically. ( chatter ) Did I tell you how lucky you are? Shane Dorian: For Todd, it was the time to finally grow up. We were all so excited for him to get married, the whole deal. Good morning! Where's the freakin' elephants? Dorian: He was just a good example to remind us to stay true to ourselves and remember what's important. He was the closest thing to a soul surfer out of all us, because he didn't care about the accolades. It's not about titles, it's about being happy. I mean, nothing was cooler about our crew than when Kelly won his first world title, we put that jerk in a frickin' trash can with a helmet and a blanket, we pushed him down a hill. ( onlooker laughs ) He just ate crap the whole way down. Any other sport, the Michael Jordon of that sport is not rolling down a mountain after his first world title. Shane Dorian: It was crazy. It was a crazy time. I felt like all of my childhood dreams came together in this weird reality where I was with my friends, traveling around the world, doing what I wanted to do for a living. Taylor Knox: The best feeling I had was, I just belonged. For the longest time in my life, I felt like the carrot dangling in front of the horse, where it was right in front of me for so long and I was like, "Oh, I finally got the carrot." ( music playing ) ( crowd cheering ) ( laughter ) ( chatter, laughter ) Yes! Man: Yeah! ( chatter ) Well, you got one now. Aaah! ( tires squealing ) ( shrieking ) Ohhh! Ohhh! Oh ho! The boys are in town! ( laughter ) That was great. Man: Let's get outta here. In the mid-'90s, it was our show. It was no longer the new kids up against the guys that were still hanging around from the '80s. We weren't looking up anymore. We were looking at each other. Ross Williams: The only reason Shane's good is because he hangs out with me. It's the only reason. What?! 'Cause I like beating Ross. He hasn't beaten me in a long time, and I'm really proud of that. Pat O'Connell: Ross and Shane had this crazy rivalry at the time. They're the same age, they have the same sponsor-- they were competing at every level. - Get that right. Wanna go? - I might do that. O'Connell: I can still remember Shane had a heat with Ross at Reunion Island. They were screaming at each other, "Fuck-you's," and we were just like, "I'm gonna get the hell out of here." You know "There's two sides to every story"? There's not. This story, there's only one side that's the truth. We were staying together at Reunion Island, and then we were in the same heat, Shane versus Ross, the next day, and one board that was super, super good. I was so amped on the board, I remember telling Ross how good my board worked. The next morning I wake up, Ross is gone, perfect fist-size hole in my board. And we're staying together in the same room with no one else around. Like woke up in the middle of the night and punched his board? I don't know, I must have blocked that out. I don't remember doing that. That's crazy. What a snapper. I grew up in Waialua, can't help it, I'm part moke. I don't remember doing that, though. Is he sure? I remember just going, "Wow, I can't believe he would do that! So next level!" But I beat him. ( laughs ) It felt so good. Riding the board with a hole in it and everything. Well, of course Shane would tell you that story, because that's the one where he smoked me. But at the end of the day, our rivalry wasn't as bad as Rob and Kelly. Even if you get behind, you're just gonna quit? Yeah. Yeah, I like quitting. It makes it easier, ya know? I could tell that about you. You give up real easily. Williams: Especially that one year, '95, where everything came to a head, there was conflict. So that's when you see this magnifying glass on that raw motivation for Kelly, almost like demons. It gets put on a forefront against Rob. Feels really good to be right here... Rob Machado: Kelly won the world title in '92. And '94. The rest of our crew, some of us had won events, but no one had even come close to winning a world title. And then '95, I was having a really good year. I got a win in Japan, Kelly won Indonesia. I won an event in France... It was just this back-and-forth seesaw battle throughout the year. And then we came straight back to the U.S. Open. And me and Kelly made the final, and everybody was kind of pullin' for me. ( crowd cheering ) Shane Dorian: Kelly was just better than everybody, almost all the time. When he would win, we wouldn't all run down and cheer him at the beach, 'cause he was winning every week. It was just like, "Jeez, man." What question do I get asked the most? Uh... "Where's Kelly Slater?" Dorian: He became, like, overly famous. He was dating Pam, he was on "Baywatch," everybody in the world knew who he was. People started wishing the other guy would win. And Rob was the only one that really stood a chance. Interviewer: You travel with Kelly, you play music with him, how's it gonna be going against him? Machado: You gotta do what you gotta do to win. When we're in the water, he's just another guy with a jersey on. Man: Massive crowd here at Huntington... Man 2: Two of the greatest small-wave surfers... ( announcers continue, overlapping ) He's back in, gets a little rebound off the... Oh, big move! Rob Machado takes off, he's got unbelievable speed, ripping it... Rob Machado having a great final here, his final wave, big snap right there... - ( crowd cheering ) - Great win for Rob Machado... That was a pretty significant win for me. Everybody just went nuts. Announcer: Rob being mobbed as he comes to the sand with this huge throng-- here they come. ( crowd cheering ) Taylor Steele: Kelly was really super alpha, super intense. He did some small things that year that upset Rob, where he took one of Rob's boards in France. Maurice made me a couple of boards, and they felt terrible, both of 'em. I went over to his house like, "These boards feel like shit, I don't wanna ride 'em. You got anything else?" And he goes, "I made three for Rob. They're downstairs." He goes, "You can't ride three boards at once, you might as well grab one of those and try it." Rob Machado: New surfboards are pretty sacred. I would have a really hard time taking someone's brand-new surfboard that was made for them. I don't care if there's ten of 'em. Slater: It turned really weird, I put my traction pad on, put my stickers on, and Rob came over and he's like, "Man, fuckin' take that shit off my board. Give me that board back." And he was kinda just being a dick. I was being a dick. I thought he was being a dick. "That was mine, and you took it and rode it, and then put your stickers on it and your traction pad. And yeah, take it off. You should be returning that thing to me brand-new, how it was." So I was like, "Fuck him. Take the traction off your own board." I wasn't doing this to be a dick. I was just trying to be nice and take the stuff off, but then afterwards I realized he was really being a jerk. So then it kind of pissed me off. Ross Williams: After that, Rob and Kelly didn't talk for a while, and it got pretty weird. You could just feel the tension building up to the last contest. Announcer: The beach is divided between Kelly Slater and Rob Machado... ...these guys used to be the best of friends... Machado: We were going into the Pipeline Masters in Hawaii, and Sunny Garcia, from Hawaii, has a commanding lead. They need me to do shitty, which isn't gonna happen, and they need to do extremely well, which is gonna be hard. So I'm pretty confident. Slater: Sunny was gonna bring home the first Hawaiian world title. So many people were pulling for Sunny. And Occy felt that stress. Mark Occhilupo: It was for his world title, he just had to win that heat. I was getting threats from a few Hawaiians, saying, "If you do win this heat, you might not be going home," and stuff like that-- and it was quite scary. Announcer: Masters champ up against Hawaiian favorite... Occhilupo: But Sunny was having a shocker. He broke his board, had to go to the beach to get another one. And while that was happening, I'm sitting out there all by myself. And a perfect wave came. And what do I do? I gotta go. I can't not go. So I went. I got a huge barrel, and spat out. I'm like, "Oh, no." Usually you'd be coming out claiming it, but I'm coming out like, "Oh, no!" Five minutes left, I need one more wave. Poor Mark, he's like, "Take this wave! Take any wave you want." I couldn't make a wave, and I knew right then I just lost the world title. Machado: And Occy ends up winning the heat. Announcer: Sunny Garcia is out of the contest. I don't believe what I just saw. And it was like, "What just happened?" Announcer: The state of Hawaii has gone silent. And I was like, "Wow, this is crazy." It's almost like this big door just opened up. Man: Time to get up. It's the morning of the quarterfinals. - Are you ready to rock and roll? - Yes. Of course, me and Kelly come up against each other in the semis. Announcer: Number one and two, Rob Machado and Kelly Slater. Announcer 2: Rob Machado, this guy's been on fire. Both of 'em can do any maneuver you can dream of... Knox: The public knows Rob as being a cruisy, mellow, stylish guy. "Oh, Rob's like Zen master." Not when we were growing up. He was as cutthroat as any of us. Slater: Rob and I are just really competitive and I want to beat him equally as bad. By Rob making the semifinal, he moved into first place, he passed Sunny. And I had to beat Rob, and then win the final. Machado: Kelly had to win the final. But if I beat Kelly, I win the world title. Announcer: ...best season to date now coming to a head here today up against Kelly Slater. Machado: This one cloud blew through, and it was just blue sky all of a sudden. The waves got really, really good. ( announcer talking, indistinct ) Machado: Back then it was your best three waves in 30 minutes. And I took up on a left... I got a 10. Announcer: Now Slater's gonna answer... Machado: And then Kelly got really deep. Kelly got a 10. Announcer: And now it's Rob's turn! Machado: I mean, up until that point, between us both, it was the highest-scoring heat in the history of pro surfing. Announcer: This is a barrel-fest like nothing I've ever seen. And in these conditions, they're the two best we could ever ask for, Rob Machado and Kelly Slater. Machado: It came down to the end of the heat. Kelly got a perfect left, spit out a tube, did this big roundhouse. And I hear the crowd go crazy. And there's another one, just a perfect 10-foot A-frame. I took off on the thing, and I became like mesmerized. And I was just in this... bright blue cavern. I come out, and there's Kelly with his arms up, you know? And, uh... ...I did kinda like this half-cut back and almost fell, and then we high-fived. Occhilupo: I see Rob flying out of the barrel, and instead of kicking out to get priority, and he would have won, just goes that extra further and high-fives Kelly. And maybe it was Kelly doing that, because he's there going, "Please high-five me, and then I'm gonna get priority." And the way Kelly thinks, he was probably thinking that. For sure. That wasn't by accident. Kelly doesn't do shit by accident. You don't become one of the most dominant surfers on the planet by giving people high-fives. I've never seen him ever do that with anyone else. Shane Dorian: I think a lot of people read into that too much. I think that was totally genuine, like his friend got spit out of a barrel, and they threw a high-five at each other. If you break down the actual high-five, Kelly's thinking, "Yes. I still have this heat." I guarantee he calculated the numbers. And Rob wasted a bit of time there, definitely a mistake, by giving the casual high-five and then paddle back out, and Kelly got the priority, meaning he got the next wave. I fuckin' would've ran Kelly's fuckin' ass over. I would've just got him on interference-- even if I just clipped him and fell. You're fuckin' out there to win the world title. Fuckin' high-five you when you got on the beach after I fuckin' take you down. Like, to me, that just-- I'm a competitor, and I know that Kelly's the same way. He is the most calculated, smartest, driven surfer ever. There's a reason for everything. I would've just run him over, 'cause he was right in the way. But Rob fell into the trap, and Kelly won the world title-- yet again. ( crowd cheering ) Am I gonna run someone over? No. That's just not in my DNA. Maybe that was the downfall for me. You know, I wasn't-- I didn't have that cutthroat mentality. Was the high-five a tactical maneuver on Kelly's part? Kelly is so calculated. Like, he knew exactly what he needed to do. I don't know. I'd love to hear his side of the story. It bums me out more than anything to hear that from people who are my friends. I think it's just outrageous. I never thought of that at all. And in my memories of thinking about the heat, there was never any intention whatsoever other than just to be stoked and express that right then. And I don't think it would have mattered so much anyways, 'cause I was trying to go right on every wave and Rob was trying to go left, so the priority wouldn't even have mattered. A little later, we took like 30 friends out to dinner, we were all celebrating, and the hard thing was, Rob was at the same restaurant with his family, and they were all really somber. It was a weird predicament. ( chatter ) That marked the beginning of some dark years. Janet Rollins: It was the morning of February 13th. Todd was out in the yard getting ready to go surfing, and I thought he had left. Then I heard something, and I peeked out the door down the hallway and I saw him... standing there. And he was just standing there. He just said, "I love you," and I said, "I love you," and there's a part of me that almost felt like he knew something. I don't know, it was just the look on his face that day, I'll never forget. I can't remember what I had for lunch yesterday, but I will never forget the look on his face that morning. Man: The call came in, three surfers in distress... Man 2: Rescue crew pulled 27-year-old Todd Chesser from the water just south of Waimea Bay. Woman: Lifeguards found Todd's body after a 40-minute search. Man 3: The shore break at Waimea was critical at that time, 60-foot faces. Man 4: We were trying to give him CPR, but there was too much water. Man 5: Safety officials closed all North Shore beaches. Man 6: ...was set to he married to Janet Rollins on August 2nd. - ( chatter ) - Man: Come on, come on! Jeannie Chesser: I got a call from this girl at work, saying that my son was in trouble. I jumped in my car and was praying, saying, "Don't let this happen, don't let this be real." So, yeah, I went to the hospital, and all the friends were out there, all the friends were standing there. And then... ( sniffling ) the doctor told me, "We think your son passed away before the ambulance came." And I said to the doctor, "Well, that must be really hard for you to tell people this, that happened to their loved one, it must be really hard for you." I was feeling that compassion for that person and trying not to think about myself. But yeah, it was the worst day of my life. ( duet sung in Hawaiian dialect ) Kelly Slater: I remember just looking at grown men just bawling. Rob Machado: Holy shit. Todd's... gone. Ross Williams: It was just like losing a family member. Kalani Robb: He was the unkillable, unfadeable, unscareable dude. You can't kill him. Taylor Knox: Certain guys just couldn't be taken down. It was like... a giant was gone. Janet Rollins: At first, it didn't-- it didn't make sense. It didn't even really register. And then... it just hit me, like someone had taken a baseball bat... and just swung it at my stomach as hard as they could, and wouldn't stop. Todd was like... a mentor for all us younger guys. He was an incredible guy. ( crying ) I just wanna say, "Cheese, we'll miss you." Benji Weatherly: At his funeral, I'm sitting next to his fiance and all these people, and I just remember going, "Fuck, this is just too much. This is too much." Everyone here was who we wanted to be at our wedding. I mean-- Fuck. It's hard, man. I was so worried about Janet, I was so worried about Jeannie. I almost felt guilty for being so sad, because... ...she had lost so much already in her life, ya know, with Todd's dad passing away. And Todd was like her everything. It just felt like too much to have to deal with for her. Benji: When I saw what she was going through... I realized what I was supposed to do, and it was: be there for her. And I told my mom, "I'm going to Fiji in six days. I'm gonna take her." We stayed in a little hut. And she just would cry all night and she just kept yelling at me, "Why? Why is this happening?" But I didn't know what to say. On that trip, she brought Todd's last board. And one day, we paddle out to a place called Restaurants. It was completely flat. And then, out of nowhere, a 4-foot wave comin' off the reef. She catches it, gets barreled on his board-- she rips-- going down the line-- whoo! I get the next one. We're flying. She's screaming at me, I'm screaming at her. We surfed for an hour and a half. We come to the beach, and everybody that was on the island was watching. People came in from Cloud Break, and I go, "Was it bombing?" They're all, "It was flat." It gives me chicken skin, because if you surf, you know how rare that was. And she was on his board, and I swear it was like he was saying "bye." Female Vocalist: Look for me in the tides And it's all right Benji: She didn't sleep for seven nights. That night was the only night she slept. The only night. That day, Jeannie got a goodbye hug from her son. It was just one of the most special moments of my life. Set me free, in the tides And fade away... Jeannie Chesser: I'll always be thankful to Benji for taking me on that trip, because it was the thing that I needed to heal. But Benji had a really tough time for a while after that. Benji: After Chesser passed away, I hated surfing. It was tough. So... I got into drinking more. Tons of cocaine and ecstasy was our thing, but every time I woke up, I realized he was still gone. I was definitely depressed, I was suicidal... so I checked into this place called Inpatient whatever. There was all these people that were on smack, heroin, all this stuff, I just needed to talk to people, I needed help, like, I wanted answers. Men have the hardest time with feelings and emotion, a lot of macho, lot of ego, so you never really go, "Let's talk about this." Pat O'Connell: In our group of friends, I don't know if we ever actually sat around and said, "Hey, man, how ya doin' with that?" Shut up. It was just something I wanted to forget. And I think that goes for a lot of us. We felt like Todd had been taken from us personally. Not just our group, but us personally. I felt like he had been taken from me. My way of dealing with it was, I just felt more comfortable by myself. I just didn't want to talk about it anymore. Didn't want to think about it anymore. If we would've sat down and just talked it out, it would've helped a lot of us process it better. We were kind of worried about showing weakness. You don't want to show your competitor weakness. There was underlying tensions from competing on the world tour against each other, and people were starting companies that didn't involve everybody. We were all angry and looking for someone to blame. It was the start of a change from "it's all fun and games" to it all getting serious. Money started coming into play, managers came into play during this time. I had many arguments with Kelly's manager because he wanted money to use him in my movies. Soon after, Kelly's manager was also Rob's manager and Kalani's manager. And that's when I said, "Fine, I'm not gonna shoot 'em." In February of 1997, Todd Chesser died, and then that same year was the last time we made a film together. Shane Dorian: I remember Taylor telling us that he was gonna be done, and just a feeling of sadness, like we were part of something really special and it was the end of an era. Knox: The catalyst that brought us together-- filming with Taylor-- that was gone. And really, people were just trying to take care of themselves, looking after their own interests. Todd Chesser: People can get pretty ruthless when money's on the line, so I'm kinda putting the money out of my head. Chesser would call you a sell-out if you were becoming too business-headed. He made sure that you were surfing for the right reasons and you're part of the group for the right reasons. He enjoyed all of us hanging out together way more than making a dollar or being famous. Dorian: Todd definitely never let financial upside influence our decision-making. When Todd died, that was gone. Soon afterwards, a lot of us started going our own ways. At some point you grow up and stop living at your friend's house in San Diego, going to punk rock shows, ya know? At some point you start to figure out, "Yeah, we love all these guys, but my life's this thing, and not everyone fits into this thing." And for me, the competition shifted to maybe more important than camaraderie in those years. ( crowd cheering ) And that was my way to focus my, I don't know, sadness after Todd passed away. Winning competitions wouldn't address the pain, it would just fuel my direction. It gave me a sense of pride in myself. People noticing you, and-- It makes you feel good, however shallow or deep that could be. So I went on this absolute tear, competitively. I thought in my head, "There's no reason I can't win every contest." I wanted it all, ya know? I just wanted to win absolutely everything. - Whoo! Whoo! - Williams: For Kelly, whenever he had a breakup or problems with family or whatever, he was able to channel that into annihilating people on the water. We were all competitive, but if you're gonna be a world champion, you gotta be a frickin' animal. Rob Machado: Kelly had this idea in his mind that he wanted to break Mark Richards' record and win five in a row. And we were the only ones that were gonna get in his way. Taylor Knox: Competing against your friend, and holding 'em off waves or keeping priority, to me, it's against the art of surfing. Deep down inside, I probably knew I wasn't ruthless enough to win a world title, because I'm not comfortable with doing the dirty work that needs to be done. You bang boards, you try and push each other out of position, every now and again you get the elbow in the head. That's what we call "hassling." There's a lot of guys who are amazing surfers, but such mellow characters that they couldn't bring themselves to do that, and so their careers are very short. O'Connell: You have to be a bit of an asshole to win. And I didn't have that killer instinct in that way. The last couple years on tour I was like, "What am I doing?" I was pretty quick to realize that this isn't for me anymore. Williams: When I was in heats, I knew that I should have been achieving more. I was constantly blaming the judges for shitty results, and then all of a sudden breaking my foot, it was like, "Pfft." Just "I'm outta here." Dorian: The competitive thing was a real cutthroat business. You're only as good as your rating at the end of the year. I had to learn to be able to sit on people with priority, and use tactics. And I felt like, "This is not where I'm supposed to be." Robb: When I was on tour, everybody's talking, "You're the next Kelly Slater" and shit like that, and I was like, "I'm not that guy." I wasn't ready to go to those dark places to win that world championship. Nobody wants it like Kelly. He's such a gnarly, gnarly savage. Announcer: This controversial play by Slater forced an interference penalty on Beschen, costing him... Announcer 2: Kelly paddles up over Shane's back... Announcer 3: Surfers don't like it, but it is allowed. Announcer: Almost like cheating within the rules. I despise people that do that kind of stuff. After the heat with Kelly at the Pipe Masters in '95, I started to struggle with being as competitive. I lost motivation, and just got really salty at the whole tour. People got that vibe from me. Then when I broke my hand, all the surfers had this vote for the injury wild cards. Shane Dorian: If you have a really bad injury and you're able to compete during the year, then you can apply for an injury wild card to qualify for the next year on the tour. So I was applying for an injury wild card, Rob was applying for an injury wild card. It's super-awkward, you go up and plead your case to all the guys who are on the tour, and then everybody votes. Here we are, voting between Rob and Shane Dorian. Two friends. But there's only one guy's gonna get it. The grumblings around town were that Rob's over the tour. He doesn't care about it anymore. So they voted for Shane. Yeah. I was done. I'm off the tour. Ross Williams: Going through the transition of being a professional surfer to what's your next chapter in life, there's no books out there to tell you how to do it. When it happened to me, I went from a very busy life and busy schedule to all of a sudden grinding to a halt and being at home and just listening to the quiet. It started to turn very dark, and I became depressed. Kalani Robb: After I quit the tour, I end up working for a biotech company, helping for marketing in trade shows. Wearing a suit and tie and shit every day... behind a desk. So I was like, "This is heavy, like-- like, "What am I doing?" Rob Machado: After I was voted off the tour, my sponsor at the time went bankrupt. I thought it was the end of the world. I'm not on tour, I don't have a sponsor. Holy crap. What am I gonna do? Taylor Steele: After Rob got off tour, he was a broken man. A couple years later he came to Bali and lived in my house for six months, being really negative. And so we came up with a movie that we could do together to help get him back in a positive zone. Machado: These kids here play this game with rocks. They throw one up in the air, they pick up the other ones before it falls. I'm not really sure how you win... but maybe you don't. Maybe you just play. At the start of it, he was in a really bad place, and at the end of it he was the old Rob again. ( kids laughing ) ( no audible dialogue ) Steele: It was just like old times. But now he was reinventing himself and becoming a free surfer, trying to make a living on just sponsor money without the need to be competing on the world tour. And "The Drifter" helped with his sponsorships so that he could actually go on trips and make surf movies. Machado: Taylor Steele's responsible for this new phase of my life and my career. I'm beyond grateful. He revived me. ( laughing ) At the time, if you stopped being on the tour, you vanished into thin air. That was it for you. Rob was the first person who ever left the tour who had success immediately. So I went to my sponsors and said, "Rob's left the tour, and look at him." And I quit the tour with the intention to surf really big waves, and there was definitely a part of that that had to do with doing it for Todd, too. On a subconscious level, I felt like I needed to surf big waves so that Todd would be proud of me, even when he was gone. Man: Catch it, catch it! Whoo! Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! ( spectators cheering ) Shane Dorian, the greatest big wave surfer of all time-- don't think you can debate that. Shane has really focused on the traditional big-wave riding approach, and that's to paddle in with your bare arms into a 60-foot wave and get barreled. Shane Dorian: For some people, it's getting to the top of Everest-- for me, it's big waves. The ocean is throwing everything at you that it can, and in that fleeting moment, you feel like every single experience in your whole surfing life comes together for you to ride that wave absolutely perfectly. That's happened maybe three times in my life. That's what keeps me coming back. Rob leaving and having success definitely inspired me to do what I really wanted to do. Rob Machado: At that time in my life, I was traveling around the world, surfing, and I remember at one point I flew to Australia, I walked into this restaurant, and I looked over and Kelly was sitting in the corner by himself. And he was pale, and he looked ten pounds lighter, like in the darkest place. The contest was meant to start the next day, but I remember him telling me, "I don't want to surf right now." And I was like... "Don't. Go home... and fix whatever you need to fix." He withdrew from the contest and got on a plane and left. Kelly Slater: Through my most competitive and passionate years, I had these ultimate highs. But there was no way to have those without having these lows that other people can't even understand. I went through a pretty gnarly depression that I think a lot of my friends weren't aware of. And then after I won my sixth world title and beat Mark Richards' record, I just literally broke down and started crying. I had a real epiphany. That competitiveness was taking a toll on me, it was really sapping me of enjoying what I was doing and detracting from my friendships. And then my mother called me and said that my dad had cancer. And that was the breaking point right there. Love you too, Mom. I had a few nights I literally cried myself to sleep because I was so angry and confused about my dad. Like, why would my dad drink so much and cheat on my mom so much? And I don't think my father came to one world tour event I ever surfed. But then he came to Hawaii for the Pipe Masters when he was dying. I remember surfing the finals, and he was crying. I said, "What are you crying for?" And he's just like, "Man, I'm so proud of you." I'm like, "Sorry I didn't win. I really wanted to win for you, Dad." He's like, "No, you won. Don't worry about that. I'm just so proud of you." It was just tough, you know, my dad's dying of cancer and... uh... can barely take care of himself, and Ross had said, "Come sit at the house, and..." it's, uh... I don't think I've ever shown him a real appreciation for that. Dorian: After his dad died, it was quite beautiful when Kelly reached out to a lot of us and had real, sincere conversations with us all. I had never seen him so stripped bare emotionally. ( Kelly speaking, indistinct ) Machado: I remember Kelly and I got together-- it was like a full therapy session. ( crowd cheering ) We just talked about memories and good times and... it was so refreshing to be able to just be friends. Benji Weatherly: My father was super abusive. That was the reason I went to rehab, a hundred percent. A lot of people went the other way, but Kelly stayed there for 30 days just to hang out with me. Kelly worked on all his stuff before I went through mine, so when I went through mine, he took care of me. We would have these talks for hours at night about life, fathers-- "Why? Why am I feeling this?" And Kelly taught me hanging onto animosity is only ruining my life-- it's not ruining his life. So I made amends with my dad and I stopped doing drugs, all at once. Every situation in your life, you have your pride and ego or you have love, and if you choose this, it's always gonna be bad, and if you choose this, it's always gonna be good. I learned all that from my smartass fuckin' Slater friend. And I couldn't-- I couldn't thank him enough. Slater: Everyone in the world is fighting the same battle. People are all suffering from a lack of connecting with love with people around us. Personally, I had to wake up to myself and see that who I thought I was maybe wasn't all I was cracked up to be. Benji: Kelly kind of did lose the plot a little bit, but he came back in the biggest way ever. It's pretty neat to see our clique, how we bring people back from the dead. Kalani Robb: When I was working for the biotech company, it was just tearing me up inside. I definitely fit a wetsuit vibe more than a suit-suit vibe. And I was really lucky that Benji, Kelly, Rob, and Ross helped me get all my sponsors back. They made all the calls behind the scenes that I only heard about afterwards. "Hey, you know what? So-and-so called me. You got some pretty heavy friends in high places." Slater: I love Kalani, so I might've had a conversation here or there. ( laughs ) Benji: I did. I helped him a little bit get in the door. I mean, it's Kalani Robb. He's way better than me! And I remember going, "You should have the pay check, not me. This is ridiculous." ( laughing ) Machado: I made a phone call, and I just said, "Let's sponsor Kalani." He's just too talented to be behind a desk. Robb: As a kid, whatever I dreamed to be, I've so outdone that. And the only reason, truly, why I'm still here doing anything is 'cause of my friends. for sure. I wouldn't be here without them. Taylor Knox: A few guys should have turned out bad considering the upbringing they had. But the group, and having that support around, guys saying, "Hey, don't do that shit," kind of slapped some guys around that could have gone the wrong way. I mean, I was no exception. I was on the world tour for 20 years... and I could not get over that hump of... "I didn't win." Taylor took himself so serious. When he would not win world titles, just to watch how it was eating away at the guy? I couldn't be around him, because I'm so opposite of Taylor. And then one day he finally just let it go. "I'm never gonna win a world title. I'm done." And then he can actually live. Knox: My friends helped me realize surfing doesn't define me as a person. There's what you do, and then there's who you are, and that's the difference that I didn't know back then. I got a little bit of Benji blood injected in me. And I got more happy just being who I am. ( spectator chatter ) It's an emotional roller-coaster, this career. You lose more than you win. But it's all about the state of mind you're in. 'Cause I've seen guys win contests and not enjoy it, and I've seen guys get third and were ecstatic. So who won? To me it's the one having the most fun. And that what I loved about Todd. It was about surfing for the pure love of surfing. People say that Taylor and I paved the way for the professional free surfer. But honestly, to me, Todd was the original free surfer. ( music playing ) Machado: When I look back at it now, each one of us has kind of taken a part of Todd and his legacy. ( chatter ) Machado: It was Shane becoming the best big wave surfer in the world, Kelly reconnecting the whole group, being that catalyst that brought us all back together. Slater: Christmas '14. I was like, "I'd love to do something for all my friends." I just sent this message out, I just said, "Even though we don't see each other, I love all you fuckers." Ross Williams: Ironically, Kelly's always been the one that was crawling into his own shell, but he was the one that created the text thread that's kind of grown into this wonderful thing where we all keep in touch daily. Taylor Steele: It really shows how much we crave to connect with each other. So one day, I texted everybody, I said, "Let's get a Momentum reunion together." Robb: That was the first time we all got together in so long. Benji-o! It was just like we never left. ( chatter, laughter ) Knox: Now that the competition's been taken out of our friendship, it brought us back to being kids again. It was like being there 25 years ago. And I don't care if we have the same blood running through our veins or not. To me, friendship is the hidden blood. It's the closeness that makes you connected to another spirit. Slater: As a whole, I look at my life... I've been given so much, and thankfully, I sought out the people I wanted to be around who were better people than I was. And those people have rubbed off on me in a lot of ways, and still do every day. A lot of us have been friends since we were 12 years old, so I can say my deepest, darkest whatever and those guys don't even bat an eye. It's just, those are my friends. Williams: The reunion was insane. We had so much fun teasing each other, laughing. And surfing is just a bonus. ( music playing ) ( man singing, lyrics indistinct ) There's no combination or words I could put On the back of a postcard No song that I could sing But I can try for your heart Our dreams, and they are made out of real things Like a shoebox of photographs With sepia-toned loving Love is the answer, at least for most of the questions in my heart Why are we here and where do we go and how come it's so hard? It's not always easy and sometimes life can be deceiving I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when we're together Hmm, it's always better when we're together Yeah, we'll look at them stars when we're together Well, it's always better when we're together Yeah, it's always better when we're together ( instrumental break ) Here we are at Finals Day at the... I wouldn't be surprised if almost 100% of the people... They're the favorite in that event to win... And all of these moments just might find their way into my dreams tonight But I know that they'll be gone When the morning light sings and brings new things But tomorrow night you see That they'll be gone too Too many things I have to do But if all of these dreams might find their way Into my day-to-day scene I'd be under the impression I was somewhere in between With only two, just me and you Not so many things we got to do Or places we got to be We'll sit beneath the mango tree Yeah, it's always better when we're together I'll tell you one thing, it's always better when were together Ooh, it's always better when we're... Janet O'Connell: After Todd died, Kelly said to me, "You realize now the only person you could ever really date is Pat." ( laughs ) And I remember thinking, "So weird, he's like my brother." You know? "It's Pat." Pat O'Connell: Janet and I were such close friends, it's like from one of those romantic comedies. Like, "Why doesn't this guy just kiss the chick?" Janet: We were living together as roommates, and I came home one night, and he told me how he felt. "Hey, Janet, you know, we've been friends for a long time. "Y-Yeah." You know? Like, "What do you think?" Whoa. ( laughs ) Didn't see that coming. And at first it was a little weird, but it just felt right. The only person Todd... would have felt comfortable with me being with is Pat. Sometimes I think he was up there kinda... orchestrating it, probably telling the guys to threaten the other guys away. ( cheers and applause ) Janet: Hearing some of the speeches at our wedding, I kinda started to put it together. I was like, "OK... They all knew what they were doing." It was just so perfect that her and Pat got together. I mean, I gotta pinch myself sometimes. That's like Todd's spirit coming through. ( music playing ) Look for me in the tides And it's all right ( vocalizing ) Set me free In the tides and fade away Set me free In the tides and fade away |
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