The SURFERmag Interview: Gerry Lopez

GERRY LOPEZ: Yeah. Matter of fact I just saw my draft card the other day. I was a 4F. I was fully expecting to go in but I failed the physical in early ‘67 because I had asthma as a kid.

SURFERmag: What kind of toll did that take on you guys emotionally?

GERRY LOPEZ: I felt pretty bad at the time because a whole bunch of guys did go in, and a lot of them didn’t come back, or they came back all f--ked up. It was a really rough time. When they really started killing people there everyone on the North Shore had this big fear that you’d be sent away and that was it, you’d be gone. The lineups were pretty empty during those years because surfers were exactly who they came after, the guys without jobs who weren’t in school.

SURFERmag: So G-land must have been the perfect sanctuary.

GERRY LOPEZ: Yeah. Mike Boyum had already figured out that Indo was better than anywhere in the world. So he came up with the idea of setting up a camp so we could live in there. The bureaucratic red tape was unbelievable, and expensive too, but the waves were worth it so we just persevered. And you know, if the early days of the North Shore were treasures in my mind, those first trips to Bali and my early G-land days, even later as it got crowded, are still the best surf memories I have. The whole experience. I spent more than a month in the camp once, and it was basically like being in a monastery.

SURFERmag: What was the hardest part about getting it up and running?

GERRY LOPEZ: Basically, it involved a lot of payoffs. You know, it’s like Mexico...you have to go to the right people, and sometimes to get to the right people that required lots of gifts. But the permit part was easy compared to restocking the food supply. We’d charter these local fishing boats, and they were straight out of the sixth century, so if the swell was up at all we couldn’t get out of the bay. We lost a lot of boats going in and out; they’d broach and roll over all the time, and we’d run dry on food.

SURFERmag: But you’d get by?

GERRY LOPEZ: Oh yeah, we’d go spear fish, collect rainwater, that kind of thing. It was unreal.

SURFERmag: Are there still high quality waves to be discovered out there today?

GERRY LOPEZ: Oh yeah. The ocean covers two thirds of the earth right? What really opened my eyes was going to a bunch of places on Martin Daly’s Indies Trader. All these places had a right on one side and a left on the other. Even with all the boats down in Indo there are waves still being discovered today throughout that entire archipelago. Nobody’s even counted them. From Timor and New Guinea to the top, and the whole Pacific and Atlantic is still pretty wide open.

SURFERmag: How selfish of a pursuit is surfing?

GERRY LOPEZ: Completely and utterly selfish.

SURFERmag: Doesn’t the whole Zen philosophy of letting go directly conflict with our selfish pursuit?

GERRY LOPEZ: From the outside, especially for people who don’t surf, surfing does appear, and is very selfish, because that’s all you want to do. You don’t want to work, you don’t want to go to school, don’t want to be where your mom and dad tell you to be because the waves are good. It’s funny though, when I was growing up the whole concept of dropping in didn’t even exist. It was like, the more people you could stuff on a wave the better. Dora was the one who started kicking his board at people but we became hippies and got into yoga and that whole self realization thing and started to realize that those moments when you were completely focused on riding a wave are actually kind of spiritual...quite a religious moments.

SURFERmag: But certainly you battled for waves in your day...

GERRY LOPEZ: Oh yeah. Ala Moana, where I grew up, was the most crowded spot on the South Shore. I paid dues out there. But today, I’m just jazzed to paddle out, so crowds don’t really bother me. Even if some guy burns you, it’s like, he’s gone and here comes the next one. Waves keep coming, that’s the one thing you can count on in life, and there’s nothing more satisfying than turning a guy onto a wave.

SURFERmag: Do you think that’s true?

GERRY LOPEZ: I really do. I was just down in Ventura teaching these mountain climbers how to surf, and it was so much fun for everyone, but more so for me just to see the smiles on their faces. It was just as good as getting barreled.

SURFERmag: But the fact that surfing has become so accepted by the mainstream today...has it lost part of its renegade soul in that process?

GERRY LOPEZ: No. It’s completely intact. The thing to keep in mind is the soul of surfing is internal, just like the soul in each of us. The older we get the more we layer over our souls with beliefs and other crap that make it hard for you to access it, but it’s there, and at some point, because of the power that souls have, they manifest themselves in some way and make it obvious to you that they’re there. That’s when you have one of those profound realization moments that open your eyes and blow your mind...

SURFERmag: And what do those moments do for you?

GERRY LOPEZ: They make you understand and believe that you’re here for a reason. It’s something that’s undeniable and something that’s indelible. It’s there...the foundation everything else wraps around. So no matter what, no matter how much shit you pile on top of it, it’s there and all you have to do is, y’know...

SURFERmag: Peel the layers?

GERRY LOPEZ: Yeah, get down to the center of it. That’s what life is. I think everybody at some point in life understands that, or at least sees it for a moment. They may forget it two minutes later, but it’s shining through in that moment.

SURFERmag: So has your life been the Gerry Lopez cakewalk it appears to be or have you experienced major periods of conflict?

GERRY LOPEZ: (Laughs) No. It’s never a cakewalk. Life is the most difficult thing there is, but the thing that’s reassuring is as time goes by you get more and more glimpses of what really matters. You finally accept it and realize that it’s there and you go, “There it is, I just have to keep getting there.” To be truly successful at riding a wave we’re approaching a Zen state of mind, and that’s why surfing...especially surfing well...is so satisfying. You’ve banished all those extraneous thoughts from your mind and you’re in the pure moment. Other parts of your life might be in shambles, but because you’re tapping into the source you’re truly happy.

SURFERmag: Is that why surfing is such an obsession?

GERRY LOPEZ: Definitely, but those pure moments are available whether you’re riding a wave or pushing a lawn mower. You’ve just got to figure out how to get to them. That’s what we’re here for, to figure that out. That’s part of man’s evolutionary process.