SURFER Interview with Rob Machado

No matter how hard he’s leaning in, he’ll never let you see him sweat.

Is there a lesson in there for kids on that track today? The thing that worries me is that these kids will focus their entire lives on doing one thing. I grew up playing soccer, baseball, I did all that stuff. I went to high school with friends I’ll have the rest of my life. Now these kids are becoming like Chinese circus performers. They grab them when they’re like two years old and start training them and that’s it. They do home school. It’s crazy. When I was a kid, going on a boat trip was, you know, maybe a trip into the Ranch or out to Todos—on a panga. Today’s groms are going to the Mentawais on yachts.

But what about the kid who’s not going pro, who’s just trying to have fun? Has the life of the average grom improved, in your opinion? Totally. I think so. The equipment alone is a huge reason to be stoked. It’s far better now than it was, and that’s going to allow them to progress a lot faster. That’s the benefit of coming late. Plus, with the whole renaissance thing going on, it’s cool, because there are kids out there riding everything. When I started doing that, my surfing on a Thruster only got better, so imagine what those kids are going to be capable of.

When you started out on the tour your dad came with you. That was fairly unprecedented at the time, wasn’t it? Totally. Just think when you’re young, 18 or 19, getting foreign money and ordering food, you’re just kind of out of it. But my dad had traveled all through Europe when he was young, so his whole aim was making sure I got to the events, had a place to stay and something to eat, that way all I had to do was go surfing. That was huge, because when you’re out there alone, with money in your pocket, it’s really easy to screw up.

Was that a factor in you being Rookie of the Year [1993], and being in the hunt for a world title so quickly? Yeah, that was pretty crazy. I came into the Pipe Masters in 7th or 8th place my first year out, and at the time, I remember, I’d only surfed Pipe a couple of times in my life, so I got there going, “OK, this will be interesting.”

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We arrive in downtown San Diego just in time for the morning show interview. But before we get to the set, Rob is greeted by a number of NBC reporters who happen to be fans. A handful of them leave their cubicles when they hear he’s arrived. There’s a familiar ring to each of their ice-breakers—they all begin with: “Yeah, I interviewed you back in...remember?” Rob gives each of them his full attention, and it’s appreciated. They all head back to their desks with huge smiles. Eventually, the blond co-host of the morning show comes and introduces herself. She’s a dead ringer for a younger, California-version of Katie Couric, and I have to assume she’s being groomed for bigger things. She debriefs Rob on the segment length, and some of the questions she’ll ask him once they go live. “So I just want to get my facts straight,” she says. “You’ve won the Pipeline Masters twice?” “Well, I’ve won at Pipeline twice,” he says, ready to explain. “But it wasn’t really two Pipe Masters.” She’s a bit confused, so Rob does his best to explain the difference between the Pipeline Masters victory he scored in 2000 and his WQS victory at Pipeline earlier this year. Much to her credit, she gets it, and moments later they’re broadcasting live, having a jovial time talking about surfing and the rapid approach of summer. When it’s over, she tosses to the weatherman, who quickly credits Rob’s appearance on their outdoor set for the sun coming out. We head back to his house to meet with his contractor.

It’s funny, because when you got to Hawaii with a shot at the title, most people were pretty surprised. “Rob Machado” was just this small-wave Bud Tour guy at the time. Were you aware of that label? Did you feel any pressure to change it? I was aware of it for sure. I mean I got over there and that’s when Benji Weatherly’s house was just starting to go off, and right there you had Ross [Williams], Shane [Dorian], Kelly [Slater], Cheese [Todd Chesser], the Malloys. All those guys had been doing the North Shore thing for a while, and up to that point, I’d sort of avoided it, you know? I would spend more time in Australia and stuff.