AGED AND SAGED

by Corky Carroll

Most of the time when I sit down to write these stories I have a plan in mind for what I am going to say.  It might be a lose plan, but generally there is a theme and a point to it.  I don’t always get to the point until towards the end and sometimes I just accidently bump into it before the story is over, but there is almost always a point.  Today I am just gonna wing it with no point or theme in mind.  Just some words on stuff that has wandered in and out of my mind during the past couple of days.

It started with an interview that I listened to with Mickey Munoz.  It was one of SURFERS JOURNALs “Soundings” offerings.  Mickey has been one of my very best friends in life since I was a kid and he recruited me to surf for “Ole” Surfboards in Seal Beach when I was about 14.  It is a fantastic interview and well worth listening too.  Mickey is 88 years old and still surfing amazingly well.  Not only that, but he still has the enthusiasm and stoke of a young gremmie.  He is a fantastic storyteller too, one of the best that I know of.  Surfing has had a few great weavers of tales.  Dick Barrymore, Hevs McClellend and Jim Arness (yeah the Gunsmoke dude) among them.  Mickey talking about the early days at Malibu when he was a kid and hanging out with people like Miki Dora, Bobby Patterson and Gidget herself are priceless. 

There are not too many people that are still surfing at 88.  I know there must be a few others besides Mickey but I can’t really think of any off the top of my head.  I would guess there would be some hanging out down at San Onofre.  That’s where the surf dynos hang out.  They got surfers so old down there that they are still wearing animal skins and walking around with big clubs.  Totally “B.C.ville.”  

I get asked if I am still surfing a lot.  It’s a question that I hate to answer.  In my mind I am still a surfer and I am still surfing.  But, even though I still “identify” as a surfer the truth is I haven’t paddled out in over 3 years.  I had some heart issues that slowed me down to a wave or two a day and then to no waves a day when it got to the point where there was a solid chance I might not make it back in if I kept going.  I have spent all my time since then painting waves and surf scenes and that has kept my stoke alive.  But, that said, I had another in a string of surgeries  last month that has definitely made me feel better.  Surfing is once again a solid possibility in the near future.  I am working on getting my wind back and taking off a few of the nasty pounds that have attached themselves to me during these last few non active years.  The goal is to paddle out and grab my next wave soon. 

Whenever the talk comes around to older surfers and who is still around, and who is not, the subject of Kelly Slater inevitably comes up.  In the grand scheme of things Kelly is not all that old, he is only 54.  But THE DUDE IS STILL COMPETING on a world class level.  WORLD CLASS LEVEL, as in WSL World Tour events.  Not all of them, but he still gets wild card invites and uses them to enter selected events.  It was only a few years ago he won the Pipeline Masters.  Nobody is that good at that age.  Except him.  I dug out an old column I did when he was winning his 11^th World title and want to share some of it with you right now.  This came out in 2012.

“I did something rare for me today.  I watched the final rounds of the Fiji Professional surf event on the Internet.  Last year I started following the professional world tour because I was interested to see if Kelly Slater could win his eleventh world title at the age of 39.  In competitive pro surfer years that is akin to being a total geezer.   I was pullin’ for the old dude the whole way.  Us senior surfers need to stick together to hold off the hordes of nasty agro kidbots that are violently intent on world domination and the spread of nuclear surf rabies and mad red bull disease.  

My rooting paid off because Slater did indeed win his eleventh World Championship.  And I was able to update myself on just how amazing the top surfers of the world are these days.  For years I have not paid attention and have found more bliss on uncrowded days in tropical paradises with great surf, warm water, cold drinks and hot babes than I do watching a surfing contest.  Always figured, “been there, done that.”  But the truth is that watching Kelly still being a viable threat at 40 has rekindled my interest.”

That was 14 years ago, and the dude is still goin’.  Mickey Munoz is still ripping at 88 and Felipe Pomar says he is gonna “surf until 100.”  Just proves age just a number and we don’t really need to give in to it on our own.  Keep surfing if you can, chicks will dig ya.