1975 – 2024
“The thing about surfing is that it’s a very Darwinian culture, only the strong survive.”
“There aren’t many of us old-school dudes left out there. I’m second behind Mike Ho in Pipeline longevity, and we’re leaps and bounds above everyone else. He’s definitely one of my inspirations, and I don’t get that from the new generation coming up. I do some coaching on the side, and you’re seeing such a cookie-cutter style with the new guys. It’s almost like the coaches are saying put your hand here, your foot there, this is your positioning, then hit the lip like this. It gets pretty repetitive. That’s why I’m so grateful to have surfed Pipe with guys like Shawn Briley — a real showman who had absolutely no fear of the consequences — or Johnny Boy Gomes, who took a lot of malice into the lineup, and turned a lot of people off that way, but did some of the craziest shit you ever did see.”
“I’m from Hauula, one of the last bastions of the traditional Hawaiian ways. That’s my cultural upbringing, how to preserve and protect certain places that shouldn’t be pushed out of the mainstream. It’s a special place over there, very working class. We don’t need that aggressive surfing attitude that a Pipe or a Rocky Point could bring. But it’s the natural state of things, because it’s usually onshore and loaded with Man O’Wars on that side (laughs). You gotta earn your stripes by gettin’ stung eight times – nature’s rite of passage, so to speak. My dad, Thomas Perry, who was also a lifeguard and a great all-around waterman, started taking me to the North Shore at a very young age, and that’s where my performance and skill set really developed.”
