Peter Cole, Sunset 2005
Peter Cole Talks Story: Big waves, Eddie Aikau and the Surfrider Foundation
Peter Cole is the real deal. A truer waterman and champion of keeping our oceans clean and surfable you will not find. His staying power is no accident. It is a testament to his love of the sport which seems to channel directly from his heart to his strong 75 year old legs. Getting old has halted many people in their desire to live as they used to because they do not accept the fact that time changes them; they do not adjust accordingly.
Mr. Cole, on the other hand, accepts his age with grace and has in fact adjusted. He has gone from surfing 25 footers to merely surfing 12 footers...and that’s 24 feet for all you wave face measurers.
Gordana Liddell: What are your thoughts on Surfrider?
Peter Cole: In ’96 we formed the Oahu chapter and I was involved in that. Surfrider Foundation was started in 1986 in Malibu and the mission is to protect the surf sites, to preserve them, make sure the water quality is good, make sure that there is public access...we’d like to have it about every ¼ mile at the most. Plus littering! We are trying to indoctrinate surfers into the idea that when they come out of the water they pick up litter. They don’t drop the litter but they don’t pick it up.
At age 58 you said, "One 25 footer is better than a hundred 18 footers, so why bother with them?"
That was a long time ago. I’m 75 now, that was almost 20 years ago. I stopped surfing Waimea in Thanksgiving in 1995 because there were 75 people in the water and I wasn’t doing very well. I had ridden pretty well a couple of years before that but I had torn a cartilage, I had a few physical problems and I don’t think I was into it mentally. But that crowd just turned me off. But I surf Sunset all the time.
And do they have to be big waves for you to surf them?
Well, it’s all relative. If you had a Sunset break in California, you’d date it and talk about it for the rest of your life. It comes in the middle in deep water and it has to be overhead at least 7-8 foot in order for it to even break. So, I surf anywhere from 8 foot to 12 foot.
That’s impressive. Now when you are giving me these heights is this the Hawaiian scale you are using?
I would call it how we’ve estimated waves all along. Nowadays they talk about the face and 80 foot waves and 60 foot waves! (laughs) It’s a little bit extreme. There’s a lot of water between 2 waves, and right in the center of the trough, if you measure from that up to the crest, you can add at the most probably a third of the height of the wave to it. And some call that the face, but that wouldn’t come up to double what we call Hawaiian scale. I think there’s a movement now to overestimate.
Like a fishing story!
Well I think that it makes them look bigger, their egos. IMAX shot some big footage at Log Cabins in 1998 and it’s a video called Condition Black. It has them towing in and they are talking about 50-60 foot waves but if you look at the rides and you look at the waves, the most you can get out of it is 25-30 feet on any of them.
If you measure the surfer...
It’s all relative. You have to figure out how high is that body and how many of those heights can you measure. Like this picture that I have of myself at Waimea...
Peter Cole, Waimea 1967
Was that the picture taken in 1967?
Ya! Well to me that’s a 25 foot wave, I am bending over so I am probably a foot less than 6. I look at the wave that you ride is the wave that you measure and this part of the wave (demonstrates wave face in front of the surfer) which you’re not even riding - why even include it in the measurement? Twice the Hawaiian scale is the face. And where they got that I don’t know.
(Referring to the picture) Was that your most memorable session?
No that was actually a really good surfing session. But the biggest waves I ever rode, they didn’t have any photographs so that makes it kind of phony in a way. (both laugh) “I rode a really big wave but there are no photographs, there was nobody there!”
Ya sure! Where was it? And when?
Probably the biggest wave I ever rode was at Waimea and that was in October of '69. It was early in the year and it was just a freak swell. It started off really small in the morning and it just jumped real fast and then it closed out at sunset. Jock Sutherland and somebody else got stuck outside. Jock made it in no problem but this other guy was yelling for help and a helicopter came in and picked him up. That was the biggest wave I’ve ever ridden by a long shot but there were no photographs. But generally, I’ve had a lot of waves over the years so they all kind of merge into one.
What about bad wipeouts? Any stories?
In 1980 when I was 50. The worst wipeouts at Waimea aren’t the big waves. You ride over the reef in relatively shallow water. And I took off on the inside of this guy and a wave broke on me and it took me down. I was pressed against the bottom and when I started to come up the next wave came and took me back down.
Before you could catch your breath?
Ya. I was held under for 2 ½ waves. So that was probably the worst wipeout. This guy from Mavericks had a terrible wipeout during the Eddie about 3 or 4 years ago. And the irony of the whole thing is these guys from Mavericks are always saying Waimea is overrated and Mavericks is the big wave. But this was funny because that guy who got this wipeout, his board broke and his jockey got him another board and he didn’t want to have anything to do with it. It was probably the worst wipeout he had ever had. I’ve heard a lot of these guys saying how Waimea is overrated but their worst wipeouts have been out there. But that was kind of ironic. I don’t think he ever called it overrated again. (laughs)
No! You mentioned Eddie. You surfed with Eddie Aikau a lot.
Ya, a lot with Eddie.
Could you tell me about him?
Oh, he was a real Hawaiian. Real aloha and really a good surfer. And the thing that I really liked about him is that he loved doing it, you know? It was such a pleasure for him. He always had a smile on his face and he would just go out for hours. And I surfed a lot with him because his favorite spots were both Sunset and Waimea and at that time that was what I was doing. He was a great surfer.
You won the 1958 Makaha International Surfing Contest. Does that make you the greatest surfer in the world at the time?
No. Winning a contest doesn’t mean a lot.
Well it was the biggest in the world wasn’t it?
The Makaha International was the biggest contest going on at the time. I had just arrived at the islands to teach at Punahou. And during the contest when the surf was flat the judges put on a big luau. George Downing and Wally Forsythe were the head judges, they didn’t enter the contest. And I brought a case of beer so I’m convinced that that’s how I won the contest. (both laugh)
You are awfully humble.
It was funny. Nowadays they only count the top 3 rides. In this particular contest when I entered, they counted every wave. So the more waves you got the better you did. And I had this really good Pat Curren board that I borrowed and it paddled well, I kneel paddled, and I could out paddle the rest of them. And Makaha was an easy wave, it was a peak and you could do a lot of turns on the waves. And I had good sessions. Then I came back the next year and had a good prelim. Then in the finals it was 2 feet and I had a board that was kind of a semi-gun that’s good for Sunset at 12 feet. (laughs) So I made the finals but I think I got last. And then I never entered the contest after the first two.
You said you got a lot of waves in that contest. Were you surfing without a leash then?
Oh ya! I’ve never used a leash.
Peter Cole 2006
How’d you get so many waves, then?
You just don’t fall off. It’s pretty easy to not fall off. Makaha - the waves don’t have the power. It wasn’t a really big day. It was maybe 8 footer max 10. And there was no interference rule, you could ride with 2 or 3 other people, and I always try to ride the inside so I don’t have people inside of me. I just was lucky, too.I’ve always emphasized the fact that you’ve got to be a waterman, you’ve got to know the ocean.
If you have a leash, you dive under the wave and you let the board float behind you and then you grab the board and you go back out. It’s caused (surfers) to be quantity oriented so they’ll take off on the shoulder; it’s caused a lot of rudeness out in the water. People have gotten leashes stuck on the bottom. Mark Foo drowned at Mavericks, I think that was about '95-'96. I think the leash got stuck because it wasn’t that big a wave.
All the big waves that we rode through the years and we never had anything close to a drowning, and then all of a sudden you have these leashes and we’ve had drownings on big waves. A lot of people will argue that without a leash, your board is going through the crowd, but the crowd wouldn’t be there without a leash. When we used to surf before the leash we all sat outside next to each other. We never sat underneath each other. That’s one of my pet peeves, the leash.
How do you feel about sponsorships?
I think it’s not healthy. They sponsor these kids to go to contests and go on trips when there is school! And what happens is these kids are really good when they are 15-25, but they start going over the hill by the time they are 30. So you end up with a very limited number of people that are going to be able to make money surfing beyond a certain age. So what do these guys do? They can’t read, they can’t write. To me, the sponsors should give scholarships to college. I have always been very much academically oriented. It’s not right.
I don’t know if you are going to like this statement, but, are you the oldest surfer riding the big waves on Oahu?
Well, I am the oldest surfer that surfs Sunset on a regular basis and certainly nobody my age is riding Waimea. I think the oldest surfer in Waimea might be in his late 50s or early 60s. I think Steve Moore still rides and he might be 59.
Why do you think that’s the case?
Well most of the people that are my age don’t live on the beach, maybe they are not as obsessed, and they also don’t like the deterioration of their surfing. They don’t like the fact that they are getting worse. To me, the older you get the more of a kook you become. But I accept that. And I’d rather be out there with the elements than sitting on the beach watching.
And I keep in shape, I swim a lot, and wipeouts have never bothered me that bad so I just swim in, get my board and go back out. Now Ricky Grigg is probably the second oldest and he’s 7 years younger than I am. He had a cancer that kept him out of the water for a couple of years but now he’s coming back. He always gets more waves than I get! So he’s out there and he’s 69.
Probably helps the recovery, too.
Oh ya. I’d say easily for the last 10 years he and I have always been the oldest ones out there. Because Sunset’s our favorite spot and we feel comfortable out there. We’ve surfed together all these years. And there are a few guys who are approaching 60. (And) you have a scattering of a few guys that are in their 60s. But not very many. None are in their 70s that I know
of.
Do you consider yourself a legend?
Well, if legend means old!
No! (laughs) Hero? Icon?
Ya, I think just the fact that I am out there all the time, in the way. You know, they are probably wondering, “when is this guy gonna get outta the water”? And my board goes through the lineup and sheers off a few heads… They’re always yelling, “Get a leash!” and I say, “Never!”
You do what you love; you are living in the most perfect spot!
Ya, we’ve got a beautiful home. When I surf I just grab my board, my wax and my trunks, I surf out at Sunset then I walk home. And if it’s really small maybe I’ll paddle down to Pupukea. And I love it. And I walk my dog. So, retirement’s wonderful.
Would you say your life is ideal?
Ya, except my wife has a lot of things that she wants me to do that I never do, so... But I think it’s a good life.
www.surfrider.com
www.peterspoint.blogspot.com
Interview by Gordana Liddell
Legends - Surfersvillage
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