Hawaii
Growing up Buttons was my hero, he surfed, he skated, and he did huge switch foot rebounds off the whitewater, I mean come on! He was the best, Period. I had photos of him all over my walls when I was a grommet. I remember the day I finally met him in 1985 at Kaisers. I was starstruck, but he was cool and we talked for a bit in between sets. He was out there with Mark Liddell and they were putting on a clinic.
A few years later I ended up shooting with him and hanging out on the North Shore. I always loved listening to him talk. He was one of a kind! This day he was hanging out with Kealii, who’s probably one of the coolest guys ever and a Big Wave legend himself.
The Quik House on the North Shore sits right in front of Pipeline. I was pretty good friends with Reef Mcintosh and most of the guys who hung out there. Reef makes a mean cup of coffee, and sometimes he’d text me “Nelly Pipes going off, and the coffee is ready, get over here!!!!” Anyway this is o
ne of those classic days where the boys jump back and forth from The Volcom House to the Quik House and everyone just surfs and BBQ’s all day. This was during the days of the Wolf Pack and the whistle. Walking on Eggshells was a thing and you had better not burn any of the boys. If you got the whistle blown on you, you better paddle down to Rocky Point quick like! One of those times you just shoot a picture and don’t think much about it. A frozen moment in time of a few of the best Pipe surfers ever.
One of the peakiest days I can remember out at Pipe and Off The Wall. Big teepees were swinging in and up the beach from the west, and all the psycho guys were out at Off The Wall. After shooting all morning Kristy, Kiala and I decided to hike up the hill behind Sunset Elementary to see what it looked like from up there. I ended up staying up there for hours shooting and hanging in the sun. Chalk up another epic day on the North Shore!
Pipeline was firing big time. Nathan crushed down to the steps in between the Volcom Houses. “Hey Nelly, how is it? He asked as he surveyed the lineup. The crowd was super thick. Everyone was out. I mean everyone! “Its going off Nate” and we watched as Barron Mamiya got spit out of huge barrel. “Ill be right back” Nathan said and he was gone.
About 15 minutes later Nate came sauntering back with a tiny little Stretch board.
“I’m just gunna sit wide and cruise” he said,
and threw me his keys. "Sit wide and cruise?" I remember thinking, but I knew that Nathan probably had something up his sleeve. He always does!
A big one swung wide and Nathan was on it, he flew down the line with all this speed and then punted the biggest air I’ve ever seen anyone do, and even though people got waves of the winter that day, Nathan’s air was the best thing I saw that day!
_Nelly