Fred Hemmings – Interview

Fred Hemmings – Interview

Hemmings opened the interview discussing the surfing leadership.

Surfing has matured tremendously. On occasion especially in the formative years, the sixties, surfing often yielded to pop culture influences.  The surfing media and pop culture made heroes out of individuals through perception rather than reality. I remember one surfer, who I won’t name, could surf in California but couldn’t perform well at all in Hawaii. He was also a con man bilking his own friends. Through “bad boy” antics rather than performance, he was heralded a hero. That pop culture influence is partially what motivated me to retire from competition in 1969. I wanted to develop professional surfing as the next logical step in the sport and help define the sports part of surfing that required athleticism and character. Professionals like Kelly Slater and Layne Beachly and most top pro surfers possess strong character and that makes them successful at that level.

I lament that the provincialism of a few alleged Hawaiian surfing leaders has resulted in Hawaii yielding leadership in both the cultural and athletic aspects of surfing. I do admire California and Australia for their positive and beneficial leadership of surfing. But the genesis of surfing is Hawaii. The first “international” competitions were in Hawaii. Randy Rarick and I founded the first pro tour in Hawaii. However, Australia is the headquarters for professional surfing. Surfing traces its roots back to Hawaii, and yet Hawaii doesn’t have a real museum or a heritage center. Surfing isn’t nourished as it should be in the islands.  The cultural history is being kept in California at the very dynamic Surfing Heritage Foundation in San Clemente.  I introduced a legislation to create surfing reserves that would recognize and celebrate our world renowned surf on the North Shore and Waikiki. Unfortunately, the innocuous legislation became a game of petty politics and negativism promoted by predominately one surfing curmudgeon with an agenda. One individual spread falsehoods and rumor that combined with small minded politics resulted in the legislation being tabled on the very last day. A great surfing journalist I have worked with over the years, Drew Kampion, recently said to the effect, “Nothing fuels rumor like fear and fear fuels rumor”.

What was it like to be a surfer in Honolulu in the 1950’s?

I remember coming to the Outrigger Canoe Club on the beach at Waikiki and parking on Kalakaua Ave. to go surfing. It was truly the Romantic era of surfing. There were a few majestic hotels on the beach. In front of the hotels sat precious and rare koa canoes. The guys rode big wooden surfboards and I can remember surfing Queens on Sunday mornings with just a few body surfers out. The beach is overflowing with people now and with the crowds, surfing is aggressive, even disdainful at times.  Fortunately the ocean is like it has been for millennia. The waves break the same. The water is the same. But, it’s just more crowded. The world is small, in some ways too small and much too crowded.

The Makaha International was the first step towards creating a world contest and you competed in it as a boy. Who was your greatest influence during that time?

In terms of the most influential surfer, I’d say it was Duke, figuratively and literally. I learned from the Duke not so much through any formal teaching but rather through osmosis just being around him, absorbing wisdom. Real watermen surfers that I admire surf huge waves, paddle canoes, ride all waves and push the envelope. Truly influential surfers run the gamut of the surfing experience. They are innovative in their surfing and thinking. They are always looking for something new, a better way to ride a wave.

I loved style. Surfing style is like art to me, like a classic impressionist painting, a Renoir. As a young boy I admired Phil Edwards. He surfed erect like a classical matador. I competed against Phil once, but he wasn’t really a competitor. He was an artist. In competitive surfing you need to be an athlete and a strategist.  Mike Doyle was a competitor. He was a guy I needed to be aware of in the water when in a competition. Midget and Nat, too. Midget was a better strategist though.  You always had to keep an eye on Midget.

Let me ask you a question. What satisfies you more, to catch a lot of good waves or just one great wave?

That’s a tough one.

It’s not hard for me. Back in 2000, I would watch the buoys and try to catch the big Makaha swells after they peaked since I was getting a little older and really didn’t want to paddle out and get surprised by a giant set or a surge in the swell. So one day I drove out to Makaha. It was about 15-18 feet with long clean walls, classic Makaha. Big Makaha is a wave with great personality. I mean you can’t buy what’s being given to you on a good day of surfing. So I’m sitting in the lineup and I see this perfect set coming down the point and paddle right into the sweet spot to take off. I rode that perfect large wall of water all the way to the channel.  I went in and walked to my car and drove back to Honolulu. That’s the magic of one great wave.

You competed in the 1965 World Championships in Peru. Do you see that event as the first true world championship?

I don’t want to take anything from Midget and his win in Australia, but I think Peru was more international. I only surfed in events I considered international. I believe in quality not quantity. Some great surfers like Corky Carroll surfed in many contests up and down the coast of California and abroad. I was very selective. The contest at Punta Rocas, Peru had some of the biggest waves ever for a world contest: large 10 foot peaks that broke off into wonderful right slides, a little like Sunset Beach, but not quite as aggressive. There was a left slide too. Buffalo got one really long left that he rode into the bay and out the vision of the judges.

In a recent discussion with Eduardo Arena, he said that 1965 trophy was stolen by Jimmy Blears and taken back to Hawaii. Can you speak to that?

No, George Downing has it. Blears had it, but as I’ve been told, Downing has it now and has not returned it. It’s a shame. It’s the greatest trophy in surfing history. It’s made of hand pounded silver and really is the Heisman trophy of surfing. It should be returned.

What about the winner, Felipe Pomar? It seems that some were skeptical of a Peruvian winning the contest in Peru?

I always supported Felipe winning the event. There was an international judging panel and he rode some big long waves. It wasn’t the Hawaiians. It was the guy in second place (Nat young) making all the noise.

That brings us to the 1968 World Contest – Did your detractors have any real reason to criticize your win or was it simply jealousy?

That was another fabrication by the surf media. Look, Nat Young was a tabloid surf king. I beat him at Makaha in the Duke and I beat him in Puerto Rico. The contest expectations were based on tabloid fantasy instead of surfing performance. My winning was no fluke. I was in the finals of most every contest I entered. My record stands and hopefully speaks louder than words. Winning in Puerto Rico was no isolated event.  It wasn’t what some in the magazines’ editorial room wanted. I openly defied the pop culture activity of the time. I didn’t smoke pot and I didn’t dress in the garb of the day.

Also, the media got it wrong in terms of surfboards. The board I rode in that contest was shaped by Ben Aipa, and it was shorter than Midget’s. The only real short board in the final in Puerto Rico was Reno Abellira’s.  Nat was wrong in his description of that event. His History of Surfing is a tremendous distortion in many ways. For example, Duke taught the Aussies how to surf. The first major International surfing competitions were spawned in Hawaii. Professional surfing originated in Hawaii. Hawaii should be the actual and spiritual center of surfing.

Who shaped your boards for the those world contests?

In terms of shapers, I moved all the board. I knew what I wanted and whoever could do it, I wanted. I wasn’t concerned with the subtle nuances, the seasonal changes like wings. I was looking for the basic elements that make great surfboards. What are the greatest boards ever? Duke’s legendary Papa Nui: the board that he rode that great wave in Waikiki in 1913. Or Tom Blake’s first hollow board? For me it was Blue Max. It did what I feel strongly a good board should do: be dependable in all conditions. I have pictures of me riding Max at Waimea, Pipeline, and Makaha beach break. That was a great all-around board.

Who shaped that board?

(Spoken with a hint of irony) My good friend George Downing.

Many journalists describe Ian Cairns’ “coup” and “take over” of the IPS, but they don’t elaborate. Can you elaborate?

I always felt that the circuit should be a measure of performance in the water, but he did perform a coup of sorts. He got the money to start a new tour and it took off. I didn’t like it, but I was never opposed to it.  I never made any money off the events themselves. I made my money promoting them on networks. The idea of International Professional Surfing was a promotional event to garner an audience for surfing.

Ian saw pro surfing as more of a union. It’s like the football players running the NFL.  But it worked. The ASP has gone on to be tremendously successful and a very good thing for competitive surfing. So it was a good move, but I will state that to this day, if Ian Cairns and I were surfing 10 foot surf, I would kick his ass! (Laughs)

Do you have any regrets?

Only personal ones. I was a rough and tough kind of guy. There were times I was mean to individuals, just on a human level and I sincerely regret that.

How do you want to be remembered?

That’s up to others to decide, but I’d like to think that I was a successful competitor and developed professional surfing, but more than that, my joy is having the luxury of being a surfer during the Romantic era of the 50’s and Golden era of the 60’s. If I had to choose between being a competitor and organizer or “just” a surfer, I’d be a surfer riding waves. That’s it.

Quite frankly, I made money from surfing and I remember one writer saying I was “fornicating with Mother Ocean” by promoting competition, but how are writers any different? They are making money off the sport just like I did. I marvel at the surf apparel industry and how it’s helped surfing gain stature in the world.

To return to your question, I just hope that when I lie my head down and draw my last breath, I am the person I want to be. That I never ever stopped growing or exploring and never stopped reaching for the stars.