Look at that picture of Bobby Martinez in 1999. Laughing, happy, shining bright as a laser beam, with every imaginable NSSA record in his back pocket and his whole incredible surf star life laid out before of him. A feline-smooth goofyfoot with a perfect backhand off-the-top and a nice air game to boot. Martinez was fresh, he was a bit different—he sure 

 different; the first Mexican-American to make surfing's big league—and he had the world on a string. It took Bobby a while to qualify, but then off he went. Four ASP top ten finishes in a row from 2006-2010. Four tour wins: Mundaka (twice), Teahupoo (smoked Slater), and Cloudbreak. Meanwhile the paychecks rolled in from Reef, O’Neill, and Monster Energy. Martinez bought a house near where he grew up in westside Santa Barbara. Everybody liked Bobby. He was the giddy teenager skipping around Ireland in 

. He was a filled-out grown man laying down timeless power tracks on low-tide Rincon walls.

Then it all took a turn. Bobby bit off the surf industry hand that fed him, and just kept going, right up to the shoulder. Nobody but Bobby knows why. He sure hated the new One World Rankings format the ASP instituted in 2011. Then his career, already wobbling, came off the rails completely during that amazing on-camera diatribe at the Quiksilver Pro New York in which he raged against the ASP for turning the Dream Tour into a “dumb fucking wannabe tennis tour,” with mid-year cutoffs for lower-ranked surfers. It was hard to fathom. Never mind his confused understanding of how the pro tennis tour works; as one of the most talented surfers alive, with a history of contest success, Bobby had little to fear from WQS newbies moving on his well-guarded flanks. After telling the ASP to kick rocks in front of a live webcast audience, followed by a viral YouTube rebroadcast, sponsors couldn’t jump out of his way fast enough.

Next came his signing with FTW (“Fuck The World”), a clothing line marketed to MMA fighting enthusiasts and street-tough surfers that lasted all of a year or so, and after that there was—nothing really. Bobby’s surf career was reduced to misspelled but honest and often hilarious Twitter blasts at the ASP. Career suicide, but on his own terms.

And he’s still at it, with last Thursday’s Instagram love note to the ASP and the corporate surf industry titans that fund it. Same old same old, until you get to the bottom of the message and find that Bobby is now flogging SeaSic, a T-shirt line he helped create.

What a letdown. It was great having him prowl the tour events, slotted in the Top Ten, always a threat when the waves were good, adding a rebel presence to what is in fact an awfully sterile tour right now. 

There’s a moral to Bobby’s story here somewhere. Be careful about taking paid a surf career for granted? Standing up for what you believe in is more important than anything else? Let’s give Martinez the benefit of the doubt and go with the second one.

But "SeaSic"? Really? That has to be an ironic nod to his horrible spelling, right?

BOBBY MARTINEZ: SWEETEST BOY, ANGRIEST MAN

Subscribe or Login

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

Interviews

Videos