Matt Warshaw's interview with Fred Hemmings ran in the Winter 1995 issue of Surfer's Journal.

The Pipeline Masters was a strange little one-heat contest at first; how did you come up with the idea?

I wanted to develop a format that would look good on television so I could market surfing to a larger audience—to the average schmuck watching TV in Middle America.

And Pipeline seemed like a better choice than Sunset or Makaha?

It did, yes. I went back and talked to people in New York, TV people, business people, and surfing was a really hazy thing to them. I’m sure they wouldn't have really understood what was going on with a guy riding a 10' wave at Sunset or Makaha. Seen one wave, seen 'em all; this guy looks just like that guy. That kind of thing. So I wanted to sell them on something a little more challenging—and dangerous, to be frank. The Pipeline is so different from other spots. And back then, as a contest site, it was virgin ground. The reason I just had six guys in the first contest was because I didn’t want to create a situation where someone was going to get in over their head.

Continental Airlines came up with the prize money and operating expenses?

Just the prize money—$1,000. I ate the rest myself.

Sure. All the nickel and dime stuff. Not too much. It was a low-budget event.

Why do you think the surf magazines ignored the first couple of Masters contests?

I didn’t kiss the surfing establishment’s ass. l didn’t play ball with Drew Kampion and the rest of them. I was an outspoken critic of drugs, back when that wasn't cool. "Do your own thing, man”—all that stuff. Well, a lot of my friends died as a result of doing their own thing. Anyway, I didn’t see things the way the magazine folks saw 'em, and my contest was a victim of that.

Corky Carroll said the waves were pretty lousy for the first Masters.

It wasn’t too bad. A modest day at the Pipe.

I went down there and cordoned off a little area with some plastic bunting, and put out some folding chairs and a card table, and that was it. I. think maybe I had a little megaphone, too. I remember Lopez didn’t show up, and I was a real hardcore guy when it came to the rules. If the heat’s ready to go and everybody else is there—well, I mean, too bad, Gerry. But there's that story that Corky snookered Lopez. Did you hear about that?

Corky said he and Gerry both thought it wasn’t going to be on, and they both went home, but Gerry went all the way back to Honolulu.

Hmmm. Well. Maybe that was a case where I should have made accommodations.

Did anyone actually come down and watch the contest?

I did the best I could to hype the thing, but I doubt if there were any more than a hundred people on the beach—probably not even that. And then you had the guys hanging off in the bushes, smoking dope and calling bullshit on the whole thing. But we just went ahead and ran it, and all in all, I think it was pretty exciting.

PIPE MASTERS CREATOR FRED HEMMINGS: "I WANTED TO DEVELOP SOMETHING FOR THE AVERAGE SCHMUCK IN MIDDLE AMERICA"

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