Gary Elkerton took 5th place in the 1984 World Amateur Surfing Championships, held in mostly junk surf at Huntington and Oceanside. The result didn't matter. Elkerton was the star. By comparison, everyone else was small, pale, boring. Every time Gary set foot on the beach, the whole event tilted in his direction. It was the heyday of Kong, and while his best surfing was still ahead of him, in 1984 Elkerton was at his absolute peak in terms of being gnarly and mystifying. He wore a right-hand-only black leather glove that year, and such was his power that it actually came off as cool.

Elkerton would have done better in the contest, but in the early going he was hit with an interference against future Volcom founder Richard Woolcott and knocked himself out of contention. Elkerton was outraged. After the heat he actually charged Woolcott, who fell back like a small woodland creature. Neck-wringing and ass-kicking were threatened. 

In a huge upset, and in no small part due to Elkerton's early exit, America beat Australia for the '84 team title.

 magazine in 1984, and at the awards banquet I realized there was a scoop in the offing if I could bring Elkerton and Woolcott together for a bit of hatchet-burying. I introduced myself to Gary, who was half-drunk and agreeable, and we walked over to where Woolcott was sitting with a few other Team USA members.

 Here's Richard Woolcott, a man you had words with the other day. What happened with that?

 Well, yeah, there was a bit of a disagreement. But, like, ahh [turns to Woodcott] you've got to paddle out the back at Sunset, bro, before you prove you've beaten me.

 Hey man, I don't want any bad vibes. I was so bummed about the interference.

 [gibbering a bit]: I've got pictures on my wall of you; I love the way you surf! I was going down the line, you accidentally dropped in . . .

 [softens]: Nah, I'm only saying, I'll help you out, man. I'll help you paddle out the back at Sunset.

 Let's paddle out together. Next winter. I'll take you out there as far as you want to go, man.

The entire Elkerton phenomenon, at that point, was something of a put-on. Market forces were at play. "Kong" was Quiksilver's idea, for example; two years earlier, Elkerton's nickname was "Fat Boy." 

On the other hand, the reality of Gary's life up to that point was more over the top than the hype. He had almost no formal schooling. No fixed address as a kid—the family lived in a trailer, or with inlaws—and a good part of Elkerton's preteen years was spent floating atop the Coral Sea with his chain-smoking shrimp-trawling father, Keith "Bullfrog" Elkerton. Gary kept a board on deck, and for the most part learned to surf by himself, along the same remote reefs where Captain Bully earned a living. You could actually see this upbringing in the way Elkerton surfed, which had hints of MP and Bugs, but really was like nothing else in the sport. Raw and powerful, with a redlining fuck-off attitude. Like dad. Elkerton loved the early, scanning the dawn-patrol lineup with bloodshot eyes and blood-alcohol levels that would have had the average punter comatose or jailed.

Elkerton went on to become a three-time WCT runner-up, which argues a high level of versatility, but I've always regarded him nonetheless as a specialist. Other pros, like friend and rival Tom Carroll, thrived on power— but Gary depended on it. He looked hamstrung without it. Yes, he won major pro tour events at Huntington and Chiba, but he did so with the style and artistry of a tank grinding its way into a mini-mall parking space.

Gary Elkerton turns 50 today. I skimmed his autobiography from a couple of years back, and it sounds as if he's made peace with his past, his id, his compulsiveness, his aggression. Over the past 30 or so years, he has divorced his Kongness, re-embraced it, wrestled it, hid it, survived it— 1985 brought a near-death drug overdose—and finally made his peace with it. A bit of Kong flair abides, but Gary has achieved something that in 1984 would have seemed like a real longshot. He became an adult.

[Photos: Hugh McLeod, Jeff Divine, Dan Merkel]

GARY ELKERTON AT 50: TAMING THE BEAST

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