I only talked to Todd Chesser a few times, but my impression was that he was twice as funny and 25 IQ points smarter than most every other surfer on the North Shore. Thousand-watt smile. Enjoyed a bit of mild debauchery. Todd was two or three years older than the guys he ran around with, and sort of an informal leader—he was very comfortable in his own skin.

Chesser would have been 46 today. Shane Dorian is the guy to ask about this (Todd was Shane's big-wave mentor), but I'm guessing that, had Chesser lived, the paddle-in big-wave revival would have happened five years earlier. Or maybe paddling never would have fallen out of style at all. Tow surfing was never Chesser's thing, and he was already bringing attention and a bit of glory to paddling the North Shore's outer reefs. But then he died out there and, who knows, maybe that diminished people's enthusiasm for what is now almost universally regarded as the cooler and nobler form of big-wave surfing. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I can easily imagine Chesser and Dorian sticking to their guns, so to speak, and diverting some well-deserved attention away from Laird Hamilton and the diesel-burning Strapped gang.

Think of Chesser next time you see a clip of Dorian stroking into a massive Jaws peak. Or if you're spiritually inclined, think of Chesser sitting in his golf cart and looking down at all the recent paddle-in heroics, cackling his ass off.

TODD CHESSER: SALUTE TO THE ANTI-LAIRD

Subscribe or Login

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

The Sunday Joint

Videos