Chapter: 8
The Ride of Your Life
- Is Surfing Hip?
- Lisa Andersen Surfs Better Than You
- Killer Cute
- Kelly Slater is Just Warming Up
- Rebel for Hire
- I Believe I Can Fly
- A Monster in Half Moon Bay
- Mark Foo's Last Ride
- Open Throttle
- Laird Means Lord
- Tahitian Scream
- A Webcam for Every Wave
- Last Call for Print Media
- Taylor Steele Likes it Rough
- Searching for the Perfect Phrase
- Hollywood Tries Again
- Thirty is the New Twenty
- Andy Irons' Poetic Fury
- The Beast and Beyond
- A Dance with the Past
- Foam is Dead, Long Live Foam
- Nature Gets a Makeover
- Surf in a Box
- The End of History
Laird Means Lord
Laird Hamilton, 1992. Photo: John Seaton Callahan
Laird Hamilton, 1995. Photo: Sylvain Cazenave
Photo: Sylvaine Cazenave
Laird Hamilton (right) and Dave Kalama, 2002. Photo: John Severson
Laird Hamilton, 2005. Photo: Tom Servais
A dozen or so riders moved as a unit into the deeper reaches of what Mark Foo had once called the “unridden realm.” Yet never for a moment was tow surfing thought of as a project of equals. “There's Laird,” one Jaws regular put it, “and there's the rest of us.”
Tow surfing required an intricate, high-functioning level of teamwork—a concept as new to surfing as pistons and footstraps. Equipment ideas were shared. New techniques were discussed and shared. Partnerships were formed, usually based on joint jetski ownership, and the two surfers traded off driving chores. There was a lot of practice involved: the tow-in itself, the reconnection in the channel—d...
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