Quotes from this interview were used in "Cloud Nine: Cheyne Horan Continues to Stretch His Mind, Body and Spirit," a profile written by Matt Warshaw and published in the August 1990 issue of SURFER, when Horan was 29. Two years earlier, a SURFER profile written Matt George left the impression that Horan, who was then living in an all-male commune near Byron Bay, was gay.

Matt George’s story a couple years back—is it okay for a magazine to get that deep into a person's life? And if it is okay, did SURFER abuse its privilege last time around?

Yeah, it's fine for a magazine to get that deep into a person's life if the person doesn't mind. It's up to the person to protect what he wants to protect. I mean, you never show everything. You never say everything, even if the conversation gets really personal.

I think Matt, before we even started, had an image of what I was and who I was, and that image is what came though in the article—far more than what I was actually trying to say at the time.

Obviously, the thing that stuck in everyone's mind was whether or not you're gay. Even though you denied it, the article sort of let the question hang, which in itself points in a certain direction.

Yeah, well, that's what I mean. I didn't bring the subject up at all. Matt brought it up. The way it was presented in the article was wrong.

Were you shocked when you read the article?

I’ve never felt I had to explain myself. I was going through a big thing with my parents at the time, and Matt's piece had a lot to do with it. They read the article, and they were trying to get me to say, "Look, I'm not gay," or "I am gay." But I think people should respect you for what you are and who you are. Your sexuality shouldn't come into it at all. So after the article came out, and I was being questioned about my sexuality in what I thought was an inappropriate way, I was just so disgusted by the whole thing that I wasn't going to answer. I mean, does anyone really care? Should they?

Look, right now I think I'm heterosexual. All my dreams are telling me that. I don't dream about men. I dream about women.

There was fallout with the media, with your sponsors.

The magazines, yeah, because they thought I was gay, a lot of them pulled the plug on me—l got so little attention in the surf media after that. Seriously, a lot of people fucking pulled the plug on me, and all the time I was thinking, We're just one group, all of us, and we've got to accept each other. If someone's sexuality is different from yours, so what? So fucking what? Don't pull the plug on people 'cause of that. Look at what they're really about, not who they're sleeping with.

Tell me more about the situation with your parents.

I didn't talk to my parents or my brother for a year, partly because of Matt's article, and partly other things.

Can you talk about that, the "other things"?

Mainly having to do with drugs. They thought I was doing heroin and cocaine. Or they weren't sure exactly what I was doing, exactly, but they thought I was a drug addict. It took them a long time to realize that I'm 

 a drug addict; that I'm a healthy person.

Are you still living in that group house?

That was the other thing, there was a problem between my parents and my friends. My family tried to keep me away from the people I was living and working with, they didn't like what we were getting into. I was—still am, actually—in a group, and we believe that while an individual can accomplish a certain amount by himself, four people working together harmoniously can accomplish a lot more than four people working separately. Anyway, my parents thought the group was a bit too far out.


So where does it stand now, with your parents?

They’ve seen me grow up a bit, and I'm still healthy, still doing what I'm doing with surfing, and I'm basically pretty happy. Things have gotten a lot better with my parents the last year or so.

You say the group you're in is working on things. What kind of things, specifically?

Each person is working on their own individual thing. Like, I'm working on getting a world title, and the other guys have their work. But together we're all working on getting a solar shelter happening. That's the group's work. We want to create a lifestyle that is powered by the sun. You build a house—a house that you can work in, have fun in, run your computers, your CD player, all that—and it's fully powered from solar energy. Then you go outside, and we're growing our own food around the house. Food and shelter. The work is all about becoming self-sufficient.

Have you changed much since Matt did his article?

Yeah, I'm stronger. Physically and mentally.

On the mental side, what have you been doing?

Well, just by getting stronger in my body, you know, that helps my mind. Other than that, I've read a few books.

The l-Ching has heavily influenced me. Strategy books have influenced me. 

 Stuff like that. Books have shown me not to surf for ego's sake—surf because you love doing it. I ask myself that question all the time: "Why am I doing this still?" And I come up with the same answer: Because I love it. But anything you do all the time, the way I surf all the time, you're going to find now and then that you're not happy doing it. That's why you find guys quitting the tour, than coming back, than quitting again. What I'm saying is that when you hit those points where you're questioning your involvement with something, most often the best thing to do is just give it time, stick with it, and you'll come back around to feeling good about it. You're not going to be happy with what you do all the time, whatever occupation you're in. Through those down times, I just quietly persevere

Do you ever think about quitting the tour?

If I do, then what? It's unknown to me at this point. And I'm not scared of the unknown, just don't feel it's time to make that move.

There were rumors that, on the North Shore year before last, you were really broke.

Not really. I just sort of flow with it. There was a point where I was selling my boards off one at a time, just to get by. I was in Hawaii, I was kind of stuck there, didn't have a plane ticket home or anything. I managed to get enough money to fly to Santa Cruz for the Coldwater contest, where I made it through a couple of heats. So I got my Coldwater check and my Gotcha check at the same time, put them together, bought a ticket home, and bought another ticket to Hawaii for the coming year. I just figured, whatever else happens, I'll at least get back to the North Shore. But yeah, that time in Hawaii where I didn't have any money at all—financially, that's as low as it's gotten. Although I remember a time when I was 19, and rated #2 in the world, sitting on the beach back home with $36.00 in my pocket. Trying to figure out how to get to Burleigh for the Stubbies contest, and I had 36 dollars to my name.


You won the Billabong on a conventional three-fin board. For a lot of years before that you were been riding really unconventional boards. Do you ever look back and think, "I never should have gone off riding those weird boards, they cost me the world title"? [Note: just a few weeks before this interview, Horan won the 1989 Billabong Pro at Sunset; it was his final world tour victory.]

No, no at all. l believe things work out for a purpose. For instance, if I'd won a world title back in the Mark Richards days, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing now. I would have dropped off with MR, Shaun, Simon and that crew—when I was never actually part of that crew to begin with. Not getting the title gave me a reason to continue. And besides that, if you start jiggling around all the things that happened in the past—well, you can't. It's pointless. All the things that happened, all the boards I rode, that's my experience. I draw from all of it.

But you ended up riding the same boards as everybody else.

Yeah, well. (In a resigned voice) I'm doing more of what's accepted. My boards these days do look like everybody else's boards. In contests, anyway, I'm riding what the winning guys are riding. But when I’m not competing, I'll still ride all kinds of boards.

You've come out publicly for drug legalization. America right now is so anti-drug. How do you defend your position?

Anything that people want to do, as long as it's not hurting anybody, should be allowed. You can't keep laying restrictions on people; putting stop signs where there shouldn't be stop signs. But the guy who comes in to pick up his [government-approved] heroin or whatever, he has to stick around and have someone explain to him why it's no good that he's putting that into his body. And if that guy wants help, he should get all the help he needs, no charge. Instead of spending all that money to build prisons to lock up drug users, put the money into programs that help people

What do you consider acceptable, personally?

I'm herbal. Anything that comes out of the ground, and isn’t too concentrated, I'm into it. Mind-expanders.

How do to mind-expanders go with your surfing?

Really well. It's natural. Waves are a natural rhythm, and if I'm into natural herbs, it allows me to get into that rhythm.

Word was that you took out the Billabong with a bit of mind expansion.

The drug question is irrelevant. (Pause) No, I tell you what, I wasn't on anything for that one. I took the Billabong straight on. That contest was just a godsend, I reckon.

You read the I-Ching, do yoga, meditate; a lot of Eastern stuff. What's the idea behind that?

The Western way is outside. We want things to look good. Ourselves, things around us. The Eastern way is more on the inside. It's more balanced. So the yoga, the smoke, the l-Ching—that's Eastern.

How does the smoke put you in touch with the East?

It helps get you on the inside; it helps get you inside your head.

When did you first begin getting into an Eastern way of thinking, and what brought it on?

I think the smoke brought it on. First the smoke, that was in about '76, then the yoga.

People mostly thought that you went off on the Eastern tangent after all the world title losses; that just missing it that many times sort of pushed you into it. Were you into all this stuff during the MR world title years?

Yeah. I was doing a lot of it then. A lot of yoga, standing on my head, eating clean food, all that.

The yoga just keeps evolving as the years go. Your whole life, really, is yoga; everything you're doing. There are seven different yogas, and at the end of the seven yogas, when you've got them all mastered, there's one left—kundalini yoga. And when you get 

, that's when you become enlightened; you're an enlightened person.

No. I've had my body warm up, stuff like that. I'm getting closer. But I'm still learning. I'm gettjng closer. My surfing, the way I'm living—everything is pointing in that direction.


Tell me about growing up on the beach at Bondi.

I remember surfing a lot with Zappa—Dominic Wybrow. We both had cleaning jobs. I was 16, and cleaning fans. I can't remember what Zappa was cleaning. But we used to work in the evenings till pretty late, sleep, wake up and surf all day. That was the routine. I guess I wanted to be a professional surfer, but I really didn't know if I was good enough; or even if there was going to be a circuit.

You didn't think of yourself as a future pro at 16?

I wasn't thinking much about the future at all, really. I was a cleaner. I was still collecting shopping carts and returning them to the supermarket to make a little money, you know? I was a cleaner, and I was a surfer. That's how I thought of myself.

Then the whole Bronzed Aussie thing . . .

Yeah, that was kind of strange. I didn't really fit in with PT and Ian [Peter Townend and Ian Cairns, Bronzed Aussies cofounders].

I didn't really get on with Jim, either. I guess what I didn't like was just being so locked in with three other guys.

For sure. Ian was the best big-wave rider in the world at the time, and he helped me a lot. Ian took out on some really big days. You couldn't really say "I'm not going out there" to Ian, you know? You pretty much had to go.

You were also known as being a bit egotistical.

Oh yeah. Full-on ego. I'm a Leo—we have problems with our egos. Big problems. I've had to work on that.

You were runner-up to the world title four times. Was that hard to deal with?

It was hard to maintain intensity throughout those years.

Which title loss was the hardest to deal with?

1979 was pretty bad. I felt that I'd been done up. 1982 I'd felt I'd been done up, too.

MR [Mark Richards] I think got some breaks. Some interference calls that went his way, things like that.

Did you feel there was a pro-Richards vibe?

Hard to say. Probably not. I made things hard on myself, while he was staying pretty well on everyone's good side.

How did you make things hard on yourself?

Like I said, at that time I just had a really out of control ego. I rubbed people the wrong way.

Two years ago you dropped out of the top 16. What was that like?

(Quite voice) Pretty radical. When I fell out of the 16, that was a radical day. I was ill about it. I had to lay down, I had a stomach-ache, I couldn't move. It was happening and I couldn't do anything about it, and I had to let go. It was a heavy day.

After you won the Billabong and made it back into the 16, did it occur to you to just walk away completely; to go out on this incredible high note?

Not for a second, no. That won't be how I exit.

Do you still have World Title aspirations?

You know that most people would say, "He's dreaming."

Yep. (Pause) Yeah, well, I am dreaming. I'm always dreaming. But in the past, dreams have shown me the way.

Will you be disappointed if it doesn't happen?

Not really, no. I'll come out ahead whether it happens or not.

Nothing, really. I've got a lot left to do, but nothing to prove.

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

The Sunday Joint

Videos