"Conversations: Davey Smith," by Dave Gilovich, ran the September 1981 issue of Surfing magazine. This version has been slightly shortened and edited.

Where do you surf when it's small like that; when the points aren't breaking?

There's a place called Sands. That's where we surfed tonight. It picks up the windswell really good—if the tar's not too thick. The tar from the oil platforms sometimes just gets 

I imagine this past winter, Rincon and Hammonds were classic, huh?

The winter was excellent. There were places up here that hardly ever break that were just doin’ it. Really good. The only problem was there weren't any lefts (laughs).

When it's on, Santa Barbara has some of the best waves on the coast. It definitely has the setups up there, you just need some swell.

Yeah, we got some of the best waves in the world, but it's just so inconsistent. And you have to be on top of it. Like, I'll check the waves three or four times a day in the winter, because sometimes the swell comes up out of nowhere and you can just run and grab a couple of hours of uncrowded surf when it first hits.

And can it come up like that all year 'round, or just in the winter?

That's usually in the winter. Like, the summertime it's just . . . .

. . . the blues! (laughs) I mean you either drive up north or down south. You have to at least drive an hour because around here the Channel Islands block the swell.

Does your surfing peak in the winter, or do you try to keep the same intensity year 'round?

I try to keep it up all year 'round. Like I said, I'll just drive to find something. In just one summer I put something like 30,000 miles on my car (laughs). Mostly going to Jalama or Ventura. We'll drive to Ventura and if it's no good we'll turn around, drive back through Santa Barbara and head up north.

Yeah (laughs). I've done it a few times. I mean it really gets bad around here!

Do you think Santa Barbara is a good place to grow up and learn how to surf?

I think it's really good. It has its own charisma. It's pretty laid-back, and everything's really cruisy. It's not as hyped-out as L.A. It's definitely good for your backside surfing (laughs). Like a lot of people don't get to surf on their backhand too much, and I usually do it all year 'round. So on the whole, yeah, it's a pretty good place to grow up.

What about having a lot of other hot surfers around you? Do you think Santa Barbara satisfies that requirement?

To a certain extent. There're a lot of surfers up here that are really good in the sense that, in bigger waves, they're pretty stylish. But no, I have to admit, it's not the everyday competitive thing like it is in Australia. It's more laid back. But when I go out with my friends it's pretty competitive. I dig surfing around guys like Tom Curren and the rest of the younger guys cause they're really into it.

Mmmm, it's hard to say. It's personal opinion. There are a lot of good local surfers who surf there all the time, and as far as positioning and knowing where to take off, they just have it wired. But, you know, Shaun [Tomson] suddenly moves to town and he surfs Rincon completely different. I mean, he just shreds it! And some people around here didn't know what to think, you know? Like the first time Shaun surfed Rincon I wasn't there to see it, and I asked people, "How'd he do?" And they were goin', "He was doin' too many turns!" (Laughs) He didn't fit into their category.

Also, not too many backsiders dominate out there.

It seems like, you know, as soon as you take off backside, people just go "Ha! Fair prey!" (Laughs) "Put 'em in the pit!"

Do you go down to Hollywood by the Sea very often?

No, not really. Man, that place . . . I don't dig going down there, because I know those guys hate me. And I think they're complete assholes. The whole localism thing just blows my mind. Those guys never travel and they don't see how other people can be friendly. And in the long run it's really going to hurt them 'cause eventually they're gonna build a harbor there or something, and everyone's going to go, "Hey, see you guys later!"

That brings up another point. Being an aspiring pro, and appearing in the magazine and in movies, do you get much flak from the more purist or recreational surfers up there? You know, the black-wetsuit-clear-board crew.

I've gotten flak a few times, yeah, but you know I pretty much get along with everybody. Like I've known a lot of those guys for a long time, and they're pretty positive toward me, and I try not to overstep the mark or anything. I've talked to a few of them about it, and I think they actually have a really good point as far as, sure, it's fine for me or anyone else who wants to be a professional to go for it, but just don't bring all the hype to this area. I understand that.

Do you think that the whole "soul surfer" mentality is changing at all up there? You mentioned the young kids having a different, more competitive attitude.

It's changing, but I don't think it'll ever be as radical as like down south. A little color in the wetsuits—people are getting away with that now (laughs). And the boards are changing, you know. Three years ago people up here were all frowning on twin fins, but now basically everybody's ridin' 'em.

It's funny; just as the twin-fin is becoming an accepted commodity, the three-fin bursts on the scene.

Yeah, if someone walked down the beach with a three fin, the first thing people here would think is "gimmick."

Even though it has been proven that it works—Simon Anderson just won Bells and the Coke back-to-back on a tri-fin.

They'd definitely still think it was a gimmick, though, just because they can't relate to contests.

Why do you think surfers in Southern California welcome new ways of surfing and surfing equipment so readily, yet up north guys are really reluctant to accept new ideas and change?

I don't know. I really couldn't tell you. The thing that bugs me is that guys in this area or further north think that the guys down south are into being ego'd out because they wear bright wetsuits. But if they just took a look at themselves, they're being just as ego'd out about it—thinking that they're above anybody who rides a 5'10" instead of a 7'6". A lot of people up here, when they see something different, that automatically means it's not right. The way I look at it is, if you can do things in a different way . . . . I mean, look at Mark Richards, when he started everyone thought his style was ugly. Now it's like . . . .

It seems to me that just about every important surfer has been someone who has come at the sport from a really different direction. Shaun Tomson, for example. When he first showed up with his super-wide tube stance, everyone went, "Ugh." But then when they saw him driving through 20-yard sections at Backdoor and come flying out, everyone went, "Hmmm, maybe this isn't so bad."

And it seems to me you have a really different way of coming off the top backside.

Everyone calls them something different. I don't know. What I'm trying to do there is just kinda get a whipping effect, you know; to pop your fins out at the top.

I've kinda given 'em up, 'cause, God, I've kinda screwed up my back with them a little bit (laughs).

But it was basically born out of the need to do what? Was it a style thing, or a way to get more radical, or both?

And then you have this thing where you've learned how to basically surf the whitewater like the green part of the wave; like you're going off the lip, except you're in the whitewater.

It's all the same thing, just trying to do something different. I mean, if you can surf the whitewater, why not?

You can surf all the way to the beach basically and make total use of the wave.

A lot of people have called it different things. Brandon Hayes came up with one that was pretty good, he called it the "bunny hop." (laughs).

But it is almost bizarre how you'll be riding along, just shredding the wave, and it closes out but you'll just keep shredding. It's as if you don't even notice that the wave has actually dosed out.

(Laughs) It's a good contest thing. You know, there's still a lot of energy left, you might as well use it.

How would you feel if, hypothetically, a radio station up in Santa Barbara wanted to pay you, as a well-respected California pro, a large sum of money to give surf reports of all the breaks from Jalama to Rincon, including sensitive areas like El Capitan?

To a certain extent it would be fine—you know, "Rincon is five-feet today." I mean, everybody knows about it. But we should leave surf checks and things like that up to the individual person-—if they want to put out the effort to walk in somewhere and get waves to themselves, that should be up to them.

Did you notice how in Australia, though, the top surfers in each area, like Cheyne, Mark Warren, and Richard Cram, gave surf reports telling everyone what conditions were like today and what the prospects were for tomorrow? And it seemed to me that it added to the cohesiveness of the surfing community there. Sort of a "we're all in this together" thing.

Mmmm . . . no, I don't think California has come along that far. It would be nice if you could do that on the radio, and there wouldn't be any bad feelings, and everyone got along, and no one bad-vibed anybody for surfing their spot. But in California there is such a line drawn between people who are surfing for recreation and people who are surfing for recognition.

Another thing I noticed in Australia was that it appeared that a lot of those guys, in the back of their minds, thought that all Californians were basically kooks.

(Laughs) Yeah. You know, Australians, that's the way they are. They're on top and they can back it up so they can say stuff like that.

But did that attitude of, "OK, I've got a Californian in my heat, this'll be easy," bother you or inspire you?

Oh, it definitely didn't bother me. It's more of an inspiration. When people put you down, you just . . . .

Do you honestly believe that you or any of the California guys who went to Australia this year actually had a chance to win the Stubbies, Bells or Coke?

I definitely think so. Possibly more by fluke than by competitive experience, but still. 'Cause you take a guy like Peter Harris, he won the Stubbies and he was a nobody.

But as far as winning consistently, the Californians are getting better. Everybody's getting geared up for it and the attitude is really positive.

Why does it seem harder for a goofyfoot to succeed competitively?

It's definitely a disadvantage. They should have contests in more lefts (laughs). It's like a handicap in golf or something.

I thought it was really interesting, though, that the Surfabout was held in four-foot lefts [at Narrabeen] and the finalists were all regularfooters. What do you attribute that to?

Just because they have more competitive experience. Goofyfooters, it's like they're kinda deprived of the experience almost, just cause almost all the other contests are held in rights.

Tell me about your heat against Mark Richards.

It was so weird because I was so nervous against Peter Harris, who I beat in the first round, and I surfed really bad. Anybody else, they probably would have had me. But then surfing against MR I was totally relaxed, and I thought, "Hey, I'm going for it." I didn't have anything to lose. I even told him when we paddled out, "Hey, Mark, I'm giving this everything I got!" (laughs). And he goes, "Hey, I don't doubt it a bit.”

Vince Collier had the exact same experience at Bells: he beat Buzzy Kerbox in the first round, was all nervous, then lost MR in the second round—but was totally relaxed.

Beating MR would be like winning a contest.

You know, like I want to make surfing my career. It 

 my career. I just want to be able to make a living around surfing. It's funny, I've talked to guys around here who say, "You do it for a different reason than I do." And I go, "That's not true at all! The reason I'm a professional surfer is so I can keep surfing. And the reason you're a waiter at the Chart House or a house painter or whatever is so you can have time off during the day to surf. Basically, when you get right down to it, it's the same thing.

[Photos: Jimmy Metyko, Simone Reddingius, Craig Fineman]

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