Matt Warshaw interviewed Ronnie Burns for a 1987 SURFER profile titled "Actions Speak." Burns was 23.

I was born in Orange County, and lived in Dana Point and Costa Mesa until I was four. But I grew up on the North Shore. My parents moved here in 1969. My dad [surfboard glasser Boscoe Burns] used to come here to surf. Phil Edwards offered him a job glassing boards, this was in '69, and my dad went for it. We lived in Honolulu for a year, then moved out near Turtle Bay, into a beachfront house. I was five. My dad had longboards all over the place, and one day he took me out near our house and pushed me into my first wave.

For a while, he was a manager for Hobie Surfboards. He surfed Trestles and Cottons a lot.

All the usual guys. Jeff Hakman, Gerry Lopez, Rory Russell. Later on, it was Mark Richards.

When did you start surfing the well-known North Shore breaks?

I used to cut school and hitchhike over here, go to my friend's house, grab my board and ride the shorebreak at Sunset, out in front of Bernie Baker's house.

The first contest I entered, I won. They had a school contest, right near the Turtle Bay hotel, back when it was called the Kuilima. There's a little right-hander in the bay there. I was 12, but surfed the juniors division, and won, and then won it again the next year. After that I started doing the HSA contests and got some good results there too.

That's kind of a funny story. I turned pro when I was I8. A guy from Peru called me up out of the blue and said he was running this contest [the Peru International], and did I want to come. I'd never heard of it, but next thing I know the guy's mailed me a free plane ticket, so I jumped on a plane, flew over, won the contest and made five grand.

I stayed for a month, surfed in a contest or two, but mostly just hung out in Sydney with Cheyne Horan.

No, I wired home for more money and went to Bali (laughs).

On the hill, about halfway up Pupukea Road. I'm living with my parents right now.

You're known as a North Shore specialist. Is that something you planned on?

I've done bits and pieces of the world tour, and . . . I don't know. I can't surf tiny waves. When it's one foot and onshore, I mean, I have trouble just staying afloat on those kinds of waves. The little guys are doing circles around me.

At this point, I don't think I'll be following the tour. For the most part, I'll just surf in Hawaii, take a home-field advantage when the contests come around and try to make a final here and there.

Do you like it when all the pros come to the North Shore, or do you prefer it during the offseason?

There are good points and bad points when the tour comes here. It's a chance for me to get some recognition and to win some money. But at the same time, most of the spots get so crowded it's a joke.

Well, but you pretty much get any wave you want, at this point.

True. Kind of. I mean, I'm still out there hassling, you know? But mostly I guess what I mean is, if you're a local here, and all of a sudden you've got hundreds of surfers flying in all at once—it just kind of freaks you out. I have friends who don't even surf when all the pros are here.

Does it push your surfing? Do you surf harder when the tour is here?

I do, yeah. I like to surf when there's a bunch of guys out who are really ripping.

Pipe is kind of your spot, but this year you ripped anywhere you paddled out.

I never used to surf Sunset that much, I was just so into Pipeline. But this year I got some really good Sunset boards from Eric Arakawa, and that just pumped me up to ride the place. But at this point, you know, I feel like I can surf any spot on the North Shore.

You had such a good heat there in the Billabong contest.

That was only the second time I've ever surfed out there, and I won the heat.

At this point, do you still prefer Pipeline?

Of course, yeah. If Sunset is perfect and Pipe is perfect, I'll always surf Pipe. Everything else is on hold.

The first couple swells, at the beginning of the season, when I'm getting back into it after surfing little waves all summer long—yeah, my first few waves I get a little nervous. But nothing too bad. After a while, it's just like surfing Rocky Point.

No, never. Just some scratches. Like this year I pulled into a tube and didn't come out and I kind of slid across the reef on my back. But no stitches or broken bones or anything like that.

You don't remember your first time at Pipe?

Yeah, that's kinda strange, isn't it? But I don't.

Probably eight years, something like that. But I do remember sitting on the beach before I ever surfed it, going, "Wow, you'd 

Didn't I hear something about Lopez helping you out when you were a kid?

He did a little, yeah. I was lucky. Nothing major. Just things like "Okay Ronnie, this way, a set's coming." He looked after me. Gerry and Rory both did.

Seems like you prefer to wait for bigger waves out there.

Because I live here, I think maybe I've got more patience. But yeah, I like to sit a little further out, a little deeper than most people. Pipeline is kind of shifty, and there's a lot of different places to take off. I sit further out 'cause I know that eventually something's gonna jack on the outside and catch everyone by surprise.

When the waves are flat, I'll play tennis or basketball. Every day I'll do something, I can't just sit around, I've always gotta be moving. Maybe I'll go to Waimea and swim the bay a couple times, then jump off the rock. I don't have a schedule, though, like I'm gonna work out for this many hours, doing these exercises. I just make it up as I go.

[Photos: Tom Servais, Don King, Jeff Divine, Brian Bielmann]

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Videos