SURFER Magazine's "What is Surfing?" article ran in the November 1970 issue. Purpus was one of 28 featured surfers, all of whom were asked the same set of questions.


Riding my Makaha skateboard while sauced on a gallon of Red Mountain.

WHAT FEELING DO YOU GET WHILE RIDING IN THE TUBE?


Like I'm locked in a closet with Raquel Welch.


Contests should bring about an exchange of ideas among all those interested in furthering surfing, rather than everyone on their own separate chaotic trip.

WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO GET OUT OF YOUR SURFING EXPERIENCE?


I hope to get a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud and five naked lady companions.

The quotes below are excerpted from "Insights: Mike Purpus," which ran in the July 1973 issue of SURFER.


I’ve been surfing now for 14 years. When hearing this, people look at me as if I were their grandfather. I love surfing with younger guys, from ages ten to sixteen. Kids at this age are immune to most of the vibe happenings going on around them. They just care about surfing the best they can and having a good time. By surfing with the younger set, I can see what is going to happen, rather than what has already happened. I try to keep looking ahead. Surfers such as Larry Bertlemann, Michael Ho, Mark Levy, and Brad Hurst, just to name a few, surf with such aggression that the water temperature around them seems to rise a few degrees. I am constantly working with this younger group, mostly learning, but teaching whenever I can.


I am always striving for a better relationship between myself and the wave. If I can feel the wave, my surfing will flow more and my style will look more natural.


I've gone from balsa to foam and recently to hollow surfboards because I feel that I'm progressing with the times. Dick Brewer summed it all up for me on hollow boards when he said: “You have an advantage with hollow boards because you aren’t surfing on a solid, dead substance as you are with foam boards. You are, instead, riding on top of two skins that give and feel every groove in the face of the wave, allowing you to reach faster speeds." John Bradbury shaped a plug for a hollow gun that I rode this year in the islands. The best feeling I have ever attained in my life was riding this surfboard on a beautiful Saturday evening in eight- to twelve-foot Sunset. I felt the power and the speed of Sunset in its entirety for the first time. My board seemed to glide into cutbacks so fluidly that I felt that I wasn’t riding the waves, but that I was a part of each wave.


The North Shore was a full test for me this year. I was getting so tired of being known as a small-wave hotdogger that I finally had to do something about it. I enjoy small waves very much, and I spend a lot of my time surfing on the Gulf Coast and East Coast each year. But a good surfer should not be limited to just small waves. He has to be able to perform well whether he be in two-foot Big Surf, Arizona, or large Pipeline and Sunset. Tiger Makin and Jeff Crawford pushed me one step further to riding Waimea for my first time. I rode it, but I was just surviving, while Eddie Aikau and Jim Neece were hotdogging and loving it. I felt at ease at Sunset and Pipeline. As long as you come up from a wipeout, you’re all right. You just have to realize that this is the worst that can happen to you. If you’re still breathing, go out and try to do one better than Barry or Gerry, depending on where you are. I am striving for one thing in Hawaii. I have to prove to the Hawaiians and to myself that a Mainland hotdogger can cut it on the North Shore.


I watched Crawford take chances that big wave vets wouldn’t take, and he benefitted greatly from this. He ate it more than any surfer I have ever seen, but he made more incredible rides than any surfer I have ever seen. Jeff is the fastest rising matinee idol in the surfing world. I’d be jealous, but he is a good friend of mine, and I really dig him.


I have always wanted to be like the Australians because they handle small waves with such aggression. Without a doubt, Nat Young, Wayne Lynch, and Bob McTavish were the best ten-foot-and-under riders in the world. Unfortunately, they faded out almost as fast as they came in. All that is left of the dynamic trio is a mural of Nat at Sunset. Today, I still enjoy surfing with the Australians very much. Not so much to change my style to be like theirs, but because of their beautiful personalities. In the past, they were so sure of themselves that if you didn’t idolize them completely, they refused to recognize you. But the new breed of Aussies has mellowed out. They have developed style and fluidness rather than animal aggression. Their egos have mellowed along with their surfing. Peter Townend, Ian Cairns, Grant Oliver, Andrew McKinnon, Mark Warren, Paul and Ricky Neilsen—I'm as close to those guys as if we'd lived together all our lives. I love their spirit of competitiveness. Instead of vibing other surfers out of the water, they welcome people to surf with them and try to blow them out by out-performing them.

The quotes below are excerpted from "A Contrast in Surf and Lifestyle: Mike Purpus, Bill Hamilton," which ran in the October 1974 issue of Surfing.


I always dreamed bigger than my friends. While they were content with a Bay Cities Surf Club jacket, which allowed unlimited pickups at school or the beach, I would spend all of my time in the water—two hours a day no matter how bad the waves were. My friends would hang out on the steps whistling at the chicks and making cracks about me being crazy for being out there. If the surf was good, I would stay out the whole day. I never had a steady girlfriend: surfing came first with everything else tied for second. For punishment, instead of spanking me, my parents would take away my surfboard, and that 

Today, surfing is still my life. My surfing buddies of 1959 have families, nine to five jobs, responsibilities and security. I have four surfboards, a wetsuit and a pair of trunks.


The way I see myself is, I still want to be a star. I want to be the best. Every time I complete a radical maneuver and blow someone out who’s watching, I get a feeling of accomplishment. I get depressed when people boo me or tear me down when they don’t even know me. I made a lot of enemies while growing up in high school. With the help of teachers and friends, I let my ego get out of control which only made things worse. Now, a little older and more mature, I try to keep my ego under control.

At first the boos and criticisms didn’t bother me but after a while they began to wear me down. Now I am beginning to strike back by making appearances at surf shops across the U.S. and by presenting a program at school assemblies. At the assemblies I show some excellent surfing films and answer questions from the audience. This satisfies people’s curiosities about surfers and surf spots they may have known only by name and also gives them an insight into my personality.


I want to blow people's minds every time I hit the water. I may have to swim on every wave but I won’t give up until I make a difficult move. It might be a rollercoaster at the Breakwater, a cutback at Trestles, a tube at the Pipe or a switchfoot ride at Gas Chambers. If the surf is completely flat or blown out I'll run a couple of miles on the beach. I never stay out of the water more than two days, because if I did I would dry up like a fish. In the water, I work on a maneuver over and over again until I have it wired. If I'm rusty going one direction then I’ll go that direction the whole day.

In Hermosa Beach, the waves are fun but rarely good. Whenever I surf Hermosa, Manhattan or Redondo, I practice rather than surf for pleasure. There’s an old saying here, ‘‘If you can surf Hermosa you can surf anywhere,” and it’s true!


A lot of people resent me, saying I have as much soul as a go-ahead. I found out a long time ago that all the soul in the world can’t buy you breakfast. Surfing is a beautiful sport and I consider myself the luckiest person in the world to be able to make a living doing what I enjoy.

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