We have gone through Ireland on a number of different trips while ministering in Europe over the years, and have also ministered there as well on occasion.
Along the way, we found inspiration in a number of different places and things we’ve experienced in Ireland. And thus we’ve produced some different videos and articles over the years which are listed and described below.
It has become quite a list through the years, and includes stuff that is on the lighter and more fun side of things, as well as more
in-depth stuff with deeper studies on the expansion of the Gospel through Europe via Celtic missionaries and the miraculous, which often accompanied their message of Christ, chief of which is our video on The Real St Patrick, which is embedded at the top of this post but listed at the bottom, as there are a number of other materials that go with it for further study.
So, starting on the lighter side, is this music video which is filled with scenes and surf of Ireland. This is a song that I wrote and we recorded that was inspired by St Patrick’s call to the mission field and the awesome scenery and surf of the Emerald Isle. The lyrics can be seen in the description on YouTube. Also available in audio on Apple Music, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
A fun video filmed while driving through the Bloody Foreland in the north of Ireland. We were having wild encounters like being shadowed by a cloud following us, and seeing historic sites along the way, amongst other things. Our own wee little Patty can be seen and heard in this video with his squeaky little voice.
This was a spontaneous trip we were invited on while ministering in northern England. A friend took us out to Lindisfarne, which was a Celtic missionary outpost and produced the Lindisfarne Gospels.
The Celtic believers who were captured by the Vikings actually influenced them with the Gospel; God uses the weak things to shame the strong so that no one can boast before him, with signs and wonders following.
Though he lived in a little later era than St Patrick, Columcille (aka Columba — the anglicized version of his name) was a missionary to the Scots and Picts who was in fact inspired by St Patrick and experienced many miracles himself.
Clouded by myth and obscured by legends, the real St Patrick was neither Irish nor Roman Catholic, but was actually an evangelical-style evangelist from Roman Britain used by God to make headway with the Gospel into Ireland.
A quick overview of St Patrick’s ministry and the Celtic culture and world, as well as links to other important resources like Richard Bennett's article on the overlooked and misappropriated history of St Patrick.
Small surf conditions are around regularly enough in Southern California. Even when it's dribbling though, there are still times when doing some maneuvers sounds fun even if the waves don’t want to cooperate.
I have tried a number of different shortboards from known popular shapers that were supposed to work well on small days. However, most of these boards are made to try and cover too many varying conditions and tended to work well when it got a little bigger. When it dropped down and got weak—the very conditions they were supposed to have been made for in the first place—they just didn't cut it. Unfortunately, most boards don’t work in everything.
Some shortboards require a lot of hopping up and down just to stay in the wave, so I was trying to get around that in the latest shaping endeavor I took on. As my own shaping experience is limited, I refreshed my memory on some of the things that shapers who had made me boards at some point back in the past had shared with me through the years. It also spurred a few interesting memories.
Shaping Lessons
Back when I used to ride Bob Hurley’s boards when he was a shaper, he would let me hang out in his shaping stall and watch him make them. This was of course before the ubiquitous Hurley clothing era…seems like the clothing business was maybe just a little more lucrative than the surfboards for ole Hurley there 🤑.
So anyways, when I would get boards made by Bob, he would often share shaping insights. I figured he was getting pretty bored in the little shaping cubicle the way he shared some of those shaping tips. And it turns out that the info he shared happened to come in handy now that my son and I started making some of our own boards.
I remember when Bob came back from Australia with some new shaping stuff he learned from Byrne over there. He also had some wild new shorts from a brand called “Billabong” saying he had bought the American rights to the company.
The writing was on the wall with that investment and his shaping days were soon drawing to an end. Hurley eventually segued into running Billabong America and then transitioned from the Billabong brand into his eponymous label. Wasn’t much time for shaping when he started doing all the clothing stuff, so moving on to other shapers was inevitable.
So I got boards from others and still continued to learn little bits of info along the way from people like Terry Martin who was the Hobie shaper back in the day, one of the old school masters. I ran into a bit of a situation, however, when I found out that Terry Martin was also great at taking a look at a board and making one just like it.
I broke a few boards at Newport Point one summer on an epic Chubasco swell. Newport Point has a submarine canyon that sucks those Mexican hurricane swells right in, and it can break with some serious hollowness and power when it goes off. So, after breaking a few boards at Newport Point, I was down to body surfing in the shore break. John Gothard offered to loan me one of his Stussy’s, which was something I was stoked to try out, and as I expected, the board worked really good.
Gothard had a full quiver and didn’t seem in a hurry to get it back so I thought I’d have Terry Martin make one like it. I didn’t really think ahead that doing that could strike a nerve.
Gothard was all over the magazines back then riding Stussy’s, as was Smerk who was a buddy of mine who also ripped on them, which made these boards very popular, so it was hard to even get an order in with Stussy. Getting an actual board from Shawn Stussy was near impossible for people who were not part of his little clique. In fact, his boards were so popular that it would take over 6 months to even get a board in those days and he wouldn’t take any more orders until he got caught up.
When I brought the board back to Gothard he noticed a little foam dust on it and began enquiring if I was getting one shaped like it….he then told me that Stussy was really touchy about stuff like that! Especially if he finds out you took it over to Terry Martin, since Terry Martin was known for his ability to duplicate a board really well.
Gothard was always joking about stuff so I didn’t know whether he was serious or not. But I was a bit surprised Stussy would even care since as a popular shaper he must be aware that people are gonna examine his stuff and try to find out what makes it work and do likewise.
I told Gothard: “Hey, imitation is the greatest compliment one can receive. Besides, what is the deal with this guy anyways, doesn’t he realize he’s copying Simon Andersons every time he shapes a thruster?” The thruster was in fact rapidly copied throughout the world after Simon Anderson demonstrated from giant Bells to Pipe, how great it worked. Imitation happens in every genre, and nothing really happens in a vacuum.
However, I gave it a little more thought and I figured it is better not to get on his wrong side. I didn’t think Stussy would listen to my philosophical lecture and didn’t want him coming after me with his planer and try and give me a little shave.
So just to be safe, I told Gothard: “You know, how about I keep the board a little longer and surf on it a little more to get that foam dust off? I’ll be making sure it is really clean while I ride a few more waves with it!” Can’t say I minded having an excuse for riding that Stussy a little bit longer.
Time has moved on and the era of the shaper-rock star has kind of faded with computer-driven technology and mass production touching the surf world.
There is something though about that touch of those “delicate genius” types, and that je ne sais quoi human element of shaping a board which neither computer-driven shaping machines nor someone trying to copy it can often easily or exactly replicate.
The board Terry Martin made me worked alright, but even though it was copied exactly, it lacked something the Stussy had… which is part of the mystery: Why it is that even the best board duplicator in the business still can’t capture the hidden personal element that the original shaper himself brought to the endeavor. There is just that unique element that is hard to explain. There’s a video I saw where Mick Fanning himself shared how he couldn’t get the shaping machines to duplicate his best boards to ride the same either.
Now that I’m doing a bit of occasional shaping myself, I appreciate those “delicate genius” type shapers, and the je ne sais quoi stuff those guys had all the more! It doesn’t come around all the time and it takes years to perfect it! Every once in a while, you’d get a magic board that would just blow your mind how great it worked, as I did with a few from Bob Hurley and a few others like Greg Giddings’G-Force’s, that I would ride until the board was literally falling apart and water-logged.
Back to our Backyard Board
So anyways, my son Patrick and I got hold of a few blanks recently, and I wracked the ‘ole brain to remember some of those things I learned back in the day from different shapers, and so we’ve now made a couple of our own surfboards.
This latest iteration seen in the above video being a board made especially to have fun in small, weak waves but still do some shortboard maneuvers. It was designed specifically to have some of the flow and glide of a bigger board but still turn and be fun in weak, gutless mush. So you can check it out as we put this experimental board through its paces in this short video.
We also threw in a little bit of a surf music jam, reminiscent of a time back before I actually surfed, or even walked yet for that matter. We just threw this together on the fly with an electric guitar, bass, and electric piano kick track, and then put it on a loop.
I figure anything that can keep you motivated to keep getting out in the water and riding a few waves is a good thing, as it is a blessing to be able to get out there and refresh yourself in God’s creation. Having some equipment suited to the task at hand just adds to the fun!
Some Reflections of Irish Surf Experiences in the Season of St. Patrick: This video features some sights and a bit of surf I got on the Emerald Isle over the course of some different trips. After a few experiences there one learns that surfing with the wind and weather is something you gotta get used to in those parts, which turns out to be necessary in other unusual places where I have also gotten to get a bit of surf, such as: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales, and Canada. The wind and weather just comes with the territory if you want to surf in those places. While traveling in Ireland back then, we were visiting sights like a little bitty church out in the country, which St. Patrick built with his own hands (unlike the touristy one in Dublin he had absolutely no connection with). We had to make a mad dash across an active airport runway, and then a hike through some bushes to get to that off-the-beaten-path ancient little sight! On one trip there, I was surfing at a place called Bonduran, a classic left point that is one of the best Irish waves and is reputed to rival Mundaka as one of the best waves in Europe (I've caught a few waves at Mundaka, and Bonduran is right up there with it.) I got myself a few tubes and other super fun waves there at Bonduran, but no footage as it was raining cats and dogs. But that is why Ireland is so green as rain will just show up any ole time! While I was surfing Bonduran, I kept seeing a guy that surfed like Kelly Slater up the point a ways--I got used to seeing Slater surf in person back in the day when I surfed for Quiksilver and they would have him down in Newport Beach at times--however, it seemed so random that he would be in Ireland so I thought, "Nah, that couldn't be him, just another Slater-Imitator." The next day the surf was blown out and I was in a surf shop in Bonduran talking to the guy who ran and owned the shop--turned out he had worked with Quiksilver to fly Slater over from mainland Europe to Bonduran in a helicopter for the firing Irish surf of the moment--so it was Slater after all. They filmed some footage for an Irish surf movie in spite of the drenching rain because, if you can afford a helicopter, you can also afford some pretty decent filming equipment too. It always blows my mind how big Quiksilver got, as I remember the days when I hung about the tiny little office up off Superior Avenue, hoping to get more free board shorts and stuff from Danny Kwok. Kwok was like the candyman shelling out occasional freebies to all the team riders. That small office started very humbly in the industrial area by all the surfboard makers in Newport. When I was walking down the Champs-Elysees in Paris, I bumped into a Quiksilver shop on that ritzy strip of the Parisian boulevard and I was flabbergasted at how big they had become. Anyways, the surfer from the shop in Bonduran, Ireland, Richie Fitzgerald, made a movie about Irish surfing that he was telling us about as we hung around the shop the day after that epic session at Bonduran. I think he may have just visited the Blarney Stone because he had "the gift of gab" going. The surf was blown to smithereens that day, with even more wind and rain than usual, and there was nothing anyone could do except wait out the storm and chat. He was stoked to tell us all about a movie he was making called "Waveriders" which is about the roots of Irish surfing. It was fun to see that movie after it finally came out having met one of the main producers. It turned out to be a pretty good flick on Irish Surfing. Well, those were some fun experiences along the way on the ole Irey Coast and along the Euro Hippie Surf Trail. Our own short little video we have here has some Irish scenes and surf which accompanies the song “Celtic Cry” that is based on St. Patrick’s supernatural mission call, which I wrote while traveling through Ireland on different trips there. Anyways, have a look at our video here: https://youtu.be/CwhRknFbIhA
(If you would be interested in reading about how St Patrick’s life can be an inspiration in these dark and distressing days, or are interested in knowing more about St. Patrick, you can go here.)
2,000 miles of driving throughout the UK had us on some unique roads. An example of the road we describe in the story is seen in the beginning of this video. Here are a few fun memories of a recent trip to the UK and a couple of surf sessions we just happened to stumble into:
We were meeting up with our friend Davey Grace in Wales that went quite a bit longer than planned. After leaving the restaurant we decided to take a drive around and see a bit of Wales since we had crossed the border late the night before and hadn’t seen hardly anything there yet. We cruised around a while and checked things out, but then…
Driving around exploring a new foreign place can be a lot of fun but also have the downside of getting lost, which we ended up doing. We continued driving trying to figure where we were, but then ended up in a big traffic jam. We worked our way out of the traffic but now had no idea where we were. We tried heading away from the city and after some random turns we ended up in a farming area where we ended up turning onto a small dirt road that became pretty isolated. We were starting to get further out into Nowheresville so we took a turn off into a campground we spotted.
We asked some people milling about the campground thinking maybe they could give us some directions. Instead we just got a bunch of blank stares and kept hearing: “Nicht sprechen sie Englisch.” It was a bunch of German campers, we could only laugh: “Here we are in an English-speaking country for once and when we are lost…we can’t even find anyone who speaks a word of English to help us," I told Mercedes.
We started driving again; we saw some cars racing down a road a bit up the horizon and figured, let’s follow them and see where it takes us.
We followed the cars the best we could on those crazy, little, narrow, hedgerow-lined, medieval cart paths, that pass for roads. They feel so precarious because you can't see a thing coming . It’s especially difficult when you’re driving on the left side. “These guys think they are race-car drivers going so fast like this on these little paths,"I said. These things would be considered a narrow bike lane elsewhere. "I think they’ve watched too many European race car shows." The stress of feeling like I was about to go head-on around the next blind corner of one of these narrow hedgerows was building up: "Half the time I keep forgetting what side of the road I’m supposed to be driving on; well, actually there are no sides of the road,” I commented. I finally took a turn into what looked like a park, hoping to just get out of the car and take a breather after being lost in traffic earlier and now lost in a giant maze which felt like it was made for a giant rat in search of cheese.
We pulled into the car park and it turned out to be a beachside parking lot (most of Wales in this area is situated along the coast) in what seemed like quite the popular destination. There were people walking around and I noticed quite a few surfboards on top of the cars, so we got out to have a look at what might be happening in the water.
“Hey, this is a point break and it is actually breaking,” I told Mercedes. “But this part of Wales is in a huge bay near the border with England, so swells have a hard time getting into the coast here at all. Wow, this is amazing!” It was quite the find to just stumble upon a swell working its way into this area that doesn’t break all that often, especially after being so lost. We probably would have never found it if we had been actually trying as the roads are pretty unnavigable in this area.
The amount of cars in the parking lot with boards testified to the fact that the rare surf for this area had come up and many were out to grab it while it was here. I hadn’t even given a thought to surfing in this part of Wales because of the difficulty that swells have of making it all the way up the coastline into the big bay we were in.
Somehow we had stumbled into being at the right place at the right time. After catching my breath from the stress of driving in such extreme conditions, I thought: Hey, we're here and I've got the equipment needed, so why not? I got ready to head out as the rain started to come down a bit. “If it is raining again we must be in the UK,” I quipped. “But what does that matter? You’re wet anyways when you surf. Why do surfers always want that sunny weather anyways? You’re still wet in the end.”
Well, that infamous weather, along with the lack of a large swell window, keeps this part of the world from being on most traveling surfers’ radar as a destination—most surf trips here would probably have you spending a lot of time sitting around drinking "cream teas" and watching the “telly” waiting for something to finally happen.
I got the wetsuit on and paddled out. After getting a good wave straight off, I couldn’t help but give thanks to the One who created it all and caused us to stumble into something so rare like this.
It was amazing to be surfing good waves in this part of Wales of all places, and just the therapy needed after being lost and getting stiff in my shoulders and back from driving way too much the past few days.
It turned into a super fun surf session there on the Welsh coastline. The waves were 4 to 5 feet plus, with plenty of room to maneuver. Such a blessing to just come upon it so spontaneously after being lost. A cool end to an even cooler day, all such amazing grace!
Well the beat went on: A similar thing happened again a little later in the trip when we were on the East Coast of England, an area that faces continental Europe and is basically a big channel and rarely gets much swell either. A Polish friend invited us out to go fishing in the North Sea one day. When we got down to the coast, however, a powerful storm had closed all the ports and fishing was definitely out. “You have a board, why you don’t go surfing?” the big polish guy said with an even bigger slap on my back. “Ok, you convinced me,” I replied. Any pounding I took in the water would be less than the one I was getting from his big palm on my back.
I found a spot going off with 4-to 6-foot waves and offshore winds, with only four other guys out—had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, as conditions like that quickly draw surfers by the thousands out into the water in California. I came in a few times between some great waves there to make sure everyone was not getting bored while hanging around on the beach. I got some more slaps on the back from our Polish friend who said, “Get back out there and get those waves while they are actually there to be got, these places don’t have waves like this too often at all.” With a few more slaps on the back I was back out in the waves, hardly believing I was getting this type of surf in the North Sea channel and with only 4 other guys out!
This, after all, was on the East Coast of England, which needs a strong localized storm to bring in any waves, exactly what we got just at the right time. More therapy! Just the kind I like! Too many planes, trains, and automobiles and a busy schedule makes the ‘ole body sore and a bit too stiff; unexpected great waves along the UK coast with some sunny weather thrown in quite a few times was more than what we actually expected or might have even prayed for—wow what do you say but "Thanks God!!"
Heading out in the English surf and sun. Yes, I said sun!
Patrick throwing a turn
Bryan hitting a lip at the English sandbars
It is nice to have the boards with you when you travel even if at times you're tempted to throw them them overboard and be done with the burden of lugging them around. While in England, after spending some time in London seeing some cool sites and doing some speaking engagements, we ended up at the coast later in Cornwall and found not only some beautiful sunny days—quite rare in England—but also a nice swell running with glassy, fun conditions. We grabbed our boards and headed out for a fun unexpected surf session on the English waves. Traveling with a board can be a pain like I said—at times I thought why not just throw it in the Thames and be done with the burden—however, when you come across some fun waves in these little nooks and crannies you are glad you have your own equipment. A few waves here and there definitely refreshes things. At that time the grace you experience in the waves make all the enduring you’ve gone through carrying the blasted things around worthwhile.
We got some killer offshore wind conditions later on in Devon that were reminiscent of our California Santa Ana winds; however, without the ten thousand people surfing it at the same time like in So Cal that happens every time an offshore wind slightly blows. Offshore conditions with only a handful of people out felt a little strange but no complaints here while pulling into a few bowls.
We headed out and met with a friend in Wales and got lost on the Welsh roads afterwards. While trying to find our way back to the right road we somehow, by the sheer grace of God, ended up at a great surfing pointbreak which had waves similar to San Miguel in Mexico and grabbed a few fun Welsh pointbreak zippers--a real gift after getting so lost! We even got some surf on the East Coast later, around Newcastle. Pretty amazing!
SURF, SOUNDS, AND SCENES OF SCOTLAND
Getting a few fun one's along with some great scenery further up north.
Some scenes and fun-sized spring surf from Kauai and Oahu
I just recently saw a screening of Soul Surfer, a new movie that will be premiering tonight April 8 about Bethany Hamilton’s story. Hamilton went from rising surf star to shark attack victim. She had her arm bitten completely off by a tiger shark while surfing on Kauai’s North Shore and had to endure an intense recovery from such a traumatic event. Learning to surf again with one arm, as well as going through the trying process of understanding how bad things can eventually be conquered and overcoming severe adversity, it is inspiring to see someone overcome such a serious trial in their life.
On another level the movie stirred a lot of reflections for me since Soul Surfer was actually shot on the island of Kauai itself, where my own uncle lived and where I was first introduced to surfing and gave it a try. It brought on some vivid memories of days there in Kauai:
I was just a little guy around our son’s age when I was eating lunch with my family at The Waiohai, a resort on the South Shore, and noticed some kid out there ripping up some waves. He looked about my same height and age of about ten years, so it caught my eye. My aunt said: “You could learn if you gave it a try. I think your uncle has an extra board in the backyard somewhere.”
My uncle was a surfer but had gotten more into windsurfing over the years so the board had been abandoned in some bushes in the backyard. I dug around and found the board and cleaned it up. It felt like it weighed a thousand pounds, so my dad had to help me carry it down to the beach.
I’d heard you needed wax for surfboards so we got some out of my uncle’s garage, but then I was perplexed: “Where does it go? Probably on the bottom like skis.” I said. As I waxed the bottom of the board some guys coming down the beach yelled out: “Hey haole, you waxing the bottom, what you a potato-head from Idaho, you some kind of kook ehh.” Well, those sure were some encouraging words, but it did lead us to the conclusion that the wax goes on the deck, not on the bottom.
I tried paddling out but didn’t get far trying to go through the soup with that heavy barge. So back to the beach, where we found a little cove with some micro waves that seemed more fit for a first try. A few paddles and pushes from Dad and I was up and riding some six to ten inchers on the islands.
Stoked from just those little waves, I got my first board shortly after getting back to the mainland and persevered through freezing water and harsh conditions, wearing only a beaver tail wetsuit, enduring endless wipeouts, crashes, and dings to the head and body, to actually finally learn to surf.
The transition from warm water Kauai to freezing water in California, and from a 10-foot log to a 5’10’ shortboard, slowed the progress a bit, but somehow I pushed through and kept going.
This was the time before the plethora of today’s surf schools and soft boards when “we did walk in the snow both ways uphill to school.” Back then you literally froze if you wanted to surf in California--wetsuits were just not that warm in those days--and learning was up to you and wasn’t always encouraged by other “local” surfers. We only had the regular hard boards in those days so when you fell, which is a regular occurrence while learning, and the board hit you, it was often a painful experience with actual blood oozing.
I spent time on Kauai on numerous surf trips over the years, hanging out at my uncle’s and surfing pretty much most of the spots the island has to offer.
The thought of the shark attack Bethany Hamilton experienced couldn’t help but stay in the back of my mind while surfing the very same spot on Kauai’s North Shore on a recent trip. It was a windy day so I was out there all by myself, which always adds to that eerie feeling. It was enough trying to avoid the long hold downs by some macking sets, but while I was paddling up a big wave face I was bumped hard by something large from behind. I nearly jumped out of my skin and didn’t really want to turn around and face what it was. Once outside I turned back and was relieved to see only a huge sea turtle—I could wipe the sweat off my brow, even while wet in the ocean, after that one. That definitely got my blood pumping.
Last time I was on Kauai I was getting out from surfing some double to triple overhead surf at Hanalei Bay. I happened to walk right into Bethany Hamilton while heading to the car in the parking area, meeting her briefly and talking with her a bit. It hit me while driving away that the challenge of surfing those large waves that day was enough in itself, and yet she was out there, going for it and charging those big waves, with only one arm. That’s something truly impressive.
If you watch the news you probably heard of the unfortunate poor young guy who was killed by a shark at an isolated beach just north of Santa Barbara about a month ago or so.
The beach he was killed at is in a rather obscure location, miles and miles out on a long road by Vandenberg Air Force Base. It’s at one of those places that feels like you have to drive forever just to get to it.
I was up there recently myself when I did the drive-forever thing to go grab a few waves, when I was met by a robot impersonating a human being—who happened to work for the government of course—that was locking up the gate to the beach. “What's up?” I asked."The snowy plover," he replied, as he pointed to a sign about the endangered bird. The bird was apparently deciding to have the beach evacuated because it would like some personal privacy and was in the mood to be alone. I guess we're supposed to grant it all its personal wishes: "People and Plovers Working Together" after all, as Mr. Robot's shirt read.
After driving all that way out there it felt very strange to be barred from the beach by a bird that didn't have enough of a brain to choose the approximately 60 other miles of completely untouched coastline in the Vandenberg base and Hollister Ranch to hang out at. There was definitely some ruffled feathers at that moment and it wasn't the birds.
The warning the sign gives you of a $25,000 fine and a significant amount of jail time will make you think twice about sneaking in another way to grab some waves there, so it was back on the road again to try and find some waves miles down the highway elsewhere. I took a look at the break as I was driving off and thought, "Man, this place looks like an isolated shark haven anyways." Saying something like that after such an experience is usually just sour grapes, but as I made the 1½ hour drive to the next accessible spot, I thought that maybe there is a larger reason as to why all that happened.
As much of a bummer as it was to be barred because of some bird, the place did look foreboding and sharky for some reason. The reason it felt that way, I now know, is that it is!
Someone getting attacked by a shark there confirmed those underlying suspicions.
Things do happen for a reason at times, as unclear at the time as it may appear. After hearing about this poor young guy being killed there by a shark at that very spot, I'm kind of thankful for the robot man and his brain-damaged bird now.
The news reported that the poor bloke's girlfriend had apparently begged him the night before not to go surfing the next day because she feared a shark attack. A divine warning of dire conditions? However you add all that up, something was definitely being communicated to the guy that got killed.
Oftentimes, we have that sense when something isn't right. I was out at Salmon Creek (north of San Francisco by the Russian River area) surfing sometime back, when that eerie feeling came over me—I’ve surfed in South Africa and Australia at spots specifically known for shark attacks, as well as other notorious spots in Northern Californian and Oregon, and never had that feeling once—something didn't feel right while out at Salmon Creek that day, and the thick fog rolling in wasn't helping with that eerie feeling either. I tried to ignore it and keep surfing. Nevertheless, I finally succumbed to that foreboding pall hanging over the scene and split. Lo and behold, there was a shark attack by a 14 ft. great white on a young woman surfer shortly afterwards.....whoa!!!
Famed World Champion surfer Mark Richards was in Japan when a big shark started circling the contest area. The Japanese contest director told him in desperation of the contest being ruined, to please go back out and surf his heat saying, "Don't worry, Japanese shark very friendly." As funny as that was he was having none of it.
Most of the time I don't even think about stuff like this. Now and then however, when you hear about some unfortunate soul being taken out by one of those great eating machines of the deep, especially at a place where you just tried to go surfing and were prevented by circumstances beyond your control, you give thanks to the "One on High" that kept you from possibly meeting the same fate, even as humiliating as being barred from the beach by a bird and a bird-brained robot-man might be.
Bryan has traveled to over 40 countries; recently visiting 17 with his family in just one trek. With over 25 years experience surfing in over 20 countries, he’s surfed the usual places like Hawaii, Mexico, Australia, but also caught waves in many unusual places like Israel, Sweden, Ghana, Germany, Argentina, Hong Kong, Scotland and Norway. He was sponsored when involved in surf competition by Quiksilver, Aleeda, and Hobie. He also worked as a model in the US and Europe for Yamaha, Levi’s, Giorgio Armani, Maiser, Bella, Sahara Club, Mode, SpotSport and others. He’s appeared in: Surfing Magazine, Breakout Magazine, ManMode, Outdoor Life, L.A. Times, O.C. Register and Sportstyle Magazine’s cover. He’s done TV commercials for Levi’s, Millers Outpost, City Sports-Japan, Armani-Italy, and the TV show Platinum Performance. He's currently in the film "Frisbee, The life and Death of a Hippie Preacher" and Fine Living's TV show “The Great Adventure” South African surf safari. He and his wife air 2 radio shows in the US and Mex. and regional TV shows, often sharing "Holy Ghost Surf Stories" about traveling adventures. He has a Masters from Fuller in Pasadena, CA, and a B.A. from CSUF.
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