{"id":94943,"date":"2023-06-05T13:50:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T20:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=94943"},"modified":"2024-01-17T08:47:49","modified_gmt":"2024-01-17T16:47:49","slug":"garrett-mcnamara-talk-story-of-100-foot-wave-with-jeff-ho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/garrett-mcnamara-talk-story-of-100-foot-wave-with-jeff-ho\/","title":{"rendered":"GARRETT MCNAMARA Talk Story of 100 Foot Wave with Jeff Ho"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GARRETT MCNAMARA INTERVIEW BY JEFF HO<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANK QUARTET AND TOMO MCPHERSON COURTESY OF G. MCNAMARA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garrett is the pioneer that has always wanted to master the art of riding big waves. He is an ambassador for surfing, a family man and mentor to generations of surfers with his sharing of knowledge in the water. Garrett is progressing beyond the realms of what seems possible in his pursuit of riding the biggest waves. It takes a team to put your life on the line for the big thrill and you can always bet on Team Garrett.\u00a0<\/em> \u2013 INTRODUCTION BY JEFF HO<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where did we meet? I know it was on the North Shore.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We met at B Rad\u2019s at Pupukea, or it could have been Rocky Point. You were probably dropping in on me, or Liam was dropping in on both of us. [laughs]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liam was dropping in on everybody.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was behind us taking every wave. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I heard about you because I was building boards and we have a common friend, Charlie Walker. You and Charlie were pioneering tow-in surfing. Charlie was always talking about the boat.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And how to make it better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You guys were at Backyards towing in. I used to live on Oopuola, which is the street that goes right into Backyards. Brewer lived across the street. In the \u201890s, you and I became really good friends.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was super lucky. You shaped me some boards and I was riding for you a bit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. Here is something I wanted to ask. How did your skateboarding background influence your surfing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a good question. I grew up in Berkeley, California, and, from \u201876 to \u201878, our favorite thing was skating. We loved BMX, baseball, football, basketball and soccer, but skateboarding was our thing. They had just built the BART Station and we would go there and have contests and we had ramps everywhere and we\u2019d skate crazy downhill. We felt like we were a part of Dogtown, even though we were in Berkeley. Then I moved to Hawaii in \u201878. When we moved to Hawaii, there wasn\u2019t much skateboarding, so we built a ramp right away. Then my mom bought us a surfboard and that was like skateboarding on water, except when you fall, you don\u2019t hit cement. Usually, you land in nice soft water unless you hit the reef once in a while, so that was an easy transition and super natural. That was where we fell in love with surfing. Skateboarding had a profound effect on the natural progression from skating to surfing. Then I was super lucky and I became friends with Jay Adams and Buttons and many other guys who took surfing style to skateboarding and skateboard moves to surfing. You and those guys were the legends of all time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
CORTES. PHOTO \u00a9 FRANK QUARTET\/MAVS PHOTOG. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We were from different places and ended up on the North Shore. Then you became a big wave riding pioneer and went to Nazar\u00e9 and showed the world that there was an unbelievable wave that had been there for many years.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nazar\u00e9 was an amazing fairytale love story. I got married there. Once we saw that the wave was so big and then we figured out that you could actually surf it, it was just waiting for perfect days and bigger waves. It\u2019s going to get a lot bigger, and there are going to be much bigger waves ridden there in the future. It\u2019s crazy because it\u2019s right there in front of everybody. Kelly Slater was there two weeks before I got there. He was at the lighthouse, and he texted me and goes, \u201cGarrett, one mistake here and you might not go home. Please be careful.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was there a bit of red tape you had to go through to actually surf that wave?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was special because the Nazar\u00e9 City Hall invited us, but the rules that were put in place were the same Personal Watercraft Jet Ski Rules that we have in the United States. You need somebody on the back of your personal watercraft looking back at the person you\u2019re towing. That doesn\u2019t work for big wave riding, so we were going out illegally if you follow all the rules to a T. Luckily, City Hall was behind it, and the Navy would let us go as long as we had a Portuguese or European driver with us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s crazy \u2013 defying death. The big risk in my heyday was surfing with no leashes. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real pioneers were out there with no leashes with boards that were almost impossible to ride until guys like you came along and made them more functional. Let\u2019s hear your experiences, Jeff. Where was your favorite spot on the North Shore?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would say there are thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of undiscovered, uncharted and unsurfed waves. All of the waves that we surf at our normal spots around the world, are our local spots that we know about, but there are spots we don\u2019t go to in a different direction that might have a wind that will be offshore at some weird spot where we\u2019ve never thought about looking.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I loved riding Sunset and Lani\u2019s. You can tell when there\u2019s a good winter coming when you get the first North swell and it wraps all the way around Lani\u2019s and it goes for what seems like a mile. I would always see Ben Aipa on those first swells.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. I remember when I was working with you, and Brewer was working with Laird, and I got lucky enough to get in the room with Brewer and he made me a board. They were so ahead of everybody. I had a few Lopez boards too. My first few tow boards were Lopez. That was when YU came in. He worked at B Rad\u2019s too. Yoshi Ueda was awesome. He was an old Japanese Lightning Bolt shaper. Brewer made the best boards I had at that time, and then Ron Bloomquest who was funding the Brewer Project stepped out. Then I got some Stretch Boards and he was leading edge. I got a magic Stretch and a magic Brewer and I took what I liked out of the Brewer and the Stretch and made something in between. We went to Mercedes in Germany and took my magic board that had the best parts of the Stretch and the best parts of the Brewer and made it even better. It was a dream. What surfer gets pitched by Mercedes? Mercedes called like, \u201cWe want to pitch you.\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cYou want to pitch me?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That doesn\u2019t happen.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mercedes said, \u201cWe want to sponsor you, but we don\u2019t want to just sit on the cliff and watch you surf. We want to get in the water with you. Most people don\u2019t know that the three-pointed stars in the Mercedes symbol are air, land and sea. We want to go in the sea with you and we want to build you the ultimate board so you can survive and come home to your family.\u201d That was the pitch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s beautiful.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. I\u2019m still dreaming about getting a board from you again though. I want one of those Sarlo models so bad. When we started working together, you were making my boards a little thicker and wider, but I was trying to get them thinner and narrower. Now I\u2019m riding boards that are thicker and wider, so you were way ahead of me. You knew what I needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
DECEMBER 2012 NAZARE, IT WAS JUST GARRETT AND HIS TEAM. PHOTO BY TOMO MCPHERSON<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I was going, \u201cWe need to add a little more to these boards.\u201d At the time, I was having a hard time getting thicker blanks from Clark, so I could only go so far with them. Now, with paddle in boards, the theory is that you\u2019re closer to 4\u201d or over 4\u201d thick. They\u2019ve gone to EPS and that gives you a little more flotation, but you have to make the board have a little weight. We\u2019ll do something. Let me ask you this. What\u2019s the mentality when you\u2019re riding a wave as big as Nazar\u00e9? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, I always searched for giant waves and tried to ride them as deep as possible to get the rush. Now I do it for fun, first and foremost, and just to let everyone know it\u2019s never too early, never too late to follow your dreams. Write down your goals, make a road map, a blueprint. You can still do everything you want to do. You just have to prepare for it. Everything is possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happens when one of your sons, Titus or Barrel, says he wants to ride Nazar\u00e9?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If they want to, I\u2019ll make sure they train properly, more than everyone else. I\u2019ll be there for them in the water, watching over them. I\u2019ll get the rush every time I put them on a wave because I\u2019m responsible. The funny thing is that I have towed both of them into Nazar\u00e9. Titus loves big waves, so we\u2019ll see what tomorrow brings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re active in bringing awareness to environmental concerns. How do your sponsors support the work you do for the planet?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything I have came from the ocean \u2013 my whole life and my livelihood. We live on the ocean and it\u2019s so scary what\u2019s happening to the ocean and to Mother Earth. We are so impressionable, all of us humans. If you see someone pick up trash off the beach, all of a sudden, you\u2019re doing it too. As far as going to other countries, especially third world countries, it\u2019s so challenging when you show up and you think you\u2019re going to do a beach clean-up and make a difference and you get to the beach and the whole beach is trash. I was in shock in Angola. We got a group of people together and we put our gloves on and we went to town. All of a sudden, this beach that was 100% trash was clean in a couple hours. I was like, \u201cWe can make a difference.\u201d We have got to outlaw single use plastic. Plastic is an amazing material and you can make medical supplies and things that we need from it, but single-use plastic should be outlawed. The number one thing that we can do today is get a reusable water bottle and never buy a plastic water bottle again. The challenge with that is there is not always somewhere to get clean drinking water, especially in third world countries. I think all businesses should have a refill station in their office for all of their employees and customers. It\u2019s an easy solution. Plastic bags are the other easiest thing to change. Just bring a reusable bag when you go to the store. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first season of 100 Foot Wave won an Emmy, and it just had such a good story. It was the discovery of the wave and all the old archival footage, so it was really special.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When we saw you in Venice in 2019, you brought your daughter, Theia, and Mason Silva to the skatepark. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theia was 1 and Mason ollied over Theia that day and Juice Dan got a great photo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mason Silva won 2020 Skater of the Year the very next year. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. He is a family friend. We were very fortunate to align with Todd and Michelle with Pau Hana Surf Supply. They have a son and two daughters, Haley and Ginger. Mason is Ginger\u2019s boyfriend and they were saying how much of a big deal he is in skating. We got to know him and he\u2019s such a nice person. When we got to go skate with him, he flew over Theia and it was mind blowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
MASON SILVA OLLIES OVER THEIA MCNAMARA AND HER DAD, GARRETT MCNAMARA, BIG WAVE PIONEER AND\u00a0STAR OF \u201c100 FOOT WAVE\u201d WITH SURF SKATE ICON, JEFF HO IN VENICE BEACH. PHOTO \u00a9 DAN LEVY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

That was such a good time. Do your younger kids like surfing and skating?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barrel is amazing, and he just started loving surfing. Theia was the craziest little skater and then she had a little spill. She\u2019s getting into surfing and catching a few waves and she\u2019s got the fire so, if she wants to, it\u2019s gonna be on. Fe Fe will probably do it all. I\u2019m trying not to force the kids. I\u2019m doing my best to just be there for them and listen to what they want. It\u2019s hard to not be somebody who is saying, \u201cHey, let\u2019s go. Come on.\u201d It\u2019s a fine line. Sometimes I think you just have to say, \u201cLet\u2019s go! Come on!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you feel about the importance of passing down tradition in skating and surfing to the next generation? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The kids are the future. They need to know where it all started and where it came from and who paved the road for us. It\u2019s really nice to know the history and be able to feel it and see it. There\u2019s so much we can learn. History always repeats itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
NAZAR\u00c9 ALL ALONE 2012. PHOTO COURTESY OF GARRETT MCNAMARA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How did the concept of your 100 Foot Wave show on HBO come about? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s about who you surround yourself with. I happen to be so lucky to join forces with Nicole, my love, who wrote a script for a 1 1\/2 hour movie on the human spirit and the fact that everything is possible. Nicole sent it to her cousin, Yara, who is married to Joe Lewis, a big-time producer and co-founder of Amazon TV. Joe took a look and said, \u201cThis can win an Oscar. I can point you in the right direction if you want me to get involved.\u201d Nicole instantly said, \u201cHere, take it.\u201d They took it and pitched a bunch of directors. Chris Smith happened to be one of them. Chris Smith had no desire to do anything with surfing in any way shape or form, but Chris took a Skype call with me, Nicole and Joe. Chris saw the intensity in my eyes and said, \u201cThat guy is a character.\u201d All of a sudden, he was interested. Then we sent them all the footage that we had compiled for 10 years at Nazar\u00e9. They started looking at it and they were like, \u201cHoly shit! This is much bigger than a 1 1\/2 hour movie. This is a docuseries. We\u2019re going to do four or maybe six episodes.\u201d It was all because of Nicole. She masterminded the script and sent it to her cousin who showed it to Joe who got Chris. Then Topic Studios got involved and brought in HBO because they had wanted to do something with Chris for a long time. Joe Lewis is the best producer ever, so HBO really wanted to work with both of them. We just happened to be lucky enough to be the subjects they were pitching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s beautiful because 100 Foot Wave won an Emmy. Now you have two seasons done and you\u2019re working on a third?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes. The first season and second season are out. They\u2019re filming the third season now and it\u2019s already greenlit, so we have a season three coming. We have had an amazing trajectory. We\u2019ve compiled a lot of really good stuff already and we\u2019re only about halfway through season three. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you end up picking the people to be in the series with you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s funny. Once you release the rights to something, you have zero control. Luckily, the director and the producer are receptive to our thoughts and desires. At the end of the day, they do what they want and include who they want, so we have no control over any of that. Luckily, the characters are very inspiring and amazing. They chose people that the public will love and gravitate to and love their story as they go through trials, tribulations and triumphant moments. We helped pick the cast of characters, but they decide who is in and what happens. They send us what they made and we get to help fact check. I\u2019m so grateful that we have Chris Smith and Joe Lewis because they\u2019re receptive to what we feel is good factual representation of that athlete in that spot. They are really about the facts. Season two is incredible. I didn\u2019t think there was any way to top season one and I\u2019m pretty sure they topped it. I\u2019m pretty sure Nicole will get at least two Emmys this year. [laughs]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Wow. What other surfers are in it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be honest, Mason Barnes, Reggie\u2019s son, should be in it and we wanted him in it. They left him out saying that what he did might make it into season three, which would be great. He actually got the biggest wave of the year and did things that nobody could ever do. He went to Nazar\u00e9 with no driver or rescue guy. He was showing up and making calls and getting a guy to say, \u201cI\u2019ll drive you.\u201d He then got a guy to say, \u201cI\u2019ll do rescue for you.\u201d Then he won biggest wave of the year. Is that not the best story?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is the best story. You\u2019ve known Mason a long time, and mentored him, so that must be a great feeling.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a great feeling. He\u2019s excelling and he\u2019s happy. The other characters in season two are Lucas [\u201cChumbo\u201d Chianca] and Kai Lenny who are the super freaks of nature and they go through some crazy heavy stuff. Then there\u2019s Ian Cosenza and Michelle [Des Bouillons], his girlfriend, and there is Justine Dupont and Fred David. They have an amazing love story and an amazing team. I love working with them. Then there\u2019s Kosha who always comes in here and there. Then there\u2019s Alem\u00e3o de Maresias. If you want to go out at Nazar\u00e9, you want Alem\u00e3o as your driver. There are a lot of good characters and good stories. CJ is Nicole\u2019s brother and I think that he is the star of the whole season because of what he went through and how he goes through life and shares his experiences. He\u2019s really articulate and good. There\u2019s so much good stuff. There is Tony who is super inspiring and Cotty is the man as always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I look forward to seeing that. You said that season two of 100 Foot Wave is better season than the first one, but the first season won an Emmy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first season of 100 Foot Wave won an Emmy, and it just had such a good story. It was the discovery of the wave and all the old archival footage, so it was really special. I didn\u2019t think there was any way to top it. Luckily, the footage these guys compiled was gold. We filmed for two years and the things that happened during those two years were out of this world. COVID really slowed things down, but we were still filming through all of COVID and then the next year started. They were like, \u201cWe\u2019re going to put one and two together.\u201d Honestly, I think season two might be better than season one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The music in the soundtrack for the series, did you influence that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was all Chris and Joe and Topic or HBO. They\u2019re Philip Glass fans and I didn\u2019t even know who Philip Glass was. They didn\u2019t really score the movie. They just laid over tracks that Philip has for you to grab. Since he\u2019s so good and the music is so smooth, it works. If they had somebody score it, it would be even better. Philip Glass is the man though and some people watch the show just because Philip Glass did the music. If Philip Glass had scored every beat to every emotion and every ride and every turn and every fall, it might have been even better. You know how much better surfing movies are when they are actually scored to the beat and the action. They do have the most amazing segment with Barrel and they use the song \u201cThis Magic Moment\u201d. They got a little Jimi Hendrix or something similar for CJ. CJ is the star. Cotty is the star. I\u2019m just a guy in the background having fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re the guy that motivated all this stuff. Nicole was writing about you and your life story? What is the story now? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It went away from our lives a bit in the first pass and they reeled it back in and hit home and included us in a good way and I\u2019m really happy with the final product. It\u2019s well done and we\u2019re well represented and included. For some reason, they\u2019re having fun with the things that I\u2019m doing out of the water as well in the water. You\u2019ve got CJ and he\u2019s not really a big wave rider or a professional surfer. He was a professional volleyball player. He\u2019s always said that he is in a league of his own, but he\u2019s more of a normal person. He\u2019s like, \u201cI might want to go, but I don\u2019t know if I want to go.\u201d He\u2019s going through what an average person would go through and that helps them relate. He is the main character and the most well-spoken champion of season two. There is Cotty who has his challenges but he works through them and excels and prevails. There are a lot of great characters in the show and I\u2019m really happy with the way it turned out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER ISSUE #79 AT THE JUICE SHOP\u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GARRETT MCNAMARA INTERVIEW BY JEFF HO PHOTOGRAPHY BY FRANK QUARTET AND TOMO MCPHERSON COURTESY OF G. MCNAMARA Garrett is the pioneer that has always wanted to master the art of riding big waves. He is an ambassador for surfing, a family man and mentor to generations of surfers with his sharing of knowledge in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4027,4028,4042],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-interviews","category-surf-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/GARRETTMCNAMARA79Highest-Res-Body-Glove-To-Mane-Photo.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94943"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94951,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94943\/revisions\/94951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}