Bigger waves have been ridden, but this 1964 Waimea Bay beauty was the height of extreme when 17 year old Windansea gremmie Eric Murphy paddled into the unknown just after sunrise on a new ten foot Hansen gun with no rocker, an ugly round fin, no leash, no previous experience, no margin for error.  With nose to tail contact and a tight rope walker’s delicate balance, he drew a steel-nerved imaginary speed line to the channel.  Photo by Ron Church

Joey Cabell was the first great modern extreme surfer.  On surfboards, bare body, paddle boards, sailboards, canoes, catamarans (and snow skis, single skis and snowboards), he pursued the biggest drops and highest speeds available to manned motorless craft on sea, land or in the air….usually alone.  And he won the Duke Invitational in 1969.  Painting of the Duke win victory grin by Annie Kanemoto.

Baron Arnaud de Rosnay, extreme surfer and gentleman, took a windsurfer across the Bering Strait from Alaska to Russia thirty years ago, at the height of the cold war, got arrested and whisked away to Moscow and then disappeared into legend on another impossible open ocean sailboard crossing from Tahiti to god knows where…think of Arnaud when you are toasting your last big wave.

Laird Hamilton took over when Joey Cabell slowed down, and has proven himself to be the superman of surfing.  He is an extreme personality in an extreme body, pulling off extreme feats with casual style and ease since the age of four, when he found kryptonite and a father who believed in him playing in the north shore sand.  Like Superman, Laird is kind to women, kids and animals and hell on the evil forces.  If Arnie can be a governor, Laird should be president.  Superhero painting by Annie K.