M embers
o f
San Diego’s surfing elite excel on different wavelengths
B y T i m D o n n e l l y
—Brook Larios contributed to this story
46
pacificsandiego.com {May 2011}
BREVIN BLACH
There’s no question—San Diego is a hotbed of professional surfing. Hoards of male and female surfers flock here from around the world, hoping to win a contest, score a sponsor or bag a hot beach bum (usually in that order). For their freakish shredability and unwavering desire to step outside the pro-surfing box, three of the region’s most talented surfers—Rob Machado, Derek Dunfee and Ryan Burch—stand apart from the rest. Machado, who’s most famous for his fluid style and radical hairdo, has one of the most recognizable faces in surfing. The bushy-headed Aussie moved to Cardiff-by-the Sea at age three and has since risen to rock star status. Dunfee, the laidback, bigwave psycho, chases swells that make sane people run the other way. Burch, the youngest of the three, left a successful career in competitive surfing to become a board shaper whose avant-garde designs are helping redefine how surfers think about their boards. Here we go, San Diego, let’s claim ‘em—three of our hometown’s finest members of the board.