Unknown surfer slashing through the blue velvet at Rocky Rights. ||
BOSKO
ROCKY POINT RIFFS Rocky Point is the North Shore's high performance epicentre. Punt and throw the tail on the left that sits up just right for surfing's high altitude aficionados or pull in on the right, which provides the perfect training ground for backdoor Pipe. Flynn Novak lives just down from Rockies and has used the punchy left ramps to perfect his signature frontside backflip. Mikala Jones is also in the front row and as you wander past you'll likely see his brave, five-year-old daughter swinging on the front-yard tree rope that almost takes her out over the water. Photogs post up at the point to fill their cards with the kind of hi-fi gear they won't get at other North Shore breaks while chicks in dental-floss G-strings hang there to tan their behinds and watch the boys boost. With topless bathing ruled out in Hawaii, the butt plays a much bigger role as a sexual marketing tool. No bikini is too small and showin' off your buns seems as much a part of the Hawaiian way of life as Mai Tais and monster trucks. The same posterior sparsity applies to the bikinis worn by the girls in the surf, which can prove very distracting when you are trying to dodge closeouts and make late take offs. That said, the native Hawaiian girls did surf naked before the missionaries ruled it out in the
early 1800s, so riding waves without much on is really nothing new in Hawaii. The most dangerous girl in the lineup this year was a gum-chewing goddess on a Lightning Bolt board. The leggy blonde would paddle out with her heavily built, well-connected boyfriend who asserted his local status with 'North' and 'Shore' tattooed on separate shoulders. When Blondie wanted a wave her beau would grab the tail of the Lightning Bolt board and hurl her over the ledge. There was something almost sweet about it, even when she wiped out horribly on the shallow inside section at Rockies. No matter how out of position she was, you certainly didn't dare go near Blondie's wave, and if she sat up on her board all perky and smiley while 'North Shore' caught a wave, you made damn sure you looked the other way. One afternoon Rocky's was four-to-five foot and firing. With the swell more from the North, Rocky Rights was hurling punchy barrels and running well past the one definitive boulder that threatens to crush skulls and eat boards. While there was a sprinkling of Bgrade pros out, the session somehow belonged to the retro-beatniks who had taken up residence at Rockies for the season. Alex Knost and Ellis Ericson boast-
ed their own dedicated filmer and photographer, a quiver of single fins and styles that served as a dramatic recreation of surfing history. Out in the water it was Knost who made his presence most prominently felt, hooting like an endangered Amazonian parrot to call off potential drop-ins and drawing irregular lines with trademark epileptic jerks. When the wave of the evening jacked violently on the rights, Knost sideslipped down the face like a fallen cat looking for a ledge to catch. Somehow at the wave's base he got the rail to set and the fin to hold, before the barrel engulfed his rakish frame. Alex might be on 70s-inspired craft but he surfs with a new millennium concept on how deep to ride the barrel. After several seconds inside, the wave spat the hipster pin-up boy onto the shoulder and a punter who was obviously unaware of Alex's identity got a little overwhelmed. "Did you see that? That guy just got so pitted!" he blurted out in classic California drawl. Knost's unorthodox, yesteryear style and curious on-land eccentricities might not be everyone's thing but there's no denying his ability, and in the couple of weeks he'd spent surfing Rocky's this season, it seemed he'd also found his Hawaiian Mana.
ISSUE Nº 523 // TRACKSMAG.COM // 055