June 7, 2008 Saturday

World Ocean Day	Wipeout Bar & Grill in Greenbrae
6:30 pm to 10:30 pm	Grant Washburn talk

“How long can you hold your breath?” was a question a young woman put to big wave rider, author and filmmaker Grant Washburn after the showing of his new video, Quest for Fear. 

At the June 6^th World Ocean Day celebration sponsored by Surfrider Foundation Marin County and the Wipeout Bar & Grill, Grant addressed the packed Wipeout Bar & Grill restaurant before showing his video and answered questions afterwards. Grant became a Mavericks regular in the early 90’s, co-produced the famed Mavericks documentary and has collaborated on several other Mavericks and surfing projects. He continues riding the big waves and for the last several years has been invited to participate in the annual Mavericks Surf Contest, which he placed fifth in this year’s contest last January. Physically Grant is impressive. He is big and looks like a NFL defensive end (Lawrence Taylor comes to mind): 6’ 5”, 230 lbs (my guess), big shoulders, large chest, and solid frame. He moves and speaks with an air of confidence, is relaxed, is easy going, friendly and articulate. 

“One guy breathed pure oxygen through a tube and managed to hold his breath for twenty minutes. But we are not breathing pure oxygen out there,” Grant responded. He went on to comment that when he first started riding waves at Mavericks he practiced holding his breath and can hold it for four minutes. But movement and heart rate burn oxygen and the fall often knocks wind out of you. Under water one has to be careful to preserve movement and to relax. Given all of that Grant claims he can hold his breath for about one minute. A critical decision under water is when to go to the surface. Ideally you want to wait until the turbulence has passed before going up. But recently Grant had a serious hold down where his inner voice told him to get to the surface even though the turbulence had not cleared. He barely made it in time. Grant continued explaining that you have to lower your heart rate before going for a wave. You can’t be excited and hyper when a wave takes you under. He mentioned lowering his heart rate several times. I gather Grant consciously works on this skill. 

In this year’s Mavericks contest the six finalists shook hands and agreed to share the prize money before entering the water for the final heat. This lifted the burden of competition and aggressiveness off of their shoulders and turned the event into pure surfing. Everyone was rooting for each other and the contestants had fun out there. I watched the contest at AT&T Park and I remember there was a set of seven huge waves and each finalist caught one, which made for a spectacular ending to a great contest. 

Grant’s talk, his Quest for Fear video and the evening in general underscored the global aspect of surfing. When Kate and I sat down for a glass of wine, Bruce Brown’s Endless Summer was playing on the restaurant’s numerous video screens. There was Robert August and Mike Hynson walking across the beach in Africa with hordes of little kids around them as they surfed those waves for the first time. This movie set off the worldwide quest for the perfect wave that led to the discovery of numerous new surf locations. Recently there has been a search for new big wave locations. Grant’s video depicts two of them: Mavericks and Dungeons in South Africa. Grant made seven trips to Capetown to participate in the annual Dungeons big wave contest; 10,500 frequent flyer miles each way. Mavericks can be a cold nasty place and so can Dungeons. The South Africans are becoming respected big wave riders. Jamie Sterling, one of the six finalists of this year’s Mavericks contest, is from South Africa. 

Grant also discussed film making. He still uses 16 mm and 35 mm film and not digital, which is not quite up to the quality of film when it comes to capturing motion. Location point is critical in filming. Filming in the water next to the action is the best location point but there are hazards. When focusing through a narrow aperture of a camera, it is easy to ignore the entire environment, such as dangerous situations of approaching sets of big waves. 

The Marin surf community showed up big time to see Grant and to support Surfrider. The restaurant was packed. People stood along the wall while Grant spoke. Grant sold all the books that he brought. Bob Partrite brought out the Wipeout Bar & Grill’s inventory of Grant’s book and sold that out also. The Marin surf shops and restaurants contributed prizes for the event’s successful raffle. 

All in all everyone had a great time, Grant enjoyed the evening and the benefit was financially successful.