NYNJSurf.com with Will Hallet

Tyler: Hello and welcome to the Swell Season Surf Podcast.

I'm your host, Tyler Brewer. If you are surfing in New York during the early two thousands, you are most likely participating in some way or another on the form boards of either New York surf.com or NYNJ surf.com. These message boards became not only a place to share information on surfboard designs or used equipment, but it was a meeting place for surfers of all different skill levels to converse, share stories, bring attention to an issue, or just talk shit.

And I mean, a lot of shit. The New York Surf community was probably one of the most vibrant and connected I'd ever seen in my lifetime. During that period, we all had our form board names like SPO one, Dorado, Oppy, joking, frock, Seacliff, money for coffee, Mick, and [00:02:00] so many more. You could paddle out and see someone from the board and you wouldn't call each other by their names.

It was their avatar name that you would call them by newbies were tolerated but often schooled by grumpy old timers. But education was a big part of the forum. It was a place to go to know who was who in New York surfing, and it was a place to meet and coordinate with other surfers. Many projects and friendships were born from these boards.

It was a fun time in New York surfing. And Will Hallett was the owner of NYNJ surf.com, which came after New York surf.com, but both became homes to form boards and our town Square. Will Hallett is an OG New York surfer and he has an incredible collection of surfboards. He's also a Doctor of Pharmacy and a CEO of Guardian Consulting Services Inc.

And occasionally his smooth voice is MCing a surf event or [00:03:00] contest. Will is my guest on this episode and I'm so stoked to have him on. This is gonna be a real throwback episode with lots of reminiscing. So if you are newer to New York Surfing, yeah, take notes. This is a bit of history here and for those of you who were around during that time, bask Baskin in all the reverence and the memories that we have here.

So Will welcome to the

Will: show. Uh, thank you so much, Tyler. It is ridiculously fun to be here. I am so happy to see you, my friend. We do not cross paths enough.

Tyler: Yeah. Well, I don't leave Rockaway anymore. Like, uh, I don't go to surf anywhere else since moving there. It's

Will: true. Uh, well, you, you know the old adage Yeah.

You never drive away from waves to get to waves.

Tyler: Yeah. And if you live there, you're like, right. Exactly. What's the point?

Will: You, you look out and you say, okay,

Tyler: good

Will: enough.

Tyler: Exactly. Exactly. Like I used to go to Long Beach More when I was in Brooklyn and mm-hmm. Had to drive and commute out. And then, uh, you know, since we [00:04:00] moved to Rockaway, it's like I look out my, my window and I'm like.

Yeah. No, I'm, I'm just gonna go here. Yeah. Same. I don't need to get changed in a parking lot somewhere.

Will: Ah, yeah. I did plenty of that over the years. Uh, but, uh, for the most part, same thing for me. You know, I'm planted in Long Beach these, these days and look out back if there's a wave. Great. Uh, if there isn't, maybe I'll travel.

Yeah. But not that far. Not like we used to. Not, not like when, uh, you know, we would jump in the cars 'cause the wind was outta the west and you're gonna head around the bend and go surf jersey. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Get somewhere down near, near Diehl or Asbury or Manasqua or, you know, further south or wherever we happen to think it was good.

'cause once you're in the car at that point, well now you're just gonna go.

Tyler: Yeah. That youthful exuberance is, uh oh

Will: goodness. You know? Yeah. You gotta put your energy elsewhere, you

Tyler: know.

Will: Well, those time constraint things come into play too. Yeah. Life,

Tyler: life, you know? Yeah. I wanted to start. I wanted to read you something you wrote, um, and, and then we can kind of go from there.

All right, so this is your, [00:05:00] um, on NYNJ Surf currently right now. Yeah. Goodbye and thank you. Well, after nearly a 17 year run, NYNJ surf.com is no more. It's been great run, but times change. Social media dominates and sites with message boards like ours. Were ridiculously fun and out of control at times, but have mostly disappeared from the landscape of the internet.

I want to truly thank everyone who participated over the years and remind everyone why this C site was created to help bring our surf community together. I hope this site accomplish that goal, at least in some small way, and that we continue to find excuses to be together in and out of the water. We are all better off for the experience and my email address still works.

Anyone interested in archive material from the site or who simply would like to say hello can get me at your email. And personally, I'm not going anywhere. My love for surfing and desire to be in the [00:06:00] water with all of you is greater than ever. In the meantime, hope to see you all out there. End quote. How did it

Will: feel to write that?

It was heartbreaking, but it was time. Yeah. You know, uh, you know, the, the world had changed. It had evolved. Uh, you know, uh, it was easier for people. Like there's only so many hours in a day Yeah. For, for people to actually spend online. Yeah. You know, so, you know, with the emergence of Facebook and, and Twitter and now X and you know, and, and, and Instagram, uh, in particular,

Tyler: yeah.

Will: Like, you know, the, the need for the message board, uh, kind of changed, uh, and. You know, people could surround themselves with, with a smaller circle that they were very comfortable with on, uh, you know, on something like Facebook as opposed to being exposed to the broader, sometimes raw and calloused audience that they might get on a message board.

So it, you know, in some ways, uh, you know, as rough as, uh, you know, uh, uh, messaging can be on, [00:07:00] on a forum like, uh, Facebook, uh, it was more comfortable because they, they could simply, you know, limit, you know, who they wanted to see. Where like, if you put it out there on one of our message boards, it was there, you know, and, and anybody, and everybody could and would comment on it.

Yeah. Good, bad. And in between, yeah, the advice pieces, uh, you know, were ridiculous. You know, like, uh, it'd be, uh, everything from Go Home Cook to people giving actual advice. Yeah,

Tyler: it would, it would, I know, like, I, I remember there would always be a, you know, couple times a year it would be this. Hey, I'm new to New York surfing and I would love to know what's going on.

And it would, the range of messages, you know, so it was interesting in doing research this, I went and jumped in the way back machine and, you know, just looking at some of the old posts even, you know? Yeah. Which is amazing that that's archived. But, uh, it was fascinating. You know, you'd see this whole, like, where can, where should I go [00:08:00] surf?

And everyone would be like, Coney Island and someone would be, you know, north Shore, long Island, you know, like trying to mis direct. And then someone would be like, well, hey, you may want to try to start out here. This is really nice. And open it. Mm-hmm. It would just, you'd get the gambit, but it was. Such an incredible cast of characters.

It feels like,

Will: uh, the cast of characters w was beyond amazing. Uh, and, uh, you know, like, you gotta remember sort of the, the origins of all this. Were were, uh, at least for like New York Surf before that it was Lincoln Locals. Yes. Do you remember that? Yes. Oh my God. Like, oh geez. And you'd read the stuff on Lincoln locals, and heaven forbid you even hinted when you might be surfing, somebody's gonna jump through the internet and find a way to rip your head off.

Tyler: Give, give, give our listeners like a bit of, bit of history here with like how Lincoln locals started, what was that like? And then the evolution into like New York Surf and, and NYNJ.

Will: So, uh, with Lincoln Locals, uh, I, I treaded very, very lightly there basically, [00:09:00] you know, I don't

Tyler: remember exactly, we're talking like late nineties here.

Late nineties. That's right.

Will: So it's, it's the late nineties when, when this is going on. Uh, and, uh, you know, protectionism of surf spots and not naming surf spots was, was of paramount importance. Yeah. And there was this heavy bit of localism in there. So for those of you that are not from the area, uh, it's uh, uh, Lincoln Locals was named after the spot Lincoln Boulevard, which at the time was the only legal surfing beach Yeah.

In Long Beach. So you can imagine. You know, just the fact that they called it Lincoln Locals pissed off people. Yeah. Right off the bat. So you're naming the only link spot in the name of, of this message board. Yeah. Right. And, uh, and that spot in the summertime was so crowded because there was no place else that you were technically allowed to go.

Once the lifeguards came on,

Tyler: you were herded in

Will: there, you know, and, and to this one small spot, you know, about 400 yards from jetty to jetty. And that's about all you had? Yeah. Uh, four. Oh, oh, I, I'm, that's [00:10:00] probably about right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's like the length of a golf hole. Yeah. You know, that's, that's it.

And you'd have 25, 30, 40, 50 people at a time all struggling over crappy summer waves. Yeah. And you can imagine how tempers would flare just from that.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: So there were certain spots that were just a little bit east of there

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: That people would not talk about. Yeah. Uh, and there were certain spots that were further east of there that you definitely would not talk about.

And heaven forbid that you did, they would find you. Yes.

Tyler: So, oh, you wouldn't get a wave at Lincoln again, you know? Oh my goodness.

Will: Yeah. But, uh, you know, like, but, but the spot was like, I, it, it was so funny because on that corner now you've got this beautiful aqua building. Yeah. You know, where the apartments sell for a million or $2 million and, and something, there's a food

Tyler: place right there, the food place

Will: right there.

But back then there was basically a, a, a what, nursing section? 11, right? Yeah. It was a section 11 housing, and there was a nursing home [00:11:00] right there. And, uh, and, and what you basically had was homeless people. Yeah. Sitting out on the streets. I mean, you know, I don't know if you remember like, money for Coffee Lady?

Yeah. Oh, she was the best.

Tyler: I know she, you had her, you had the, um, the older Asian woman who would sing like beautifully actually. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You had, uh, Aggy. I remember it was like Aggy woman and a couple of the guys, like there was some. Some real interesting people actually is suffering from some real interesting illnesses.

Yeah. A lot of schizophrenia. Exactly.

Will: And other mental disorders. So it was a much grittier place than if you go to visit Long Beach and you walk up on Lincoln Boulevard, you, you would, you know, if I tried to tell you this, you'd be like, no, that couldn't have been. Yeah, they could. But, but it was,

Tyler: yeah.

Will: And, and

Tyler: you had like, the boardwalk was falling apart.

Yep, yep. Like you'd get splinters just walking on it. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, it was kind of easy to sneak through paying, I mean, it was affordable to go to the beach too. Oh, yes.

Will: Right. The, the rates certainly were [00:12:00] not nearly as much. Yeah. But, uh, but with that one legal surfing beach and, and a, and a group of locals around there that were, you know, quite intimidating.

Yeah. You know, I, I would pick and choose my spots. Yeah. Very, very carefully. Yeah. Because at that point, I, I was literally just sort of getting back into surfing after sort of this long break. Mm-hmm. I, you know, I, I came outta college, uh, and I'm getting married and I'm starting a business and, and I had this, this whole bunch of years where it just wasn't in the cards.

I wasn't gonna be able to surf.

Tyler: Let's, let's go back a little bit here. Sure, sure. So, let's,

Will: like,

Tyler: um. Your name on NYNJ Surf was Seacliff. Yes. And that's, I assume where you're from originally.

Will: Yeah. But it was so also a, a, a play, uh, on myself. Yeah. Because, you know, I had this pension for going over the fall.

Yeah. So Seacliff, right. Because I, I would take off on waves of were ill-advised. Double

Tyler: meaning

Will: here. Yeah. Double meaning. I, I just sort of liked it. Yeah. So we had the house in the North Shore in Seacliff, which, uh, for anybody that knows, uh, long [00:13:00] Island, uh, maps and stuff like that. Beautiful. It's be by, by Glen Cove.

And, uh, you know, just beautiful. So we had the house up on the North shore there, and you know, it traveled down south

Tyler: and that's where you grew up. And like, how did you get introduced to surfing then?

Will: Well, we had a summer home when I was a kid in Breezy Point. Mm. Uh, and so I spent all of my youth, uh, in, in, in Breezy Point in the summers.

Wow. And, you know, it was a summer surfing thing and quite honestly, uh, back then, I mean, you know, so just, uh, you know, so everybody sort of puts me in context. Yeah. I'm 64. You look good. Thank you, man. Listeners.

Tyler: This guy for being in the sun so long for all those years in sun. Oh my

Will: gosh. Uh, so, yeah. So, uh, and, and surfing keeps you young.

Yeah, it definitely does. So, uh, we're talking about like the late sixties, early seventies, and the surf culture, uh, in my parents' eyes was just flat out drug infested. Yeah. The last thing that they wanted was for me to be a surfer.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: They wanted no part of, if they weren't gonna buy me a surfboard, they weren't gonna help me go surfing.

Now [00:14:00] Breezy point is, uh, you know, sort of this little spit of sand that juts out into the Atlantic Ocean, uh, at the very western tip of, of Long Island across the water you've got, again, for the listeners Yeah. Across the water, you've got Brooklyn, uh, that's, uh, to your north and to your south is wide open.

Ocean. It bends around a little bit to, um, you know, to the, the south. Uh, you know, and, uh, and comes around, uh, you know, not as much as Jersey. Yeah. Uh, you know, bends around of course, but it starts to bend around so it holds a little bit different wind than say Rockaway. Mm-hmm. Or certainly Long Beach. Yeah.

And definitely Montauk.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, you know, which sort of start to bend the other way.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: So it can hold winds that, that, uh, you know, when you couldn't surf anywhere else, we were doing okay. When you got those south westerlies. Yeah. Uh, you know, it, it would be junk or anything, but anything with even a tinge of north Mm.

You know, you, you could surf a little bit more, but it, that didn't matter because my parents weren't buying me a surfboard anyway. It just didn't matter. So how did I serve? F Well, uh, you know, these were all beach bungalows built up on stilts and, uh, you know, me [00:15:00] and my friends, you know, were like, you know, 10, 11 years old.

We'd, uh, you know, our, our older brother, my older brother and all of his friends, uh, you know, they managed to get surfboards and it was mostly long boarding. Yeah, right. So when they weren't looking, we would sneak the surfboards out from underneath the bungalows and just take 'em nice. And we'd catch a beating for it later on, but we would take them now also, you gotta remember putting this in context.

You know, listen, I'm not exactly six two, you know that anybody that's met me. Yeah, exactly. Height is a bit of a challenge

Tyler: for

Will: you. I, I, it is always been a bit of a challenge. So you can imagine like 10, 11-year-old me, I'm like. 50 pounds, the board weighs as much as me. Right. So it's two of us carrying it from the bay side to the ocean side.

Amazing. On a day when it's not being used. So it's a crappy day.

Tyler: Yes.

Will: Right. So it's a lousy day. We're, we're you sneaking these surfs across there and, you know, we're, we're, we're doing whatever we're gonna do now. The board weighs 50 pounds. I weigh 50 pounds. How hard is it to catch any wave? [00:16:00] It's not, you know, it's not, they're just gonna pick you up.

You just have no control over it. No control on it. You can't, you can't, you can't do anything.

Tyler: No,

Will: but I didn't know that.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: I, all I knew was I was having fun and it was the summertime and we were doing this, and then in the fall we'd go back to school and, you know, there'd be no surfing now until the next summer when we try and sneak boards out.

Yeah. And, and stuff like that. So that was basically my intro to surfing. It was also a pretty interesting time because I'm, I'm watching like, the news Yeah. You know, as a little kid and I'm hearing, you know, all everybody worried about like, these hippie guys. Yeah. And, and how, what a. Bad, bad people. These were, and I'm telling you, 9-year-old me, 1969.

Right. 8-year-old me, 1969. Like I wanna hang

Tyler: out with those bad asses. They

Will: were the nicest people ever. And I'm watching the news and you know, it's all this propaganda. Yeah. What it amounts to, of course, of these horrible hippies that are burning things in the streets and protesting. And here are these really nice guys that, that are like, you know, just throwing me up on their shoulders and, you know, that carry me around and, [00:17:00] and telling me about their surfboards.

And That's awesome. It really was. It, it was a hilariously fun place to grow up. So I had sort of that experience where for a while I was sort of this summer surfer and Breezy point wetsuit technology. Mm-hmm. For all 10. It didn't

Tyler: really exist a whole lot.

Will: Exactly. It didn't exist. So there was no even thought that, you know, by, you know, like when we were closing up the bungalow in late October, early November, I wasn't surfing then until possibly the next May or June.

And it was gonna go flat and it was gonna be this. So I stopped surfing. You know, I get to college, you know, I, I don't really surf that much. I, you know, here and there. Mm-hmm. You know, I, I could sort of sneak out and do something, but, uh, you really not that much. Uh, I, I meet my wife, you know, we're, we're dating, I'm trying to finish pharmacy school, you know, and, uh, you know, that, that was incredibly intense.

Yeah. Get out of that. Trying to start a career, then trying to start my company. And you've got this gap of time. Yeah. Where I kind of lose touch with the surf community. But the entire [00:18:00] time outta the corner of my eye, like I'd go to Tobe. Yeah. You know, uh, and I'd see the surfers down the beach, you know, and then there they are, you know, I'd say I'm gonna do that.

Uh, my kids are born, uh, my son gets to be four years old, and I looked at my wife and I said, it's time. She says, it's time for what? She said, we're going surfing. And I drove. Let me

Tyler: just ask. Sure. Did she know you surfed before you guys married? And like, was she aware of, of that this, uh, disease could come back?

Yeah. Or addiction. Or addiction could come back? That

Will: is perfectly stated. That's exactly what it is. So yes. It's, it's, it's festering inside of me, you know, you know, uh, so, you know, I really, I did not, I I went outta my way not to talk about it. Like I, I really did now, like I went to Hawaii once in my life.

Yeah. On my honeymoon. I, and did I surf there one time quickly. But I gotta tell you, on my honeymoon, I had other things on my mind. Of course. You had to make your kids Exactly. Very, very, you know, thoughtfully. Yeah. You know, I, I [00:19:00] spent all my time with my wife, which is exactly what I should have done. You were being a good husband.

Yeah. And to this day, you know, that's all I really want to do besides surf, but yeah. Uh, so, um. Uh, so yeah, I, I like snuck out real quick, but it, it was a small day and even though it was October, there was no real swell that built in and, uh, you know, rented board, whatever, caught a couple of waves, came back in to, did whatever, and my wife really didn't even notice.

Yeah. For the most part.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, and again, she looks at me on, on that day and I could almost remember it. What do you mean it's time for what? He said, I, I'm gonna drop you guys off. I'm going to Long Beach, I'm gonna buy a board. He's gonna buy, like, what kind of board? A surfboard. Why? I'm like an

Tyler: ironing board.

Will: What do you mean exactly? So I walk into, uh, what's, uh, uh, now Long Beach Surf. Yeah. You know, and Luke and Le there. And, uh, you know, I mean, these guys are great. And for anybody around there, uh, you know, I mean, that, that knows these guys for a while. You know, the, the shop has expanded over years. There's a, you know, million surfboards in there.

Uh, and they hook me up. Um, you know, with, uh, [00:20:00] because now again, my entire experience surfing, I. Was long boards. Long

Tyler: boards right. And then they're like, here you go. Potato chip.

Will: Well, and that's exactly what I said. I was like, I All right. I'm not an idiot. I'm, I'm not, I'm not surfing that. I've never surfed anything like that.

Yeah. So what do they hook me up with? A fun board.

Tyler: So, or as we say today, a mid length.

Will: Exactly. The rebranding to a mid length was brilliant. I don't know who thought that one up? Devin Howard. And was it Devin?

Tyler: Yeah. Oh geez. Yeah. Stop calling it a fun board. Oh my goodness. Stop calling him an egg. Yep. Call him mid lengths.

Yep.

Will: I, one and only time I met Devin in person. I can, I, his words are echoing my ear. And, and he's saying, volume is your friend. Volume is your friend. Always.

Tyler: It's, it's funny you, you mentioned that story. I, I have to share this story. Sure. 'cause I think go think it's pretty good and it fits in. There was this guy, I don't know if he ever knew the guy, Peter Stanley.

Uh, I don't think actually his, so his real name is Stanley Needleman. He used to work at my dad's shop, actually. Uh, and when it was [00:21:00] Emilio's and. You know, so he knew my dad and everything. And then he like interesting guy, became a model and then got into finance. But you know, so he got married later in life, dates this woman for a long period, you know, doesn't mention anything about surfing.

They get married. Mm-hmm. And they go to Hawaii. And while they're in Hawaii he says, oh by the way, I surf and I'm gonna go buy a surfboard. And then spent the whole honeymoon surfing. And then after that, like he was just all about surfing and. Like, he hid this from her and then, and then like all of a sudden, and then it's like this whole full blown thing.

And when she's like, where are you going? What are you doing? And I'm like, neither say their marriage didn't last very long because this was like, so disruptive Exactly. To their life. I, it, it really

Will: is amazing. I, you know, it's just crazy. How did your wife handle that? Uh, she actually was, was, was great about it and then [00:22:00] continues to be great about it.

Uh, because what I did was I, I took this and this became a bonding experience between me and my kids. Yeah. You know, and, and particularly my son who, you know, at that time was turning four and we made sure he had swimming lessons and, you know, he was a really good swimmer. Uh, you know, even by that age.

Yeah. Uh, you know, wonderful, uh, you know, from, from that aspect. But the funny thing was, is like I didn't take him immediately out with me. Yeah. I get this, this silly fun board and I, you know, I. Strap it to the top of the car and I drive, uh, to Tobe, you know, some days later, whenever it was gonna be. Yeah.

And here's the amazing thing. Your mind is incredible on how it will play tricks on you. In my mind, I thought I knew how to surf. I start to paddle out on this board that's a couple of feet shorter than anything I'd ever been on. Yeah. And I'm three times as heavy Yeah. As I was

Tyler: back then. Right.

Will: It's, and I, I, I'm not even out to the lineup and I'm saying I have no idea what I'm doing.

I am completely and utterly clueless now, [00:23:00] in fairness. Yeah. There are plenty of people that will still say, I have not progressed that much. Well, I, look, I, you have, it's all subjective. I it is all subjective. And that's the beautiful thing about it. You have interviewed so many unbelievable surf. I have to say that I am.

Undoubtedly the least talented surfer that has ever been on this. Oh, you'd be surprised

Tyler: there. There

Will: there've been some

Tyler: who just, uh, you know, still in that starter out phase two. But there's no judgment here. This is a safe space. Safe space. I love it. Safe space. I love, you know, that's so wild though.

That's so funny. And then, so then like. Yeah. As you reintegrate. Yep. Yep. Like, and it starts to consume your life a little bit more. How, how did that, how did that work with your family then? Because I imagine like you're still growing your business, still have to be attentive Sure. To everything going on in your family, but all of a sudden, and you weren't living on the beach at this time?

Will: No, no. Uh, weren't living there on the beach at that time. Uh, you know, [00:24:00] within, um, like a, another year or two, uh, there was some beach clubs. There still are. Yeah. Some beach clubs in Atlantic Beach. Yes. And, uh, you know, we hooked up with the cabana down there.

Tyler: Nice.

Will: Uh, and, uh, and, and again from the message boards, uh, I had met some people and we end up with a bungalow on 90th street in Rockaway.

Yes. You know footsteps off the famous bungalow. Yes. I'm sure you've been there. Yes. Right. Oh, the infamous one that

Tyler: everyone has passed through at some point that

Will: everyone has passed through. I mean, this, this little beach bungalow still there. It's still there. So for, for the audience, what, what basically this is, is there was a house that was, uh, just across the street from the major break in Rockaway at Beach 90th Street.

Uh, and, uh, there was a garage in the back that, uh, the owner had converted into basically a little mini apartment with a loft and, and a little kitchenette and a shower.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, 10 of us got together originally, uh, organized. Uh, it was Adam Tulley and Kurt Browne or the, the unbelievable comic, Kurt Browne are still, still crazy.

Such [00:25:00] a friend. Yeah. Uh, so. Uh, so they arrange, uh, and they rally again, just hooking up everybody through the message boards. Yeah. Can we get 10 people together? Everybody throw in a hundred bucks for a thousand dollars. We can have this place where we could shower and then you could sleep there. But it was first come, first serve.

Yeah. Right. Uh, and, uh, you know, there was a, a big driveway, uh, where we'd all basically congregate whether you actually, uh, you know, had a share in the house or you didn't. Yeah. And it turned into this quasi party space as long as you didn't get too rowdy. Uh, because the owner of the house, uh, you know, um, uh, NY uh, FD fire department.

Yeah. Uh, he wasn't tolerating any bs. No, no, no. Steve, great guy. Uh, another guy. It's just such a friend. Uh, but we would have all sorts of, of fun and, and, and sort of get together through there. But it was great 'cause you could leave a couple of surfboards there. Yeah. You could leave your wetsuits there and it made it convenient and like.

You know, and, and it's before we had cams and, and nah, the s Welsh forecast we had with surfer

Tyler: gyms exactly. Only gave you [00:26:00] still photos. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. The the Gilgo Beach surf cam. Yes. You know. Oh gosh. You'd have that. Uh, and it's like looking over Dune the whole time. Still to this day. To this day.

Right. It's so funny.

Will: Uh, so, you know, and that, that's all you had. So like, if you could drive there, even if it didn't work out, you know, all right. You know, like it's no harm, no foul. You didn't pack up all this gear and hole it all down there. So, so that, that really accelerated things a lot. I.

Tyler: Yeah. And also, like a lot of those people ended up moving out there too.

Yes. You know, and you, like, then you got like, people like Tim Hill who became a staple out there and you know, uh, Lois and Scott and like all these people Sure. Like, ended up

Will: Yeah.

Tyler: You know, kind of

Will: Yeah.

Tyler: Colin and Bridget. Yeah. You know, I

Will: mean, all these wonderful people that, uh, you know, and, and again, for your audience, these are just names, but it was such a tight little community.

Yeah. Like, and the crazy thing was, uh, you know, I, I, I'm not, I'm not a surf film historian the way you are, but there are certain films that are just sort of on repeat. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And every once in a [00:27:00] while, just for kicks, I'll just let writing giants play through. Of course. I, and there's this one scene, I, I don't think, I don't remember who it was.

Was it Pensman? It was somebody saying that, you know, we'd throw our boards on the beach going to town, and three days later we'd come back. The board. Yeah. Board still be there. Board still there. Yeah. Right. So I, you know, I, I'm thinking back to those days and. There were literally, you know, just this small handful of us, and we all knew each other.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: I, and, and it had, but you

Tyler: wouldn't leave a board on the beach and rock. You wouldn't leave a board on the beach

Will: and rock. Right. You would leave your car there. You wouldn't leave your backpack. You wouldn't leave anything. Beach and rock. And that was the beauty also of having the bungalow and so many people asking us for that stuff.

But it was this tight little community. And there was so many times where, you know, with these great days, and because there were no cameras and it hadn't really exploded yet, that, you know, there'd be five or six of us ought to be, you know, offshore, you know, chest ahead. Yeah. And glassy, you know, and, and you know, there'd be five of us

Tyler: out.

It's, you know, it's funny though. Still can get that.

Will: Yeah. It, it's so funny.

Tyler: Like even this morning, yeah. I [00:28:00] surfed. Everyone knew there was waves coming. Yep. I surfed, uh, all by myself whole morning. Yeah. Well, no one. Yeah. You know, it's crazy.

Will: We, uh, maybe, uh, we've grown a little less tolerant because we can predict a little bit better.

Yeah. Uh, because of the, you know, the weather and the cold. It, it is hard to, to, to screw yourself up and say, okay, you know, listen, I'm gonna pull on that heavy wetsuit, you know, it's,

Tyler: well, I struggled with that this morning

Will: too. Exactly. You know, it's, you know what the funniest thing is? It's getting it off my shoulders.

Tyler: That's

Will: the part,

Tyler: dude, it's so crazy. I was thinking about this the other day. I'm like, you know what? Fuck this. I want my back zips back. I want back zip wetsuits again. Yeah. They were so much easier to get and outta so much easier. And you know what? I don't think the flushing, they could, we can engineer something now to avoid the flushing, you know, and get it easier on and off 'cause.

Uh, you know, and I moved to UL Sweatsuits mm-hmm. Because I'm, you know, trying to be conscientious of everything going on with that. Yeah. You had a [00:29:00] great

Will: episode

Tyler: on all that, by the way. Yeah, and and it made me like, go, okay, I gotta get ulex and it's great. Stiffer. A lot stiffer. So getting out is like a straight jacket and I have to move my shoulder and like, and like finesse it and it's like, it's fine.

But man, I want a back zip.

Will: Yeah, I'll tell you. It's true. It's really true. Uh, I did buy this device. I haven't gotten to use it yet. It just came in the mail the other day. Pull strap thing? No, not a pull strap. It's actually some sort of weird wrench thing. Yeah.

Tyler: That, that, that helps

Will: you

Tyler: get, I've seen something.

It's like a shoehorn almost. Yeah, something like that. It's still's still

Will: in the box. And if I would've surfed this morning, I would've used it. Yes.

Tyler: So, so now let's, then, like we've got Lincoln Locals. You're, when did, when did you guys decide to move to Long Beach first? Like, what, how was that conversation Oh, with your wife as well.

Will: So that was a no brainer after Yeah, we'd been at the Beach Clubs, uh, you know, uh, at the, the, uh, you know, it was the [00:30:00] Sands, uh, that, that we were at Sands of Long Beach.

Yeah. Uh, after we were there a couple of years, we're driving through constantly, and I just looked at my wife and I'm like, oh, we, we just gotta buy a house here. This is stupid. Yeah. You know, we we're driving here, we're, we're leaving. Why? Why do we wanna leave? You know, we don't wanna leave. I don't wanna leave.

You don't wanna leave. I, you know, uh, my wife loves the beach. Yeah. You know, she, um, uh, she's, uh, always loved it. So that part made it easy. Yeah. As a matter of fact, I, I will tell you this, this God's honest, true story. Uh, when I was, uh, late teenager, uh, early twenties, and I go out on dates. Yeah. Like the second, third date would always be a trip to the beach.

Ah, let's just go to the beach. And that was your litmus test. It was. I like it. It, the minute I heard, oh, I don't wanna get sand in my shoes. There was no third date.

Tyler: What if she had an infection in her future? She just didn't know.

Will: I suppose it was slightly more understanding than that.

Tyler: All right. Jerry Seinfeld, like she had man hands. [00:31:00] She didn't like sand. Exactly.

Will: She's a close talker, you know? She's a close

Tyler: talker. Took her to the beach. He needed all this stuff. Yeah.

Will: You know? No, but, uh, but, but that was it. I mean, if you, if you didn't love the ocean, if you didn't love the beach, it was not gonna work. No. It just wasn't. And she

Tyler: did, and then you guys

Will: were like, yeah. Sweet. And you found, yeah. So we found a place in Long Beach, this, uh, date's, uh, to 2006. By that time, yeah, by that time, um, NYNJ Surf had, uh, had taken off, uh, New York Surf.

Uh, you know, so just, you know, sort of finishing that history there. Let's, so yeah, let's, let's sort get, that's

Tyler: like, how did, how did. How did NY and J Surf come about and Sure. And, uh, you know, and, and where did that development happen?

Will: So, so what basically happened was Lincoln Locals, uh, was, uh, you know, a very, very old style, pretty inefficient type of a message board.

Yeah. Uh, and then, uh, Adam Cannizzaro came along, uh, the great Adam Cannizzaro, the great, the great Adam Cannizzaro comes along with, uh, with New [00:32:00] York Surf, uh, and New York Surf now all of a sudden gains this foothold. Yeah. And, and all, everybody in New York, uh, you know, that, that you could think of seemed to be on there.

And somehow or another, you know, I'm, I'm writing messages and, you know, I seemed, uh, you know, I was always like, you've read a million of my posts. Yeah. I was always kind of the voice of reason, you know,

Tyler: try to calm everyone down, say like, okay, everybody.

Will: Yeah. Like, it's just, and it quickly dawned on me that.

What the real value in the message board was if you were gonna be just a jackass out in the water Yeah. You would do that if you didn't know the other people.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: But if everybody knew each other, you might still be a jackass, but it'd be in a friendly, fun way. Yeah. Right. Yeah. And that would be different.

And if some jackass that you didn't know came in the water, they now had to take on 10 people that they knew Yeah. That that knew each other. Exactly. And that would make that 11th person less likely to try to take on the entire group because they confus all talking and laughing with each other, busting each other's chops over this, that and the other thing.[00:33:00]

Blown wave. Yeah. How'd you let that one go? Why'd you drop it on me? You know, like all those things. So, you know, I mean, you know, there was still plenty of turn and burn incidents Of course. Even though we knew

Tyler: each other. Wow. It would be hashed out on the message board later. Exactly. You know, or over a year later.

Yeah. It was a good virtual fighting, uh, sent place actually. Exactly. Yeah.

Will: So. So the more I got involved in, in doing this, somehow or another I get to talking to Adam. Uh, and then, uh, Bobby, uh, you know, um, what was Bobby's last name? Uh, who, uh, the, the, the Sponger on last name, so it doesn't really matter. Uh, Baldwin, Bobby Baldwin, of course.

Yeah. Another great guy. Yeah. Uh, he was doing this and then, uh, so I'm helping out basically moderating and then became an admin on, uh, New York Surf.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Well, what happened over time was, uh, Adam's life changes. Yeah. You know, and, and things change, uh, in a heartbeat. And we all know that that happens. Yeah.

And he can't really pay attention to the message board the way it was. And at the same time, you know, so [00:34:00] things are starting to get off the rails there. Yeah. 'cause there's almost only so much I could do as, you know, like a moderator clean. Yeah. I should admit I couldn't fix certain things.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: So as that's starting to tail off, um.

Uh, it's daunting on me that I'm spending an awful lot of time chasing the west wind. Yeah. And going down to Jersey. And I'm also seeing the same license plates when I get down there as up here. And vice versa. The Jersey guys are swinging the corner coming up to New York every time the wind's outta the north and we've got the waves in and, and the wind direction.

I, and so it dawned on me, this is the, just the same group of people that it's not New York Surf. It's actually NYNJ.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, or as my daughter would call it, ninja. Ninja. Ninja Surf. I like that. Actually. That was really cool. Uh, so, um, so I'm seeing all the same people. I'm like, alright, let's just expand the audience a little bit because when these Jersey guys come up to us, or we go down to them, would be You have that

Tyler: familiarity again.

Right, exactly.

Will: I would like them to know. Oh my goodness. Wait, you are a seacliff. Yeah. Oh [00:35:00] Jesus. I'm so and so. You know, whoever you are, and I cannot tell you how well that works. It does. It did. It worked. 'cause like, you know, we were all, even if they weren't posting

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: There were so many people that were reading.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, you know, there were days where there'd be 250, 300 people logged in at, at a time. Yeah. On NYNJ serp. So that comes around, that's like 2004 and I guess it's 2005 officially. Yeah. According to, uh, you know what, what I had posted up there? Yeah. It's July 15th, 2005, which interestingly enough was my wife's birthday.

Oh. So why I would launch the website up wife's birthday. I'm telling you. Very understanding woman.

Tyler: I'm so blessed. She, I'm like, she let you do this. That, exactly. Not to say that she let you And not to like, yeah. Say like, oh, you know, my partner didn't let me, or whatever. Like, I don't mean to vilify, you know, but as someone who.

I understand like if you are married to someone who doesn't surf, they look on surfing as with some absurdity to a certain extent, I [00:36:00] think. Yeah. You know, you know, because we are, we're kind of like fucking kids in some ways.

Will: So I, you know, like the, the, the general comments of, I see you floating out there a lot.

Do, do you, when you catch waves, you

Tyler: know, I, I gotta ask then, was there. Tension between you and Adam then when, as you started NYNJ and how did you, you guys handle that?

Will: Uh, you know, I, I, I suppose, uh, you know, I'm, I'm, I, I, I would, I would prefer to, to to, to look on the brighter side. I like Adam. Yeah. Uh, Adam's a good guy.

Uh, and uh, sure, uh, you know, of course there was a little bit of friction, but I think it, honestly, it was very short-lived. Yeah. Uh, you know, it, um, uh, there were other far more important things going on in his life. Yes, yes. And understandably so. Yeah. You know, like, you know, I look, we all love surfing, but at a certain point, real life, you know, kind of has to take the front seat.

Yeah, exactly. So. From that aspect, uh, you know, and, [00:37:00] and you know, if I saw him today, I'd shake his hand in a heartbeat, you know? Oh yeah. It's, uh, uh, he's responsible for me meeting a million people.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, and, uh, you know, and then going on to, to try to create something that, that carried that legacy forward.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: For 17 years. Yeah. Right. No, it's incredible. And, and like you said before, yeah, the number of people that not only met and dated, but actually got married. Oh my gosh. I know. It's crazy. Like I, you know, I've had people like come up to me and say, I met my wife because of you. That's hilarious. No, no. You met my wife because of like, the silly little website.

Like,

Tyler: what do you think then like, like as social media came through and like the forums like, kind of started to become obsolete, I guess. Mm-hmm. Like, what did you like. Were you trying to think, how do I keep this going? Yeah. Or, or do you know, how do I evolve this? How do I fold this into this, this social aspect and you know.

Is our community better off [00:38:00] now or was it better before because of that?

Will: So the, in the original thought was, okay, you know, what tools are out there, how do we leverage this? So, you know, what I would do is I would modify, uh, the, the forum so that it would throw automatic posts out to Instagram. Yeah. Uh, throw automatic posts out to Twitter, throw automatic posts, uh, you know, out to Facebook.

Right. Uh, and then there were the Facebook groups Right. Where you could, uh, try to do this, but what, uh, you know, quickly, you know, 'cause you can see the data. Yeah. You know, the click backs just weren't there. Yeah. People would consume it in one place. They weren't going to another to consume more.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, and you could see the audience, uh, you know, because New York is such a transient world.

Yes. Uh, you could see the audience, you know, sort of being picked off. Mm-hmm. You know, either it was the internet or was the fact that they weren't surfing in New York anymore, so they, they moved, didn't have the interest. Yeah. And the new people that were moving to New York. Didn't know and maybe didn't care, and that's okay.

Yeah. You know, and, and, but that's all right. Yeah. Times change.

Tyler: Yeah. [00:39:00]

Will: Now, is it better now than it was then? I think that the, the community is much more fractured now.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, much we were able to really coalesce around, you know, like we would, we would have these events just for the sake of having an event.

Yeah. Yeah. Like the flea fests.

Tyler: Yes, exactly. I was hoping you can explain that too to our, oh, our audience here.

Will: Well, alright. As long as you don't ex ask me to explain a ho.

Tyler: No,

Will: so we'll, we'll stick with the flea fest. We'll avoid the ho. We will do that. You'll have to have Justin Schwartz back. Oh, explain that one day.

So

Tyler: no shame there.

Will: So the, the, the flea fests, uh, were basically an excuse to actually meet each other. Uh, you know, so, uh, so it was Joel Slavin. Mm-hmm. Uh, who, uh, one day posts randomly, uh, on the message board this, this sort of, uh, weird thing that says, you know, uh, we're gonna band together, uh, as sand fleas and we will fight the chinos to the west and you know, these people to the east and, you know, we will defend our territory.

And somehow the San [00:40:00] Flea Surf Club, a fictional club that's hilarious, was born. Wow. So from the San Flea Surf Club, we actually, uh, then, then, uh, James Scheuer. Actually made us a logo. You know, it's like ridiculous. I, I painted on a pillowcase, by the way. That's amazing. I, I, I have the pillowcase and the story behind getting the sheet and the pillowcase.

That's a story for, I'm scared to even ask you. Are I, it's very, very funny. Well, I, so I, so before I get to that story, yeah. I, so the flea fest were basically, uh, uh, us making up an excuse to actually meet each other on the beach somewhere. Okay, we're all gonna get together. We're gonna go to this particular beach on this particular day.

Yeah. Just bring wetsuits, you know, whatever surface there is not there, it doesn't really matter. Say hello, jump in the water for a little while. Figure out who everybody else is. Yeah. And that was really so core to why I wanted the message boards to work so that we actually could get to know each other.

Right. And we did a bunch of [00:41:00] these, and historically the waves were awful. Yeah. But the, the, the fun that we had was ridiculous. You know, just getting and talking to each other and, and who's who and what are you doing? And, you know, and, uh, uh, you know, like meeting characters like Tim Hill, the, the, the, you know, uh, the, I, I, I miss that guy.

He's another one. He passed a, a, a, it's a more than a few years ago now.

Tyler: Yeah. Yeah.

Will: Uh, uh, Tim Hill was, uh, this incredibly unique character with this unique perspective on the world, uh, uh, on life in general. Yeah. Uh, you know, this larger than life personality. Uh, and, uh, you know, it's, uh, the old saying, uh, you know, uh, when they made him, they broke the mold.

Yeah. Uh, Tim would say Good thing.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: That would've been Tim's line. So he was so impactful. So impactful. I, and he was very instrumental in helping bring the community together, because he was that just force that, that magnetic force of personality. Yeah. So Tim was, uh, you know, what, what would you say? 6 1, 6, 2, something like that.

Tall. Yeah. Tall, thin. He was tall, tall, tall, skinny, tall, thin, [00:42:00] tatted up. Uh, before that was a thing.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: You know, before full sleeves. Full sleeves before it was a thing. Uh, and, uh, the funniest thing is, uh, you know, I, I tell Tim, like, Hey, listen, you gotta come over to the beach club one day and, and surf with us over there.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, and you know, you got Cabana boys at the Beach Club and the entire thing. I, and, uh, so Tim and I get there. Yeah. Uh, and, uh, you know, here's Tim all tatted up. Yeah. Not exactly. Looking like a beach club material. Beach club member. Exactly. Not looking Beach club material there. So the cabat boy comes walking up.

Yeah. Uh, and says to my wife, who is that guy? My wife turns and deadpans it perfectly, you know, just plays it dead straight and says, oh, that's some guy my husband picked up off the internet.

Tyler: That's awesome. Which is actually the truth in theory. Yes, it is. It is. Oh my

Will: goodness. So, you know, Tim Hill, a thick shirt in [00:43:00] Rockaway. Uh, what a, what a great guy. Uh, and, uh, you know, loved surfing with him. Tim also has a distinction of surfing with me on the coldest day I ever surfed. Oh,

Tyler: really?

Will: Yeah.

There's a famous picture of him at the icicle coming down, uh, that, that is buried in the message board somewhere. I think I might have a copy of it somewhere. It was, um, 11 degrees. Oh, God. Uh, but the waves were waist high and fun. And you lasted about 27 minutes. Yeah. Uh, that, that was about all you could do, you know, but, but you couldn't turn down the chance to do it.

You had these beautiful waves and you wanted to, there, you were there. I mean, you were there already. Exactly. Yeah. And what else were you gonna do?

Tyler: Yeah. I mean, and it's also like, I feel like it's a bit of a, I don't wanna say rite of passage, but it's like this, this thing you do, especially at a certain age, I feel like you go out just to prove mm-hmm.

That you still can. Right. Go do it. Yep. And like, yeah, I've had a few of those where you just like, I mean, the coldest I've ever had was with like [00:44:00] Dorado and, uh, oh, Chris Dorado and Franco, and, uh, I think Kidman was in town. And, uh. Or maybe, and we went out and I remember, like we got, luckily Franco's girlfriend at the time had a place on 91st.

Mm-hmm. So we were able to get changed in the basement there, thank God. And I remember going out 90th and fucking, like, it was so good, but so cold. Uh, Schultz was even there too. Yeah. And, uh, and like the, the ice was like slush was forming on the wetsuit. Yeah. Like slush, little slush wetsuit. It was like, I think it was like it was 20 degrees, but then the wind chill knocked it down to like zero.

Yeah. You know, and the water was like cold. And I remember being like, this is probably the coldest I think I've ever surfed, man.

Will: Yeah. You get those days where like you, okay, let me, let me see what I can prove to myself. Yeah. Kind of a thing. But you know, the other aspect that always played into that, and continuously to this day, plays into anybody [00:45:00] that surfs in this area is we're also wave starved.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: You know, you're so starved for waves that Oh, okay. 20 degrees started to get desperate offshore, you know? Alright, let's go. You know? Yeah. Waves

Tyler: are good. Well, it's, it's the novelty of it too. Yes. You know, there's a novelty. It's a novelty of it. It's the, you know, all of those things. It's not just the act, it's the whole experience, you know, and then afterwards, like, everything tastes better, everything feels better.

Showers like magical afterwards, you know, and Well, painful too possibly, you know?

Will: Yeah. The bones at, at first. Yeah. The pins and needles. Exactly. Feel so good.

Tyler: Yeah. What, what was. Some of your most memorable threads from the, from the, the site and the forums.

Will: So there, there's a couple that actually come to mind.

It's funny, I, I should have thought of that question. I should have known that you were gonna go there. Uh, I And 'cause we

Tyler: have a book here of all, all your thread. All your,

Will: I've got one particular thread that dates back to the New York Surf days [00:46:00] that, that was called the Joyce Thread, which starts off incredibly innocently.

Exactly the way that, that you described Somebody's that, that just writes Somebody named Joyce Joyce. 2 61 was, was the name that she picked. I'm a beginner and want to practice out in maybe Long Island or New Jersey. Two questions. One. Can anyone recommend a Beach Manhattan? Question mark. I figure the best way to get out there is to rent a car.

So it would be economical to get someone to go with me. Any help would be appreciated. Oh gosh. And it devolves from there.

Tyler: Let's, let's give a sampling, uh, to our listeners of what sort of. Comments you would get, uh, so from this and, and also show like it's a different time. I feel like people have thicker skin in some ways too.

Yep. I can't imagine this stuff today. Exactly. Well, yes I can in some ways. I mean, people still leave like crazy shit. But, so

Will: now just, just to give you guys an idea of what went on here. Yeah, this goes on for [00:47:00]187 pages of, of people you know, like saying, okay, listen, you're just somebody from the surf industry who's trying to pump us for information.

Yeah. Like, just trying to figure out what, what the market actually is, uh, all the way to you can't be for real. And Joyce actually showed up one day. No way. And we actually met her in person. That's awesome. And she matched the picture that she had sent, you know, at some point along the way. But it starts off like, you know, with, you know, everything from, oh, just take the Long Island Railroad to Long Beach, like, you know, come to Rockaway, like, you know, yeah.

Go down there. Right. Long Beach. Right. Uh, and then, then immediately begins to devolve into a German, German 86. I don't remember who that is. Do you remember who that is? No, I don't. He, he writes, uh. Hmm. How old are you? Like it immediately starts to devolve bad fish. Oh, what a great guy Bad fish is. Oh my.

Yes. What a great guy. He writes. Coney Island's a great place for beginners, less sharks than everywhere else. Easily accessible at Subway or really cool to parachute drop in. [00:48:00] And it just, and this goes on with people just asking questions about who this person is. Can I take a look at this here? Oh my goodness, please.

Here, hold on. Listeners,

Tyler: like, we're gonna, we're gonna pick out some, some choice ones here. Yeah.

This check your piano. Yeah. Right. All right. Um, let's see. And then it becomes this banter though. Yes. Because it's not, uh, it almost like. Leaves the conversation of Joyce and like devolves into this, like banter a around it, you know? Yes. Like you got people commenting like, this thread is hilarious. Am I, I'm choking on my coffee.

Um,

Will: I mean this was, the message boards were, were more than just finding out about surf. It was literal entertainment for us. Yeah. We were amusing ourselves when it was flat, which was, well frankly, it's New York. It's most of the time

Tyler: listeners like I am. Going through the, how's this photo of, uh, Schultz here.

Dub [00:49:00] star, like, oh,

Will: dub star is, he's throughout this thing. He's, he's all over this thread.

Tyler: I'm looking at the top of the page. Chisler. It wouldn't be free porn. That's a, that's a comment apparently.

Will: I mean, it's like, oh, Chisler. The wonderful thing is Chisler grew up to be a very, uh, well-known lawyer. That's hilarious. Even funny. Really? Yep. That's crazy. No, it's crazy stuff, you know? And, uh, you know, the other thing is like, I, uh, like we're talking back, you know, this is, uh, uh, it started in June of 2024.

Yeah. And this thread kept on going, you know, it's. Like years, you know, literal years, you know, people sort of posting up. But if you think back to then Google really was just sort of getting out there. Yeah. And Google Images was like, you know, we use it every day. Yeah. Nobody thinks twice about it. It was brand new.

Oh my God. To upload

Tyler: a

Will: photo was like, took forever. So now people were starting to pull photos and throw them into the threads and the. Photos were as funny sometimes as the comments,

Tyler: the [00:50:00] photos, and the gifs.

Will: Oh God. Hilarious. The gifs too were really

Tyler: good.

Will: Hilarious. Like, you know, everybody, you know, thinks that that's sort of normal stuff then, but it was so novel back then.

Yeah. And we were so entertaining ourselves. It was before like memes

Tyler: really Yes. You know, took off too, which is funny 'cause it's like, it was almost a precursor to the meme, like Right. You'd have the photo and then the, the comment would be the meme almost going with it. Right.

Will: Well, I mean, you know, it, it sort of is the same thing, uh, when you think about it all Facebook was, was this Yeah.

Exploded to the entire world.

Tyler: Yeah. You

Will: know, this was narrow little surf community, you know, focusing on New York and New York and New Jersey.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, and, you know, here was Facebook that basically gave everybody the opportunity to, to sort of join communities that, that, that they might be interested in, uh, or not.

Uh uh and avoid people that they liked and only talk to people that they wanted. This was. Uh, broader, uh, because you really didn't have any choice as to who was gonna respond. Yeah. Yeah. You know, somebody could see something and create a new username just to respond. [00:51:00] I know. Yeah. You, that was the other thing you

Tyler: had that, you know, and like.

You would have. Yeah. And people changing their names. Mm-hmm. Too. And you would be like, wait, who is this Yeah's that? Oh, that's Mick now. Oh, it's this person. Oh, I didn't realize they changed their Yeah. Their name as well. Like, well, it was

Will: hilariously fun. Uh, and, and uh, you know, in the midst of that, you're getting educated on, on, on what's going on.

You, you, you're learning about, uh, you know, like if you were new to the sport, you're learning about wind direction and swell angles and you know, you're learning, uh, you know, what, uh, about equipment, you know, 'cause there were all sorts of things. The culture too. The culture too, you know. Well, I, Tyler, how many times did you or I post up about the various events getting together for, uh, you know, New York Surf Film Festival, you know, as, as a major thing, but all the other minor things that, that were happening?

Uh, and I would find. Any excuse I could to get the community together, I'd make up events. Yeah. You know, it's, uh, it's gonna be a surf day in Long Beach and just, you know, and then I'd get ahold of the students and mm-hmm. You know, whoever else was around and say, [00:52:00] okay, this is what we're gonna do. Yeah. We were gonna have a board swap.

Uh, we're gonna run a little light contest over here. You can do some surf lessons over there. I'd clear it through the city manager and, you know, and, and, and you'd like just invent things. Or the day before, uh, the Saturday before Sandy. Mm-hmm. You know, this was, um mm-hmm. I think we were doing a, a, um, a, a, a Halloween, uh, contest where everybody was gonna just dress up in whatever Yeah.

Uh, you know, costume and, you know, whoever had the best costume, got the best wave, got, you know, some wacky prize, which probably was liquor. I don't know. Yeah. You know, it might have been something, you know, but, but it was any excuse that you could find, you know, whether it was Flea Fest or it was these contests.

I, how many times did we do stuff where we'd simply, we'd hold a nonsense contest and the entry was you would bring food for the hungry. Yeah. That was your entry fee. Yeah. You wouldn't pay an actual entry fee, just bring food for the hungry and we'd give it to the local food bank. Now that's the thing.

Like you,

Tyler: it felt like back then you had easier [00:53:00] direct access mm-hmm. To the community, right. To promote these things, to, to bring the community together. And now it's like. Really hard to reach all the people, you know? Yeah. It's

Will: literally impossible to do that. I mean, you know, we had just like, you know, there were, uh, you know, uh, when I set up NYNJ Surf, there was just, you know, one room that was events.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: You know, and we cross promote it across totally. Across the rooms. For some people it didn't actually click stores could

Tyler: promote. Yes. It was a great place for shops to get on and promote Oh, sure. And talk about stuff like it was, oh, listen, and how many boards got sold on it. I

Will: went outta my way to like, you know, I, I, I'd, I, I'd reach out to, to, to Mark Petra.

Yeah. And I'd say, Hey, you know, what do you got, you know, let, let me post something up for you and, and make sure that his contact information was there. And you know, like all the local shapers, I would make sure that there was a local Shapers page. Yeah, yeah. I remember to try to promote, and I, you know, I'd reach out to, to the Jersey guys and make sure that, that, you know, that they had their latest information with me.

Uh, you know, all the ESA [00:54:00] contests that we promoted. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of crazy. So it,

Tyler: it is, and it's like. I wonder if there's anything now you could do to, to kind of replicate that. And I, I was thinking about this before coming in. I'm like, and I don't know if you've played around on like Discord much.

Mm-hmm. But I feel like Discord would be a good replacement for it because it's in essence a forum, but it's just text messaging. Right. And you can base it around topics. Right. And, you know, it's, it's, I think, somewhat easy to moderate. Mm-hmm. And you could open something like that up to people. Uh, you know, that's a way that you could kind of, I, I don't know if people are open to that.

Um, um, and I have no idea, but when

Will: you see the link for the Discord server that I set up later tonight

Tyler: Oh no. I'll know. You'll know. You know, just like it's something that like, I think we could use, like, I think it would be better because I am like looking for that way to get to know people online. I mean, so [00:55:00] for people to be familiar with each other.

Um, I do feel like that helps on regulating the lineup. I think it helps with keeping people, when you can dehumanize someone, it's easier then to burn them or to treat them like shit. But if you know all these people and, you know, like, oh, I just burned so and so, they're gonna fucking rip into me on the forum board.

Like, you'll, there's a, there's a disincentive to do bad behavior in the water. Uh,

Will: there is a, uh, a large incentive to apologize immediately.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: So I, I, I will tell you, uh, so a little nasty for, for those of you that were not familiar with, the, the message board is, uh, a guy by the name of Kui Nakamura mm-hmm.

Who, uh, was just, uh, and I'm sure still is a brilliant surf forecaster. Yeah. Uh, you know, far more accurate than anything I've ever seen. How he did it, why he did it. I, I, I don't know. But yeah, if Cooey said there was going to be a swell or there was not going to be a swell, there was either gonna be a swell or not be a swell, and it was gonna be pretty much exactly where and what he said.

Yeah. He was magnificent at it. So [00:56:00] I'd only ever seen his names on the message board. And I get down to Rockaway one day, uh, and I'm gonna go out and surf and, you know, it's a fairly decent day. Yeah. Uh, and, um. Uh, I somehow have forgot my contacts.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Now I gotta tell you, like, I can see from like, here to the table.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, you know, if I don't have glasses or contacts in, but anything past the table starts to get fuzzy and seeing a wave coming from, you know, way out at sea and, you know, lining it up, you know, this becomes a challenge. But I'm doing my best and I'm certainly, I'm, I'm concentrating so hard. I, I drop in on this wave and I look over my shoulder and there's this guy, ugh.

And I burned him so freaking bad. And I, I'm like, and I'm like, I'm just, I'm dying. I'm like, yeah, if I had my contacts in, I would've seen the wave. I would've seen him, you know, like in a better position than me. And oh my God, I, I'm, I'm, and so. You know, the message board now plays a big role. Yeah. 'cause what happens, I turn around, I paddle right over to him.

I'm so, so sorry. Listen, [00:57:00] I, I, I'm gonna post up on the message board and I burned this guy so bad 'cause I'm just gonna out myself. Yeah. I dunno who you are. If you're on the message board, he says, oh hey, I'm little nasty, nice to meet you. And it's Cooi Nakamura. That's hilarious. And so, and that, that was my first introduction to, uh, to Kui.

Uh, uh, who uh, you know, just unbelievably, um, his hair never changed. His demeanor never changed in all the years that I knew him. His face never changed. So we actually weren't really sure that he didn't have special powers. 'cause he was from another planet, you know, and he was just visiting here. He also was.

Unbelievably knowledgeable on every topic under the sun. Yeah. Like I'm talking to him about, you know, my son's in wrestling and I was a wrestler, and you know, we're talking about this. And he told me about his time as a wrestling coach. Uh, you know, and then we talk about some other topic and he'd tell me, you know, everything he knew about that, like, how does this guy know this stuff?

But anyway, uh, KU, if you're out there listening, gimme a call buddy. It'd be great to talk to you again. Last I heard he was living in South Carolina with his family and Oh, oh man, you gotta

Tyler: be really on it then to predict waves there. Oh yeah.

Will: No kidding. Yeah, that was, uh, [00:58:00] yeah, it's, I surfed one time in South Carolina.

I think I was 19 years old at the time. Uh, and, uh, you know, some nondescript here that I couldn't even tell you, you know, exactly where I was. Uh, you know, they led me to a beach. I somehow scrounged up a, a longboard and grabbed a couple of waves and yeah, if that was what South Carolina was like, I'll, I'll, I'll stick to New York.

Now.

Tyler: Let me ask then, like, you, you, um. You've also, we do, we, we tend toe events together a lot of the times. Oh, yeah. Has how did, how did that come about for you and how did your public speaking actually, like how did you get into that? Because you, you, like you were saying before you even came in here, like you, you've been doing speaking gigs all, all over the east coast, um, you know, and um, so I'm curious like where that came from and where that ability and how you've developed that.

Will: Huh. Well, it's this sort of, you know, intertwines my professional career and, uh, and, and, and the surfing world. Um, uh, when you're [00:59:00] starting your company, one of the thing that you have things that you have to do mm-hmm. For certain companies is get out in front of people, you know, it is a very, very effective Yeah.

Means of promoting your company. If you can be perceived as the expert in an area that when somebody's having trouble, I'm calling that guy. Yeah, yeah. You know, and so. Knowing that I needed to, to do this, uh, and having a general interest in it, I can tell you that from, like, I, I don't know why I was always fascinated by, uh, even as a four and 5-year-old.

Mm-hmm. Why does certain kids gravitate to that kid? Yeah. You know, what makes that kid the leader? Mm-hmm. Uh, and invariably it was part of how they spoke and how they communicated. And that started to dawn on me even, you know, in my preteen years. Wow. I'm thinking about it all the way back then. Then as I'm getting through, it dawns on me that people are terrified of public speaking.

Yeah. You know, they don't, they don't wanna hear themselves, you know, they, uh, they're not sure what they're gonna say and how it's gonna come out. And I, it dawned on me as a teenager, there was really nothing to be [01:00:00] afraid of. Uh, you know, either people wouldn't listen, but they're not gonna throw tomatoes at you.

Yeah. What are they gonna do? You know? It's true. It's like, no, nothing bad is going to happen here. Yeah. They're, if they like you, they like you. If they don't, they don't, they're probably gonna forget about the event the next day anyway. Yeah. It doesn't really matter. So. I started watching what I thought were good speakers.

And the key to that is you've gotta find people to watch that match your personality and your style. Mm-hmm. And when you start to watch people that match your personality and your style, all of a sudden you say, okay, I could do it that way. Yeah. I can't do it that way. Yeah. But I could do it that way.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: And you start to incorporate these things in and you know, how people enunciate and how they bring an audience in and how they work, you know, the room and, and, and all of these things. Uh, so that naturally led to a surfing of course. 'cause ev does everything. So I, I'd get to these events, uh, and there would be somebody on the mic that was clearly uncomfortable and I'd be like, just give it to me.

What are the names? You know, lemme let me read [01:01:00] off the names. Yeah. And that it just sort of evolved and then wonderful friends stepped in and helped along the way. People like Rick Anthony.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: I, I can't tell you how many times Rick would text me or call me and say, Hey, will you know. Can you come do this event?

Yeah. And I'd say you don't have to ask, just tell me, be here at this hour because you want me to stand up and talk about surfing for seven hours.

Tyler: Awesome.

Will: Okay, that's fine by me. Nine hours, 11 hours. How? Look, if dawn to, to dusk, you know, in the summertime.

Tyler: Give our listeners a little little background on Rick Anthony.

'cause I think a lot of people don't realize, like this guy is a, any sort of like surf competition. He's a backbone of, like, he has been the

Will: literal backbone. So Rick was heavily involved in ESA, uh, for, for many, many years. And then the, uh, Atlantic Surf, uh, Federation for a little while after that. Uh, and then, uh, basically, uh, I think, uh, he started his own company.

I think it was just at Waves. Yeah. You know, uh, where, and he went out of his way. [01:02:00] He purchased the equipment, he purchased the scaffolding, got container, he's got truck, got container. Yeah. He got the container the whole bit. Uh, and Rick, uh, was just, if, if you didn't have Rick, a lot of times it was hard to run a contest.

Yeah. 'cause he's got the scoring mechanisms. You know, he, he had the scoring sheets. He would assemble the team of people to be the judges. Uh, and he, and he'd basically take it from there. And plus he's just an unbelievably great guy. Had scaffolding,

Tyler: scaffolding. Scaffolding. He had scaffolding, he had amps, he had mics, he had had generators.

He had seriously like. The full gear, the full, and every time that that trailer would rock up mm-hmm. I'd be like, fuck, how do I get out of pulling all this shit out? Exactly. And, and setting up. It's, and it's a lot of

Will: bra backbreaking work. Yeah. But you've gotta understand the advantage of actually being up in scaffolding when you're trying to call an vet.

Oh, it's amazing. You need the perspective. Yeah. Like if you're down at beach level, it becomes a whole different thing. Uh mm-hmm. So you get up in the scaffolding and now you've got the perspective. Uh, and for [01:03:00] me. The real fun started when I would have the judges to my right.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: And I would hear them, uh, you know, like, uh, you'd hear, uh, you know, like, uh, there were really two main kinds of contests going on.

Yeah. You had either the kids' contests, which were fun in their way Yeah. And the pro contests that I got to call Yeah. Which were fun in their way and a very, very different kind of Yeah. Fun and challenging. So I, you know, for the, for the pro contests, you know, you'd have, uh, people like Devin Howard. Yeah.

You know, you'd have, uh, you know, uh, you'd have Ryan Simmons. Yeah. Uh, you know, uh, I, I mean

Tyler: Todd Klein. Todd, yeah. Right. You know, it's like all of those guys. So you'd have all those

Will: guys and invariably, you know, uh, if we're doing something every once in a while, these guys would be to my right. Being the head judge.

Yeah. And they'd be talking over their shoulders about, okay, now remember in the, uh, the second heat.

Tyler: Yeah,

Will: the surfer in blue had this wave that looked like this and he did this. Now you guys scored that out at a 5.5. Remember, that's your baseline. Mm-hmm. You can't deviate from [01:04:00] there. And I'm thinking the guy in blue in the thirties, what you guys remember that?

I don't even remember that. That's crazy. Like, you know, I, and, and I would just remind myself I was the dumb announcer, just, just announced. Right. Just, you can't possibly have that kind of focus. But these guys were so good and listening to them talk about the technical aspects was so much fun and so educational.

I mean, like, I, I told Rick a million times, like, you know, like, he'd say, okay, listen, the judges are getting this, and now it's just getting, I'm like, Rick, I'm not doing this for money. You know, I, I do this for free. And uh, you know, and a lot of contests you actually did, you know, particularly the charity ones.

Yeah, of course. Absolutely. Stand in there and volunteer for that.

Tyler: So it's so much fun actually to do. Yeah. Like I, I. I get to live out my, my Peter Townend fantasies. Mm-hmm. You know, of like Chris Brown with the wraparound snapping off the top. Look at that sweeping Covington, and then like a 360 Ew at the end.

Oh my God. Like, I [01:05:00] would try to mimic that in my own voice, of course. But like, I, I mean, I as a kid, like my friends and I would go surf and we would be like. Uh, we would, we would commentate like a ma in imaginary heat and we'd surf and I, and like I'd be paddling back and my friend Jeremy would be like, Tyler with a beautiful off the top on the inside.

And I'm like, oh, he's fluffing me. Okay. And then the next one he would get, I'd be like, look at that whacking, snap off the top rabbit. You know, we'd just kind of get into it and then. The opportunity to do these contests. It was like, oh, this is heaven. This is so much fun. Like thoroughly enjoyable.

Will: This is, uh, it's, it's even worse for me because I do it without even realizing that I'm doing it.

Yeah. So like, I'm walking to, this is a true story. Yeah. This just happened. I, uh, my wife and I, uh, we snuck down to Florida for a couple days. Yeah. Uh, this past Thursday. Yeah. Snuck down there. I had some work to do in Florida on Friday that I was gonna take care of. We get there in the afternoon and unbelievably for Florida.

Yeah, it's offshore. Ugh. And there's a chest [01:06:00] high clean wave, waist to chest, clean wave. Warmer water. Right? Warmer water. But I can't, like, we're trying to check into the hotel. I can't, like the, our check-in was messed up. We didn't get into our room for a while, and by the time, like, you know, uh, uh, there was, uh, you know, the surf shop, you know, a couple of miles away, you know, by the time I could get there, get aboard, get back, I'm like, all right, this, this just doesn't work out.

So my wife and I take a walk down the beach and I can see the surf break from my room. I know exactly where everybody's surfing. Yeah. So I'm walking down the beach and I literally look out to my left and I'm like, oh, surfer on the outside. Line him one up. Oh, it looks like he's gonna take off on this one.

Takes off on his backhand. Nice. Pull up to the top, wraps it back around into the pocket. Hits it off the white water. Well done kicks out, you know, I'm

Tyler: giving it an 8.5.

Will: Exactly. And, and my wife looks at me, is like, who are you talking to? What are you, what are you doing? Exactly? Who are you talking to? You, you're talking to nobody.

You don't have a mic in your hand. What's the matter? What do I [01:07:00] marry? You know?

Tyler: Uh, well that's like, you know, then you start commenting everything in your life. And there my wife was lying in bed waiting for me to come to bed, but I just wasn't feeling it anymore. And she's like, what are you talking about?

What are you

Will: saying? You turned into surf commentator.

Tyler: Well, I think like family guy did a really good thing where he is like, oh, like the time you narrated your voice and or narrated what's in your head? And he's like, there's Lois. She lost a lot of life in her, in her eyes lately. She's looking quite old actually.

And then b, you know, gets punched, but gets punched in the face. That's, that's kind of how I see that happening. The other thing I wanted to ask about is, you, you have this incredible, uh, collection of surfboards. I do, uh, of, uh, boards like eighties, late seventies Yeah. Kind of era. Um, when did that start and, and how much of them were bought off of NYNJ Surf?

Huh? And, and how did, uh, how'd you keep convincing your wife? It was, you're like, I need to buy this. [01:08:00]

Will: Um. So, um, it all started at a board swap that was organized by, uh, uh, the late great Danny Bobas. Mm. Uh, so Danny, uh, you know, uh, this is, so it's really not that many years ago. Yeah. Uh, you know, we had gotten, uh, the house in Long Beach in like 2006.

Right. This might've been like 2007. Yeah. So, you know, up to that point I only had, you know, what I will call the working stock

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: You know, the, the boards that, that I would write on any given day.

Tyler: Right.

Will: Um, and, uh, I go to this board swap, uh, and there's this kind of art deco beat up d Lambed board that's sitting there.

Uh, and, and I look at this thing and it's, you know, clearly from like, you know, the early eighties Yeah. You know, with, with the, the neon colors. Yeah. And I think to myself. Now it looked pretty cool, just hanging in the house as an art piece. Yeah. It was 20 bucks. Uh, can't go wrong. Exactly. You can't go wrong.

It's a board swap. Somebody just trying to clear out the garage, get, get a couple extra bucks. But I'm, I'm looking at it [01:09:00] as a piece of art. Yeah. So I buy this board, I bring it home, I hang it up. My wife rolls her eyes, but she's like, okay. Yeah. You know, it's kind of cool. And then, uh, you know, through the message board, I stumbled across another eighties board neon colors and I'm like.

You know, there's another spot right next, next to it, you know, I'll just, you know, I'll put the eye hooks in the ceiling. Yeah, of course. You know, wrap, you know, some, some, you know, nice, uh, you know, 20 pound test around it, so you don't even see, you know, you know, the fishing line around it. So, so you don't even see the, the, the line.

And you can see the, the full board now I've got two of them there.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: And then two turns into four, and then four turns into eight, and, and it just sort of goes from there, you know, and it's all basically that, that same vintage, uh, you know, of this, uh, you know, uh, uh, these eighties neon style boards by, uh, these phenomenal shapers sometimes or boards that I just thought looked cool that are absolute, absolutely worthless.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: But they're not worthless to me because they looked cool. Yeah. You [01:10:00] know, like I just sort of like the looks of them.

Tyler: Oh yeah. And you have some really beautiful boards, like Yeah. Do you ever take 'em out?

Will: Uh, every once in a while they do these spring events where I'm tempted to, uh, to bring out like a classic looking board.

Uh, yeah. Uh, I did that for a while until I actually, uh, went leash loose with one and, uh, ding the nose because I kinda lost him. Then I said, yeah, I'm not taking these out anymore. So, yeah, I mean, you know, there's, uh, there's this beautiful dick brewer that, uh, you know, talking about Mark Elli before he did a restoration on job on this thing.

Wow. Uh, that is just spectacular. Uh, you know, there's, uh, there's one, uh, there's one board that, uh, got uh, a Bugs Bunny logo in the middle, and it's wb and it's, oh man, it's a rabbit. It's Wayne Rabbit, Bartholomew. Yeah. And it's got the Bugs Bunny logo in the middle. Damn. Wow. And, and hot stuff. Exactly. Uh, that, that Right.

Hot stop. So, uh, and I'm looking at this board and I'm saying, if that ever tried to happen today, he'd get his [01:11:00] pants suit off. Yeah. You know, for using the Warner. Absolutely. I, but it was such a cool piece, and again, the board itself isn't in the greatest shape and Yeah. You know, like what's the resale value on it?

Nothing. But that's a piece of surf history to me.

Tyler: Yeah. How big is it?

Will: Uh, so that one, I, it's probably six, two and, uh, 90 inches thick. No, probably like, you know, a good three inch because, you know, everything was like three could float me. Oh, yes, exactly. All all, you know, I'll have to come by and try that.

So you have to come by and try that one. Not you bring '

Tyler: em out to the fish fry, maybe.

Will: Yeah, there's a Hansen single fin, uh, uh, that I've got that's, uh, like a six. Oh, that's gotta be, you know, like Wow. Very early generation Shortboard era. Wow. Wow. Uh, that, uh, you know, um, uh, who's Mike out on the East End?

Such a good surfer. I had a, had the heart issue.

Tyler: Oh, Mikey d Mikey, Mikey De Temple. Mikey de Temple. Yeah.

Will: Uh, I always, I, in my, in my fantasy world, I wanted to get that board in Mikey de Temple's hands and see what he could do with it,

Tyler: you know? I bet he would. Oh, he would bet. He totally would. Yeah. So, uh, you know, [01:12:00] but he was like,

Will: I looked at that board and, you know, he's such a great surfer on all kinds of boards, you know, long boards.

It didn't matter. But I looked at that board and I'm like, oh man, I'd like to see that guy surf this

Tyler: board.

Will: So well, well,

Tyler: I know him. We can arrange that, you know? Yeah, you probably arrange that, you know, you'd

Will: like it. And I've got the original fin that, that, you know, came from the era too. You know, the star fins, you know, they're so hard to come by.

Right. Wow. I needed star, fin

Tyler: actually. Yeah. Uh, Ashton, my friend Ashton Gogans broke mine. Geez. Off of my, my henin. So tell you, if you gotta starve it, I might need to buy one, the, the,

Will: the whatcha 'em call the printers, you know, make 'em with Yeah. 3D printed. Three 3D printers. Yeah. Three, 3D print one. You know what, what else you gonna do?

You can take mine and use it for a template.

Tyler: Serious. So, and, and I'm also curious, like your sun surfs. Yes. How. How did you introduce him into surfing?

Will: Uh, he took to it, uh, the literal fish to water. Uh, I, I mean, I can still remember that first day, and again, we were back at Tobe at the time. Yeah. Uh, and [01:13:00] I still remember it's, it's low tide.

It's just a little bit of white water rolling in.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, pushing him out on that first wave, uh, and uh, and, and seeing him just naturally come to his feet, you know? Yeah. And, and it came up as a regular foot. Yeah. And I'm like, all right, so he is a regular foot. Just gotta go to Jersey more. Exactly. What are you gonna do?

I, the funny story about that is, is that when he got old enough to realize Yeah. He started screaming at me, why would you make me a regular foot? We live on Long Island. It's the land of the freaking left. You made me a regular foot. Like you

Tyler: chose it. Exactly. And I tried to

Will: explain to him like, I can't make you what you weren't.

Yeah. This is the way you popped up. This is what you are. Exactly. You

Tyler: were born that way. You were

Will: born that way. That's exactly right. You

Tyler: know, but you were born, we're not gonna do any sort of stance conversion therapy here Exactly. For surfing, you know,

Will: but the adolescent scream out of him when he, when he actually would've dawned on him, you know, what, what, what?

You know, the what I had perpetrated, you know. Funniest thing ever. But, uh, but [01:14:00] he was, uh, you know, just, I I, I, I mean by the time he was 11, he was a better surfer than me. Wow. You know, just, just a clearly better surfer than me. Yeah. Like, you know, it wasn't, it was from when he was 11, he was better. And then very quickly, wildly better.

Tyler: Was it, was it pride or jealousy in your heart?

Will: Oh, no, I loved it. I, I gotta tell you, no, one of the, the most spectacular moments in my life, the one, one that is etched in my memory. Yeah, absolutely. Etched Tyler, I'm telling you, etched, the very first time I'm out, it's 90th street. Yeah. I, and, and this kid would, you know, we got in the custom wetsuit, he would paddle out, uh, with us on these, you know, winter, you know, nor'easter sweats.

Wow. I, and he is like, you know, seven. Wow. He's eight years old. Jeez. Like, he could get out there, I don't know how, but somehow bull his way out there because that was his mindsets out.

Tyler: He's like a rubber duck, you know? Uh, he, they beat the wave, would beat him

Will: back, and he. Keep on going. He wasn't really heavy enough to really duck dive real well.

Yeah. But he'd keep on trying, keep on trying and then everybody would look at him and say, [01:15:00] how the hell did you get outta here? That's awesome. Now he was so small and the waves was so big that he really wasn't catching anything. Yeah. Uh, but the fact that he got out at all was amazing. Yeah. So he gets a, a, you know, a little bit bigger, and I remember the very first time I'm sitting out there and I see him take off on a wave and disappear on the other side.

Nice. And then pop out, Ugh. Over the top. Like he goes down, makes the drop. He's gone and there he is on the other side. I'm telling, I get like goosebumps just thinking about it. Now I, I'm telling you, the, the proud father moment, it was the greatest possible feeling. Wow. Yeah. So, uh, at 11, uh, he won the New York State Championships out on, uh, you know, in, uh, at ESA, you here's my meal ticket.

Gonna be a pro

Tyler: surfer.

Will: Actually, not. Uh, very quickly after that, I, he, the last thing he wanted to do was sit around on a beach and wait for a heat. Don't blame him. No, seriously,

Tyler: dad. I don't want to commentate

Will: exactly. I just wanna surf. I just wanna [01:16:00] surf. So like, he wasn't sitting around waiting for heat and he was like, yeah, no, I'm not gonna do this competitive surfing thing.

He just wanted to freeze surf. Nice. He was Dane before Dane, you know.

Tyler: That's awesome. Does he still surf? Is he still going out? Yeah,

Will: he's

Tyler: uh, he's got this now, he's got the job and responsibilities, you know.

Will: Yeah. Not as much because that's what happens. Real wife life gets in the way. But, uh, and, and he has this, uh, thing about like, I'm not surfing cold water.

I'm not doing this. So, uh, like, uh, you know, he'll get on the plane, he'll go, you know, wherever he is gonna go and, and, and surf with some friends and stuff like that. Nice. You know, we, we jumped a flight, uh, I guess it's a little while ago now, uh, and did a surgical strike down to Cabo and surf with him down there.

That must

Tyler: be the best.

Will: Oh my God. So good. Like doing

Tyler: a trip with him.

Will: Oh yeah, I, the, the plane flight alone. Like, you know, remember I said, you know, uh, I, we were telling the story before about the longest, uh, week of my life was nine hours on a flight with, with my mom. But, and then

Tyler: he's gonna say the same thing.

Probably if I brought him in,

Will: I would, I would think that, that, I would hope that, that [01:17:00] he had the exact opposite experience. 'cause I know I did. You know, we'd go on these, uh, and we'd still do, once in a while, we'll make up excuses to, you know, go someplace and, and, and spend some time together. And those talks that you have, uh, you know, like you have with your dad, you know, invaluable, wonderful stuff.

Um, but going down there, I. Uh, what I was very quickly reminded is, is that, you know, you surf as long as you can, as well as you can, but father time is undefeated.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: So we get there, uh, and hurricane swell clearly built in.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, and right in back of where we were staying. Mm-hmm. There's a nice surf break and I'm catching some waves there.

But, uh, the next day we're like, okay, you know, let's, let's find someplace that's not the hotel. We hook up with a guide, and the guide takes us to, uh, this place, I think it was called Shipwrecks.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: Uh, in, in Cabo. Yep. And it's a, um, and the wave that day was incredibly, uh, fast. Not big. Yeah. Not gigantic.

Uh, but it was fast and it's a Right. So your son is

Tyler: stoked

Will: and so he's stoked. It's a Right. [01:18:00] But you'd think me being a regular foot, I would be, yeah. I would be equally stoked. Right. I, and I, I gotta tell you, the, the thing that gets you is. It's the reflexes. Yeah, totally. It's your reflexes just aren't there.

And I, you know, and, and he's getting these waves and, and the guy that, you know, that took us there is also taking pictures. And I'm like, I'm never looking at these pictures. I am never, ever, ever looking at these pictures. You know, I, I don't wanna see them. You know, I, it's like, I, I, I'll tell you another story about, uh, about seeing pictures and, uh, you know, like, you know, what you have in your mind.

Like, that day I knew that, you know, I was, I I was worse than normal. Yeah. Like, it just, it wasn't happening for me. Yeah. And that's okay. You know, like, you, you know what, what you're gonna do. Uh, there was this famous, well, it's well documented in, uh, these surf journals that, that we have through the message boards and, and this, this personal journal that, that all the members of the bungalow, uh, sort of kept.

Wow. Uh, at Beach 90th street, uh, it was, uh, it was this swell that was at the end of October, uh, in [01:19:00] 2003. Mm-hmm. Uh, no, actually 2004. Right. Uh, so it's the end of October, 2004. Uh, and Mario Longboard. Yeah. Uh, famously named it the HFS swell, the holy shit swell. Right. You know, so that's it. Uh, so, uh, because the swell, it literally, there were two hurricanes that were offshore

Tyler: mm-hmm.

And

Will: just spinning out there.

Tyler: Ugh.

Will: And, uh, we had offshore winds and these. Unbelievable waves for eight straight days. So nice. So eight days of this. So there's one day, uh, that, that's coming like, you know, towards the end of it. Uh, and, uh, Jimmy Dowd. Yeah. The wonderful Jimmy Dowd who's done all of these events in Rockaway, you know, uh, you know, every year, every June the mayor.

Yeah, the mayor. The mayor. So Jimmy Dow's on the boardwalk, uh, and he's got his, uh, his camera out. Uh, and I, I take off on this wave, off the tip of the jetty, and I swear to God, Tyler, to this day, best wave of my life. Nice, long, beautiful. And, and as. At whatever my [01:20:00] meager capabilities are, I surf that wave to the best of my meager capabilities.

You know what? Whatever, whatever it is. Yeah. I did the best that I possibly could on this.

Tyler: Yeah.

Will: So what happens from here is, yeah, I come in because like, I'm not going back out after that one. Yeah. I, I'm just gonna come in and basking this one. Just leave on a high note. Comes flying off the boardwalk, running down to me.

Will, will, I got the entire wave. Yes. I've got the entire wave. I got it right from the beginning to the end, I said. Jimmy, I never wanna see that tape. I I, you show me that tape, you're gonna ruin it for me. I never wanna see that. Don't show it to me.

Tyler: That's hilarious. So

Will: I, so he actually made a film, uh, that included clips from that day and left that part out, you know, so

Tyler: well, you know, he's restoring a lot of this stuff.

Oh God. He's, I'm sure he is. Got it. So now I'm gonna totally ask him like, yo, there's a wave of Will that he asked you to leave out. Yeah, absolutely. Send it to me.

Will: Well, I mean, 'cause the deal is, there's no way on tape. It's gonna look as good as it looked in my mind. It never will, but, you know, might be, be pleasantly, you [01:21:00] might

Tyler: be surprised I be No, I won't.

No I won't. Like, I sometimes look at the surfline cams myself and I'm like. That's okay. Yeah, that's good enough. I'm, I'm okay with this. I'm middle aged.

Will: It's cool. I, I gotta tell you, there was one time, uh, you know, when drones was start first starting to be a thing. Yeah. Uh, and a guy, uh, got me on a, on a drone wave, and I actually, you know, and I, I come on the beach and he's like, yeah, I got you.

I'm like, okay, here we go. I'll look. And, and I wasn't that disappointed. Yeah. You know, it was okay. You know, it was all right.

Tyler: You know what I do? I lower my expectations. Yeah. And I say, I'm gonna suck. Yep. And then when I see the footage, I'm much happier. There you go. There you go. Well, dude, this has been so much fun.

Will I really appreciate you coming on here. This is like, I know, right? Like, time flies. Like, oh my goodness, he went so fast. And like, I feel like there's still even more like, but I'm just so stoked. Like one, like I love like NYNJ, surf New York surf.com. Those are such great [01:22:00] memories. Yeah. For me, and I think for a lot of surfers.

And it's like, you know, look back on it with fondness and I, I one, like appreciate all that you do for the community and how much you give back and the time you put in and like, you know, from CE events to promoting stuff, to just showing up like you're always there and, and the pillar of the community and it's, it is really appreciated.

You know, mostly

Will: Tyler. I'm just a guy having a good time.

Tyler: Well, that humble attitude is always appreciated, you know? And like, and I know we didn't even get into the diary here from 90th street bungalows. Oh, oh, seriously. But like you have like a whole forecast Yeah. Uh, of that. You send me some pictures of that.

Will: I will. I'll, I'll, I'll send you some clips. Uh, you know, we'll, we'll post them up somewhere and try and rally the surf community somehow. And just let

Tyler: me know when you start the NYNJ Surf, discord and Discord server. I'll let you know. And where can our listeners find you if they want to just like, you know, hit you up over this sort of stuff?

Uh,

Will: you wanna hit me up over [01:23:00] anything, uh, these days? Uh, I still have access to the webmaster at NYN NJ surf.com email address. Uh, give you another one just in case, uh, SPI c060@gmail.com. That's SPIC a060@gmail.com or just come by Maryland Avenue in Long Beach. Yeah. And you'll find me there. Alright, so all good stuff.

Tyler, thank you so much. This has been a blast and I, I feel like we could have talked for hours. Totally.

Tyler: Well thank you so much for coming on and uh, listeners, thank you for listening. Of course. We really appreciate it. Gotta give a shout out to Joe, our engineer here and, uh, the newsstand studio at Rockefeller Center.

Always grateful to be in this wonderful space and, uh, of course, don't forget to like and subscribe and of course follow us on Instagram at swell season surf radio.com or you can even find us on Blue Sky. Now I'm on that other platform and trying to get away from meta and all that, but that's gonna be difficult.

And [01:24:00] anyway, thank you for listening everyone, and uh, we'll check you all down the line soon. You [01:25:00]