Date of Birth: March 17, I forgot what year (I’m pretty old)

Best Known For: Almost making the biggest wave ever paddled into

Local Spot: The whole North Shore

My Crew: Kai Borg, Pat O'Connell and my wife

Board of Choice: Depends on the surf. HIC makes me great boards

Dream Wave: I still like 4-foot Macaronis in Indonesia

Brock's belated tale of another rumble at The Bay

[Editor's note: Brock submitted this a month ago, which dates it even more. Our bad for not posting it. Still, it's as relevant as ever.]

I wrote this blog a long time ago. I thought I sent it in, but obviously I didn't. I feel a lot better than I did back then. Sitting around hurt led to some depression, and thoughts about getting old. I should write a blog on it, but no one wants to hear me whine. I'm lucky, my shoulder is fine, ribs all good, and I just surfed 10 ft. Lanis.

I was planning on writing this blog before I wrote my last one. I've got a sore shoulder and for some reason, I feel like writing. My last blog will explain why my shoulder is sore. I feel like pretending the last blog didn't happen.

It's been about 4 weeks since the ribs got hurt. The Eddie happened about 1 and a half weeks ago. Sorry to be such a wimp about my ribs, just setting up the story. I'm ready to go surfing, Waimea is 12 to 15, and looks fun. Waimea seemed like a good wave to get my feet back on my board. It has a big channel and at 15ft. it isn't very hard to surf.

I was out for about half an hour, catching all kinds of waves. I had a couple of good ones, a couple of wipeouts. It felt good to be in the water after a month off.

In general, I was taking off pretty deep, right on the boil, when a 15ft. wave came in. I swung around and went. A couple of guys dropped in on me, so I decided to jump off when I got to the bottom of the wave. I was suprised how much power the wave had where I jumped. I must have been right on the boil. Anyway, the wave tossed me around pretty good, but I was fighting it, and about to get to the surface. Right when I thought I was going to get some air, the wave shoved me down deep. Now we got problems.

I didn't get a good breath before I went under, and now I was super deep. I figured if I fought, I'd come up in the next wave. I tried to relax, and slowly make my way to the surface. As I was coming up, I could hear the next wave rumbling towards me, so I kind of went limp. I knew I shouldn't waste energy. The second wave finally came over me. Luckly, it wasn't very strong, and it didn't really push me back down. I made my way to the surface, and got a fricken breath. I couldn't believe it, the first 2 wave hold down of my long life.

I got married on Waimea point. I pretty much made a career out of surfing the place. I grew up 5 minutes away. I should feel comfortable out there. At any size the place scares me. I've come close to dying out there a few times. Every time I begin to feel good about my relationship with the bay, the place tries to kill me. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say, but as I sit here with my dislocated shoulder (from Waimea), I just wish the place would give me a break, and I don't mean the physical kind.— Brock

Brock Little contemplates his mortality at maxing Waimea

If you read my last blog, you know I missed the Eddie, and hurt my rib. If you didn't read it, please do. I put time and effort into my bullshit. Anyway, here we are six weeks after hurting my rib and I'm ready to go. I've surfed 3 or 4 times, swam a little in big surf, and feel pretty confident. By the way, surfing with a hurt rib sucks...lying on your rib trying to paddle is not pleasant. The point of these excuses is, I haven't surfed much.

So here I am, home, ready to start surfing more, feeling good, and about to go to bed. I decide to take a quick look at the buoy before I go to sleep; it's 25ft., 17 seconds. For people who don't speak buoy language, that's GIANT. Its as big as Waimea can handle, or possibly even too big for the bay. I have no reason to be nervous, the Eddie is over, and I've proved myself enough times. F*&%, I still can't sleep.

Brock didn't have any photos from this year, so we wanted to remind him what he's ridden before.

When I wake up in the morning and drive down the hill, I see its really big. I have a doctors appointment I shouldn't blow off, so I go. Driving around the bay I'm seriously hoping it will drop by the time I get back. When Waimea is this big, its not fun; it will kill you, or me. When I get back from town, around 11, its as big as it gets. I'm not sure why, but I have to go out. Waimea has nearly killed me twice at this size. I'm afraid. One of my things at Waimea is I don't like to watch it before I go out. I get down to the beach and paddle out. People usually follow me because I've been around a while, but jumping in when I do is a bad idea. This time my friend Arnold Dowling followed me out. He paddled towards the channel, I stuck next to the rocks. He got his ass kicked in the middle of the bay, I got tossed around by about 20 waves, 5ft. whitewaters next to rocks. When the waves finally let up, I paddled my ass out to the line-up. All the way out I was worried about a close out set. When I made it out, I was winded.

I knew I shouldn't be out there. I was not in shape, mentally, or pysically for maxed out Waimea. Usually, when I'm on the beach, I'm scared, I feel sick in my gut. On my way out though, those feelings start to change,and by the time I reach the line up, I'm fearless. This day was different. When I got out I could only think, shit, its going to be hard to catch a wave in. Not the right mindset.

We know we've run this sequence before, but we don't care. It's still king in our book. 

All my life I've seen when people surf closeout Waimea, most of them don't want a real wave. They paddle out thinking they want one, but when they get out there, they figure out its a bad idea. On days like this one there were 20 guys out, but only 3 or 4 who wanted a 20+ wave. I was suprised by Kahea Hart, he charged. Arnold, and this nice South African also wanted one. Pretty much everyone else looked like they'd seen a ghost. I was on the so called fence, not sure which way I was going. I told myself many times if I was one of the guys not wanting one, I'd quit. All of a sudden I realized, I might be one of those guys....I'm 42, got a great wife, I can't achieve much more wave-wise than what I've already done in the past. Why am I out here when I know it can kill me? I also know that when I'm out in the thick of things , I make bad choices in regard to my well being.

So all this crap is going though my head, but I'm starting to get my wind back. I've been out about 10 minutes, and a set starts to form way out in the ocean. Horns are honking, everyone is paddling for the horizon. I don't paddle out because I know if you want to catch one, you have to stay close to the reef. For some idiotic reason, all of a sudden my mindset has changed, and I'm going to get one. When the set came, I was too far in for the first one, out of position for the second one, and the third (and biggest) was aimed right at me. I turned around and took off, knowing I'd make the wave. It was outside the main reef, so getting in wasn't very hard. A wind chop pushed me in, and before I knew it I was half way down the face. Then the wave hit the regular Waimea reef, and created a little bump. I went over that, and knew I had the wave made. After a sigh of relief, my board slowed down but my body didn't. I'm not sure what happened, but I went shoulder first into the bottom of the wave face. It wasn't a big deal, I knew I'd be under awhile, I've done it before. I got worked, and when I made it up, I felt fine.

We'll still stack this one up against anything ridden this year. 

Then I noticed that although I was swimming with 2 arms, one was just floating. I freaked out, screamed like a little girl. I had dislocated my left shoulder. It was so heavy to be thinking I'm moving my arm, and then look at it just dangle. There was a 20ft. wave coming so I had to start thinking about functioning with 3 limbs instead of 4. I took off my leash, because I didn't think it would be a good idea to drag my arm though the water, with the leash pulling me. The wave thrashed me around pretty good, but not too bad. While I was underwater I swam like I had two good arms, it didn't feel any different than normal. When I popped up, both arms were working. I was actually swimming. Did that just happen?

Somebody who was on the shoulder came in and let me jump on the back of his board. I'm sure he heard me screaming, because before that wave I truly yelled like a big fffnnn pussy. Clyde Aikau came over to help push me into the channel. Everybody was waving for the jet ski. The weird truth was, I felt fine. I was paddling on the back of some guy's board and my arm didn't even hurt. The lifeguard (Abe Lerner) came over on the ski and had me climb onto the sled. He took me in, and dropped me perfectly right on the sand. End of story...

How many of these can you take in a lifetime?

But I don't know. I've come a lot closer to drowning, broke my kneecap blah, blah, blah...I think what I'm asking myself is should I keep surfing giant Waimea? I know this is cocky, but usually I'm the best guy out,even now (Shane and a few others are definitely better than me). I can't pass up a close out, if I'm in the spot, and in the mood. I'm 42 with nothing to prove. No decision, but leaning towards walking away...we'll see.

Just saw the photo, kind of a nothing wave, nothing fall. Not very good for my ego. If my shoulder pops out on a medium wave at the bay, what happens on a real wave? Makes me think about Mark Foo's medium wave at Mavericks. I think I think too much.-- Brock

I wasn't worried about the Eddie, the opening ceremony was around 2 weeks away. They never have the contest till later on in the waiting period. About a week after I hurt my rib, I tried to surf small Waimea. I made a fool of myself, and almost had to get rescued. I could not paddle with my left arm, it was pain. It's weird, at this point in my life, I try not to let the Eddie rule me. I'm lucky, I make money working outside of surfing. Life is good. Who am I kidding, the Eddie is on my mind all year long. It sucks. This year I could have paddled out, sat on the shloulder and cheerled. I know I would have been looked at as a kook. Instead, I was on the mainland shooting a fake gun on the passenger side of a car.

In hindsight, I would do nothing different. If I surfed I would have surfed to survive. I want to be in it to win it. After watching the some of the webcast, i'm really bummed I wasn't healthy. Hopefully I'll be back next year. Whatever, this year hurt me mentally and physically.-- Brock

Anyway, I surfed V-land this morning. Sean Hayes was out with Shane Beschen. They were just finishing a coaching seminar with the Red Bull team. Carrisa, Brother Andino,and Conner coffin?, were all getting the benefits of their wisdom. Those kids don't need coaching, its not fair. But then again, I'd love to coach those kids, cause as a coach they'd make me look like a genius.

I missed the Mavericks opening ceremony yesterday. I was on Lost, hanging on a cable (not too much info). I'm stoked I still get invited to the event, so I'm bummed I had to "work". I'm thinking about going up there to just go surf, we'll see. Its always good to freeze my ass, makes me appreciate home.--Brock

About a month ago, Pat O called and told me I was going to do some commentating on the webcast for the Hurley Pro at Tresles. I tried to wiggle my way out, but when Pat sets his mind to something there is no changing it. I was on my way to Cal. For most people this probably sounds fun. Hurley pays my way to the mainland, gives me great accommodations (Pat's couch), and Pat takes me out to dinner, lets me drink his wine and eat his ice cream.

All I have to do is bullshit about the best surfers in the world. I know this makes me sound like a puss, but talking on the web is scary. Let me go paddle in at Waimea, or do some dumb stunt, those are things I can handle. Walking into the webcast booth, that's intimidating.

Once I get going, it's all good, and then come the e-mails. In between questions and "Atta boy Brock" is the constructive criticism all the webcasters love. Stuff like "You're a kook," "I'm tired of Brock already" etc., all that crap tends to stick with you more than the love letters.

This year the waves were inconsistent, but I thought the contest was still insane. The level of pro surfing is so high. This was the first time in at least a decade, I walked away not sure who the best surfer in the world is. For me it's always been Kelly. This year, I thought a few of the guys had reached his level, or maybe he slipped a little. Could be his boards suck. Whatever, now I feel like Kelly's one of the best, with company.

Can't wait to webcast next year, if Kelly's on tour he'll prove me wrong. If he's retired, he'll e-mail me and call me a kook.—Brock

Snips and Pat O got a lot of shots. Wes Laine got coverage. Mark Foo and Todd Chesser were popular before they passed, looking at them kind of gave me chills. It's fun to watch Kelly grow up. He seemed to be in the mags since he was in diapers. There were lots of photos of creek, and Natividad, not to mention Todos. I forgot how big some of the waves we rode at Todos were.

I got to be reminded of some of the places I got to travel. They include Alaska, Ireland, Morocco, and Peru. All these were great trips...I hope to write about them in later blogs. But now, I have to go and weed though some more mags, my dad is on my case. It doesn't matter how old you are, dads will always try to boss you around.

I taught kids from the Boys and Girls Club to surf the other day. The pro surfers who helped were Brian Keaulana, Aaron Napolean, and me. Brian and Aaron are two of my idols. Here is a picture of us signing autographs. — Brock

Surfed 1ft. Salt Creek, with the mayor of creek himself, Pat O. I rode Kai Barger's board and ripped. Pat told me the lefts off the point sandbar is the best ever. I'm bummed I had to leave, knowing how good Creek is going get.

The Eddie always had a bunch of politics (who's getting in, format ect.) But now I think the Maverick's contest is worse. Jeff Clark might not run the event, there might not be any money, not sure about the format, and some of the invitees are getting old (me). The best big-wave event I ever surfed was the Eddie in '86. 1st place was $1500. That wasn't a lot of money back then either. Anyway, they thew up a scaffold, and had the event in big shitty surf. We all surfed that day basically for fun, and bragging rights. I don't think that can happen again.

There is a tropical storm about to hit Hawaii. Hopefully we'll get some surf. As a surfer I don't worry to much about if the storm will do damage, just how the waves will be. That's f'ed up.— Brock