Hawkins and His Favorite Board Have Come a Long Way

These days, trying to reach long-board surfer Joey Hawkins of Huntington Beach is as difficult as getting through to Bill Clinton in Little Rock.

It was in August that Hawkins, who’s only 22 years old, became the world professional long-board champion by beating Australian Marty McMillan in a 14-point landslide during the finals at Biarritz, France.

Fig hunted down Hawkins, whose father, Ronnie, 43, taught Joey the beauty of surfing long boards--wider and thicker boards as in surfing’s pioneer days, but with new lighter foam cores, are enjoying a strong resurgence.

After the world title, Hawkins hasn’t let up. He placed high at a recent San Clemente long-board contest and spends his free time tearing it up at Huntington Beach Pier with good friend Mike Downey, a fellow long-boarder.

“I even got a chance to see the President!” Hawkins said. No boast. He actually did it. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of Huntington Beach, one of the few politicos who can surf, invited Hawkins to meet George Bush last month when Bush arrived at El Toro Marine Corps Air Station.

“Dana said (check it out--he calls him ‘Dana’): ‘Hey, man. Do you wanna meet the President?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ We went, and after meeting Bush, Marlin Fitzwater (Bush Administration spokesman) asked me if I was going to vote for Bush and I said I didn’t know, ‘cause the waves are usually good on Election Day.

“You should have been there. They all roared; they thought it was the funniest thing they’ve ever heard.”

At age 22, you would think Hawkins would perform his wave maneuvers on a 6-foot-6 short-board, rather than a 9-foot-1 board with a deck so huge you can lambada on.

“The long-boarding thing is plagued by its name,” Hawkins said. “It doesn’t conjure up pictures of Christian Fletcher (a short-boarder) getting air and going radical. It conjures up a fat guy drinking beer. But you’re actually limited with what you can do on a short board. With long boards, you use the whole board, from tip to tail, and there’s a multiple number of maneuvers available.”

Fig: His friend Downey was the hot local till Hawkins came around. Joey surfs unreal, man. He likes to throw some killer re-entries and 360 moves.

Hawkins is a self-described “hybrid,” in tune with the ‘90s with a style “that’s somewhere between freewheelin’ short-boarding and high-tech long-boarding.”

He wasn’t always so tuned in. In fact, Hawkins had a reputation as a short-board ripper while on the Huntington Beach High School surf team. But in November, 1987, that all changed when a severe back injury forced him on the sidelines to face some agonizing reappraisal.

“It was my L5 vertebrae. I surfed too long one day and my muscles tired and my back just couldn’t take it. A chiropractor suggested I ride a long board for therapy. At first, I didn’t like it. But after a while I was putting a good ride together and learning that riding a long board was way more difficult.” He learned to compensate. With a short board, he said, you tend to overpower the board. With a longer board it takes style. Once he recovered physically, he never went back.

“I came to a point where I wasn’t happy with my surfing (on a short board). I would get upset when I wasn’t pulling 360s on a wave and I would turn around and see a guy who probably learned only four days ago and he’s in the white water whooping it up! And you say to yourself, ‘Where along the lines did I lose that?’ The guy on the long board over there was like, so stoked, he’s like winning the Lotto over there.”

He’s right, said Fig. Short-boarders are always looking way too serious.

Hawkins’ advice for young surfers? Get involved with amateur organizations. “Get in a contest so you learn the system. Check into the amateur division of the Professional Longboard Assn. If you’re gonna ride a long board, that already shows you’ve got enough character. Remember, the best thing about a long board is you have an aloha spirit--there’s definitely a camaraderie out there among long-boarders.”

Fig added: To keep the stoke going, contact the Professional Longboard Assn., in Huntington Beach, at (714) 673-2785. Chris Martin is the association’s director.

Contest shorts: Hawaiian surfer Sunny Garcia won last week’s $20,000 Xcel-Pro at Sunset Beach in 10- to 15-foot Hawaiian juice. Fig said that’s Hawaiian scale, so he’s talking about 25-foot faces. Garcia is ranked third in the Assn. of Surfing Professionals.