Dirty Old Wedge Page #7

surfing cool was Sean Starky.

There was no other kid

that filled that gap.

- I remember body surfing one

day, it was two to three foot,

I remember taking a side

wave across the sand

and I'm kind of laying there in

the sand

and there's this guy, arms

crossed, looking down at me,

super tan in a Speedo.

Potato Head they called him.

Kind of looking at me

going, what's your name?

My name's Sean.

It was like, alright,

I like your style man,

I like what you're all about.

You should come down here more

often.

Then he just walks away.

- That's when I said to myself,

we have a gap here, we

need to stop the loss

of young body surfers and we

need to start incorporating

that back into Wedge crew

and build our ranks up

so we can have, at any given

time,

a force to reckoned with in the

water.

Not for mischief and

mayhem but of camaraderie,

of good times, of stories, of

wave riding,

pushing each other to do

bigger, better things.

- [Voiceover] The need

for a new generation

of body surfers was there.

And, with Potato Head

being the den mother,

or what have you, he saw to

it that he had a whole flock.

- First experience at Wedge

was swimming across the channel

with my cousin Ozzy and

first person I meet is Potato

and Potato's like, what

are you doing here?

And I'm like, just getting some

waves man.

Potato's like, you're body

surfing wrong.

And so, I'm like, okay how

do body surf correctly?

And then he kind of did his

weird thing.

But that was the first,

literally the first time

we actually went out, had a good

time

was with John, was like,

first approaching it.

- I saw it was a work in

progress.

Potato Head was down

there building a new crew.

You could see it had potential

and I was glad to be home

because I wanted to help

cultivate that.

- I kind of made the conscious

decision

where I wanna be a Wedge tree

guy,

I wanna be a part of this.

Sure enough, you know,

after putting in a summer,

they guys kind of starting

taking notice of this young kid

who's swimming, I would swim in

anything.

- The one thing that we

try to do as older riders

was let 'em know that there

was kind of like a hierarchy.

For one, I wanted to get my

waves.

But two, wanted them to kind

of go through a little bit

of what I did and what we all

did

that made us better.

It wasn't to discourage them.

It was to make sure they

understood,

we want you ride here but

we want you to ride here

and consider yourself being the

best.

We want you to ride and

respect to the path.

And so, we had to kind of like,

we wanted to cultivate that.

- And, there was like, alright,

we have some young blood here.

We have some fresh stuff coming

in.

We're gonna push the limits.

I'd like to call them

kind of like my stable

of young rippers that

are out there riding.

They're all getting older now

but we're filling the pipe line

full.

Their friends are coming

down and just a good time.

It's getting fun again.

- Potato Head, he really

is probably the glue

that holds our whole young crew

together.

- The first person to talk

to me was Gene, for sure.

Seeing him say, oh, hey, how's

it going.

Or, oh, that was a good wave.

That meant the world.

Getting acknowledgment from your

heroes

or people you're looking

up to or striving to be

is huge.

- Like what Gene used to do.

They would talk to you,

they would be down there

give your pointers.

Oh hey, nice ride kid, keep it

up.

Just little things like that.

Then you'd have these other guys

like Lee

or even some of the

Larsons where it's like,

they won't say a word to

you and like, that's okay.

You're gonna wait for them to

say the word

cause like when they talk

to you it's like a big deal.

- The fact that everyone's

such a tight knit group

and is constantly pushing

each other in the water

that's why you see the type of

riding

that's going on down there.

- It's really a testament

to how everyone has each other's

backs.

- So, whenever someone

gets hurt down there,

there is a tight unity,

kind of brotherhood,

where we're always

calling each other saying,

hey, did you hear,

what's his name got hurt.

Say, oh, is he okay?

No, he's at the hospital.

Alright, we'll go visit

him here, what's happening?

- For Gene, when he was in the

hospital,

we had guys in there almost

every day visiting him,

helping him and his family

out every way we could.

- I hurt myself on March

30th in a year ago, 2012.

It was a smaller day that turned

into

like a 10, 12 foot day, 15

foot day later that day.

But when I got in at 11 or

12 it was not much going on

and I took off on like head high

wave,

maybe something like that.

I remember I got hit,

I slammed really hard.

I saw a bright light.

Like, this magnificent bright

light

but it wasn't a spiritual thing

it was my spine exploding I

think.

I just came up and I knew I was

hurt.

I had broken nine ribs,

you wanna hear this?

I had broken nine ribs,

punctured a lung,

broke my T nine, 10, 11 and my

spine

and nicked my spinal cord

but I didn't severe my spinal

cord.

That's why I'm sitting here

today.

So, it was a mother f***er.

It f***ed me up.

- When he got hurt, we, it was

devastating

cause here's a guy that rides

only purely

because he's stoked and riding

waves.

It's the last person you

wanna see get hurt, right?

A person that deserves

to ride the place forever

and then some.

But, what happened was he had

just like a positive attitude

and he got through some

stuff that was just amazing.

- I went back down to the

Wedge first chance I could

and I wasn't sure I wanted

to go back but I did.

- We could see him coming

from where we kind of sit

next to the rock.

We see Gene walking up, you

see the silhouette of a guy

carrying a cane.

Everyone's eyes pretty much lit

up.

(upbeat, pop music)

- Just like the first time

he came down to the beach

I got pretty teary eyed about it

because he really, you know,

I was like, God damn it,

this old man is not giving up.

- I've had many grown

men come up to me and cry

and give me a hug and

tell me they're so glad

that I'm alright and just

the spirit of the Wedge

as I felt it, it's been, it's

just,

it's a great thing.

And, especially the Wedge guys,

I wanna thank them so much

for just being there for me

and it was, I wish I

could explain it better

but it was just a really

great and special experience

for me for my whole life.

I'll never forget it.

And I thank them all

the time and that's it.

(flags flapping)

(waves crashing)

- Gene, to the day he died, when

he was,

he would be out there,

shitty waves, great waves

and he was always pumped.

- He was just the nicest, most

genuine guy

you will ever meet in your life.

Welcoming and kind to everyone,

anyone,

wave rider or not.

Not just at Wedge but in life.

That's how, that's truly how he

was.

- I think Gene's stoke brought

us together

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