Will the World\u0092s Greatest Surfer Please Lie Down? <\/p>\n
By Bruce Jenkins <\/p>\n
He appeared from the mist of a raging Hawaiian swell, paddling in from the horizon at Sunset Beach. He\u0092d thought nothing of swimming into the distant maelstrom to find his lost board, drifting to the outer reefs of Rocky Point, and then heading straight out to bypass the brutal current. Surfers braving the 18-foot seas could hardly fathom his arrival, but that was Mike Stewart, defining himself: a man from somewhere else.This happened years ago, although it could have been yesterday or well into the future\u0097any time during one of the most remarkable careers in surfing history. Argue the terminology if you\u0092d like; make that \u0093bodyboard\u0094 distinction for Stewart and separate him from those who stand. Just include him in your conversation about the greatest and most influential wave riders. Otherwise, you are gravely mistaken. <\/p>\n
Stewart\u0092s story is one of loyalty and humility. It\u0092s about a revolution at Pipeline and a christening of Teahupo\u0092o. It chronicles the most innovative bodysurfer who ever lived, and a man paddling to outer reefs through 30-foot sets with nobody in sight. It\u0092s about originality, competitive dominance, and independent thought, earning legitimate comparisons to Laird Hamilton, Kelly Slater, and George Greenough. It\u0092s about a comeback from financial ruin, with a strong and beautiful family at his side. More than anything, it\u0092s about a true Hawaiian: gentle, soft-spoken, and kind until certain lines are crossed, at which point a fury is unleashed. <\/p>\n
Such a simple man. So many layers. Mike Stewart is a person met in stages, for you couldn\u0092t possibly digest him all at once. At first glance, he might have been a scruffy haole kid cruising Ke Nui Road on a bicycle, or a complete goofball with hilariously choreographed gestures and facial expressions. He might have been hunkered down for hours at a computer, a mad scientist at work. Then again, he might have surfed into daylight from a Pipeline tube he did not make\u0097a notion that bends the mind a little. <\/p>\n
One of the most respected men on the North Shore, longtime Pipeline lifeguard and ethereal bodysurfer Mark Cunningham, played an intriguing numbers game. \u0093Take all the Pipeline titles won by Slater, Lopez, Rory Russell, Tom Carroll, Derek Ho, and Andy Irons,\u0094 Cunningham said last winter. \u0093Then add up Stewart\u0092s titles.\u0094 <\/p>\n
The totals: 22 for Stewart\u009711 on a bodyboard, 11 more as a bodysurfer\u0097and 20 for the others. \u0093We get jaded around the North Shore, but think about what that means,\u0094 said Cunningham. \u0093Heat after heat, final after final, win after win. That\u0092s just phenomenal. Deadliest surf spot in the world, and he\u0092s been dancing with it for 25 years. I don\u0092t ever recall him, knock on wood, being carried out of there or even being in dry dock, and that\u0092s just fucking crazy, too. I mean no disrespect to anyone, but Mike\u0092s the most committed guy I\u0092ve ever seen.\u0094 <\/p>\n
We find Stewart today, as always, just slightly beyond the mainstream. At 43, he lives on the Hamakua coast of the Big Island with his wife, Lisa, and two children. That\u0092s home for Stewart, who spent his formative years in Kona and lived down the road from the creative mastermind of bodyboards, Tom Morey. Together, in that little corner of the world, they shaped a sport\u0097Morey the inventor and Stewart the purveyor, unveiling its potential to the world. Such a person may not exist, for Stewart didn\u0092t just legitimize the sport in the minds of skeptical surfers, he transcended it. <\/p>\n
\u0093I\u0092ve never heard anyone dog Mike for riding a Boogie board,\u0094 said Mark Healey, one of the best young watermen in Hawaii and a regular in the Pipeline lineup. \u0093It\u0092s obvious that he\u0092s an alien, compared to everyone else, so no one can say a thing. I\u0092ve heard people say he\u0092s the Laird Hamilton of bodyboarding, which is heavy, but forget that. He\u0092s the Mike Stewart of wave riding, and nobody will ever catch up to him. I think he\u0092s the best all-around wave rider in the world.\u0094 <\/p>\n
http:\/\/www.surfersjournal.com\/html\/stew_brah_feature_vol15no3.htm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Will the World\u0092s Greatest Surfer Please Lie Down? By Bruce Jenkins He appeared from the mist of a raging Hawaiian swell, paddling in from the horizon at Sunset Beach. He\u0092d thought nothing of swimming into the distant maelstrom to find his lost board, drifting to the outer reefs of Rocky Point, and then heading straight … Continue reading “Will the World\u0092s Greatest Surfer Please Lie Down?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[24],"class_list":["post-13501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-surfing-news-archive","tag-surfing-news-archive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13501\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saltwater-dreaming.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}