Photo: Fred Pompermaye
The final horn of the 2016 Titans of Maverick’s had already sounded, but Greg Long wasn’t going to let an expired clock prevent him from catching the biggest wave of the day. Because that’s exactly who he is. Jerseys on and off, Greg has been incessantly pushing the limits of big-wave surfing for more than a decade.
Greg paddled past the last two surfers in the lineup, including the event winner, Nic Lamb, and air dropped on the most menacing wave of the afternoon. Covered by an avalanche of whitewater, Long emerged for a split second before being tossed down the face of the wave like a rag doll at Niagara Falls. He didn’t win the contest, but his last ride won over the crowd and his fellow big-wave competitors, further solidifying himself as one of the gutsiest surfers in the world.
“Oh my goodness,” broadcast announcer Mike Parsons said of the post-contest move. “Greg Long just manning up on a wave right there on a huge wave after the heat. Wow, what a legend.”
The 33-year-old from San Clemente, California went on to win the Maverick’s Boldest Drop Award at Pillar Point on February 12th, and two weeks later he was named World Surf League Big-Wave Tour champion for the second time.
I was determined to find out what made this guy tick.
“I wouldn’t be out there if I wasn’t having fun doing it,” said Long. “There are still those challenging moments where you look at the wave and say, ‘If I can push myself over that ledge, I can have a really late drop.’ That was the [Maverick’s] wave I was waiting for all week. It was ironic that it came after the horn, but, regardless, every opportunity is a chance to learn something new and to push myself.”
That perspective has changed since he last won the World Surf League Big-Wave Tour in 2012. It was the same year he suffered a near-fatal wipeout at Cortes Bank. Long picks his words carefully when asked about his full-time return to competitive surfing, but he doesn’t shy away from discussing the doubt, fear, and uncertainty that flooded his psyche after a chilling four-wave hold down.
“I sat for a long time and wondered if that was it for my big-wave surfing career,” said Greg. “Maybe I didn’t have that same desire anymore. But deep inside I knew it was still burning in me, and I wasn’t ready to walk away from it. I just needed to be patient with the whole process and get back to a place of confidence.”
Long’s “ego,” as he called it, kept him competing shortly after the wipeout, but it wasn’t until he took six months off that he was able to decompress and really come to grips with what happened at Cortes Bank. More importantly, it helped him realize how his approach to surfing needed to change if he was to move forward with the sport. He needed to get back to having fun again.
“For a while there, I didn’t have that same inspiration to be willing to throw myself over the ledge,” Long said. “It gave me time to think about what I was doing, what was working, and what wasn’t working in terms of surfing big waves.”
Long has had some big wins under his belt: Dungeons in South Africa (2003), Mavericks (2008), and Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau at Waimea Bay (2009). But this past season, he made as many headlines, not for winning events , but for patiently waiting for and charging the biggest waves of those contests.
Despite competing in only two of the three official WSL-sanctioned events, Greg went on to win the Big-Wave Tour title. With his finals appearances, Long completed the big-wave season with 21,266 points, holding off last year’s champion, Makuakai Rothman, who finished with 16,994 points in all three sanctioned events.
Last month, Long was also named athlete of the year by the Save The Waves Coalition, one of the many sustainable surf organizations he supports. Long has also been an ambassador for Sustainable Surf and the Surfrider Foundation.
“To see Greg Long win another Big-Wave Tour title is amazing,” said fellow Maverick’s legend and WSL BWT Commissioner, Peter Mel. “I was there at Cortes Bank when he experienced his near drowning. He could have easily stepped away from big-wave riding at that time. To see him dedicate himself and overcome any negativity from the accident is an inspiration.”
Things started to click again for Long at the Pe’ahi Challenge on last December. It was at Jaws where Long pulled into one of the deepest barrel rides ever caught on camera. It would eventually be nominated for the Ride of the Year and Barrel of the Year categories at the 2016 WSL Big-Wave Awards.
“When I paddled over to the lineup, it kind of all came back into focus,” Long said. “I thought, ‘Now’s the time. You’re ready to step in again and go for it.’ The first two waves I caught in that competition were probably the biggest waves I caught the entire winter, and that barrel was probably the biggest wave of my career.”
“Going into this year, my goal was to have fun again,” Long continued. “I didn’t care about where I finished in competitions. The one intention I had was to have as much fun as possible. This year there were a lot of giant swells, so if I wasn’t 100 percent and I wasn’t enjoying myself while I was out there, I went and did something else. And in the end, I had one of the greatest years of my life.”
See more by checking out Greg Long’s HEADSPACE installment.
