There are a few surfers who bridge the gap between all forms of wave riding. Mike Stewart is one of them. Surfing doesn’t require a surfboard—it only needs a wave and a vehicle. Those who look down at bodyboarders are missing the point entirely.
Way back in the ’80s, Stewart was doing things on waves that, at the time, no one could even fathom. For decades, he’s been someone who every surfer on earth looks up to. “I bow down to the greater wisdom of Nat Young, who bowed down to George Greenough,” says surfing’s greatest encyclopedia, Matt Warshaw. “I bow down to the greater wisdom of Tom Curren, who bowed down to Mike Stewart.”
A few months ago, Stewart had the chance to surf the Surf Ranch. “What’s beyond those gates is hard to fathom,” he wrote on Facebook. “Basically a peeling left and then right that’s almost a kilometer long. It’s mind-bending. The wave is more challenging to ride than to mind surf that’s for sure, but still, amazing fun.”
Stewart’s knowledge of waves is on a level only a few have reached. It’s the kind of innate, born-to-do-this kind of knowledge. Still, though, riding a man-made wave was a whole different experience. “Oddly, I was not able to rely on the years of experience reading a wave face to figure out when a section was coming,” he explained. “You just have to remember it’s coming. This wave/park being basically a working prototype it shouldn’t be too long before these are more widely available for everyone to enjoy. I will highly recommend it.”
MS at the Surf Ranch from Mike Stewart on Vimeo.
