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Health & Fitness
The Science: Riding the Storm
LAIRD HAMILTON'S BEST LIST
Power Breakfast “My super
smoothie breakfast mixes up Muscle Milk protein powder and fresh fruit
juice (in Hawaii you can’t beat pineapple juice) with frozen
strawberries, blueberries, and bananas.”
Espresso Machine “I can’t wait
to get to a café for my morning fix of caffeine, so I start cranking
the espresso at home, firing up the Marke Saphre machine in my garage.
No foam, no steamed milk, no sugar…just straight hot shots of espresso
made with Italian grinds.”
Workout Anthem “
All Along the Watchtower, the
Hendrix version. If you can time your point-of-failure repetition to
when Hendrix snarls ‘the wildcats did growl!’ you will break through to
new levels.”
Multiuse Tool “A hammer is as good for taking things apart as it is for putting things together. What more is there to say?”
Nonsurfing Movie “
300. It combines the best of video games, graphic novels, and traditional action movies. It fires me up.”
Surfing Movie “
Pacific Vibrations. It remains
the classic ’60s- and ’70s-era surfing documentary. It also has a great
soundtrack with Cream, Steve Miller, Ry Cooder, and Crosby, Stills and
Nash.”
Chill-Out Tunes “
Into the Wild, by Eddie Vedder. It’s stripped down, acoustic Pearl Jam. What more do you need? Check out the ukelele intro on ‘Rise.’”
Children’s Book “
Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss. Sam-I-Am will absolutely not be denied and is a role model for a person of any age.”
Recovery Meal “Grilled New York strip steak slathered with horseradish, with sides of sautéed spinach and sweet potatoes.”
Island Shirt “Reyn Spooner. Locally made, traditional, classic.”
Wine “Etude pinot noir. It
tastes terrific and doesn’t cost a million dollars a bottle, and the
Etude people specialize in pinot noir.”
Laird Hamilton's fitness odyssey is challenging our understanding of how athletes age
On the morning of Monday, December 3, 2007, Laird Hamilton heard the monsters stomping off the north shore of Maui.
"The big waves often kick up during the night," says Hamilton, hunched over an espresso at a café in Paia, near his home, seven weeks later. With his daunting slabs of muscle and blazing green eyes, Hamilton has an overpowering physical presence, yet he emanates an aura of calm. "You lie in your bed and try to sleep, but you can feel the waves building. When an 80-footer breaks, the foundation of the house trembles. That's why I live on Maui: The waves come to you. It's my job to be ready for them."
Dawn broke auspiciously that day, on which Hamilton, who would turn 44 in early 2008, confirmed his standing as the world's greatest big-wave surfer. Rain lashed sideways, driven by 50-mile-an-hour typhoon winds. Boiling gray clouds rolled ashore. The barometric pressure dropped so low that an apocalyptic edge filled the air. Word spread that huge sets were forming; not at the world-famous Jaws break, which, on a clear day, Hamilton could see from his house, but at a point a few miles west called Outer Sprecks. Hamilton phoned his longtime surfing partner Brett Lickle and headed for the beach.
Lickle, 48, had been a member of the "strap team," the crew of big-wave surfers who had helped Hamilton develop the technique of tow-in surfing in the early '90s using personal watercraft. The tow-in style allows a handful of surfers to ride waves big enough to sink ships. The master of this extreme specialty, Hamilton achieved surfing apotheosis by riding a freakishly powerful you-fall-you-die wave at Teahupoo, off Tahiti, in August 2000. That ride, like most of the others in Hamilton's big-wave portfolio, was recorded on video and in photographs. But this morning, high winds and lack of visibility grounded helicopters. No camera would document the day.
The two men rode out from Baldwin Beach Park on a three-seat watercraft. A little less than a mile offshore, they reached Outer Sprecks. The waves rolled up in immense swells, producing faces ranging in height from 50 to 80 feet, although the mass of water behind the face lent each wave its true, island-shaking power. Imagine a 10-story building hurtling at you at 30 miles an hour, followed, every 30 seconds, by another hurtling 10-story building.
At that moment, Hamilton might have paused. He was well past 40, the traditional age of obsolescence for professional athletes. But while an over-the-hill power forward risks losing a step, an aging big-wave surfer risks a crippling injury…or worse. Did Hamilton still possess the combination of reflexes, balance, power, speed, and endurance--the razor-sharp, razor-thin edge--that meant the difference between a transcendent 45-second ride and a shattering wipeout? The difference between life and death?
Back on shore, in the house overlooking the sea, Gabrielle Reece, beach-volleyball legend, fashion model, and Hamilton's wife, was eight months pregnant with the couple's second child. Reece, their 4-year-old daughter, would be teasing the pet pigs. (Hamilton also has a 12-year-old daughter, Izabella, from a previous marriage.) For his family's sake, perhaps, Hamilton ought not to ride these giants. Professionally, what else did he have to prove? Besides revolutionizing the sport of surfing, he has been profiled on
60 Minutes, doubled for Pierce Brosnan in a James Bond movie, and created a surf and skate clothing line, Wonderwall, and a film-production company, BamMan. His guide to peak living,
Force of Nature, is due out this fall. (Order a copy.) Should he gamble all this for another wall of water?
