Writer: Chris Ahrens | Photography: Peter Dawson
August 1990. Oceanside, CA: An international crowd has gathered for what is then the most prestigious longboard surf contest in the world. The junior division is about to paddle out and Joel Tudor is just another name in the crowd. Minutes before his heat, he sits in his father’s van, throwing up and nursing a 104 fever. There were blisters on his lips and in the interior of his mouth. The advice from his parents was to wait for another day. Joel shook his head no, rose from the car, grabbed his board, put on his jersey and made his debut, bringing cheers from the beach and the pier, hanging ten, then kicking a foot out into space.
    Then came years of world travel, contest wins and controversial losses that were due, mostly, to his restrained and beautiful style. Butt-wiggling opponents often comp-laining that “He’s just standing there.” But win, lose or draw, he would not change, and finally he single-handedly changed the sport. In sports history, only Muhammad Ali comes to mind as someone who combined that degree of skill and conviction.
    But on the day of this interview, none of that matters very much to him. He is holding his month-old son, Tosh, and wondering at yet another gift dropped into his lap.

Risen Magazine: How does having a child compare to winning a world title?
Joel Tudor: It used to be that nothing could keep me out of the water for long, now I go out for like 45 minutes and come home. You don’t want to be away, they change so much every day. It’s the first time in my life I don’t want to travel. I’ll go to Hawaii, cuz I can take him.

RM: I talked to a man who has visited more prisons than anyone in the world. He polled 45 inmates on death row and found that all of them hated their dads.
JT: My dad was always there. He never really pushed surfing on me. It was a decision, you could either stay home or go to the beach. I think I’d be a little more pushy on surfing than he was. After watching Rob [Machado] with his daughter, I was inspired. Nine months he had her out. She was cruising like it was nothing. Then this summer, at 18 months I saw them just riding together. I was paddling out and he was on his knees, holding her up and got a little pocket ride on the inside. It was so cool and she was so happy.

RM: Is there a scary element to loving somebody?
JT: Sometimes I think, I can’t do that. You don’t want to abandon him because of something stupid you did.

RM: Will it make you more cautious at Pipeline?
JT: I’m pretty cautious already. [Laughs] I’ve already got my caution tape out. I’m not too worried about it now.

RM: You rode 20 foot waves by the time you were 15 years old.
JT: Yeah, I rode bigger waves when I was younger. I think because you don’t think about it. You’re so young and so naïve and it doesn’t cross your mind.

RM: Your dad never taught you to be afraid of the ocean.
JT: No, never. I went to Todos at 12. By 14 I had been out there a good 40 times, at least. Now, I’m not gonna chase big waves on a jet ski. I’m not interested. I still like Pipeline. I’d like to go to Tahiti again too.

RM: I remember when you guys were in Indonesia and your boat had hit another boat…
JT: Yeah, I was 16 and in Indonesia on a trip with Nat Young and some other guys. The seas got really rough. In Indo, they still take wooden canoes and sail from island to island with no lights. They were in this boat that was like 15 feet long and packed, like 10 people in it. They barely had any freeboard and they were pretty much sinking already. They just go with the swell, jump in and sail to another island and sell all their stuff. We were going over swells and coming down, you know how you hit hard on the other side. I was sleeping upstairs with the deckhands when the boat hit and I woke up and said, What was that? You could hear the propellers moving and you knew something was up. We went right through ‘em, cut ‘em in half. The captain got up, kind of rolled out the cabin and he was saying, “Oh no, I’m dead, we’re all dead.” He said, “Go get Nat up.” He had just gotten off a long flight and was out of it, on pain pills. He didn’t even know we’d hit a boat; didn’t even hear it. He gets up, comes upstairs and at that point they were pulling people onboard.
    They pulled the one guy. He had no leg right below the kneecap. The other leg was pretty much gone too. So they pulled him on and Nat was like [To Joel] “Why don’t you go back down.” They didn’t even find the captain of their boat; he was gone. They pulled the last guy on and he had lost his foot