Surfing Biggest Mysteries: From Greg Noll at Makaha to the Magic of Kelly Slater

Was Greg Noll’s Wave At Makaha Myth or Mythical?

 A wave ridden by Greg “The Bull” Noll in 1969 at Makaha during "the greatest swell of the 20th century” has long been eulogised. The Encyclopedia of Surfing described it as a 35-footer and the largest wave ever ridden. In the documentary Riding Giants, an illustrated depiction puts the mythical wave at closer to 60 feet. With no visual images available, the wave wormed itself deep into surfing folklore. 

Yet a few years ago, surf journalist Kirk Owers talked to the filmmaker Albe Falzon, who maintained he had a three-shot sequence of Noll's famous wave. And the kicker? It’s big, but hardly historic. And yet it seems the wave is too entrenched in lore to doubt. Like a bank, it's become too big to fail. As Noll’s biographer Andrea Gabbard wrote, “Maybe it's better that way, to leave it instead to surf legend, to be passed on from one generation to the next. One thing is certain: the size of the wave will not grow in the telling. It's already too big.” 

Slater’s Mystery 9-Point Ride At Trestles

“I won’t let him in my head,” Phil MacDonald said before the Final of the 2005 Boost Mobile Pro against Kelly Slater at Trestles. “I’m gonna take him out!” The SURFER contest report said, “It’s all at the wire, two minutes remaining and Slatz needs an 8.6, when for the last fifteen minutes the low tide has made one pathetic lull.” However, with moments to go, Slater took off on a set and was scored a 9.0 to win. The cries of “Bulll-shiiit. Bulll-shiiit!” from the Aussie camp summed up their take on the overscoring. 20 years later, it is still regarded as one of the greater injustices handed out by judges in a Final. In a later interview, Slater himself said, "I got juiced by the judges to beat Phil Macca.” 

"It wasn't a 9 then, and it still isn’t now,” MacDonald, who lost all five of his CT Finals, told SURFER. “It’s not a bloody mystery.” 

The Disappearing Sea of Darkness Doco

In 2009, Mike Oblowitz's documentary Sea of Darkness received just about every award in every film festival it entered. The cult film and music video director had chronicled the story of how surfing pioneers Mike Boyum and Martin Daly initiated a lifestyle of surf exploration, and how some nefarious activities had underpinned many of the early great surfing adventures, and funded the start of surfing's biggest surf brands. It was brilliant, controversial, and was called the greatest surf film ever. Then it disappeared. Daly had funded some of the movie and secured the rights. Taking issue with his depiction and general drug narrative, he pulled it. The movie had a trailer and did the rounds for years as a bootleg, but has never been released, despite the demand, and has retained its mythical status ever since. 

Ron Stoner Goes MIA

“Stoner didn’t have much formal training, but possessed an innate sense for color and transporting viewers to the heart of a surf culture that was still wild, anti-establishment, and free,” wrote SURFER on legendary lensman Ron Stoner. From 1967 to 1968, he scored six consecutive SURFER covers. Yet by the age of 23, he was diagnosed as schizophrenic and received a dozen shock therapy treatments in mental institutions. He left SURFER in 1971, stopped communicating with his mother by letter in 1976, and vanished in 1977.  In 1982, a Laguna surfer claimed he spotted Stoner in a bar in Idaho and they chatted briefly. Stoner was taking skiing photographs, the surfer said. The FBI investigated but found no evidence. He was never found and officially declared dead by the 90s. In 2017, Stoner’s sister was on record as believing he was still alive. “Until somebody tells me otherwise, I’m not going to change my mind,” Tripp says.

Doing The Harold Holt

One of the biggest bodysurfing mysteries went down in 1967 when Harold Holt went for a body bash at Portsea, Victoria. The then-Prime Minister of Australia never came back to shore and, despite a huge search, his body was never found. While it was called a case of accidental drowning, it didn’t take long for conspiracy theories to surface, including suicide, assassination, or a botched kidnapping. The best was that he was a Chinese spy and had been collected offshore by a Chinese submarine. Doing the “Harold Holt” remains an Aussie expression for disappearing to this day, be it from a party, or this mortal coil.