Willis Brothers Surfing Blog

Solana Beach, California where the wild things roam both on land and in the water. As the world has now heard there has been a fatal shark attack in Solana Beach. Solana beach is exactly where the Willis brothers began their surfing careers. Currently we surf Del Mar and or Solana Beach on a regular basis.

?Solana Beach California ---(known for small waves) home of the big wave surfing world champions is now notorious for the first fatal shark attack in San Diego County to occur in decades. The last recorded shark attack occurred off La Jolla in the late 50’s. The odds of big wave surfing world champions hailing from Solana Beach were about as good as getting bit by a great white shark off of Solana Beach but oddly enough both have occurred.

Why a shark attack in Solana Beach, why not Encinitas or La Jolla where the water has a deep ocean trench nearby? Because Solana beach is special. Honolulu, Boston, New York, Paris and London have nothing over Solana Beach. Solana Beach is Spanish for Sunny Beach.

Now days Solana Beach is a whole lot “ swankier” than in the past. Fat pigs drive around in their Hummers and black Mercedes Benz’s burning fossil fuels and Cedros street (where we grew up) is now the “Design District” Non the less Solana has a proud history dating way back before it was called Solana Beach. Wild things still roam ? thank goodness.

The shark attack off of Solana Beach was in actuality a BLOOD SACRIFICE. In ancient times when a sacrifice was made only the very best was taken. For a noble sacrifice you don’t sacrifice a dieing lamb you sacrifice your best and strongest ram---- that’s a sacrifice. The shark attack victim was Dr. David Martin a man in great health well loved and respected. This guy was a resident of Solana Beach with many friends and a good family.

Dr. Martin’s BLOOD SACRIFICE shows us there is hope. There is a wilderness out there--- wild and free. Somewhere out there is a fugitive Great White Shark. The shark did nothing wrong and if DR. Martin was here today he probably would say the same thing. Long live wild things. Businessmen, developers and city officials think they are taking Solana Beach out of the wild by taking up every square inch of land but non-the less they will never take the wild out of Solana Beach.

Posted December 20, 2007 1:17pm: Occy and the 9’2” Willis brothers surfboard.

Time like waves waits for no one. Time has caught up with Mark Ochilupo who surfed his last wave as a touring professional surfer.

While professional surfing will remain Occy’s legacy his character was much more interesting, and infinitely more complex and three- dimensional.

Besides professional surfing there was the soul surfer (and still is) side of Mark Ochilupo and then beneath the professional and soul surfer was a real person going through life like anyone else trying to figure it out along the way.

Milton and I met Occy back in his original glory days. Might have been Cheyne Horan who made the connection it’s hard to remember. It was either Cheyne or ironically Peter Davi who did not really warm to too many Australians. One of the Australian surfers (along with Tom Carroll and others) he did spend time with was Occy. It turned out Occy wanted to commission the Willis brothers to shape him a surfboard for Waimea bay, which we did.

Occy paid us well for the 9’ 2” big wave surfboard somewhere around four hundred dollars, which was a lot considering Rusty was giving him all the surfboards he could use for free. Occy was surfing for Billabong at the time and requested that the only logo on

the surfboard be the Billabong emblem. The surfboard came out amazing and Occy would later rave that it rode like a skateboard.

Ed Searfoss glassed the surfboard as he did most of the surfboards being shaped on the North Shore at that time. Ed liked the surfboard shape so much he insisted it have the Willis brothers logo along side the Billabong emblem and took it upon himself to laminate one on. Occy being a paid professional wasn’t to stoked but he liked the surfboard so much he took it anyway.

There is a famous picture that was printed in Surfing magazine were a young Mark Ochilupo is holding a beautiful Hawaiian big wave surfboard. In this photo Occy has the surfboard turned sideways reviling the profile rather than the traditional full outline. The surfboard pictured in Occy’s hands is the 9”2” Willis brothers. The fact that this is one of if not the first Waimea surfboard that Occy owned along with the rare Willis brother/Billabong logos together make this surfboard a real collector’s item. Who knows maybe the Willis surfboard Occy originally purchased for around four hundred would sell for four thousand or more today! That is if it’s still around.

Experienced big Wave surfer Peter Davi lived to ride giant surf, tragically he lost his life in giant surf.

Davi a very experienced waterman and big wave surfer was surfing huge waves breaking off Pebble beach at an infamous mysto spot aptly called Ghost Trees when disaster struck. Deadly waves

Davi was picked off by an outside set of waves while trying to paddle out. Witnesses spotted Davi swimming in after loosing his surfboard but lost sight of him as he attempted to make his way to shore. He was not seen again until later when he was found unconscious floating in the ocean. He was brought to shore where efforts to revive him were unsuccessful.

The Northern California and international surfing community respectively have lost a one of a kind, bigger than life brother who was beloved by many for his waterman skills, free living philosophy and heart which at times seemed bigger than the ocean itself.

Davi honed his big wave surfing skills on the North Shore where he rode the massive swells of Waimea bay, Sunset Beach and his favorite surfing spot Pipeline. But his heart was mainly in surfing the rugged coast of Monterey where he grew up.

Davi was a professional fisherman by trade as well as an accomplished free diver. In his spare time between surfing and fishing Davi would dive for jade often finding large rocks and even heavy boulders he would bring to the surface by himself.

Surfing however was what Davi was most recognized for. Pictures and film of Peter Davi surfing have appeared in magazines, videos and movies. He was one of the select few California surfers to ever be invited to surf in the prestigious Eddie Aikau big wave surfing contest.

Except for perhaps Greg Noll no other surfer from California was taken in and loved by the Hardcore Hawaiian surfing community as much as Peter Davi.

Davi was an ambassador for good will and a conduit for good relations between California and Hawaiian surfers. He was also instrumental in helping to galvanize the Monterey surfers and Santa Cruz surfers.

To die while surfing big waves puts Davi in a unique pantheon of watermen who have lost their lives at sea including Eddie Aikau. Dickie Cross and Mark Foo. His name will be forever immortalized in surfing, forever associated with Ghost Trees and big waves.

More than his love of the ocean and surfing Peter Davi loved his son Jake Kai Davi. Davi had young Jake on a surfboard before he could walk. His son Jake Kai Davi, who being a great surfer in his own right, will carry on the Davi legacy, survives Davi.

Well there is big news in the surfing world this week both good and bad. High surf hits the North Shore of Hawaii producing good waves at Waimea bay and Pat Weber owner and operator of San Diego Surfing Academy was accosted and robbed at gunpoint while on a surfing trip to beautiful (but apparently dangerous) Baja Mexico.

We will start with the bad news. Weber who owns a surfing school and is a veteran Baja Mexico traveler was camping in his R.V. at a surfing spot just south of Tiajuana, which is adjacent to the San Diego/United states border.

Sometime in the middle of the night Weber and his girlfriend were awakened by bandits who demanded they come out of the R.V. Weber was staying put until a bullet fired into the R.V. made him change his mind.

Weber and his girlfriend came out at which point the bandits stole over 10,000 dollars worth of film equipment, computers and money. Worse yet Weber’s girlfriend was sexually assaulted. Robbery is bad enough but sexual assault on top is heinous.

To rob a person of physical objects is one thing to rob a person physically another.

With this story being big news across the country (C.N.N. has picked up on it) more Baja California nightmare stories are also coming to light. Chat rooms are buzzing with a lot of experienced Mexico traveler’s, surfers and non-surfers alike, saying they will not go back including Pat Weber.

Weber has taught surfing on both sides of the border and led many Baja surfing tours for years. But after this experience he now believes it’s too dangerous to go south of the border reckoning Mexico to be like the lawless wild west of old.

It seems doubtful Mexican authorities with ever catch the culprits and chances are they will brazenly strike again. As word gets out fewer and fewer tourist will want to travel to Baja Mexico causing an already impoverished economy to suffer more. Most of the citizens of Mexico are law abiding and friendly, it’s sad a few creeps can cause a whole countries reputation to be tarnished. Granted the U.S. and other countries have more than their fair share of crime.

Well now the good news. With Waimea bay reaching heights of up to eighteen feet the big wave season in Hawaii has officially started. News services across the country recently ran stories of “huge waves” hitting the North Shore of Oahu.

Huge is a matter of perspective, to an experienced in tune big wave surfer eighteen feet is just getting started. One spectator witnessing the higher than normal waves was amazed at the high number of surfers riding each wave.

In truth when the surf gets REALLY BIG it’s hard as $%^# for one guy to catch a wave let alone five to twenty guys at the same time. On the REALLY HUGE days twenty-five of the world’s best big wave surfers would find it difficult to paddle into a wave. And when the waves reach heights of BEYOND HUGE more than likely twenty-five of the world’s best big wave surfers wouldn’t be out maybe one or five would at the most.

Guys get weeded out; every surfer has a ceiling, and the bigger the surf the fewer takers there will be.

What would be awesome is if the waves reach heights so great that the “Big wave contests” get canceled and the whole North Shore gets shut down with a CONDITION BLACK.

CONDITION BLACK is a civil defense code where by the beach is legally closed, off limits, verboten to use.

Posted November 16, 2007 4:28 pm: W. A. D. Magazine and a couple of musical surfers!

Hey --- who'd a thunk it, the Willis brothers are making a big splash in the fashion world. Well actually a small splash in a big magazine that being W.A.D. a glossy French

magazine about urban fashion, culture and style. W.A.D. stands for We Are Different.

Appearing with such fashion icons as Karl Lagerfeld and French super model Audrey Marnay the Willis brothers are featured amongst the fashions world’s who’s who. The issue is actually the Audrey Marney issue. Her imagine appears on the cover, the inside cover and the back cover all full-page shots.

The inside is all about Audrey and her life. There are great shots of her with her children Aiden and Amielle showing her family life and some shots of Karl Lagerfeld and other friends and professional contacts including yes it’s true- yours truly the Willis brothers.

Our mutual friend surfer Stephan de la Riviere from New York via Paris France introduced us to Marnay a few years back. Stephan had arranged for Marnay to take surfing lessons with us and the rest is history. Audrey Marnay has kept surfing ever since. She may possibly be one of the most famous surfers alive --- albeit famous for modeling not surfing!

Along with ten or so photos of the Willis brothers are short interviews and different tidbits of information about us personally and also about Audrey. There is also a very nice picture of Audrey surfing. What’s cool is Audrey had us teach her cool children the surfing basics. Who knows maybe the Marney brothers will grow up to be the next Irons

Perhaps they will grow up to be the next Willis Brothers. There certainly are a lot of Willis brothers. Besides the surfing Willis brothers there are some musical Willis brothers who came out with some early country music hits including “Alabama bound” They were quite famous back then playing and making appearances all over. They even appeared with country music great the grandfather of country the late Porter Wagoner.

I wonder if Bruce Willis the movie star has any brothers? Besides the early country music Willis brothers there is also the Vic Willis trio Willis brothers. Vic Willis formed a country music band with his Willis brothers Guy and Scooter. You can look them up as well as the earlier Willis brothers on Youtube. They get a five star rating out of five star possibilities, which is as high a rating as anyone can achieve.

Speaking of musical Willis brothers the surfing Willis brothers are playing a lot of music too. Look for the surfing Willis brothers to post some music on Youtube shortly. Mostly feel good surfing music with a nice easy listening sound.

Posted November 2, 2007 7:13 pm: Stealing the Wave, Hawaii Big Wave Surfing Contests

November brings back some good memories of a giant Waimea bay swell that came through one year. Waves peaked at over twenty- five feet. As usual once the waves reached a certain height all surfing contests scheduled for the North Shore of Hawaii were canceled.

As usual only the heartiest of the heartiest surfers rose to the challenge of the rising surf contest or not. Same guys time after time surfing the largest waves of all time---- guys like Chris Owens, Peter Davi, Mel Kinney, James Jones, Cheyne Horan, Alec Cooke, Titus Kinimaka, Teirry Villedent, Louie Ferreira and of coarse yours truly the Willis brothers.

Fast- forward to the present November surf on the North Shore, just like clockwork it is beginning to awaken ---the big one’s coming!!! The Excel pro surfing contest is under way and as usual a whole line up of contest will follow including?the Pipeline masters, Sunset beach pro and Eddie Aikau big wave surfing event.

I say “the big one’s coming in a inside humorous reference to the late legendary big wave surfer Mark Foo. Foo, just as the Willis brothers, was always preparing for “the big one”. When ever we would see each other surfing (which was almost daily) Foo would always ask, “When the swell coming up?” Whether it was coming up or not we always said the big one was coming and sooner or later it would.

Speaking of Foo and surfing contests --- Andy Martin (London writer) has a new book out featuring Mark Foo and Ken Bradshaw entitled “Stealing the Wave”

Friends have said it’s quite well written and a great read. One would not expect anything less from such a great and underestimated writer such as Andy Martin.

Apparently Martin mentions the Willis brothers in his book (which was mighty cool of him) Something about the Willis brothers complaining or always complaining about not getting into or being allowed to surf in the big wave events or something to this nature.

For the record the Willis brothers never complained so much about not being allowed to participate in the big wave surfing contests as much as not being able to surf the big waves because of the contests at a particular surfing spot namely WAIMEA BAY.

The Willis brothers were not alone in their ideology ---- the granddaddy of big wave surfing Peter Cole never liked the idea of using the public waves for private use. Why should some cooperation like quicksilver have the right to buy up and exploit the waves and forcefully keep qualified surfers from getting a chance to ride possibly some of the biggest waves ever? It’s just not right. Public waves should remain for the public. I always said have the contest just let the other surfers not in “the contest” have a crack at the same waves. So what a guy not in the contest rides the best and biggest wave he wont be scored (at least by the contest officials) I always figured put all the contest surfers in hot pink jerseys so they can be identified as “the contest surfers” and let everyone else that wants to surf right along side them. Professional big wave surfing contests are actually a bad joke --- sad thing is big money corporations still get away with them year after year.

Yeah we may have complained about the waves being taken over by expoloitatious corporations or about not being allowed in the “big wave surfing competition” but in the end it was no problem because every time the surf got really really big the “big wave surfing contests” got cancelled and a handful of us would go out anyway. Everyone knows the real winner is the surfer that rides the largest waves whether he is “scored” or not. Keep it pure keep it real----aloha

Oh and one more thing, get a copy of Andy Martin’s Stealing the Wave. Though I do not agree with everything he writes about never the less the guy is a very good writer with keen albeit not always accurate insights.

Woke up this morning to overcast skies ---- partly haze partly some smoke and ash

particles still floating around the area. Air quality is pretty much getting back to normal but it will probably be another few days if not a week before it’s completely clear.

Saw the Andy Irons learn to surf D.V.D. last night. Wow real interesting, part comedy part hardcore surf video. Not sure if all of the comedy parts were intentional but it was for sure humorous.

The D.V.D. itself doesn’t come through as far as really teaching someone to surf although there are parts that do provide basic tips such as stay out of the way of incoming surfers and respecting locals.

I like the respect the locals part but really this helps to perpetuate localism. It would be better to say respect everyone and everything including the fish in the sea and the environment.

Andy Irons learn to surf D.V.D. may not be the very best how to surf D.V.D. going but the girls I was with last night didn’t mind. Every time Andy took his shirt off or was paddling around with the water sparkles glistening off his body Sanami (mysterious Japanese woman) would comment on his gorgeous muscles.

Andy being Andy certainly shows those at the top level how to shred but I wonder if he has ever truly given a beginning basic surfing lesson. Judging by the D.V.D. I would guess not. John Philben (Turtle in the movie “The North Shore”) is credited with contributing the technical surfing basics. Maybe he is teaching surfing on Kauai.

Titus Kinimaka is teaching surfing on Kauai. Johnny Boy Gomes and Buttons Kaluhiokalani reportedly are teaching on Oahu. Kind of ironical in the since that these guys are as local as local gets and here they are sharing the aloha not just with other “locals” but also with new comers from all over including California.

Somewhere out there must be the perfect learn to surf D.V.D. but I have not seen it yet ----- guess I will have to do it myself.

Posted October 25, 2007 1:32 pm: The Perfect Firestorm

San Diego was blessed with really great surf in the last few days. With dry hot Santa An

winds blowing into the waves conditions were near perfection. Unfortunately the same dry Santa winds that caused the waves to be so good were the cause of a massive wild fire to quickly burn OUT OF CONTROL.

Hot temperatures, strong easterly winds and extremly dry arid conditions combined to ignite one of Southern California's worst fire storms. Flames threatened to literally burn from mountain to coast. At first the situation appeared bleak. To few firefighters to many fires. Air support was unable to lift off due to high winds and zero visability from the thick cloud of smoke and ash.

But alas city and county officials came together with federal government officials, firefighters and even private citizens to fight the fire as well as take manditory and volunteer evacuation measures. Reverse 911 calls were made to areas closest to the flames. In some cases firemen and or law enforcement officials knocked on doors to sound the alarm.

Gov Swartzeneggar called in the national guard, firefighters from around the state and even the president in a request aid.Over five hundred thousand people along with animals and livestock were safely evacuated. Sheltors offering food, water and aid were organized and set up for anyone affected by the fire. It's said the number of volunteers at evacuation centers equaled the number of evacuees. Everyone came together cooperating in time of crises.

Now that the fires are under control the smoke almost completely gone and the waves returning to there normal shape it's a good time to reflect on just how fortunate those who survived are to be alive. With all the positive camaraderie officials and residence displayed in time of crises complete disaster was averted.

The firestorm of 2007 will long be remembered. One thought occurs in the aftermath of such an event. If people can come together in the spirit of brotherhood and cooperation in time of crises why cannot we help those in time of crises all the time. Every day there are people who need not be afraid their house will burn down because they have not. These people are homeless with no place to go. If the government, city and county can help hundreds of thousands of fire victims why cannot hundreds of homeless people be helped with food, shelter and aid.

The fires are already gone let us hope that the spirit of brotherhood -- helping others in time of need will remain.