David Hobbs

Getting rocks stuck in the wheels of my skateboard helped me learn how to fly at an early age.

I picked the rocks and asphalt out and kept going.

After being one of those young punk skateboarders who kept looking for empty swimming pools in Southern California: somebody's dad decided to buy an old water park in Carlsbad, CA, and we had to figure out how to get there.

Week days were easier to go paddle out with a surf board before work for dawn patrol, and then decide to go skate after work or chase girls or whatever kids did back then.

We decided it was best to make our own surfboards because I kept breaking them, so we made our own wooden surfboards by hand. We did mechanical weld of wood and carbon fiber on the inside with a flexible skeleton, so it had personality. I can't believe how easy that was.

After they put steel rails on snowboards and it was still banned on most mountains, we decided it was time for the skiers to learn to lighten up a bit. They dressed funny and we needed to help them. The Backside 360 Hooptie Scoop Blunt Nose Pick Nollie to Dog Fart was real. They just had NO IDEA what we just said.

And then, this guy named Ian Lauder started coming out on our boat. He was weird. He rode an Air Chair, but they now called it a Sky Ski. It was way better than the Air Chair.

The Hero Video on my link below was shot in Westport, WA. The surfing in the video is some of the gnarliest we've ever shot. Visibility in Westport is poor sometimes, so it's a little grainy. Did you see how BIG the surf was there? I was pitted. So PITTED!!

Please don't tell anyone about the surf there because the locals are a bit protective of our pristine conditions and HUGE SURF. If you look closely, YES, that IS Laird Hamilton...

After Wakeboard, wake skate, barefoot, snowboard, surf, kite,:

I figured if you gave me the ironing board, I could kick flip it.

And then stand up foiling threw me off like a rag doll and told me I know NOTHING.

And this is how it began...