Standing on the corner of Haight Ashbury in San Francisco watching my childhood hero ride roller skates down the street and shred electric guitar…. It’s safe to say I felt like I was dreaming. The street was crowded with people in masks and Mason and I walked a few feet behind Tom while he shredded an electric guitar plugged into an amp strapped to his hip all while riding his roller-skates. Anywhere else in the world, this might be considered bizarre and potentially rude, but here on Haight street it felt very right. Little did anyone know, that this just happened to be one of the most legendary surfers of all time.
We followed Tom down the street, stopped in front of Hendrix’s house for him to give us an epic 2 minutes of “Red House” before making it down to the park where Janice used to hang out. The atmosphere on Haight street was so rad. It had this super unique and creative energy. As someone who loves the Grateful Dead, Janice, Hendrix and all of the music that the hippy culture here in San Francisco embodied at one point, I loved getting to see the place that they were living and creating music.
This was just one afternoon of a really cool and unique trip to San Francisco on a Rip Curl “Search” trip. The idea of the search is usually to go to remote locations in search of really good and uncrowded waves. With Covid making travel really hard this past year, Rip Curl decided to capitalize on the three of us being in the US with plenty of time on our hands and rent a house for us to hang at for 10 days in the city.
I’ve been dreaming of going on a trip with Tom since I was a kid. I grew up Idolizing Tom and studying his surfing meticulously. Searching for Tom Curren was a daily staple for me. Mason has become one of modern surfing’s legends and someone that I love spending time with. He’s just such a unique cat, always full of energy, and is such a fun person to surf with.
Hopefully you guys enjoy the video that the Alani brothers put together! This is honestly the first time I’ve seen it!! If you have any questions or want any other insights into the trip hit me up and maybe I’ll do another post about the trip…