Turn On It, Tune Out, Drop In

N WIND 15 TO 20 KT.
WIND WAVES 4 FT.
W SWELL 6 FT AT 9 SECONDS.
TONIGHT N WIND 15 TO 20 KT...EASING TO 10 TO 15 KT AFTER MIDNIGHT.
WIND WAVES 4 FT...SUBSIDING TO 2 FT AFTER MIDNIGHT.
W SWELL 5 FT AT 9 SECONDS.

Another of surfing's iconic images...Mickey Munoz' Quasimodo...

V5: ...Is that an image that haunts you? What is the story behind that image?

Mickey Munoz: I was doing the right thing at the right time and it was pure luck. Actually, I was on my way back from Rincon and we would surf Sacres, which by the way was really incredible. The guys were taking off way beyond the rock, very good surf. John Severson was on his way back from Rincon, saw us out there and set up his camera and took some photos of us. I just happened to do that thing at a shore break. In those days when you checked the film out, they had an older movie camera, which you reeled the film through a little screen. We then looked at the footage and we stopped at that image, going back and forth between that image and two or three frames and then froze it. So we made some eight by ten black
and whites off the color 60-millimeter film. For some reason it was graphically interesting and I credit John with the artistic eye to freeze that frame and it has kind of lived on. I use it for my surfboard and snowboard logo now.

v5: Was that a conscious pose or where you joking around when the picture taken?

MM: Well, we were riding a sort of mechanical wave, such as you get in Malibu. A perfect point break, it was in the days when were equating surfing to bull fighting. (laughs) Coming as close to the horns as possible without getting gored, basically getting into the tube and making the wave. So we adapted some of the bull fight poses such as the El telefono and the espontaneo, which was when you spontaneously jumped into the arena and pulled out a muleta and made some
passes until either the bull gored you or they took you to jail. (laughs) So the espontaneo was a clue to do anything that came into your mind and you were always putting each other on. There was a bit of humor and fun in doing these various poses in the most critical part of the wave. I don’t know, that just sort of happened, it was an espontaneo! (laughs)