By the Horns

The first time I ever saw Joey Cabell—arguably one of the most accomplished competitive surfers of the 1960s—was in a photo of him not surfing. Taken by Leo Hetzel in 1968, it’s a black-and-white shot of a dashing young man coolly waving a cape in front of a charging bull in some faraway arena. The beast is barreling past him, kicking up dust with intention, while Cabell, the matador—wearing an aloha shirt and chancletas—stares calmly at its horns. More than half a century after the photo was taken, I meet Cabell in the lobby of the Kahala Hotel & Resort, with his lovely wife, Yana, carrying their Pomeranian, named Aspen. His body won’t allow him to fight bulls anymore, but, even at 87, he’s an avid sailor, frequently taking the same boat around Oahu that he, Mickey Muñoz, and Louie Wake dismasted in a storm in 1977, halfway between Hawaii and Tahiti—an incident that left them adrift in the doldrums. 

Bowed just a bit by age, his frame still whispers the song of its past superhero self. He’s also still somehow got a head of hair, and his disarmingly blue eyes yet twinkle with an undying sense of adventure—or, perhaps, mischief. He remains humble and soft-spoken, and he won’t give me an inch of hyperbole when accounting for his exploits, diplomatically countering most of the claims I attempt to attach him to with noncommittal, elliptical sentences that trail into silence: “Well, I wouldn’t say that I’m the first to…” he says. “Well, it’s just my story. There are others who…” Unflappable, forever young, once called by his peers both “Mr. Perfect” and “The Fastest Surfer Alive”—it all explains how speed was but a byproduct of a larger phenomenon.

BF    That Hetzel photo of you bullfighting in Peru: What was the story there? 

JC     I’d just won the Peruvian national contest. Afterward, someone said that there was a bullfighting ring not too far away, and they wanted to take me and some other surfers to watch. So, we’re sitting on a wall with our feet dangling over the edge, and below us was the ring. Someone was standing beneath us and pulled on my leg and actually pulled me into the ring. He goes, “You’re gonna fight a bull.” And I was like, “I don’t know how to fight a bull!” But he points to where they were gonna let the bull out and says, “No, you’re gonna fight a bull.”

BF    You couldn’t climb back over the rail and escape? 

JC     No. You had to get out the way the bulls came in. So, the guy gives me a quick lesson and shows me how you have to put the cape in front of you, and you move the cape a little side to side and watch the bull’s head follow the cape. Then, when the bull charges and gets close enough, you move it to the side and “Olé!” I did a few passes.

BF    Radical.

JC     Well, that was just the period. I was young and…I got used a little bit. [Laughs.] 

BF    You were on Duke’s surf team. What was that like? Did that begin your competitive career? 

JC     Oh, no, I’d been competing for a long time before that, so it was more of an honor, really. The team was put together by Kimo McVay. He owned Duke’s restaurant, so the surf team was kind of an idea to promote the business. But we did have a chance to travel around with Duke a little bit. He was an extremely humble person. He never talked about himself, never talked about any of his accomplishments. It was just an honor to be with him a little and have some conversations with him. 

BF    It seems like throughout your life you’ve had an obsession with speed. That about right? 

JC     I wouldn’t say speed. I’d say efficiency. But speed is born from efficiency. Just like in surfing—whatever equipment you use or develop, step by step, it can create increments of efficiency. You know, I started surfing at 7 years old. So, every hurdle you pass through helps in your control and being safer. You earn that knowledge. You earn the speed. 

BF    You did things safely? I’ve heard otherwise—as in people being afraid to go surf or ski with you.

JC     [Laughs.] Yeah, well, I had to survive, right? Surfing, as you know, gets more radical as time moves on, so you move from small days at Queens to huge days. Somewhere along the way, you learned to be ready. Like, when we swam the Na Pali Coast on Kauai, the reason for that was there were no leashes yet. And we wanted to surf huge Hanalei Bay. So, the idea was to be as physically strong as you could be to swim and be safe, since there were no leashes around to save you. 

BF    Oh, so that was more for preparation? Not for the fun of it?

JC     Mmm, in the long run, yeah, it was preparation, but at the time, in the short run, it was more, “Oh, this is what we’re doing today. Let’s do it.” I was already doing river swims in Wainiha River, but when my friend Mike Doyle came over to visit, I figured let’s do something really special. So, the requirement was you put a knife in your pocket, then, on the first night, you can go into the valley and find food. 

BF    Isn’t that over 20 miles, there and back?

JC     Not to swim. Little shorter, I think. 

BF    When you were living on Kauai, wasn’t that when you started riding the White Ghost? Was that the first modern gun?

 JC     Yeah, I was living in Hanalei at the time, which gets huge, so a lot of the boards I was riding, the wide point was above center, the rails were higher… I think I shaped the White Ghost because I remember surfing a 12 foot wave and driving down the wall, and the boards I was riding at the time just couldn’t handle the speed. I knew what I needed, so I shaped an 8’3″ called the White Ghost, and also a 9’0″. The White Ghost was 18.5 inches wide, with a wide point right in the center and a flat bottom, no vee. The second one was even more narrow, but longer. The idea was you wanted no drag. But I’m not taking credit for anything… This was just my experience.

BF    That width seems super narrow for the time period. 

JC     Yes. This board was really, really fast. I could ride really deep in a wave and fly—go over, through, or under most sections.  I actually won the Duke contest on that board, but that was the only contest that board was in. 

BF    Well, it must’ve influenced a lot of boards at that time, because it looks similar to many in recent years. 

JC     I wouldn’t say that. 

BF    I would.

 JC     [Laughs.] I think everyone has their own versions, and a lot of shapers come to a point in their lives where things are created at a similar moment in surfing’s trajectory. The boards now, they’re 5’6″, so maneuverable, and amazing…but you’re not necessarily riding very deep on a wave and driving down walls. They’re more for up-and-down surfing. Big Hanalei was not that, so that’s why I shaped something like the White Ghost. The new boards now, they’re so fast that you’re trying to decrease speed on them. Look, I started off on a redwood plank where you were using your toe over the rail or edge of the tail, and it would slowly come around. Then you’d hang your heel off the other side, and it would slowly come around. That’s how everyone turned those boards back then, with no fin. So, things naturally evolve. Just like the White Ghost. 

BF    You had another phase of your life in the mountains.

JC     After I won the Duke, I took my dough and went straight to Aspen. I was actually put into the finals of Makaha, but I was done with competition. I didn’t need it anymore. So, up in Aspen, we came up with this idea of building a long, single ski with your boots in place, side by side. We actually had it made in Europe after a prototype was made for Mammoth. Then we started taking it around the country to other ski resorts and killing it. It was very fast, and everyone loved it. But yeah, I skied a lot. I never missed a winter from 1960 until the last two years, when I haven’t skied. I did some ski racing and also snowboarding; I got into that, too. Mike Doyle would come with me all the time. So, in the ’60s, I’d just transfer surfing and mountain techniques throughout the winter.

“Speed is born from efficiency. Every hurdle you pass through helps in your control. You earn that knowledge. You earn the speed.”

BF    You sail a lot, too. What about sailing seems to connect so profoundly with some surfers? 

JC     Let me put it this way: After all these years of surfing—surfing big waves, surfing everything—you look out at the horizon, and it goes on and on and on, and, well, you realize that’s the next step. Period. So, we built a boat. Joe Quigg built it, but I helped a lot. But this boat was efficient, and it was fast. It was designed that way. I still have this boat and use it today. So, maybe sailing is separate from surfing, but still part of the ocean. I’d been surfing waves for so long and asked myself, “Why am I not surfing the ocean?” Maybe John John [Florence] had that same vision or realization. 

BF    You sailed from Oahu to Tahiti in—10 days, was it? Was that a record back then?

JC     Yes, it was 10 days, but I don’t know if it was record time because there were many people doing that run, and many didn’t clock their times. So, I wouldn’t say our time was the fastest. It’s just what we did. You know, I think I was surfing and skiing so radically for a while that it took a toll. I couldn’t continue. Sailing isn’t as hard on the body. I love sharing my boat with other people and seeing them feel what I feel every time I’m on it. Mine is really fast, so they may never have that experience on another boat. I love that. But…I also found another purpose that was better than all that, and that’s my wife, Yana. She’s more important than anything I’ve ever done. 

BF    What do you see in surfing today that impresses you? 

JC     The small boards. That incredible up-and-down surfing that they do on them—that’s where it’s at, and it’s fabulous. And the women are as good as the men at it. They’re on top of the world, and I  love it. But I think that skill level has to do with those small boards and everyone adopting them. 

BF    What do you see as the future of wave riding?

JC     I can’t say. At one point, everyone was windsurfing, and then that passed, and everyone has just skipped that way of riding the ocean. Now people are foiling, right? 

BF    Yes. You a fan of it? 

JC     Oh, I think it’s fabulous. It’s obvious that that’s where the speed is. Monohulls are foiling, and the big 100-foot trimarans are foiling. Everyone wants to do it. So, that’s a direction, right? But when you put a foil on a surfboard, you’re also not really using the board, right? So, riding waves like that is part of foiling, but it’s not necessarily part of surfing. Where it’s gonna go…who knows? 

BF    Where would you like to see it go? 

JC     I think it’s at a place where it’s gonna stay for a while. I don’t know where surfing could go right now. 

BF    You don’t seem to be the type that longs for bygone days. 

JC     Nah. It’d be ridiculous if I did. These kids today—they’re having their turn. They’re setting the standard now. So you gotta go with the flow. 

BF    I remember hearing a line you said in a documentary about how there’s not a day in your life when you’re not checking the ocean to see how it’ll dictate your day. That resonates with me and, I’m sure, most surfers. At your age, does that still ring true? 

JC     Oh, yeah. But I think that’s more about nature, you know? You want to know how the waves are. Or even in the mountains, you’re sort of positioning yourself. You want to know what the weather or conditions will be that day. Everyone does. That’s natural, right? The news does a great job of that these days, which wasn’t the case before. [Laughs.]

BF    Any other pearls of wisdom you’ve learned in your time? 

JC     Commit. I probably learned that from looking out of the window as a child on the way to school in Waikiki, watching people walk to go surfing with their boards and thinking, I wanna do that. I want to be a surfer. So, if you have the drive, and you really want it and dedicate your life to it, you can become that person. If you don’t make a commitment, in whatever you choose to do, then it’s like you’re riding a surfboard with no fins. Make a commitment. That’s the most important thing I’ve learned in life. A commitment to where you want to go in life, who you want to be—find your purpose. You can pass through and try something for a few weeks. That’s fine. But if you really want to succeed at something, you gotta commit. 

[Feature Image by Steve Wilkings]