Bryce Ellis is mostly remembered, when he's remembered at all, as one of two surfers who pulled out of the opening round of the 1986 Billabong Pro, held in monster conditions at Waimea Bay. What a shitty thing to be known for. Then again, not paddling out at Waimea is the most interesting thing on Ellis' pro surfing resume. He was a nice, bright, well-liked guy who surfed like a G-rated Wayne Bartholomew. Kept to himself. Scored a lot of 6s and 7s; made a lot of quarterfinals. But was never a blower of minds.

In years to come, the Billabong incident followed Bryce around—haunted him a little, is my guess—in a way that it never did with Gary Green, the other guy who pulled out of the event that morning. (Tom Carroll withdrew as well, not from nerves, but rather a broken eardrum suffered the evening before at Sunset. He looked and surfed like a Marvel superhero, but Tom was injured more often than Wile E. Coyote.)

Why did Bryce have to drag that Billabong cross around, while Gary didn't? I think because Bryce very much viewed surfing through the lens of competition. "I do it for the sport," 

. "I like to compete. I’d still be doing the circuit if there was no money at all." Green, on the other hand, quit the tour just a few months after the Billabong and became everybody's favorite globe-trotting beer-drinking high-performance antidote to competitive surfing. The weight of not competing at Waimea fell as it did not by chance, in other words, but because of how the two surfers defined their respective careers. Gary laughed it off, the way he laughed off competition in general. Bryce never could.

I was on the beach that morning at Waimea, and at the time it wasn't a huge deal that Bryce and Gary bowed out. Maybe a dozen guys on the North Shore that morning would have been out there by choice—Brock and Foo and Bradshaw and etc. Everybody else, every world tour pro shuffling around the competitor's area that morning before the event got the green light, was forcing it to one degree or another. There were closeout sets. It was borderline ridiculous to call the event on. Two surfers pulling out didn't seem out of line in any way; I certainly didn't think enough of Bryce's decision to ask him about it afterward. (Drama followed drama over the next 36 hours, so there wasn't much time to dwell Bryce and Gary's decision. Mark Richards owned Waimea that day, but Elkerton should have won the finals at Sunset the following morning. He didn't only because, in a one-hour four-man final, the surfers were scored on their best six waves—

—and Gary came up a wave short. It wasn't a bullshit call exactly, but everybody on hand knew Elko was a long step ahead of the other finalists.)

Like I say, Bryce never fully shook off the Billabong moment. His best results on tour were still to come (in 1989 he finished the year at #10), but he seemed to position himself even further outside of the world tour scrum. There was nothing sad about him, just removed. He wanted space, and he got it.

Up until yesterday, it was my understanding that Bryce never went on record about what happened at the Billabong. I was wrong. Nick Carroll talked to him for Tracks magazine, and here's a slightly edited version of their conversation. Bryce is clearly still in the midst of sorting out the experience. When you finish this, click 

 to read Mara Wolford's take on how this all looked from the inside. Mara was Ellis' girlfriend in 1986, and was that morning at Waimea. Her account is bittersweet, with some added bitter. Not about Bryce, but about surfers in general. See what you think.

Yeah. I didn't surf but I was down there. I checked it and at first I was feeling really confident. Then I went around trying to borrow a bigger board, cause all I had was an 8’6". And everyone was going "No, sorry." At that point, I lost confidence in my equipment, and not long after that I just didn't have anything together. At all. I remember hanging near the announcer's booth, and all I was hearing was "death-defying 25-foot sets." I kept hearing that and just lost it, you know?

They’re calling for another 25-foot swell. Say tomorrow you had the ideal board and it’s really good big Waimea, would you go out?

If there were no closeouts. But closeout sets at the Bay just aren’t on.

What’s this season been like for you in general?

To be honest, I haven’t been confident surfing heats for a long time, for about a year. I sorta don't know what I’m doing. I’ve been doing weird things. Like Brazil: I’m meant to be in a contest in Rio and I didn't even register. I didn't even turn up. Stuff like that.

Have you talked to many people about it over the past few days about what happened at the Billabong?

No. I’ve been surfing over near Makaha.

Did you worry about what other people might think?

No. The decision had to be made. I’ve never gone with the flow in anything anyway.

1986 BILLABONG PRO: BRYCE ELLIS JUST SAYS "NO" TO WAIMEA BAY

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