JUST TRYING TO FIND THE BRIDGE: 1989 SURF NOTABLES REVEAL THEIR FAVORITE SONGS

Matt Warshaw interviewed surfers in 1989 for "What Is It About Surfing and Music?" which ran in the August 1989 issue of SURFER.

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SHAUN TOMSON

FIRST ALBUM BOUGHT: Let it Be, The Beatles.

BEST LIVE SHOW: Sting, Dream of the Blue Turtles tour, 1986.

BEST LOVE SONG: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," Crosby, Stills & Nash.

CAN YOU PLAY AN INSTRUMENT? No, but I'd love to be able to play piano.

HEAVY METAL: Some of it I really like. Early Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin.

COUNTRY: I don't like any of it.

CLASSICAL: Very limited knowledge.

JAZZ: Some I really like; Oscar Peterson, Grover Washington, Les McCann.

OLDIES: Early Elvis, Jailhouse Rock and like that. Marvin Gaye's early stuff. Eric Burdon and the Animals.

TOP 40: Stevie Winwood, some of Madonna's stuff, INXS. And some stuff you might not hear on Top 40; Midnight Oil and the Fixx.

RAP: Detest it.

BEST MUSIC FOR AMPING UP: INXS or Mister Mister.

BEST MUSIC FOR DRIVING HOME LATE AT NIGHT: Joan Armatrading or Suzanne Vega.

MOST OVERRATED SINGER: Bono.

HOW MANY ALBUMS, CDS, AND TAPES DO YOU HAVE? About 200.

BEST RADIO STATION: KROQ.

BEST LP EVER MADE: The Beatles, White Album.

"I WISH I COULD SURF LIKE": I wish I could surf like Elton John plays piano.

WHAT IS SURF MUSIC? For me, surf music is something like "Take Five" by Dave Brubeck—that kind of rhythm, flow, speed, and subtlety.

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MARTIN POTTER

FIRST SONGS YOU GOT REALLY INTO: Oingo Boingo, "Only a Lad," and AC/DC, "Dirty Deeds."

IF YOU COULD BE ANY MUSICAL FIGURE FOR A DAY, WHO WOULD IT BE? David Bowie, and I'm not even that into his music. Bowie makes me think of guys like Cheyne Horan, who keep the whole thing moving forward. You can't stop and be happy with what you've got, you have to keep trying new things.

HEAVY METAL: Dangerous. I'm not a Christian, but I'm not into listening to music about the Devil, either.

COUNTRY: Sickening.

CLASSICAL: Relaxing.

JAZZ: Universal; lots of feeling.

OLDIES: Not into it.

FUNK: Good rhythm. I like it. If you haven't got rhythm, you're up shit creek.

REGGAE: The best. Unreal. I can listen to reggae day and night and never get sick of it. It's all about being together and living together and treating your fellow man like a friend, not an enemy.

BEST MUSIC FOR A FRIDAY NIGHT: "Back in Black," AC/DC. Guns N' Roses.

BEST LP EVER MADE: Dead Man's Party, Oingo Boingo.

"I WISH I COULD SURF LIKE": I wish I could surf like Michael Jackson dances.

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MATT ARCHBOLD

FIRST ALBUM YOU WERE INTO: Some Girls, Rolling Stones.

BEST ALBUM EVER MADE: Are You Experienced, Jimi Hendrix.

BEST LIVE SHOW: Aerosmith at Long Beach, 1986.

HAVE YOUR MUSICAL TASTES CHANGED OVER THE YEARS? I've always listened to rock and roll. Now I listen to faster, heavier rock and roll.

BEST BALLAD OR LOVE SONG: Love songs? Shit, I don't know. Some mellow Bowie, maybe? Something off Aladdin Sane.

IF YOU COULD BE ANY MUSICAL FIGURE FOR A DAY, WHO WOULD IT BE? Jim Morrison.

DO YOU LISTEN TO CLASSICAL MUSIC? Yes, I like to go to sleep listening to classical music.

HOW DOES MUSIC RELATE TO SURFING? It sets your mood. I think you can tell by the way a person surfs the kind of music they listen to. If you see some wimpy surfing, the guy probably listens to Michael Jackson.

BEST MUSIC FOR AMPING ON A FRIDAY: Guns N' Roses or Aerosmith.

BEST EARLY-MORNING MUSIC: Rolling Stones. Sticky Fingers or Made in the Shade.

BEST MUSIC FOR LATE-NIGHT DRIVING: Led Zeppelin, Houses of the Holy.

HOW MANY ALBUMS, CDS, AND TAPES DO YOU HAVE? About 450.

"I WISH I COULD SURF LIKE": I wish I could surf like Hendrix plays the guitar.

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CHEYNE HORAN

FIRST SONG YOU LOVED: "Mr. Tambourine Man," Bob Dylan.

BEST ALBUM EVER MADE: Desire, Bob Dylan.

DO YOU PLAY AN INSTRUMENT? A bit of harmonica. In my room sometimes, I'll put in a tape and have a wail.

HEAVY METAL: A bit noisy.

COUNTRY: Sometimes.

CLASSICAL: I'll listen to it when its on, but I won't put it on myself.

JAZZ: Only if I'm in a certain mood.

OLDIES: Like the Beatles and Beach Boys, that kind of thing? Great. I like all that stuff. I think the people who grew up in the '60s should listen to '80s music, and people growing up today should listen to '60s music.

RAP: I'll leave that to the city people.

REGGAE: I can feel reggae go right through my body.

HOW DOES MUSIC RELATE TO YOUR SURFING? It's a mood-changer. It can unwind me from a stressful day or bring me up from a slow day. Good music will magically make you freer. And when you're feeling freer, when you hit the water you're going to surf freer. It just does things to your mind; it cleans things up. Good music on the beach before a surf will cut away distracting thoughts, and then it's just you and the water. Which is how it should be. You don't really want any other thoughts in your head. You're surfing.

BEST MUSIC FOR AMPING ON A FRIDAY: Anything by the Stones.

BEST MUSIC FOR DRIVING LATE AT NIGHT: The Doors.

"I WISH I COULD SURF LIKE": I wish I could surf like Michael Jackson dances.

FIVE FAVORITE ALBUMS: Bob Marley, Legend; Steve Miller, Fly Like an Eagle; Rolling Stones, Hot Rocks; Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms; Midnight Oil, Diesel and Dust.

BEST LIVE SHOW: I won a contest in Brazil, on my 21st birthday. That night, Terry Stevens and I and two girls went to a bar. Just the four of us, sitting there, having a couple of beers. All of a sudden these people started coming in dressed in gowns and tuxedos, and we're just sitting there in boardshorts and T-shirts, all salt-crusted. Then the show started. It was some kind of samba review, where the best samba group in Brazil did all the best dances and songs from 1961 to 1981. They'd come out in the costume of a certain year, do the number from that year, then a little break, then the next year, and so on. That was easily the greatest live show I've ever seen.

BEST BALLAD OR LOVE SONG: Michael Jackson sings good love songs.

IF YOU COULD BE ANY MUSICAL FIGURE FOR A DAY, WHO WOULD IT BE? Peter Garrett, because he stands for the things I stand for.

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BRAD GERLACH

FIRST ALBUM YOU WERE REALLY INTO: Van Halen, the first one. "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love," I could play the opening riff on guitar, and that was a big deal.

BEST LOVE SONG OR BALLAD: "Babe I'm Gonna Leave You," Led Zeppelin. That gets to everything I like in music. It's got the clear guitar and clear lyrics, then shifts into that really driving part, then back again.

BEST MUSIC WHEN YOU'RE BUMMED OUT: Stevie Winwood, "Back in the High Life Again."

BEST MUSIC FOR AMPING ON A FRIDAY: If I'm going to a club, it'd be Prince or Tone Loc, so I'd be dancing around the house, loosening up. If I'm just going to a party, it'd be Van Halen, Zeppelin, the Stones. Shit, I don't know. I've got 200 CDs at my house and I like 'em all, you know?

BEATLES? I don't really care for the early stuff. I like the Beatles when they starting going hippie: "Nowhere Man," "Come Together," stuff like that.

WHAT IS SURF MUSIC: Pink Floyd, maybe? The way they draw out notes, long and really powerful. The guy holds a note forever, sometimes. Surfing should be that way too. The most exciting off-the-tops are the ones where you hit the lip and hold your position before dropping back in. It's sustain. You hold the note, so to speak. Surfing is not supposed to be jerky. Music is not supposed to be jerky. My goal is to surf the way Pink Floyd plays music.

IF YOU COULD BE ANY MUSICAL FIGURE FOR A DAY, WHO WOULD IT BE? Elvis, when he was thin and looking good. Elvis doing "Blue Suede Shoes" in front of a huge crowd, in the early days—that would be insane. Not later Elvis, though. He should just stay dead, you know? He did it, and we all love him for it. But he kinda overstayed his welcome. I mean, the way he was looking there at the end. Like, that's the King of Rock and Roll? Really?

METAL: I listen to a lot of it. Master of Puppets by Metallica is so hot.

COUNTRY: I love "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," by Charlie Daniels. But I don't have any country stations dialed into my car radio.

CLASSICAL: When I'm reading I listen to classical.

JAZZ: Love it. It's great when I'm driving home from an evening surf. My favorite is Andreas Vollenweider, the guy is magic. In fact, his stuff is the closet thing to what surfing is.

OLDIES: Elvis, like I said. And Jerry Lee Lewis.

HOME SOUND SYSTEM: I just spent five-grand on my home sound system. It's full-on mega-everything. Four speakers in my room. I could take the roof right off my house with that thing.