"Hot Seat," an interview with Dale Webster by Chris Mauro, ran in the September 2000 issue of SURFER. In his introduction, Mauro notes that Webster "made a very public plea" to get a SURFER cover shot, to honor the fact that he had recently surfed for 9,000 straight days. The version has been slightly edited.

Oh yes. I've memorized every word of that magazine since 1962.

OK, so your obsession with SURFER and this crusade to get on the cover—is this why you're doing it [the streak]?

No. But if some guy in baseball has an amazing streak or pitches a no-hitter, no matter who he is, he usually ends up on the cover of 

 And my streak is longer than Cal Ripken's, Steve Garvey's, Stan Musial's, and Lou Gerhig's combined. What does a guy gotta do?

I have a better chance getting a cover of 

than SURFER. I guess I'm not sexy enough for you guys.

Ahhh, well . . . [guilty pause]. So tell me something. When you came up with this idea for a streak, was there some kind of apple that fell on your head, or was it more like a whole tree?

Well, when I missed my last day of surfing, back in 1975, before the streak I'm on now, I'd been surfing every day straight for 85 days. But my car broke down, so I had to go buy a new one that day. That was the last time I didn't surf. 

OK, but this streak you're on now. Um . . . a lot of people want to know . . . 

Funny you should ask. Because I'm a completely different person than the person who started this streak. I really was unstable. It turned out I had a huge thyroid problem that had thrown me completely out of whack. My doctors wondered how I'd stayed normal as long as I did. It was so bad. The surfing kept me sane when I was crazy. But now I just take a little pill, and I'm as normal as can be. I can't even relate to the person I used to be. But I keep the streak alive anyway because it's the ultimate thing to do, and I'm so accustomed to it.

So if you missed a day, would you be right back where you were, stability-wise?

[Long pause] I don't know. l think I'd be crushed for a while.

How careful do you have to be to protect yourself so that the streak carries on?

There are days I'm afraid to mow the lawn [laughs]. I’m afraid a rock might fly up and hit me. I mean, I worry I might fall off my porch. But my biggest threat comes from beginner surfers—I'm convinced sometimes they’re trying to run me over. It's hard for me to even talk about that stuff happening.

I think surfing is a socially acceptable addiction. When I started, I thought it was a sport. Then I figured it was a lifestyle, and later I thought of it as sort of a religion. But now I realize it is a disease. 

Oh yeah. Definitely. No doubt about that. 

Well, my 13-year-old daughter has perfect attendance all the way from kindergarten through 8th grade.

Have you traveled at all over the past 25 years?

Surf. Hawaii a couple of times and Mexico. I had to schedule my flight times around my session though. It almost went flat once when I was in Hawaii.

No. Never. It gets really windy. The biggest problem up here [Marin County] is finding waves 

 enough to ride. In the winter, I surf in this bay where the waves have to refract 270 degrees to even get in, and it's still head high. 

I've surfed with kidney stones, colds, flu, fever, sore throats.

Is it true you're an honorary member of the Lake Eerie Surf Club?

Yup. And I'm a card-carrying member of the Eastern Surfing Association, thanks to Peter Pan in Rhode Island, who sets me up with my wetsuits and everything. I even use my ESA card to get deals on rental cars.

Would you ever make a cameo appearance on the East Coast?

Oh yeah, that's my next mission when I'm done with this streak. I'm going to ride every surf spot in the United States. You listed all of them in your magazine back in the '80s.

Oh boy. Well, for your sake, I hope we don't do that again because we left Maverick's off that list.

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