All quotes below are from "Locals: Four Guys from the East," by Bob Lacovara and Bill Webster," which ran in the August 1974 issue of Surfing magazine, not long after Rasmussen finished 3rd in the Juniors division of the United States Surfing Championships.

A few months later, he won the Mens division of the '74 US Championships. 


I’m stoked! I feel young and know I have a lot of surfing to do in my lifetime. I’m really just learning, just starting to get my trip together. . . like to get in a radical position and still keep flowing and hitting certain spots on a wave.


When I started surfing, I was already really into basketball. My father used to play pro so he was an experienced teacher. I'd practice every day. As I gradually got more and more jazzed on surfing, though, my emphasis changed. I went through a lot of weird trips, but I guess it’s all part of growing up. Actually, I dig it. It’s quite a challenge.


The highlight of my surfing career so far was this past winter in Hawaii. I got a lot of good fall waves at Velzyland with Michael Ho. He and Larry Bertlemann are so aggressive it's unreal. There are just so many good surfers over there. I saw Lopez at surf Ala Moana one day and he just casually ripped the place apart, doing mad dog maneuvers with style.

We got Laniakea good for six straight exceptional days, the same kind of waves every day. By the end, we were getting so loose and hitting the lip so hard, it was unreal.


When you start to get too confident, you get dusted. I was surfing Pipeline on a big day and got really tubed, so the next wave I took off a little later and got pitched out with the lip. I kept falling through the air as if in slow motion, landed, went down and my hip hit the bottom. Then I got sucked back up over the falls and planted on the bottom again. It looked like I got bear-clawed or something.


I’m hoping someday to find a nice, mellow place with lots of good fruit and vegetables, consistent overhead waves and peace of mind. But right now I’m still learning and hope to get better so I can 

Rick Rasmussen

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