It’s been a decade since we lost a Legend…
The North Shore local brought a self-effacing attitude to pro surfing that reminded everyone close to him what riding waves is really all about…
It was just last month when Brock Little announced that he’d been diagnosed with liver cancer, and not long after when told an interviewer that the first round of chemo didn’t work and he wasn’t going to put himself through another round. That meant the 48-year-old big-wave surfer had weeks left, not years. The speed of the whole thing was shocking. What wasn’t shocking to anybody who knew Brock was how he handled himself during this time.
Brock grew up the son of two teachers in Honolulu and went at life with humor. He always used humor. I met Brock in 1985, when he was 18 years old, beardless, and the new hot young gun at Waimea Bay. He started surfing at age seven at Waikiki. At Waimea, Brock was charging the world’s biggest waves elbow to elbow with bunch of crinkly-eyed salts who’d been at it for more years than he’d been alive. They took themselves seriously, the old Waimea crew—thought of themselves as fighter pilots, gladiators, polar explorers, take your pick. Brock thought that was hilarious.
“You know why I surf big waves?” he told me years later. “The big secret? Because it’s fuckin’ fun! It’s the funnest thing ever!”…