Nice article from Corky Carroll:
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TODAY'S COLUMN IN THE OC REGISTER
DUELING WITH DAVID
By Corky Carroll
As you can probably imagine, one of the questions I get asked most is about who I thought were the greatest surfers and who was my biggest rival during my competitive years. Although I have a lot of picks as to who are the ones that I feel were the real greats in surfing over the years, the one guy who fits the bill as not only one of those but also my biggest rival was without a doubt Hawaiian born Huntington Beach local David Nuuhiwa.
I first met David when he came over from Hawaii and was surfing in some local event in the South Bay. At the time Mark Martinson and myself were pretty much at the top of the “young up and coming” list here on the West Coast. Then this skinny young dude shows up who seems to be able to just glue himself to the nose. Humph, is this cause for concern? He was still a bit rough around the edges but none the less impressed me right off the bat as somebody to watch, plus he was a very likeable kid and we became friends. Not every day hang out with kinda friends, such as Mark and I were, but a guy that you looked forward to seeing at events always had an, “Hello, how are ya?,” for, and visa versa.
Over the next couple of years David really blossomed. Both Mark and I had moved up to the Men’s division in the contests and David just totally took over the Juniors. The exclamation point on his dominance of that division came in the finals of the United States Championship at Huntington Beach in 1966. I remember it very clearly. I was sitting on the beach getting ready to surf in the finals of the mens and we were all watching the juniors, or more to the point, David Nuuhiwa. That was where most of those really cool photos of him perched on the nose doing soul arches came from, could have been one of his best contest performances ever. None of us were saying much, just quietly watching. Then, just as they called us to paddle out somebody matter of factly commented, “Whew, sure am glad he is still in the Juniors.” I could not have agreed more.
Starting then the contest circuit here in California became a pretty constant battle between the two of us on any given weekend. It seemed that more times than not it would come down to the two of us. He had this silky-smooth style and just seemed to look good no matter what he was doing on a wave. I always felt he had the chops to get a perfect score at any given time. He thrived in the left-hand California beach breaks, such as Huntington Beach. I knew I had an advantage in bigger surf and probably going backside, but in those days almost all the contests here were in small to medium beach break lefts, his wheelhouse. Not easy to beat him, but for the most part the system worked in my favor. It was best 5 waves in those days. While he had the capacity to nail a huge score, he also could blow it in the process. I won, more times than not, by being able to tally the higher total by being consistent and not making too many mistakes. It was a very heated and fierce rivalry that developed between us in the water, no doubt about that. But on the beach we got along just fine. I do admit that when he would be late for a heat I might have had thoughts like, “oh good, he overslept.” Or something along those lines. And when he took off on a wave a thought might have crossed my mind like, “Catch a rail.” Normal competitive kinda stuff. We both wanted to win.
I am not saying there were no other surfers who were also hard to beat, there were. Mike Purpus, Donald Takyama, John Peck, Dru Harrison, Dale Dobson, Skip Frye and others were all great surfers and top competitors. But the duels with David were the toughest.
Through all the years and still today we have remained great pals. I don’t see him much anymore, but when I do I am happy about it. Always have had the utmost respect for that dude. Always remember those days of watching him wax up before a final heat and thinking, “I hope he accidentally grabbed the bar of soap.”
