Mickey Muñoz

Mickey Muñoz is a Cal­i­for­nia surfer/shaper who is quite sim­ply, a leg­end in surf­ing his­tory. A pio­neer of big-wave surf­ing in Hawaii and the inven­tor of the “Qua­si­moto”, Mickey’s pos­i­tive atti­tude through­out the years has kept him stoked no mat­ter what craft he’s rid­ing. We spoke with Mickey to find out more.

What was it like grow­ing up?
I was born in New York. My dad was an offi­cer dur­ing the Sec­ond World War. After the war was over, my mom’s fam­ily had moved to Cal­i­for­nia, so we later joined them. We set­tled right on the bor­der of Venice and Ocean Park, about two blocks from the beach. My mom was a real out­doors person—a swimmer—and she got me into swim­ming and swim com­pe­ti­tion. Through that expe­ri­ence, I met Ricky Grigg, also a swim­mer, and we would hang out by the Board­walk. I learned to body­surf and got into any­thing that would float and make me go faster.

Tell us about your first surf­board.
My first board was called a Surf King Junior, a hol­low ply­wood pad­dle­board. This was in 1947 or 1948. At that time, we moved from Venice to a place called The Uplifters Ranch near Pacific Pal­isades and the Santa Mon­ica Canyon. We were walk­ing dis­tance to the beach. With the right-sized surf and right tide, State Beach was a rea­son­able surf spot. Bob Burns was the chief life­guard. He let me keep my board in the guard sta­tion, and he also showed me how to make and shape a fin and affix it to my board. The board weighed about the same as I did—around 60 pounds. I would have to drag it down the beach to surf it. I would be so tired at the end of the ses­sion, I would have to end-for-end it. (Editor’s note: This means pick­ing up one end of the board, piv­ot­ing it around and drop­ping it. Then, one does the same with the other end. This is done until the board is up the beach.) (Laughs)

I got my first real surf­board, a Joe Quigg balsa board, in the win­ter of 1950. It prob­a­bly weighed about 18 pounds. It was a huge dif­fer­ence. It allowed a lit­tle per­son like me to be able to carry it, pad­dle it and turn it so much eas­ier. Boards were chang­ing over from heavy red­wood boards and the kook­boxes to the light Mal­ibu Chips. Because of that equip­ment change, we were able to advance quicker than our predecessors.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
It was the free­dom, the cre­ative­ness, the illu­sion of speed. It was all about being in the water.

You are small in stature. Has that helped or hin­dered your surf­ing?
I was small for my age. In high school, the heroes at that time were the foot­ball play­ers or the bas­ket­ball guys. Surf­ing, at that time, was not widely known and so few surfers were around so there wasn’t much hoopla about it. But I was pretty good in the water. I was a good swim­mer and I grew up around watermen—people like Pete Peter­son. I learned to dive and body­surf, and I was also inter­ested in the craft of build­ing boards. I finally real­ized in high school, after I got back from Hawaii, that rid­ing big waves was prob­a­bly equal to any other phys­i­cal activ­ity that any of the heroes of the day were doing. The whole expe­ri­ence made me feel … taller.

Is it true you dated Kathy “Gid­get” Koehner?
I am not sure. We may have dated a cou­ple of times, but I was one of San­dra Dee’s dou­bles in the first Gid­get movie. I used to look good in a bikini, but now my skin is wrin­kled and my tits are saggy! (Laughs)

What do you love about surf­ing?
The “stoke” I had on my first wave has never worn off. There are no bad days— only a poor choice of equip­ment and a lousy attitude! When you ride a wave, it’s all reflex. It’s a cre­ative, spon­ta­neous act. It’s liv­ing about as free as you can live. It’s non-think. In that moment, you are in har­mony with the heart­beat of the earth.

Tell us more.
I was in Indone­sia a few years back at a world class surf break. One of the last waves I caught on the trip was excep­tion­ally big. Typ­i­cally, I am very pos­i­tive, always think­ing, “I’m gonna make it!” This par­tic­u­lar wave seemed unmake­able. I thought to myself, “There is no way in hell I’m gonna make this thing.” But I kept dri­ving through this bar­rel and did make it—the best tube of my life!!!! I came out of it with a grin on my face that still hasn’t washed off. Ein­stein said some­thing like this, “If you could exceed the speed of light, you could pass time and come out younger.” No ques­tion in my mind. I did come out of that tube younger than when I entered!

What are you most grate­ful for?
Peo­ple who love me. Peo­ple I love. My health … and I am thank­ful that I can still surf.

Of all the places you’ve trav­eled to, what would be your favorite?
I am a per­son of the world. It doesn’t mat­ter where you are. It’s where your head’s at.

What’s your favorite board in your quiver? What are you cur­rently rid­ing?
I’ve been doing so much stand-up surf­ing that I have prob­a­bly only rid­den a con­ven­tional board four or five times this year. The stand-up thing is chang­ing rapidly. As the abil­ity of the rid­ers goes up, the board designs are being ele­vated. Right now, I am rid­ing a Jimmy Lewis 9′ SUP, and my own shaped and designed 9’6″. And I have an 8’9″ version—of the 9’6″—being glassed that I am really excited about rid­ing. All three boards look like per­for­mance short­boards and ride like them.

What would you say to all of the surfers who call stand-up surfers “sweep­ers”?
It really doesn’t mat­ter where you ride, what you ride or how good you ride it. It’s mea­sured in incre­ments of smile!

What’s your favorite meal?
My wife and I are quasi-vegetarians. I love brown rice, veg­gies, tofu, pasta and sal­ads. We eat some seafood and some dairy prod­ucts. To surf, you need to stoke the fire with qual­ity food to keep phys­i­cally and men­tally tuned.

What kind of music do you lis­ten to?
A broad spectrum—from clas­si­cal to Latin.

What’s next for Mickey Muñoz?
More of the same. Bring on change. Life is good!

All images cour­tesy of Mickey Muñoz.