[00:00:00] Tyler: Hello and welcome to the Swell Season Surf Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Brewer. On a bright, sunny day at Gilgo Beach in 1963, a 13 year old Tony Caramonico remembers paddling out and catching the whitewater as the wave broke behind him. The unparalleled sensation of riding his first wave ushered in a sense of purpose, Surfing would be his North Star.

[00:00:30] A lot of people were surfers at the time, but life got in the way for many of them. Tony was damn hell sure life would not get in his way. What would follow is a life filled with enough adventure and incredible waves to fill ten lifetimes. Surfing has been his singular obsession for over 60 years. Tony is a legend among legends, an East Coast Hall of Famer, a two time Greg Nolde [00:01:00] the Bull Invitational Champion, and became a pro surfer when others his age were giving up surfing.

[00:01:08] But beyond his surfing, Tony kept journals with collages, stories, and scraps for every day for decades. These creations have become a kaleidoscope chronicle of his search for the perfect wave. From Montauk to Hawaii, South Africa to the Caribbean, and Indonesia to Japan, eventually Tony transitioned to a respected artist with numerous shows and prints of his work.

[00:01:36] His Rizzoli, Montauk Surf Journals, presents a stunning selection of Tony's art representing his 60 years in and around surfing. Thank you. The book takes readers on Tony's journey through surfing as the world progresses through four decades of immense change. From his first wave in 1963, To living and working with Peter Beard at his home in [00:02:00] Montauk and endless days of Perfect Waves, Tony's unique, colorful visions shine through on the pages.

[00:02:08] And I am so freakin stoked to have Tony as a guest on this episode. I grew up, uh, looking up to Tony, my father was friends with him, and so I was able to see his mastery at work for years and, uh, It's awesome to have him on, and I've been always like, Oh, we gotta get you on, gotta get you on, and finally, we got him in the studio.

[00:02:31] Tony, welcome to the show.

[00:02:33] Tony C: Thank you, Tyler. Happy to be here, man.

[00:02:35] Tyler: super stoked to have you. I mean, so many memories. One of my first memories of you is actually, I think I was about seven years old. My dad took us out to Montauk for our first time surfing, my brother and I. And it was like Roger fight was there. I remember he, when he had long hair and a mustache and lived at the East deck.

[00:02:53] And I remember you being out and just the whole, that whole crew and [00:03:00] you and that whole generation of just always. Uh, stood out to me and has always been really, uh, loomed larger than life, I think, for both myself, my brother, and other, other grommets, you know, who grew up around it. So I'm just really, yeah, excited to have you on.

[00:03:17] But honestly, like, we could do a whole series of podcasts with you. Like I said, there's so much to cover. And I'm kind of like, fuck, how are we going to fit all this in? So I'll just get to

[00:03:28] Tony C: Get to it, man.

[00:03:29] Tyler: Um, I'm, I'm excited. I'm curious, like, I guess, like, you've made surfing, like, this almost, like, this singular drive for your life, right?

[00:03:40] Like, you've wanted to make it, like, you've, you've put everything off. And it, and it feels also, like, Quixote esque, you know, this kind of journey. And I'm curious, like, Looking back now, you know, what are your, do you, do you think, yeah, I made it. Do you feel like there's, um, do you think you [00:04:00] left anything on the table?

[00:04:01] Almost in this life?

[00:04:04] Tony C: I don't think so. It's been a long journey. I mean, 60 years of surfing, um, being in the mix of it for many years, as you know, um, getting to travel the world with people like Greg Nolan representing the company and all that was pretty heady stuff for a while. Um, um, But I feel like I'm still doing it. I mean, I've transitioned, like, I don't really surf much anymore.

[00:04:28] It's kind of rare. Um, but this keeps me going through my journals and now my art has been accepted and I have shows, you know, many different shows. Uh, it really surprises me when people buy things. And when I had my first show, I was like with Joel Tudor and Michael Halsband and, uh, Michael Solomon out in East Hampton in 2001.

[00:04:50] Um, I didn't really, you know, okay, we'll print some up, we'll see what happens. And when something sold, I said, I guess I'm an artist now. [00:05:00] And it just evolved. And then, uh, galleries picked me up and it's been a good ride. I have good sponsors, so it's good.

[00:05:09] Tyler: I want to dive back here and I want to know a little bit about your upbringing. Like first, like what were your parents like? You know, who were they? Mm

[00:05:21] Tony C: Amityville, New York. Um, my family, uh, had, uh, Had a restaurant and a bar, and then it just became a bar. Um, but we lived on the water, so that was my first entry into surfing. Literally, before I could drive, I had a boat, and I used to leave Amityville. We lived right on the canal, and I'd go to Gilgo, which was ten minutes away by boat.

[00:05:41] And that's how I got to go to surf, until I had a car. And, my family was supportive, but they didn't really get it. You know, the kind of, old Italian type of thing. Like, what are you doing? My mother, you know, when are you going to give this up type of mentality? And it's like, you know, I'm never giving this up, [00:06:00] but they didn't quite understand it.

[00:06:02] Um, looking back now, if they were alive, they'd probably really dig it. But you know, growing up as a surfer, you know, what are you going to do? I mean, how are you going to make a living being a surfer? I don't know.

[00:06:12] Tyler: Well, far less. There's like there was no road map. It's not like today where you you can see a professional surfer or an industry that you could work within at least, you know, it was You know, at that time, like, surfing was a rebellious thing that youth culture did, and there was no, like, guidelines of how to make

[00:06:33] Tony C: It was, it was total free for all. Um, there was no direction. Um, Okay. You're going to be a surfer. Now, how are you going to live? So that's why, you know, we basically were, people always thought of surfers as, you know, vagabonds, hippies, you know, smoking pot and hanging out at the beach and doing nothing.

[00:06:49] Well, that was a big part of

[00:06:50] Tyler: Yeah.

[00:06:51] Tony C: but we also

[00:06:52] Tyler: weren't wrong.

[00:06:53] Tony C: They weren't wrong. I mean, that's how we got into it. But, uh, surfing became my direction. And I knew [00:07:00] literally from that day in 1963 where I was going, but we had no, no path. So everything we did was like, um, I would have to say, not pioneers, but we were in the very beginning of it all from the, you know, we were the last group of longboard surfers before shortboards, you know, guys my age.

[00:07:19] Um, so that transition was interesting, and it led to a lot more opportunity. You know, surfing then went global, and with that, a lot of opportunities opened up, and later on, you know, when I'm in my forties, That came back to me and I had a lot of going around the world, traveling with Greg Nolan, his wife, doing trade shows, surfing in different competitions, uh, all over the world, if you will.

[00:07:43] So that was pretty heady and a good time.

[00:07:45] Tyler: Do you, do you, was there tension with your family then with it? Like, as you got, as you matured into, like, your twenties, like, did you feel that, like, tension? Sorry to get into the

[00:07:56] Tony C: No, no, that's all

[00:07:57] Tyler: really interesting, you

[00:07:58] Tony C: No, there was, [00:08:00] the only tension was, What are you going to do? You know, my mother wanted me to be a banker or a lawyer, you know, wear a jacket and tie and I literally went to college to a business school and wore a jacket and tie and I said, I'm not going in any office and I just went to the beach and that was that, you know, I left college and decided, uh, well, I had two more years of college and I, I bailed and, uh, took some money and, uh, And, uh, bought a building in Montauk.

[00:08:28] Tyler: Best, best decision ever

[00:08:31] Tony C: yeah, we bought a building for like 35, 000. 10, 000 down, and uh, that was, I was 20 years old. And we just said, oh, let's have a surf shop. Then we built a restaurant. Then we built a motel. And, uh, just sort of evolved. And after seven years of that, um, we sold everything and I moved in with Peter Beard, which started the next chapter of my life, which then things really accelerated not because I was around a lot of heavy people.[00:09:00]

[00:09:00] If anybody knows anything about Peter Beard, it was, it was a wild, wild time. But. Where we lived had one of the best surf breaks on the East Coast and was in my backyard. And I literally lived in the last house on the right on Long Island, a little cottage on the cliff. And right there was the ranch. So, I lived there for seven years and just sucked it all in and, uh, absorbed it all.

[00:09:27] The main thing was we had these waves in the backyard. As you know, that, like, mile was probably the best, Of the best surfing on the East Coast, the Balthasar Coast. And boom, that was my backyard. So then being around Peter was infectious. You know, that's when I started doing journals and it just evolved from there.

[00:09:45] And then I just, I just documented everything I was doing and traveling and I knew I was on to something because surfing was still evolving, you know, most people still didn't get what we were doing. So my journals was capturing all that and I realized [00:10:00] that back then, I just didn't know why. You know, I'm going to keep these journals.

[00:10:04] Then 20 years later, they go, let's show your work. And it's been like that since

[00:10:09] Tyler: how did you start doing the journals? Was it Peter who influenced you or was that before?

[00:10:15] Tony C: basically in 78. I started keeping a little journal of the waves. I was writing how good the way who I was with, you know, just basic daily journal thing. Then 79, uh, Cheryl Teagues gave me a journal, a bigger journal format.

[00:10:29] Tyler: As you do, right? You know, Cheryl Teagues

[00:10:30] Tony C: were hanging

[00:10:31] Tyler: drops off a journal. No big deal.

[00:10:33] Tony C: uh, that evolved into, as you'll see in my book that evolved into the a bigger format.

[00:10:40] And then 1980, we went full format. Um, and Beard and I used to do these sessions where we do these rubbing sessions, a transfer process to put ink on the pages and, you know, do all that stuff. And I learned from him at that point. And I just absorbed it all and kept doing it. [00:11:00] And now it's 60 years later.

[00:11:03] Well, 40 years of journals,

[00:11:04] Tyler: but still.

[00:11:05] Tony C: but it took 20 years before I showed them.

[00:11:09] Tyler: I want to, um, because we're jumping here, but I want to get back to, who Got you onto your first wave then. Like, how did that, I know it was through your friends, but I'm like curious, like who, who influenced that? What was that day like? I want to just

[00:11:24] Tony C: Um, it was Labor Day weekend in 1963. Um, my cousin and I went on a friend's boat. This family had a boat. So we went to Gilgo and we went to the pavilion. Remember the old station there? So we parked in the cove there and went across and one of the guys had a surfboard. And you know, I'd never surfed before.

[00:11:45] So I paddled out, turned around, caught the whitewater on my knees. You know, I'm like, Whoa. And it was like, Hmm, I'm onto something here. And that was how I started. And then within a year I had, you know, I was working in a surf shop, beachcomber, [00:12:00] you know, Peter

[00:12:00] Tyler: who is the owner? Yeah. I was

[00:12:02] Tony C: Peter Lutz. Um, he had one of the first surf shops on Long Island, like, like your dads.

[00:12:07] Um, and I was a little grommet and I immediately got a job there, you know, and I met Greg Knoll and Dewey Weber and all these guys, uh, That would come into the shop. And then one of the experiences was, um, I'm sitting there and the boss went to the bank or something. And I'm sitting there as a little kid, you know, behind the counter and a big black Jaguar pulls up and out pops Greg.

[00:12:28] No, you know, it was like my heart's jumping out of my chest and I'm going, Oh shit, it's Greg. No, he came in, calm me right down. And we had decals back then. So he signed the decal and gave it to me. And I put that in my journal. And, uh, 20 years later and then within a decade of that, I'm representing Greg Knoll surfboards.

[00:12:51] You know, it was a wild ride, but I remember that, uh, first job. And that was one of the things that really stood out was having Greg pull up in this black [00:13:00] Jaguar going, Greg Knoll.

[00:13:02] Tyler: What was he like then? Like, I mean,

[00:13:05] Tony C: He was, he was, like,

[00:13:06] Tyler: he intimidating or was

[00:13:08] Tony C: No, he was very friendly, you know, he was doing his, uh, doing his shtick. And, uh, he's a, he's a good couser. He knows how to sell everything. But, uh, he had such a presence. And at that point, he was like Kelly Slater. You know, he was the guy. So, to a young, impressionable kid, it was like, Wow, there he is, in the life.

[00:13:28] But, uh, he was very cool about it. Then we chatted and all, and then, you know, off he went.

[00:13:34] Tyler: How, who were some of the local people you looked up to at the time,

[00:13:37] Tony C: Well, it was like all the guys, like, uh, The next generation just above me, like Rusty Drum and Jerry Gepetti, I mean, all passed away unfortunately, yeah. All those guys, you know, Roger, um, just the next generation above me and we would learn from them because they were the first generation of New York surfers.

[00:13:54] You know, George Fisher, um, and I was like the little kid at that time and they were like [00:14:00] 19 and I was like 12 or 13, so it was a big deal. Especially when you're at that age, a two year difference is a big deal, you know, especially in your teens. But that's kind of the people I looked up to, but mostly I looked up to the guys in the magazines.

[00:14:15] Cause you know, that's the only thing we had was going to a surf movie, maybe once or twice at a VFW hall. And watching the movies and the whole tribe would get together and it was quite a hoot. But I'm basically just absorbed everything out of the magazines and whatever film we could see because it wasn't like today where it's just everywhere.

[00:14:35] And I've watched the evolution of that, you know, from when I was doing my journals in the beginning, I would take everything, um, that I could find that had to do with surfing because there wasn't anything out there. And, you know, in the last, say, 10 years, you couldn't find an advertisement without a surfboard or something to do with that.

[00:14:54] I mean, it's everywhere, and that's, and that's also now global. No matter where you go.

[00:14:59] Tyler: [00:15:00] does it, does it blow your mind almost to have seen that progression from surfing being this, this outcast activity almost where, you know, uh, well, I mean, let's say like you had beach blanket bingo and it was kind of exciting and then the seventies was really dark and outcast like surfers.

[00:15:19] Tony C: transition period. As soon as the shortboard thing hit, a lot of surfers gave it up that we're on longboards. Plus life got in the way, like I always say. Um, and uh, they stopped surfing. But then, you go fast forward 15 years or so when they had children, and the kids started surfing, they got back into it.

[00:15:41] And then in the late 90s, or mid 80s to early 90s, sorry, um, Longboarding came back and BAM went global, everybody's getting back in the water, people that couldn't surf on shortboards were trying it, and this whole thing exploded, and now there's, you know, [00:16:00] surf schools all over the world, there's surf camps, I mean, I did a TV show on the first, uh, surf camp.

[00:16:06] Tyler: Oh, we're getting to that. Oh, we're going to get into that. We're going to get into that. But does it like, like to see that progression though? Like, what do you, do you, do you feel like that's a healthy progression or do you kind of long for the days when it was a bit more outcast and a little bit less popular?

[00:16:28] Tony C: it now, and also, you know, surfers can, you know, surf. Finally make a living if you will very few of them, but um over the decades I've watched and actually participated in all these changes, and uh it's been slow, but now it's just all Consuming it's like everywhere In the media this giant businesses around the world that have are supporting surfing

[00:16:54] Tyler: Do you, do you like that? Do you, is that something that you, that feel that you sit comfortably with or?[00:17:00]

[00:17:00] Tony C: I like the old way better when we were basically You know, a bunch of hippies running around the world surfing. But, uh, now it's more acceptable and that's good for surfing. Cause we were always kind of looked down as outcasts and like, you know, what are you guys

[00:17:14] Tyler: couldn't surf anywhere, too, in Long Island, right? Like, it was blackballed from so many places. You know, I mean, even from my youth, I remember, you know, I only had Lincoln Boulevard and Long Beach and Azores, and that was it. And Bunger, you know, you could go to Gilgo, but Robert Moses, they made us go to the nude beach on Field 5, like Democrats, you know, we would get harassed by the cops

[00:17:37] Tony C: Well, they just tried to control it so nobody got hurt and you know, they would always put a surfing area with the buoys and there'd be no waves in

[00:17:44] Tyler: I know.

[00:17:45] Tony C: it'd be right in front of the lifeguard stand where the waves were. That happens all the time. But, uh, I don't know. Yeah, Montauk's

[00:17:58] Tyler: And back then, and, [00:18:00] and can you describe that experience? Cause that to me, I think a lot of New York surfers have that experience even still to this day, you know,

[00:18:08] Tony C: like, everybody wants to go there because that's where the good waves are. My first experience was, uh I went on a boat, an Amityville, my friend Robert Schneider is a Ripple, back in the day, he had a big cabin cruiser. So, We were buddies, and they took me on a trip to Montauk. We left, went out to Jones Inlet, not, uh, Robert Moses Inlet, and we went through Shinnecock Canal.

[00:18:34] Um, and I remember going and looking at flies right off the Shinnecock Canal and seeing big waves coming in. And I'm going, wow, look at that. You know, it was like really exciting as a little kid. So we go in. Uh, go through the locks at Shinnecock and go to Montauk and then his dad drove us to Ditch Plains and that was the first time I surfed Ditch Plains and it was like, I distinctly remember it too.

[00:18:57] It was like, wow. And uh, [00:19:00] caught a couple waves and then on the same trip we went to Block Island. So I got to surf Block Island and like, I don't know, 66, maybe 65. It

[00:19:08] Tyler: And, and you'd be the only

[00:19:10] Tony C: we were the only surfers there. Um,

[00:19:12] Tyler: what was the town like then? I mean, it was like,

[00:19:15] Tony C: it was back, but hasn't changed much now, but it was really back in time. Sleepy little place. Uh, very cool. There was a couple of nice restaurants, uh, nice Marina. But it was still, it was an interesting block island. Very cool place, and as you know, it has pretty good waves.

[00:19:32] Tyler: Might be a

[00:19:33] Tony C: Bee land. Um, so that was my first trip to Montauk, and it sort of stuck with me.

[00:19:40] And as soon as I basically got out on my own after college, I moved right to Montauk. And ended up buying a building and, uh, starting a surf

[00:19:50] Tyler: How is it opening a surf shop in Montauk in like the early 70s? It

[00:19:54] Tony C: It was a wing and a prayer. It's like,

[00:19:57] Tyler: been a little slow

[00:19:58] Tony C: we have a few dollars here. Let's [00:20:00] buy a few surfboards, some t shirts and wax and stuff. And let's have a shop, but it evolved and, uh, I took on partners, uh, we built a restaurant, bought a motel, and we did that for seven years. We were just, I was 20 years old,

[00:20:16] Tyler: crazy.

[00:20:17] Tony C: let's do this.

[00:20:18] I was ambitious then.

[00:20:20] Tyler: What, what caused you to want to sell it then? Like what, what did

[00:20:24] Tony C: We grew up. You know, one got married, one was doing this, so we all like, okay, time to, to break free. And we all did, and I was about to move, uh, into the trailer park. I bought a trailer, and, uh, It was in the park, and uh, Peter goes, and actually I rented it to Mike Tabling. He was, he was staying with us, he rode from my shop for a little while, and uh, I rented him a trailer.

[00:20:50] But then I was about, after I closed my shop, I was about to move into it, and I ran into Peter Beard at uh, Shagwam Tavern. And he goes, heck, [00:21:00] bring it up to my place. I go, I can't move the trailer. So, uh, Peter goes, I went up and I lived in one of his cottages and I stayed up there seven years.

[00:21:08] Tyler: What was that conversation like? Are you just sitting at

[00:21:10] Tony C: Oh, we were partying.

[00:21:11] Tyler: like, Hey Peter, and you guys are doing God knows what I won't

[00:21:15] Tony C: Oh, we were doing all that. Um, you know, we were driving around in Mercedes with diplomatic plates on it. I mean, we could do no fucking wrong. Um, anyway, it was a pretty wild time. And Peter being very astute and very creative and very artistic, he dug surfing. You know, I actually took him out once, but, uh, He got it, you know.

[00:21:37] I used to take him to the surf films, like we'd drive up to Amityville and go to the VFW or something, and he used to love Mark Richards. The wounded gully go, the wounded go! Yeah, so, you know, he definitely got into it. He saw the artistic beauty of surfing, and that's what he got out of it.

[00:21:53] Tyler: What was he like as a person?

[00:21:54] Tony C: Mad dog. Uh, he was the most connected person I've ever been around.[00:22:00]

[00:22:00] He could summon pretty much anybody in the world. You know, that was famous or, you know, you go to Germany, you call this guy, you know, wherever he was, he knew people. And it was like, open doors.

[00:22:12] Tyler: That must have, um, I imagine for you, like when you would travel, like that must have helped open up doors for you too, I'd

[00:22:20] Tony C: Well, it was a good, you know, being associated with Peter wasn't a bad thing. Um, could get you into a little trouble here and there, but, uh, it wasn't a bad thing, and it did open up a lot of doors. And through him, I met a lot of interesting people, and uh, made good connections, and that's how we got to go to Java.

[00:22:36] Tyler: Oh, all right. You're Jones of this. All right. Let's, let's talk about how, what was your first trip to, to Indonesia like? You know, how did you, how did you clue into it and what, what happened? Give, give me the full play by

[00:22:50] Tony C: Gotcha. Um, Rick Rasmussen just got back from Indonesia. He was at, at G Land with Jerry Lopez, and those guys built some of the first tree [00:23:00] houses. So, when he got back, he called me up, and I met him at Eric Penny's house, in Hampton Bay. So the three of us are sitting there, You know, smoking and drinking and have a good old time.

[00:23:11] Ricky showing us G land tree houses and all I'm going, you know, my jaws dropping. This is insane. So then I, uh, later in the season, I got to know the producers of American sportsmen. I was hanging out with these guys then, uh, they were producer was younger than I was. So we became buddies and I said, Hey, you guys ever do a, a surf show?

[00:23:35] They go, No. I go, I got one for you. So within the, within a year, Ricky and I are off to Indonesia. First stop, and it was a really funny trip. Uh, the first stop was L. A. And I got to L. A. and I said to the producers, Where are you guys staying? And they said, Oh, we're staying at the Beverly Wilkshire. I go, Oh, where are we staying?

[00:23:54] Oh, you guys are staying over there. I go, Uh huh. Boom, went right to the Beverly Wilkshire. Plugged [00:24:00] right in. Then I went and I changed our tickets to first class. I said, we're going around the world first class. So I did that. Then, uh, we stayed in L. A. for five days. And, uh, kind of just bought things. Went to, did a little surfing.

[00:24:18] Then we hit Hawaii. And then I was kind of a Gregory Harrison came on board. And,

[00:24:22] Tyler: How, how did you pick the surfers for this trip? Other than Ricky, you

[00:24:26] Tony C: well, I picked Ricky because, uh, That was the main guy. Um, and he was the U. S. champ at the time, so it kind of fit in. They liked that part of it. And then, yeah, and Linda Duvalie was already in, uh, in Bali. We picked her up there. She was like an add on because she was in Bali. Uh, so we went to Hawaii. Uh, we spent a week in Hawaii.

[00:24:45] And funny story, I was very anxious to go surfing the next morning, you know. So I got up In the dark, paddled out at Ala Moana, you know, it's really fucking dark. And big Hawaiians paddling towards me, I go, [00:25:00] oh jeez, here we go. And he comes right up to my face and puts his hands out and he goes, Hi, I'm Ben Aipa.

[00:25:05] I go, hey Ben, how you doing? So it's only two of us surfing Ala Moana until more people came out. But it was like that thing in Hawaii, like uh oh, the big guy's coming to get me here, like get out of the water, and that happens as you know.

[00:25:18] Tyler: And Ben Aipa is a very imposing, was a very

[00:25:22] Tony C: And, and a surf legend. Anyway, so that was That was the first morning in Hawaii. And then a couple of days later, we got back on the old jet and what we stopped in Australia, and then we went to Bali and we spent a few days in Bali and in 1980, Bali was back in time. Still wasn't like it is now. There was no fast food places.

[00:25:43] Everything was still wrapped in banana leaves. And it was really pristine. I remember getting off the plane and you could smell it in the air. Like, wow, this place is exotic and it was so exciting. So we, you know. We had, uh, first class everything because we had [00:26:00] the network behind us. I'm traveling with sound guys and three or four photographers.

[00:26:06] Tyler: must have been tripping out,

[00:26:07] Tony C: had no idea what they were getting into. So, we take these guys, some of them couldn't even swim. So, we go, uh, We go, uh, through Bali on a big giant bus. We get to, uh, Garajigon. Well, first we go across the ferry.

[00:26:22] Tyler: Let's talk about how long of a trip that was. I mean, I've done the Overland trip, you know, in the early 2000s, and that was still like, crazy. Yeah.

[00:26:32] Tony C: just to get to G Land was, it took it like a day and a half. Traveling across Bali, then taking the ferry, then going to Blongan, which is the little town there. And these little, you know, Boats that, you know, basically a foot out of the water and we had them loaded with camera gear and just When like abc travels, they don't travel they have backups of everything.

[00:26:53] So there's like double of everything I mean I was watching the guys faces [00:27:00] when we were going across, you know Across the swells to get the G land. And it's like, Oh shit, man. And then we got there and we didn't know what was going to happen. You know, we had two days. We get there the next morning. It's 10 foot and perfect.

[00:27:14] The guy said it was the best surf they had so far this season. Of course, Merkel goes out in the water and spent five hours. In the water. I was in the water with a camera and I was sitting in the lineup with Harrison and Ricky and, uh, and Ricky was on fire. Of course, he served the place unbelievably. Um, so we did that.

[00:27:36] We left and then, uh, went back to Bali and then I went to Borneo. I went to Java and then I went to Borneo and I worked on another show and live with orangutans. Yeah.

[00:27:49] Tyler: went there to study them. I have like a, his girlfriend was studying them and he went, it was like a gnarly trip to get there. And that was

[00:27:55] Tony C: Oh, that was insane.

[00:27:56] Tyler: headhunters back then.

[00:27:58] Tony C: Well, they were a few [00:28:00] generations away from headhunters. Um, the Dayak tribe it was. Um, so we get there in a little tiny plane. We cross the Java Strait through a thunderstorm. And I thought we were going to die right there. Um, and then they sent me up the river. I was like the lead guy.

[00:28:16] So they stick me in this boat with this Indonesian guy. We couldn't speak to each other. And we started out, it was getting dark, so luckily we came back the next morning, I went up two hours into the jungle, up these little rivers, as wide as this room, in little boats, and I come into this opening, and it's like a research camp, you know, introducing orangutans back in the wild, and I got off the boat, and I go walking up the gangplank they had there above the, above the earth, and uh, This little orangutan comes up from below the decking and he starts climbing up my body and all of a sudden he's right here and I'm looking at this and I remember the sensation of this little baby orangutan [00:29:00] and how his skin felt.

[00:29:01] It was like this clammy type of thing and the hair and I remember that sensation but he was so gentle and I'm like, There's an orangutan on my shoulder here, you know. That was my introduction to that, and then I spent, there's a funny story in the book, too, about that. Then I spent a week there, living with these orangutans in this research camp.

[00:29:23] It was wild. And when I was there, the woman, Baruti Galdikas, was on the cover of National Geographic that month. So there I was, in real time, with that lady, and she was the orangutan lady.

[00:29:36] Tyler: Fuck.

[00:29:38] Tony C: And one funny thing, which is in the book, I was there and I had a, um, some Mr. Natural LSD in my journal.

[00:29:46] Tyler: As you do, uh, you know, just a little bit.

[00:29:49] Tony C: I had glued in there. It was, I didn't really plan on doing it, but it was kind of a down day and I hadn't, didn't really have much to do. So I. I was into running marathons then. So I popped it. [00:30:00] I went running into the jungle. There's paths and stuff, you know, they have to clear it up.

[00:30:05] And I'm like half an hour into this jungle run. And I'm like, feeling pretty good, but not crazy. And I hear the ruffling in the way here we go. And I'm in the middle of nowhere, you know, hours and hours away from civilization and then half an hour away from. The only thing that was going on there was this little camp.

[00:30:25] And I turned around and I never ran so fast. It was like the road runner, bing, and I was gone because I thought it was a big cat

[00:30:32] Tyler: Yeah, could have been

[00:30:33] Tony C: I mean, there's all kinds of, all kinds of animals in that jungle besides the orangutans, but, uh, That was an interesting story to do that. So that became a story I put in my book.

[00:30:45] That trip was insane. I spent a month going around the world. And then after I left Java,

[00:30:51] Tyler: I meant the LSD trip. All right. I thought you might've had like a, like a, an awakening.[00:31:00]

[00:31:00] Tony C: no. It was just kind of like, okay, we'll light up the day a little bit and uh, go for a run. But after I left Java, I went to Barrett's, because I said I'm going to go all the way around.

[00:31:11] Tyler: Go, go meet up with Mickey Dora on

[00:31:13] Tony C: Well, I didn't see Mickey at that trip. I saw him on a later trip. But, um, I just went to Barrett's for a couple of days, and then I flew back to Montauk. I was around the world.

[00:31:23] Tyler: ABC's dime.

[00:31:24] Tony C: Yup, and I got paid, too.

[00:31:25] Tyler: That's not only paid like that won an award, won an Emmy.

[00:31:30] Tony C: Unfortunately, I didn't get one, only the producers got them. And Dan Merkle.

[00:31:34] Tyler: yeah, well, Dan Merkel totally

[00:31:36] Tony C: Yeah, he

[00:31:38] Tyler: Yeah,

[00:31:38] Tony C: it. He earned it big time.

[00:31:40] Tyler: Oh my gosh. That that's like, because that story, like that footage and everything, like, I can't find that footage. It's not online.

[00:31:50] Tony C: Um, you can dig it out. It's here and there. You can find it, but it's like, I don't even have a copy of it. And it

[00:31:58] Tyler: wild. And

[00:31:58] Tony C: was only like a [00:32:00] 10 or 15 minute

[00:32:01] Tyler: little

[00:32:02] Tony C: segment. Of, of, of their show.

[00:32:05] Tyler: but it was cool because one, like

[00:32:07] Tony C: No one ever saw anything like that

[00:32:09] Tyler: you brought that to American viewers in their homes. You also exposed East Coast surfers too, you know, which we weren't getting a lot of Attention and press at the time and we were always

[00:32:22] Tony C: and Ricky really helped that, um, globally. Yeah. You know, 'cause he was, uh, he was one of the, one of the guys back then. He was, you know, world class all the way. He could have been world champion if he didn't run astray There.

[00:32:33] Tyler: What was he like as a person? I've heard mixed things about him and everyone always tells me Eric Penney was the cooler one. I've always heard.

[00:32:41] Tony C: were, they were different people. Yeah. Eric was very cool. Um, more. Ricky was right out there. Chest out, brilliant eyes, a very charismatic guy, and was just like he had a purpose. He was, he was doing it, and he did it.

[00:32:59] I mean, [00:33:00] he went to the North Shore and just jumped into the biggest waves in the world at that time and made a name for himself, you know. You don't pop out a pipeline and get waves, as you know. It's like, it doesn't happen. He got in the mix, he got respect, and uh, Made a name for himself.

[00:33:16] Tyler: It's interesting how New York, I think, New Yorkers and New York surfers have this, like, kind of history with Hawaii, right? Like, I mean, Gums is named after Don Eichen, you know, you, you've got like, you know, we, we, I feel like there's like a, a mutual respect with Hawaiians and New York surfers. Did you find that to be the

[00:33:36] Tony C: I do find that it's oddly enough. Like I was talking to Titus from Kauai and, uh, he goes, you know,

[00:33:43] Tyler: Titus Kinamaka, legendary, legendary surfer, broke his femur surfing in one minute a day. Also, gnarly guy.

[00:33:52] Tony C: But, uh, I ran into him and he told me, he goes, you know, I like the East Coast guys and the New York guys. He goes, you know, he [00:34:00] had, we have a hard time with the Californians a lot. He goes, but I think the East Coast guys are cool. And he came and, and hung out with us in New York and it was a really good time.

[00:34:09] But he's a, as a heavy, heavy dude and

[00:34:12] Tyler: Well it's interesting, I feel like the New York aspect gives us cachet, you know, around the world. Because one, everyone wants to come and visit New York. And then, like, you end up being that guide, almost, to New York, which I think has been advantageous for your career in surfing, no?

[00:34:31] Tony C: if they come to Montauk, you know, if they're a famous surfers and all, they end up coming visit me

[00:34:35] Tyler: Yeah. They gotta kiss the ring.

[00:34:37] Tony C: they're gonna come and say Hi, But uh, you know, when I go somewhere, I get the same. response, you know, I got friends all over the world.

[00:34:46] Tyler: Can I, can I ask, like, you know, you and, uh, Alan Weissbeck are really good friends, you know? And like, Yeah. Drugs were a big part of surfing and big part like he has written about how it was you [00:35:00] know a way for us as Surfers to keep surfing without having to get a real

[00:35:04] Tony C: Well, that was the whole underbelly of the surf world back in the 60s and 70s. It's like, because there was no way to make a living and everybody wanted to be available for surfing. And of course, you know, everybody was smoking pot and stuff. So that became a big part of it. And Alan became a pot smuggler.

[00:35:21] Um, and he actually did all that stuff. He had, you know, moving freighters and sailboats and. Bringing Hash across from Morocco. I mean, he actually did all that stuff and he wrote about it.

[00:35:32] Tyler: you must have been like, what are you doing, man? You're crazy

[00:35:36] Tony C: he he was I mean, he was very adventurous and it was all because he wanted to surf But that was the way to make money and Alan, you know, he had a good run of it

[00:35:44] Tyler: Yeah, he did he parlayed that into writing Miami Vice

[00:35:48] Tony C: Vice, and then his book is a, you know, like a cult book, you know, in search of Captain Zero and good old Captain Zero. Patrick was a dear friend of mine also, and he just passed away last

[00:35:58] Tyler: oh no,

[00:35:59] Tony C: So all [00:36:00] these guys are already gone. Yeah. And I went to Africa with Patrick. I had him,

[00:36:08] Tyler: How,

[00:36:10] Tony C: in Kenya.

[00:36:10] I had a Land Rover, an expense accountant. I said, I need somebody to go around with something. I called up Patrick, he was in the Bahamas. He flew over, and we traveled around Kenya.

[00:36:20] Tyler: how did this happen?

[00:36:23] Tony C: Another funny story, um

[00:36:25] Tyler: I'm going to mind these fucking stories from you, by the way. I listened to Chris's and I was like, how am I going to do something different here? This, I got to mind this shit.

[00:36:35] Tony C: These two brothers own the safari lodges in, uh, in Kenya, all the major ones. And they came to visit Peter in Montauk, and Peter was, you know, busy doing stuff, so I entertained them. I took them to the restaurants and spent time with the brothers. Well, when they left, like two months later, one of the brothers died.

[00:36:54] So when I got to Kenya, the brother that was alive, like embraced [00:37:00] me, like, because I spent time with him and his brother with the last time they were together, if you will. And, uh, so he goes, gave me a Land Rover expense account, go to the safari lodges. I went to, you know, Kilimanjaro, Savo, and just Patrick and I just traveled around, just signed my name.

[00:37:18] And I got to travel around.

[00:37:19] Tyler: What time, what time, what

[00:37:21] Tony C: That was 83.

[00:37:22] Tyler: Whoa, man.

[00:37:23] Tony C: And, you know, we were having a hoot. We know we went to Malindi and Mombasa looking for waves, did that kind of

[00:37:29] Tyler: Any, any, uh,

[00:37:30] Tony C: really surf there. We paddled out, but there was no waves. It was the wrong time of year and Madagascar got in the way.

[00:37:35] Tyler: Yeah, Madagascar. That must have been

[00:37:40] Tony C: that was a wild, that was a good trip.

[00:37:41] Tyler: That's like around the time of Outta Africa came out

[00:37:44] Tony C: I went, I went out of Africa to her house. Karen Blixen's house. And that was interesting. And it's right next door to Peter Beard's camp. And one of the funny things, I lived in a tent at Peter's. He had a bunch of tents on the [00:38:00] property. And I'm laying and just opening my eyes one morning at dawn. And there's a giraffe.

[00:38:07] There's giraffes. Head in my tent looking at me and it's like whoa, that's what you know Do I do now and uh It was the Rothschild giraffes that lived next door. So, you know, the place, there's giant warthogs walking around, you know, so it was really, and just down a mile down the road was the national park and you go in there and see all the animals.

[00:38:31] So I'd hop in the Land Rover and go take a little ride in the morning, smoke a joint and look at the animals. It was pretty wild, you know, have a lion right next to you and stuff. It was crazy.

[00:38:40] Tyler: What to, like, like here you are, Tony Caramonico, having all these incredible adventures and living this like, Untethered life, I guess you could say, uh, and then to come back home and have all of your, your friends and [00:39:00] whatnot in stasis almost, right? Like they're in their family, especially like seventies, eighties, you know, they weren't surfing as much.

[00:39:06] Like, do you feel? Difficult to connect with people at home. Did you feel like it was, uh, difficult to kind of relate at all? Or do you feel like out of place at times?

[00:39:20] Tony C: No, not at all. I felt quite comfortable and. All my friends were surfers. So I'd come back to Montauk. It's like all good. You know, everybody was stoked. They were happy. You know that we would go into these places and doing stuff like that. You're not, I had a rare opportunity to do those

[00:39:36] Tyler: it's incredible. Did you ever, my brother and I used to do this when we would travel a lot and we'd come back and we'd be surfing with someone and they would be like, Oh yeah. You, did you get out yet? Last weekend, you know, Lincoln, it was going off. And you're like, Oh yeah. Nah, nah, nah, nah, ah, no, I was, I was surfing this other place that was great.

[00:39:54] Oh, really? Where? And like, oh, it was at G Land. It was amazing, you know?

[00:39:59] Tony C: [00:40:00] Laurelton's nice, but it's not G

[00:40:01] Tyler: Yeah.

[00:40:02] Tony C: Well, that's a great thing about surfing. It gives you a reason to travel and I've always liked traveling, but, uh, I would only travel to countries where there was waves. And, luckily, there's waves all over the world. Even, you know, Mediterranean or wherever.

[00:40:15] Tyler: Well, surfing is a gateway drug to travel, I think. You know, it's like, you go for the surf, but then you discover so much

[00:40:21] Tony C: yeah. And I really absorbed the traveling part of it, you know. As you know, there's a lot of downtime in surfing. So that's when the journals kicked in. And I would grab everything and write everything down. And all the people I met.

[00:40:33] Tyler: Would you do photography as

[00:40:35] Tony C: I never did photography. I kind of didn't, didn't go there. I didn't want to, Follow beard too much.

[00:40:41] Yeah. Um, so I never was, I was better off in front of the camera as a surfer than behind it.

[00:40:47] Tyler: Well, you're a good looking guy. I mean, why, why do I, uh, you know, deny everyone that?

[00:40:53] Tony C: right

[00:40:54] Tyler: I want to talk, uh, about, um, Tobago because this place has [00:41:00] been, you know, uh, a real major staple in your life. And, and not only yours, like, uh, you know, all of my dad, you know, all of my, your friends, my dad's friends, you know, uh, Jerry Gepetti

[00:41:11] Tony C: brought up

[00:41:12] Tyler: Dave, you did like, and that was like

[00:41:14] Tony C: I discovered

[00:41:15] Tyler: trip they would do.

[00:41:17] Tony C: Yeah, they all just come down together. I discovered it in 1975 when I was in Barbados. Someone told me about it. And then I went there. And as a kid, as a kid, I was, um, infatuated with, uh, Swiss Family Robinson, that movie, you know, the tree houses and the waterfalls and all.

[00:41:37] Well, bam, that was filmed in Tobago. So when I got there and then this perfect right hand point break, I go, I found it, you know, I'm staying. So I I went back every year for several months and then I eventually bought a piece of land there and built a little house Subdivided it sold some of the land off

[00:41:56] Tyler: Who's the German woman from, that was down there? Yeah.

[00:41:59] Tony C: [00:42:00] was a beauty. She's actually was a girlfriend of mine for a while. She was an actress. Um, Really pretty lady

[00:42:07] Tyler: Yeah.

[00:42:07] Tony C: she was like 10 years older than me

[00:42:09] Tyler: little eccentric, I've heard from what I've

[00:42:11] Tony C: Yeah, she wasn't you know, she actually was in a movie with marlon brando and stuff. Yeah She's now like 80 Anyway, she's a beautiful, beautiful woman.

[00:42:22] And she was like very, very vivacious, very alive, very colorful woman. So that's why she ended up in the magazine with

[00:42:28] Tyler: Yeah. Did I mean like, it must've been nothing there when you got there. And now

[00:42:35] Tony C: Still back in time.

[00:42:36] Tyler: it like now?

[00:42:37] Tony C: it's not, it's not very good. Unfortunately, uh, there's a lot of crime in Trinidad and Tobago. And, uh, I felt unsafe there at a certain point. Like, okay, it's not, it's not good. Um, like, you know, your wife can't walk down the beach without being hassled. That kind of thing. I don't know what it is, but uh, they just never got past all that.[00:43:00]

[00:43:00] And due to that, there's hardly any tourism. And that means there's not much work, which then adds to more, more crime, more people just hanging out, you know? So you always kind of felt like. Somebody was watching you. So, you know, as, as a single guy, I didn't, I didn't care. Everything was fine. But once I got married, it got a little different.

[00:43:21] Um, so we, we enjoyed it for another 10 years. And then I, I found St. Bart's. Um, and I was brought there for an art show with a Christian cell that owned click and Calypso before that. Um, and then I had the first show. In St. Bart's at her gallery. And I was with her for 7 years. And, uh, we continued to go back to St.

[00:43:44] Bart's because we really fell in love with it. We spent 2 to 3 months a year there.

[00:43:48] Tyler: sort of, uh, waves are like there?

[00:43:51] Tony C: there's some nice waves there. It's very wind driven. And there's like 13 different breaks on the island. But you gotta know where to be at the right time. That's why there's [00:44:00]so much sailing there. There's a lot of wind.

[00:44:02] Tyler: it like, like, uh, the Dominican Republic where like it's offshore in the morning, but then mid 10 o'clock it

[00:44:07] Tony C: there, I went there last year actually. Um, it, uh, it's a lot of wind. Uh, it, it does come up in the morning. There might be, but it's windy right through 24 hours a day. And that's why all the big boats go there. Well, the sail, sailing yachts, it's crazy. I was just down there a month ago for the bucket.

[00:44:28] Uh, race and it's all the biggest sailboats in the world. Like, you know, stuff that's 150, 200 feet, that kind of boats. And uh, international, you see all the best boats in the world there. And uh, I had another, I had a cocktail party for my art show down there. So I had to fly back down.

[00:44:46] Tyler: Tough,

[00:44:47] Tony C: Yeah, not easy. It

[00:44:49] Tyler: let's, I want to dive into now, you know, 1987. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You had a light bulb moment that went off and you became, [00:45:00] decide you're going to become a pro surfer. What, what sparked that? Like here you are at a time when many people weren't surfing, even, you know, your age, you're 40, you know, um, how, how did that come about?

[00:45:16] Like, how did you make that decision?

[00:45:19] Tony C: was a point in my life where it was really transition time. I was like, the beard thing ended. I moved out, you know, we basically both got kicked out in a divorce. Um, so, a year later I ended up buying my house in Montauk. And then Beard moved in with me. For a little while. But um, back to the, what you were, yeah.

[00:45:42] It was like, I was tired of doing what I was doing, you know. Doing, bartending and doing what I said. I'm gonna be a surfer again. And because longboarding came back and as a kid, I was already good on a long board. I was already sponsored surfer and stuff, you know, we're younger and all, all the hand and everybody beachcomber.[00:46:00]

[00:46:00] Um, I said, I'm going to do this. So, you know, I got back into East, East coast surfing association and I go, aha moment was Eddie Fallis won the U S championships. Right. And I ran into him at the beach. I go, gee, Ed, congratulations. You know, you won the U S champ. She goes, he goes, you could have done that.

[00:46:19] And I said, Boom. I said, yeah, maybe I can. So I kind of turned it around. I said, I'm just going to be a surfer now. You know, I just did all focus. I, you know, I'll do whatever it takes at

[00:46:34] Tyler: trying to live a normal life? Were you trying to, like, have a steady job and, and, like, make,

[00:46:41] Tony C: that stage. I, at that stage I was just, uh, coming off the living with beard for seven years. Um, so I was in transition, but I wasn't happy with, you know, just doing a job. I said, I'm not doing this stuff. And I just dove right into it. I did a couple of, you know, I ended up [00:47:00] You know, being a New York State champ, shortboard and longboard, and was beating Eddie, or it's either him or me would win the contest.

[00:47:06] And, uh, I just said, I'm gonna take it to the next level. So, I went and entered the Brave New World Pro Contest. I won that. I said, Hmm. So I went, went down to the invitational, the Greg Noll one,

[00:47:20] Tyler: How, how did you get the invite for that?

[00:47:22] Tony C: they sent him out.

[00:47:24] Tyler: They just sent it out, like, and they were just

[00:47:26] Tony C: can go, you know. Wow. So I went down, and on the plane I meet Paul Strau. And, uh, we had to stop in, uh, El Salvador or something, so. I walk up to, I knew who he was, and I go, Paul Strau? He goes, Yeah. And he slid over and had me sit down to, we became fast friends after that.

[00:47:47] We get to, um, Costa Rica. So Greg Noll thinks I'm a good buddy with Paul Stroud. So all of a sudden I'm hanging out with all the Hawaiians, you know, everybody else is like, but their group and I'm with the Hawaiians. That was really cool. Rabbit Kakai [00:48:00] got to be good friends with rabbit. We used to room together.

[00:48:03] Yeah, it was wild. And rabbit was like the next jet, the next guy besides Duke Wanamoku.

[00:48:08] Tyler: Dude,

[00:48:08] Tony C: He was the guy.

[00:48:09] Tyler: absolutely. He's, he's like the template of surf style

[00:48:13] Tony C: well, he was the first hot dogger, as we know. Um, anyway, I got to spend quality time with him. Um, We, uh, roomed together in Costa Rica. Uh, in France.

[00:48:22] Tyler: Mm hmm.

[00:48:23] Tony C: uh, when I went to Hawaii, he was always gracious and we used to hang out and it was a privilege to be around somebody with that kind of humor.

[00:48:30] aura, that presence, that lineage. And I mean, he's basically learned from Duke Wanamoku and it doesn't get any better than that.

[00:48:38] Tyler: You're, you're like tapping direct to the source,

[00:48:41] Tony C: So I was lucky enough to tap into that generation of surfers before they were gone. You know, the Greg Knowles and the Dewey Webers and all that. And they were just above me in age.

[00:48:52] So, you know, within 10 years type of thing. So. Plus I was 40 at that time, so it was really easy. You know, I [00:49:00] wasn't this little kid. I can get on with all of them. That opened up a lot of And once I won the Greg Knoll contest, Greg goes, Hey, I'll meet you in Atlantic City. I want to talk to you. I said, okay.

[00:49:11] I get there and he goes, I wanna do a model surfboard with you. I'm going really . And as you know, back in the sixties your model was like every, all the guys had their models

[00:49:23] Tyler: had the Decat, you know, which, which you're, you're like the next in line from the Decat,

[00:49:28] Tony C: after I was the, you know, with the reemergence of Greg Knoll's surfboards.

[00:49:32] I became the face of the Greg Noll surfboards with my model. So if you bought a Greg Noll board, you bought my model, wherever you were in the world. So we used to go to, um, Japan and, you know, I'd surf in the contests, and wow, they were so nice to us

[00:49:46] Tyler: What, what a freaking ride,

[00:49:48] Tony C: That was a ride. And I spent a couple years Traveling the world, doing that scene.

[00:49:53] Tyler: That must have, I mean, first, what's it like becoming friends? [00:50:00] Or with the, or becoming a contemporary of these legendary surfers. Like that must've the inner, the young Tony inside of you

[00:50:08] Tony C: Was excited.

[00:50:09] Tyler: like jumping up and down like Tony, the

[00:50:11] Tony C: Well, luckily, you know, luckily I was in my forties, so I wasn't a little kid getting all stupid, but, um, yeah, I got on

[00:50:17] Tyler: in my 40s. I still get stupid though.

[00:50:19] Tony C: but I mean, I was able to handle being around those people and understood it and I, and I also knew everything about these cause we all followed surfing and we knew everything about these folks, but it was nice being around them and being included.

[00:50:32] You know, so when I go to trade shows, when you're at the Greg Knoll booth, everybody comes to the booth. So I met everybody. Greg would introduce me to whoever was freaking alive in the surf world at that point. So we'd go and do trade shows, you know, in Florida, California, Japan. I got to be around a lot of, a lot of famous surfers.

[00:50:53] And then I got to be friends with a lot of them and surf with them. And that was also fun, you know, going out and surfing with 10 of the best surfers in the world. I mean, [00:51:00] it's pretty great.

[00:51:01] Tyler: it's

[00:51:01] Tony C: And plus those were the guys, as I was a kid looked up to, they were the guys in the magazines. And, uh, so that was pretty heady stuff and it was a lot of fun.

[00:51:10] And I, you know, I realized where I was at that stage in life. Like, you know, This is a blessing. I, how did I get here

[00:51:18] Tyler: It's it's,

[00:51:19] Tony C: and have this opportunity to be with Greg Knoll

[00:51:22] Tyler: It's unheard of, you know, like nobody gets. That type of chance, particularly in athletics, you know, and surfing particular and particularly like at that time when it was, you know, it was a lot of youth driven, you know, advertising, the, the, the companies were very youth driven, but there was that older market which was coming back, you

[00:51:44] Tony C: that's when the longboarding came back and it got the older market into it again.

[00:51:48] Tyler: And they had money. It's

[00:51:49] Tony C: and they had money and they were affluent. Um, and then surfing, everybody wanted to do it at a certain point. And it just, I mean, you go to ditch now and there's more ladies in the [00:52:00] water than guys. It is great.

[00:52:02] Tyler: Yeah, it's, I have this memory though, of you in the ESA contest against my brother, and he was surfing on a BZ foam board and, uh, against you guys. And, and there was a huge uproar. He did really well in one of the contests and everyone made a stink about it because he was six foot three and his board was nine foot and everyone's like, You need to ride a board three feet bigger than you.

[00:52:30] It can't be,

[00:52:30] Tony C: is bullshit.

[00:52:31] Tyler: I know it was so funny, but I remember that contest. So my brother sawed off an end of a boogie board and duct taped it to his foamy, you know, and like,

[00:52:39] Tony C: I've seen guys do that in contests. Dale Dobson did that once. Cause they, they measure like the back of the board, and it was like Half an inch.

[00:52:48] He just got a chunk of resin. Stuck it on the tail sanded a little bit. Okay. Good to go. It's so funny. Right, but they used to, they literally used to measure your boards.

[00:52:57] Tyler: crazy. What do you think about that? You [00:53:00] know, I've ever Scott Bradley giving a real attitude to my brother. Oh yeah,

[00:53:04] Tony C: Yeah. Scott wasn't

[00:53:05] Tyler: it. No, him and Jim Ferguson, they were like, he's a great guy. They were like a funny pair because Jim was like really affable and nice and

[00:53:14] Tony C: Scott was more

[00:53:15] Tyler: Scott was a hard, hard, you know, hard ass a bit in a nice way, you

[00:53:19] Tony C: in a nice way. No, Scott's a good guy. Um, but yeah, they were running the show then.

[00:53:25] Tyler: So I guess then like I guess we have to talk about Joel Tudor, you know, because it's, you know, he's, he's very prominent in your life and he gives you so much credit. Like, I, I was at Pasquit Surf Camp as a 12 year old and, uh, Izzy took us to a surf contest and I got to hang with Joel and he's like, where are you from?

[00:53:48] Like New York. And then all of a sudden he's like, you know, Tony. And I'm like, yeah, I know Tony, you know, and we just started talking about Tony Caramonico and how great a guy he was, you know, and throwing the accent out.

[00:53:59] Tony C: Oh, he's [00:54:00] hilarious. When I, you know, went out to California, uh, Donald Takayama was originally going to build my Greg Noll board. Um, it didn't work out, but that's how I met Joel through Donald.

[00:54:11] And so Joel was like 15 or something. And, uh, we went, yeah, punk kid, you know, the best longboarder in the world at that point. And so we hung out, we went surfing together and he kind of, you know, I guess it took a liking to me being an older guy. Um, so I brought him to Montauk. And, you know, that's when I had a surf shop.

[00:54:33] And I was selling the Donald

[00:54:34] Tyler: real surfers.

[00:54:36] Tony C: surfers. And, uh, So Joel came, and he stayed with me, and he kept coming back year after year after year. And he still comes back. Um, he's going to be here in two weeks.

[00:54:48] Tyler: He's got his whole jujitsu

[00:54:49] Tony C: doing a jiu jitsu tour, and he's also doing a, um, a fin, uh, Um, a talk about surfboard fins.

[00:54:56] Interesting. Yeah, which is a good subject cause [00:55:00] people have no idea about surfboard fins. And, um, I spent a lot of time, um, working on fins to find the right fins for my boards back then. Cause I, I wanted a certain feel of the board. I wanted it to be loose, to do helicopters and all that sort of stuff. So I always used to have a certain rake of the board and a certain height of fins.

[00:55:20] I would always like, most people are nine and a half, ten inch fins. I was like six and a half or seven inch fins.

[00:55:25] Tyler: That's small.

[00:55:26] Tony C: very, it was very subtle. It was also less drag.

[00:55:30] Tyler: Mm hmm.

[00:55:30] Tony C: but the board was a lot looser.

[00:55:33] Tyler: What, who, who were you working with on fins?

[00:55:36] Tony C: Oh, just myself.

[00:55:37] Tyler: yourself. You were just shaving them down.

[00:55:39] Tony C: exactly. And take the existing fins and making it work for me. But then, I designed a fin, and then Fins Unlimited produced my fin. I had my own model fin for a while. Um, so that was kind of cool.

[00:55:51] Tyler: That's amazing. So Joel takes a liking to you. Like it, it feels like there was a mentorship with you and him

[00:55:59] Tony C: I kind of [00:56:00] introduced him to more adulthood, like, he was already the best surfer in the world

[00:56:04] Tyler: you introduce you

[00:56:05] Tony C: I brought him,

[00:56:06] Tyler: culture,

[00:56:07] Tony C: yeah, I, you know, introduced him to jazz and stuff like that and not, you know, He was an adult when he was around me. He wasn't this 15 year old kid. So we would hang out. I'd take him to restaurants and, you know, different places with music.

[00:56:21] And he just absorbed it. And he really fell in love with Montauk. He dug the scene. He liked the people. And he also liked the waves. It kind of suited him as, and Ditch is very much like Cardiff, the left at Cardiff. So he took a shining to that. And uh, we just always got on well and he would give me surfboards and he once painted a board.

[00:56:42] When the transition boards came back, Joel was like the first guy on that one. So one of his first boards, he hand painted it. Um, East Meets West with a big Ying and Yang sign. The whole bottom of the board, and it was in the OP ad with him, when he was writing for OP. He surfed it and then gave it to me. [00:57:00] You know, East Meets West, and he signed it. And that's in my collection now. Pretty special board. But it was one of the first transition boards. And Joel brought that whole transition thing on. You know, everybody else, Ah, those things don't work. And boom, now everybody has them.

[00:57:15] Tyler: It's crazy. The, the influence like between. Like Joel, then, um, then, uh, you know, Thomas Campbell comes in Jay

[00:57:25] Tony C: All those guys all stayed with me. We did films out at my house.

[00:57:28] Tyler: And, and, but then you also had like a bit of an Australian, you know, Derek Hynde

[00:57:32] Tony C: Oh, Derek stayed with

[00:57:34] Tyler: Yeah. You know, where there was like this convergence in the nineties of late nineties, I

[00:57:38] Tony C: when people came to New York, they wanted to go to Montauk, because that's where the best waves were. So, and plus they dug being out there, because it's such a beautiful place, and we had a real surf vibe out there. So, whenever anybody like that would come to town, I'd hook up with them immediately.

[00:57:52] You know, like Rip Curl would come, like Mark Stewart would bring, Mark Neustadt would bring, like, Wayne Lynch, you know, so we'd hang out with Wayne Lynch and then Tom Kern and [00:58:00] they would all come through all the hot shots, you know, so it was, it was kind of fun and me being the guy out there, I got to hang with everybody.

[00:58:07] So it's kind of, I was very comfortable being around the best surfers in the world.

[00:58:11] Tyler: What's it like being out in Montauk and it's. You know, being, you know, uh, you know, not to blow your head up a little bit, but you, you're the guy out in Montauk, you know, or was the guy

[00:58:24] Tony C: I'm the elder now,

[00:58:25] Tyler: Yeah. But like the affluency that has come into Montauk, right. And all these very wealthy people who live there and when they go to the beach though, that affluency and all that doesn't mean

[00:58:39] Tony C: once I hit the water, it's all gone.

[00:58:41] Tyler: And you're kind of up here, and they're down there, and then, you know, on land it's a little bit reversed in some ways, like, do you feel like, one, like, do you, do you like that? Do you not like that? How do you feel about that affluency that has come into Montauk and, and kind of, you know, changed the vibe a [00:59:00] little bit?

[00:59:00] Tony C: Well, surfing definitely, um, made Montauk into what it is right now. The whole, everybody sort of generated to Montauk at that point. And it just, it affected the real estate. Um, a lot more businesses came in town. Surf, uh, surfing in Montauk was much more on the map and everybody wanted to go there. But, um, It has changed a lot, but still, as I tell people, Montauk's still a state and county park with a little village.

[00:59:31] You know, it's already, it's already developed, if you will. There's only so many lots, and the rest of it's all county and state park, and also railroad.

[00:59:40] Tyler: It's a drinking village with a fishing

[00:59:42] Tony C: That's right. And

[00:59:42] Tyler: surfing problem. It's definitely

[00:59:44] Tony C: definitely a surfing problem. Now what ha Well, Montauk was always known for its fishing, you know, and, and, and you know, all the outdoor stuff. Now it's known for surfing. You know, the fishing is still ma, major, major, but people come to Montauk to surf now.[01:00:00]

[01:00:00] And once the surf lodge opened up. That was like the next step of what was happening to Montauk and that brought in a lot of affluence. A lot of my clients were very affluent.

[01:00:11] Tyler: Yeah,

[01:00:12] Tony C: I was basically the only surf instructor there for a good decade. My phone would ring off the hook. But my clientele was very high end.

[01:00:20] You know, I had lots of celebrities, rock stars, you know. I could drop a gazillion names, but don't

[01:00:26] Tyler: we don't need to do

[01:00:27] Tony C: No, um, but I had a very good clientele. Um, uh. A lot of them would travel with me then. You know, I'm going to Costa Rica. So they'd fly in and surf with me. So, my, my, um, clients would then, okay, let's go surfing in St.

[01:00:43] Barts. So, boom, we'd do this. So they'd fly in, and they were all affluent, so that wasn't a problem. And, uh, I was able to work in the winter giving surf lessons to high end clienteles. So it was kind of cool. And then they became, they all bought my surfboards and now they buy my artwork. [01:01:00] All, all these, you know, it's like, okay, I got something else to sell you here.

[01:01:04] Tyler: It's crazy because it, it's this thing where you've held, held to your guns, right? Like you never really deviated from this surf life and all these serendipitous things have kind of come with it. And like, You couldn't like you couldn't plan that out. You can't

[01:01:25] Tony C: there was no path. As you know, there's no path in surfing, especially, I just kind of absorbed everything and just tried to, tried to be a good surfer. That was kind of the whole thing and spend as much time in the water. You know, to us, there's nothing more pleasant than surfing. You know, it's our lives.

[01:01:45] Tyler: What is you know? So let's talk about this book that you have now with Rizzoli, you

[01:01:52] Tony C: Oh, it's actually with Damiani. Mazzoli had the, uh, had the, uh, the opening, but Damiani in Italy, uh, [01:02:00] published the

[01:02:00] Tyler: Okay, and tell me a little bit what's in the book. What can our listeners find in this book that that

[01:02:06] Tony C: Well, besides the visual aspect of my journals, which are very colorful, and, uh, you know, I always tried to put a lot of different travel places in my, when I print my journals. Because that's part of it. I'm more into my journals when I travel, because I just absorb everything around me. But um,

[01:02:25] Tyler: there's a lot of anecdotes and stories

[01:02:27] Tony C: there's, there's lots of stories. I'm, like, it's not a lot of copy in the book. It's more just the images. But as you'll see, there's some funny stories in there. You know, I talk about beard. I talk about, you know, running around the jungle of Jaloba and stuff like that. So there's a couple of cool stories in there.

[01:02:45] But we basically had it just so it's the imagery and you'd get lost in that.

[01:02:50] Tyler: I want to touch on something here, your wife. I want to know how you guys met because you got married later in life, you know, you you you didn't have a family, you [01:03:00]know, and I and I was curious like how you guys met and and what's your relationship

[01:03:05] Tony C: I, when I opened up Real Surfers, um, I needed somebody to work there. So I was at, uh, one of the restaurants at night, and there's this young fisherman surfer from North Carolina, sitting at the bar, and I'm, and I go, Hey, how you doing? And we're chatting. He was a pretty good surfer. And, uh, he goes, Uh, I miss my girlfriend.

[01:03:24] So I go, is she smart? He goes, yeah, I go bring her up here, I'll hire her. So, literally, like, within a couple of days, I met her at a, we never met before, I met her at Islip Airport. And I was setting up my shop then, so I was really exhausted. So, I'm like in the chair, sleeping. She knew me because I was in the surf magazine.

[01:03:43] So, uh, I hired her. Um, she worked for me for like two years. And then, uh, she took off. She just broke up with that guy. Um, and then seven years later, we were always friends. And I had a lot of girlfriends that I would just go to dinner with. And, you know, [01:04:00] nothing romantic or anything. So I had lots of friends like that.

[01:04:03] And Shaw was one of them. And then one night after a few runs, I gave her a kiss. And that started, and then she moved in with me. And we got married a year later. And then we We knew each other for seven years. So there was this whole foundation. She worked for me. She knew me. She even lived in my house for a while.

[01:04:18] So, uh, that part of it was, you know, wasn't learning each other. We already knew each other. We friends. So that was a really easy transition. Then she got into surfing and you know, she, she surfs and she's pretty good surfer, but she also likes to travel. And, uh, so we love that part of it and we leave a good life, you know, got a couple of houses in Montauk.

[01:04:39] Tyler: You guys have done really well for yourself. It's, it's

[01:04:42] Tony C: Well, I'm happy that I bought real estate and it was a landlord. Otherwise I wouldn't have been able to do it. Cause I bought two houses cause I couldn't afford one. Somebody had to pay the mortgage. So I bought a property with several houses on it. So somebody paid the mortgage so I could be a surfer.

[01:04:58] Tyler: that's what I'm working on right [01:05:00] now.

[01:05:00] Tony C: put things together like that, you know? So that was part of it. And that's how was that paid the bills, you know, cover all my bills and anything I made then was like travel money, you know, whatever job I was doing. And

[01:05:13] Tyler: And she was down for this whole adventure, which is really cool. You

[01:05:17] Tony C: she, she, she enjoys it. I know she's a big supporter of mine. So that's great.

[01:05:22] Tyler: I, so, you know, my wife and I, we, we don't have kids. We're, we don't plan on that. And I was curious, like, do you, do you miss that at all? Are you happy

[01:05:31] Tony C: you think about it every once in a while, and you see a nice little family here, and then you see the kids screaming, and you're like, I don't know about that. We both didn't really, my wife can't have children, first of all, but was never, I never, you know, wanted children, because I guess I was too selfish, I wanted to be surfing all the time.

[01:05:46] So I was always doing my thing. But, uh, you know, eventually got, I was married before, that lasted about a year and a half. And then, uh, Charlotte and I are gonna be married 25 [01:06:00]years in December. So that's a long time, yeah. Um, so yeah, we have a good marriage.

[01:06:07] Tyler: That's awesome. What's the secret? What'd you say? For you

[01:06:11] Tony C: don't fight.

[01:06:12] Tyler: Don't fight?

[01:06:13] Tony C: We don't, we don't really argue or anything. You know, it doesn't matter. The little things don't matter.

[01:06:20] Tyler: you let her burn you in the lineup when you go out,

[01:06:23] Tony C: No, she just yells at me at home. That's all. No, not, not really. No, she's good like that, you know, and she got into surfing and she likes it. And

[01:06:32] Tyler: Do you, now you, you said at the top, like, you don't surf that much anymore.

[01:06:37] Tony C: well, you know, I'm going to, going to be 74 next month. Um,

[01:06:41] Tyler: You look great. Thank you.

[01:06:42] Tony C: uh, about 10 years ago I got injured and then I got injured again. It was, went from the knee to the shoulder to tore my bicep. You know, all of a sudden things started breaking down and it got to the point where I was having a hard time pop up and When I missed that, you know, [01:07:00] that extra half a second, it's like, you know, I didn't feel right.

[01:07:03] I didn't feel like, you know, this is not happening. So I basically slowly surf less and less and I haven't surfed in months and months and months.

[01:07:12] Tyler: And you didn't want to transition to the SUP

[01:07:15] Tony C: Well, I, you know, I do a little paddling around, but I didn't do it.

[01:07:19] Tyler: I, I can't. I just can't.

[01:07:21] Tony C: I do it on flat water and it's kind of fun and all, but I don't, I don't take it in the ocean.

[01:07:25] Yeah. You know, I'm still gonna go surfing a bit here and there, but you know, six decades I've done this and done it in a big way. So it's like I'm very satisfied.

[01:07:36] Tyler: You feel like you're good. You've gotten enough.

[01:07:40] Tony C: And I'm still surrounded by it. You know, I have a a hundred board surfboard collection memorabilia.

[01:07:46] Tyler: It still defines you. You know, which

[01:07:49] Tony C: I'm still involved

[01:07:50] Tyler: Yeah. Like, that to me is, is the key. Like, I don't think you have to Like, my brother lives in London. You know, he doesn't surf all that much. But he gets [01:08:00] to go to the wave pool. He gets to go to the coast in Cornwall. Uh, every once in a while. But surfing is still present.

[01:08:07] He still reads, he still, uh, consumes surf culture. And I think that, to me, is the way you can keep surfing, you know?

[01:08:18] Tony C: I know, you know, now, you know, back, what we spoke earlier, back in the day, you'd have to go to somewhere to see a surf film, you know, and they had two or three a year that would come through Long Island, everybody would go. Well, now you can,

[01:08:30] Tyler: It's

[01:08:30] Tony C: boom, it's everywhere. You can watch, you know, something that happened two minutes ago.

[01:08:34] So it's, it's, that's changed surfing and it's also, in a good way, made it global at that point because everybody can see it.

[01:08:42] Tyler: Have you, uh, had a chance to go to any of the newer wave pools? I was reading with Chris, I was listening with your interview with Chris, like you guys were talking about it,

[01:08:50] Tony C: I, I haven't. I did surf the Disney Wave pool.

[01:08:55] Tyler: me too. That thing is fun.

[01:08:56] Tony C: I did that. They invited me to. I remember going. It was [01:09:00] during the trade show and Donovan Frankenherter goes, Come on, we're going to go surf the pool. And uh, I didn't have a board, so I took the display board for the trade show, waxed it up.

[01:09:10] So I'm standing on line, there's like hundreds of people there. You know, I'm on line with my long board and all the short boarders, and they're all hopping in the water. And if you miss the wave, everybody goes, bleh! I'm going, oh shit, here we are. I'm the only long boarder in the place. So I remember getting in the water, and in a pool, the depth

[01:09:26] Tyler: throws you

[01:09:26] Tony C: So I'm like,

[01:09:27] Tyler: Yeah.

[01:09:31] Tony C: it was kind of odd. I didn't fall or anything. I rode it all the way in. That was fine, but it was odd. I would like, you know, I would like to surf the Kellys, or some of the one in Australia. It's pretty cool looking. But, you know, at this point, I don't think.

[01:09:44] Tyler: You never

[01:09:45] Tony C: You never know.

[01:09:45] Tyler: Kelly, if you're listening, you know, uh, Tony needs an invite to the pool. Maybe Abu Dhabi, you know?

[01:09:53] Tony C: Funny story, uh, When I had my Greg Noll model, Stephen Slater was the longboarder in the family, well he rode my model board, [01:10:00] so, apparently, um, Kelly took his daughter out on it one time, and there was a picture of Kelly and his daughter on my surfboard.

[01:10:08] So that was kind of cool.

[01:10:09] Tyler: That's awesome. Um, Tony, we have to wrap up, unfortunately, but man, like, I could keep going. I'm going to have to come out to Montauk, I think,

[01:10:18] Tony C: We can do another one.

[01:10:19] Tyler: Absolutely. Um, where can our listeners find you, find your book, all that information? This is the time to shamefully

[01:10:27] Tony C: Okay, you can find my book online. Um, it's offered in all the bookstores, even places like Target and Walmart. But it's published by Damiani. Barnes Noble has it, so it's easily accessible online.

[01:10:43] Tyler: And they can find you on, uh, Instagram, I

[01:10:46] Tony C: can find me on Instagram, Facebook. TC Montauk. TC Montauk. Yep. Somebody needs to contact me. It's TC Montauk at

[01:10:57] Tyler: uh, thank you for listening. This is TC Montauk. [01:11:00] Freaking awesome. And start following Tony cause he's awesome. And just his stories are amazing. I'll, I'll definitely be coming back to get them on. Cause there's, I mean, God, like there's so much we could dive into. Um, and I just want to thank Joe, our engineer here, who's, uh, helping out at the new stand studio, which, uh, swell season is recording at.

[01:11:20] And it's at Rockefeller center in the heart of Manhattan. And, uh, don't forget to, uh, like, and, uh, subscribe to swell season surf on our podcast channels everywhere. Go to our website, swellseasonsurfradio. com and you can go and follow us at swellseasonsurfradio on Instagram. And, uh, yeah, hope you all enjoy this and, uh, check y'all down the line soon.

[01:11:42] You,

[01:11:43] Tony C: Thank you, Tyler.

[01:11:43]Tyler: