Water Brother Live with Sid Abruzzi

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[00:00:00] Scarlett 2i2 USB-1: Hello and welcome to the Swell Season Surf Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Brewer. This is a special episode where we recorded a live Q& A with the legendary Sid Abruzzi of the Water Brothers Surf Shop in Newport, Rhode Island. The interview took place on July 30th at Pilgrim Surf and Supply Shop in Brooklyn, New York.

[00:00:23] And a film about Sid's life, called Water Brother, has been released. It's been brought to the big screen and it is a beautiful film of a life well lived. It is a feature documentary that follows the life of Sid Abruzzi, an East Coast legend and cultural icon. The film explores Sid's lifelong passion for surfing, skating, and his commitment to protecting the sports history and culture.

[00:00:50] Uh, Chris Gentile of Pilgrim Surf and Supply was generous enough to ask us to help host this conversation. And, honestly, like, first, I recommend [00:01:00] you watch the film. Try to get out to see it if you can or when it is available to stream. I highly recommend watching it. It's a beautiful film. Beautiful movie and really well done.

[00:01:10] And, uh, yeah, it's, you'll enjoy it. It's for the core surfer, but also for anyone who just happens to peripherally like surfing as well. So I think it's a really great film. And, uh, we start off with Chris sharing some personal history with Sid here. And, um, yeah, and then we'll take it from there. I hope you enjoyed learning about Sid and his journey and, uh, let's get to the live interview.

[00:01:39] Chris: Thank you guys for coming. This is like a reunion for me because I see all these amazing people that have, uh, contributed a ton to my life that are here tonight, including this guy.

[00:01:49] Um, but, uh, this is a dream for me, to have Sid here, because my first skateboard my mother bought me, I think in 82 or 83, was bought at Sid's [00:02:00] shop. And my first wetsuit. That wasn't pissed in by somebody else came from Sid shop unless you pissed in it. Maybe I don't know Um, and when I went in there to get my first wetsuit, um, I was so intimidated by the water brother scene, um because it was the coolest fucking guys doing the coolest shit and They weren't just surfers They were skaters and I was a skater and a surfer always like I mean as a kid my my stepbrothers surf But we were on the other side of rhode island.

[00:02:31] We were in south county You So, going to Newport and crossing two bridges back in the 80s was like, no fucking way. And, Rhode Islanders are the most provincial fucking people on the planet. It's like, my grandmother would be like, You're gonna go all the way to Providence, at this hour? I'm like, Grammy, it's 15 minutes away.

[00:02:50] Jesus, oh my God. It was like I was like, driving across, you know, like, like, You know, fucking Canada, seriously, it's like hilarious, right? I mean, this is the truth [00:03:00] about Rhode Island.

[00:03:00] Sid: Yeah. And the word is we don't leave the island of Aquinic.

[00:03:06] Chris: It's true. Those guys never came over to like Point Judith, Matunic and like all of our little zones.

[00:03:12] And we never went over there.

[00:03:13] Sid: The bridge. I didn't I wasn't when I was a senior in high school. Excuse me. They just finished the bridge.

[00:03:22] Chris: The Jamestown or the Newport? The Newport. Wow. So you had to take a ferry

[00:03:26] Sid: to go surf. All the breaks over there. So there was a big dividing line between Narragansett and Newport.

[00:03:33] Chris: Unbelievable. Well, my uncle is, uh, about eight years older than, well, maybe, no, seven years older than Sid. So he was kind of a, the, the, the 60s wave, the longboard era in Rhode Island. Um, and he told me he's never, he never surfed in Newport, which is kind of hilarious, but, you know, he lived his whole life in Rhode Island and still, still is there and still hasn't surfed Newport.

[00:03:55] But, um, but we knew. Wow. I [00:04:00] love that. I love that. Yeah, I love Block Island. I love it. I love that. But this guy, um, he's touched me in so many ways. Uh, and just like being, being removed from that when I was 12 and my mother and I, when I moved to South Florida, it was like, um, the beacon for me because when as I started to get to know surfers better, I started to dis, like dislike them more and more , because they're just so fucking angry and guarded.

[00:04:24] But Sid and his. Guys were just the fucking coolest because they skated, they respected each other, they supported each other, they pushed each other, um, And years later, I came back with a friend of mine, uh, to Rhode Island this one summer. My friend, um, Jamie Liddell, who was a fucking incredible longboard surfer and surfer, period, from Florida.

[00:04:45] And we, he drove up with me. When we were in college and we went to Newport to check first beach, just cause the waves were small and we, I wanted to check Newport out and he wanted to check it out, got there at break of dawn and guess who was there checking [00:05:00] the surf. And he's, I remember you were like, Hey, you guys, where do you, where are you from?

[00:05:04] What are you doing up here? Oh, and you, we had this cool conversation and I was so intimidated. I could barely even like express my, uh, my, my, uh, you know, adoration for, for Sid, but, um, That I wouldn't have this shop if it wasn't for this guy, so

[00:05:18] Sid: Very nice. Thank you.

[00:05:21] Chris: So here he goes. I'm gonna shut the fuck up

[00:05:24] Sid: Check one two.

[00:05:25] Is this loud enough?

[00:05:30] Chris: Tyler brewer is going to be recording this for uh, the swell season radio podcast. Sure. Tyler's our uh, our our local legend Um, we love we love you. Tyler. for doing this and sid I mean this means the world to me and danielle appreciate it. Thank you. Colin. You're the man wherever you are Uh, if you haven't seen this film You Water Brother, it is, uh, it's beautiful.

[00:05:52] It made me cry. So, check it out.

[00:05:54] Sid: Thank you.

[00:05:57] Tyler: Thank you. And, uh, [00:06:00] well, you know, Chris, I wrote this long intro to introduce Sid, but you basically said almost the same thing I was gonna say. But, um, so, my name's Tyler Brewer, this is Swell Season, I'm recording, and, uh, What more can be said about Sid, to be honest, I mean, the guy is a legend, and I don't think the word core is actually the right term for Sid.

[00:06:28] I think pure feels more appropriate to me. His love of surfing, skating, and his community is as pure and as clear as you can get. Sid represents what we should all strive to be as surfers. skaters and just humans. Everything he does, he does with a deep passion and pours all of himself into it. Whether it's Water Brothers, his big, his band, Big World, or his friendships.

[00:06:57] Sid is the real deal in a world where too [00:07:00] many people talk and post about how core they are. Sid just is and doesn't need the clicks, the likes, the follows to confirm what we all know. Sid the Package Abruzzi is the real motherfucking deal.

[00:07:20] He's getting, he's getting red now. I like,

[00:07:22] Sid: oh, that sounded

[00:07:23] Tyler: good. So, uh, I'm gonna start, uh, you know, uh, with a bit of a spoiler, actually, for the movie. Uh, at the beginning of the movie, you talk about how you and your brother used to make these cardboard surfboards. And you used to, uh, ride, make little waves on the carpet with them.

[00:07:42] Sid: Yeah, that's for sure, that's the truth.

[00:07:44] Tyler: You know, and Before any type

[00:07:47] Sid: of fingerboard. Well, as

[00:07:50] Tyler: I've gotten older, I've realized the more things change, the more they stay the same. And when I was a grommet, I didn't use cardboard. I used Lego surfers and I would have like a [00:08:00] whole tour and I would create pipeline.

[00:08:02] I'd have Bell's Beach, you know, putting pillows behind the carpet and I wanted to get you a gift. For when the waves are small and flat, I got you a little Lego surfer here that you can use on your carpet at home. Thank you. I use this as a fidget as well when I'm on the phone, so it's a really good kind of de stressor actually.

[00:08:26] Sid: Thank you so much. Sorry. No, seriously, that's awesome. Thank you.

[00:08:33] Tyler: It's like one of my favorite things to do. So I wanted to kind of start here. Uh, let me get up to my questions. My thing keeps skipping. Um, you know, so sit, I got to ask, like, you'd been approached to do this, to do these documentaries. How many times had you been approached and what?

[00:08:52] What happened in the past and why this felt right?

[00:08:56] Sid: Well, I'd say probably a good [00:09:00] legitimate five or six times. Um, we've been approached and actually probably three or four times I've gone forward working towards, you know, getting this project going. Um, it would depend on the individuals that were involved doing that with us.

[00:09:20] Um, but they all scattered. To other jobs because unless you got the funding right away, um, you know, they had to make a living. Yeah. So I don't hold anything against anybody that, you know, got us going for a couple of weeks and stuff like that. And then, or a couple of months. And I mean, we were mic'd up.

[00:09:43] We did interviews with people and they just fell apart. But with the Canine brothers, um, I grew up surfing with their dad over in Little Compton, which was our sort of Holy land. And, uh, he, [00:10:00] as his sons grew older, I saw him buy, uh, cameras. I sold them all their first surfboards. And we were doing in the 70s, we were, uh, shooting Super 8.

[00:10:14] All the skating, skating, unbelievable skate stuff. Uh, all our surf breaks, we shot a ton of Super 8. Excuse me. And then we went High 8. You know, in the, what, 90s, super VHS. So we just had boxes of film. And then as the Canine Brothers got older, especially Chuck, the head director, um, he kept saying, let's, we got to get something going.

[00:10:40] And we made a, a jumpstart on something maybe 10 years ago. It didn't work out. And then about seven years ago, he said, let's do it. And I said, if we're going to do it, We got to finish it. And, uh, you know, COVID came. They [00:11:00] got a couple jobs in between, can't blame them. And, uh, we ended up finishing it and you guys got to see this movie.

[00:11:09] They it's, it's really something else. What's it like for you to watch

[00:11:15] Tyler: your whole life literally flash before your eyes on the screen? Like, is that, and like going and kind of reliving a lot of this? Like, is it,

[00:11:25] Sid: well, there's some hard parts for sure. Um, but all in all it's, uh, you know, it's. Seeing my friends and seeing the skating and the surfing done by everybody in the movies really enjoyable for me.

[00:11:45] And I'm not talking about myself. I mean, everybody else is surfing and skating, whether it's Fred Smith or, you know, Just guy surfing ruggles or whatever the surfing is seeing [00:12:00] all of that You know is more enjoyable than anything seeing my friends represented on the screen Craig Knowles Just a million of them.

[00:12:09] Tyler: I want to ask then like, you know, you have this personality of like bringing community people together. And I was curious, like, what was like your, your household like growing up? Was it a hub? Like, was, I know your mother, Ruthie was played a huge role in your life. And, um, you know, and I wonder like, was your home always a hub for other people growing up as well?

[00:12:34] Was she always having parties and inviting people over?

[00:12:37] Sid: It sort of became that, and, um, it was mostly us inviting people. Um, my father was a professional athlete, um, played professional baseball, and then he got drafted into the Army right when he left spring training camp, and he served five years in World War [00:13:00] II.

[00:13:00] He got out and got a walk on with the Packers, um, the Giants, and eventually signed with a team called the Boston Yanks in the NFL. And, um, he was a big inspiration for us. We played sports all our lives. That's all we did. And, um, Whether it's baseball, basketball, football, um, we just love playing sports.

[00:13:31] And it wasn't just like, oh, we just surf and that's all we do. We played everything we could at all times. And I think it made us better surfers by, you know, Doing all those sports for sure and my father passed away when I was relatively young. I was around 26 27 years old and my mother held a family home and it was tough and we had a big support system [00:14:00] with all the guys and stuff like that and the house sort of rallied around my mom and she was able to keep the family home and I You know, we had a, uh, a basement, they called the pit that was separate from the house that didn't have a, and that's where the band played.

[00:14:20] And we had surf and skate videos going on all the time. And that was a huge hangout. And that's where a lot of people, um, To this day, I mean, like, even in the, uh, like, uh, Rasevich, uh, Tom Curran, um, all those guys came over and played music in my basement. So that was

[00:14:46] Tyler: really cool. That's incredible.

[00:14:49] Sid: What? And then skate wise, we had them all there too.

[00:14:52] All the, all the guys, everybody, Alva, uh, Fred Smith, uh, we're just blessed to [00:15:00]have The best skaters and surfers that came in our area hung at our place.

[00:15:06] Tyler: What, um, I want to know, like, do you remember your first wave? I don't. You don't? You know,

[00:15:13] Sid: I heard somebody say that, too. They said, I forgot who it was, but I remember around the time that we surfed, um, my dad, me and my brother were just, you know, I'm obsessed with trying to serve and my dad, since he was baseball coach now for Rogers High School back then, you could buy sporting goods from the sporting, he bought the, uh, the baseball equipment from the local sports shop.

[00:15:45] And they sold surfboards there back in the day. Um, like nine foot reefs and all the pop outs. There wasn't a whole lot of surf shops. But my dad came home with these [00:16:00] two six foot keel fins for me and my brother. I'll never forget those boards. And, uh, take us down to the beach at night. We tried to surf on them.

[00:16:09] They were about this big. And, um, you know, we did our best getting up on them. They weren't. You know, there's the bodyboard foam wasn't invented at the time and it was just some kind of weird hard shell winger with a keel and I, to this day, I, I'd have it right up there on the wall if I had it. But after that, my dad from the local sporting goods store bought us a reef pop out and so that's how we learned to serve and then, um, 68, 69.

[00:16:40] Um, and so that's how we learned to serve and then, um, 68, 69. Uh, the best surfers on the East Coast came to Newport, Rhode Island, and back then you were classified 3A, 4A, if you were good. It was [00:17:00] Claude Codgion, Mike Tabling, Larry Minion, uh, the Rowland brothers from Jacksonville. Gary Proper, all the big names on the East Coast, they all came to Newport and the Rowan Brothers rode for Rick Surfboards out of California.

[00:17:19] And I really wanted the board Joe Rowan was riding, I just wanted it. It was like a 6'8 round tail. And back then, summer of 69, that was the shortboard revolution, we were full on loving that. Previously we were buying Gary Proper, I mean uh, Uh, Corky Carroll super minis. We were buying major Farrelly string lists, all these boards, the shorter, faster, smaller boards.

[00:17:49] That's all we kept looking for. And I remember my dad going, you guys are buying boards like every month and boards are only like 90, a hundred bucks. And, uh, It was the revolution and, [00:18:00] and we were on top of that, but I wanted, uh, uh, this Rick surfboard so bad and it's in the film that me and my four buddies drove down to Ship Bottom, New Jersey, and they, Rick had an outlet there and, uh, I had called up and they put the board on my car.

[00:18:19] Then the guy put four other boards on my car and said, Hey, I'm going to come up in two weeks. You know, collect the money and bring more boards if you sold them. So that's how I started selling surfboards.

[00:18:32] Tyler: I'm curious then, like, let me ask you,

[00:18:34] Sid: I was 17.

[00:18:36] Tyler: How do you, I'm curious, like makes a good surfboard salesman then.

[00:18:43] What do you think, uh, are the qualities that you need to be able to sell a surfboard? And what are, what are some of the things you've learned that, that make it an important skillset?

[00:18:52] Sid: Uh, you know, I'm not a, I'm not a technical guy at all. I can sort of, one of those guys that just looks at something, you know, it's [00:19:00] going to work or not.

[00:19:01] Um, to this day, I don't even know how to measure volume on surfboards. So when all these guys, how many liters is it? You're talking a foreign language to me. I mean, you know, like six foot, two and a half inches thick, you know, 19 inches wide. I can read those dimensions, but, um, I can just tell by the shape.

[00:19:26] And, uh, I've been in probably more shaping rooms and as much as anybody could be, but I never was really good with my hands or anything like that. So, I never really attempted it. And, um, just to finish the Rick story, um, so I started selling Rick surfboards. And we're selling like maybe 20 or 30 of them.

[00:19:53] And I won't say the name, but there was a big shop at the time in New England, big store in Hartford, a [00:20:00] big store in Misquamagate, a summer store in Newport, and they had connected me to. The main dealership in California where Rick was, and I had a guy on the phone named John Shannadera. I'll never forget his name.

[00:20:16] And he was like my agent for Rick on that. We need a box of four, give us another box of eight. So I called him up one day and I said, John, we've got to get two boxes of eight boards in here. And he said, Hey, I can't sell you anymore. And I'm there like, why? Well, the bigger shop in the area told Rick, if they buy 20 or 30 boards cash, will you stop selling boards?

[00:20:44] So this kid in Newport and they did. And I'm there. Wow. So the first, you know, couple of months in the business, I can. I'm starting to say, well, you can get a little beat up in this because we established ourselves. We established [00:21:00] the name and then all of a sudden we're out of the picture. So about a month later, John calls me back up and said, Hey, I'll move up to Santa Cruz.

[00:21:12] I'm working for Overland surfboards. So I'm there. Great. So that's where I met. Tom and Jim Overland and that changed my life those guys I thought I'd had the best surfboards in the world back in the 70s all Santa Cruz guys So I pack up and I go to Santa Cruz in the fall of 1970 and I walked into the factory and I said hey is John here and Tom Overland came out of the shaping room and met me and And he said, no, you must be Sid.

[00:21:49] I said, yeah. He goes, uh, we fired him last week. He was putting 25 to 50 on every port you ordered. So here's a guy was [00:22:00] like, beat me up again. He goes, but don't worry about it. We're going to take care of you. So I stayed with those guys forever until they basically left Santa Cruz and, um, continue into another business.

[00:22:13] For the first two times of selling surfboards, I really got. Oh yeah.

[00:22:21] Tyler: What happened?

[00:22:23] Sid: Well, no, I mean, like, What's that? Alright, alright. Yeah, like, you know, you gotta really know and trust the people that you do business with, I guess.

[00:22:31] Tyler: That's a really good lesson. I mean, it feels like, The surf world has a lot of politics and stuff that you have to navigate and you have to become like close friends with the source.

[00:22:43] If you're going to be able to get the deals, you know,

[00:22:46] Sid: right. Well, yeah.

[00:22:48] Tyler: How integral was like Santa Cruz into your whole life? Like what, what, what value do you place that experience? Uh, to me, when I went to Santa

[00:22:58] Sid: Cruz in 1970, [00:23:00] it was like extension of Newport, Rhode Island. The cold water, the cliffs, uh, the community.

[00:23:08] I was able to blend into the West side and, uh, I stayed there for generations. So this day it's in the film. Um, I went from the Schmidt brothers, Richard Schmidt, and those guys are the pioneers of Santa Cruz surfers going and ride sunset beach, Vinnie Collier. Uh, all those guys are friends of mine, the Heitman brothers.

[00:23:33] These guys are. They were badass boys over there and, and I just got to be in the, Pat O'Neill, um, Jim Phillips, the artist, all these guys. There was a small circle of us that I was fortunate enough to hang with those guys. And then it progressed, you know, ten years later. It's Flea, it's Rat, it's Finney Collier, [00:24:00] uh, Kevin Reed, uh, I thought the best surfers in the world.

[00:24:05] And I was very blessed to be able to hang with these guys and be in the backseat of a car going surfing with them.

[00:24:13] Tyler: It's not that easy to get into that crew. And so I'm curious how you were able to do it. Like, what, what do you think allows? I think

[00:24:23] Sid: being from Rhode Island. I mean, if I was from San Diego, that would have never happened.

[00:24:28] You know, that's for sure. Just being from Rhode Island. I mean, like, we go to Cocoa Beach a lot, and I had more people ask me if Rhode Island was a part of New York than you could ever believe in your life. Like, I'm looking at, like, no man, we're a state. I would have to, I would have to say that so many times to people.

[00:24:52] Because I, like, I'm there like, didn't you guys go to school or anything like that? It was really, I got to ask that. They are [00:25:00] surfers, come on. They are surfers,

[00:25:01] Tyler: but

[00:25:04] Sid: anyway, being from Rhode Island was, got me into places where I, anybody else from anywhere couldn't have got into, especially San Diego doesn't like Santa Cruz.

[00:25:18] Santa Barbara doesn't like,

[00:25:23] Tyler: what's that? No one likes Santa Cruz. See, that's how

[00:25:28] Sid: it is.

[00:25:30] Tyler: That's how it is. I mean, there was a lawsuit between Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz over the name Surf City. That's right. That's right.

[00:25:39] Sid: Huntington Beach can have it.

[00:25:41] Tyler: Fuck them.

[00:25:43] Sid: I went to Huntington Beach. I got a film, a Supreme film of Huntington Beach in the mid 70s when they had the surf ghetto strip.

[00:25:53] We had Greek surfboards and Jax was just coming on the corner. They had Egg [00:26:00]Heaven and stuff like that. I remember that. I got that film. But, uh, yeah, we always just drove through the south and stayed up north.

[00:26:13] Tyler: When I think of, of, uh, Newport, Rhode Island, I, I can't help but think of Blue Blazers, khaki pants, and loafers.

[00:26:23] And of course, like the opulent man pink, pink, uh, pink salmon. It's not, it's not pink. It's salmon, salmon, salmon, salmon pants, you know, bread, you know, but I like, but if

[00:26:37] Sid: you see the film, we're on the other side of that one. I know that's, I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's, there's a very strong line in the film that separates that and where we were.

[00:26:51] Tyler: Well, that's the thing. Like, I'm curious, like the culture clash that was between the communities you were fostering and the affluent class that were there, [00:27:00] like, was that always there? Well, we

[00:27:02] Sid: had a bigger problem at the time with the Navy. Yeah. Yeah. The Navy, the Navy, the Navy was a bigger problem.

[00:27:11] Tyler: What happened there?

[00:27:13] Sid: Uh, Friday nights, a million drunk sailors run around Newport. They had the paddy wagon picking them up. Uh, some of the guys on the cliff used to try to call them swabbies, used to try to jump swabbies for their money. And it was just, it was pretty radical. Like, the surfskate guys against the sailors, that was a legitimate problem.

[00:27:45] And then, One good thing about the Navy though, uh, we had officer, officer candidate school there and we had the war college. So I got to meet a lot of good surfers that came from San Diego area that went to high [00:28:00] school in Newport for a year or two while their dad was, uh, going to, uh, you know, school here like Henry Tumalo and those guys.

[00:28:10] And they were from Santa Cruz. I mean, excuse me, they were from San Diego and Oxnard. So that was a, uh, it gave Newport. Like an international flair for surfing, where we were, we met those guys and they develop other friends besides me and my friends, we used to go stay with them. So we started really getting a good variety of surfing around town because of the Navy.

[00:28:39] And then, and I'm not sure when, but. The Navy left town and I believe we lost 29, 000 residents in Newport. And instead of America's cup back then, it was called blood alley. And it really was, it was like [00:29:00] crazy, like

[00:29:02] Tyler: go on

[00:29:02] Sid: crazy. You go down there at night. It was just. A wild town, a wild strip, and Newport had to reinvent itself.

[00:29:14] They were, I mean, you could buy a house in Newport so cheap. You could buy, like, mansions and estates cheap. And then they, people, I mean, like Doris Duke, the American tobacco heiress, started buying these big estates and restoring them and making them so people could come and, you know, visit historic Newport.

[00:29:38] Newport. And then they developed America's Cup, and then we had the American Cup races. So they changed Newport to what it is sort of today on a small scale. They made it an upscale tourist place. Now, we're on the other side of that completely, but, you know, we [00:30:00] coexisted. You know, my friends worked as waiters, you know, dishwashers, bartenders, and, uh, But they catered to that.

[00:30:08] And right now it's a combination of everything in that town. But unless you got a million dollars, you're not going to buy a house in Newport.

[00:30:19] Tyler: Was there like a clash then as they started to try to, as they try to, for better or worse, like gentrify it? Like, did you feel like, uh, there was any resentment towards them about that?

[00:30:30] Or do you feel like they were accepting of you and accepting of surfers? And I don't think they

[00:30:35] Sid: really cared about us at all, but, um, you know, we were skating all the time, uh, We had to build our own spots to skate, whether it be backyard ramps, um, there was one area downtown that called Parade Park that all the street guys used to skate.

[00:30:56] I'm not sure if Jamal ever went down there or not, but, or [00:31:00] Steve, that's, that was our street area. And we never really got, we never mixed with, with the Blue Bloods at all. Uh, the problem of Ruggles Avenue at the time, well, we had the That was, uh, illegal to surf, and I went to court for that, and, uh, we, we beat that.

[00:31:25] Tyler: It's interesting, like, I, I find it, like, um, the similarities of, like, not just Newport, Rhode Island, but New York, New Jersey, like, a lot of people don't realize, like, surfing was outlawed everywhere.

[00:31:38] Sid: Well, here's how this happened, like, I was just looking at the mag I got from Chris, um, Rodewell's was, uh, Point break and what happened one day.

[00:31:52] Um, there was one guy out in a long board And one guy was fishing [00:32:00] and the fisherman and the longboarder got in a hassle. Well, the fisherman turned out to be the chief of police in Newport. And back then you could do stuff like that. This is probably 62, 63. He just went to city council and he banned surfing from the corner of First Beach all the way to Castle Hill.

[00:32:24] Basically at every spot that people fished off the cliffs. Was illegal to surf. Now there might've been only one or two spots such as Ruggles, Ruggles Avenue, Marine Avenue. They outlawed the whole coast. So as we were growing up surfing there, we'd get thrown out all the time. And the cops would just stay there until we got out of the water and left.

[00:32:56] Well, me and my brother [00:33:00] decided we wanted to, you know, sort of force the issue a little bit. So we stayed in the water for so long. They got so pissed off at us. There were like two, three, four, five cop cars. And we finally came in. My brother was too young. I was 18 or 19. I got arrested. Um, we went to district court.

[00:33:31] Um, I remember my father got thrown out of district court. He's just really upset. Not really at us, but he didn't like the whole deal. So we got found guilty. And, uh, at the time it was 10, the fine, the fine was 10 for, for surfing. So what we did was we appealed it to superior court. Now that took like three months to get [00:34:00] there.

[00:34:00] In the meantime, we're still surfing there all the time. And a boat crashes with like four guys on it, four lobster guys, and we're out there and we all went over and we saved them and pulled them all in. The ambulances are there. Everybody's there. And the police are waiting for us now. And they said, after we just saved these guys, they still threw us out.

[00:34:28] So it was like, it was just not happening. So long story short, my lawyer. At the time, worked for a firm to this day, still in business, that was not defending because they weren't against us. They were, all of the land barons, let's call them, used this firm. So they were, he was told to drop this kid, get, [00:35:00] stay away from this, this case.

[00:35:02] So my lawyer was a first year lawyer with this firm. So he dropped us. So we get to court that day, we had a public defender. Show up. We go upstairs. And we were found by Judge Corellis, who um, now his family all surfs and stuff, but Judge Corellis, Judge Corellis found us not guilty, innocent. And to this day, we can surf at Ruggles Avenue.

[00:35:37] It's never been appealed or anything like that.

[00:35:40] Tyler: So, and that's just the first time he saved ruggles. But yeah, that's the first time,

[00:35:45] Sid: but I got a little follow up on this story. So a couple of weeks after that, the police come down looking for me and they said, Hey, we know you guys legalized the surf spot and everything, [00:36:00] but you guys are down there partying, smash, smashing glass everywhere.

[00:36:06] And I said, Officer, man, you gotta go, go look at those bottles. And the caretaker of the estate on the point hated us so much. That he, when he heard the surf, he would get all the bottles from the estate and just smash them down the street. So when you come around Ruggles Avenue in the morning, you see the sunrise and you see all the glycerin of, of glass on the street.

[00:36:40] So I told him, I said, officer, you guys got to go check those bottles. You know, they're not bottles of bud or nothing like that. Do you think

[00:36:48] Tyler: we can afford these bottles?

[00:36:50] Sid: It was champagne and wine and bourbon and everything like that. But, uh, that guy had a passion against surfers [00:37:00] and, um, you know, eventually that sort of slowed down a little bit, but that's, that's another thing that happened there.

[00:37:09] And then the second time. Ruggles came up was what? 20, Daniel, 20, 30 years later, Sandy, where you guys got devastated and we got hit, but we didn't get hit. Like you guys did. What's that? Yeah. He called Nick. That's right. That's right. So, um, Sandy came and Narragansett got destroyed and we were on the east side of the fetch a little bit.

[00:37:45] So we got it, but nothing like those poor guys got it. But Newport's Newport and they want to protect cliff walk and they want to get all the people at Newport. So [00:38:00] they came up with a proposed plan, 13 million plan where they would build these jetties. And basically blocked the waves at Ruggles Avenue to protect the seawall that they said collapsed during Sandy.

[00:38:17] Well, the seawall didn't collapse during Sandy. It collapsed because one of the land barons, we're using the name today, that, one of the land barons built up his land, built up his lawn eight foot high, and all the runoff came out. Caved in the sidewalks and the actual waves didn't do that much to it. So we launched a giant campaign and it was bottom of the ninth, two outs.

[00:38:45] The plan was already approved. And a friend of ours came from the, um, is it the DEM? Yeah. DEM and said, Hey, you got to look at this. And he showed us the jetties and [00:39:00]everything like that. And we started a grassroots campaign, which my wife Danielle's big part of. And, uh, we've got on podcasts. We had everything going on and, uh, they dropped it.

[00:39:17] And, uh, all I did was put a little patch along and they were able to keep ruggles just the way it was. But it was very close to losing that break for good.

[00:39:31] Tyler: How is it, um, like, do these land barons, do they, do they block access to a lot of the spots as well? Like, is it, is it, do they, do they create a problem of access to the ocean?

[00:39:44] Sid: Well, not where we are right now. I mean, you're reading a lot about that in Rhode Island, especially over in the Point Judith area. And I imagine some places over here in, in, in Long Island. But We're sorta like [00:40:00] The street ends right at the cliff. You got me? The beaches have always been generous. First and second beach has been super generous with their surf areas.

[00:40:14] Nice. And um, for us to access any of our point breaks have never been a problem.

[00:40:22] Tyler: I want to ask, I'm going to pivot here. I want to ask about, What happened when the Sex Pistols came to town and what effect that had on the local skate and surf scene? Well, the

[00:40:32] Sid: Sex Pistols never came to town. The Ramones. The Ramones,

[00:40:35] Tyler: sorry.

[00:40:36] Alright.

[00:40:37] Sid: Well, a friend of mine owned a nightclub. And back then, all the Everybody played cover music and we were big into music thing. And, uh, we, he said, Hey, give us some bands. So the Ramones were playing here. Obviously [00:41:00] they had just released their first album. So we had them come to Newport. They played in Newport at a place called Bourbon street.

[00:41:10] And then I actually. They came down to the shop and said, hello. And, uh, we followed them the next day. They weren't the friendliest guys in the world at all. Believe me, it wasn't like, hey, what's up? Uh, we followed them to Boston, actually to Cambridge, actually to Somerville. Because you can't, if it isn't Boston, you can't say Boston.

[00:41:37] Right? Boston's very possessive of Boston. But anyway, we followed them. We followed them up to, uh, Somerville and they played at a club called The Club and I took a Super 8 movie. It was the first time the Ramones played in Massachusetts and I, and I took that film. It was pretty cool.

[00:41:55] Tyler: Wow.

[00:41:56] Sid: But before that, we also had the New York Dolls come to [00:42:00] Newport.

[00:42:00] That was pretty cool. And then one time, uh, this is a funny story. My, my buddies asked for Aerosmith Games in Newport and The song dream on is just about to hit and the guy called us up from the shop and we all went up there And we're gonna just watch the back door Of they're playing in the hotel viking Um, uh, room there, their conference room.

[00:42:34] And so we, he showed us what to do, you know, after the concert, don't let anybody in, don't let your friends in. And, uh, so afterwards we're about to break down and there's Aerosmith right there. It's Tyler. All of them. So they came up to us and go, Hey, what do you guys do around here? And I said, Oh, we hang down the beach [00:43:00] and first beach isn't like Hampton beach or, well, I mean, there's nothing down there.

[00:43:06] So we learn what we're supposed to do, what time we're supposed to show up at night. And we all get in our car and we're headed back down the beach to go to the shop. And there's Aerosmith on the seawall at first beach, no one around them just going. Oh my goodness, what were these guys talking about?

[00:43:30] Like, we're in the middle of nowhere. That's the Aerosmith stuff.

[00:43:38] Tyler: And during my research, I reached out to a friend of ours, Mr. Derek Hynde. And, uh, he told me to The most

[00:43:48] Sid: dedicated surfer in the world.

[00:43:50] Tyler: Absolutely. Although I think you're quite, uh, close second, maybe. Not

[00:43:56] Sid: even. Not even.

[00:43:59] Tyler: Well, [00:44:00] Derek wanted to know your recollection of the great riot of the Newport Folk Festival and your luck with pals on a hunch of hanging around in 69 in the hope that Led Zeppelin would at le At last front on the slide late night in Newport after the cops had cleared the venue and through unruly overcrowding, what happened there?

[00:44:21] Well, it was the jazz

[00:44:22] Sid: festival.

[00:44:23] Tyler: It was the jazz festival. Okay, Derek, you're wrong.

[00:44:26] Sid: It was the jazz festival. And, uh, for somehow, I don't know, somehow they had Led Zeppelin. Jeff Beck with Rod Stewart, lead singer. Jethro Tull, 10 years after. Frank Zapper, Janice Joplin, Sly and the Family Stone. Um, all of these guys were there on one night and there's a, this is the original, one of the [00:45:00] original sites of the, of the festival.

[00:45:03] And we, my dad was offered a job for security, which basically just had him sit in a trailer drinking beers. He, he didn't do anything, just chilling. And he asked us if we wanted to park cars. So we said, yeah, all right. So we all got these orange vests on, we're way down the bottom of the field. Led Zeppelin was going to come on about 11 o'clock.

[00:45:32] And the second Led Zeppelin hit the stage, there was a, uh, park behind there called My Antinomy Field Park. Big wooded park. And thousands of people were waiting in the woods, just came down and stormed all The whole concert knocked down the fences, and we just ripped off our, our [00:46:00] orange, uh, vests because we didn't, you know, we didn't want to, you know, Looked like we worked there at all.

[00:46:07] And, uh, and, uh, we went and watched the concert, but they, they didn't stop the concert at all, but they definitely stopped that type of music from ever coming to Newport again in that type of venue. The next year, George Ween of the, of the jazz and folk festivals, the jazz festival brought blind faith in.

[00:46:32] I don't know if any of you guys ever heard of blind faith. But I think that was stevie woodward, uh clapton all those guys and uh I remember they were staying up the street from the shop and the day the day they were gonna Newporters found out they were a rock band too, so they canceled Blind Faith. So there's no more [00:47:00] rock festivals in Newport.

[00:47:03] Tyler: I want to ask, like, how did you become, first, I want to ask something about, uh, a surfer that played a real significant role in your life, um, Mike tabling and I want to know like how you got introduced to him and what that relationship was like and, and if he can, you know, obviously explain who Mike was to, to Kelly Slater

[00:47:25] Sid: calls Mike tabling the best surfer ever from the East coast.

[00:47:28] Tyler: That's right. So how'd you connect with him and like what sort of role did he play in your life?

[00:47:34] Sid: Um, just as like, he was about 6'4 6'5 rode like a 4'11 twin fin, 5'4 fish or something. Amazing. And, I had just, I was in Puerto Rico.

[00:47:53] Tyler: Um,

[00:47:53] Sid: my first plane flight was basically a flight to Puerto Rico, 6970, [00:48:00] winter, and, uh, Puerto Rico was really kind of rough back then.

[00:48:07] So, we were down there for a month or so, and I didn't want to come right home because we had planned to stay down in Puerto Rico for like, the winter, and it's, Jess was, uh, not the best place for long haired surfers back then. And, so, my friend said, Listen, go to Cocoa Beach. I'll go up there with you for a day or two, then I'm gonna go back to Rhode Island.

[00:48:32] And the guy was Billy Bollins, or Redney, who's pretty, pretty well known back in the day. So, we took a bus, our surfboards, we get up to Cocoa Beach, and I get picked up by the Salek brothers. Just walking down the street because they recognized Bollinger's flaming red hair and they knew who he was and the Selick brothers rode for Dewey Webber surfboards [00:49:00] and, uh, let me sleep on their couch and Bollinger's split went back home.

[00:49:07] And Richard Salek, nicest guy alive, rest in peace. Um, work for Mike Tabling's dad's surf shop. He owned a big shop called. Uh, surfing world around the corner from Ron John back then. And so that's how I got to know M. T. Um, a year later, I mean, friends, friends, friends hanging out surfing and all that. A year later, my parents were sort of, can you try college one more time?

[00:49:44] And I'm there like, eh. So I said, okay. So I went to BCC, I enrolled in Brevard Community College. And I basically took all my high school classes [00:50:00] and the guy who gave me a ride to BCC was Mike Tabling. He told his dad he would try to get a degree or something. So getting a ride with Tabling to college wasn't, I wouldn't suggest that to anybody.

[00:50:23] Because you weren't the right state of mind by the time you got to the parking lot. And then if there was waves He was out of there early, and I'll always remember tabling got out an hour before me, and I got a ride back. We lasted about a month apiece in that college. And then, um, he came up to Rhode Island.

[00:50:49] And I started selling Mike Tabling's surfboards. He, at the time, owned a company called Creative Shaping. He did Tabling, Jeff [00:51:00] Crawford, Ricky Rasmussen, another guy from around here, a legend. And, um, we sold Raz's boards and all those boards. And then Tabling started, he was really a filmmaker. He took Super 8 films, and he edited them, and they were funny, and they were unreal.

[00:51:25] And it got me inspired to start shooting Super 8 films with my friends. Passing around the cameras, just having fun. And then, in the 70s, Mike started going to South Africa. And in the 80s, Mike built this incredible house at Jeffrey's Bay. That's all I can tell ya. An incredible house right on the point at Super Tubes.

[00:51:59] And this [00:52:00] is when the town only had one, uh, One red light and next to him was Derek Hines house,

[00:52:07] Tyler: his nemesis,

[00:52:09] Sid: his nemesis, but I brought them together. See, I create love.

[00:52:13] Tyler: Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. I

[00:52:15] Sid: brought them together. I remember the

[00:52:18] Tyler: schism between why did they have beef with each other?

[00:52:21] Sid: I don't know.

[00:52:21] Tabling's a hard guy to get along with, but anyway, long story short, Derek Hine built this Roman ruin. That's all I can tell you. And it was the most incredible house ever. He lived here, Tabling lived here, Front Row, J Bay, and I started going there in 92. And uh, because it was me, those guys, it was like, I go over their house, and I come over this house, I sleep at that house, I go to that house, and they got, they had to become friends.

[00:52:59] Tyler: [00:53:00] Any Mickey Dora sightings while you were there? Mickey Dora.

[00:53:02] Sid: Mickey Dora. Mickey Dora. Mickey Dora saw this tattoo on my arm and he said, what is that? And I said, it's a sea monster. And he said, you're my friend now. So that was another guy that was very hard to get along with. I became friends with Mickey Dora.

[00:53:29] And again, not too many people are friends with Mickey Dora, you know, just to get a low, Hey, Mickey, how's it going? How you doing? That's good enough for me. One time, um, Michael told me to bring a couple of my friends to J Bay. So I brought a friend of mine named Stickman, who owned Jobless Clothing. I don't know if you guys remember Jobless Clothing, but Yeah, that's Jamal Rowe for Jobless, I believe.

[00:53:58] A little bit, or at least he got a [00:54:00] flow. And, uh, so Stickman, I'm talking, he had a pork pie hat on, little skinny guy with a collar shirt, and he's taking pictures of shells on the beach. There's no waves. And here comes Mickey and his dog. And we're all looking out the window. We see Mickey stop to talk to Sickman.

[00:54:28] And we're there, oh boy. Cause he didn't know, you know, he didn't, he didn't care. He didn't care who was living in Tabling's house, even though he came over our house. He didn't, Mickey didn't care. He didn't want to know anybody else. So Jeff, Mickey stops, talks to Jeff, I'll never forget this, and Jeff gets running up to the house completely out of breath, and we're there, what'd Mickey tell you, what'd Mickey say?[00:55:00]

[00:55:00] And he goes, Mickey told me no cameras are allowed in Jeffrey's Bay. And here's a guy That didn't look like a surf photographer at all. I mean, this Mickey was a hard act to follow, boy. Um, another really great time there, uh, in 92, um, Tom Curran never came to Jeffrey's Bay because of apartheid. And apartheid was over, like, in a few months.

[00:55:37] So Tom decided to come. And we were there and I hadn't met Tom at all at the time and the town was buzzing. I believe Tom was still world champ. So I was there and you guys can look at it. It's it's on the first search video. Tom Curren's first wave at Jeffries [00:56:00] Bay. Well, the most incredible rides ever you can ever watch on film.

[00:56:06] And, uh, I was fortunate enough to be in the water and on the beach during that whole time and, uh, That's where I got to meet him. I ran down and handed him a water brother's shirt and said, Hey, how you doing and all that stuff. And then like we stayed there, I'd say they're like four months at a time and leave when the tour came or just when they started to show up, Kelly stayed our same house as tablings house the first few years there.

[00:56:39] So long story short. I get back to Rhode Island, and I'm at my shop, and Derek Hine pulls in with Tom Curran, Sonny Miller, and it was search one, and they were touring, and [00:57:00] he saw me, he goes, Wow, what are you doing here? He couldn't picture that I was just there visiting. He thought, he thought I lived there with Tabling.

[00:57:11] He's like, are you following me? Yeah. Sort of like that. But, you know, the funny thing about that, really quick, Tabling set up a tripod on the beach, Hi8 tripod, and, uh, me, Kevin Horgan, and Tabling, we'd go back and forth surfing and filming. And the only other camera, believe it or not, 92, there wasn't any photographers or anything.

[00:57:40] The only other guy was Sonny Miller and Sonny was filming that. So that night at Rick's bar and Sonny saw us, believe me, a photographer knows if somebody else is taking a picture and Sonny, especially a motion picture and [00:58:00] Sonny, we sent Sonny a beer. Rick's place is like the only place you go to. At night, and he gave us the biggest stink eye in the world and wouldn't accept it

[00:58:17] Tyler: better not be poaching his footage.

[00:58:18] Yeah, you know,

[00:58:20] Sid: and, um, fast forward 10 years later, he's staying at my house, you know, that's how the world changes. You know what I mean? Sonny became a great friend and him and Derek kind. I can't say enough cool things about Derek. Um, Derek serves with one eye. Uh, what happened was, he was in the contest in Durban, South Africa, who's the Gunston 500.

[00:58:50] He was ranked 12th in the world. And he was surfing during his heat and the surfboard came back [00:59:00] and it hit him in the eye and Derek poked him right in the eye and he was holding it in with his hand and he had to get on a bus, right? There's no one like,

[00:59:16] Tyler: there's no WSL rushing

[00:59:18] Sid: their athletes to the hospital.

[00:59:20] So Derek was on a bus. And he went to the emergency room in Durban, and he was there over an hour, an hour and a half. And that's why he lost his eye, because it was, it was too late to do anything. Well, Derek got a year extension from, what was it back then?

[00:59:46] Tyler: The ASP.

[00:59:47] Sid: The ASP. He got a year injury card. And two years later, He went back on tour with one eye and [01:00:00] he left he was 12th in the world and when he came back He was 13th in the world and he said, you know what I proved myself I proved what I wanted to do.

[01:00:14] I came back with one eye and still You know, got number 13, and that's when he retired from competitive surfing and started becoming the, the writer he is today.

[01:00:27] Tyler: You're leaving something out on the story though. In the heat, he paddled back out with his eye pussing out and he sat on the guy he was competing against, wouldn't let him have the win.

[01:00:39] Sid: Yeah, he was very much like that ruthless competitor. I forgot that part of it. Yeah, he's and his writings when he wrote. Uh, when he, uh, he talked about the top 44, he told me sometimes going, he would accept, how do you say, access, [01:01:00] uh, he would make predictions for the following year of the top 44, where these guys would be at the end of the next year.

[01:01:09] Tyler: World title chance, whiff of a chance. Yeah, world title chance.

[01:01:13] Sid: And he, going to Hawaii sometimes, he was risking his, his life. You know, especially if he told Sonny Garcia, uh, absolutely no chance. Uh, on one to ten, Sonny has a possibility of never making the top ten. So, I mean, he didn't hold back anybody. He told it like it was.

[01:01:37] And, uh, he was something else. Tariq also, uh, He called me out of the blue once and, uh, Shane Beshin, Gavin Beshin, and, uh, Dino and Dino and a couple of those guys were super dissatisfied with the world tour. [01:02:00] So they had Derek organize a rebel tour. And I'll cut this one short, but it was sponsored by Red Bull.

[01:02:08] It was called the Red Bull Surf Safari. And we all flew, Derek flew me in and we all met in London and we got on these two tour buses and we went around Ireland and England and those guys did a pro demo. And we let the amateur kids surf and take them on the bus with us. And, uh, That was quite an experience back

[01:02:34] Tyler: then.

[01:02:35] Sid: That was

[01:02:35] Tyler: awesome. You have footage of that somewhere. Yeah,

[01:02:38] Sid: well actually that was almost like a, it was a reality show. It really was. It was like a surfing reality show. That was, uh, filmed by Sky Sports back then. And, uh, we went to London and we edited voiceovers and everything, and I never got to see it at all.

[01:02:59] It [01:03:00] played over in, uh, England. I never got to see it, but I heard it was pretty cool.

[01:03:06] Tyler: So, uh, I have a nerdy question. This kind of relates to Derek and the search in Beyond the Boundaries. He came up with the search. I know. He is the, the, the brainchild, although Klaue Warbrick might tell you differently. Um, but in Beyond the Boundaries, there's a segment where, uh, Curran, And Derek are hanging in your shop and there's a

[01:03:30] Sid: cabbie.

[01:03:31] Tyler: Yes. I wanted to know who this guy is. This guy goes, he's like, I was surfing in a, in a tube back when you were babies.

[01:03:38] Sid: You can watch that on YouTube. It's really funny. Who is that

[01:03:42] Tyler: guy?

[01:03:43] Sid: When you go on YouTube on your phone. And go to Dennis the cabbie. And, uh, we just sort of let the local color hang around our shop.

[01:03:57] And Dennis the cabbie was a great friend of [01:04:00] mine, homeless and severe vodka problem and, um, slept on our couch a lot. And, uh, he happened to be in the shop when Sonny and Derek and all the guys showed up and, uh, he had the greatest one lines ever and, uh, you got to watch it. It's on YouTube. It's easy. Just go Dennis, the cabbie.

[01:04:26] He goes, I was surfing. In a, in a tube where you, it's like, it's so funny. It is. You have to watch it. Derek fell in love. See, that's what made Derek cool. He fell in love with characters like that. Derek love, Derek loves local, local charm and local, local stuff like that. And when I say the best surfer.

[01:04:57] Before he started his finless thing, I've never [01:05:00] seen anybody surf like he does every second. In, out, in, out. Amazing. And he's fearless, that guy. I got nothing but the best words for Derek Hine.

[01:05:17] Tyler: I can't wait to send him this episode. Um, I want to ask something. Like you, from watching the film and everything I've heard about you, you seem to have this like, character trait of wanting to please people.

[01:05:31] Like you give skateboards away, surfboards away. Um, would you say you're kind of a people pleaser?

[01:05:40] Sid: I wouldn't go that far. No. You know, a lot of the time they, you know, if somebody comes in this shop and you've got a ton of trucker hats, what's the harm of giving somebody a trucker hat. But, uh, you know, like a lot of the time is like.

[01:05:56] You can't give a surfboard away, but skateboards, you know, [01:06:00] like whenever you see someone that needs something and you can make that choice to either let them walk away or to help them out and you can help them out, that makes a difference to them. Where did that come from? And that's not, uh, uh, well, in the film.

[01:06:24] I, I, I say it comes from my mom, who was just so generous with her time and with her, uh, uh, giving, you know, she was accepted, the crew. And, um, it just probably came from my mom. She was just wonderful. She, you know, she, um, she had a tough growing up. All her sisters went on to college and all of that. and moved [01:07:00] to Boston and to New York.

[01:07:02] And then my, my, uh, mom's father died, he was a police officer, he died. And my mom was the youngest, and she ended up having to take care of her mother. And she never left the street that we lived on. Never been on an airplane. Never got to travel. She took care of her family. Stood by, took care of her mom.

[01:07:30] And, uh, you know, and, That sort of struck me, you know, like, you know, here's a lady that, you know, gave it all to her family, why her brothers and sisters, yeah, they did whatever they wanted to do, you know what I mean? They ended up with big houses and stuff like that. But, you know, my mom just took care of her family.

[01:07:55] And that is that, I don't want to use the word inspired, but that was part [01:08:00] of me.

[01:08:01] Tyler: Well, I think you inherited, you know, in some ways. I mean, I gotta ask then, because I, I, I like to give a lot too, and you give and you give and then you give some more, which I've come to understand is kind of an aloha spirit, and I gotta ask though, like, were there ever a time you felt jaded about it or felt resentful?

[01:08:23] That you give and you feel like maybe you're not getting in return at all. It wasn't

[01:08:27] Sid: like I gave someone

[01:08:29] Tyler: No, no, but I mean, you know I gave

[01:08:30] Sid: someone a deck, they went behind the shop and sold it for 40 bucks.

[01:08:34] Tyler: No, but like you, you give, not just that, like yourself, your personality. You're, you give like your emotion.

[01:08:40] Nah, I wouldn't say that, you know.

[01:08:43] Sid: I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that because that, that The way you can read people has a lot to do with giving, giving, you know, you don't give an asshole something, [01:09:00] right? You know, that's not what you do. And you can generally tell, you know, if a guy's a jerk or not, or anybody.

[01:09:10] If somebody's a jerk, and you see it, you know, That's, that's their problem.

[01:09:19] Tyler: Do you, do you think running a surf shop today is feasible in today's climate? How difficult is it, would you say? Um, and is it harder to bring the community together with so much going on now? Like

[01:09:34] Sid: I sorta have got out of the competitive aspect of that.

[01:09:43] Chris: Yeah.

[01:09:44] Sid: I mean, we used to play chess and checkmate with all the sales rep down at this shop. They're selling Volcom. They want your Volcom, they want the Billabong, you want this and that. And we're fortunate enough, you know, to. [01:10:00] Just by the last 15 years, just sell our own water brother stuff and I gave up on, gave up on selling shoes, you know, and all famous footwear and everybody and Nike and I never carried Nike, but the shoe market became something I didn't even want to deal with.

[01:10:26] Sunglasses became way too expensive. Um, I don't even carry sunglasses. Uh, when we're open, we're only open four or five days a week. And what happened was, if you see the film, we closed. We completely closed. And a friend of mine, Jerry Kirby, nothing but the best for Jerry, um, executive producer of the film, he helped us get this film made.

[01:10:55] He said, guys, let's bootstrap the film, and the crew bootstrapped the [01:11:00] film. But Jerry bought the piece of property, right where we got thrown out. And, uh, he built a temporary structure. And said, hey, this is a pop up shop for you guys now. You guys get on the road with the film. When you come back, this is your building.

[01:11:22] And we opened up Christmas, and uh, We're open like three or four days a week and um, like we're closed right now, you know, and then next Saturday we'll be open when I'm back home and then we're closed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and then we're on the road again Thursday in New Jersey. So, it's, it's cool and it's all because of Jerry Kirby.

[01:11:50] But, get back to that question. I don't know if I could handle it. I mean, you gotta have a million dollars worth of [01:12:00] inventory. You gotta be competitive with the best of the best of the best hardware, glasses, stuff like that. And I can't do that. I just cannot do that.

[01:12:14] Tyler: What are your thoughts on like, the surf industry today?

[01:12:17] And do you feel, do you feel that the surf industry sold out at all? Or do you feel like

[01:12:25] Sid: I don't look at it that way. I don't know. It just changes, you know, people change, you know, like I remember what everybody here knows. 10, 20 years ago, surf shops were in the malls in Kansas City. Everybody wanted to dress like a surfer.

[01:12:49] Billabong was in Ohio. Everybody wanted to dress like a surfer. And no one wants to dress like a surfer now. No one. [01:13:00] And that has affected All the professional salaries. That's why the free surfers don't make any money anymore. Back in the day, Ian Walsh and all these guys, that's my godson. He was making a hundred grand a year, just doing what he wants to do.

[01:13:17] And none of these guys, the contracts have dried up and that's because the market's changed. You know, you gotta be in the top 20 to make any money these days. There's no more, you know, So maybe it's re, re, reinvent itself again, but you know, that's, that's not our concern if it does or not, because it seems to be doing what it wants to do.

[01:13:44] Maybe the WSL will change and become, you know, more of a people pleaser or, or whatever. But, um, I don't know where surfing's going right now, but I know it's not like it used to [01:14:00] be. In popularity, but the amount of people surfing is out of control.

[01:14:09] Tyler: It's incredible.

[01:14:10] Sid: Out of control. You know, a couple of, when I was a kid, when I was a kid, just around when I was a senior in high school, it was the kitchen era, beach blanket, bingo, all of that stuff was going on.

[01:14:28] Thousands of people at the beach with long boards. So the city of Newport decided. One day that they put a line, a buoy line, straight out. And when you showed up on the beach with a surfboard, you had to surf in front of the lifeguard. And the lifeguard would say, you're on this side of the buoy line, or you're on that side of the buoy line.

[01:14:55] You're either a beginner, you can't stand up, you don't [01:15:00] know how to handle a board, you could knock out a bunch of people, or you seem to be okay. And so that lasted for about a summer, maybe, maybe two summers. Then it got to the point where who wants that job,

[01:15:15] Tyler: you know what I mean? And,

[01:15:18] Sid: and so, but at one point I could see the value in that, you know what I mean?

[01:15:24] In a way that, you know, would protect, you know, some people from getting hurt.

[01:15:33] Tyler: Well, it's interesting. They used to do that in Azores. You had, uh, uh, Eddie McCabe, who was a surfer, a hot surfer here in the 60s. He was paid by the town of Long Beach to patrol. And tell people to go in if they weren't experienced enough or if they were reckless, you know, and

[01:15:50] Sid: that's, that's what that's what that was.

[01:15:52] Basically,

[01:15:53] Tyler: we need some surf patrols.

[01:15:56] Sid: I was basically for, you know, for someone else's [01:16:00] protection.

[01:16:01] Tyler: What do you think the differences between surf and. Surf culture and skate culture then and and how they've evolved and changed. I've

[01:16:08] Sid: always been you know We didn't even get to talk about skate. I know

[01:16:11] Tyler: I'm sorry guys skating.

[01:16:13] It's more my forte I apologize first

[01:16:15] Sid: thing I did was skate and I don't mean I I skated I mean I wanted to skateboard because I wanted to surf on land. I'll be honest with you, you know, and I was telling Jamal, like, um, we surf skated whenever there's no waves, we're skating. Whenever there's no waves, we're skating.

[01:16:37] We found banks, we traveled, we're surfing, we're carving, we're doing everything all the time. Your thing, wheels came. We're happy, happy, happy doing everything. Board shapes in Newport. I had Steve and Dave Darragh, particularly Steve, started Flight Skateboards, and [01:17:00]he was the man. He, he, he did it all. He made us the best skateboards.

[01:17:07] Started out from the fiberglass moles to the oak boards, and then came with the eight and ten inch wide boards. He also, we had around there, we had Ellis, who had Woodflow. But Darragh, You know, first guy with cutaways and rail grabs. Um, he's credited for that. And then it's snowboarding. Dara, Stevie Dara is credited with the first snowboard with P techs, metal edges, and high back bindings was from Newport, Rhode Island, flight snowboards.

[01:17:48] And what happened was

[01:17:50] Tyler: here we go.

[01:17:50] Sid: When Quicksilver or somebody bought a bunch of snowboard labels, Everybody was like, Burton Sims, Burton Sims, [01:18:00] Burton Sims. And Quicksilver took out giant ads in all the snow magazines, whether it be snow, ski, snowboarder, and said, the true inventor of the modern snowboard is Steve Darragh, and enlisted all his furs.

[01:18:21] So I was really proud of that, being from my hometown, and having Steve a good friend. And to this day, he's working on some crazy surfboard design, And he's always got that inventive stuff going on. I can't give his latest model. He's, he's doing, he did, Unreal with, with skateboards. And it got us like feeling part of the industry.

[01:18:50] You know, we felt like, wow, we got an industry here. We got, you know, we had garages, little garages and we'd go in there and be making [01:19:00] skateboards or I closed the shop and go in there at night and put together the skateboard. So it just, the scene felt really cool. And he ripped, he ripped surfing, ripped skating.

[01:19:13] Tyler: I want to ask, how do you keep youthful? Like, you have, like, changed with the times. I know, I know, it's funny, like, you look good, you know, and uh, you know, but what's your secret? You know, your beauty secret, but, I'm just kidding. Um, but I wanna know, like, what, how you keep evolving, and how you keep current with everything.

[01:19:36] Like, there's so many people, who are even my age, who are so jaded by youth culture or the changes that have happened and they they refuse to change with the times and you seem to have kept evolving with the times and embracing youth and i'm curious like where that came from and and how you've been able to do

[01:19:58] Sid: well i think it [01:20:00] just was blessed enough to be able to do it I've always wanted to do like I wouldn't five years ago.

[01:20:09] I wouldn't think I'd be sitting in a surf shop in Brooklyn talking about, you know, my life that, you know, so, but, um, I've always been blessed enough to, to do what I wanted to do. And, and, and, and, and meaning like. Whether to find a building to, for Skater Island. I didn't have any money at all. I walked into this giant warehouse.

[01:20:38] I said, is anybody here? I said, what do you want? I go, I'd like to build a skate park in here. And next thing you know, we're in Tony Hawk's PlayStation. I mean, how did that happen? You know, I didn't have any money, but Just had people connections like that and, and, um, as far as, uh, I'll tell you, I [01:21:00] quit drinking.

[01:21:01] That changed my life big time. I mean, if you see the movie, Um, you'd understand a little more where I'm at right now. Him, my, my wife, big influence. I love her so much right there, Danielle.

[01:21:18] Tyler: Friends

[01:21:20] Sid: like Colin, you know, Colin's back there. You know, keep the dream alive, you know, keep it going. But as far as, uh, you know, I, I can't say physically how it changes.

[01:21:37] I mean, I had double hip replacement, um, and just fought back to be able to, uh, Uh, try to stand up on a surfboard again and stuff like that and then get involved in, uh, uh, this new skate park we're building for the public in Newport for the first time, a million dollar park

[01:21:58] Tyler: that's

[01:21:58] Sid: going to open up in two [01:22:00] months.

[01:22:00] I mean, that's exciting just to sit there and watch these kids go get them and watch some of the older guys, you know, get a deck again and ride it. That gives me enough satisfaction. You know, I've ridden enough. Now that I can enjoy everybody else's right just as much as mine A

[01:22:27] Tyler: couple last questions. I I wanted to touch on your sobriety. Um in the film you you Spoiler the film hits me hard. I'll tell you that but you said like you quit Cold turkey and you you had an experience where Ruthie your mother kind of that's what my

[01:22:45] Sid: brother said.

[01:22:46] Tyler: Yeah Oh, okay. All right. Tell us how did how did that happen?

[01:22:50] Then what what was that moment where you're just like I gotta stop

[01:22:56] Sid: I think you can tell when times up, you know [01:23:00] when no matter what it is It doesn't have to be drinking. It could be you know a job Even could be a car, you know, you know time's up and um, I knew time was up. I couldn't continue the path I was on and you know the faith I have to continue to To do it and it was best decision I've ever made my life and I think I said in a we had a question and answer at the film the other night It was harder to continue drinking Then it was to stop drinking.

[01:23:46] Tyler: Wow. That's incredible. I mean, that takes a lot out of you,

[01:23:51] Sid: you know, going out, getting hammered, fighting the hangover, going back out. You [01:24:00] know, you can't keep doing that. You want to, you want to surf and skate and stuff like that? You can't do that.

[01:24:10] Tyler: Next question I want to ask is everything is surf and skate.

[01:24:14] Of course.

[01:24:15] Sid: Those two words are like spaghetti and sauce.

[01:24:20] Tyler: And the cheese is music on top. Exactly. And getting with that, you had this incredible band, uh, big world. And I wanted to ask, like, When are we gonna be able to find that on a streaming service? I'm trying to find this All you gotta do is YouTube it.

[01:24:39] Oh, it's on YouTube. All right, cuz like I've been looking for

[01:24:43] Sid: one good concept That's on YouTube.

[01:24:46] Tyler: It's fucking awesome. Everyone go listen to it. Download. It's amazing.

[01:24:50] Sid: That was all my brother's concept Not really, but my brother I would just come home and I'd hear the music playing [01:25:00] down the basement and I'd run downstairs and grab a mic and start yelling.

[01:25:04] And it was all those guys. I mean, we had the two best guitarists and bass player and stuff like that. At first, they're looking at me like, ah, this. And, you know, and then we just developed into a, you know, it was just fun creating songs with the guys.

[01:25:25] Tyler: Who did the writing?

[01:25:26] Sid: Um, we all did. Nice. We all did. We all did.

[01:25:31] Tyler: Um, I wanna ask then a couple last questions. Um, is there a surfboard in your life that if you could go back in time and bring back, what surfboard would that be?

[01:25:45] Sid: I always think about, 'cause I have a big collection of boards like up here. I've always wanted. I wouldn't ride it right now, but I always wanted to get back one of those Midget Farrelly [01:26:00] stringless boards I had.

[01:26:01] It was made by, believe it or not, G& S, who I, I'm not a G& S guy at all. But, I had a Midget Farrelly stringless at the time. And, uh, I just wish I had that on the wall. And the, and the keelfin my dad bought me. I wish I had those two boards on the wall. As of surfboards I rode, Too many of them. I wrote thousands of surfboards.

[01:26:32] I was very fortunate. Fortunate to Get surfboards when I wanted them sometimes too many of them.

[01:26:43] Tyler: I want to now the last thing is do you ever? Reflect on the countless people you have influenced over the years. Do you see that ripple effect? And and do you do you give much thought to it? Because, I mean, all of us are here.

[01:26:59] I do, [01:27:00]

[01:27:00] Sid: yeah, I do. You know, when I, when I see, um, I can't take credit for anybody's success. But, um, when I see someone that's a friend of mine, whether it's a little guy, whether they have a family. Whether they have a son, a daughter, I take pride in having them as my friend and seeing them do good. I just take pride in any friend I have.

[01:27:30] So, yeah, I do. You know, it's, it's good to see people in this tough world succeed and, you know, Go forward, you know, you can meet someone yesterday and still, you know, see him a week later and be proud of, you know, where they're going.

[01:27:54] Tyler: I think like, you know, we're all kind of like pebbles being thrown into the pond and we have ripple effects and [01:28:00] you are like a massive stone thrown into the water.

[01:28:03] And so I just want to thank you for all the contributions you've made. given to our, our community, to surfing, to the culture, and skateboarding, and skateboarding. We didn't get to talk about skateboarding. I know! That's another podcast. This is a surf podcast, man.

[01:28:20] Sid: We'll talk about skateboarding next time.

[01:28:22] I got some skate stories I'll tell you that.

[01:28:25] Tyler: Oh,

[01:28:26] Sid: oh, I feel the Winchester Pro Bowl in 1979 a Super 8 very proud of that film

[01:28:34] Tyler: Well everyone Sid the package a bruise II thank you so much for your time. Thank you and Please go see the film if you haven't seen it

[01:28:45] Sid: go see the film It's going to be, let me throw this PR,

[01:28:50] Tyler: throw it out

[01:28:51] Sid: tomorrow.

[01:28:53] One o'clock at the village East cinema. [01:29:00] That's

[01:29:01] Tyler: that's Tuesday, right? That's tomorrow's Wednesday, Wednesday,

[01:29:04] Sid: one o'clock Thursday, three 50. And supposedly a bunch of the surfers from Rockaway are coming. So I'm excited.

[01:29:14] Tyler: Yeah. Jimmy Dowd's getting the crew.

[01:29:16] Sid: Yeah. I'm excited for that. But the film will. I'll reflect on a lot of what's going on lately in this, this place.

[01:29:29] Tyler: It's a beautiful film. And you got to give it to the Kinnon brothers who've, you know, just done a masterful job of putting this together and going through the archives. And honestly, like, there's probably so much left of archive footage, you need a b roll. Absolutely

[01:29:47] Sid: incredible amount of footage we have.

[01:29:50] But they did a great job and. Putting a thousand hour, two thousand hours of vintage [01:30:00] into an hour and a half. So God bless them.

[01:30:04] Tyler: Well, everyone, thank you so much for coming out. Really appreciate it. I think there are some posters here as well.

[01:30:11] Sid: Yeah, we're gonna give away a couple posters for the film. Um I'm trying to think of a question, if anybody can.

[01:30:21] Does

[01:30:22] Tyler: anyone have any questions for Sid while we're here? Any Q& A?

[01:30:26] Sid: I was going to ask a question to give the answer. The answer is something, which I'm sorry.

[01:30:35] What eye does Derek Hine see on him?

[01:30:44] Tyler: Yeah.

[01:30:44] Sid: That's right.

[01:30:47] Tyler: Okay, wait,

[01:30:48] Sid: you win a signed poster.

[01:30:55] What's that?

[01:30:58] Tyler: Yeah, we're going to give out some posters. Let's get some posters out, let's [01:31:00] get them signed. Yeah, we're going to give them away. Awesome, thank you guys, appreciate it. Thank you so much.