JC: If it is a Jaws day in Hawai’i do you feel that you have to be out there?
RN: I used to but not anymore. I wish there were more options when it is big. The scene out there is getting worse. I am really bad in a crowd. You must know that watching me at Ho’okipa. I would love to be at the point, but I just can’t deal with the people. I’ll go sail in the middle just not to have to deal with the crowds. If I had to stand in line for food I would starve to death. I could go and drop in on guys and fight for waves but that is just not in me. I don’t want to do that and that is kind of how Jaws has become. Now there are paddle guys, kiters and more windsurfers. The pecking order has changed and guys just go for it. You get guys going way out to sea, picking a wave and just getting what they get. I hate sailing that way. I don’t want to be on an escalator just taking what I get.
I want to go outside, sit there in the channel, put myself in position, wait pick a good wave and go. If there is a line of guys out to sea on every fricken wave and the only way I am going to get a wave is to get into that line and flip a coin and hope I have a good one, screw that! I want a good wave. That really bugs the shit out of me and I end up taking waves that I don’t want and put myself into positions that I should not be in. I got annihilated out there a few times. I am not really bitter and old about it, it is just the new reality of it. There were fifty paddle in surfers out there the last time I went. They stayed out there while it was windy. You don’t want to drop in on a guy just in case he happens to get it. A lot of good waves are going unridden. It is just a scene. It is an amazing wave and it is great that there are that many people that are confident to get out there. It used to be off the radar a lot more so it makes it hard to deal with. You could just go ride it and it was not such a circus. It is still fun but I am not having as much fun out there as I used to. I’d rather go sail at Ho’okipa when it is small enough to still be good because it is more fun.
JC: Have you ever tried a goiter?
RN: I have never tried one but I am going to though! I was asked recently why I never try new stuff. I don’t like to waste waves. I like to connect turn and I like rail-to-rail sailing. But I think next few times I go out I am going to go down the wave and go for a few new moves. I did a taka kind of thing the other day which felt kind of cool. It was almost one of those things Brawzinho does. He hits the lip and spins above not ‘on’ the wave. It is like an ‘in-the-air’ spin, that looks so bitchin’! I like the way Brawzinho rides. He mixes it up. He knows how to hit the lip hard and he has a lot of power in his turns. He still flicks better than most where his freestyle skills are so good. He knows how to use his rail. So many guys don’t use there rail anymore. Part of it is the approach to wave riding and part of it is the boards they have been riding. I want to see guys come up and under the lip. I don’t mind the three dimensional stuff Brawzinho does though. I like to see vertical and hitting the lip with lots of power or a bottom turn where the fins are showing. Not just redirection of the bottom, there is so much of that. I like to see the rail and all three fins out of the water with spray just shooting off the fins. Keith sails like that sometimes. There are different guys that still go fast. It is weird, the approach right now is to use the smallest sail as possible and put, put out and get on the wave. I am out on a 5m and there are guys on 3.9s. Don’t those guys want to jump? Jumping is so much fun!