JC: What makes you laugh?
RN: All kinds of things make me laugh. Usually stupid juvenile things like farting and stuff like that. I am not really a practical joker. I am a verbal joker. I don’t like to hurt people’s feelings or use negatives to make positives. I don’t pull people chairs out from under them or anything like that. I think I laugh quite a bit for my age.
JC: What is the most number of push loops you have landed in a day?
RN: A lot! At least 20-30! There are times if the conditions are right you just do them over and over again. I have recently been mixing it up again so I am doing forwards and table tops and loads of jumps I have not done in ages. I went down the coast a few days ago for some jumping and I was watching Gollito Estredo, ‘Oh my God!’ the stuff he was doing was blowing my mind.
It was so cool. So I started pulling out my old school moves. I did like twenty flat water forwards. In the scope of about half an hour and it was so fun. I just threw a bunch on a free ride board and doing them dry. That was super fun just to mix it up.
JC: What is the highlight of your career to date?
RN: There have been so many good things and so few bad things. The bad ones are even few and far between. There have been so many good highlights that to point one or two out would be unfair to about one hundred others. They keep coming. Maybe it is because my memory is really bad and I just keep making new memories. I am definitely not dwelling on the past and wishing things are like they used to be. I am still having an awful lot of fun just meeting today’s challenges. Even if it still trying to ride hard without hurting myself. Maybe I am stuck in a rut but I am having a lot of fun in that rut!
JC: When are you going to retire?
RN: I am retired; this is what people do when they retire. I started reflecting on that thirty years ago when people when I would get asked the same question. My life right now is a dream life and I am fortunate enough to know that. I love what I am doing and would not rather be doing anything else. The complexity sometimes is a bit crazy but that is the work side. The business and Naish and all that, I kind of enjoy that challenge as well. If I did not have all the different facets of my life right now, I don’t think I would be bored but to a certain degree I prefer having the complexity. Some people deal with stress differently to others and to me that stress is a needed aspect of my life that I am not getting any more from competition. Having to deal with family issues, business and the crowds at Ho’okipa is good for me. I have no intention of changing anything!
JC: So one last time, no surprise party?
RN: No I am not I would not go. I told my wives friends they can have a party. I’ll pay for it. You guys have a party and I won’t go. I am fine with that. I don’t mind the idea of a party I just don’t want to be there. I have a lot of good friends and I am stoked that people are happy for me but I hate being put on the spot. I hate being sung happy birthday to, it is so embarrassing! At five years old I hated it at fifty it will be ten times worse…