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MARK ANGULO: REFLECTIONS

We take a look back at a powerful and insightful 2006 interview with wave-sailing legend Mark Angulo, conducted as he made his return to the water following a challenging period of rehabilitation. In addition to revisiting his journey, we also hear Mark’s thoughts on today’s windsurfing scene and whether he has any plans for a comeback.

BACK STORY

John Carter managed to dig out the CD with the interview and pics from his archives buried in the loft of his house. When he went to pull the CD (believed to be the only copy in existence) out of the box, rather than press the release the button in the middle, he levered the CD out, and to his horror, it snapped clean in two! Distraught he then had to crawl around the eaves of the house and hunt through boxes of old CD’s, hoping there was another copy. Lo and behold after two hours of crawling around in the dark  for nearly two hours, he found one…phew! 

We also had a quick chat with Mark to make sure he was all good with the interview!

MA: “I am 56 now. I still feel like I am 21 (laughs). I am living in North Carolina, right on the border of South Carolina. The last time I windsurfed was in Puerto Rico around 2016. It has been a while bro’! but I am itching to get out there again. There is talk of people trying to get me to Maui at the end of the year but I really feel like I need to build myself some new boards first. I need to get my shop up and running. I have to go back to Maui sometime. Robby Naish is still sailing…he will be ripping until the day he dies! I still follow the sport. I love giving credit where credit is due. I don’t care if I have bad history with the rider. That does not matter. I don’t care if me and him had a fight one night (laughs). I will give them credit bro’ I am going to call it as i see it! I feel like i have earned my stripes to be able to say if something is good or not. There is a lot of amazing talent out there right now! It is pretty easy pickings.

Brawzinho is always on the top of the list, right now he will always be the best. Campello, although I know he has had his sponsor troubles. I think he is also one of the best that there is. We never really got along, but I feel like he has got the talent and can make stuff happen. Köster of course is great. I love his technique and everything he does and what he can do, but he is limited though. There is some great up and coming Japanese guys to, there is some real talent coming from there. I love the old guys too. I always root for Levi Siver and all those guys that have been around for so long! He is still just tearing it up. The list could go on and on. Look at Kai Katchadourian! He is not going to win any contests right away but he is still one of the best survivors of our time. I also root for Dunkerbeck’s son Liam and Noah Angulo. Another sailor I love is Alex Mussolini. I think he was one of the best sailors on the earth! I’ll say that straight! He is not crazy like Campello, he is what he is. Antoine Martin is also incredible. He took his beatings and he has learned. He is the best windsurfer I have seen in the past few years. He has talent. Kai Lenny is the new generation. He learned a lot from us old guys, Laird Hamilton, Dave Kalama, Rush Randle and Robby Naish. I think he is the best waterman in the world right now. He has got it all worked out.”

Check out Mark’s original artwork which is available here: RAD 80’s

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MARK ANGULO: REFLECTIONS

INTRODUCTION

Wave 360’s, Goitas and contorted tweaked aerials – Mark Angulo’s innovation and natural ability lead to the creation of modern wave sailing and many of his moves are still the inspiration and aspiration for our sport’s top athletes today. While his contorted style drew him event wins and worldwide accolades in the golden days of the sport, his head and body were twisting him in other ways too. In a frank and powerful interview with John Carter, Angulo tells about conquering his demons and finding his way back to the water, where already he’s inventing new moves and being recognised as ‘the one’ to watch at Ho’okipa.

Photos: John Carter

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BACKGROUND

Mark Angulo was born in California in 1968 and then raised in Oahu during the seventies and eighties in the heavy surf environment of the North Shore. His father Ed Angulo was attracted to the surfing scene like a magnet and after gaining a reputation for shaping in California brought the family over to Hawaii in 1969. Brought up in the Mecca of surfing the infamous waves of Oahu’s North Shore were the perfect place to develop the raw talent and water skills of the Angulo kids…

MA: “My dad wanted to shape boards so we moved over from California. We were a surf family; my mum would take us down the beach to play in the shore break when we were young while my dad was shaping boards. The family moved over to Maui in 1986 just as I was graduating from high school. So pretty much my whole school life was on Oahu. As we were growing up we were just surfing everyday. We were raised in a surfing environment. My dad shaped for all the big companies over in Oahu. Lightning Bolt, Town and country and Local Motion. My best friends were all great surfers. One of them was Ricky Irons who is the cousin of Andy and Bruce Irons, I hung out with Mark Thomas who runs Rip Curl and Jack Johnson the singer. We grew up amongst a lot of surfers and talented people. We were just a bunch of kids hanging out at the beach. Every year we would watch the pro’s roll into town. Tom Curren, Martin potter, Shaun Thomson and all those guys”

HARDCORE

“We were just kids so we did not understand what our environment was until we got older. One thing about growing up on the north shore of Hawaii is that you naturally become a really competent water person without even trying or knowing it. Every day you are in the shore break playing in probably the most dangerous beaches in the world. You are having fun without realizing the danger of the ocean. You become a good surfer really early. Yeah it was pretty hardcore. I learned to sail in Oahu. I used to sail Backyards and Monster Mush”

MAUI

The family moved over to Maui in 1986 where the Angulo family became a heavy influence on the world of wave sailing. Windsurfing was huge back then and the success of Ed’s shapes and the talents of Mark and his younger brother Josh helped make the name Angulo one of the leading names in the sport.

MA: “I’d finished up High school and I had just started touring. We had already been coming over to Maui for windsurfing a bunch. I had already been competing for a while and I was sailing pretty well. We would normally come over for the contests in March April and October November.  I was making money. At that time not through sponsors but mostly through winning contests. I was just a grommet but I was placing up in the top five of the big Maui wave contests. Back then you could get four or five grand for third or fourth so I was doing pretty well. My dad’s business was also thriving and he was making a name for himself as one of the leading sailboard shapers.

IN THE LIMELIGHT

“I remember going to the Gorge in 1986. I was riding for North I believe at the time. Over there I met Barry Spanier and Jeff Bourne from Neilpryde and they wanted me to ride for them and offered me some money. I was like…Wow that’s great for sure! By the time I got back home I had a whole new quiver of Neilpryde sails. Right around that time I really started to do well. I started winning contests and then I started traveling around. From ’86 to 89-90 there was a lot of stuff happening. There was a lot of good stuff and also a lot of bad stuff…it was a real flurry. I was making a lot of money. My friends were back home waiting tables and smoking pot and back then for my age I was pulling in $70,000-$100,000 a year. That was good money. Maybe today it is not so great but right now I would still be happy with that… (Laughs)”

INNOVATOR

The ‘King of Aerobics’ as Mark was also called, he made a name for himself by pushing wave sailing to a whole new level. Innovative, exciting to watch and unpredictable on the water, his fiery surf style, raw talent and guts lead to the creation of new moves and possibilities within the sport. Even to this day Mark’s sailing back then has inspired the likes of Alex Mussolini, Boujmaa Guilloul and Levi Siver to emulate his contorted and tweaked variations of many windsurfing maneuvers…

MA: “A bunch of moves I created and became know for, were kind of accidents. For one I was a great wave sailor. Growing up on Oahu and having the surfing background really made me an exceptional sailor. When I came to Maui and met all the windsurfers, a lot of them surfed but they were not great surfers. I am not trying to brag on myself but definitely I immediately rose to the top in the wave sailing scene because I had been exposed to unbelievably good surf all through my life. A bit like Robby Naish. My windsurfing was a natural progression. As I got better things like the 360 happened. That move started as an accident. I remember on a windy day I kind of blew out of a wave and spun around and almost landed. Then I kind of figured out that the move was possible. Craig Jester and all those guys from backyards used to call me ‘Baby Gu’, so I ended up naming the 360 the ‘Gu Screw’. My dad did not like the word ‘screw’ in word so he changed it to aerial 360! I really liked to try and learn a lot of new moves. People would laugh at me while I was trying but then I would make a new move. That would be it…the other guys would have to learn the new moves too.  At the time one of my goals was to always stay one step ahead. I may not have seen it at the time but I was actually a pretty competitive person. At the contests I might have seemed all laid back but I was determined to do as well as possible in the big Maui events”

DREAMER

“A couple of things happened with me and they still do actually. I would actually dream stuff. I would be asleep at night and dream about new moves. I would wake up remember it and then go and try it. Sometimes it would work out. The Goiter was like that. I dreamt that man! (Laughs) I remember waking up going Wow that was a weird dream. On the other hand a lot of my moves would happen from falling. I could be in the air and out of control and something would happen and you would flip with the wind and land a different way. Then you figure you could do that move. The whole back loop thing I used to do with the arched back and twisting my head, I don’t know where that comes from. When I used to surf on Oahu they used to call me ‘Noodle Boy’ because I used to get into some contorted positions. I don’t know why. I am not that limber or anything really I am kind of tight. Something just happens to me in the water. I got a big head!…it swings around a lot… (Laughs)”

JOSH

Following in Marks footsteps his younger brother Josh made his first entrance into professional windsurfing at the age of twelve. With a brother like Mark and comparable talent, Josh was a shooting star and he was soon recognized for his similar reckless abandon on the water and no compromise style of wave sailing…

MA: “Josh was just a rat! He was just a kid and got exposed to some pretty hardcore situations from an early age. He used to have to sit and watch us while we surfed. We would park at the beach and leave him with no water, no food…we would just leave him to sit in the car and watch. Needless to say at a young age he realized he did not want to sit on the beach so he ended up in the water. Out of all of us he ended up in the water in bigger waves at an earlier age. You know where that is going to end up!  He got better than everyone else…tougher. Josh kind of ended up having a similar type contorted style on the windsurfer. I don’t know where it came from. It must be on my mum’s side! It’s a Mexican thing…. (Laughs)”

THE TOUR

With his career booming Mark found himself as one of the key players in Neilpryde’s marketing campaigns and was unleashed around the world as an ambassador for the company to show up and compete at events.

MA: “I did not do all of it but I did events in Europe, Japan and Australia. On port tack I was just worthless, still to this day I suck. For one, I am a regular foot surfer. I have spent so much time surfing that for me to sail port tack is like pulling teeth. I cannot for the life of me bottom turn. I still travelled the world and I was still able to do ok in the waves but at that time in my career Neilpryde were happy for me to show up and sign autographs and do promotions. I was like the Neilpryde show off kid. All the dealers wanted Mark Angulo at their contests and that is what I did”

LOSING GRIP

The do or die attitude of the Angulo’s on the water was a key ingredient of their success on the water but also played a key role in causing trouble on the land. Their stardom was a door opener to parties, drink, drugs and aggressive behaviour and before they knew it they started to become the ‘Bad Boys’ of windsurfing and the problems spiralled downwards!

MA: “At that time I was staring to slip off the rails. I would turn up at events, drink and be a full trouble maker. It wasn’t all bad… I have a lot of good memories about those years too. As much as there was a lot of bad stuff, there was a lot of good stuff too. In the World cup event in England I got in a fight with Terry Weiner the tour manager. I was kicked out of the PBA. He was the head guy and I punched him. Those were bad days. I did not know Neilpryde that well but I remember being at ISPO in Germany and he took me aside. He did not tell me in such words that I was fired but he said that he could not handle my actions and behaviour. When I got home the checks stopped flowing in!”

WILD SIDE

“I don’t know where I got my wild streak from. We were raised pretty strictly. We were a Christian family and went to private school and then a public school. I was exposed to plenty of good stuff and plenty of bad on Oahu. I think what happened for me, people will dispute this but if I really look back at what was going on…I did not know how to deal with what was happening. I wasn’t shy but I kind of just liked to do my thing. At that age without any preparation I was thrown into the limelight. I was put on a pedestal, centre stage with plenty of money in my pocket, I had people asking for autographs and all kind of stuff happening. Part of me was really scared while the other side of me was thinking this is the greatest thing in the world. There was no balance; I did not have any checks or control on my behavior. I had my dad but he did not travel with me and he was not aware of half the stuff I was up to at home or away. The situation really lead to some out of control action. At first I think that alcohol was a really good way for me to be able to cope. I was totally out of control in all aspects. This was around the early nineties. I would drink and party like any normal person but then it really developed into something more of a daily affair. Alcohol became part of my life. I did not realize it. I was drinking every single day. Even my rowdy friends, would not always be drinking but I would just keep going. Then I realized…You know what…. ‘I AM THE WORST’ of all my friends. I kept thinking that I was hanging with some bad people but I ended up the baddest of them all… (Laughs) Even the bad guys didn’t want to hang out with me! (Laughs) Agh funny!”

CAREER BLOWN

Marks Career started falling apart at the beginning of the nineties after losing Neilpryde as his major sponsor. With his alcohol addiction taking over, Marks windsurfing suffered too and nobody will ever know how far he could have pushed the sport if he had remained focused one hundred per cent on his sailing…

MA: “I think looking back now with the changes I have made over the last two years. If there is one regret it is that I won’t be able to truly know what I could have done. There is a gap of ten years where I was not myself. What I could have done in those ten years would have changed the world of windsurfing…Maybe not…It’s hard to say. But I don’t live on regret. I know that we all go through different things for different reasons. That period was just one of those things that was part of my life. A good example that I learned from was Occy the surfer. I remember when I was young that the same thing happened to him. He would paddle out in the line up and just reek of whisky.  Everyone was calling him a loser and he was hanging with a lot of bad dudes. I kind of relate to him. He pretty much lost everything he had. He called it the couch years. But you know what…look at what he did…he came back and won the world title. He was the oldest guy ever to win it. He is still considered one of the best surfers ever. For me…what a great inspiration. I can’t dwell too much in the past because yesterday is gone for me. I had some bad years. It is something that just took me a long while to get through.

After I started losing control with the alcohol my contracts kind of slowly dwindled. I went on for few more years. I was still good enough on the water that people wanted me on their team. Even at my worst stages I could still sail. After a while that got old too and you become a liability. I was with Simmer for a while and they used me for what I was worth. Then they got over me! It was fair enough. That is about all I was worth back then. It got to the point where I was not really contributing to any cause. Media wise I was good. I would always be in the limelight. But after a while every body got tired of my attitude and my actions”

BAD BOY BROTHERS

Around the same time Josh Angulo was also getting mixed up with drinking and excessive behavior and at some point for both brothers this melting pot was all set to explode…

MA: “Josh went through a very similar phase. It didn’t last as long as mine but he was just as volatile. I’d like to think if I taught him one thing besides how to bottom turn was that he needed to stop the drink and stuff a lot earlier than I did. He moved on. We still make mistakes. Nobody is perfect so now there is a real kind of microscope over me and him where everybody are just waiting and watching for us to slip off the rails.

At my worst I could not just go have one beer. Or just go out for one night. This thing just would not stop. It would not stop until basically there was smoke and flames coming out from somewhere! (Laughs) This was an addiction. I spent a lot of time in re-habs probably accumulative of two and a half years. I was locked up in places that were not conducive to the ocean and windsurfing. I ended up in these places reflecting about my actions and decisions. A lot of the time I don’t even like to think about the places I have been. All I wanted was to be happy again and have my family back. I just wanted to get home and maybe get to enjoy the ocean a little bit. To be quite honest I feel I have got much more than that. God has really restored my family environment. I would not say my career but I have my windsurfing again. I still have my health. I am fine. I am not all broken. I got into some pretty heavy duty car wrecks and I know it was only God that helped me walk away from those alive and with my limbs attached. If you go through stuff like that, you learn what is truly important.

There was a lot of stuff that happened during those ten years. My wife divorced me. She was over me. I ended up living in this real crappy little house. I wasn’t even sailing anymore. I was sick all the time. All I had was just drinking. I still was doing a bit of stuff once in a while with my jet ski and occasionally helping teach kids to tow surf. I remember I had these two kids … a good friend of mines son and his best friend. I was going to take them tow surfing. We were scheduled to go out on a particular day. They showed up and I was just blind. As much as a lot of my stuff I can’t remember, I still remember the looks on their faces. A lot of times when you are a hard core addict you think you are only hurting yourself and not affecting anyone else. That day made me really think how I was hurting so many people. I remember seeing the look of disappointment on their faces. I felt I was such a loser”

OUT OF THE DARKNESS

Determined to shake off his alcohol addiction Mark checked into a re-hab on Maui in late 2004 where he spent over a year working hard labour and studying the bible…

MA:  “It was a place called ‘My brothers keeper’ It was a Hawaiian family who came from Oahu. They had both been ‘Ice’ addicts from the most hardcore place on the island. They developed a Christian based programme. I lived with them for a year. That was the hardest year of my life. It was also hard because it was on Maui. I did not intend to stay for the whole year. I was thinking like thirty days and I would be out of there. I had to come to terms with the way I had lost everything I had.  I wanted to show the people around me and the community that I was serious. I don’t think people really believed that I was going to make any changes until after about eight months. It has now been a year since I have been out. That was a hard year. A long year. I went in the ocean twice.  I had to work. Hard labour man. Straight up work. Work and the Bible! Wake up. Bible study. Work all day. Bible Study. Go to sleep.

We built a restaurant over in Kapalua. I did a lot of yard work and a lot of community service kind of work. There was no alcohol in the house. I was a safe and sober environment but you could leave the house anytime you wanted. Within the first week I was working at a restaurant actually building the bar. If I wanted to access alcohol I could have. About one hundred people came and left the house and I think I was the second one to graduate. I saw people come and go everyday but I just said nobody was going to stop me this time”

BACK TO THE REAL WORLD

Mark checked out of ‘My brother’s keeper’ a year later and immediately set about rebuilding his life. Free from the addiction of alcohol the old ‘Mark Angulo’ started to re emerge and it was not long before he returned to the water with a renewed enthusiasm and a lot of time to make up for…

MA “I was shocked when I came back out from the re-hab. We would get up at five AM every morning. By the time most people were crawling out of bed we would be cranking for two hours. I remember the first night I came home. Throughout this time my wife Eleanor started visiting me again. We kind of fixed our relationship. The ‘real me’ came back. Before I was just drinking Vodka all day. I did not even drink beer by the end. I just drank Vodka all day long. The ‘real me’ started to emerge again. The person she fell in love with back in 1988. So we decided to get re married. I remember waking up the day I came out of the rehab and I did not know what to do with myself. In the rehab we spent most of the time in quietness, focusing on yourself. You had to think about why you had made the choices you had made. That fact was that I made those choices. I did it. Most people will tell you there are physiological and physical reasons why you become an alcoholic and of course there are. Maybe it’s something in people’s background that makes you slip of the rails but I did it. My friends did not do it to me. It wasn’t the fact that I was windsurfing too young with too much money. I realized that I made those choices. I paid the price for my actions. Once I came to terms with that and then I realized I did not have to go back to alcohol. It made me at peace with myself. It is ok now. It is ok to have a good life. Not drink all day. Not self destruct. Not all resentful and angry and trying to blame everyone else.

ALCOHOL

I have not drunk in over two years now. No beer no cigarettes no nothing. I feel great. I don’t even miss it. It’s sort of odd. When I see alcohol around I think about how radically it changed my life. Now it seems really quite mundane and un-interesting. You still have to be careful not to let down your guard. I won’t do that. I know where drinking is going to take me. I have been to jail and sat in horrible places. I know exactly where it takes you. It aint no fun place”

ASPIRATIONS

With his renewed enthusiasm and passion for sailing Mark has been out on the water most windy days on Maui. Despite his age and time out of the loop, Marks raw talent timing of the wave and innovative style has never left him and his sailing style is as radical and unpredictable as it was in his heyday. At 38, maybe its too late to launch a new career but Mark still sees himself as an inspiration to many for his qualities both on and off the water.

RETURN ON THE WATER

MA: “I had some old equipment. I went sailing after about a week out of the re-hab. I was just a kook. I remember getting beaten around. I remember getting one wave and just busting the biggest fattest goita ever! I ate it in the pit! I just remember laughing. It came back to me that I just love windsurfing. I then started working at the shop for my dad. That started to become my new life. The shop and the beach. That is now my little loop. No deviations. No reason to go anywhere else. I just wake up early. Do my computer work. Go to the shop, take care of my responsibilities. Go to the beach…go sailing or surfing. Before I had all these mental and emotional ties with windsurfing and the beach. The fact is that one day I woke up too and realized that it is my responsibility to be down the beach. I am one of the best windsurfers in the world. I love windsurfing and I gotta go windsurf. I don’t complain anymore about the wind or the conditions. I go down, enjoy myself and remind myself of everyday of when I was locked up in Washington State in the middle of no where nobody cared about the ocean or windsurfing. Every time I think about that…woo I am right out there… (Laughs)

Of course we all like to think that we are good enough to get paid to windsurf but I don’t think about it in those terms anymore. I think that because of who I am and what I am doing I am in a pretty good position. Now I am involved with the shaping, designing and the Angulo board line with my ability of what going on the water. I think I would probably be the best deal that is going! But the fact is I am 38 years old. I had my day in the sun. The way I have things going I will have plenty more time in the water. I will get some magazine coverage and stuff like that but my main goal now is to be happy and live a good life. I would like to be a good inspiration and a good example for younger kids.

There are a lot of young guys out there just in the same position I used to be. I can see some of them partying and getting bad. I would now like to set a good example.

At the moment I don’t even get free boards. I earn my boards. I got to pay for my boards. I make them at the Angulo custom factory so I get the best price possible. But I pay for everything. Nothing is free because it has got to come out of somebody’s pocket. My dad ‘aint gonna’ pay for my boards anymore. Actually Robby Naish gives me sails, booms and masts. He and Michi Schweiger have really helped me out. Robby was really a good friend. He stepped up to the plate. I called him and said I needed some stuff. I went down there and they loaded up my truck with sails. That was really cool. Robby does not have to anything like that for nobody. I really appreciated that”

ANGULO ON TOP

While Mark went through his dark phase of alcohol addiction and reckless behaviour, Josh somehow managed to pull through his problems and keep his career intact. With his world title victory in 2003 and recent victory at the Aloha Classic Josh has been flying the flag for the Angulo family during Marks absence from the competitive side of the sport…

MA: “I always kept an eye on Joshes career. He was my little brother. He went through bad stuff too with drugs and alcohol. I felt partially responsible for him. He looked up to me when he was little. In a way I felt like I let my brother down. He would not have gone through any of this if I had been on it more. At the end of the day just like I had to come to the conclusion that I made my own decisions and was responsible for my own choices…he was too. He was responsible for his actions and stuff but I did not help any! He was six years younger than me and when I first got sponsored he saw me with all these new Oakley sunglasses and Billabong shorts…he wanted that too…but I could have definitely been a better example. I can be today…and I can tomorrow. Any time that he needs somebody to talk to he can call me up. I know all about it…I have been there.

OLD GUARD

At 38 years of age Mark reckons he still has at least four years of solid windsurfing left in him. His gauge is Robby Naish who seems to be sailing harder and stronger than ever at the moment. What has really impressed Mark is the way the latest generation of sailors have been pushing the sport just as he did back in the late eighties…

MA: “I trip out these days. Robby and I are the old guys. Even Jason Polakow I consider to be young. When I was really cranking along Jason was still a little grommet. Now as time goes by they kind of throw us all into the same mix. But really I look around out there at Ho’okipa and it’s me and Robby and a bunch of kids. What a great inspiration Robby is. I guess he even looks down on me as young. I was the little kid out there when he was sailing backyards. He is only like four years older than me. It’s nice to know I have got four more years. When he goes down I will really start to know that I am on my countdown on the water… (Laughs).

I watch all the new guys out there. I felt there was a long period of time for about ten years where nobody came along and broke new boundaries. Nobody stepped up to the plate and did anything new. Lately it is so nice to see the new energy out there. I love it. Right now I really consider Levi Siver to be the best wave rider in the world. When it comes to the full bag of all round performance. I think that my money would be between Josh and Levi. I am a little biased with Josh because he is my brother. Boujmaa and all those guys… I don’t even know half of their names but they have been pretty impressive out there too. They are all eighteen or twenty years old and going off. You still can’t hide from somebody that is a good surfer too, that is what makes the difference. There is no comparison. I can see right through doing jumps and tricks on the wave versus riding the wave. They are getting better at hiding it but some of those guys are not surfers. If you watch Kai Lenny he will separate himself from the other kids because he is a good surfer. That is the real key. It is a real exciting time to be around the world of windsurfing at the minute. I am pretty happy about it. I am glad I am still around… I am really blessed and fortunate you know to be any small part of it!”

JAWS

Mark Angulo was a key rider in the first ever photographed session at Maui’s infamous big wave spot… Jaws. Literally risking their lives with this un known beast Mark and a few other hardcore Maui locals jumped form the rocks and sailed mind blowing thirty to forty foot waves!

MA “That whole time in our life was a really cool period. I was hanging with Laird Hamilton, Mike Waltze and Dave Kalama and Jaws was one of the places we were watching for years.  Then one day Laird suggested we go out sailing there. It was windy so we went out. We all jumped off the rocks. It was scary. I was the first one off the rocks and I had to paddle my rig about 40 feet to get into the wind. You had to time it. There was a big shore break and a lot of rocks. It was real stupid actually. I made it out and all of a sudden a big set came and the other guys had to wait. I was out there on my own for about half an hour. I got like ten covers from that first session. Everyone else finally made it out. Oh my goodness that was a day to remember. It was scary. Kai got caught that day and broke all of his stuff and went on the rocks. After that we started taking our boats up there and then jet skis came around. They were pretty fun years. We sailed it plenty after that. The first time was the one! I have not been out there in a long time. I would love to sail it again. It’s a great wave. With all the crowds out there now it’s getting more dangerous. People have to drop deeper. I am not sure if I want to take a thirty foot wave on my head again. I did a couple of times and I am telling you it is not something you want to do often. Sooner or later somebody will drown.”

STILL DREAMING

It is remarkable to see that Mark Angulo has returned to the water with new enthusiasm and is sailing as well as ever. No longer is his presence on the water a fading memory but Angulo is back out there at Ho’okipa re inventing and re inspiring. His story is a loss for windsurfing from the point of view of what could have. He was certainly one of the few that could of taken wave sailing into a new level and what he could of achieved we will never no. At least he has overcome his demons and survived through some pretty gnarly times with his health still intact. Mark Angulo has never been afraid to learn new moves, never afraid to fall and never stopped pushing the boundaries…Its great to have him back and it’s still not too late for him to be an inspiration both on and off the water to many of the new generation.

MA: “I am feeling like I am just now getting to the point where I feel I can start pulling off some serious moves. I feel like my timing is good enough to launch and get forward projection, height and momentum all together. There is a lot of stuff to do. Without going into too much detail…really the next stuff is going into double rotations on the waves. There is a lot of inverted stuff …it is really the sky is the limit. The problem for me is that I don’t have a place to train a hundred waves a day with nobody in my way. If I had that you just can’t imagine what you can do. It’s hard to learn and do good stuff at Ho’okipa these days and that is one of the best places in the world to learn. A lot of times you will only get three of four set ups in a day. I get so excited when I get good set up. Sometimes I just melt so I rarely put it all together to make it happen.

LIFE

I am just enjoying having my life back. It has taken me all year to get used to the fact of really living life. Today I can do what I want to do. As long as I take care of my responsibilities I can go sit on the beach and just do nothing if I want. I can work all day, sail or listen to music. I know I missed out on what could have been a great career but on the other hand those years could have killed me. I can write off a list of twenty people I have known over the last ten years that are dead from alcohol. It’s easy to speculate what could have happened in my career. Jason Polakow probably took my place. I had my name on the Neilpryde sails; Neil was probably grooming me to be in that position. Jason was in the right place at the right time. Good for him. I am proud of him, he is a good guy.

My parents were telling me, my friends were telling me…and I did not want to listen to nobody. I was stubborn and I paid the price. The Price has been paid. I am free and clear. I have no debts to nobody. I am not looking over my shoulder. I am all good!…It’s all good in the neighbourhood!”

A FEW WORDS FROM 2010 (CATCH UP INTERVIEW)

JC: So what is your daily routine in the wind and wave season?

MA: I basically own Angulo custom. I do all the custom work for our company. Anything Josh wants custom, I build, I make a lot of prototypes and also build all my dad’s custom stand up boards and all his custom windsurf stuff. It’s a lot of fun for me because I get to do a lot of glass work and a lot of building and I like that type of work…I like to build. I am not the greatest business man or manager in the world. My brain works better experimenting and having fun with designs. I have a great little system now. I wake up anywhere from 4-5am in the morning and I go to the factory and line up a bunch of things. Maybe I will wrap some boards, drop some boxes in, do a couple of laminations and a hot coat and then while everything dries ill come down and sail all afternoon. It’s perfect. My wife loves to sail to so we spend time down at the beach together and then go home and compare stories.

I can’t complain. I don’t live on Maui to just work 24/7. I have been stuck in that rut before so I am really trying to balance things and keep the lifestyle going. Staying at the beach is the most important to me. Sailing as much as I do has gotten me to the point where I can actually build good boards now. Everyday it is windy I get to come down to the water and test all the stuff.

JC: I saw you land three or four Mutants today at Ho’okipa…have you finally got that move nailed…

MA: I finally have it now where I can nail five or six Mutants in a session or a day. I am getting to the point now where my goal is to be able to do at least ten really good rotations everyday. Five 360’s and five Mutants or two 360’s and eight Mutants…whatever but I like to go home with some solid sailing under my belt. Not only the rotations…I like to hit some decent airs and to just better myself as a sailor. I only feel now that after all these years that I am starting to become a good sailor. I’ve taken my hits and been down pretty low in the past but everything is coming together right now. I am really blessed to have Maui and Ho’okipa as my playground. I get to build boards for a living and I get to come down and windsurf. I cannot complain at all, it’s a great life for sure.

JC: Is there anybody else that is even trying them?

MA: There are some rumblings in the woods. I can here guys talking about the Mutant and I occasionally see guys trying them. The truth is…once a couple of guys start doing them and make the breakthrough; they will realize that out of all the rotations, it is the best strongest one for doing a double rotation. The power you get coming out of the first rotation is ridiculous especially if you project out in front of the wave. If you do it properly it is an insane feeling and a great move. It’s definitely the best move I can do as yet. People are probably getting sick of watching it but it’s taken a long time to get it dialled. Last year I was just landing my first ever ones. It used to be three or four months between making one. It’s come a long way. I am pretty happy with the progression.

JC: So what other new moves do you have in the pipeline…I saw you also sailing clew first a few days ago?

MA: Its time to do some new stuff I think. I’ve got a few new moves in the pipeline. I have made one or two clew first aerial 360’s. That’s a cool way to attack the lip and do some airs. You can really start twisting and rotating weird. I like the moves where you get contorted. Me and Kauli were talking about it a little bit. I have an appreciation for his way of attacking the wave and it’s similar to mine. You know…its all about fun and keeping sailing exciting and different. That’s why we try new boards, new designs, new fin set ups and new manoeuvres. That’s what it is all about…It’s just about having fun!

MUTANT SEQUENCE!