"This is the Country" ran in the November 1976 issue of SURFER. From his Honolulu studio, photographer Steve Wilkings invited Owl Chapman over watch a slideshow of images shot the previous July, at Maalaea; the SURFER article is a transcribed conversation that took place as the slides clicked past. This version has been edited and shortened.

CHAPMAN: Maalaea is the most intense tube ride there is, man. You'll go faster on a six-foot wave than you will at Sunset Beach on a sixteen-foot wave. And while you’d be going 

 Maalaea, so you and gravity are tracking against each other, right? You’re breaking all the rules; you’re going faster on a smaller wave than if you were on a big giant one coming down. How do you figure that out? [On this day], Gerry Lopez stood on the beach and said I got the best ride. Another guy, he seen me go in the tube and said "no way.” He bent down, picked up his board, walked 35 feet to his car, strapped one strap on, strapped another strap on, turned around and looked, and I popped out of the tube.

WILKINGS: Do you know who this is? [Another image comes onscreen]

Looks like Gary Birch to me. I remember that wave. Steve, I seen you at Pioneer [Pioneer Inn, Lahaina] earlier that morning.

We were kind of running around the harbor ditchin’ out Carl Hoke and those guys. We were doing a fake on them. 

[A pulled-back lineup photo comes onscreen]

 That’s a nice shot, man, because of the tree and the chick.

This is just a bunch of random stuff. This was when it was crowded, before the surf really started to jump up. I’d say this was one o'clock in the afternoon. Here, you get a tighter view of the wave on this one.

After you went into the water. There wasn’t anybody to shoot before that.

I bet on my first five waves you were disappointed.

Not really. You had bits and pieces of those waves that were nice.

I was depressed with myself, still trying to put it together. I had four beers before I paddled out. And I borrowed Les Pott's trunks—I got shitty-colored trunks in these photos; those are the worst pair of trunks I've ever worn. 

 You got to be right under that lip, man. All I can tell Rabbit is that his Kirra Point sucks.

The Aussies . . . they won’t make it. They’ll pull in but they won’t come out. You gotta pull in and come out. 

 That’s a classic right there. Did I make that?

Flaming entry. No, I didn't make that. The fin came out and I slipped and ate it.

In almost all of these, you're airborne on the takeoff just as soon as you come over the ledge. It’s a free-fall and then you have to reset it after you’ve dropped a couple of feet and go. You are not trying to get to the bottom like everyone else out there was trying to do.

It's heavy. The wind blows you way back up into the corner, so you’re just stuck up there

I was wondering how small that board was.

It’s a 6' 10". Hey man, I’m stoked you got a picture of my board with my sticker on it—Owl Chapman! 

That’s a classic shot right there. I never came out of that stance. I wanted it to hit me on the chest and it wouldn’t hit me! I’ve got a lot of alcohol in me there. 

If you look closely, you'll notice toe contact only with your right foot. Your heel is off the board, and you're leaning forward and down . . . .

It almost has shades of Mark Richards, right?

Hey, man. That's better than Mark Richards. He’s skinny. I’ve got a better-looking body. 

 Maalaea's bitchin’ because you stand in the tube and it’s so cold in there, and really dark, and if you make the wave you ride out into the sunlight. See these guys paddling out? They’re goons, man. 

 That’s a classic. I thought I was gonna make it. I’m going so fast and I’m in the slot so heavily. The wave's hard to make, man.

It’s not so much that it’s hard to make, it’s more like you gotta pick that middle line, stay right in the middle of the face, and anybody that didn't do that, got too high or too low, was outta there.

[Next photo; first in a sequence where Chapman, while in the tube, runs into a surfer paddling out]

 Is this the one I get hit on? That's it, huh?

Look at the wind ripples running across that thing.

That’s it, there's the dude. His board hit me in the teeth here, hit me right under the nose. See this giant scar? My nose is sore to this day. You know that little piece of gum up there? Well, mine's gone now. I wish that guy would’ve never been there. I almost got past him; the very last bit the tail block hit me as I was flying by. I got another wave, but I was spaced out after that. I surfed forty minutes after that, just spitting blood. I hit bottom so hard that the coral exploded. I had cuts all over my body.

The curl line is right about even with you. I figured that you had it made and kept shooting.

No way! I got drilled. If I thought I was going to hit him going that fast, I would've bailed out. That ruined my whole day. I was on that wave.

OWL CHAPMAN ON MAALAEA: "ALL I CAN TELL RABBIT IS THAT HIS KIRRA POINT SUCKS" (1976)

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