For all of us entitled Southern California kids brought up on warm chest-high beachbreak waves, Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz felt like it was located just this side of Mordor. Lane waves were triple the size of our local break, the water was 15 degrees colder, the locals 20 pounds heavier and three times gnarlier. Cliffs, rocks, sharks, kelp bulbs like shrunken heads knocking against the bottom of your board as you paddled out. Tar-balls and wetsuit rash were the heaviest things I dealt with in Manhattan Beach. Yeah, I was scared of the Lane.

On the other hand, there was a lot to love. All those overlapping wind-protected breaks along the point. Crowded, yes, but so much room to move. I can't recall how it happened, but on my first visit to Santa Cruz, age 14 or so, I met Lane kingpin Robbie Waldemar (Santa Cruz's answer to Chris O'Rourke; he was that good), and from there was introduced to Steve Colton, Richie Schmidt and Vince Collier. Every year I returned, and every year it was less scary, more enjoyable. I kept surfing the place right up until the noise and chatter from Flea Virostko and his mid-'90s cohorts got too loud, at which time I headed for the softer environs of Pleasure Point.

I called Schmidt earlier this week to talk about Steamer Lane, Santa Cruz, and Mavericks.

Were you surfing the Lane in the pre-leash era?

No, but almost. I started surfing in 1968 at the Rivermouth, on a surf mat, then a little Styrofoam board. And from there it was kind of this natural progression. Over to Cowells on a real board, then slowly you  work your way up the point. I made it to Middle Peak around ’71, which I think was the same year surf leashes were invented. By the time I got there I was using one. But, you know, leashes broke. The place was brutal on boards, just brutal.

Later on you moved so fast up the ranks at Sunset Beach; did surfing the Lane a lot have much to do that?

It did. There’s a way that a swell comes in at the Lane, where it bounces around on the outside reefs way before it gets to the lineup, and Sunset does the same thing but on a way bigger scale. You get really good at looking at the horizon and figuring out where to be in order to take off. Half the deal at the Lane, or Sunset, is just knowing where a wave is going to break, and trying to figure that out from how the wave is bending and refracting way outside, and then getting to that place.

And also just holding your ground. At Sunset, you and Bobby Owens and Michael Ho got tons of waves compared to everybody else just from not paddling around headless when a set came.

Exactly. Both places, most of the time the sets won’t break way out past where you’re sitting. The thing peaks up, builds, peaks up some more, maybe even fringes a little, and your inclination is to head for the horizon. But what you really need to do is just sit there under the canopy and let it come to you.

Before Mavs was a big deal, you got this giant wave at Swift Street and rode it forever. It was in one of Scott Dittrich’s movies. Do you remember that day?

The wave just seemed so mind-blowing at the time; the size, and also how far you rode it!

It was really stormy that winter, but we also got a few really big, perfectly-groomed swells, and that was one of them. It was actually barreling that day, just from the swell hitting the bottom so well. That wave, yeah, you know, that might have been the longest wave I ever surfed. Swift Street all the way through Mitchell’s, it was crazy. First time I ever did that.

Were you riding one of your North Shore boards?

Nah, I was on a 7’2”! That was the biggest board I had in California back then. Years before Mavs changed all that.

A lot of guys your age [53] are still really into big surf. Seems like you kind of backed off a while ago.

I did, yeah. Just from a combination of things. Having kids—all of a sudden, once I had kids, I felt kind of vulnerable in a way that I didn’t used to feel. Plus I got a little spooked after Mark Foo and Todd Chesser died. I kept doing it, but it was more like dabbling than really dedicating myself. I just didn’t have the passion for it that I used to have. And one other thing was, I just felt like I’d been so lucky for so long, in terms of not getting hurt. So it was sort of a deal where I wanted to quit while I was ahead.

You surfed in a couple of those early Mavs contests in the late ‘90s. When did you check out?

It wasn’t really like I checked out. It was more of a slow thing. Did a little tow surfing, just to see what that felt like. I’d always dreamed of surfing huge waves the way I’d surf a six-foot wave at the Lane or something. So I’m glad I did that. But in the early 2000s, I finally said to myself “I’m over Mavs,” and that was pretty much it.

THE ICEMAN ABIDES - A SHORT INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD SCHMIDT (2014)

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