Surfer Profile: Chris Bertish

Highlights:
Paddling Jaws 2000, Billabong XXL Paddle Award 2001, Alternate invitee to Mavericks Big Wave Event – California. Third place Red Bull Big Wave Africa 2006 Surfing solid surf with friends all over the planet.

Long Beach had been firing all day for the junior event, and I had been hanging out on the beach, watching a few of the kids rip and checking to see the status quo amongst the up-and-coming surfers of our country. While standing around and watching with a few mates, our eyes were lured to Sunset whenever a set broke over the outside reef. There was wind on the water, making the sets at Sunset look decidedly rough and messy, far from ideal for a surf. As the day progressed so did the waves pick up a little and clean up. We were hanging at Andy’s house watching the surfing from his balcony when we checked a surfer carrying a massive board running down to Krans. ‘What’s up with that?” I wondered. The surfer saw us, waved, and paddled out into the line-up at Krans. Now if anything the wind was onshore. There were no barrels at Krans that you could take off really on a bigger board and set yourself up for. There were these onshore close-outs with kelp, and it was low tide. This was most peculiar.

Chris pushed through the sets at Krans and got to the backline quickly. He sat there for a moment before turning around and paddling across deep-ocean, heading for Sunset. We watched him all the way. Took him a good 20 minutes of strong paddling to get into the line-up, where he promptly stroked for the first set wave, caught it, and rode it to the channel. “Well, that’s one way of dealing with the crowds.” I thought.
“I am motivated by the idea of pushing my own personal boundaries,” says Chris of his big wave surfing prowess. “and testing yourself against nature.”
Testing himself against nature probably started for Chris when he attempted to paddle Jaws in 2000. Peahi on Maui had been up to that stage strictly tow-only, and entry was kind of determined by Laird Hamilton. Chris was on his big wave quest at this stage, to paddle Waimea, Todos Santos, Mavericks and Jaws. The other three waves were paddle spots, but Jaws had not been really examined yet. Chris got into the massively shifting lineup on his gun. He caught a wave and stood up. History was made. That he subsequently broke his board is irrelevant. Chris went on to astound the British media with a gung-ho approach to surfing The Cribbar in Newquay alone, without a rescue team, and was blasted onto the cover of most newspapers and magazines in the UK for it.
When it comes to Dungeons, Chris likes to pull in. Every year there is imagery of Bertish inside a couple of big tubes at Dungeons, and no doubt this year will see him pulling in again, or something equally spectacular.