March 26, 2008

March: Bear Woznick, tandem surfer

Imagine getting paid to hoist gorgeous women in the air. Picture six foot waves, sparkling ocean waters, and those shangri-laish Hawaiian sceneries you only see in magazine pictures. Then imagine being 54 years old, living a happy family life with a beautiful wife and four kids – still 21 at heart.
Well there you have it – the everyday life of Bear Woznick, a legendary tandem surfer with ripping ninja skills, the build of a grizzly bear, and tons of aloha for life.

Bear lives in Waikiki, Hawaii, surfs every day, and does a gigantic job of promoting a life style sport that’s not on the news every day.
Modern tandem surfing mirrors the complexity of gymnastics and the fluidity of dance. There are now forty-six official lifts in the sport, multifaceted maneuvers with curious names like the back angel, the grass shack and the arabesque.
For most people standing up in a rowing boat is challenging enough. Bear Woznick stands up on his surf board, coming down a six foot face while carrying his partner on hand above his head. That’s the stuff that makes you Recipe's Man of the month!

How did you get into tandem surfing?

- I saw pictures of my boyhood hero, Duke Kahanamoku (legendary surfer and swimmer), with someone on his shoulders and surfing. Since then, my whole life, all I wanted to be was a surfer and more than that a tandem surfer and more than that a waterman, meaning doing everything in and on the water, surf, sailing, spear fishing, distance surfboard paddling, outrigger canoe paddling and so on.

Why is tandem surfing so great?

- This question is the question and I think I know the answer. Tandem surfers are very passionate about tandem. I have done some thinking about that and here is what I believe it is. First of all surfers are among the few adults who still know how to play. People say they play golf or tennis or football but all of these are really only designed to try to beat someone at something ... that isn’t playing, that's competing. Surfers play with the cosmos.
Waves first pulsed out of the big bang 15 billion years ago in the form of gamma rays and there have been light waves, radio waves, sound waves and even ocean waves ever since. To ride a wave is to be one with the cosmos and to ride a wave with a partner is to be one with your partner and one with the wave.
And it is more than that...it is a visceral connection going back to ancient DNA. I have probably taken out over 1 000 women tandem surfing and most of them say it is the most wonderful experience they have ever had.
In tandem the man uses his strength and prowess to lift her and to protect her and she trusts in him and displays her power and grace. In these days most men don’t lift women anymore .... I mean in just everyday life... men don’t lift up women and.... women don’t trust men. This connection, at the point of trust ... the man doing what he does best and the woman doing what she does best. It’s powerful.
I do that on a professional basis and it is awesome. But when I tandem surf with my wife Talin at night under the moon and stars and lift her into a one arm back, that’s beyond ecstasy for me and I think for her.

When you hear the word tandem surfing it brings to mind old pictures of a girls sitting on guy’s shoulders and laughing. What is the difference between modern tandem surfing and such nostalgia? In what way has the sport evolved?

- First of all there is some question of whether it is a sport at all. It’s more of a religion I think … but modern tandem surfing is an elite sport with elite athletes. Just to surf at the level required to tandem eliminates most of the surfers from the arena, then to do what we do in big waves is even more challenging. I have a second degree black belt in ninja, I stretch five hours a week, weight train four hours a week and of course do conditioning and plyometrics as well. My professional partner Krystle Apeles has an aikido, gymnastics, stunt cheerleading and ballet background. And besides our training together on the beach and in the water, she swims, trains in gymnastics, conditioning and stretching.

What's the most difficult trick you ever performed?

- Surfing an 18 foot face with my partner in a one arm back comes to mind but last year Krystl and i pulled off a hand to foot in Seignosse France. The first time it had been done in competition in 40 years. She sits on my shoulders and then her feet go into my hands and i press her up with my arms fully extended and her legs straight as she stands up. She is standing in my hands with her hands raised. What makes a lift difficult is how far from my center of gravity is her center of gravity, how many points of contact are there and how far above or below those points of contact is her center of gravity. The only thing that could make this lift more challenging would be to hold her there with only one hand. We are working on that.

What's your career highlight?

- I think, as most accomplished athletes would say looking back, winning a world title certainly needed to be there to be a part of it for me – and winning contests is a lot more fun than losing them, but the real highlight for me is that I have started more people tandem surfing then just about anyone in history. To win means very little. Who really gets joy out of beating their friends? To share the aloha (love) of tandem and to build a feeling of ohana (family) to host the world championships in Waikiki and to promote the world tour with my co-president Rico Leroy from France - this is what it is all about for me. The competition brings out the warrior in me to be sure, but more than that contests are just an excuse to gather the tribe.

You're a big guy; would you say that size matters in tandem surfing?

- You don’t need to be extremely strong to do this. But most people who get excited about this start to train and they get stronger. And keep in mind your partner always has to weigh over half of your body weight, so if you get bigger your partners have to increase in weight also.

What other physical and mental qualities do you need to have?

- Well, I am pretty aggro ... and I approach a lot of life like a middle linebacker in American football, but toughness and just going at it hard won’t work in tandem. There has to be power but it has to be smooth power and under control, nothing abrupt or jagged... energy has to flow from the ocean into my board, into my legs and then into my partner. This way my martial arts training and Krystles helps too, her Aikido and certain elements of my ninja training are about harnessing energy, not just creating it. Timing and technique or as we say to each other before we drop into each wave "Poise and execution" is the key. It is power and it is zen, you need the yin and yang to really do this.

What's the most beautiful place you have ever surfed on?

- There is a secret place on the island of Molokai, one of the Hawaiian islands and I am not telling you where. When people ask me about that place I tell a little lie and tell them there are lots of sharks and not to go there.

What's a surfer¹s worst nightmare?

- Well I was in the water at Teahopuu in Tahiti a few years ago on bloody Sunday when forty foot faces and ten foot thick lips broke so hollow you could drive a truck through the barrel and it broke onto that razor sharp reef and there was a lot of blood in the water that day and debris from broken boards and jet skis, and my son Jeremiah rode ten waves of fifty feet or bigger this year so that will give you a little trauma. But the worst thing as far as in tandem goes is when you are screaming down a double over head wave with your partner in a one arm back and someone decides to drop in on you. You have to hold her in that lift as she is arched backwards with only one hand holding the small of her back and she is lifted over my head. She can see backwards into the throat of this huge wave and you know she is counting on you not to let it swallow her. Then some bozo drops in on you and you have to take the hit ... in the chest, the shins or wherever from his board and body and then you have to shed that board somehow and not let it hit her and surf through all of that chaos and mayhem without her getting hurt. My shins are so banged up from this sort of thing that they look like an amusement park.

Are you ever afraid?

- Yes, but a better word is respect. Sometimes I will feel that prickly feeling that means a shark is prowling around and I will go with it and paddle away. And big surf will definitely give you a religious feeling and hope that God is watching out for you. A lot of fear can be handled by training and conditioning. You have to respect the ocean, but you also have to respect yourself. You have to know your limits but then always push just beyond your limits and every time you push beyond your limits you have more breathing room ... more room to play in. This is true in every area of life.

Do you ever get pissed on "tourists" that do not conform ,to local customs in and out of the water?

- For the most part I love watching the visitors here. Seeing their joy in catching their first wave keeps bringing back that feeling to me. I like that much better than the too cool for school attitude that exists in a lot of the lineups but I admit I do get irritated at times.

Does the "locals rule" culture really exist among surfers, or is it just a myth?

- Ok, well here is the reality of this. Did you know that surfers can look at a picture of just a wave, with no one on it and no land showing, and tell you where it is? There are probably over fifty waves I know by heart like this. Like a lover looks at pictures of his beloved and knows her features maybe better then she herself does and so we love and cherish these places. Every reef has been named by surfers. They are precious to us and to some degree or less some of these reefs are like peoples family rooms. If you close your eyes and walked through my family room you would get banged up. If I did it, though, I could walk through all night and never bump into anything. A local surfer can surf his break with eyes closed. He knows it that well. So how would it feel to you if you were sitting in your family room watching hockey and someone walks in with some popcorn, sits on the couch and does not even say hi? Some of these breaks are like the surfers homes. They spend more time with their friends there, than anyplace else. They may be third and fourth generation surfers in that same place. In Hawaii, if you come with an attitude you are going to get snuffed. But if you come out and show respect and sit on the shoulder of the wave for a while and then take less than your fair share of waves and then don’t fall, you will be ok. If the local braddhas give you stink eye it’s because they have seen a hundred hoales (mainlandeders, means no breath) come over and disrespect them. But if you smile and show aloha, they will show you aloha too. You see aloha is love and love can only come from a point of power. They see that and recognize it for their own manna and aloha and they will accept you. In the water though there always has to be enforcers. Some of us naturally play that role. We enforce the rules as kindly as we can to those who don’t know any better. And then sit on the ones that should know better or send them to the beach.

Recipe for men’s man of the month in March

Name: Bear Woznick.

Nickname: My sensei gave me the name Bearsan many years ago and gradually that is what people called me. Now it is my legal name.

Age: 54.

Current hometown: Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii.

Town of birth: Powers Lake, North Dakota.

Family: Married to the hottest women on the planet, the swedish beauty Talin, three sons and a daughter.

Occupation: Runs the ITSA (International Tandem Surfing Association) world tour and has a CPA and have a financial services firm.

Best individual surfer in the world and best tandem couple in the world: The ones having the most fun.

Best surfing memory: The first time I put my wife Talin in a one arm back in the water.

Other strange merits: Peddled his bicycle 2500 miles from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. Paddled his tandem surfboard cross the 40 mile Molokai Channel from Molokai to Oahu

Bear would like to promote: itsatandem.com hawaiisurfquest.com

Enjoys on his spare time: Loves to watch Hawaii warrior football.

Most beautiful place on earth: Molokai, Hawaii.

The world's most beautiful man: Duke Kahanamoku.