![]() The meth slimmed him up, kept him psyched, and made him fearless in big waves. At the time he was overweight from drinking. They smoked meth together on that trip, then Peter won the Red Bull 5x and convinced himself that he surfed better on meth. Flea had won three Maverick’s contests in a row and Peter had won none. It was 2003 and he was at the contest with Flea, who was the highest-paid surfer in Santa Cruz at the time and Peter’s big-wave rival. The first time Peter smoked meth was at the Red Bull 5x surf contest in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. My signed poster seemed to be a prophetic slogan of the times. Brands glorified their athletes getting fucked up, and when Santa Cruz pro Darryl “Flea” Virostko won the Mavericks contest he famously threw a rager at the Dream Inn, then spent a hefty chunk of his prize money on hotel repairs. The industry was booming, and pro surfers, many of whom were from broken homes, were stacking more cash than their parents. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, surfing was moving to the high-octane pace of punk bands like Pennywise and Offspring. Six years later, Tara gave birth to John. “Then one day Peter looked at me and said, ‘It’s OK, he can call me Dad.’ From that moment on I was like-this guy’s got me.” “I tried to tell Anthony, ‘no, that’s Peter,’” Tara says. ![]() Not long after, they started dating casually, and when Anthony was old enough to form words he started calling Peter “Dad.” Tara was a single mom and had to pay for the wetsuit in $20 increments, so she kept returning to the shop. He made sure to let me know that he was a professional surfer.” “Do you remember anything about that first interaction?” “I was 22 and I walked into Freeline to buy a wetsuit for my son, Anthony, who was 1 year old,” she says. Tara has blue eyes and is wearing ripped jeans and a baby blue cashmere sweater patterned with dandelion flowers. The street is busy with tourists on their way to the beach. I interview Tara across the street from Freeline on a wooden bench. The family is candid with me, and I feel both honored by their trust and terrified by the responsibility. Peter’s wife Tara Mel, son John, and stepson Anthony are all working there today.Įven though I’m a longtime friend of the Mels, I’ve come this time as a journalist, eager to profile Peter and flesh out the truths and details behind some dark family stories that I only sort of know about. ![]() I only came in for a bar of wax, but now that I’m chopping it up with a surf legend, maybe I do need a new surfboard after all. Business is good these days, and it only gets better when Peter makes himself available for customers. The shop has been in his family since Peter’s dad opened it in 1969. I kept that poster through my teens, when I became friends with his stepson Anthony, and it was still on my wall when he publicly revealed his addiction to meth.Ī few days after Peter’s historic ride at Mavericks, I walk into Freeline Surf Shop in Santa Cruz and Peter is behind the register autographing a magazine for a customer. The poster read The Men Who Ride Mountains in bold letters, and in black sharpie below were the words To Kyle, Go Big. The first surf poster I ever tacked to my wall, when I was maybe 10 years old, was of Peter Mel dropping into a wave at Mavericks. Peter has been surfing the spot for 29 years, and on the day he caught the best wave of his life he was 51 years old. It was the best wave anyone has ever paddled into at Mavericks, the famous big-wave break 20 miles south of San Francisco. And when the wave spit him out safely into the channel, he bowed his head and then looked up and smiled at his son John Mel, who watched in disbelief from a jet ski. He just stood casually inside a 50-foot barrel as if he were in a cathedral, having a private chat with God. Once he’d made the drop and set his line, he didn’t crouch in a survival stance or open his mouth in a “holy shit!” expression. 8, 2021, Peter Mel paddled from behind the peak and knifed into the bowl. ![]() The big-wave legend reflects on addiction, family, and the wave of a lifetime
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