I can still recall the summer day when I met the gremmie. He had spiky hair and was tanned, fit, talkative and very funny. He said he had just turned 13 and that he and a few of his friends were the future of surfing.
I was writing surf stories at the time, and so I knew what was coming next. “You should,” he said, “do a story on the groms.” When I asked who he had in mind, he mentioned Kenny Clemmons, Todd Martin and himself. No surprise there.
He paddled out and surfed like a grommet — fast, jerky and bouncy with a few solid turns thrown in to prove that he could indeed be everything he claimed he would be. His name was Brad Gerlach (pronounced Gerrlock).
A few years later, I met another gremmie of 13. He was a longboarder, and while he spoke a lot, little of his verbiage concerned his own surfing. Longboarding was returning after the surf media convinced us that it wasn’t worth doing any longer. Stupidly, we believed them.
The kid, Joel Tudor, would, through his precocious surfing, nearly single-handedly bring traditional longboarding back into focus.
By age 18, the gremmie, Gerlach, had become a known and feared competitor called “Gerr.” I remember the day he served notice to the surfing world by winning a major event in Oceanside. The kid had hit the big leagues.
While Gerr was a phenomenal surfer by any standards, I sensed something most good surfers of the age (the early to mid-‘80s) lacked — a flow between moves. I suggested Gerr meet my lifelong friend, the absolute king of flow, Skip Frye.
That introduction marked the beginning of a movement that led Gerr to become the amazing surfer he is today. Power, timing, guts and style combined to place him among the best surfers of our time.
In 1990, I directed a surf movie, “On Safari to Stay,” starring the other gremmie, Joel Tudor. I had never seen anyone like him — so fast, perfectly balanced and able to find the tube even on a 9-foot longboard. I recall the day he presented his credentials to the world at the Oceanside Longboard Surfing Contest, circa 1991.
He was running a 104 fever, resting in his parents’ van, when he was called to check in. I returned to the announcer’s stage where I, along with Joel’s greatest mentor, David Nuuhiwa, was commentating on the event. As I recall, the surf was small and nicely lined up, but nobody did moves worth texting home about.
Then, 14-year-Joel paddled out long, blond hair flying as he took off, laid into a clean bottom turn, ran up, hung ten and kicked five. David nearly swallowed the mic as he watched his mirror image capture the world of longboarding in the way he had a decade and a half earlier.
Over the years, both Gerr and Joel have helped reinvent surfing, each in their own ways. While Gerr made a name for himself through his brilliant power flow and by riding some of the world’s biggest waves, Joel brought style and grace back to a world that greatly needed them.
Brad Gerlach is currently living in Huntington Beach with his wife and two boys. He teaches Wave Ki, a popular surfing-specific workout he developed. Joel Tudor also has two boys. He lives in Del Mar, surfs daily, has his own surfboard company and teaches jiu-jitsu. While both Joel and Gerr are now middle-aged, they can already claim legend status.
