It
was at Salt Creek that Bob first met Jeremy. He was coming out of
the water when Bob stopped him to ask him name. "He was real shy," says
Bob. The next day they were down there again when Bob saw Jeremy
looking over at the guys, kind of like a young puppy that doesn't quite
know what to do-it'll come up to you with its tail wagging or run for cover.
Bob went over to Jeremy and told him to go out with the guys and surf.
Two days later, Jeremy called up Bob and offered the team a place to stay
during the next Trestles contest
"I saw these guys
and how stoked they were on bodyboarding," Jeremy explains. What
amazed him the most was that, with all their popularity, they didn't need
drugs or the party scene to get ahead. It didn't take long for Jeremy
to realize he wanted the same thing. "I was pretty much going nowhere,
" he says. "I wanted the same stoke in my life."
Jeremy is definitely
still a grom. He walks around barefoot in his old boxer shorts wrapping
his hands up underneath his T-shirt. It's his youthful innocence
that attracts people, the typical "Mom's apple pie" American boy.
With his Jimmy Olson personality (the newsboy from the old Superman T.V.
show), he's a model world champion-a goal he sets his sights on.
Competitively, Mike
Stewart is his biggest concern. Right above his bead he has a signed poster
of Mike, tucked inside a giant Pipeline barrel. Jeremy got it when
Mike was signing autographs at Ala Moana. He ate just before getting
in line to get his poster signed. "I felt like I was gonna have gas,"
he says. "I laid a fart in the middle of the line and was afraid
it would smell."
These guys may be
a little "candid," but they've all had their turn at being outright obnoxious.
And that's why they need Harry to keep them in line-he's the glue that
makes the Team stick. Not only does Harry handle the team's logistics
(while I was packing up to leave he was dividing up the phone bill), but
to people on and off the team, he's seen as a counselor- and a friend.
Harry first met Bob
when he was only 12 years old. Harry was sitting on the beach digging
a hole in the sand when Scott (Bob's son) came up to Harry and wanted to
play. "Even thought Scott was a lot younger than Harry," Bob says, "he
still didn't tell him to go away...I knew right then that Harry was a special
kid. Look at him now."
However, Harry hasn't
always been the perfect role model. In the 6th grade he started smoking
pot and, by his freshman year in high school, "I had tried about every
drug know to man," he says. After eight years of virtually seeing
his life go down the drain, he went cold turkey. "God helped me make
the change," he brags, "haven't touched the stuff in four years, five months."
Harry
started going to church, got math help from Bob and, just squeaking
by, he made it out of high school. It's hard to believe that the
same guy who didn't know his multiplication tables now spends hours upon
hours working on the team's computer and video editing equipment.
The changes in Harry's
life haven't only been intellectual ones. He's made some transitions
in his surfing too. As a matter of fact, Harry first started out
as a surfer back in high school. "He was really good," says Chris.
When Harry broke his knee he had no choice but to start bodyboarding to
get in shape, the rest is, as they say, history.
And that's precisely
what the Kauai Classic Team's doing: Making history. And while each
member has his own personality, they all have two things in common-bodyboarding
and God, though they would argue that it's actually the other way around-God
comes first.
Are they hypocrites?
"They live it to the
hilt," says fellow competitor Ben Severson. "They're the nicest guys I
know." And these "nice guys" are on a mission. Get in the magazine,
win some contests and, who knows, maybe even a few souls.
More Pictures
of the past Kauai Classic Team's members
If
you have any questions about the Kauai Classic Team email the coach: classic@aloha.net