The Fitness Strategies Behind Buzzy Trent, Surfing Icon and Innovator
Two legends at the dawn of an era—Buzzy Trent and a young Dick Brewer sharing insights over a surfboard that would carve out the future of the sport.
Buzzy Trent, fearless North shore Waterman, 1929-2006. Even though surfing wasn't much more than a recreational activity to Trent, he trained extensively and was the first to carry boulders along the ocean floor during the 1950’s. Living in the true spirit of aloha, he never sold a used board. Instead, he would pass his boards on to others without ever asking anything in return. He surfed the biggest waves he could find, choosing Makaha and Waimea as his ultimate arenas. His trademark was to sit furthest out at Makaha and stroke into some serious bombs.
Buzzy Trent was one of surfing’s original gladiators. Born and raised in Southern California, he sailed to Hawaii in 1952 where he pioneered Big Wave Riding at Makaha Point.
Looking at the image of Buzzy, you see a cut physique. So much so, it defies skin and bones because it looks as if it were chiseled from stone. Broad shouldered, from which below presents a hard as steel washboard stomach, supported by slim hips and muscled legs, he is carrying his big wave gun with biceps that could rule for days. Without a doubt, you instinctively know that you are looking at an athlete of epic proportions, in possession of a body refined for something of great magnitude. And of course, you’d be right; because you’re looking at legendary Big Wave Surfer, Buzzy Trent.
Big Wave surfer Buzzy Trent, surfing’s lionized godfather of Big Wave Riding, was among a small handful of Californians to migrate to Hawaii in 1952, in search of finding the biggest, baddest wave that could be surfed. He approached big surf with a bravado that defined the image of the Big Wave Surfer, putting his pedal to the metal by tackling monster waves on the West side and North Shore of Oahu. The stories of his fearlessness in big water which pre-dates the surf leash, jet skies, lifeguards at the bay, and inflatable vests, now lay testimony in films, images, and stories. There, one need only look at that physique to arrive at the undeniable conclusion that Big Gun Buzzy Trent epitomized the prototype of the original Big Wave Surfer, who set the blueprint long before Laird Hamilton walked the planet.
But while Buzzy’s legacy is defined as a legendary Big Wave Surfer, the road to that began long before he dropped into his first thirty-foot wave. And it was in 1941, at 12 years of age, when he convinced his mother to buy him a solid redwood surfboard. Living on San Vicente Boulevard in Santa Monica, California, he’d strap his hundred-pound surfboard to a rickshaw wagon, which he hooked to a balloon tire bicycle, before peddling twelve miles north, up the coast to Malibu, where he would surf all day, before peddling furiously back, beating the dark, to arrive just in time for his mother’s home cooked dinner. He developed such strong legs from biking, that in 1944, at the age of 15, on a whim, he spontaneously decided to peddle his bike all the way to San Francisco. When he arrived, he knocked on his elderly Aunt’s door. Surprised to see him when she opened the door, she exclaimed, “How did you get here, dear?” To which he casually responded, “I rode my bike.”
“The ultimate in riding big waves is to be way back in the jaws of death. To experience this huge, dark tunnel full of energy and tremendous force. To be totally afraid yet still thinking about what you’re doing. You may come out of it feeling momentarily invincible, but you’re not. Because maybe the next wave slams you so hard you want to cry. That’s why a great deal of ego is involved in riding big waves. You want to prove to yourself that you’re not afraid of life. It cancels out boredom, because you’re never bored riding big waves.”
Bicycling into his later teen years, he then went on to play track and field, throwing the discus, javelin, and excelling in sprinting the 50 yard dash. Later, he began training as a boxer, qualifying for the Golden Gloves, where, according to Ricky Grigg, he abruptly left boxing when he fatally struck an opponent in the ring. Leaving boxing behind, he accepted a scholarship to play football at the University of Southern California (USC), as a running back. All the while, Buzzy maintained his tie to the ocean, and was a lifeguard for Santa Monica City, entering the paddle races, and surfing. Always surfing. During his time at USC, his good friend Walter Hoffman, who was in the navy, stationed in Hawaii, was sending pictures and short 8 millimeter films back to Santa Monica, of a place called, Makaha, telling Buzzy that the place had waves so “big and beautiful”, that “you just have to get over here and see it!”
And he did. But the opportunity to do so came in the form of a setback. A football injury. During practice, he was clipped by his teammate Frank Gifford, and was laid up in the hospital with a broken leg. As timing would have it, taking a hiatus while recuperating from his injury, a spot suddenly opened up in the Trans-Pacific race. A yacht race that started in California and ended in Hawaii, it was to include the first crossing of a catamaran, and Buzzy Trent was offered a spot in the five man crew. He took it. Taking a leave from USC, he hopped on that catamaran with his duffle bag, sailed to the island of Oahu, and there, at Makaha Point, he found that big, beautiful wave he had always dreamed of. Like committing to the take-off of a thirty-foot wave, once he found Makaha, he never looked back. He was to spend the rest of his surfing days surfing Big Makaha and the North Shore, much of which was captured by surf filmmaker, Bud Browne. Once Buzzy Trent found big Makaha point surf, he was never to return to California again.
Buzzy Trent deep on a huge Makaha bomb, 1964.
“The ultimate in riding big waves is to be way back in the jaws of death. To experience this huge, dark tunnel full of energy and tremendous force. To be totally afraid yet still thinking about what you’re doing. You may come out of it feeling momentarily invincible, but you’re not. Because maybe the next wave slams you so hard you want to cry. That’s why a great deal of ego is involved in riding big waves. You want to prove to yourself that you’re not afraid of life. It cancels out boredom, because you’re never bored riding big waves.” — Buzzy Trent
Buzzy only liked surfing big waves. He loved the power of big waves. To him, surfing anything less than triple overhead, was only practice for the main event. Big Wave Surfing became his focus, taking up front and center stage in his life. Still, all roads led him to the sport that was to ultimately define his athletic legacy, and instinctively, he had developed an ability to tackle big waves in much the same way he tackled all athleticism; he trained. He understood that optimal performance in anything, requires optimal investment in training, and he trained diligently at honing a physique that would be capable of withstanding three wave hold downs in thirty-foot wave sets.
“Small wave riding doesn’t move me … There’s no fear. Big Wave Riding is ultimate. Everything connected with it is functional.”
While he waited for the winter swells, he worked diligently on strengthening a body that could survive big water. Although he continued to jump rope, paddle in open ocean, and throw the javelin, the training mode he was most devoted to, and which he most preferred, was diving. He had specific deep water caves that he would use as crevices in which to niche himself tightly within, to practice holding his breath for long periods of time. It was Buzzy who began the now used practice of running on sand on the ocean floor, while clutching heavy rocks to his chest to build endurance and practice for hold downs. Equally to preparing physically, he committed to preparing mentally, using the physical aspect as only one part of the equation in channeling the mental toughness necessary in what he referred to as, “cultivating courage.” Because for him, ultimately, that was what surfing was all about.