Interview with Fred Hemmings
Article for American Surf Magazine
"To boldly go where no man has gone before," Captain Kirk.
Where will your Star Trek take you? Some are born with the desire to shoot beyond the stars to do the uncomfortable and unthinkable, regardless of social perception or ridicule. Fred Hemmings describes this as having a Star Trek. Hemmings has lived a life on this Star Trek; he was an entrepreneur, surf champion, and senator. In a world full of unspoken rules and agendas, he ventured into areas thought unreachable beyond the stars, if you will.
History
"The trail blazers in life expand the human horizon" Hemmings.
Hemmings, later known as the local boy in the surfing world, was born in 1946 and raised in Hawaii. He grew up on the waves of Oahu surfing with some of the great legends of the day. "One of the greatest blessings in my life is that I got to grow up in the shadow of the beach boys of Waikiki, especially Duke Kahanamoku, who I had the pleasure of spending the last three or four years of his life with. I got to know the magic of the man."
Shooting beyond the stars for most of his life, Hemmings started surfing at age eight and would later win the Makaha International contest in 1961, 1963, 1964, and 1966, and the World Surfing Championships in 1968. Yet he remarks that his most significant accomplishment in surfing was creating the triple crown, the combination of the three most competitive comps in Hawaii. He also co-founded the International Professional Surfers in 1976, commonly known today as the WSL, and created pipeline masters. And has appeared in several surf movies, including The Endless Summer (1966) and Golden Breed (1968).
Achievements
But for Hemmings, His surfing career was not all a walk in the park. At the time, surfing wasn't just a career. It was who you were. Along with this identity came drugs, partying, and a careless lifestyle. And for Hemmings who showed up in a three-piece suit to interviews when most barely wore shorts, he didn't exactly fit in. His outspoken opinion about drug use earned him ridicule from the surf community of the day. But His stands would pave the way for surfing as not just a hippy lifestyle but a world-renowned sport.
Not only did Hemmings trek the unknown terrain of the surfing world, but he also sat on the board of the Denver Broncos NFL team. He was elected to Hawaii's House of Representatives from 1984 through 1990 and then to the State Senate in 2000.
Reflections
Looking back, Hemmings reflects that one of the most interesting things we have is the time we are traveling through. Fifty years ago, space travel was thought unachievable, and now we are going to Mars. "Back in my day, only a handful of us were surfing 30-foot waves, which was considered crazy. Now, there are hundreds, even some surfing 100ft waves. One of my favorite quotes about surfing is, just when you think it can't get any better, it does." The time we are traveling through and how we affect it is the greatest gift we are given. We can change the future if we just go beyond the stars. In other words, just beyond what most people can see and fathom to the unknown, extraordinary. This is why Hemmings says that the time we are given is the most valuable thing we possess, and how we use it dictates who we are.
Golden Nugget from His Life
Hemmings has started many things throughout his life, all of which he walked away from because his mission wasn't to have a monumental accomplishment, but instead, he wanted to do good deeds for people, the land, and the spirit that dictates our lives. Hemmings explains how we all possess a secret garden buried deep within who we are, consisting of memories. This garden is cultivated for better or worse when we are young and observed when we are old. Hemmings finds that we should take risks and do what others think is impossible when young so that when we are old, we won't regret not exploring just outside our comfort zone "beyond the stars." So I will ask again: where will you let your Star Trek take you?