Hobgood’s Ride

There are many terms surfers use when they back into a breaking wave with the tube covering them, the crash of the closeout behind them, carefully balanced in the arms of the Mother on their way to shore. Most often it's called getting shacked.

I have never had the opportunity, but keep surfing in the hope that one day the waves and my timing will be just right and I'll be ready. I can only dream what it must be like, for now.

C.J. Hobgood is a WSL (World Surf League) champion surfer, and getting shacked is probably an everyday occurrence for him. In 2015 he filmed a GoPro video, dancing along a perfect wave into a perfect sunset in an apocalyptic drama that took my breath away . . . and I had to paint it.

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