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I've decided to accept the fact - I'll always be a big kid!

Ke11y, don't worry about having created a monster. If you hadn't, someone else would have. Just take it as another title -- you got there first.

William Finnegan has a great way about telling a story . Read " Barbarian Day's A Surfing Life " .

Met Bill in Tavarua back in '04. Afternoon we arrived, Bula!! Restaurants was going off and a small group of us who were frothing motored out while most were getting set up in their bures. Once out there, I was immediately struck by the calm of this older dude who seemingly beat us to the lineup. Just really comfortable and zen, not in a Bodhi type way or anything but sorta quiet, always lined up, never failed when it was his go and got some great backhanders on a big ole brand new Rusty Desert Island. Fast forward to the bar post-sesh I introduced myself and over a couple Fiji Bitters he told me his story and his history with the island. Said he was a writer with The New Yorker but never even mentioned that he authored "Playing Doc's Games" that night. Anyway, super humble and charismatic guy who was obviously very at home on Tavarua. Grateful to have met him.

His perspective that the pool wasn't as religious an experience as expected was interesting and I'm sure not uncommon for someone like him. Unless you're someone who thrives on who's watching you poolside, (and this is as good as it gets for the WSL guys who want that), I'd guess most would feel the same after awhile. Don't get me wrong, the wave is mind-blowing in person and I can only speak as a spectator since I didn't get to ride it, but by the end of the weekend it was very predictable is the best way I can put it. So I don't think any monster has been created really. It's a machine in the middle of the California desert that makes a killer wave that 99% of us won't get to surf unless we cough up $10k for an hour. SFL is out and the promise of bringing his wave at least to the masses seems dim. Only thing that has changed really is the world's best now have a controllable, stadium type atmosphere in which to compete and entertain. Nothing wrong with that I guess.

Cool piece - thanks for posting!