PEOPLE: GREG LONG

Greg Long is one of the most influential and successful big wave surfers of all time. Growing up in a state park on the coast of Southern California, he fell in love with the ocean as a kid and caught his first wave at age five. Going pro at 18, Greg won the Red Bull Big Wave Africa event a year later and went on to win awards for rides at Waimea Bay, Maverick’s, Jaws and other legendary big wave sites. On a 2008 expedition to the remote Cortes Bank off the coast of California, Greg caught a wave estimated by fellow surfers at between 80-90 feet high on a break that many consider to be ‘the Mount Everest of the ocean’.

Beyond surfing, Greg is an explorer and passionate activist for the oceans, working with environmental groups like Parley to help protect the oceans through awareness and education. In addition to countless surfing awards, he was also a nominee for the 2014 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Award. His work as a Parley Ambassador includes education programs like Parley Ocean School and talks at events like UN World Ocean Day. We caught up with Greg between waves recently to hear how he first fell in love with the ocean, surfing has taken him, and his experiences of helping raise awareness of their fragility in islands such as Bali and the Maldives.

YOU GREW UP NEXT TO THE OCEAN, TELL US ABOUT THOSE EARLY DAYS.

I grew up in a state park campground in Southern California, where my dad worked as the lifeguard supervisor. The ocean essentially was my backyard. I was introduced to the water a couple of weeks old. Obviously, I clearly didn't remember that, but my earliest recollections of the ocean are being down there with my parents and my older brother and sister and just being in complete awe of this vast body of water, of these moving waves, the way the sand felt, and then seeing my dad venture out and going and riding these waves. It captivated me as a child, and I think subconsciously that planted within me, the urge to immerse myself in the majesty of this setting.

HOW DID YOU FEEL THE FIRST TIME YOU CAUGHT A WAVE?

I was probably five years old. My dad had started what was basically a Friday beach day where the second that we got home from school — which was walking distance from where we lived — our '71 Volkswagen bus would be packed up with everything and we would head a couple miles down the coast to a beach now called the San Clemente Bluffs. We would hike down and spend all afternoon down there in the sand. One by one, my dad would take turns, my brother, my sister and myself, walking us out and pushing us into waves. First wave, I barely got to my feet for half a second, but at that point there was absolutely no turning back. At that moment, I had become a surfer, and that was one of the biggest lures – of just continually wanting that exhilaration of harnessing and connecting with one of the most simple yet complex forces of nature in the world, which are these waves.

“Physically, it demands a lot from you, but especially mentally.”

— GREG LONG

LET'S FAST-FORWARD A LITTLE BIT TO AFTER TURNING PRO. WHERE IN THE WORLD HAS SURFING TAKEN YOU?

I had the tremendous fortune of turning professional at 18 years old, at which point I set off on a global pursuit looking for the biggest, surfable waves on the planet, and also exploring some of the most remote coastlines in search of new, perfect waves. I've basically been traveling, I would say, eight months of the year internationally, since then.

HAS SURFING TAKEN TO EVERY CONTINENT?

Every continent except Antarctica. I've been very close down there in the south of Chile and the Falkland Islands and Tasmania, but never actually Antarctica. But every ocean? Yes.

WHAT IS IT FOR YOU THAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT BIG WAVES?

When I distill it down to its most elemental form – the bigger and heavier the wave, the more they demand from you physically and mentally to ride. I was drawn to that. In a large way, big-wave surfing became kind of my personal arena for self-exploration, to see what I was actually capable of.

Physically, it demands a lot from you, but especially mentally; putting yourself in these fear-invoking situations regularly and really being forced to understand yourself emotionally. I fell in love with that side of it, and the camaraderie and teamwork that goes into successfully putting together a big-wave expedition or session, and then the empowerment that I felt after accomplishing the goals.

That's still true to this day. When you really are tuned in to your emotions and feelings and active wave-riding, there's always something wonderful to be gained or felt or learned from it – but big-wave surfing, it's all just heightened on an entirely next level.

YOU'VE BEEN SURFING FOR 30 YEARS NOW. WHEN DID YOU START NOTICING PLASTIC IN THE WATER?

I would say I was in my mid-20s when I really honed in on the global plastic pollution problem taking place in the ocean. I was realizing that these places that I'd been visiting since I was 18 years old, in just those few short years, were being impacted significantly to where visually there was no denying that this is a problem. Like, you could not shy away from this, or pretend that you can get away from it. I began to realize this problem was encroaching every single coastline that I was traveling to, especially those that were heavily populated.

YOU VISITED BALI ON BEHALF OF PARLEY WHEN THEY ANNOUNCED A STATE OF EMERGENCY BECAUSE THE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF PLASTIC WASHING UP ON THE BEACHES IN JANUARY 2019. WHAT DID YOU DISCOVER OUT THERE?

It's a very complex problem globally, but especially in Bali. Essentially, you are on an island, and you are importing this material in nearly every single thing that is being consumed, and there's no infrastructure to support the aftermath when its lifecycle is done. Sadly, we've created this society built on convenience, and with a throwaway mentality that things are only meant to be used once, so you've got a material that lives on forever. You use it for a couple of seconds, and when you're on an island without an infrastructure to return that back to the source of production, wherever it may have come from, that plastic just accumulates.

Throughout Indonesia – and much of the ‘developing’ world – you're introducing this material into cultures that had never planned, or been built, to integrate it. You've got people living in the same ways they have been for hundreds or thousands of years, where it used to be in harmony with nature, where their plates were a banana leaf, and when you're done, you throw it into the ravine behind you and it goes back into the cycle of life. You do the same thing with a styrofoam plate, well, that plate is not going anywhere except out into the ocean. I don't point fingers or cast any blame on anybody over there. It is simply humans globally who are responsible for this, so it's just really tragic when you have a place as beautiful as Bali being impacted so heavily.

WHAT DID YOU SEE OUT IN BALI THAT GAVE YOU HOPE?

There's never before been so much awareness of the problem and connectivity amongst everybody globally to find solutions to it. Bali is at the frontline of the problem, but they’re also at the forefront of finding solutions. On the community level, you see people setting up collection facilities and trash banks to start to recycle all of these small pieces. There are people inventing biodegradable plastics from cassava starch. There are hotels and restaurant groups that are going completely plastic-free. You’ve also got the whole tech side of solutions, with people setting up these Uber-style recycling facilities, and others starting to integrate the education of the problem into the schools at a young age.

YOU TOOK PART IN PARLEY’S OCEAN SCHOOL OUT IN THE MALDIVES, WHICH IS A TOTALLY DIFFERENT AQUATIC LANDSCAPE TO THE BIG WAVE COASTLINES YOU WOULD NORMALLY VISIT. WHAT DID YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THAT EXPERIENCE?

Parley Ocean School in the Maldives was the most intimate, face-to-face experience of addressing and learning about the ocean plastic pollution problem. You are going to one of the most beautiful destinations in the world, but also one that is impacted by this problem, heavily. You have every opportunity to ignore it, because there is so much beauty left, but you at the same time can't, because you are with the leading scientists, researchers, activists, and it's just heart opening in every single way. There is such a contrast between the beauty and the darker side; acknowledging the impact that we're having, yet then also seeing where the solutions are and how we can all play a part in that.

DO YOU REALLY SEE A LOT OF TRASH WASHING UP ON THE BEACHES IN THE MALDIVES? IT DOESN’T SEE TO BE SOMETHING YOU SEE OR HEAR ABOUT IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA THAT OFTEN.

At the high tide line of any uninhabited island — and even those inhabited ones that you do visit — every single morning, you can walk up there and you will find a perimeter of plastic and styrofoam and garbage that has drifted in overnight. Those places with the resorts, people are out there first thing in the morning cleaning it up – but those islands that don't have people tending to them, it's absolutely heartbreaking, and undeniable. From a distance, or from 1,000 feet up, you're looking at some of the most pristine white sand beaches in the world, but zoom in and you see the impacts that we're having on these places. It definitely wakes you up.

WHAT’S YOUR PARLEY AIR PLEDGE – WHAT PLASTIC PRODUCT(S) HAVE YOU REMOVED FROM YOUR LIFE?

For me personally, I make every effort and go to very extreme lengths to ensure that I am not purchasing or consuming any products coming in single-use plastic in any form. I'm mocked by my friends regularly at the ends I will go to navigate my way around that.

DO YOU THINK PEOPLE’S DECISIONS TO REMOVE SINGLE-USE PLASTIC FROM THEIR LIVES — THE ACT OF ‘CONSCIOUS CONSUMERISM’ — ARE HAVING AN IMPACT?

Yeah, I'm 100 percent optimistic that this is a problem that we can solve, because it is impossible to argue that plastic pollution is not having a detrimental impact to our environment. Every single day, we've got thousands of choices, and we didn't get to this place, this global problem, overnight. We've all contributed to billions of actions globally, and it's going to take billions of actions globally to reverse it. Everybody has a place and a responsibility to contribute to doing that, and we can. When you look at any big problem, on a global scale, it seems impossible, but the change simply starts with ourselves and our own actions and our own behavior. That's something that we all have control over, and if everybody were just to adopt that mentality that they were going to try and be better, more conscientious of their consumption, disposal habits, we could turn it around in no time at all.

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Chris HatherillDecember 17, 2021