There was a contest at Seaside, and Kelly was staying at my house.
For some reason, we decided to go in and play like a couple games ping pong.
I win the first game, and then I win the second game.
Cool, alright.
Let's go to the contest.
He's like, no, no, no, no.
Best of five.
Until he finally won one game.
That's all he wanted to do, was win one game.
Maybe that was bad on my part, because he went and won the contest.
I should have let him win.
Rob never seemed to be visibly excited by chasing points.
I've heard from a lot of people that he's secretly really competitive, but I've never
had any experience with that.
For people that don't know it, Rob's like one of the most competitive guys you'll ever
meet in your life, and he tries to be like this Zen Buddha guy, but don't believe it.
Keep it simple.
Less is more, you know, yeah.
Rob was always just more down-to-earth, less concerned about what was going on around him.
Because he was so cool and so chill, I don't think people realize how really competitive
Rob Machado can be.
Look back to the momentum video.
There's that scene where he's playing soccer, I think the dude had fouled him or something,
and you see Rob take his foot and just, whoop, Rob's got this look on his face.
It's a natural thing that's like embedded in us from a young age.
If it's playing ping-pong in the garage, whatever, you know, you just start playing, and like
somebody is better than the other guy.
Why is that?
Some people take it to a higher length.
As you know, Kelly is very competitive.
I think there's plenty of stories like that with Kelly.
There have been a bunch of theories, especially among younger guys that draw heats with it.
They're like, don't talk to Kelly.
Don't look him in the eyes.
Don't say anything because he's just trying to get in your head.
Think about it, dude.
This guy won world titles, retired, got interested that it looked like there might be some people
who give him like actual competition and came back.
That's crazy.
That's literally some Michael Jordan shit.
Oh Rob used to beat Kelly though too.
They were pretty close.
And I think if anybody, Kelly feared Rob the most.
I've seen so many heats that have come down, you know, between two guys for a world title.
It's never been like that.
The difference between the competitive climate here today and 1995, it's just night and day.
It's not even the same thing.
I won three contests that year.
Sonny had won a few contests.
Kelly had won a few contests.
I wasn't even an issue.
My perspective is completely different.
In 95, you know, I had gone into Hawaii, leading the world title.
All I needed to do was make one heat.
And I lost that left, you know, the door open to Kelly and Rob.
What I remember, it was kind of a crummy day, right, from the start.
And you know, heat after heat, we're going, and you know, he was getting through, but
the days were kind of overcast and maybe a little wind.
And then when this heat came up, it kind of, it's like everything stopped.
And then kind of the heat started and it was like, we just started going and it was like,
it seemed like the waves just poured in.
How often did two kids grow up to get a chance to go for the world title against each other
and get to surf pipeline with no one in the water?
And at that point, it was like, I'm surfing pipe with my friend.
The thought of like a world title or anything was so far gone in my mind.
Is there a moment where all that just stops?
And it's like, can you believe this?
It's you and me and us and we're here at pipe.
Mind you, they've been competing against each other their whole lives.
Rob's right there at the top end for a good portion of his life.
He's still the shit.
But Kelly's got the brass ring.
Yeah, the only high five.
If I had to like surf one heat over and over again my whole life, it'd probably be that
one.
I think one of the cool things about the high five is it pulls back the curtain.
Up until that point, guys like rip each other's heads off and like paddle for priority buoys
and you know, it's like intense.
What the hell?
Like if that was me, I would have just ran Kelly's ass over like, I mean, you're in
a heat.
You know, there are no high fives like, oh, like you're in my way, like you can run over
for sure.
I got the world title.
Andy said the same thing, you know, Andy goes like, fuck that, man.
I would have just speared my board right into his chest.
But neither of them would have, if they were trying to be competitive, they would have kicked
out and got priority.
They wouldn't have hit me.
Who initiates the high five?
I think it's Kelly.
It just seemed like it was going to happen.
I was right in his line and I just went, I sat up on my board.
So I guess in that way I initiated it.
But you know, at that point, you had the quick choice to kick out and maybe get priority
or we were going to high five, you know?
I would love to know what Rob's dialogue in his head was at that moment.
Is it like, oh, look at you, Kelly, just being, are you trying to Kelly me?
I don't know.
It's one of those things you don't really think in those moments and you just kind of
go into autopilot and I reverted back to like not having Jersey on.
I think it made a lot of people kind of look at pro surfing different.
I don't know if it was the impetus for it, but certainly Rob and Kelly probably crystallized
a dual route as far as professional surfers go of you can do the competitive thing or
you can do the free surf thing.
But to do the free surf thing, you have to have a very specific approach and a very high
level of surfing already.
I think anyone who's a free surfer, like a professional free surfer of a certain age
now, especially like if they're in their 20s, they have to look at someone like Rob Machado
as the person who started all that.
Essentially career-wise, yeah, we do the same thing, I guess, yeah.
Like I walked away from that event and like held my head high.
Like I was really proud of what I accomplished.
I didn't win a world title.
I never did.
Like I think I approached professional surfing differently from then on.
Once I got away from that whole mess, it was so eye-opening.
He created definitely a new niche way of being a professional surfer.
I think Rob was always a sole surfer at heart, just so God-gifted.
There was a good line in the movie Jack White said, he's like, I don't ever want to be satisfied.
If I ever feel like I'm satisfied, I'm going to feel like I'm dying.
Rob Machado's ultimate contribution to the history of surfing is an ambassador of grace.
I think Rob Machado represents the personal journey of surfing.
It's depressing to talk about this in some ways because it means that I'm old.
I'm Dane Reynolds, you need no more information, it sounds like real world or something.
I get it, you know, they're bros, but Kelly's my good friend and if he was trying to high-five
me while he's beating me for a heat and a world title, I would have ran him over.
As you know, Kelly is a very competitive, which used to drive nuts too because we'd
bring him over here and beat him in ping-pong, beat him in golf, and beat him in tennis.
So he was just a frustrated quite a bit when he came over here.
I went to shake his hand and he put his fist out and then I felt all these people behind
me that wanted to talk to him and I kind of wasn't thinking and I kind of grabbed his
fist and started shaking his fist like this and I was going like, what am I doing and
then I kind of stopped and he kind of looked at me and went, okay, see ya.
So I'm going to look like a dork in the tent wearing a jersey, but that's alright.
I'm blessed to be able to do what I do and I'm going to keep doing it.
You know, I kind of trip out sometimes.
How fortunate I am to wake up every day and be able to do what I get to do.
Go surfing and travel and experience what I get to experience.
It's pretty special.
