RIP Da Bull

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The burly big wave rider - nicknamed "Da Bull" by Phil Edwards (the first guy to ride Pipeline and the first "pro" surfer) - died of natural causes in Crescent City. As a shaper, big wave surfer, lifeguard, fisherman and general hellman, Noll also had his fair share of "firsts". Noll was in the first group of ‘ The wave I caught at Outside Pipeline that day walled up twenty-five-feet high about half a mile in front of me. It broke to the left, so I was riding with my back to the wave, goofyfoot, and it was a god-awful uneasy feeling. Instead of getting smaller as I rode it, the sonofabitch grew on me. It got bigger and bigger, and I started going faster and faster, until I was absolutely locked into it. I felt like I was on a spaceship racing into a void. At first, I could hear my board chattering across the face of the wave in a constant rhythm. As my speed increased, the chattering noise became less frequent. Suddenly there was no noise. For about fifteen or twenty feet, I was airborne. Then I literally was blown off my board. ’
- Greg Noll, Da Bull: life over the edgesurfers to ride Waimea Bay, and a member of the US lifesaving team that introduced malibu boards to Australia in 1956 when the Melbourne Olympic Games took place.

Noll became known for his exploits in large Hawaiian surf on the North Shore of Oahu. Looking back, we know him from film footage wearing his now iconic black and white horizontally striped "jailhouse" boardshorts. In November 1957, he surfed 25ft+ Waimea Bay. See the extract from Riding Giants (2004) above, which explains why it was at the time thought to be impossible, even by Hawaiians.

Noll, who many will know from multiple appearances in surf movies over the years, is also attributed to be the first surfer to ride the outside reef at Pipeline (in November 1964, the year I was born).

According to Wikipedia, in December 1969, Noll rode what many at the time believed to be the largest wave ever surfed. After that wave and the ensuing wipeout during a spectacular ride down the face of a massive dark wall of water, his surfing tapered off and he closed his Hermosa Beach shop in the early 1970s. He later moved to Northern California and first worked as a commercial fisherman, before becoming a sport fishing guide.

Noll was born Greg Lawhead in San Diego, California, on February 11, 1937 and adopted the surname of his stepfather, Ash. At the age of three, Noll moved with his family to Manhattan Beach, California. He began surfing at the age of 11 in South Bay. As a member of the Manhattan Beach Surf Club, he learned board shaping from Dale Velzy. He moved to Hawaii in 1954, where he finished high school, and lived and surfed at Makaha.

The surfing exploits of Noll and other big wave legends were chronicled in Riding Giants. Having shaped surfboards since his youth, and having founded his own surfboard business in the 1950s which reached a high level of commercial success, Noll changed to two decades of commercial fishing. The resurgence of longboards brought him back to resume shaping and organize events. He lived in Hiouchi, California with his wife and started a business called "Noll Surfboards" that shaped re-creations of some of the historic boards from the sport of surfing.

Noll was married to Laurie at the time of his death. They had four children: Ashlyne, Jed, Tate, and Rhyn. His son Jed Noll runs the family’s company.

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