Welcome back to Hang 10 with Birdie, where we catch up with friends Birdwell has made along the way, in and out of the water. This time we’re meeting up with one of the purest surfers in recent memory, Troy Mothershead. Growing up in the year-round surf town of San Clemente, California, the salt life is in his blood, thanks to his surfer father, who set him up with his first board. A natural competitor and sportsman, Mothershead’s career as a pro longboarder chose him one day when he skipped football practice in favor of a local surf contest, culminating in a win at the 2015 Duct Tape Invitational held in Noosa. There’s no question he’s stoked in the traditional sense, but the wave chaser and skater is admired by other watermen for the sheer clarity of his love for the sport and the lifestyle. While he’s walked the nose in exotic spots as far-flung as Sri Lanka, Mothershead will always be more in tune with the romance of a long, peeling break near his hometown. He lives and surfs in Santa Barbara, California, where he works as Director of Planning and Business Development at True Ames Fins between long, leisurely rides.

 

 

1) Would you rather be able to have night vision or to paddle as fast as a jet ski?

• Wow, so is night vision in green screen or full living color? If living color, then totally night vision. If not living color, then I think I'd go with Jet Ski arms.

2) If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be?

• Never been there, but maybe standing tall in a P-Pass drainer?

 

 

3) Favorite book?

• Harry Potter series, honestly, JK Rowling, it's unreal.

4) Guilty pleasure?

• I don't think it's guilty, but I really love making coffee…but I've never been a barista.

 

 

5) Is there a day in your life that you’d like to live over again?

• It would be fun to live the Noosa 2015 Duct Tape victory over again, but this time Danielle needs to be there.

6) What’s in your car trunk right now?

• A bucket of wetsuits, towels and fins, the rack kit I need to put on the roof, and a lot of sand.

 

 

7) Longboard or short board?

• Shortboard (it means the waves are good!)

8) Favorite wave?

• Right hand barreling point break! So maybe, Kirra? I got to live there in 2010, cyclones make good waves, it was wild.

 

 

9) Coolest animal you’ve bumped into out in the water?

• Dolphins are incredible, but those little otters are so classic, I like them. Also, lobsters are a funky bunch.

10) Best memory in Birdwells?

• Little pig dog drainers with Nick Melanson, Mr. Scott Soens in the water and Jeff Johnson on the beach, what a freakin crew!