Greg Deets - A Natural Water Brother
photos courtesy of Greg Deets
by Greg Deets
posted 2005-03-14

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Spring semester called me back and by then I had decided to shift my efforts into Natural History / Marine Biology since that really was what I was... a strange hybrid sea/land creature, much more comfortable and at home in a pair of fins and speedos than anywhere on land. I longed to rid myself somehow from any association with my terrestrial heritage / baggage. Hoping somehow I would awake with gills and just swim away. Yet... I kept thinking about diving into industrial design and plastics, and thinking about... fins. A better fin!

This segues into an interesting era where I meet so many people and rode so many waves. Locally, I am heavily influenced by the pure grace of Joe Neally, truly a non-human who understood something maybe none of us will ever understand, although I studied and endeavored... Joe rode waves like no one else. It sort of transcends words; I would love to see him back in the water again.

Concomitantly, I met the recently deceased Craig Bowman... holy mother of god, here was this huge, huge, bizarre, aberrant thing in little tiny speedos with a David Bowie hair-do. He walked up on the beach, and looked out at these massive waves and started laughing with this crazed look in his eyes... I'm thinking... Oh Christ. I'm going to have to go out and rescue this nut. He dives in powers through like its a one foot day... waits for the biggest ugliest set with backwash, pulls off a spinner at the take off and comes around facing the beach, back to the wave, butt sliding straight down the face with his feet below like some praying religious figure... the Bowman Butt-Slide.

Bowman was the most crazed, irreverent thing one could imagine. Mix those two influences together, throw in a little ultra-aggro Romo, and you see what I am imprinting on, well almost.

That same year I meet the amazing Jeff Noah and Riley Smith at the Wedge from O'ahu. Jeff and Riley both rode Point Panic with Riley a competitive swimmer and lifeguard at Sandy Beach. They rode waves really different... that loose crawling Hawaiian style with Speedo training paddles. We became very good friends and they forced me one day in the water to wear the training paddles. Interestingly, the paddles allowed me to augment a few components of my repertoire and offered a better work out. I still wear paddles more often than not! I am still honored to have Jeff Noah pick me up at the airport and drive us straight out to pipeline and ride. Jeff if you are out there or Riley, please say hi!

By now the Wedge crew has evolved into a really wild, out of control, no limits, no holds barred, no wave too ugly, no free dive too deep, no swim too long, no drink too strong, no Speedo too small, tribe. It grows with the likes of Mel, James Dawson, Brian Dawson, Rabbit Dawson, Kwok, Stack, Pinkie, the Larson's, Rick "the Pearman" Wagner, the Timmerman's, with Mike Timmerman being an all time great... coincidentally forgotten in the media as has been all of the aforementioned.

Notes from Mike Timmerman

My name is Mike Timmerman; I'm 47 years old and an ex-wedge bodysurfer. I started riding wedge in 1974, figured it out in 1976 and I rode there consistently through 1988... I kept at it, off and on, through the mid 1990's and I still bodysurf in Huntington Beach, San Clemente and occasionally at Greg's home spot of shitpipe in El Segundo. I also rode Pipeline, Sandy Beach and several other spots in Hawaii in the late 70's and early 80's.

I used Duck Feet and the old UDT's for years until Fred Simpson gave me my first pair of Vipers. I swore by Vipers for 25 years... I promoted them and made sure all my friends and family used them, too... but when Greg got me my first pair of DeeTs I realized how inadequate the Vipers really are. UDeeTs are the most powerful pair of fins I've ever pulled on... critical, late take-offs no longer exist due to the incredible thrust and power generated by these fins. I routinely make waves I NEVER could have made before... my only complaint is I wish I had them 25 years ago when I rode bigger surf!

I highly recommend UDeeTs to anyone who is serious about wave riding, whether they are a bodysurfer, knee rider or bodyboarder (or skin/scuba diver).

I don't know how well you know Greg Deets or what you know about his prowess as a bodysurfer, but let me say this... it is very logical to me that he came up with the best bodysurfing fin of all time because he is the best bodysurfer I have ever seen in my life.

As I said before, I was a serious big wave bodysurfer at wedge and at several big wave spots in Hawaii for years. In my generation at wedge (1976-1990) there were a lot of us who were very good bodysurfers...and one of us, Terry Wade, rode the biggest wedge waves ever ridden (shredded two waves with over 30 ft. faces) that I know of, but Greg Deets was, and is, head and shoulders above the rest of us in talent and wave riding ability.

It's hard to explain, but he is just a beautiful bodysurfer. His style is so fluid it looks effortless. We all tried to emulate his style, his extreme layouts, wide hand planning and slow, graceful spinners. And while riding at Pipeline in 1983, a few locals who had begrudgingly given me some waves for a few hours said to me "hey, you ride like Greg, that other haole From the Wedge... you his brother?"... Which was amusing to me... here we are, among the best bodysurfers that exist, and THEY know enough about Deets to see his style in another blond headed white boy from California. Truly amazing. He is a true dedicated waterman; a lover of the ocean and especially bodysurfing and it really shows when he is out there. Don't tell him I said anything nice about him or it would ruin my nasty reputation. And always remember, Wedgemen never pull out.
- MT

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