Alex Gray – Chasing Giants
Body Glove team surfer Alex Gray of Palos Verdes shown moments before this Teahupoo bomb drove him into the coral reef and ripped off his life jacket. Photo by Glaser/A-Frame. After his dream of competing on the professional world surfing tour was derailed, former Peninsula High surfer turned his sights on bigger game Last August, Alex Gray had the kind of day that surfing legends are made of. The Billabong Pro Tahiti at Teahupoo (pronounced Chō-Poo) was to be postponed because the waves were too big for competition. When Gray heard the news, the Peninsula High graduate hopped on a plane and got over there. “Basically they had the world’s best 45 surfers in town and about 20 of us flew in and went out on a day that most everyone was standing in the channel watching,” Gray said. The 2004 South Bay Surf League MVP winner now earns his living chasing big waves, or as he calls them, “waves of consequence.” Kelly Slater, the 10-time world surfing champion, looked at the conditions that morning in Teahupoo and passed. “Someone’s gonna get killed out here,” Gray recalls hearing him say. “It was the first time I had ever worn two life vests. They were the craziest waves I’ve ever seen and…
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