Cheyne Horan Riding Waimea on a 5’ 8” Mc Coy Lazor Zap.

Small can’t be ridden in big waves, was the call from the general surfing fraternity, and at this time I wanted to change surfing approach and attack on a wave, when people went down I went up when they went along the bottom I went along the top. So when they said you can only ride long boards in big waves I rode small and this is the first one.
5’ 8” McCoy Lazor Zap, can you imagine how excited Geoff Mc Coy and I were in the shaping bay about to change the way that surfing perceived surfing in big waves, at the time I just wanted to surf Sunset. Geoff put everything into this shape.
Paddling out at out of control sunset no one out or around the beach, the ultimate test was about to happen, will it work, can I catch a wave of this magnitude. Yes I was scared the waves were hairy and if I wipe out I was on my own. After a horrendous days surfing, it was clear to me that small boards can surf big waves after surfing massive faces with a board that could turn tight and long I was convinced riding Sunset ,now the next step was Pipe.
One cloudy windy afternoon Pipe was 10-12ft barrelling only a few guys out, I knew the take off point and I got in relatively easy and dropped in vertically and on edge and making it after a few it felt like beach break so I started to try and hit the lip, One wave I went up inside the corner of a tube and rode on the roof almost upside down and turned and flew onto the face it was insane, Gerry Lopez was paddling out and saw it happen he later said to me” that’s the most radical turn he’d ever seen out here”.
Feeling like I was making fresh imprints on the planet, pushing surfing’s limits to the max, this is right where I wanted to be.
Next thing I find myself out at 20ft Waimea on this 5’ 8” and feeling like this can be done, riding Waimea on the smallest board ever. Sitting right in the take-off zone with the local Hawaiians very much behind me doing this, they would tell me here comes the set and watching intently to see if I could even catch a wave. I was sitting right on the ledge and dropping in just under the lip, ridding down the face like it was a 3ft wave going down the wave like I was going along a wave, I would turn 3ft one way then back or get in a valley, crevice, down the face and stay in it ridding the valley like a small wave, having some great rides, one where I nearly went off the lip and did a radical snap in the pocket.
There is a wave that colonel Benson filmed for “Follow the Sun” I don’t know why they didn’t put the whole session in, the wave he puts in the fin disengaged on the way down, I had many times this happened when the waves had lots of chop. I now know it was because my fin was too thick.
After surfing the ratings in Californian the same board and coming back to Hawaii one of my best mates sister said she needed a board so I sold it cheap to her. She went to the big Island and sold it, 20 years later a friend rings from the big Island says he found an old board of mine at a garage sale do I want it back, I said yeah and sent him a current model McCoy.
Then about 2007 Fielding Benson said “remember when you bought that McCoy over for me, when you left you left me with the fin do you want it.” I can’t believe after 30 years I have the whole board complete…it was like bringing the band back together” Miracle”.