Legendary surfer rode big waves
LOS ANGELES — Greg “Da Bull” Noll, who became a surfing legend by combining a gregarious, outsized personality with the courage and skill to ride bigger, more powerful waves than anyone had ever attempted, has died. He was 84.
Mr. Noll, who had lived in the picturesque, seaside town of Crescent City, California, died June 28 of natural causes, according to an Instagram post from his son’s company, Noll Surfboards. Requests for comment from the Noll family were not returned, and it was not clear where he died.
One of the first and arguably one of the greatest big-wave riders, Mr. Noll was much more than a surfer. He was also an entrepreneur who helped transform the sport with his Greg Noll surfboards, which were among the first to be built from balsa wood, a substance that made them more maneuverable and light enough for most people to use.
He also appeared in surfing documentaries, worked as a photographer on the 1967 film “Surfari” and was the stunt double for James Mitchum in the 1964 film “Ride the Wild Surf.” In 2010, he and his son Jed launched a surf apparel line.
From the early 1950s through the 1960s, he traveled from Southern California to Mexico, Australia and the North Shore of Hawaii’s island of Oahu in search of the biggest waves.
It was in October 1957, at Waimea Bay on Oahu’s North Shore, where he led a handful of surfers to a place where the waves can reach three stories high in the winter.
Grainy footage shows Mr. Noll catching a wave perhaps as high as 30 feet, then somehow managing to stay standing as it pitches him some 10 feet or more straight down its face. From there, he moves outside and rides it nearly to the shore.
Years later, Mr. Noll would let out a cackle and an expletive as he recalled his first thought after finishing that ride: “I’m still alive!”