Rene Matthyssen, Waikiki, HI. January 1994. The reason I remember the date is because that night Rene's dad woke me up at 4 in the mourning to tell me LA was on fire. The Northridge earthquake had just happened and all hell was breaking loose. This is obviously a National Geographic rip off cover and I wish I had gotten lower to silhouette his board. I actually won a magazine design award for this cover. I didn't enter anything, but I got a plaque in the mail saying I won. I put it in my desk and never saw it again- I have no idea who it was from, where it went or what it was called. This was also my first time to Hawaii and I got knocked out by a security guard at The University of Hawaii for taking his picture. All I remember is that his arms were the size of my legs. I had a cut from my ear to my mouth from the ring on his hand.

There's no real story behind this cover other than it doesn't say Slap on it. The honchos upstairs thought I was retarded for not putting the name of the mag on the front. I asked Barry McGee (Twist) to do a cover for me and told him to do whatever he wanted. One of my favorites. 1993.