DRIVING: Catching up with Brock Little

Brock Little gets around. During the 80s and 90s Little proved that he could fall spectacularly and survive and he has parlayed that skill into an enviable job as a Hollywood stuntman. Brock works here and there, sometimes a day or two in Los Angeles on commercials or TV shows, sometimes for weeks at a time on big-ticket movies like The Italian Job, Wind Talkers and most recently, The Island. Brock practically commutes between Los Angeles and Hawaii, and when he isn’t working in Hollywood he still dabbles in the surfing world.

On Wednesday, June 22, Brock called with the sound of LAX behind him. He had a few minutes to report on the state of the world as he has seen it lately.

SURFERMAG.COM: Hey, thanks for calling.
BROCK LITTLE: I’ve got a few hours to kill.

SURFERMAG.COM: Where you off to now?
BROCK LITTLE: Oh nowhere special, just getting on a plane.

SURFERMAG.COM: Where to?
BROCK LITTLE: Paree, France.

SURFERMAG.COM: What’s going on there?
BROCK LITTLE: Oh some movie.

SURFERMAG.COM: Details?
BROCK LITTLE: No comment.

SURFERMAG.COM: Where have you been?
BROCK LITTLE: Home for a month. Hawaii. Best place in the world.

SURFERMAG.COM: And before that?
BROCK LITTLE: I was lucky enough to go to Tahiti for Billabong and work water safety.

SURFERMAG.COM: They needed some water safety it looked like.
BROCK LITTLE: It got a little gnarly there, yes it did.

SURFERMAG.COM: See anything interesting?
BROCK LITTLE: Oh yeah it was unbelievable. I saw something like that a long time ago but when I was there people were paddling and no one wanted anything to do with the bombs. But this trip it was gigantic and Shane Dorian and Andy and Manoa and a lot of those guys all they wanted were the biggest bombs I could drag them into. It was an honor to be there. I was lucky to be there, put it that way. Shane Dorian has lost his mind.

SURFERMAG.COM: You were Shane’s partner in crime?
BROCK LITTLE: Billabong told me to work with the Billabong guys so it was Shane and Andy, and Bruce caught a couple and Dylan Longbottom and Ian Walsh. They all caught bombs.

SURFERMAG.COM: Do you ride those waves?
BROCK LITTLE: No I was mostly driving. I could ride them if somebody called me out or got weird but it was gnarly. I was living vicariously through those guys. To tell you the truth it’s weird to put someone into a wave like that because you know, they could get killed. Dorian especially. The gnarlier the better. He’s out of his mind.

SURFERMAG.COM: You’ve always said he’s the best big-wave surfer in the world.
BROCK LITTLE: He just keeps getting better and better.

SURFERMAG.COM: Did anyone eat it on one of those things?
BROCK LITTLE: Dorian ate it and Bruce ate it good but they all lived through it, with and without the lifevests. Sometimes you wonder how.

SURFERMAG.COM: You must have seen the Reef/Raimana incident.
BROCK LITTLE: Saw the whole thing. The deal was Reef and Raimana came out in the morning and Reef wasn’t into it. He kept saying, “This is wrong, I shouldn’t be out here, I’m not into it,” but Raimana kept telling him, “Relax.” And then about 15 minutes later he showed why he didn’t want to do it and it was pretty gnarly.

SURFERMAG.COM: It seems like the drivers at Teahupoo are doing the equivalent of riding a motorcycle along the edge of a crumbling cliff. Have you ever gotten close to losing it?
BROCK LITTLE: It happens to me all the time. I lost a ski on a 20-foot wave once.

SURFERMAG.COM: Where was this?
BROCK LITTLE: At a reef on the Mokuleia side.

SURFERMAG.COM: What about Slater in Tahiti?
BROCK LITTLE: He just keeps getting better, too. Slater is back and Andy is on fire and I think the title race is going to be great this year. They are going to battle it out.

SURFERMAG.COM: Did you get paid for Tahiti?
BROCK LITTLE: I don’t go anywhere for free.

SURFERMAG.COM: There is a guy in Malibu who is a producer for Celebrity Poker.
BROCK LITTLE: I’ve seen it. Love it.

SURFERMAG.COM: I asked if he wanted to have some famous surfers on the show and he was interested.
BROCK LITTLE: I’d be into it but I think Kelly or Andy would do it.

SURFERMAG.COM: They both play?
BROCK LITTLE: That is about all they do on the ASP Tour these days. Kelly’s into it, Andy’s into it, the Australians are into it.

SURFERMAG.COM: Mostly Hold ‘Em?
BROCK LITTLE: Mostly Hold ‘Em, anywhere from a dollar to $200.

SURFERMAG.COM: Well this producer guy is interested. How long will you be in Europe?
BROCK LITTLE: End of July, I guess.

SURFERMAG.COM: What did you say you were doing there?
BROCK LITTLE: Some movie.

SURFERMAG.COM: Which one?
BROCK LITTLE: No comment. There’s my flight.