The Hot Seat: Brian Conley

Brian Conley is a pretty quirky character. Aside from riding funky boards and sporting out-of-date hairdos, he’s been known to travel with two board bags, one for boards, and the other stuffed with whole foods, this because he’s a fanatical vegan. But this month he’s the kid featured on our cover riding our top-secret discovery. So, we tracked Brian down in the South Pacific to alert him of his good fortune, then to grill him on his funky choices.

SURFER: I’m not sure if you’re aware of it yet, but we’re finishing up that feature on the discovery you guys made and I guess I can tell you right now that you’re ending up on the front page.

Brian Conley No way.

SURFER: Way.

Brian Conley Not the cover–No?

SURFER: Yup, the cover.

Brian Conley (Yelling) Are you kidding me?

SURFER: Nope.

Brian Conley Oh my God. That’s heavy. (Drops the phone) Sorry, sorry. That’s so cool.

SURFER: Yeah, it looks pretty sweet. I guess all that devotion paid off. But I have to ask what the heck you were riding out there, because it looks like a skimboard in the photos.

Brian Conley It’s actually this little 5′ 5″ disc. I had a bunch of other boards with me, but I thought it was the right board to get down the face and under the lip quickly.

SURFER: Interesting. But wasn’t it hard to catch them?

Brian Conley I definitely had to put myself right under the lip, but once I caught the wave it was better to have less rail, y’know, because it fit into the pocket better.

SURFER: So what do you ride at say, Backdoor?

Brian Conley I definitely ride a bigger board there, because it’s got more of a long drop and you have time to set up. This winter at Off The Wall I was riding a 7’3″. When it’s bigger there you’re screaming down the face. Our little wave has more of a square face with no back so sometimes you can’t even go to the bottom.