In a word: “Gnarly.” In four words, “Steep, deep and gnarly.” Ask the world’s best big-wave surfers who the best all around big-wave surfer in the world might be and those in the know will point towards Shane Dorian. A native of the Big Island of Hawaii, Dorian was one of the founding fathers of the New School generation that took over pro surfing in the early 1990s. In 1992, Dorian nearly drowned while surfing a giant day at an outer reef with Brock Little and Todd Chesser, “That was the day I realized I was mortal,” Dorian said and from that day on, he has been striving for immortality by challenging whatever the ocean could throw at him.
Dorian competed on the ASP Tour from 1993 until 2003. He had his successes, including winning the Mundaka Pro in front of his mom in 2000, but Dorian has always been interested more in perfect waves than perfect 10s. “I was surfing slop in Portugal on the WQS at the same time guys were getting barreled on 15-foot waves at Teahupoo,” Dorian said to Surfer Magazine. “After that, my days on the ASP Tour were numbered because I didn’t want to miss perfect waves again.”
Dorian retired from pro surfing, but not from surfing, and for the last five years, he has been seriously in the hunt for the steepest, deepest and gnarliest situations the ocean can throw his way. His most recent victory was a wave at Teahupoo on a very late southern hemisphere swell on November 1, 2007. Dorian took off steep and too deep on a wave that tried to eat him alive. Dragging his hand for stability while also going as fast as he possibly could, Dorian somehow survived a very fast, high line and finished with a cartwheel into the channel. That wave won Dorian $50,000 for “The Ride” at the 2008 Billabong XXL Big Wave Awards and that money will fuel his further explorations into the steep, the deep and the gnarly.