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Here begins a fairly lengthy and pointless recount of a chain of encounters with Derek Hynd

i was packing my surfboards in my back yard prior to leaving for jbay when i recieved Surfer Magazine's big issue in the mail. the cover says "DEREK HYND: will dane reynolds ever reach his full potential?" i skimmed through the magazine and got to the Derek Hynd article where he uses a cake that is incredibly hard to cook as an analogy for my surfing career. i guess i'm out of the oven; and its sink or swim. problem is it's based purely on competitive success which makes it one dimensional and in my mind, dated. i was also confused that somebody i've never met made these judgments without bothering to talk to me yet he got several quotes from kelly slater.

Day 1. J.Bay. i'm sittin on the couch. a guy walks in and takes a look at a couple boards. grabs one and leaves. "was that Derek Hynd?" "Yeah we gave him a ride from the airport" "shit, he just wrote a strange article on me... i never met him" "well i'm sure he's still out there if you wanna say hello?" "nah" I got too nervous.

Day 2. J.Bay. Stephen (Belly as everyone knows him. Kelly's permanent board caddy) runs into Derek at the local glass shop "Ooh Dane wasn't too happy about the article you wrote" i imagine Stephen was joking cause i wasn't really mad but Derek goes "Oh, Dane Kealoha?" and talks about Dane Kealoha for 5 minutes. in fact i think he was still talking about Dane Kealoha when they left.

Day 3. J.Bay. Pulling out of a parking spot heading to the market. i'm sitting in the back seat on the right side with my window down. As we are backing out Derek Hynd is suddenly walking 1 foot from my window and his speed perfectly matches ours. my initial reaction was to look away."Dane, right?" i couldn't talk for a second cause of shock or something.. "uh yeah…. hi" "Did you want to have a chat?" i didn't know what to say so i paused. so he continued: "That was you right?....... Shoutin in the wilderness last night?" "absolutely not!" i don't know why i replied with such conviction. "oh…. ok." we pull forward he keeps walking.

Through mutual friends Tom Wegener sent a finless board called 'the Tuna' to me in J-bay. it was laying on the top of my boardbag. I had just left for market and my friend was sitting on the couch. Derek Hynd walks in. 'The Tuna' the first thing he sees so he picks it up. he lulls over it for a second then "So It's Begun…" is all he says.

Day 4. J.Bay. I've watched heats all day. even surfed one myself. sun's goin down. final heats over. i'm sittin in the contest area drinking a beer and watching when i see someone skirting across the supertubes section on an insider with decidedly stange style. crouched low with arms up high. he loses an edge slides sideways catches his line rides through a shallow tube then projects off the bottom into the lip sliding sideways… after watching everyone try to outdo each other surfing exactly same way this is exciting stuff! he catches two or three more waves. One of them he drops in on a young kid and falls. on his final one he gets two extreme sliding high lines before it runs off. its too dark to paddle back out

Day 5. J.Bay. They run round two but i'm not in it. tides comin up. i start thinking about Tubes, a section down the point with a small barrel and a short wall. nothing makes more sense than a maiden voyage on the Tuna. i suit up and run down the beach north of the contest area 'Derek Hynd!" "Derek Hynd!" Fellow competitors are heckling me. The bright redness of the Tuna looked pretty while in the house but now it's blindingly bright. cameramen are snapping pictures. i feel like running back but instead i jump off the rocks as quick as i can. i look in and see several cameramen have set up on the beach. so embarrassing. i catch several waves. normally i stand up go down the face push off the bottom my board responds and i go forward. this board doesn't do that. one by one the photographers pack up and leave. i look up at Derek Hynds house. Maybe he's watching. Like, in one of the high windows sitting there with a cup of tea… or no, whiskey. watching through a telescope. Like an old one a pirate would use. and maybe he's smoking a cigar or something. suddenly i'm trying to prove something. i wanna show him the cake ain't gonna collapse. crouching low, arms up, high lines, slides, tubes. If he were watching he mighta cracked a smile.

I run up the beach and people are cheering. Jordy's about 20 yards ahead of me he's just won his heat and the crowd is loving it. As i pass the cheers turn to heckles and i remember i'm carrying a bright red finless Tuna. For some reason it's not as embarrassing as earlier. -DANE

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