Matuse Family Member Derek Dunfee and Johnny Maher team up for the 2007-2008 Winter Season

By Derek Dunfee

How was it teaming up with Johnny this past season and chasing swells?

Johnny Maher and I had an incredible year of chasing swells. I bought my jet ski last year, but this was the first year that we towed together. If there was an emergency, I would definitely trust Johnny’s wave knowledge and judgment to tow me in or pick me up. We both wanted to focus on pushing ourselves into paddling into big waves this winter because paddling-in is the true way to build up confidence in big waves. Throughout the winter we went up to surf mavericks 4 different times, sometimes for multiple swells, went out to Todos 3 times, Hawaii twice, and Oregon for a tow-in contest.

Tell me a little bit about the Nelscott Reef Tow Contest you guys did?

One of my good friends Zach Wormhoudt is a full-on Mavericks local, and he is a competitor in both the Mavericks surf contest and the Nelscott reef tow-in contest. Zach took me out to Mavericks my first time maybe 4 winters ago, so he has seen me slowly grow as a big wave surfer. The Mavericks surf contest was called for the same northwest swell, so he couldn’t make it up to the Nelscott reef comp. He gave the contest director my information and pumped Johnny and my big wave abilities. The contest director called me on Tuesday night and said I had to be up there by Thursday night. We thought the contest was in southern Oregon, but it ended up being in northern Oregon, so we had a ridiculously long drive. We towed my jet ski and drove non-stop-barely making it up there by Thursday night, and we got pulled over by the police two times. In the contest Johnny and I thought we killed it, we thought we were going straight to the final, but we ended up placing like 10th. I was trying to tow Johnny really deep behind the peak on big set waves, a few times I thought for sure he was a goner, but Johnny was ripping and making most waves. Johnny and I both saw a big great white too!!

Did you do any training together?

All winter we were both training really hard when we weren’t surfing. Johnny was surfing, working out at the gym and swimming multiple times a day. I swim and I have been doing some kick-ass functional core workouts with my brother Shane Hurdman who is a personal trainer at Funxion Fitness in Bird Rock. Shane has me focused on strengthening my core by combining plyometric drills with my balance. I have noticed an improvement in both my surfing and my everyday life. For another workout I have been stand-up paddling a lot at La Jolla Shores. Stu Kensen has shaped me two really nice standup boards.

Any bad wipeout’s this winter?

Derek :“On the huge day in December, Johnny had a bad wipeout paddling into a bomb at Todos Santos. Johnny paddled out first, and I was on my Jet Ski watching so I saw the whole thing. Johnny free fell on a big one and skipped down the face. It looked like John got tangled up with his gun, and we he came to my jet ski, he said he was hit in the head by his 10’0 gun underwater and was dazed, then his full suit top was blasted open by the wave.”

Johnny: “I learned something about fear this winter just watching Derek’s 360 free fall from top to bottom on a huge wave at Mavericks this year. He ended up breaking his board and he even broke out his glass-on fins when he hit the water! He came up and the next set-wave was already widow peaking on his head and drove him into the rocks. I thought he was a goner; a rescue ski pulled him out all dizzy and broke. Good thing he trains for that shit, otherwise I don’t know.”