“Sorry I’m busting an illegal u-turn right now,” says Albee Layer when he answers the phone a few weeks ago. “Ok, now I’m parked, looking at the waves, and ready to go.”
There’s not a single person out in the lineup, he tells me, and the wind is blowing at about 30 knots–which, for a place like Maui and an aerial luminary like Layer, could be a good or a bad thing.
During the fall and winter, Layer usually has his sights set on landing a new air and/or bagging a massive West Bowl behemoth. This year, however, Layer’s in the best shape of his life and has already nabbed what he’s calling one of the top 5 Jaws waves of his life. And it’s only the first week of December.
On the cusp of what’s forecasted to be an El Nino winter, Layer’s got some lofty goals he’s set for himself. We caught up with him recently to hear more about them, how he’s feeling post-traumatic brain injury, and how (aside from his illegal driving en route to surfing) he’s matured in his approach to riding waves.
A few weeks ago you got that crazy wave at Jaws—tell me about that session.
Well, that swell peaked overnight which is always kind of annoying. I swear every swell peaks overnight. Anyways, the first day was kind windy and really long period—so even though it wasn’t that big, it was pretty heavy. I got a couple waves the first day, and luckily didn’t fall. I knew very first thing the next morning was probably going to be the window to get the best wave so I went out really early. I actually got that wave before 7 AM, which is crazy. No one was there yet.
We got to the boat ramp at like 6:30 in the morning and I figured it would be packed but there but there was not a single person there. We launched and there were only 2 or 3 people out. That first big one came and I was like, ‘holy shit…’. Just knowing that it was going to get smaller all day was definitely what pushed me because it looked like a freakin’ death close-out. But I was just like shit, this is the window to get one and I went and it just barely worked out for me.
Fred Pompermayer
On a scale from 1 to your best wave out there, where does that one fall?
I don’t know, it’s definitely up there. I’ve gotten deeper barrels. Like that one I caught during the Eddie swell was definitely still my best wave, but for a single wave, I’d say it was probably top 3 or 5 out there. It was probably one of the thickest barrels I’ve gotten out there. It was really chunky and round.
Most west bowls never really spit because the barrel goes from small to big barrel and that doesn’t make a wave spit—you’ve gotta have a barrel that goes from big to small to make it spit. Which always make West Bowl barrels look less dramatic than they are. I noticed it when Shane Dorian’s out there—he’d get a barrel that would go from big to small and mine would go from small to big and his would just blow its guts out super dramatically and it would look like mine was nothing.
It’s all in the dramatics.
It’s such a thing—if a wave spits it’ll make a wave look crazy. It has nothing to do with the ride. So the fact that this one spit as I was pulling in made it look so cool. I remember thinking ‘holy shit I finally got one that spit’ while I was in the barrel [laughs].
Are you psyched for this season—it’s supposed to be an El Nino year, right?
All the things I saw said this should be an early-season El Nino, so it should be kicking up here pretty soon I think. It’s definitely the most prepared I’ve been for the winter—it was the hardest I’ve worked during the off-season and the least I’ve partied. I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been.
What have you been doing to prep?
A bunch of stuff. In the middle of the season we did the Molokai to Oahu channel race—that fucking kicked my ass. It was in the middle of the summer so I had to be in shape.
Did you have to do a ton of training for that right?
Yeah, it was gnarly. I think it’s 36 miles, I think. The day we did it this year had pretty bad conditions—the wind never kicked up enough so we were fighting a cross-chop and current. It was a brutal one this year.
But something like that in the middle of summer was good for me. Usually, I’m in California that time of the year just being an idiot all summer. So having something that forced me to be in the best shape I’ve ever had to be in definitely changed how I felt at the beginning of this winter.
Do you normally feel like you’re starting your winters needing to get back into the swing of things?
Yeah, I don’t know, sometimes it just works out. I feel like when I was younger I could just do whatever the fuck I wanted and it would work out but the last two seasons have definitely made me realize I need to change my approach out here.
Well, we’re getting older.
[Laughs] Yeah exactly.
Fred Pompermayer
How are you feeling overall on your road to recovery from your brain injury?
I think I’ll always be trying to do stuff to help it and things will always be a little different than they were. But it doesn’t hinder my everyday life in any way; I feel great. But there are times when my brain gets fatigued easier than it used to. Definitely social interaction fatigues it quickly. I have a threshold where if I pass it, I all of a sudden just stop talking and need to get out of there.
Or if I study super hard [Albee is currently studying for his pilot’s license] and then go to lunch with a friend and then I go surf and talk to people, I feel my brain go, ‘oh my god you’re done for the day dude.’
What kind of stuff are you still doing? Are you still doing exercises?
I have this piece of equipment from a company called Wave Neuro and it’s like a weird hat that I wear on my head that gives electromagnetic stimulation. Basically they measure you’re specific brain waves and then you plug in your program to the machine and it stimulates your specific brain wave. It definitely helped me a ton. It’s something you continue to do to upkeep—it’s not just a quick fix.
When you share stuff about that injury on social media, do you get a lot of feedback from other surfers who have gone through stuff like that?
Yeah and not just surfers—anyone who’s had a concussion, be it hockey players, bikers, you name it. The conversation around concussions in action sports has changed a lot since from a little before my injury. It’s almost common knowledge that we all get concussions all the time.
Does that experience make you nervous when you go out on big days? Do you wear a helmet?
Um I mean, I don’t think the helmet thing works too much at Jaws—it’d work if you hit your head on your board. But as far as the concussions you get from hitting your head on the water, I don’t think it’d change it too much. I’ve thought about that a lot—because I would wear one if I thought it was safer, it’s not like I’m scared of looking like a dork. I think the helmet would make your whiplash way worse. I think if I had a helmet on during that wave I fell on I honestly would have broken my neck. It’d have to be a neutrally buoyant softshell but it wouldn’t make that big of a difference. So I don’t really see it being worth it.
But as far as my approach out there, maybe it’s a little different. My first year back was definitely different—I was a little mellower I guess. Right before my concussion, my approach was like, too ambitious. I was falling more than I was making them. I remember the first two seasons I started paddling Jaws I only had one or two falls and that’s kind of what I want to do again from this point forward. I only want to fall because I’m too deep in the barrel—not because I fell on the drop or picked a stupid wave or something.
More of a mature approach to sending it?
A high 90s percentile is what I want to go for—but I still want to get the biggest, deepest barrel so it’s a weird balancing act.
It’s insane calculations you’re making.
Yeah just full running the numbers every time [laughs].
Fred Pompermayer
When you’re going for crazy airs are you ever thinking of protecting your head because of your brain injury?
Yeah, for sure. The first time I really had trouble with my head was when I fell on that huge Jaws wave at the contest and they canceled it—then the next week I fell on an air and my board hit me in the head and I broke my nose. I remember at the time I didn’t really know what was going on but looking back at the way I felt, that was my first real dose of being concussed. And it wasn’t until the next year when I had the really big wipeout and learned so much more about concussions that I was able to look back and be like well shit that’s why I felt that way afterwards that whole month.
So yeah, I think that’s why my head is a little worse than other people’s. The spinning and slapping my head on the water every freaking day doing airs here in Maui–I’m literally about to go do that right now–I think that takes a toll, too.
So when you’re launching a huge air are you aware of your board a little more now?
I’ve had a couple of flinches for sure because of when I broke my nose. Totally. I fell because I tried a spin but my board didn’t spin and the wind blew it to the end of my leash and it came back and hit me. Now as soon as I feel my board leave my feet I completely abandon whatever I’m doing in the air and just curl into a ball and sometimes I’m pretty high up in the air and just fall in an awkward position in a ball all the way to the flats.
So I just got an email a couple of weeks ago from the WSL that the big-wave season has officially started. You competing this year?
I don’t know I have so many weird feelings toward that contest. I kind of hate it. I think it made Jaws a worse place all around by so much.
In what ways?
It’s more crowded, people are more aggressive, and it’s more individualistic than it’s ever been. I feel like it changed big-wave surfing from a team sport to a single-person sport. Like there’s a top to get to. There are new personalities that have emerged in big-wave surfing that are definitely different than the generation before us.
Like more…..?
Like more, ‘I’m going to beat everyone’ and it’s just individualistic. I mean the camaraderie isn’t completely gone and it’s still better than somewhere like Pipe or Trestles, I’m sure. I just feel like when we first starting surfing Jaws it was like we were all on a spaceship together like, ‘ok we’re going to space everyone, let’s do this,’ and now it’s just everyone talking about who got the best wave of the day.
So you’re not doing the contest?
I’m just going to wait for the day; I’m not deciding one way or another. If it’s good and I don’t want to miss the day, I’ll do it. But if it looks like shit and they’re just running it because they’re running, I don’t really care to do it.