We must reward the daring. The bold. It took some major cojones for Stuart Edge, who appears to be a well-meaning YouTube sensation, to approach surfers on the beach at Pipeline—including Jamie O’Brien—and give them some pointers. And even if this video is three years old, we had never seen it before so it’s new to us, and it’s just as good today.
“Have you ever considered working on your paddle in?” Edge asks Jamie O’Brien. “I was thinking it could use a little bit of work. So when you’re paddling up to the wave, really dig into that water. You’ll really be able to pop up on that wave a lot more, you know. Really hang ten into that thing.”
“Who, me?” asks Jamie O’Brien.
“That’s just my advice. Really dig in there, like you’re digging treasure out of the beach…You surf a lot?”
“Yeah, it’s my job.”
“You get paid for that? With a paddle like that?”
Jamie O’Brien smiles incredulously.
Bravo, Stuart Edge! You committed to making comedy! And everyone stayed friends after. A double accomplishment.
I liked the idea that Stuart Edge is a random guy who created this little video for his own amusement, but Edge has nearly 2.5 million subscribers to his YouTube channel. So that hope crumbled like a Lorna Doone. Edge says that five years ago he was cleaning Porta-Potties when he had made a life-changing upload to YouTube that went viral. Since then, he’s managed to build a livelihood creating videos that “make people laugh, but also feel inspired.”
This video made me laugh. Hawaii can feel like a very serious place, especially during winter on the North Shore. The extent to which Edge is aware of this is unclear, but he certainly takes the piss out of it quite effectively. And didn’t even get hurt in the process.
