Balaram Stack Is Not Common
Balaram Stack is not-so-secretly one of the most interesting surfers out there.
Let’s run through the shortlist: He’s Pipe Master. He was once profiled in The New Yorker by actual Pulitzer Prize-winning writer William Finnegan. Yes, that’s the guy who wrote Barbarian Days, the book we all got for Christmas in 2015 and has become our modern Bible. He’s an East Coast surfer who’s just as comfortable on the streets of Manhattan as he is in his hometown Long Island lineups. And, of course, we can’t overlook how spectacular he is once he puts his feet on the wax. That’s what helped him accomplish all of this, anyway. He’s just as comfortable, and as fun to watch, paddling into a sweeping Teahupoo set as he is launching into the flats on an East Coast a-frame. Exceptional in the water and cool as can be out of it, Balaram is always just happy surfing, fishing, and enjoying himself. He lives one of those lives you can only just look at and say, "Wow, that must be nice."
Balaram's been touring his profile film, Hail Mary, through the world over the past year. If you haven't seen it yet, you really should see if there's a theatre or beach-adjacent bar showing it near you soon. There's a reason he's held on a digital release for a while... it's that good. He also made a recent appearance in Like Common Cold, a number he did up with also quite-talented Seth Conboy and filmmaker Matt McQueeney. We saw that as good an excuse as any to call him up and see what he has been up to. Turns out, he was hunkering down at home after chasing another massive swell in either Hawaii, Panama, Spain, Puerto Rico, Tahiti (maybe it was Mexico?) or wherever it was on this big fucking world.
Balaram! What’s up? See you’ve been fishing, what’s it season for on the East Coast right now?
Striped bass, or bluefish. A lot of tuna has started to come back.
Saw you scored some! I don't know what fish it was… but you posted a beautiful-looking bit of roe.
Yeah, that was the striped bass.
Nice, how’re you gonna cook that up?
I don't know. I had a couple of suggestions to try to do something with it. Probably just fry it in a pan.
“Yeah, I mean as I’m home I’ll be fishing as much as possible”
Yeah, I've only cooked it once. But it's pretty good. I usually just do a slow boil then, like, toss it in the pan for a minute just to get it a little crispy with seasonings of choice. But it's pretty a darn good deal with, like, parsley and some onions and another sort of acid.
Oh, I'm sure. I’ll probably go with something like that.
Just go wild with it. You've been on the road for a minute, haven't you?
I was in ‘Chops and then Mexico after that and then I went to Santa Cruz and then came back here.
How is Tahiti? It looks like you were there during the bulk of that massive swell.
Yeah, it was crazy. It was really crowded, but it was so really good so it was good to be on it.
I guess it was like the first big swell of the summer. Well, the winter down that way.
It was a lot of tow guys and it wasn’t as big as it was supposed to be so it got pretty hectic.
Just out of curiosity, how much of a danger can that be? I mean, it’s hectic. But do you ever have an instance where, say, two guys are whipping into one wave and it starts to get hairy just because of the bodies out there?
Yeah, people will start dropping in and it’ll get weird. That’s when it gets dangerous. It doesn’t happen very often unless there are, like, a ton of people out.
True. I reckon that’s more of a problem somewhere like Pipeline where there are not so many beginners in the water but a lot of people who can just paddle out, even if they’re in way over their heads. Teahupoo has a bit higher barrier of entry (laughs).
Exactly. It’s a different crowd out there (laughs).
How was Mexico?
It was good too! Just a little messy as well. I got my girl a couple of waves which was cool. It was a little hard to find a good one so she ended up taking a couple of beatings, but she handled it okay. We did a little fishing as well.
Catch anything?
Yeah, we got some fish! It was a little murky, so it was a little hard to get stuff.
Oh, nice! Always forget you’re diving too (laughs). I see Like Common Cold just dropped, what’s the story behind that clip?
Well, we had a couple of good swells in the Outer Banks and up north and we just compiled some clips and it worked out. We scored really fucking hard in the Outer Banks and then we had the winter at home and Seth and I just went on a road trip mission getting waves and, yeah, put that together.
Nice, you're still touring Hail Mary around? I caught it when it was here in Redondo, such a good time.
Yeah, they’ve done five shows in Europe. And I think there’s one more left. We're going to do some in the Northeast in June and then it comes out July 11th. We’re going to do a Vancouver premiere and then a premiere at Volcom headquarters and then it’ll be on, like, Amazon, iTunes, Vimeo, and everything.
How long were you gathering footage for that?
The idea started like three and a half, four years ago. So yeah, it was like a four-year process. It started out with just a bunch of clips that I had and then we said we should just make it a bigger project. So we started interviewing everyone and I even dragged my mom on camera for, like, six hours (laughs). It was a process for sure.
Well, I’m sure you’ve been pretty stoked about the reception.
It’s been really good. Hawaii was incredible and New York was incredible. I mean, they’ve all been sick but New York was, so, so jammed and we partied so hard. And then, in Hawaii, there were like too many people for the yard to even handle. So that’s a success.
“ you have this perfect wave or perfect barrel in your head you’re trying to work for that forever”
Since you mentioned New York, I have to ask about the particular section of you in Hail Mary where you’re surfing back home. That was crazy. I want to say you back-to-backed that section with a Pipe section? Or maybe it was Teahupoo… Whatever it was, you did it and then it cuts back to the East Coast and it’s, I almost want to say even gnarlier? I was pretty blown away by it.
That was like the best I've ever got it (laughs). But it's rare for it to be the right period in the right direction, for it to get like that. A lot of times it just washes through. We do get those numbers where it gets good but rarely does it get that good. But that one was pretty damn good, and it wasn’t even that cold too. We were in like 3/2s.
Correct me if I’m wrong here, but it seems like you have those swell extremes way more on the East Coast than here out West. Here we do have our rare big days, but we also have lots of three-foot, four-foot, five-foot, and six-foot days in between to ease yourself into things. But it seems like it's pretty dramatic on the East Coast where either you get a head-high day or a double-or-triple overhead head-high day with not much in between, so you just have to roll with it.
I mean it definitely just goes from fun to like that (laughs).
Did that ever make it hard trying to adjust your surfing when growing up? Did you have those moments when you were on the beach thinking, like, “Fuck, I might die but who knows if a swell like this will come around again so may as well go for it.”
No… I mean, I don't know. It's like, you just have this desire for the unattainable or something. Like you have this perfect wave or perfect barrel in your head you’re trying to work for that forever. And I think that gets in the way of any fear. It’s easier to think about getting that wave than it is to think about getting hurt or something.
Are you sticking around a bit for the summer or have a full travel itinerary per usual?
Well, I have a bit of a bum wrist that I’m trying to take care of and then trying to figure out these premiers. I plan to be back at Teahupoo here at some point this summer but other than that I really have my eyes on Namibia. I really want to get a swell there and I haven’t done that yet.
And probably do some fishing as well I’m sure.
Yeah, I mean as I’m home I’ll be fishing as much as possible. I’ll go offshore whenever I get the opportunity. I have some friends that we’ll go offshore to a canyon like 60 miles out. And then my brother has a couple of jet skis so we’ll do that inshore and we’re always fishing and diving and whatever.
Is the East Coast, and especially New York, still the same great place to be a surfer like when you were growing up?
I mean there are definitely a lot more people surfing. There’s definitely a gap between the kids that I grew up surfing with and everyone out there now. There weren’t many crowds when I was coming up or many people doing contests. The surf camp industry started booming here and you saw a lot more kids going for it and doing the ESA’s (Eastern Surfing Association) and contests like that. So it definitely got more prevalent in terms of new kids coming up. But other than that not much has changed. There’s still the same crew but if anything it’s just got more crowded.
Stoked to hear it’s still going strong, though. Thanks, Balaram! Can’t wait to check out Hail Mary again when it hits the web and such.
For sure! Thanks, dude.
