SEOTY: JOB’s Favorite Backdoor Surfer Of All Time

“I don’t think he’s ever met a gnarly wave he didn’t sent it on,” says Kelly Slater., in the opening scene of the above film. “I can’t tell you how often I see a crazy wave that may or may not be makeable at Backdoor, and Torrey’s the guy on it.”

“Torrey will take one look at a giant wave and just ask, ‘hey Shane are you going?’” laughs Shane Dorian. “He really doesn’t calculate.”

“I think Torrey Meister is the nicest guy in the entire world,” says Matt Meola. “And I have a theory that his kindness has molded him into one of the biggest psychopaths to ever ride a surfboard.”

“He’s definitely my favorite Backdoor surfer of all time,” says Jamie O’Brien.

Most surfers will never hear such words from anyone… much less from some of the greatest surfers in the world.

But most surfers don’t have the gumption (and table manners) of Torrey Meister. 

Before we get to more praise, lets recall how he earned it. At 38, the Big Island native has spent a couple of decades collecting impressive waves, sessions and edits, often by chasing large low-pressure systems around the world and putting his head down on waves most turn tail from (see his 2022 SEOTY entry for further evidence).

As you’ll see, two things stand out from Torrey’s new film:

1. People can’t speak highly enough of his character.
2. He’s come to terms with big-wave surfing’s hard truth: You can’t feast on awe-inspiring waves without taking some serious lashings.

And if you’re wondering, Torrey didn’t ask the aforementioned talent to pump up his tires or ego. The guy is the opposite of a narcissist. The quotes were an unsolicited surprise, orchestrated entirely by Tucker Wooding, Torrey’s friend, ace drone pilot, and filmmaker behind the project.

“I kind of went behind his back,” Tucker said. “Torrey is under the radar a little bit, but he charges so hard and I thought these guys might have some insightful stuff to say about him and who he is as a person… and how psychotic he is when it comes to surfing.”

Caught off guard by the praise pouring out of the voice memos, Torrey could only blush, shake his head and express a mixture of disbelief and gratitude.

“The first one Tucker sent me was Jamie, and I was honestly blown away,” Torrey said. “He’s one of my favorite surfers, he’s one of the greatest Pipe surfers of all time, and I honestly couldn’t believe he said those things. In surfing, it’s so crazy to get compliments from your peers like that. I’m still processing it. At the end of the day, it’s much more important for what my peers think of me than any contest result. Their words meant a lot.”

At a time when long-term contracts to surf full-time are few and far between, Torrey’s career longevity deserves a second glance. Back in 2013, at 25, he was competing on the QS when he signed a year-long deal worth $50,000 after winning the O’Neill Cold Water Classic at Steamer Lane. He’s since parlayed that into 13 years with O’Neill.

Must be that smile of his.

“I definitely don’t want anything given to me in life, I would rather earn it,” Torrey explained way back when. “I’m over the moon, but at the same, this is it. No messing around. I was grinding it out before with no sponsor. But now with a sponsor, I want to work even harder.”

Somewhere along the way, a guy known for blowtails on the QS started to develop a taste for waves that break bones. More career retrospective than flash-in-the-pan edit, Unmakeable highlights an exceptionally well-rounded surfer. West bowl barrels at solid Jaws, stretched-out cylinders at oversized Backdoor, dry reef tubes at Cave and a litany of other hollow peaks. Don’t sleep on the full rotations and his sneaky stalefish reverse.

“I film him all the time, and there are times when I’m thinking, ‘Don’t do this, don’t go on this wave,‘” Tucker said. “I’m worried about him because I’m friends with him, but it’s the funnest thing because he’s so chaotic and unpredictable.”

I asked Torrey what puts him at ease in these nut-crunching situations. To paraphrase his answer: “Laughing it off with a friend.”

“Nathan Florence is a great guy to be around when the waves are heavy because he’s good at making things light,” he said. “In a crazy situation, he starts laughing. Albee and I are the same way. I’ve had so many sessions where it’s just me and him, like at Cave, and there’s reef popping out of the water. And we’re laughing and having a good time. If I didn’t have someone there, I’d be way more stressed.

“That’s one of my favorite parts of big-wave surfing, is doing it with guys like Nathan and Albee,” he continued. “They make it super light-hearted and funny. When it’s too serious, I tend to have worse sessions. When I’m laughing and having fun with my friends, that’s why I do it.”

This summer, Torrey found himself in a less familiar setting: aboard a 46-foot commercial fishing boat in Alaskan waters for seven weeks, as a deckhand on Tucker’s boat. The Wooding family has been commercial fishing in state waters for decades, and when one of Tucker’s deckhands had a sudden medical emergency, Torrey signed on as soon as he was asked. He and Tucker became a two-man crew, working long hours north of the Aleutian Islands.

After pulling thousands of pounds of fish from the Bering Sea during a mid-June boom, the pace took its toll. Tucker gritted his teeth through arthritis while Torrey had to size up his gloves to accommodate his swollen hands. But during a lull in the work, they found something miraculous: a six-hour solo session at a secluded, playful beachbreak. Wearing Tucker’s wetsuit, gloves and booties, and riding a board that had been stored in Alaska for three years, Torrey made it look so fun you could almost forget the water was 48 degrees.

There aren’t many surfer-filmmaker relationships that are also deckhand-captian friendships.

Click above, watch the film… and be like Torrey. Have a dig.