Taj Burrow, Empire State Building, New York

“It’s been the wildest it gets. It’s been too much fun. We’ve been travelling the whole city. It’s been a blur of mad times.” These are Taj Burrow’s hazy reminiscences of New York thus far. He’s been in the Big Apple for 10 nights now, taking advantage of the gap between the Portugal and Puerto Rico events by booking rooms at The Standard hotel, The Maritime and The Chelsea. Teeb’s gang, including trainer Johnny Gannon and photog John Respondek, have been livin’ it up in the heart o’ the big smoke. “We’ve done the touristy stuff, went up the Empire State and then we’ve being going to really good restaurants and hitting up some really fun clubs,” says Teebs. But he’s a bit overwhelmed by it all: “I don’t know how people can live here. It’s too much. I need to get in the ocean.” When Stab called Taj to ask about the trip, he was about to go 10-pin bowling before jetting off to Puerto Rico tomorrow for the Rip Curl Search Pro. The life of a pro, huh? – Elliot Struck