The internet can’t get enough of the Newport beach surfer dude parodies. Photo: KTLA5//FOX11
Surfers growing up in the 2000s had idols like Kelly Slater, Andy Irons, and Laird Hamilton. But in the pre-social media era, there was another kind of surf celebrity, without the accolades, but just as well-known, who was nonetheless just as much of a household name for surfers: the Newport Beach surfer bro.
In 2002, Micah Peasley became a meme before they even existed after he gave a parody interview on FOX 11 news at the Wedge in Newport Beach. It resonated because, as much as Peasley was joking, it wasn’t far from the truth of how the most frothed-out surfers actually talk after a day of epic waves.
Ethan, a bodyboarder who rides the Wedge, had clearly done his homework. When KTLA interviewed him about the recent run of hurricane swells at California’s most infamous shorepound, he went on script, and the reporter had no idea he was recreating the meme. But surfers watching knew exactly what he was doing.
“It’s been the best conditions ever, dude, you can just drop straight into them, get real pitted, come out of them, hit the lip, and just go ‘wapah,’” Ethan said. He did a pretty good job of staying in character and not losing it.
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When the reporter asked him to explain what on earth he meant, he continued with more surf jargon.
“You hit the lip. Wapah,” Ethan reiterated.
“Wapah?” the reporter asked.
“Yeah.”
The video has already received more than two-million views on KTLA’s Instagram page. Apparently, the surfer-bro character can still go viral 24 years after Peasley’s moment in the spotlight.
After the historic weekend of waves that Newport Beach just experienced, there’s no better way to describe it than “wapah!”
