Dave Stanfield, a longtime surf commentator, has died after a battle with cancer. Stanfield’s voice was a soundtrack of professional surfing for decades. According to reports, he passed away at 7:30 p.m. on October 15 due to “a sudden turn in his condition resulting from his battle with liver cancer.”
Stanfield wasn’t only a surf commentator. He was known as “the voice of pro surfing.” Loved for his upbeat personality and infectious infatuation with the sport, Stanfield’s voice backed surf events big and small. In addition to calling surf contests, he worked in ski racing, supercross, motocross, and car racing.
“Convince the audience of the event’s authenticity,” he told The Inertia a little over a decade ago. “Convey excitement, and be descriptive – as if the viewers were witnessing the event in person.”
Stanfield got his start in the booth in 1983, when he called the then-ASP’s OP Pro Surfing Championships, an event that would pave the way for how surf contests were broadcast to the world.
When he was on the mic, viewers couldn’t help but be affected by his enthusiasm. Throughout the years, he became a trove of surf trivia. He would often recall inconsequential moments from contests long since completed, linking old events and performances with new ones, tracing a path through surf history in real time.
“David set the standard for what it was to be a sports television commentator, always taking notes, updating his athlete bios in person, and spending hours or even days before the red light went on, researching and compiling everything that would make our shows better,” wrote longtime friend and co-worker Patrick Wallace. “And he wouldn’t let me slouch either. He was always pushing me to excel, and for that I am eternally grateful.”
It wasn’t just high-level events Stanfield called, either. From youth contests up to the highest levels of pro surfing, Stanfield was there with the same unbridled enthusiasm for both groms and professionals.
Stanfield saw massive changes in surfing over the course of his career. From tape-delays to the earliest live webcasts to the current iteration, he was there through it all and recalled how the first webcast came to be.
“In 1997, Mano Ziul [the ASP’s Chief Technical Officer] pleaded with Portuguese telephone company TelePac to lay over six kilometers of data cable across Praia Grande Beach (Brazil) in order to bring the world its first-ever surf webcast,” he told The Inertia in 2013. “I believe about 200 visitors tuned in. That was the beginning of taking surfing live to the world, expanding sponsorship viability and raising the sport’s profile.”
Stanfield had a few personal rules that were the linchpins of his success. “Commentate when there is action; talk when there is downtime,” he said. “Talk about things you know, and not about things you don’t know. Avoid talking about yourself, unless asked. And at the right time, during key moments, silence can be golden.”
Rest in peace, Dave. You’ll be sorely missed.
