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Malibu City Councilman Skylar Peak. Enjoying his office in Indo circa 2010.

Malibu City Councilman Skylar Peak. Enjoying his office in Indo circa 2010.


The Inertia

One surfer leaves the Malibu City Council (Zuma Jay), and another surfer enters. On May 10th, Malibu resident Skylar Peak won one of five seats on the Malibu City Council. Voter turnout was low, but Skylar appreciation was high, as 1,644 of the 2,679 of the voters who bothered to cast a ballot supported Skylar who won by a 10% margin over the incumbent.

Skylar has lived in Malibu all his life, where he runs private and group surf classes, operates Peak Power Electric, and also promotes clubs and bands under Sicky Dicky. He’s a busy lad, who also trained Gerard Butler for his roll as Rick “Frosty” Hesson in the upcoming Jay Moriarity movie: Of Men and Mavericks – a training that might have saved the actor’s okole, as during filming, Butler got caught inside by a freak wave, and was hit by 12 feet of whitewater and pushed through the rocks.

On Monday, April 23, Skylar was sworn in and then met friends and supporters at Café Habana for a victory party. The Inertia talked to Skylar about his election, and his next four years as one-fifth of the Malibu City Council.

Gerard Butler

Gerard Butler repping Skylar's Peak Performance hat.

Let’s get to the most important question first:  What’s Gerard Butler really like?  

Gerry is super fun, charismatic and passionate character. He worked really hard for his role in the movie picking up some many little details about surfing and spending countless hours in the water. He even picked me up at Urgent Care after a nearly life changing PWC accident. Gerry will always be a great friend and human being.

Your life-changing PWC event, or his life-changing PWC event?

Mine.

I talked to Zach Wormhoudt who was about 10 feet away from Butler and saw him sitting sideways on his board – looking not too happy – when he got mowed at Mavericks by 12 feet of whitewater. Zach got hit too and went through the rocks and I said, “So you got your ass beat thinking you had just drowned the biggest movie star in the world?”  So that was a pretty serious beating. Did you talk to GB after that happened? 

I was in Peru, but I heard he was doing okay after being shook up. Getting caught inside is part of the sport. That’s why we love it.

And what was your life-changing PWC event? 

Rolling a ski when I was bringing it up on the sand. It was low tide and I had to get up and over a berm so I was doing about 30MPH+. I hit a weird chop in about a foot of water and got crossed up going pretty fast before I beached it. The ski rolled as I was launched and bounced like pinball across the beach. Thank God I didn’t get struck by the ski or break my neck. Gerry and I were scheduled for dinner to discuss training and progress but instead he picked me up from Urgent Care with some severe bruising. I was shocked nothing was broken.

I wasn’t in Malibu for almost all of the election but I heard the name Skylar Peak was more than a little prominent.

Yeah, the community was very supportive and we ran a positive campaign for a change. People took their Peak signs and posted them on properties all over. Some friends in Venice/Santa Monica even posted signs too. It was a ton of work.

Did you use the slogan I sent you: “If I haven’t wired your house I’ve probably plugged your daughters.”

No LOL…

Why not?  

Because that will not get me votes.

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