A few years ago, I met Torrey Meister for the first time in Portugal. I was very familiar with him, of course, but until then, I’d never actually spoken with him. I assumed his personality would be a little closer to the way he surfs than it actually is. He’s a quiet guy with an easy smile. Confident, but not cocky. But in speaking with him, you would never know that he is one of the gnarliest men in all of surfing.
“I don’t think he’s ever met a gnarly wave he didn’t send it on,” Kelly Slater told Tucker Wooding for Unmakeable, Wooding’s latest film. “I can’t tell you how often I see a crazy wave that may or may not be makeable at Backdoor, and Torrey is the guy on it.”
Meister is the epitome of a wildman. From riding bulls to riding giant waves, he doesn’t seem to seriously consider the consequences of his actions — but that’s a big part of the reason why he’s become the surfer he is. Shane Dorian, a guy who has surfed with Meister in some of the heaviest conditions imaginable, agrees.
“He’s one of those guys who will take one look at a wave and then just ask me, ‘Hey Shane, are you going?’ He really doesn’t caluculate whether that wave is a nine out of ten, a ten out of ten, or just a crazy looking one. He’ll just kind of go, sight unseen, not really taking into consideration the risk versus reward. Because of that, he has these spectacular wipeouts. But also, the upside is that he goes on crazy ones that no one wants a piece of. Part of the time, he makes that. That’s how he gets those waves that everyone remembers.”
Wooding met Meister relatively recently (around five years ago at Steamer Lane). Wooding introduced himself and they began to form a friendship. As time passed, they grew closer, becoming good friends.
“So much so he came up to Alaska and joined me on my commercial fishing boat during the summer,” Wooding wrote. “At that point he was working on an edit from the winter, I forcefully took the project over and three years later it is finally out.”
You’ll notice on watching Unmakeable that there are a handful of voiceovers talking about Meister and his accomplishments. That wasn’t Meister’s idea.
“I had the idea to feature people talking about Torrey,” Wooding explained. “When Jamie sent me the first audio recording, I knew it was something special. I did not tell Torrey I was doing this because he’s way too nice of a guy to want people talking about him (sorry Torrey!).”
At 38 years old, Meister is no spring chicken. Don’t tell him that, though. Originally from the Big Island, he grew up drinking that famous Hawaiian juice. His surfing speaks to that. He matches the power of those Hawaiian waves with a power all his own. And he’s a well-respected hellman.
“I think Torrey Meister is the nicest guy in the entire world,” Matt Meola said. “I have a theory that his kindness has molded him into one of the biggest psychopaths to ever ride a surfboard. Torrey would never sit at the peak and battle guys for the best wave of the day. He’s way too nice to do that. Instead, he sits on the outside, out of everybody’s way, lets people paddle around him and he just waves and smiles and says what’s up to everyone. And then, when the biggest, most disgusting double up — borderline close out — comes in that nobody wants to look at, Torrey is head down, fully committed. It’s either going to go one of two ways: complete catastrophe or absolutely extraordinary.”
