Guy Leverton

GUY LEVERTON

“King of Stoke”

Guy Leverton is the undisputed “King of Stoke” He is guaranteed to be just as happy in howling out of control onshores as he is when it`s overhead and perfect. He may also be known to you as the character “Crab”  in the movie Blue Juice and the owner of the former M.M.Y. surf shop in Newquay. Guy was also one of the first Brits to go over and discover the class of the Irish waves and the hospitality of its people. He still makes the regular pilgrimage, returning home to his native Cornwall more stoked than ever. I caught up with him to have a yarn over a post surf coffee and find out his story and perhaps the “Secret of the stoke”

Where were you born and when did you first surf? I was born in Redruth Hospital, Trelisk wasn`t around then. I started to surf when my old man bought me a “Hoye” Singlefin. We went on a family holiday down to France when I was Twelve. It was about the first time I properly surfed and that was it. I lived next door to the Winter family on Pentire, Newquay. Dean must have been 10 and Russ was a little kid. I was good mates with Steve and Dean because they were of a closer age and they got into surfing the minute they got into Newquay. We would surf `Towan` all the time but you couldn’t walk through the harbour it was frowned upon by us lot, no matter what the conditions, you had to jump off at the fly cellars, dunno why, you just did, those were the rules! We were all wearing fluoro wetsuits back then and you could tell who was who by the colour of each other’s suits. Grishka, Spenny, Steve and Dean, all that lot. At some point, we formed the Whipsiderry Board Riders because Whipsy was a secret spot. Hahaha, no, it was. We even put a sign up down there like one they had at Trestles that said “If you don`t live here, don`t surf here”. We got WBR T-shirts made and wore them all summer. Whipsiderry got exposed.

Who were your influences? Brad Gerlach. He was the man. It was just after the whole Cheyne Horan, Rabbit era. I remember hanging about down Fistral one day during the Fosters competition and me, Matt Miller and Gee Piper were watching the comp, when Rabbit Bartholomew came over to us and said "hey boys, do you mind looking after my gear while I go and surf my heat!" We were buzzing. Imagine that today, John-John coming over and doing that, what a different time. That year Cheyne Horan wore an all-white wetsuit and Munga Barry had one of the longest waves I`ve seen at Fistral to this day. Locally my surfing influences were Steve and Dean Winter though. We would hang about at Swell Surf Shop where Tunnel Vision used to be opposite Sainsbury’s car park. Roger Abbs owned it. He did Hawaiian Island Creations boards and we were all on them. Alan McBride would shape you a board and it would be like a major event, proper old school, no mask. You would watch the whole thing from start to finish, sawing out the shape and all the way to the glassing still with no mask on.

What do you make of all the interest and popularity of surfing these days? I actually think it’s kind of a good thing. If there is more money in it then the development of boards and wetsuits will increase. Also it`s ok to surf a different board than a Shortboard these days. Back in the day, you rode a Thruster and that was it, plus there are still lots of waves to go around. You gotta get out of the habit of pulling up to your local crowded break, moaning about it and then joining the crowds yourself. Drive away from the aggro if it bothers you. I have spent a lot of time in Ireland over the years and they are cleverer with it.

They will sit there in their vans chatting and watching everyone fill up the lineup at the more known spots then when everyone’s in the water they start their engines and bugger off somewhere else down the coast and get it to themselves. I first went to Ireland in about 1986, I love it over there, good bunch of lads and they have let me into a few guarded secret surf spots. Back then there was hardly anyone surfing Ireland from around here. Mostly Mark McGuire, Tim Smith from Boardwalk, my mate Titus from the skate shop and me. Too many stories, amazing times, amazing people.

So how did you get into acting? In 1992 I think it was. A production company came down to Newquay, they wanted a surfer for a TV ad. They contacted the B.S.A and rang around everyone like Lee Bartlett, Grishka, the Owen twins. We had to be at the Great Western hotel for an audition and I got it! I did the audition on the Monday and a few days later I got the call saying that we were flying to Fiji! It was my first ever tropical trip. I went from being this Pastie white Cornish kid wearing a 5mm winter suit to being in Tavarua, in boardies.

We got to the spot and I jumped out of the boat. It was about 8ft and I was shitting myself. I tried to take off on this wave but I was slipping about on my board. I thought fuck this, it was so vertical and so heavy. Had some laughs though. It was an ad for Nationwide building society.

After that trip I then got an ad for “Sparkasse”, a German version of Lloyds bank. We went to Cape Town, and then drove up the west coast of S.A. They wanted to film at dawn in the middle of nowhere, I could just see Table Mountain in the far distance and the water was black and creepy. All I could think about was sharks. It was 5ft and I was paddling out on my own thinking “what the bloody hell am I doing out here?” I was shitting myself again and in the end, they got a South African Champ to do the surfing part instead of me. I was too scared! hahaha

I got back to England and I still kept getting the call to do more ads. I did some for companies like K.P Nuts and Insignia deodorant, if you can remember that. It was more money to do One T.V ad than I would get for weeks of grafting in Cornwall, Ideal. One day, I went to London to do an advert for Smirnoff vodka. I was to be the captain of a yachting crew, tallyho and all that but every time I spoke they said I sounded more like a surfer! I got it sorted in the end. Turns out, the guys that were doing the ad were the writers and directors of a film they were going to do called “Blue Juice” and  the day they met me they wrote the character `Crab` specially for me! Some time later, I got the call and went to the audition, I was really nervous. Little did I know, I was auditioning to be me! I did the audition and they said “Sweet, you got the part!”

At that time Ewan McGregor wasn`t all that well known, he had done “Shallow Grave” and no-one really knew Sean Pertwee either, they knew his dad “Wurzel Gummidge” (Jon Pertwee) and they still didn`t have anyone to do the lead role of `Chloe`. A few months before we started filming, I got a call from my agent saying that Catherine Zeta Jones was playing Chloe. She was already a star of “Darling buds of  May”, so once she was onboard there started to be a real buzz about the film (plus she was super-hot).

I was sitting one day in a flat in St Ives when Ewan got a phone call. As he got off the phone he said “I`m doing a film after this one about some drug addicts in Glasgow”.

Of course, it was the film that really shot him up there “Trainspotting”. Weirdly, I was also with him the day he got the call that he was going to be Obe Wan Kenobe in Star Wars! I was really jealous of that. Ewan is a great bloke though, chilled as. Ewan and Sean Pertwee gave surfing a full go I`ll give them that. They were getting surf lessons every day from Rob Small and Steve England from “Carve”. Also, Peter Gunn (the guy that played the ‘silver surfer’ in the film) was having lessons. Sean was able to ride proper green waves by the end of it but the other two were still in the whitewater. The actual surfing in the film was shot in Lanzarote. We also did some filming at Hawkes point, St Ives and Chapel Porth. The big wave at the end of the movie was one of the Owen twins, Jamie I think. What was cool about it all was they involved “real” surfers to get the vibe right. Even the rave scenes were authentic. The rave was held in a quarry somewhere and to this day, I still don’t know where it was.

We drove there at night, then the camera crew just mingled amongst us in this rave that was kicking off, classic. One of the things though about “Blue Juice” is that it`s timeless. A feel good positive film and still today, a cult film in Japan. I did a few more movies after that. Even moved up to London for a couple of years in Kensington because of all the auditions. I did “Velvet Goldmine” with Ewan again about the life of David Bowie and Iggy Pop. There were a few films I nearly got but didn`t. One of them was “The Beach”. I was 2 weeks from having a big part when this American bloke called DiCaprio came along, they ended up using him for some reason! A friend of mine was then doing a film with Warner Bros about a futuristic Tarzan and the part was mine but it fell through as well. That`s the way it is in that game but the one constant love through all of it, was surfing.

Tell us about your surf shop M.M.Y? Well, I got back to Cornwall eventually and with some of the money I had made I started “Mellow Marsh Yellow”. Polly the tattooist in Newquay was doing tons of tribal tattoos and I mean tons, it was that time. She drew us the sun logo we had. The name came about when me, Elvis Beetham and Rik Langton started a `gang` and we came up with the name. We made the ‘dude’ stickers and put them everywhere. We went on missions at night putting them on all the signs, everywhere. Then in 1998 I opened the MMY surf shop. Chris Harris was shaping, Chalky was our sales rep and I was in the shop. We had the shop for about ten years, good times. At one point, everyone was on MMY boards, the Mullins and Winter brothers, Stokesy, Fergs and Cain in Ireland, everyone. You still see MMY stickers all over Ireland even today.

When I was young, I was a pro tennis player so when all that ended with the shop I drifted back into tennis and coaching. That’s what’s great about life, the way you drift from one thing to another. Tennis is what I`m good at  but surfing’s what I love, I wish it was the other way around.

What wetsuit and What Board do you ride these days then? Snugg wetsuits have been sorting me out forever, owe them a lot, don`t use any other suits. My go to board is the 5`6 “Booglerize”, l will ride it in anything. My mate Elvis Beetham now runs a surf school in Mayo, Ireland. He shapes the “Booglerizes”, mostly Singlefins and Bonzers. He knows one of the Campbell brothers and they gave him some templates. The boards are sick. Loads of the Irish boys are riding Elvis` boards. He does a board from start to finish. He glasses them in this U.V stuff and puts them in this UV curing coffin he has. My mate Tony Cunliffe that has been coming with me to Ireland since day one, got one of those boards made by Elvis and rode it the very day after it being glassed, brilliant. I do also have a couple of J.P thrusters that my sons have knicked off me and an 8ft CatchSurf foamie, sick fun.

What do you think of `Airs` and contest surfing? Airs annoys me, because I cant do them! I tried but I can`t. I love all surfing but that style of surfing is boring to watch. Clever but boring. All those clips of guys pumping down the line with another air at the end of it is shit! I prefer to see a dude do a nice turn or something on a singlefin. Because I work in sport, I do admire the pressure those guys are under to score points, the mental strength they have. I also admire the big wave guys, like Albe Layer or Tom Butler getting proper stuck in at places like Nazare. Russ Winter was European champ at the age of 16, that was amazing. Fergal Smith in Ireland is a great surfer too, managing to make a living from surfing, he is really media savvy and a top bloke. Sometimes, nice guys win.

Favourite Surf Movies? Best section from a movie would be that “Morning of the Earth” bit with the song “Simple Ben”. Terry Fitz running up the point with no leash, I love it. I love Litmus the full version too. I was over in Ireland and saw them filming that great movie. I like some of the modern stuff as well like the Ryan Burch, Trevor Gordon clips. That`s what`s cool about these guys today making some money from shooting a movie. You got guys like John John making these big HD movies and you got Craig Ando shooting a low budget movie for example and making some cash from it, it covers the whole spectrum. In the old days, it was only the top pros making anything at all.

OTHER PASSIONS? I love painting. I`ve had 2 exhibitions including a solo one in London. One of my paintings took 30-40 hours that I did recently. There`s loads of layers, every time you look at them you see something different. The thing about my paintings is you either love them or you think they are shit, no middle ground. That’s what art is, getting a reaction. If you get a reaction then all good, positive or negative, its still a response. I use mixed media. I put the reggae show on the radio and start painting to all this heavy dub music in my spare room or in the garden. Me and Elvis went through a stage in Ireland where we would have a skin full of Guinness and go paint outside in the moonlight. It wasn`t until the next morning you would see what colours you had put on there. Rad. There are still to this day paintings hanging in peoples front rooms that we did back then.

How do you keep so stoked in the surf? Genuinely I see there are never two waves the same and every time you paddle out you enter an environment completely detached from the real world. I know it sounds cheesy but you sit on your board and this energy is moving at you and you gotta catch it and ride it just at the right time, It`s amazing, isn’t it? I love going in when you are on the beach and you think, that looks hideous, no-one else is going in and you paddle out and catch that one wave that makes it all worth it, do a hundred duck dives, get a flogging then do it all again. It`s easy to sit in a warm car eating McDonalds and talk yourself out of it or you can just suit up and get on with it. I always have a good time, positive, right frame of mind. In the winter I love it when you can`t physically even put your socks on you are so cold. You whack the heaters on and you can`t turn the key in the ignition and then drive back to Newquay from the south coast, buzzing, knackered but warming up, what a feeling.

So, the secret to stoke is ‘”Always go in, no matter what”. There are others I see out in the shittiest of days but not many. What you realise the older you get, is that no-one cares how good you are at surfing except yourself, unless you are Slater or someone like that. No one cares. People paddle out and feel under pressure to perform and look good but no one is really interested. It`s easy to stand watching and critisise people in the water when it`s solid as fuck and you are duck diving set after set, getting launched over the lip or not making waves, who cares? At least you went out there. When people start making excuses not to go in, they end up down a slippery slope. There`s that quote in Litmus, Derek Hynd says “The secret to improving as you get older is enjoyment and not talent” and it`s true. You gotta start riding different boards and have fun. Don’t get caught in a rut, ride what makes you happy. I love surf, I love life, I love everything about life except Anchovies, I can`t even look at them....