OC Crew Series: Slyde Interview with Dylan Biggerstaff of Huntington Beach

Last week we set the foundation for a 5 part interview series with Slyde Handboards bodysurfing crew straight out of Orange County @Oc_Crew

Welcome to part 1 of the Oc_Crew series, an all access pass to 15 year old bodysurfing grom Dylan Biggerstaff from Huntington Beach California.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and where you come from:

Well, my dad was up in Northern California, and he met my mom through school. I've lived down here in Huntington Beach my whole life. I started body surfing with my friend, Joey, about five years ago, and it's kind of escalated from there. I met my other friend, Augie Cunningham, because he lives on the street right next to me. And just last year in during Huntington Beach Junior Lifeguards, I met my friend Chapin Paige and that's kind of the crew. Plus we have Jake in San Diego who charges pretty hard like all of us.

 Do you go to school? Do you have family? What's your deal?

I have one sister, younger, Brianna. She's 13-years-old. I have my older brother, Michael, he's also in the crew, He's 18 now and in college. I have a little dog named Ridley, he's a little Corgi. And I have been homeschooled my whole life so it's pretty nice to be able to go out for a session when it's pumping and kind of just keep school for later. Make our sessions around that.

What's the funniest or weirdest thing that's happened to you recently?

Funniest? Probably me and my friend, Augie, were out here at Huntington and it was our last session. We were coming in, and I went over this wave and there was a big boil behind the wave with a big dark thing behind it.

So naturally I freaked out, headed in. I'm like that's not good, we need to head in. And we came in and we didn't see anything. The whole session, we didn't see anything and it probably took out two hours out of our session. I'm hoping my eyes didn't deceive me because it was pretty fun but that's probably the weirdest most recently.

What's special about the OC_crew?

Me and Joey kind of started out. We came up with the idea, and then we got everyone on board for it. We started it about a year so ago.  I think everyone was in it that needed to be in it for us to have a legit crew. And what's so cool about us is that we all can relate to each other pretty well because we're all body surfers.

It's not like we're segregated surfing or body surfing. We all mesh together pretty well, and we have great friendship because I've known my friend, Joey, for about eight years, my friend, Augie, for about six, and then Chapin for about two. And Jake, I met about two or three years ago. It's been a pretty long friendship, and the crew just started pretty recently.

What are your local watering holes? Surf, food, hang out?

Well, obviously Huntington Beach, we ride straight out front of where we live. We go down as far as San Diego where Jake lives. And then we go to The Wedge a lot and get yelled at by the grumpy locals there because we're not over 30-years-old. We'll get our chance.

A lot of us in the crew,  all love Pokey. I think it's Pokey Island in Huntington Beach that's really good. We go there a lot and basically my house is where we hang out a lot. That's like the congregating place for the crew.

Your parents must be pretty chill?

 Yes, they are.

 What do you want to be when you grow up?

If I could be like Mark Cunningham or Mike Stewart and make money off of body surfing or anything with water-man sport in it, that is my dream job or a marine biologist. Just anything with the ocean.

 Biggest supporters and biggest influences?

My biggest influence is probably Mark Cunningham and my local friend over in Hawaii, Claude Heega. He takes us out at Panics and my greatest supporters are definitely Slyde Handboards and my friend, Mark. He gets me a lot of Da Fins stuff. That's really nice of him and we hang out. He's a really chill guy, but Slyde is probably my biggest supporter out of anything affiliated with the body surfing sport.

How does surfing affect other parts of your life? Good? Bad? Has it inspired you to do something bigger? Has it taught you anything?

 It's definitely taught me to respect the ocean a lot more because a lot of people I know can get hurt in the ocean. You got to know how to respect it. And the negative effects are you never want to go to school. And whenever you have a break, like we just finished Thanksgiving break, literally my friend, Joey, texted me at 8:00 in the morning, "I hate school". The only thing he texted me all day, "I hate school." It definitely affects our school but in the good parts. At least, we have something to do on the weekends. When we're not screwing around doing nothing, we're in the ocean.

You've obviously talked about Point Panic, so where have you traveled to? And where do you want to go?

I've traveled to the island of Oahu, and that's the only island I've been to on Hawaii. I would like to go obviously to Tahiti, Fiji, that's kind of a no brainer. Maybe South Africa and stuff but one place that I would like to go that is on the island of Oahu is Pipeline, but obviously that's extremely localized so I would need Mark or my friend, Claude, to get me out there. Just basically any Pacific Island you can drop me off at and I'll be good. I'll be okay.

What other passions do you have and hobbies, besides surfing?

 Other than surfing, I do like soccer a lot. I've recently gotten caught up with school and stuff but I played, I think it was, nine years straight before I started getting into body surfing. It's just hanging out with my friends usually and obviously doing a lot of school work. While, making edits for our crew videos. That kind of takes up a lot of our time. That's pretty affiliated with our surfing stuff, but we usually hang out at my house and we do some crew interview stuff. We'll just mess around and tarp surf and just screw around. Oh, and fishing! I can't forget that one. My dad has been fishing his whole life so we do that.

Ocean fishing?

Yeah, we ocean fish, we lake fish. We catch a lot of neat stuff.  

Are you making your own Pokey?

No, I wish. If I lived in Hawaii, I'd be getting, what are they? Ahi... Sadly, I don't live in Hawaii. I'll take this though. (references to ocean and sand in front of him)

Where do you think this generation of body surfing is taking the sport? Where is the sport going? And where has it been? And what do you see for it?

Well, the older generation have kept it more on the hush, hush side. It's kind of an underground type of sport. Now with this new generation and Slyde, we're kind of getting it out there more. And a lot of people don't know if they're going to like that because a lot of people just want it to be underground. They don't want it to be like surfing.

When you go out, people  say, "That's a body surfer, he's weird." Not, "He's cool, he's a body surfer." Most of them talk about not liking it that way, but then they go around and say they like it. It will be interesting to see how the other old guys take it and stuff, but regardless we are the new generation so it's going to come how it's going to come and we'll try to represent it  well.

First time you touched the ocean?

This might not be accurate, but it was definitely before I was a year old. Probably six months old. My mom would take me out at Huntington tower five. She would push me out on a boogie board into the white wash. That was definitely the first time. I might have touched it sooner though. That was the first time I've ridden waves so it's in my DNA from then on.

Best advice you've ever gotten?

Best advice I've ever gotten? I think it was Mark Cunningham who said,"To be a successful body surfer you need to have three things: a suit that fits, you need to kick like hell, and you need to come out smiling." That's the best advice I've ever gotten.

Any parting words?

Stay stoked and don't get hurt

Thanks Dylan for your killer insights!
Want to see what Slyde Handboards Dylan is riding in and why?! Peep this video