Photo: Servais/A-Frame

Ross Clarke-Jones somehow made a competitive career on a pre-Dream tour, wiggling mostly in beachbreak pish when he should have been scaring the shit out of us in the world’s most harmful surf zones. Luckily, big waves like Pipe, Sunset and Waimea gave glimpses of the real RCJ, most notably in the infamous ‘85 Billabong Pro at macking Waimea, and then in 2001 when he became the first non-Hawaiian to win the Eddie. A combo of a devilish 6/6/66 birth date, bushy eyebrows and general possesed appearance all contribute to RCJ’s membership of the old school madman brand of hellman. That is, perhaps not neccessarily a surfer with a death wish, but a surfer with no apparent aversion to the idea, either. More recent film roles like the very excellent Sixth Element biopic narrated by Dennis Hopper, and last year’s Storm Surfers 3D keep RCJ on a big wave big screen near you at an age when he’d be forgiven for retiring.