Mel, who is fifty-three, no longer has the foaming jaws of a meth addict. Today he is the sort of man who loves his children with a passion, his parents with respect, his wife with generosity and his friends with loyalty.

He wears slightly too big flannel shirts and pants with stone washing applied at the factory.

On January 8 last year, Pete rode a thirty-foot tube at Mavs.

“Everyone on earth should see this ride,” said Kelly Slater.

In this interview, Pete talks about how he stuck his lance into that monster thirty-foot wave at Maverick's neck, how he was lucky to avoid jail during his meth years and the mysterious beauty of BeachGrit's below-the-line commentators.