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By Steve Fitzpatrick
Posted: 8/24/2009
Despite having the odds stacked against him, this Trinidad & Tobago local has risen to the top of his league to become one of his island nation’s most recognized athletes.
Chris Dennis was destined to surf. He just took the long road on his journey. The long road is something to which he’s grown accustomed. It’s a fact of life he’s embraced.
Growing up on the outskirts of Balandra, Chris was the oldest of three children. His father was a farmer and a fisherman, while his mother kept the home and children in line. Ironically, they lived up the hill from a beach called Chris Cove, so Chris, his younger brother, Anderson, and his younger sister, Clarissa, were always around the water.
By the age of nine, mostly out of pure necessity, Chris was already an accomplished spear fisherman. There were mouths to be fed and the ocean was bountiful, so Chris learned to harvest that bounty. When he began to see some of the older local boys riding the waves rolling in below the house at Chris Cove, and with the sea already in his blood, he was keen to try his hand at surfing. But in a place like rural Trinidad nearly two decades ago, that was a mission easier said than done. Surfboards were hard to come by, and those that had them weren’t so quick to loan them to some scrawny kid running wild on the beach.
“I’ll never forget it,” said Chris. “I was about ten years old, thin as a rail, and scurrying all over the beach at Chris Cove in my underwear.” he recalled. “I was dying to try surfing, but none of the older kids would give me a turn on their board.”
Ever the studious optimist, Chris bided his time paying close attention to how these older boys approached the surf whenever he had a chance to watch them. Meanwhile, there were chores to be done. The fields his father cultivated needed tending, so when Chris, Anderson, and Clarissa weren’t in school during the summer there wasn’t such a thing as vacation. On the contrary, they were up at 4:00 am, made the 30 minute walk up-river to the fields, and tended to the crops watering and pulling weeds until noon. For lunch there would be fruit, and lots of it, before heading back home and to the beach to fish off the rocks for dinner. Then back to the fields for more watering in the afternoon. Days were full and there was little time for the surf.
But Chris was always watching. Months went by and all his observation was building a long list of “do’s and don’ts” when it came to catching waves. One day his persistence in asking the older boys for a turn on their surfboards paid off, and he was finally given a chance. “But you only have four tries.” the older boy told him. “Because we want to get back out there ourselves.”
Not one to squander this opportunity for which he’d waited so long, Chris was quick to catch his first wave. But it happened so fast that as he rushed down the face of the wave he didn’t make it to his feet. And fearful of damaging the board on the cobblestone beach he hurled himself off the board as it advanced towards the shore. “If I were to ding up their board” Chris recalled, “that would have been the end of my chance to learn!” The same thing happened on the next two waves, but on his fourth and final attempt he made it clumsily to his feet and rode the whitewater all the way to the shallows. He was hooked.
Not long thereafter Chris’ cousin, Roger, who had gotten a job in Port of Spain (Trinidad’s capital a two hour drive from Balandra), came home with a surfboard. It was a 6’4” Merrick. Quite tired looking, but now available for Chris to use. The long road was proving fruitful, and Chris was about to become a surfer.
But, wait a second, Chris’ dad wasn’t so supportive of his surfing exploits. “What will you do to prepare for the future?” asked his father. “Surfing won’t make you any money!” His mother, on the other hand, was OK with Chris’ new passion as long as he did his chores around the house and farm, and got good grades in school.
With the Merrick at his disposal and now 15 years old, Chris soon mastered the gentle rollers of Chris Cove and was hungry for more challenging surf. Down the road a few miles on the other side of the village of Balandra was a beach called Roughside, more exposed to the prevailing easterly winds and swell, and notorious for claiming drowning victims. He’d been told not to go there by his father, but the long road beckoned, the siren of the seas called him by name, and the 4.5 mile walk was no deterrent to a kid as determined as Chris. “I took a lot of licks for those first waves at Roughside” remembers Chris.
“The first time I met Chris was quite comical,” said Peter White, one of Trinidad & Tobago’s first surfers. “It must have been 1994, maybe ’95. We were surfing the beach break at Toco, and Chris dropped in on me, unintentionally I later learned. But I’d never seen him before and I mistakenly assumed he was just another rich West side kid without any respect for his elders. I threatened to punch him out, and terrified, Chris was quick to apologize!” chuckled Peter. “Richard “Errol” Shim, the person who brought surfing to Trinidad & Tobago, later explained to me that Chris was a local Balandra boy, which really surprised me, and we soon began taking Chris with us on trips up to Matlock and Shark River.” recalled White. “The first time I saw Chris surf he was already very good, and he just got even better and very quickly!”
When asked to compare Chris with Jason Apparicio, Trinidad & Tobago’s other most internationally known surfer, Peter was effusive in saying, “Jason’s and Chris’s development in surfing was very different. Jason spent a lot of time surfing in Florida and learned how to compete in smaller surf. Chris, on the other hand, learned to surf at Roughside, a very unforgiving wave, and it turned him into an extremely fast and powerful surfer. They are both very competitive, but where Jason is smooth and stylish Chris is just plain explosive. Chris has always had to work very hard for everything he’s achieved in life,” continued White, “and I doubt that right now there is a more talented surfer in our country.”
One day local surfer and national team member, Chris Cabral, saw him surfing with typical abandon at Roughside, pulling into closeouts and trying big maneuvers. Cabral informed Chris of a contest coming up the next weekend at Slyibia encouraging him to compete. Cabral picked him up that Saturday, took him to the contest venue, and paid for Chris’ entry fee. “I was so clueless!” recalled Chris. “I heard my name on the PA system, and that I was in white for my first heat. So I went running to my bag to find a white tee shirt because I didn’t understand that I needed to go to the competitors area and get a colored rash guard.” he continued, “And I didn’t even bring my own board. I was too embarrassed by its beat up condition.”
On borrowed boards Chris ended up winning the Junior division of that contest and placing 5th in the Expression Session. Having only surfed either crumbly rollers and heaving onshore beachbreak waves to that point, the perfect reef waves at Slyibia were a revelation to Chris, and it showed in his performance during that contest. It also earned him some serious “Who’s that kid!” respect and a new custom shaped Alan Davis surfboard. “I was a big surprise to everyone at that point” said Chris, “because no one had really seen me surfing at all. I’d not been in the water that long and mostly up around my home where few people surfed besides the local boys.”
Chris remained competitive locally after that first win, but never competed in any international contests held in Trinidad. While the crews from Barbados, Venezuela, and Tobago were all coming to Trinidad to compete, Chris was too shy to challenge them. “I’d go to all these events, but never participated. And I remember seeing guys like Venezuela’s Pedro Rangel, and Barbados’ Mark Holder up on the winners podium thinking ‘I want to be there’”. Again, Chris’ road was longer than that of most surfers, but his destiny was within site.
In 1997 a friend of Chris’s helped him get $1,000 US from the Tourism Development Company of Trinidad & Tobago (TDC) to travel to Barbados in for the Sprite Cup. Coincidentally, he’d gotten his passport at the suggestion of his church’s pastor in an attempt to get work with the auxiliary division of the local fire department, a job which was given to someone else but which allowed him the documentation he needed to travel abroad.
“But I’d never even as much as been on a plane.” remembered Chris. “I arrived at the airport in Barbados with no one to pick me up. I had my surfboard, a bag of clothes, and a bag of food, and in getting to Bridgetown on the bus I nearly left my clothes and passport on that first bus. On the bus up to Bathsheba I was freaking out because I didn’t see the ocean anywhere, and the bus was just jam packed. I was the last person on the bus when it finally came up over the hill towards Bathsheba, and when I saw the water I was so relieved! When I got off the bus in front of Soupbowls and ran into some guys from home they said ‘What are you doing here?!’”
Chris had gotten support during his stay in Bathsheba from local boy, Anderson “Hoggy” Mayers, in the form of accommodations, and ended up reaching the third round of the ’97 Sprite Cup defeating the then WQS ranked Bryan Hewittson in the process. He also met a crew of people from the east coast including Virginia Beach’s John Belote that would later be very instrumental in the development of his surfing career.
“Chris’s board was so beat up and waterlogged,” recalled Belote, “that I loaned him a 6’3” Bill Frierson I had with me. It was a little too big for him, but he still made it work and I left it with him when I went home. Over the course of that trip my buddies and I really grew to love Chris, and I ended up helping him out as much as possible with my surf shop from up here in Virginia Beach.” said John. “We lost touch thereafter and then in 2007 I ran into him on the beach here at home. He was traveling across the country with these two gals, and we made a trip down to Hatteras. We caught a great little swell and Chris really blew some minds! That year in the Easterns Chris helped me with some competition strategy that really paid off in the contest. He’s about as genuine a guy as you’ll find.” he concluded.
A few years later Chris was encouraged to attend the Surf Expo in Orlando, Florida, and single handedly painted a house at home in Trinidad to raise the necessary funds to make the trip. There he met Barbie Graves, mother of Josie and Dylan Graves, two of the Caribbean’s most successful professional surfers, and she was able to help Chris get product from Spy and Cobian, and surfboards from Ricky Carroll. After the Expo the invitation to visit the Graves in Isabela was open, and it was there in Puerto Rico that he was first exposed to truly world-class waves and really honed his surfing act. From the Graves home on the cliff above Jobos Chris would walk to that world famous peak, or further on the Secret Spot or Middles. From Trinidad Puerto Rico was an affordable trip for Chris, and with help from people like the Graves he was able to live there for extended periods of time.
“Chris has been like a salmon swimming upstream.” said Barbie Graves. “He’s one of the most adaptable people I’ve ever met, and has simply connected the dots wherever he’s gone in life with very little planning.” she continued. “Here in Puerto Rico he was embraced by the entire community, and wherever he went or whatever he did people were always impressed with the quality of his work and his character. Chris comes from a reality that the average grom from Florida, California, or Hawaii can’t even begin to comprehend. He is a genuinely good soul, and a great ambassador for his island.” concluded Barbie.
“Puerto Rico taught me a lot about surfing and about life.” said Chris. “I won my first international contest there at the Volcom Catfish event held at Jobos in 2002. Since I wasn’t terribly mobile during my time in Puerto Rico and Jobos was the closest break for me, I’d surfed it in just about every condition. So I knew the place well, and that helped me win that contest for sure.” he concluded.
From there Chris spent time in Florida in 2007 laminating surfboards for Orion Surfboards, landscaping, and “breaking out” as he put it. He also got support from the Trinidad government that year to follow the WQS tours, and had several strong results in California, Mexico, and Brazil. While competing in California, Chris was befriended by the legendary Richie Collins, who loaned him a wetsuit in Huntington Beach and became his travel partner in Brazil where they ended up on the front page of one of the national newspapers after touching down in Rio. Over a mere seven QS events Chris was able to achieve a #244 ranking, and solidify himself as one of the best competitive performers to ever come out of Trinidad. Returning to his home island nation in 2008 Chris captured the country’s National Championship title.
Today Chris spends most of his time at home working as a house finisher doing painting, landscaping, and tile work to save money for traveling while catching as many waves as he can in his home waters. He also continues to spear fish regularly. His parents are now fully behind his surfing career, and impressed that he has been able to glean so much from a pursuit that looked so void at the onset. He’s also running surf camps for the youth of his country as close to home as his namesake beach, Chris Cove, and as far away as Tobago in an effort to give back to the sport that “has given me everything” as he says.
The long road less traveled is riddled with potholes and often full of strife, but guys like Chris Dennis are living proof that with perseverance, dedication, and desire anything is possible.
Surf Caribe: Tell the readers a little bit about what it was like to grow up in rural Trinidad.
Chris Dennis: It was really slow paced, everybody knew everybody, a really simple life. There would be electricity and water outages for weeks at a time so people really cared about each other and a bit more for the environment because that would determine how clean the water would be in the rivers from which we drank.
SC: As a grom starting out in the surf who did you look up to most in the local Trinidad surf community?
CD: Quite a few people. All the good local surfers, but Che Lovlace was the one I really looked up to as he was the best back then and is still one of the best now. It was such a big deal for me to go surfing with him back in those days.
SC: How do you think that coming from a modest background helped your surfing pursuits?
CD: I think anybody can do anything, and coming from what I came from really made me strong mentally. There were plenty of times when I felt like giving up, but surfing was my way out of my circumstances. Plus, when you came from what I came from you tend to dream a bit more of a better life, I think, and that was one of the things that most help me.
SC: What did you learn most during your WQS run in 2007?
CD: It made me realize that leaving your dreams behind would be the biggest mistake you could make.
SC: If you had to choose between surfing and spear fishing which one would you choose?
CD: I do not know, man. It depends on a few things. This is a tough question for me, and I know that it should be easy for most surfers to answer. Maybe… surfing. Hmmm… spear fishing?? I don’t know! I love them both so much!!
SC: Plans for the future?
CD: Dreams or actual plans? Dreams would be to be on the WCT and live that for a bit. Plans would be to marry my beautiful girlfriend and just live that. I also want to start a foundation for kids here in Trinidad and Tobago that involves surfing and diving. Just to give kids more of an opportunity to enjoy the stuff that has given me so much, and to keep them on the straight and narrow because these days that is hard to do. I also plan to have a surf contest or two per year to help hone the skills and talent of the young “up and comers” and just be a part of that process of mentoring the young. I'm also working on a documentary film project called "Chris Dennis - Between Worlds" with my friend James O'Connor. The trailer can be seen here. James is an exceptionally talented photographer and filmmaker from here in Trinidad, and I'm very fortunate that he's taken an interest in my story and my surfing exploits to the degree of wanting to do a movie about it! Look for the film in 2010.
Full Name: Christopher Ricardo Dennis
Nickname: Stickman, Black Beauty
Date & Place of Birth: November 25, 1978 in Trinidad
Hometown: Rampanalgas, Balandra
Height/weight: 5’9 140lb
Stance: Regular
Sponsors: Coil surfboards
Ranking: 1st Trinidad & Tobago ranking, about 300 WQS
Quiver (number of boards): about 15… I wish!
Surf Crew: Brian, Shane, Jesse, Milldread, Kendel, all the super groms, Mad Mike
High School/College: Toco Composite High
Grade/Year: 12, 1996
Occupation: Pro Surfer, Pro Diver, Pro Driver, Pro Player
Company: Chris Dennis Rent-A-Husband
I started surfing in: 1996 at: Chris cove
Local surf spot: Roughside
Favorite wave: secret reef right point, roughside and Internationally would have to be desert point!
First board: Ocean Avenue 5’11” twin fin fish about 3” thick
Hot Dog Stick-every day board: 5’11” x 18 1/8” x 1 7/8” round pin Coil shaped by Kirk Brasington
Magic Stick-favorite board ever: 5’11” M4 squash Al Merrick on which I won my first international competition
Big wave gun: 6’6” Dan Taylor,soon to be a 7’0 coil by kirk brasington
Best Session: Local: Roughside, October 2008. A perfect left bank had formed and stayed around that entire month for just my friends and I. Every wave was a stand up nug!! International: Soupbowls, November 2001. The biggest, widest tubes ever! I almost drowned!
Best Contest result: Local: National Champion of Trinidad & Tobago 2008. Ranked 1st on the Surfing Association of Trinidad & Tobago (SATT) rankings for 2009. International: 7th place 2006 San Miguel Mexican Surf Fiesta 2 Star.5th place soupbowls barbadoes wqs 1star 2007 1st place 2006 Surfrider Foundation Pro Am. 1st place 2002 Volcom Catfish Surf Series in Puerto Rico.
Favorite Maneuver: Grab rail roundhouse cutty at my secret right point
Secret Weapon: Fishing from my surfboard
Workin’ on: Riding a wave while fishing from my board
Dream maneuver: Ten second tube ride
Favorite Surfer: Local: Mad Mike International: Talyor Knox
Favorite Shaper: Local: Alan Davis International: Kirk Brasington and Dan Taylor
Top 5 Surfers: Local: Mad Mike, Brian, Gargarmel, Jesse, Andre International: Taylor Knox, Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning, Dane Reynolds, C J Hobgood
Top 5 Surf DVD’s: Letting Go, Stranger Than Fiction, Sipping Jetstreams, Arc, Mick Fanning’s Me, Myself, and Eugene
Top 5 Music bands: Orange Sky, Seal human beings,2pac, Mangul Patesar world music
Best Post-surf Munchies: Mangoes
Favorite Food: Stew chicken and macaroni pie with red beans
Tail Slide or Rail Carve? Rail carve
Get Barreled or Get Air? Get barreled for sure!
Contest Machine or Soul Surfer? Lean Mean Fighting Machine
Paddle or Tow? Paddle, gets me going
Log or Fish? Log, fish, balsa, plywood……
Epoxy or Polyester? Coil!!!
My favorite thing about surfing is: I can be me and just do whatever crazy things that come to mind and it is all good!
In ten years I see myself: marriedwith my own super groms heading to the beach!
If I’m not in the water, I’m probably: very, very sick and in bed.
You’d never guess I’m also pretty good at: singing.
If I couldn’t surf I’d definitely be: a spear fisherman.
I owe most of what I’ve accomplished to: the ocean.
I have a recurrent dream about: surfing against Taj Burrow at the beach by my house and someone stole my board just when I had to go out! I always wake up crying!!
One thing I’d like people to know about me is: I shot a 450 lb. goliath grouper fish free diving. Watch out!
Open Mic-Last Words: I would like to thank my girlfriend and parents for putting up with me, and all the people from my past and present who in some way have helped make me who I am today!
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