Trouble: The Lisa Andersen Story (FULL DOCUMENTARY) - WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP SURFER, Surfing Movie

[TV static]

Trouble, the Lisa Andersen story, take 1...

♪♪♪

When I think back on my life

I wish I remembered that moment

of going to the beach and seeing it for the first time.

How young and vulnerable I was.

I remember all the trouble I got into, or caused.

I can't image what could've happened

if I didn't leave home.

I wouldn't have been able to get far enough away from it

to pursue the dream.

And surfing is what saved me.

(News broadcast) More and more women are taking center stage in sports

(News broadcast) Like a young lady by the name of Lisa Andersen.

(News broadcast) Lisa used to skip school and head to the beach.

♪♪♪

(News broadcast) At age 16, she ran away from home.

(News broadcast) Lisa spent 8 years trying to be the best surfer in the world.

(News broadcast) People are amazed that having a child didn't slow you down.

(News broadcast) Even In competition you were pregnant!

(Lisa Interview) I'm pretty amazed myself.

(Lisa Interview) I've been pretty lucky with the way it turned out.

♪♪♪

I grew up in a really small town in Virginia.

A lot of cow farms.

One gas station.

One school.

Really remote.

I was such a country kid

that none of my thoughts were coastal.

Maybe just summer vacation

when my dad took us to Cape Hatteras.

That's when I first fell in love with the ocean.

I have memories of jumping the waves.

When you're a kid jumping over whitewashes.

I remember never coming out of the water.

My parents owned a restaurant in town.

Both worked day and night.

We had a live-in nanny who took care of myself and my brother.

My parents were not really around to be parents.

Which gave me a lot of freedom as a kid

to just roam around and go on adventures.

I was 10 years old.

Just wandering around and exploring the woods.

Getting into trouble, taking risks,

climbing trees, making forts.

I remember walking on a frozen lake once

and seeing how far I could go before it started to crack.

The economy got really bad.

My parents ended up having to close the restaurant down.

My dad decided that moving to Florida

would be an easier way of finding a job.

I was shattered.

You have your friends and are so comfortable with your life.

The last thing you want to do is move.

That's too close up Lisa.

It'll be a big blur.

No, I've got zoom on here.

Got what?

- Zoom lens. - Got zoom?

[School bell rings]

I changed schools 4 different times in one year

and that made my mind explode.

My parents would make me wear hand-me-downs.

[Kids laughing]

I was trying to make friends.

We were just a bunch of nobodies.

Off the record, this is painful!

(Lisa) Come here! Hi baby.

We lived probably one block from the beach.

Really close. You could hear the ocean from my house.

The feeling the ocean gives you of peace.

Something about it balances all your crazy emotions and mood.

Cookie Lisa?

I was a total little boy, so I had to surf.

I was already athletic.

I wanted to try what everyone else was doing

and be "cool".

In Daytona, Ormond, and parts of Florida

There are streets called "approcaches"

Where they drive down onto the beach.

My way of trying to meet people

was to sit there until someone talked to me.

Eventually someone let me borrow a surfboard

and asked me if I wanted to give it a try.

Once I got that feeling of being in the water

That was all I wanted to do.

The lifestyle, right away, sucked me in.

Everyone wore shorts and surf trunks

and T shirts and flip flops.

It was easy, laid-back culture.

♪♪♪

I basically only surfed when I could borrow someone's board.

Because I didn't have a board. Couldn't afford a board.

I remember people on the beach calling me in. (laughter)

"Give me my board back!"

"That's enough! One more wave! You're done!"

My mom associated surfing with beach bums and druggies.

People who hung out at the beach all day and had no job.

So every time I went surfing

it created friction between me and my parents.

They didn't know anything about surfing.

We're going surfing!

I'd found something I wanted to do so badly

but I was told blatantly "you can't do it."

But I would do it anyway.

I guess that's where all the trouble started for me.

(♪Rock n roll on radio♪)

An immitation of Mom...

[Laughing]

(Lisa) My parents owned a restaurant, so there were never home.

It left a lot of time for me to get up to no good.

I felt like I had to be a bad kid.

To fit into a certain niche.

Because I wasn't rich.

I wasn't that kid that had everything.

(Male voice) Get the cigarettes and the beer.

(Female voice) Getting the beer man!

♪♪♪

(Lisa) I hooked up with the wrong people

and started smoking pot and stuff like that.

I would miss class because I smoked too much pot.

Ate too many donuts. Threw up.

It circulated around that I was always in trouble.

So it was like, "your nickname is Trouble."

I used to hang out at the beach with this group of guys

and one of them was named Ray.

I was 15 and he was 24.

Ray made me my first board.

It was pink and had blue fins.

It was the best day ever!

Ray would pick me up from school

and we would go to all the spots far from home and go surf.

We would sit around and get super stoned.

Ray was knowledgeable about surfing

and making surfboards.

He'd teach me about what good surfing was

and why certain guys were cool.

Like Gerry Lopez.

We used to go to surf movies with everyone in the theater.

That was the first time I saw people surfing in other places.

♪♪♪

I don't think I was ever so amazed

to see someone moving inside a tube

or even a tube that looked like that.

It made surfing seem like

it was almost impossible to make it

coming from where we came from.

I started to realize that

I needed to go surfing other places

and surf better waves to get better.

My dream at that point was to become a pro surfer.

Ray eventually moved out to Southern California

and got a job at a surfboard manufacturer.

He would write me letters and actually mail me weed.

He told me I should move out to California

and that I could stay with him.

This one time I was at the beach

and this friend of mine lent me his scooter.

I wound up spending the night at a friend's house

and never brought it back.

He reported it missing.

The next thing I know, the cops are picking me up.

At that point, I had been truant from school,

I had run away from home 3 times,

And the judge just wasn't stoked on me.

I got locked up in a juvenile facility for a week.

My parents were just fine with that.

After that, I was put on house arrest until I was 19.

My dad had a bit of a raging temper.

He had a severe drinking problem.

I remember him yelling at me about not surfing anymore.

My first surfboard was sitting there in the living room.

And so he just jumped on it.

(Crying)

That was rough.

I'd finally found something I was good at

and I had a dream to take it further.

I knew I had a way out of this by going to California.

I decided it was time to go.

My mom had gone, and my dad was home with me.

He was napping. Which he did a lot.

I had called a taxi service.

[Car honks]

I just remember thinking

"Fuck! He honked the horn. He's going to wake my dad up!"

He never heard the car.

I just jumped in the taxi and we left.

Straight to Orlando.

I'd never been to an airport.

Never been on an airplane before.

I started going up to all the airline counters

asking how much a one way ticket to Los Angeles was.

All the flights were in the morning early.

So I had to sleep in the airport.

They must've known I was running away.

I'm this little blond kid with a suitcase and a pillow.

I just left. No one knew anything.

I wrote a note to my mom, and it said "one day..."

"I'm gonna be number 1."

♪♪♪

(Lisa) California, to me as a kid, was just Hollywood.

So I didn't know anything about Huntington.

The easiest thing for me to do was be at Main Street.

There was so much going on that I didn't stand out.

There was a lot of surf. I'd surf all day.

I had a job bussing tables right around the corner.

So I was there trying to figure it out.

Trying to make friends.

It was hard because when I told someone I was a runaway

they wouldn't let me stay with them.

It was tough.

I moved in with Ray.

We lived in a tiny apartment.

It was gross. It smelled weird.

There was a bunch of weirdos living there.

There was a shared bathroom down the hall.

So every time I went and took a shower

I thought something bad was going to happen to me.

(Contest horn)

♪♪♪

There were contests every single weekend in California.

I was amazed at how many contests there were.

It was this whole other level of surfing I didnt' know existed.

It was seriousness. It wasn't stoner beach life.

I was ambitious enough to try something I'd never done.

It reminded me of when you go to school for the first time.

You're the new kid.

That's how it felt in surf contests.

I was this mysterious person that no one knew anything about.

A lot of pros would come to town and surf.

The competition would be on the south side.

I would be out there surfing and watching heats through the pier.

I was trying to surf like them. I'd fall off and be in the way.

Then I'd have guys yelling at me to get out of the way. (laughs)

Tom Curren was a huge influence on my surfing.

I used to watch tapes of him, and just wear them out.

It was an obsessive thing

because I wanted to surf as good as the guys.

I remember writing probably 50 letters

to everyone in the surf industry

from Quiksilver, to Beach town, to Levi's.

I wrote everyone I could think of for sponsorship

and never got a letter back.

They didn't sponsor girls. It didn't make them money.

It's a man's sport.

Eventually the guys from Aleeda Westuits noticed me

and offered me my first sponsorship.

They paid for my contest entries,

I got 3 wetsuits,

and that was a big deal for me.

The guy that ran the team was Craig Coman.

He was a pro surfer and a super fierce coach.

He'd run heats with us.

He had a clip board and he'd keep score.

You'd come in and he'd get at you for making mistakes.

They were really pushing me.

It felt good to have some support.

With nowhere else to go,

I was just coming back to Ray's apartment every evening.

He was super possessive about me

and he always wanted to know where I was.

I was basically a young girl living with an older guy

and he took advantage of that.

I would just lay like I was frozen.

I didn't know what else to do. I just laid there.

And...

And so that wasn't good.

Craig from Aleeda had a pizza night at his house

because we'd just won a contest.

I fell asleep on the couch watching a movie

and ended up spending the night.

The next day I realized that Ray was going to freak

because I didn't come home.

A girl I knew wound up walking home with me.

We got to the door, and I heard Ray ride up on his bike.

I could hear him climbing the stairs.

Just when he got to the very top,

I looked at her and said, "We're running!"

♪ Scary music ♪

I could just feel him right there

almost getting me.

We got to my friend's house and ran into the garage.

Her parents were like, "What's going on?"

And I said, "He's chasing us!"

So Ray lifts up the garage door

and her dad grabs a shotgun.

He says "Get the fuck out of here!"

And that was it. He was gone.

So I ended up moving in with Craig and his roommates.

Every weekend there was a contest somewhere.

I'd get a chance to go surf Santa Cruz or Del Mar.

There were just so many contests.

I was riding for Billabong at the time.

Billabong was one of those companies in the industry

that actually supported girls.

I competed as an amateur for a year

and then I turned pro.

(CONTEST ANNOUNCER) There goes Lisa dropping in late

(CONTEST ANNOUNCER) Big backside re-entry, she floats over the soup

(CONTEST ANNOUNCER) Hits the whitewater again

I didn't have the money to travel full-time yet.

I'd get one ticket to go to one event

and then I would just barely make an entire tour season.

I wasn't consistent.

One of Craig's good friends was Dave Parmenter.

He was always hanging out at the house.

Dave was a tough person to talk to.

The mystery of him. That attracted me.

That person who was just kind of rebellious.

He was already on Tour and kind of famous.

I went to a contest in Santa Cruz with Craig

and then ended up going home with Dave.

I'll try not to pee in a cup now.

(Lisa) I remember driving south with him after the contest finished

and I guess some sort of magic chemistry happened.

(Laughter)

He was smart. He was funny.

(Silly laughing)

(Dave) I'm Fred Garvin, male prostitute.

(Lisa) I thought "I'm having strong feelings."

What was not to love? The guy sucked me in (laughter).

Dave lived in San Luis Obispo

But kind of on the outskirts of town.

A former horse ranch.

It had a lot of acres.

And there were feral cats (laughs).

(Lisa) Hi Boo Boo. You a good boy?

It had a shed/garage

that he turned into a surfboard shaping room.

There was just so much coolness about it.

Say "hi everyone in Daytona Beach Florida!"

I felt way safer and more relaxed

because of how fast life is moving in Huntington.

(Funny singing) "Is this love I'm feeling?"

(Lisa) Being from rural country as a kid, I felt at home.

No! Dave that's mine!

- You can't have them all! - Who says?

Me!

It was almost an hour drive to the beach every day

to go check the surf.

(Funny cartoon sounds)

(Lisa) So that was a bit of a mission.

Sometimes you got tired of doing that.

But also, everyday was something new.

I was just enjoying surfing with someone I was in love with.

It was the best thing ever.

♪♪♪

(Lisa) You can't go on the pier!

(Dave) Yeah you can.

(Lisa) Alright. Yay!

You're are such a stud.

(Dave) Lisa Andersen in the first heat.

She wasn't able to make it over to Africa

so we found the nearest thing to Jeffrey's Bay.

Looks like she's caught it.

A classic soup takeoff. Sets down the line.

Going off the top with an incredible off the lip!

(Lisa) Dave and I used to run heats.

Then we would go back and review the tape.

A lot of times you would slow-mo the tape

and watch your turns.

He would point out different things like foot placement.

Moments when I missed a section and things like that.

Break down a wave and explain how I could've better ridden it.

Dave had a big part in a lot of things I learned from surfing

whether it was competitive surfing or just free surfing.

(Christmas Music on Radio) Sleep in heavenly peace...

(Lisa) He did propose to me. I did say yes.

But I don't think I was thinking about that.

I think I was still so surf-obsessed.

But enjoying where I was for the first time in a long time.

(Dave) Lisa's first turkey.

(Dave) Lets see those mashed potatoes.

(Lisa) Let's eat already.

(Lisa) Honey!

(Dave) I found you! Let's get a closeup.

(Lisa) I don't think I'd ever felt like that.

But it started to change.

He had this bitter rivalry with the surf industry and the Tour.

(SURFER MAGAZINE-Dave quote) "The surfing world is not going to be a very nice place to live much longer."

(Lisa) Sometimes the way he made it sound

was that it was all B.S. That is wasn't cool

or it wasn't a great career.

That it wasn't something I would be able to do.

That success might be difficult for me.

And I didn't believe that at all.

- Can we go home now? - Yeah.

Why, you don't feel good?

(Lisa) What should I do?

Just give it up and live here on a farm and surf?

When it came time for me to travel to Australia

Dave and I were not on good terms.

Things were falling apart.

Being typical Lisa fashion,

I knew that when I went to Australia,

I wasn't going to contact him anymore.

I look back now

and see how badly I broke his heart.

And I'm really sorry for that.

[Ocean sounds]

Australia was God's country.

So much about Queensland was a lot like home.

It was warm, and it was sandy

I felt super comfortable.

I remember going there and

I literally had $20 in my pocket or something.

I was staying in a pub on the floor, sleeping in my board bag.

Eating fish and chips every night for dinner.

Roughing it.

I'm competing in the Bundaberg Pro

and I beat Pam Burridge in the final.

I won the contest. My first ever win on Tour.

$8000.

Surfing was so much more of a lifestyle

and professional sport in Australia.

I was like "Wow, people really make a living here."

Quiksilver was Tom Carroll, Gary Elkerton,

guys like Jamie Brisick and Danny Kwock.

This whole bunch of guys I wanted to rub shoulders with

and join the party of surfing and fun.

Bruce Raymond from Quiksilver had heard about me.

So I went over to his house to discuss a potential contract.

Janice Raymond opened the door, and she said

"Isn't this a cute little boy! Where are you from?"

And I remember going, "Um, I'm Lisa."

That was the beginning of the Quiksilver partnership.

I wanted to impress him

and really make a statement when I got there

because it meant a lot to me to have the sponsorship.

Going down to Bells Beach and winning

in front of the whole Quiksilver company down there

helped me get more support to continue doing the Tour.

♪♪♪

I was living the dream for sure.

I my gosh, I'm really on Tour?

And that's so and so?

Everywhere the guys went, I got to tag along.

We had rental cars, good flights.

I thought "Wow, I kind of made the Big League."

I met Jeff Hornbaker and he was the photographer for Quiksilver.

He was always hanging out in speedos.

I was just doing my thing

wearing guy shorts and guy clothes

and he was trying to work his magic.

Then the whole Roxy egg was born.

Being able to wear something that was fitted to me

and modeled to my body was really cool.

It gave me this crazy confidence

because I was always the lone girl

with this big group of surfer guys

and they were making board shorts for me.

I was in love with the brand and everything about it.

We'd go on boat trips

I'd never been on a surf trip to get photos or be filmed.

Little did I know that we were on the cusp

of this whole big movement in surfing

where women weren't just viewed as bikini models.

They were the first ones to have a pro surfing event

and sponsored girls all over the world.

It was this crazy phenomenon

where a brand created a friendship

that spreads through the world.

Fun stuff was happening with Quiksilver

but I felt like the most inconsistent competitor ever

because I would have hot and cold moments.

I'd get mad at judges

and have those flares or Parmenter in me.

I would blame this or that.

I still had some fires to put out.

I couldn't figure the competing side out.

I wasn't really "on" at all.

Every day is a Saturday when you're a pro surfer.

(laughter)

Sometimes is was like, "Gosh, am I really on tour?"

"I might have a heat tomorrow, but just a couple of beers."

"I should be fine!"

(Female voice) Lisa is the most responsible person I've ever met in my life.

[Screams, laughter]

I guess because I didn't finish high school or college

I didn't have that time to have some fun.

(Male voice) 1...2....3...GO!

(Lisa screaming)

I think I was having a bit of fun.

Having a little too much fun maybe

and at risk of not qualifying a few times

and not having the best results.

♪♪♪

There was a thing instilled in me by Dave

about the judges' criteria and how you're supposed to surf.

I wanted to surf my way but I also wanted to win

so at some point I needed to fix that.

No one really talked to the judges on tour.

You didn't hang out with them.

The head judge at the time was Renato Hickel.

I was out surfing Jeffrey's Bay and dropped in on Renato.

I was trying to let him know

"You're a judge. I'm a surfer."

"I don't like you."

I may have gestured something to him with my finger.

(Laughing)

He said to me, "I can fine you if I want to."

Some sort of weird sparks happened there.

And that's how that wild romance started.

(Renato laughing)

(Renato) Ooh la la!

(Renato laughing)

(Renato) Get away!

(Renato) Oh my goodness!

(Lisa) We had kind of a little fling

No one knew about it and it was kind of secret.

It happened again and again.

(Renato) Look at me!

That's a perfect picture.

Yeeheew!

(Lisa) Flash forward to a couple of events...

We're in Hawaii for the end of the tour.

I noticed in the morning that I wasn't well.

(Renato) Check those legs. How was that?

Too big for me.

I felt not myself, and I was very tired.

I would go for a surf, then sleep for 2 hours

in the middle of the day. "What's wrong with me?"

I had a bad habit of trying to block things out of my mind

and think they would just go away.

I just remember going to Foodland

there on the North Shore.

I was hoping it was a time of day

that I wouldn't run into 20 people.

Because you always know somebody every time you walk in there.

So far so good. I'm cruising.

I go straight to the aisle and grab the pregnancy test.

I grab some bread.

Something big that would lay next to it

so you couldn't really see it.

I was so worried that somebody would see me.

I get to the cashier.

Sure enough she asks "do you know how much this was?"

I said "I'm not sure."

She grabs the microphone: "Price check on CLEAR BLUE EASY"

I thought, "NO! You've got to be kidding me!"

"This is the worst thing that could ever happen!"

I didn't see anyone in the store.

Before I knew it I was gone and back at the house

and proceeded to take the test.

It came back positive

and I was completely freaked out.

♪♪♪ [Sad Piano]

I felt like I'd ruined my career

because of my irresponsibility.

The Tour Judge .

Could you get any more scandalous?

I mean...

This is stuff you can't even make up.

I was like, "What am I doing?"

I'd just gotten this great new sponsorship with Roxy.

No one's going to sponsor me. I'm gonna be pregnant.

I just wanted to go to sleep,

then wake up and it would all go away.

But it's a maternal instinct.

You want what's happening to you to happen.

The alternative was not really a thought.

I didn't want to go through that.

I still paddled out in my heat knowing that I was pregnant.

I was thinking, "What if I have a wipeout"

"and something awful happens?"

I feel like that heat was a turning point for me.

I'd run away from so many things in my life

but I wasn't going to run away from this.

Whatever happens, happens.

Renato was very supportive and happy about it.

(Renato) She's beautiful, isn't she?

My goodness gracious.

(Lisa) I was ashamed and disappointed.

So I felt an obligation to keep going.

(Female voice) Is that Lisa? She's ripping!

(Lisa) If I could compete as long as I could and then have the baby

then I wouldn't lose my spot on tour.

♪♪♪

For the beginning of the pregnancy I flew to Brazil

and lived in Florianopolis at Renato's apartment

and surfed every single day.

♪♪♪

(Renato) Hit the lip!

Fly baby, fly! That's beautiful.

(Lisa) Flew to Australia for the beginning of the year...

No one on tour knew I was pregnant.

Just my sponsors.

People knew Renato and I were kind of dating.

Whenever there was any kind of bad call, wrong score,

it was always my fault or because of our relationship.

I competed at Bells...

Got 5th place there. I was 4 months pregnant.

In Western Australia it kind of ended

because the surf was too big.

I was starting to get bigger and it was uncomfortable.

I showed up to an event and had to forfeit

and then had to come out and tell the media in Australia

and tell the ASP, "Well, I'm pregnant."

And I won't be able to do the Tour.

They were just looking at me like (amazed).

August 1st, 1993

[Baby crying]

I had Erica during the OP Pro.

She was born August 1st, which is always during that event.

My mom and I became closer through it, which was cool.

(Renato) It's daddy's girl?

This was my first shower.

As you can see, I didnt' like it.

- Hi sweetie. - Hi.

(Lisa) The doctor said don't surf for at least 8 weeks.

2 weeks later I flew to Lacanau

to compete. (laughs)

(Renato) Okay, Erica on tour.

(Renato) Biarritz.

(Lisa) I remember checking in for my heat and it was pumping.

I wasn't going to sit and watch, so I paddled out.

Who knows? Maybe I'll get lucky and win a heat, and get points.

I was determined to qualify.

(Renato) Okay, Erica on tour!

(Lisa) The whole drama of a baby and baby stuff

and how much stuff we traveled with.

I was exhausted!

(Renato) We're just arriving in Tokyo.

It's Erica on tour! Hi Mommie!

This is our rental van.

And here is Erica sleeping.

[Baby crying]

(Lisa) I needed to sleep and compete.

Renato was staying up late and trying to work.

Everything we did was just crazy.

I don't know how we pulled it off.

I had no time to mess around, party, chit chat, be distracted.

All those distractions are constant.

With Erica there, I was focused on either her or the job.

I think that really helped me.

All of it started to click.

♪♪♪

I ended up finishing 9th just outside the number 8 spot.

Pam Burridge retired that year. So guess who was number 8?

Me. So it was all worth it.

Doing what I did helped me be seeded into the next year.

(Renato) Huntington.

You started your surfing career here?

When you ran out from your home in Florida.

You little trouble maker!

♪♪♪

The miracle of having a child

is what that child instills in you

that gives you the power to get it done.

The strength. The determination.

The heart.

♪♪♪

(Announcer) First place, Lisa Andersen!

[Cheering]

I had such a huge lead in the beginning of the year

that is was kind of crazy.

I had the World Title in my sights

and things couldn't have been going better.

Every time I'd start to lose focus

I'd look down the beach and see Erica playing in the sand

and it would all come back. Everything I was there for.

Toward the middle of the year, I was out surfing

and something snapped in my back.

It was like "What the hell?"

I came in and laid flat on the sand.

I couldn't move.

It felt like I was slightly paralyzed.

It was so much pain.

We find out there's a herniated disc.

Having Erica and surfing so much

but not taking care of myself properly to heal

All that stuff caught up to me.

So I forefeited the events in Hawaii that were coming up

and went straight to Sydney and stayed with Bruce and Janice.

Janice drove me to my physical therapy program every day.

Rob Rowland Smith had me training in a swimming pool.

Tom Carroll had me paddling.

Everybody pitched in to help me get through the injury.

I had a huge ratings lead.

The person behind me was Pauline Menczer.

She had to win

3 events in a row to catch me.

She won both events in Hawaii back to back.

It was the last event.

I needed 5th place to win the World Title.

It was unbelievable how everything came to that moment.

I hadn't surfed in 3 months.

I remember that Rob would come down

and he would make me do a stretch that made me cry.

It just hurt so bad.

He was trying to help me get my mind off all the other stuff.

The buzz and the tension.

Erica was running around. All this craziness.

[Contest horn]

It was like a flash of

knowing the consequence if I didn't win.

That everything I'd done

in my entire life leading up to that point would be erased.

I just needed to go out and catch 3 waves to the beach

and get the right scores, and I'd win by a nose.

It just felt like

the most impossible thing in the world because of the pain.

All the stuff I'd put my mom through and everything

I had to make it all better

and this was the way to do it.

It was unexplainable.

I remember running in to the beach

and Erica came running up to me.

Hugging me.

And it was all because of her.

It was all because of her.

That little thing.

♪♪♪

(Lisa) At the end of all this, you start to realize

Life is there to be lived.

You've got to take chances. Take risks.

You don't intend to hurt people or break hearts along the way.

But you definitely need to be yourself.

I realized I finally had to stop running

and start living.

(Lisa on microphone)

[Applause]