Built for Speed

Dibi Fletcher: Did you ever party with Archy in the back of his rented U-Haul?
Christian Fletcher: Uhh, no. I don’t think I was around to hang out with Archy in the back of his rented U-Haul…. Phewf! That’s a bust!
DF: You have friends that did, though. I can tell by the smile on your face!
CF: Yes, I had friends that did.
DF: So that’s when Archy had no house.
CF: He had a rolling house.
DF: He had the bankcard and the U-Haul, right? Couch in the back….
CF: Bankcard, U-Haul—will travel.

DF: You were close in age and surfed the same breaks. Were you friends or rivals?
CF: I’d say we were more friends than rivals, because we didn’t end up surfing the same divisions or against each other a whole lot. I was a couple years younger. I’d always lose, anyways, beforehand, before I got to surf against him, so it didn’t matter.
DF: Do you think he fit better into the surf-contest mold than you?
CF: Yeah, I think he fit better into the surf-contest mold. Obviously. He used to make it through the contests quite a bit. I made it through one.
DF: Tell us about what he used to do that was really far out at contests. Like he’d win, and then he wouldn’t show up for the finals?
CF: Well yeah, he’d surf really well throughout the week, and then come Sunday he wouldn’t show up for the semi-finals or finals or whatever.
DF: He was kind of well known as MIA.
CF: He is well known for being a fuck up! He surfs really good, has one of the best turns in the business, but when it came to partying, he didn’t show up if he’d partied. That’s where me and him differed. I’d party but I’d still show up.
DF: Were your partying habits what drew you together?
CF: That and our sponsors. We had the same sponsors, pretty much. We had similar habits at nighttime. We both liked to party. He liked to drink more than I did, and I liked to do drugs more than he did, so we kinda met somewhere in the middle.
DF: So your sponsors would be considered gluttons for punishment.
CF: No, not really gluttons for punishment. We fuckin’ did good by the sponsors. We blew ’em up. Everybody remembers the Lanty wetsuits and Town & Country surfboards and stuff like that. What other companies can say that except for big, huge ones? Lanty was very small, especially in the US, but everybody still remembers ’em.
DF: Do you think that was because of the press that you guys got because you were so not of the surf-industry mold?
CF: Guaranteed it was because of the press we got. It wasn’t ’cause they did such great sales. It was because me and him were in the magazines all the time wearing ’em, and videos and at the beach…all over.
DF: How was the Versace shoot with  [Shaun] Palmer, Nathan, you, and Archy?
CF: That was pretty funny. Me and Archy borrowed somebody’s boat, went back into the intercoastal waterway, got some beers, we were drinkin’ and wakeboardin’, havin’ a good old time. Palmer was really straight. He wouldn’t even have a beer. I think it was my birthday. He wouldn’t even have a beer with me on my birthday, ’cause he was gonna get a chance to meet Christy Turlington and wanted to put on…what do you call that?... pretend he was somebody he wasn’t. So he meets her, gets a date with her, and she’s fuckin’ over it, ’cause he was too boring. He should’ve just acted like himself and he would’ve fuckin’…hit a home run. (laughs)


DF: What was the best time that you and Archy ever had together?
CF: I’ve had all kinds of great times with Archy, all over the world. Lots of good times in Hawaii, some fun in Costa Rica but not much, ’cause that was mostly a lot of babysitting.
DF: You or him?
CF: Oh, I was babysitting him.

We had great times in Japan, Australia, the Mentawais, I’ve had great surf trips with him to the East Coast, lots of fun. Just going up the Coast with him and Dad was all kinds of fun, losing him, finding him. It’s kinda tough when you lose a human. It’s like, what do you do? Go to the lost and found? He’s not gonna be there, you know?

DF: What do you think is Archy’s greatest contribution to surfing?
CF: His greatest contribution to surfing would have to be style, attitude, and a mean turn.

DF: When you look back on it, you two would be considered the bad boys of surf.
CF: At the time, yes, we would be considered the “bad boys” of surf.
DF: And it was fun?
CF: It was a great time. Wouldn’t change that for anything.
DF: So you don’t see Archy much now, and he lives in Hawaii?
CF: Yeah, I don’t see him too much and he lives in Hawaii. He’s one of my favorite people to go on a surf trip with, though. Especially on the boat trips, ’cause it’s close quarters and he’s really grumpy with all the other surfers, and all I do is talk shit to him, so we get along really good. He doesn’t say a lot, he’s just grumpy. Me, I say everything that he wants to.
DF: So you’re the mouth?
CF: Yeah. I’m the mouth, he’s the ’tude.

Herbie Fletcher: How about that surf trip that we all went over to Third Dip and you and Archy paddled out and nobody was out.
CF: That day out surfing was pretty cool. The place was kind of a localized spot, and Johnny Boy Gomes pulled up, who’s the main dude or whatever, and was sitting there honking his horn when sets were coming. He told us to get the fuck out of the water.
DF: It was his spot.
CF: It was his spot, so he sat on the beach and watched us catch waves and was super cool, where most White kids get sent home.
DF: But you had had a long relationship with Johnny Boy.
CF: Yeah, both of us had had a long relationship with Johnny Boy, and Dad as well. When he first pulled up and had seen all the surfboards on the car, he was kinda trippin’. But then when he saw it was us, he was cool. It was really nice of him.


That wave was amazing, though. The wave comes in probably from pretty deep water, and there’s a real shallow reef that’s short with dangerous, jagged lava rocks on the beach, so it comes in, breaks on the reef real fast and hallow, and then it’s done. It’s very shallow, very dangerous. Most people don’t like surfing it backside. I quite enjoyed it. Archy’s frontside and I’m backside. It was perfect.