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Hawaii, the place that makes you or breaks you
as a professional surfer.
They say if you can make it here, you've made it.
Professional surfing is one of the most cut throat and elite sports in the world.
Competitive surfers often gruel through a 40 contest year
and dedicate every aspect of their lives to try to make it as a top pro.
Thirty four male surfers qualify for the world championship tour.
A dream tour with rock star treatment
and massive paydays for winning events.
But at the end of the year,
only one surfer is named world champion.
This is a goal that very few humans
in history will ever accomplish,
but one of the only ways
to truly make it in professional surfing.
Basically, if you're not on top,
your sponsor could drop you after one bad year.
Many surf careers have sadly ended at the hand of a corporation.
Now, this is just the reality for most surfers,
but not all of them.
Let me introduce you to my friend Ben Gravy.
Now, this might come as a shock,
but Ben isn't from Hawaii,
and Ben doesn't surf on the world tour.
Ben Gravy is showing the entire surfing world
that there's another way to do it.
Ben has proved to everyone, surfer and non-surfer alike,
that you don't have to settle in life.
Ben has proved that you can live your life for the dream.
All right, so we're heading down to the campsite now.
We don't know if these guys are awake or asleep.
We just drove 46 hours straight.
So, we're completely delusional.
Literally in the middle of nowhere.
Anybody?
Nope, nothing.
Anybody?
All right? Here's the situation on my end.
I have no idea where I am.
And I brought every board in my quiver.
-So, right there is the wave.
It's a little smaller than last time we surfed it,
but I think you'll get a couple for sure.
Seriously, dude. Where's the wave?
Where is it?
Whoo!
All right, we made it down to the bank of the river,
forty-six hours in the car and it was all worth it.
I'm about to paddle out for my first wave.
Whoo!
Forty-six hours to get here.
We just river surfed the biggest wave
in the United States for two days straight.
My uncle was here.
My favorite uncle, Jamie O'Brien.
-Yeah, brother! Yee-haw!
He was slashing and we smashed it.
And we're getting on the road, so we'll see you next time.
-Peace. -For the dream.
-Pew! -Bye, guys.
See, I grew up at the beach,
so we would always come to the beach,
and Rob's dad had a house at the beach.
So, we would always come down.
And then it got to a point where he just started to love the ocean.
One of our friends gave Rob a surfboard
for Ben to try, and he loved it.
Probably when he was, like, seven or eight
is when he started, like, actually carrying
a surfboard to the beach to surf.
So he got into it real young.
I mean, was already surfing contests
by the time he was nine or ten.
The other kids would go out 15 minutes.
Three hours later, you're like,
"Ben, you gotta get out of the water."
We gotta get more sun block on.
We gotta... You gotta have something to eat.
You gotta drink.
All the time was me with his video camera in the water for hours,
just filming him surf.
When I was like 13, 14,
I won, like, a bunch of ESA and NSSA contests.
I won, like, a bunch of regional contests.
And then when I was 14, I got sponsored by Billabong,
and I won the East Coast Championship that same year.
And it was right when I was coming out of eighth grade.
And my parents were kind of like,
"Is this what you want to do?"
And I was like, "Yeah."
My dad calls what we do The Truman Show.
Because literally our entire lives
are basically recorded on either a tape
or a digital format, in some way.
So, Ben got a video camera for Christmas,
I think, when he was eight years old.
Ever since, he basically has walked around
with a video camera in his hands, recording daily life.
Everything that we've been doing
since we were super, super young.
He and his friend Michael
used to just go around the house
and make movies about mummies.
All kinds of crazy stuff, filming everything.
And we would always try and find ways to, you know,
get a reaction or make a video
that was unique.
And it started off just, like, skateboarding,
throwing rocks at each other.
It kind of evolved into crazy stuff on our skateboards.
Crazy stuff on our surfboards, you know,
jumping off of our roof. Or there was this one video
of our oldest brother, Hob, going out the window,
like, the third story window with a hose attached.
We didn't have access to, like, television or computers,
so it was kind of always like
go find something to entertain yourself.
Which is kinda weird because we had video cameras,
but we never watched TV.
Thank you. I'll be here all week.
That was created when Ben was, like, ten.
And it originally stood for Nobody's Unlike Buddy.
The meaning behind that was kinda like,
everyone's accepted in our group
because we weren't really ever cool.
We were kind of just, like, nonconformist.
Doing what we like doing. It wasn't really about,
like, impressing anyone. And we saw, like,
a lot of other people that, you know,
either got picked on or were outcasts
who would kinda fit in well with us because, you know,
anything goes.
Everyone's importance is the same.
And I think we figured that out at a really early age.
He would invite his friends to come surfing.
And it was such an all-inclusive activity,
because anybody could get out there and paddle around.
And he motivated some of his friends, like Paul Venesz,
to get out there and feel good about surfing
and know that he could have the confidence to do it.
If we were all out surfing
and I was paddling for something,
and it looked like I was gonna get it,
it didn't matter where Ben was on the wave.
He started screaming, "Go, go, go!"
Ben wasn't worried if it was his wave
because he was closer to the peak
or any of that.
If he saw that I was gonna be able to catch it,
he just wanted me to catch it.
Just to see me experience it and enjoy it.
Ben was always more like I would say the underdog.
But when he started surfing, he pretty much became
a really good surfer very quickly.
But he would always sort of gravitate
toward the kids that couldn't surf as well
to hang out with and, like, motivate them.
He wasn't really one of the guys
that always hung out with the top tier.
And, I mean, he traveled on the circuit as he got older.
But in his free time, he hung out with the Nub crew.
Which were just kids from the neighborhood
that surfed casually.
For him, it was always fun.
Shoot, I've known Ben since I was 13, probably, or 14.
We were doing
the Eastern Surfing Association contest together,
so I'd see him at regionals and see him at Easterns.
I feel like becoming a professional surfer
and growing up on the East Coast
is, like, such a difficult thing to do.
It's just hard because you're out of the limelight of surfing.
You know, the limelight is California, Hawaii,
and the East Coast is just kinda like shed to the side.
Here, you have to, like, get through the ranks
and make it to those national competitions
to even get noticed.
Surfing is very small.
You have 30 some guys on the world tour in the QS
and then free surfers.
And the numbers just aren't really in your favor
to make that your career.
So, he had the Hi8 camera.
That's what he was filming on.
And then he got, like, a double VCR.
He would record the whole Hi8 tape
on the one VHS tape, and then he would
pick pieces from that out of that VHS
and record them onto another VHS tape.
And he somehow had a stereo hooked up with a cord,
so you could play music over the bits.
It was just, like, so bizarre.
But it worked. And then you could copy that
and make a second copy.
Then computers came out.
We started burning DVDs. And I think Ben went through,
like, three computers where he broke the DVD burner
because he was burning so many DVDs
trying to get our content out.
I don't know. We didn't really have anything to compare it to.
We were just creating.
And we were all doing, like, stunts, and it evolved further.
Well, we started doing stunts when I was a kid.
But, obviously, as time went on,
the stunts got way crazier.
And it seems like the more that YouTube came into the picture,
it played a big role, because the more views
we would get for stunts, the crazier we would want to go.
You know, I didn't know Ben when we were younger,
but I saw that, you know,
we obviously traveled together surfing,
and saw he was building this career.
And then I do remember, all of a sudden,
he was getting more focused into,
like, the stunt side of things.
Doing some pretty wild stuff.
And I started to correlate, like, that with less surfing
and less surf attention,
and I was, like, kinda bummed for him
because I saw he had something in surfing.
And then I was watching it kinda slip away.
So that was a concern.
And then, as they got older, that continued.
Then it was like, "Oh, we'll do a car jump."
And so they're prompting all this stuff.
And along with that, they are getting older,
and they're drinking more.
♪ I wanna drink beer I wanna drink beer
♪ I wanna drink beer I'm gonna drink beer... ♪
So, for, like eight or ten years
with three sons doing the same thing, it was hell.
So, was I concerned? Yeah, I was really concerned.
At that time, I had multiple of his friends
sleeping on my couch, peeing on my couch.
Sometimes they would be sleeping in my shed
or in my yard when I woke up.
Or under the house, in my crawlspace.
And, like, one time, Ben literally came in,
punched a picture and just shattered it
right in front of me because he was just so angry.
He did it to the front door.
I just... I felt like he was spiraling out of control.
Being around your friends all day,
being a young kid who's reckless,
you know, that alcohol gives you that liquid courage.
And I'm sure he got that high from being able
to pull these stunts and do these things.
But the alcohol definitely helped him feel like
he can do anything.
-Sad for you right now. -Sad?
Why do you think that?
-She's kinda dramatic. -Ben has a drinking problem.
I was writing for a company called Alliance,
and I remember the guy called me,
the team manager and he was like, "We're done."
And I remember that hitting me and being like,
"Oh, like, I'm not gonna be a pro surfer."
You were either super gnarly at 18,
and you were making the world tour
or winning pro juniors, or in the magazines.
-I was none of those things.
I was partying in New Jersey and just lost my sponsor.
-Aw, yeah! -I broke my leg.
Fuck! Fuck!
Fuck!
I broke my leg!
I woke up probably, like, at 9:00.
And, instantly, as I get dressed,
walk outside, and I see the car go,
and all that happened. And I just hear him.
Yeah, like, "Fuck, I broke my leg!"
Fuck!
-Yeah, I did, dude. -No, you didn't.
-Fuck, yeah, I did! -Chill, chill, chill.
My knee! My fucking knee, dude!
Fuck, yeah, dude!
It was completely out of place, dude.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're not good.
-You're not good. Chill, dude. -Fuck you! Fuck you!
-No, no, no. Ben, Ben, Ben. -Chill, dude. Chill.
What do you mean, I'm not good?
-No, Ben. -I'm fine.
-No, Ben. -I can feel my leg.
I don't even want to do this shit anymore though, dude!
It's not worth it, dude.
I had no idea what was going on.
'Cause, like, you have that moment of, like,
"There's no way I'm this hurt."
"There's no way... This can't be real."
It was the worst pain I've ever been in.
After that, I went into my brother's house
and I literally just was drinking.
And I was just getting drunk like,
"Oh, I'm in so much fucking pain.
"I gotta drink."
I got drunk, went to sleep.
I like an idiot said, "Don't go to the emergency room,
"because all they're gonna do there
"is they're gonna take an X-ay and give you pain medicine.
"Let's just go to the orthopedic doctor on Monday."
But they were downplaying how bad it was.
Apparently, his knee was like the size of a camera.
Are you seeing that, dude?
That ain't right, dude.
We went to Ciccotti's office.
He looked at me and said, "What would ever make you think
"that you wouldn't take your son to the emergency room?
"What is wrong with you?"
He said, "This kid...
"I think this kid's gonna lose his leg."
Oh, my gosh.
In the doctor's office
at the Rothman Institute in Philly.
My knee is killing me, since I haven't taken any Advil
since last night, like seven o'clock or something.
And I'm just waiting for the doctor right now.
I got some X-rays.
And I'm pretty much just in severe pain.
So, looking at the footage
and seeing how dramatic the injury was,
and then looking at his knee, which was quite swollen,
um, that is a serious injury
that needs to be addressed within hours.
And, if not, there is a high risk of athletes
losing not only function,
but in some very tragic situations,
losing their limb.
We went out into the hospital
to get, like, the MRI,
and they prepped me for surgery.
I remember they were doing the IV,
they were getting me ready.
And the doctor says pretty much point blank to me,
"You might lose your leg today,
"and you will definitely never surf again."
And that moment changed my entire life.
Well, I just was in the ER for seven hours,
getting tests on my blood vessels in my legs
to make sure that they worked properly.
I am thanking God right now.
I can't even believe how happy I am.
I have three tears in my knee.
Um, I need surgery.
But, oh, my God, the vessel test is huge for me.
My sense was that the main ligaments in his knee,
they were okay. But I had great concern
for what we call the extensor mechanism.
And that's a series of structures
that allow us to actually extend our leg.
And that's why we ended up getting the MRI,
which did in fact confirm that he had a complete tear
or rupture of his patellar tendon.
And I was saying, "Could it be a meniscus tear?"
"Could it be this? Could it be that?"
He said, "I think it's a patellar tendon tear,"
and I'm like, "What's worse?" He said, "Patellar tendon tear."
It's, like, really one of the worst injuries you can have.
I would say that Ben's accident,
um, above all else, was a big wake up call.
And it allowed him to realize and to appreciate things
that he didn't before, which included surfing.
And, like, the fact that
the doctor said he may never surf again,
really, I think, it scared him 'cause you're gonna lose
the most important thing in your life.
7:00 a.m.
March 6th, 2015, we're at the Jefferson Surgical Center.
I'm going in to get my patellar tendon repaired.
Hopefully, everything's good.
I'm waiting for the doctor.
They're gonna give me a nerve block
and put my leg to sleep.
Put me to sleep.
Repair my...
patellar tendon.
I'm a little nervous.
I've never had surgery like this.
But that moment kind of brought everything full circle to me.
I was like, "Wow, I'm a really lucky person,
"and I'm kind of just taking everything for granted.
"And now I might never walk again.
"So I blew it. I ruined my life."
I get surgery. It's a success.
I'm good.
They're like, "18 months recovery."
So, that's heavy. Heavy.
I didn't walk for 40 days after that.
Surfers really depend upon
that part of their knee joint.
And to be able to do it at his level,
ten, maybe 20% chance.
Okay, it's officially been 12 days since my surgery.
We are getting in the car right now
to go to my follow up appointment
to see how everything is progressing,
get my stitches out.
And I just can't wait till I can walk
on this thing again. It's gonna be the best day of my life.
You're gonna witness a complete and total rebirth.
I was like, "I can't surf.
"I can't do stunts. I can't walk around.
"I can't do anything exciting.
"But I'm gonna document it to occupy myself
"and share my experience with people
"and let them know what's going on."
So for the first time ever, I was open,
I was telling the truth. I was like, "I'm injured.
"I might never be able to do what I want to do again.
"But this is my life now."
Like, that was the first time
that I was allowing people to see me.
Like, the real me.
So, that was a powerful thing for me,
to break down that barrier.
'Cause I really... There is nothing I cared
about at that point, except for getting better.
So I allowed all of my...
I allowed everything that I thought in life.
Like, all these perceptions of me,
anything that I thought would, like, make me cool.
Any of that stuff. That weird like, external validation.
I let go of it because the most important thing for me
was just to be healthy.
And, like, when you get down that low,
you realize that every minute that you have
as a healthy human being is a gift.
Yesterday, I went to the doctor in King of Prussia
for my second post operation checkup.
And, uh, he told me I could ditch my crutches and walk.
I crutched out of there,
but I got home and I decided to give it a try
and It was actually a lot easier than I thought.
So, here I am.
He had a script for physical therapy.
And Ben knew in his head he was going to do everything
he had to do to get better.
And the doctor told him, "It's up to you.
"You have to be determined and do what you need to do."
"We're gonna provide you with all of the rehab
"that you need.
"Um, but we have to navigate through the psychological
"and the emotional aspects of this, too.
"And that that is going to be a challenge."
But if you have an athlete that is so highly motivated,
and fearless, and enthusiastic, like Ben,
uh, those are the things you can't teach people.
Those are the things that come in the person.
And those are the intangibles that make that patient
who is an athlete, ultimately successful.
He would do the exercises,
he would push himself.
He would come home and do the exercises.
And even Dr. Ciccotti was like, "I can't believe it, Ben,
"but you actually have come so far."
But he also was vlogging and getting a lot of responses
from people that were going through
similar experiences with injuries.
And, you know, the fact that he did go through,
that was an example for a lot of people that,
"I can do it, too."
'Cause supposedly a patellar tendon tear
is one of the most painful injuries ever.
And it's a long road to haul.
But it just goes to show you Ben's determination
as a human being.
That, "This is what I want, because surfing is my life.
"And if I lose this, then I don't know
"what I'm gonna do."
I just kept going, kept working at it.
And it was just questions of like,
"Am I gonna be able to come back?
"Am I gonna be able to do this?"
And I just worked as hard as I possibly could.
And I just remember, like, the day the doctor was like,
"You're good."
So, uh, midway through week ten, walking pretty good.
Still limping, obviously.
And, uh, we're gonna grill some burgers in the backyard,
have a couple beers to celebrate.
And, uh, life is good. Honestly.
That's all I can really say.
I was walking again in, like, August, I think,
or September. And I started drinking again.
And over that two months, was just the gnarliest
emotional mental downhill spiral.
'Cause I had this moment of elation
and I was like, "I fixed myself."
You know, I gave myself, like, a pat on the back.
Let's celebrate, you know, it's time.
And that's just the alcoholism in me,
just being like, "This is... You know, you did it.
"Good job. Have a beer.
"You know, like, that's what you want."
I got to a point when I realized
that that's all that I did.
I had already let surfing slip.
I was letting, like, my passion for video and film slip
and I was accepting that life.
I was accepting just dismal, horrible existence
where I hated myself.
I'm about to go to this bar.
'Cause why wouldn't I?
When somebody has reached that threshold
and they have become physically dependent on it,
it affects your liver enzymes, it affects your kidneys,
it affects your basic functioning
in that aspect, physically. It mostly affects the brain.
The brain becomes dependent on it chemically.
For those neurons and endorphins.
Your brain relies on the substance
to balance itself out.
I end up at Maynard's, Christmas Eve,
with my younger brother and I was wasted.
And I got in some ridiculous argument
with the bartender over nothing.
And she kicked me out.
And I remember I was like, "Good, fuck you!
"I'm never coming back."
And I woke up the next morning,
and I was like,
"That's the person that I'm gonna be?
"I'm gonna be that dude
"that gets in the fight with a bartender."
And I remember the term that I thought to myself.
I was like, "That's not me."
And I remember, I actually got a 30 pack for Christmas
from one of my friends, and I never touched it.
I gave it away.
And I woke up Christmas morning and that was it.
I was done.
Every decision we make,
big or small, can affect the rest of our lives.
For Ben, the choice to quit drinking
was something he felt he needed for himself.
But little did he know that making that commitment
would have far greater effects
than he could have ever imagined.
All right. Here we go, people.
The time has come.
Been in Florida for about three hours.
And, uh, we're going surfing.
It's game on.
I got a big ass funboard that I'm riding.
We're doing it. I'm stoked right now.
A week into doing my vlogs,
I decided to go down to Florida
and I was gonna surf
for the first time. I had gotten cleared.
I was allowed to surf on January 14th.
This is it, people. We're doing it.
First time surfing. 9 months.
It's like I'm giving birth to a new Gravy.
I went down and I paddled out my first day on a fun shape.
And I caught, like, two waves,
and I just, like, rode down the line.
Like on the smallest, worst, little Florida crumbly wave,
and it was like the best wave of my life.
It was the moment when I was like, "I can do it.
"I'm back in the water.
"From here on out, I will never take surfing
"for granted, ever again."
It's extremely life-changing, of course,
because now you have this clear mind
and you can see things through a clearer lens.
And it helps you to be
a lot more determined, a lot more motivated.
Um, it's not without its challenges,
but it's definitely more rewarding
when you set your mind to a goal and you can achieve it
without relying on something else.
I was planning on going to Florida
for two weeks, and I ended up staying down there
for four months
and just literally just surfing every day.
And just vlogging and surfing.
♪ All my friends are doing heroin again
♪ Just when I put down the bottle
♪ So that I could finally win
♪ When rock 'n' roll ain't enough to save your soul
♪ You keep going in
♪ And hopefully with all these sins
♪ You can still find a hole to pin
♪ I hope you find a hole to pin
♪ And all my friends who don't talk to me no more
♪ Because I put down the bottle
♪ Didn't want it anymore
♪ When punk rock ain't enough to be your job
♪ You keep going in
♪ But hopefully with all these things
♪ I won't need another drink
♪ I hope I don't need another drink
♪ Send me away before I go insane
♪ Is it just me or are people acting crazy?
♪ When punk rock ain't enough to be your job
♪ You keep going home Who would've known
♪ That rock 'n' roll was enough to save my soul? ♪
I went to Sebastian Inlet one day.
There was a wave breaking inside the inlet
on the side that usually people don't surf on.
And I thought it was the coolest thing, like, ever.
It, like, lit a fire in me.
Dude, that was crazy!
So, that was, like, close to the end of my trip.
-...who came back. -And I came home,
I just wanted to keep the stoke.
I went and I paddled out, like, on the right side
of the rocks at Skeleton Bay, and it was small.
But it's these perfect little laps, like reeling down.
I went out and I put the camera on the parking lot,
and I just pointed the camera at the waves.
It was this wide shot,
and I would surf across the screen.
And then I'd run around and paddle out,
surf across the screen.
So, I put this video up on my vlog channel.
And it got, like, 12,000 views in, like, one day.
Before that, my vlogs were getting like 400 views,
300 views, and it was just the most random thing.
It just woke me up.
I was like, "This is it."
So, my mission from that point on,
was to share these waves that nobody surfs with people.
Well, there's full blown commitment
and there's being in the zone.
But this right here, this is something else.
Ben has found his flow.
By allowing his new positive mindset
to take over his life,
he is now a man that can do what he loves
without anything holding him back.
And who would've thought, novelty waves.
Well, looks like they love him right back.
Oh, my God, this is crazy!
A novelty wave is something
that's very rare and very unique to where
it's not considered a wave by the general public.
It's only considered a wave
by maybe even a select few people,
or maybe one person.
And it doesn't happen all the time,
and it takes specific things to make it happen.
And that's why it's so special.
All right, guys, this morning,
I think we know what's going down.
I am driving down to the Cape May Ferry,
and I'm going to be riding this board right here
on the wake behind the ferry as the ferry docks in the port.
This is something I've never seen before.
I can't contain my excitement. I'm freaking out.
But right now I'm gonna sticker up my shred stick
so all my sponsors can get some love
when this video goes viral.
In my head, the ultimate novelty wave was
the Cape May Ferry wave.
Ancient New Jersey surfing history.
I heard from somebody that Dean Randazzo had surfed it.
He got arrested by the state police.
It's like a legend thing.
So I was like, "That's what I want to do."
I want to surf the Cape May Ferry wave.
So, I went down there, I knew nothing about it.
I didn't even know if there was going to be a wave.
But I knew a ferry was going to leave.
And I watched it leave.
Look at that.
Jesus.
And I just watched this two foot left just peel
for like a minute across the entire bank.
From that moment that I saw that wave, I had just anxiety.
I needed to surf it.
So I convinced my girlfriend to come down
and film me surfing the Ferry wave.
Where is it?
Three ferries came in.
No wave, no wave, no wave, three failures in a row.
So I'm like, "What's the point? Like, is this even gonna work?"
I get to thinking that maybe the boat captain
is slowing down and shutting off the wave.
So I actually put a disguise on.
Oh, you have to be crazy!
So, I was sitting on the rocks,
like, with the fishing pole, and then, like,
here comes this boat.
As I see the boat going by, I'm like,
"Okay, the wave's gonna form up right here."
I can tell it's going to happen.
So I start ditching my disguise.
Throw it on the rocks, and I run out into the water,
I start paddling.
I actually turned around and caught the wave.
And I got caught behind it.
The actual line, the breaking line of the wave.
And I felt that the bottom was really shallow.
So I picked up my board and i started running.
And I dove back into the wave that stood up.
♪ I'm trying to show the world what I can do... ♪
And I got this 45 second absolute dream ride,
just across the entire bank, behind the ferry.
♪ I'm trying to show the world what I can do... ♪
That was ultimate elation. I actually cried.
Yes!
In my head, that was the moment when It was real.
That moment changed my life because it was like,
"I fucking surf novelty waves."
His stoke for those waves is just who he is.
I mean, he fought so hard. He has so much joy
and that just comes out in excitement
over these little novelty waves, and it's really fun.
He sees the potential in that
where everyone else will just be like,
"Oh, that's nothing." Who blow it off to do something else,
and maybe even complain that there's no waves that day,
he sees as an opportunity.
I think a lot of the things
that Ben does in surfing are overlooked.
Or, like, taken as more of a joke than it should be
because, like, he is pretty much genius
with the ideas that he comes up with.
And a lot of the things that he's doing,
even if they're not on a giant scale yet,
are still things that nobody has ever done.
So little did I know that that video,
I put it on Instagram when I got home
and Stab Magazine took it off my Instagram posted on theirs.
And it went absolutely bonkers.
Every surf website, every surf instagram account,
everything you could think of, that wave was on.
That was the turning point for my channel.
It shows that this is something
that people want to watch. YouTube and Instagram wise,
that was like a huge moment in my surfing career because,
I mean, I didn't even have a surfing career before that.
Like, that was just, like,
a total changing point in everything.
All right, guys, to be a professional novelty surfer,
there's a lot of professionalism and skill involved.
It's not all fun and games.
Oh, wait. Yes, it is.
Once I realized that you didn't need much swell
for a novelty wave to break,
I started thinking
that I could just go around to, like, every inlet,
rivers, whatever,
and find just weird novelty waves,
anything to ride.
It's funny because, like, you would think
that real waves would make me want to travel,
but the thing that got me in the car,
going and searching, is novelty waves.
Tell us about Ben's decision to surf 50 states.
I don't even... I can't tell you anything, 'cause I don't...
d... didn't...
It never registered, like, what was going on to me.
The first states that I surfed
were the states that you would think
that somebody would be able to surf.
Obviously, New Jersey, which is my home state.
I surfed the surrounding areas Maryland, Delaware.
Virginia, North Carolina.
Georgia and Florida.
Um, I took a trip up to New England
and I surfed New York, Rhode Island.
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine.
Even went river surfing in Vermont.
I had previously surfed Hawaii.
And surfed in Colorado in a river.
And I drove out to California and then surfed California.
He's an innovator, for sure, and surfing 50 states
is a world record.
Like, it's a Guinness book type of thing.
It's kind of a hard thing to wrap your head around.
Um, surfing 50 states doesn't make sense.
People don't understand surfing in general
and then to put 50 states on top of that,
I think people were completely baffled.
Like, anybody can have an idea,
but like going through with it is totally different.
Like, a lot of people sit around and talk about
what they're gonna do with their lives.
But, like, to go out there
and make it happen is totally different.
I don't care if it's a river, a lake, a wave pool,
a bayou, the bay. It's surfing.
We're doing it, we're riding energy.
We're riding a wave.
♪ I was totin' my pack along the dusty Winnemucca road
♪ When along came a semi
♪ With a high an' canvas covered load
♪ If you're goin' to Winnemucca Mack, with me you can ride
♪ So I climbed into the cab and then I settled down inside
♪ He asked me if I'd seen a road
♪ With so much dust and sand
♪ And I said, "Listen, I've seen every road
♪ In this here land
♪ I've been everywhere, man I've been everywhere, man
♪ I crossed the deserts bare, man
♪ Breathed the mountain air, man
♪ Of travel I've had my share, man
♪ I've been everywhere
♪ I've been to Reno, Chicago Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo
♪ Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa...
-Alabama! -Alabama!
♪ Amarillo, Tocopilla Barranquilla and Padilla
♪ I'm a killer I've been everywhere, man
♪ I've been everywhere, man
♪ Crossed the deserts bare, man
♪ I've breathed the mountain air, man
♪ Of travel I've had my share, man
♪ I've been everywhere
♪ I've been to Boston Charleston, Dayton, Louisiana
♪ Washington, Houston, Kingston Texarkana, Monterey, Faraday
♪ Santa Fe, Tallapoosa Glen Rock, Black Rock
♪ Little Rock, Oskaloosa, Tennessee, Hennessey, Chicopee
♪ Spirit Lake, Grand Lake Devil's Lake
♪ Crater Lake for Pete's sake I've been everywhere, man
♪ I've been everywhere, man
♪ Crossed the deserts bare, man
♪ Breathed the mountain air, man
♪ Of travel I've had my share, man
♪ I've been everywhere
Whoo!
♪ I've been everywhere, man I've been everywhere, man
♪ Crossed the deserts bare, man
♪ I've been everywhere I've been everywhere, man
♪ I've been everywhere, man
♪ Crossed the deserts bare, man
♪ I've been everywhere, man
♪ Of travel I've had my share, man
♪ I've been everywhere
I show up to Missouri, it's about a 100 degrees out.
I'm obviously in a place that I have no idea...
I don't know anything about Missouri.
I've never been there before.
Are you kidding me?
Are you fucking kidding me?
And I knew that there was a wave there called the Centaur,
and I knew that it was big and scary.
I'm gonna get my full suit and the helmet for protection.
Because this thing is really raging.
We found one, guys! We fucking found the Centaur!
There's a lot of warnings, on the website,
like, about the wave.
But I had just conquered like, four states,
and I'm like, I'm just going to get a wave
and call it a day, I'm going to check Missouri off,
and then we're on to Arkansas.
So, I get down to the edge of the river
and I automatically had a bad feeling.
All right, guys, the Centaur looks seriously gnarly.
I wouldn't say I'm exactly hyped on doing this by myself.
But I at least gotta go try one. So, let's do this.
When I see the wave, it's just this big glassy orb
flowing through the river.
And I'm like, okay, cool.
This looks like I'm gonna ride my seven foot.
In the ocean maybe, but in a river,
that's the worst idea you could ever make.
I need to think for a minute.
There's mosquitoes everywhere, biting me all over my body.
Like, literally, I'm getting attacked by mosquitoes as I go.
The ground is just mud.
Every step I took, it went up to my ankle.
The river is hot, sweaty, hot, and the river's super wide
and just flowing like the fastest, scariest thing
you've ever seen.
I remember just being like, "This is a bad idea,
"but I'm doing it."
Wish me luck, guys.
I'm just heading towards the wave.
And, dude, the river is, like, all high,
and you can't see the wave until you get to the ledge.
And from the bank, this thing looks like
it's about two feet tall.
But when you're in that river flowing, like,
twenty miles an hour downstream
and you see the wall, it gets big, real quick.
And I came over the wall and I just spun around.
Like, I was looking back
and just ready to catch this wave.
And I remember getting sucked down
and I just picked up so much speed,
I went over the wave.
No chance I was catching it, I was going so fit.
Fighting, getting sucked under the water, and it, like,
flipped me and rolled me,
and I got rolled upside down and sucked the nose under.
My legs were sticking up,
and I was literally holding on for dear life.
And I was like, I'm about to die
in the middle of Missouri,
surfing a river wave.
I eventually got out onto, like,
the white foam ball and pulled myself out
the back of the wave, and I just like drifted over
to the side of the shoreline, and I was just like...
I literally have to call it, dude.
I can't risk my life.
Fucking bumming, dude.
Literally, that thing took me under,
flipped me upside down.
I tweaked my back so bad,
if I wasn't holding on to my board,
I probably would've just died.
I just held on to my board
and went up. It was holding me back behind the waterfall
and then finally let me go when I wriggled out of it.
I literally was in shock, and I didn't realize.
After that, I went back
to my hotel
I went to sleep for the night.
Edited my video like normal
I woke up the next morning.
Good morning, guys.
We are in Missouri, still.
And I'm not gonna lie,
yesterday really took the wind out of my sails.
And...
Questioning the journey.
I couldn't drive the car west.
Any further west.
I, like, had a mental block.
Like, I couldn't make a right-hand turn
out of the hotel
to go to Arkansas.
Like, I was done.
And I just broke down crying.
I'm so stressed out.
'Cause I don't know what to do.
I don t want to be here anymore.
I had kayakers hit me up online.
Like, "Yo, you almost died."
Like, "That hydraulic's gnarly. People die there."
I go online. I looked up
there's four deaths at that spot.
Four people have died there.
Okay, guys. I've never had this before.
I don't know what's going on, but
I would imagine that this is
a panic attack. Um,
I'm having severe anxiety.
Um...
Very confusing, tripped out.
And, uh,
I just, I got to get home.
So I'm pulling the plug.
And this is real. Yes, this is real.
I'm really pulling the plug.
I'm getting on 64 East right now
and then I'm just gonna start trucking home.
So that's what I'm doing.
That's what I'm doing.
When you're as driven as Ben
and you have these goals
and you have an expectation,
and sometimes it can't always be met,
there is, like, this significant feeling of
letdown and pressure.
And so it's hard to, kind of,
not use substances to cope with that
emotional pain.
No way.
I'm home.
Dude.
I don't care who you are,
how much money you make,
what you do,
how big of a person you are,
sometimes you just need
to be home.
It's not like I came out of that and I was, like,
"All right, I'm gonna go drink."
But I definitely thought about it.
For sure.
Stuff like that.
is what makes you question
your situation.
And in a scenario like that,
it would be a whole lot easier
to just drown your sorrows
with a beer
than it would be to face the problem head on,
and deal with that emotionally.
I had no idea if I even wanted to continue surfing the 50 states.
I think he needed to focus on the things he loved.
I think he needed to focus on himself again.
Focus on his family, his friends,
surfing for fun.
I think he had to get back to
the reason why he was doing what he was doing
because he was so caught up in this goal.
It's kind of a funny story
because it's not your conventional, like, "We met".
Just, I guess, most people meet at a bar
or meet at school or something.
We met through Instagram.
One day, just commenting on Instagram,
and I tagged my friend in a shirt that said,
"Drinking coffee and talking shit"
And I was, like, "Oh, my God, we need these T-shirts."
Not thinking it was Ben's Instagram.
So, I commented on there.
And then, like, I guess, a couple of hours later,
I got a DM, a direct message from Ben.
So I clicked it, and I was like, "Damn, dude."
I literally, like, fell in love, like,
right when I saw her Instagram.
I don't know.
Dude, I never do this.
And I just went, like, "Bam". Right, DM.
Like,
"Do you want a shirt?"
Or something like that. I don't know what I said.
I was, like, "I could totally get you a shirt
and you don't have to pay for it."
So, couple clever remarks later, we hung out
and we went and got coffee together
Pretty much, like, the moment that I met her,
from then on, it was just, like, I just kind of knew.
Our relationship was pretty new
when I started surfing the 50 states
and she would just be tripped out because, like,
her vision of
a boyfriend is someone that's home.
That they spend time with.
And, like, here she has me.
And I'm driving around the country by myself, so...
"By myself" puts me in a bad category
'cause it's, like, "He's so insane
that nobody will even go with him."
She didn't get what I was doing at all.
And she always tried her hardest to support me.
So our relationship's just, like,
pretty magic.
Really what I was searching for in other people,
or other relationships
that I thought of were boyfriends in my mind,
they were people that were hard-working,
that were determined,
that never gave up.
And I found that in Ben.
Together, we have done unconventional things.
And, you know, it's more exciting than I could ever imagine.
No way.
No way!
Oh, my god!
Are you kidding me?
Wave Bandit
Ben Gravy Pro Model.
Look at that shiny sticker.
Oh, my god!
Are you kidding me?
Thank you, guys, so much.
Look at this surfboard.
It's real. It's real.
This is the coolest thing I've seen in my entire life.
Thank you for everything.
Thank you! Thank you!
And the eight-footer. The eight-footer!
Are you kidding me?
The eight-footer?
Are you kidding me?
The eight-footer?
To be semi-pro is
to just be yourself.
The reality of my life is that I was never gonna be a pro surfer.
My entire career is an anomaly.
It happened by accident.
I didn't come up through any structured
industry of surfing.
So I think it's hilarious to call myself a semi-pro
because that's what I feel like I am.
'Cause I'm never going to be better than anybody else, dude.
I'm just straight up a total kook.
I don't really know how to explain it,
but, like, they can have it, dude.
Pro? I don't need a title.
Like, I'm just a guy, dude.
I'm just a semi-pro.
I have something very special in me.
When I was two years old,
I was diagnosed with high-functioning autism.
So over the course of my adolescence and teenage years,
I had a lot of trouble,
you know, to try and find some sort of identity for myself
And then, of course, when Ben came along
and introduced me to surfing,
you know, I found my true purpose and identity.
It's uncertain, but all I know is that just like Ben,
I'm going to live the stoke life.
I'm living the sober life.
And, because of him,
I wouldn't be sitting here today.
There's a lot of things I'd like to be thankful to Ben,
but the biggest thing I would like to say,
"Thanks, Ben, for being an excellent friend."
JAMIE: Ben is a really good influence
on a lot of people around the world.
He's out there showing you
that you don't have to be a pro surfer.
You just got to go out there and have as much fun as you can, you know?
I think he just laid it out there
and said, "I'm Ben Gravy. I'm semi-pro."
Yo!
Look here, guys.
For young kids, Ben's, like, an incredible person, awesome role model.
And if you were to ask me that 10 years ago,
about Ben being a role model for young kids,
that would be the last thing I would think of.
I would say, "Anything he does, don't do."
But now, it's a complete 180.
JAMIE O'BRIEN: And he claims semi-pro.
It's amazing.
Like, this guy's grabbed everything and just put it out there.
You know, he's got an awesome following.
He's, like... Everyone loves him.
I mean, Ben's living the dream and he made it happen.
And that's the best part about Ben.
I feel like out there, there's only a certain amount of people
that could be a pro surfer, and it's hard to relate.
Ben's a semi-pro. I think everyone's a semi-pro.
And it's just like putting a stamp like,
"I'm not a pro surfer. But, hey, I'm having the time of my life."
And he created this whole industry around him.
You know, he's got killer sponsors now.
He's like the forefront of Wave Bandit.
He is the king of vlogging and surfing.
And there is so much respect for him.
And I just feel like Ben had a dream
and had a vision of what he wanted to do
and what he wanted to accomplish.
Positive outlook on life,
whether you're a kid or 80 years old,
it's something that you could definitely use as a role model, for sure.
I took a long time off after that. A while.
And, uh...
it took me...
You know, that moment,
was kind of like the commitment moment.
It was, like, are you gonna do this?
Or...
was it just kind of a joke?
You're gonna just let it go?
And I decided that I was gonna do it.
At the car dealership right now.
As you may have guessed,
I have the Dodge ProMaster for the dream.
I am so stoked.
The 2017 Dodge Semi-ProMaster.
I hope you guys are as excited as I am.
I'm going to renovate this thing. Make it the ultimate
road trip mobile.
And drive it across the country.
Good morning, Nub Nation.
I'm starting off today with a socket thing.
In the past couple of years, he's definitely made it, like, a thing
to hunt out these novelties.
But even when he was younger,
I think, like, without trying,
he was always kind of hunting
little novelty waves and surfing spots that
a lot of other people didn't surf.
We're talking about a finished floor, people.
I guess the best way I can describe
Ben Gravy in the surf industry is
hard work, head down, grinding.
Whatever it is, he's working every day.
His mind is not even thinking it's work, you know?
This is, like, the way that he operates.
He just wakes up and he wants to make videos.
and he wants to document his life.
And I think it's really hardcore.
BEN: All right, ladies and gentlemen.
Walls. Ceilings.
Cabinets.
Look at this storage space.
I'm tripping.
Unreal. It's unreal.
What's the most attractive to me
is just his, like, drive and determination.
He just goes and goes and goes.
And I just,
I just can't believe it. Ben just doesn't give up.
And I've seen him
so many times, like, fail in these past three years.
And, like, hard failures where he was just beaten
and he didn't know what he was gonna do next.
And he's, like, "I can't believe this has happened."
Or, "I can't believe I'm here again." And...
He just still didn't give up.
Put it on wax.
That's it.
We're done.
Dude, we're done.
We're done.
Was Ben's journey
to surf the 50 states an accident or was it his destiny?
The universe was lining up for Ben.
His commitment to sobriety and his love to surf all the time,
anywhere he could, was about to lead him
on one of the wildest rides of his life.
Instead of going out and just checking off the states,
it was really important for me to experience the journey.
And, yeah, with all those big storms coming across the country
and hitting us on the coast,
there was a lot of extra activity that year.
And I felt like I could finish what I started.
At least in the Great Lakes.
My wetsuit won't unzip.
Fully frozen shut.
Ohio!
What's going on out there?
Fun. Cleaning off.
Having a lot of fun out there.
Ben Gravy's killing it.
The people out there are definitely
some of the most stoked people in surfing.
And I guess, just because the lakes don't get waves all year round,
they kind of only have a specific season.
The surfers out there get really, really stoked.
It's just something really cool to be a part of and witness.
Once I checked off all of the states
surrounding the Great Lakes,
I knew that I could finish the 50 states.
I had the entire Nub Nation counting on me.
And the whole world was watching.
Oh, my God, this is the gnarliest thing.
We're here.
There's a wave.
There is a wave right there, Hob.
Right there.
We did it, dude. We fucking did it, Hob!
We did it!
So that little thing holds as much stoke
as a 20-foot wave, in my head.
'Cause the journey.
The being in the middle of nowhere.
Just finding this place. We got to surf this
and then there's another peak, dude.
It's on out here, boys.
Well, I think this is gonna be pretty exciting for you.
We're here in Oklahoma City, and
apparently, we can surf one of these waves
that's part of the whitewater run.
It's gonna be pretty gnarly. but we're on it.
Dude, this is so sick.
Whoo! Montana!
The boys are crashing out at the nature preserve.
Hour forty-five away from the surf spot.
My final claim. Stoked. Fully stoked.
Yeah.
Glad to meet ya. For the dream!
You're the man.
I bought this new sleeping bag,
and it's supposed to be a 20 degrees sleeping bag.
So I am supposed to be able to get down to 20 degrees
with that.
And I have another blanket
I'm gonna put on top of that.
I got my back curtains closed to keep heat in.
That's really it.
I'm about to tuck in and hit the sack.
Getting up early to surf.
I just want to say, thank you guys for everything.
Super fun day
And, uh...
the dream keeps moving forward
So thank you, guys.
Nub Nation for the win.
And, as always, just keep it positive.
And keep pushing for the things that you believe in
and the things that you want in life.
Because, uh,
they are attainable through hard work.
Good night.
I'll see you guys in the morning.
For the dream.
Dude, there's one option.
This option is not looking good, dude.
You're not gonna like it.
What?
I found this swimming pool
-in Omaha. -Yeah?
That's literally for swimming.
It's like one of those pools
that does this.
Like a splash pool.
But there might be a wave in it.
You've seen video of it or no?
Video is not looking good,
but, as far as Nebraska's concerned,
it's our only shot, dude.
Because this is completely flat.
I try to hit a state every day.
I mean, I put 62,000 miles on my van in less than a year.
We drive, like, eight hours,
surf,
edit,
go to sleep,
wake up, drive another eight to ten hours.
Surf, edit, go to sleep.
It's just something that, like,
when I came up with surf the 50 states, I was, like,
"Oh, this is gonna be super fun.
I can't believe no one's ever done it before."
And there is a reason
that no one's ever done it before.
This is actually better than we thought it was gonna be.
As of right now,
we're watching waves break.
but they're still just lightning everywhere.
So, If I'm gonna get a chance to surf,
the lightning is gonna have to pass.
This is the kinda shit I dreamed about, dude.
Surfing shit that no one was ever gonna surf.
And then I would come do it.
And that's kind of what the whole mission
was all about the whole time.
We're about to start the surf culture in Nebraska.
This is built for swimming.
And after we do this, this could become a thing.
Like, people might want to surf after this.
I was in Florida.
And I was actually surfing Typhoon Lagoon.
And I made a vlog.
And I was, like, "Wow, my first wave pool.
"That was really fun.
"Wouldn't it be cool
if I went to Kelly Slater's Surf Ranch?"
I know I said I wanted to save the Kelly Slater
wave pool till after I finished the 50 states.
But the energy just feels so right, right now.
I think it's time.
"If you guys think that would be cool.
"DM Kelly Slater,
and tell him that he should invite me."
The next day, when my vlog comes out
it just so happens to be the last day of the season
for the Surf Ranch.
Kelly is there.
At the Surf Ranch, surfing.
Essentially, what happened was,
my vlog came out...
If you guys would please leave
Kelly Slater numerous comments on his Instagram,
@kellyslater.
Please, go bombard this guy.
Tell him that he needs to invite me to the wave pool.
I will be forever grateful.
And Kelly got out of his session,
his surf session,
and he got to his phone,
and he had hundreds of DMs
from people
telling him to invite me to the Surf Ranch.
He went on Facebook Live,
hundreds of thousands of people watching,
and he was literally, like,
I'm gonna say this.
I got at least 50 messages today to get Ben Gravy in here.
Ben Gravy, you will be my first invite next year, okay?
Everybody tell him.
We were in the back of the plane,
like, literally freaking out.
Everyone was, like, looking at us.
But, dude, we did it.
You guys did it.
Yay!
And he even said something like, "I love that guy."
All those friends of Ben Gravy,
I got your messages today.
Tell Ben I'm going to get him here next year
and we'll have some fun.
I love that guy's attitude.
And he goes and surfs every wave.
Every novelty wave on Earth.
So, let's go make him ride the best one.
First of all, I was completely blown away.
I was honored.
I can't believe all those people just went to bat for me.
Just through, like, the power of the Nub Nation,
through just stoke,
pretty much just sent an average guy to the Surf Ranch.
Oh, my God!
How do you feel?
I'm tripping, dude. I'm gonna throw up.
Oh, my God!
-Oh, my god. -This is insane.
Oh, my god.
Are you kidding me?
Freaking out, dude.
This isn't real, is it?
-It's real. -I'm gonna cry, dude.
And, for me, that was, like, "What's the surf industry?"
Because Kelly Slater just invited me
to his private wave pool.
You think I'm ready?
Well, I don't know.
Maybe we made you wait too long and now you're gonna be nervous.
-I've been nervous.
It's hard to explain, but it's, like, that's the pinnacle.
He's the greatest surfer of all time
and he was just claiming
that I should come out there and surf with him.
There was something very empowering about it.
Like, we are changing surfing.
The fact that, as a collective group,
there's so much power in just
people's opinions when they band together
that they can actually make things happen.
It's almost like a revolution.
Of course you want, like,
Surfer Magazine to be, like, "Oh, the novelty guy.
"He's cool too."
Like, when I have all these magazines just pushing me away.
And then Kelly Slater just goes, "Oh, yeah. That dude's sick."
There's a level of, like,
"Wow, it doesn't matter what anybody thinks"
because it comes back to people.
Perception doesn't matter.
As long as you're living your truth and living your honest life,
and, like, just doing what you wanna do,
who cares what other people think?
I just want to say thank you to everybody.
Uh, the universe is real and positivity is real.
This is the main point that I actually wanna make.
Three years ago, I was 26 years old,
washed up, barely surfed,
blown out knee,
with a doctor telling me I might never surf again.
I changed my life.
I changed my mindset.
And today I came to the Kelly Slater wave pool
and I surfed.
Anything is possible.
If you chase your dreams,
if you put positivity and goodness
out into the universe,
it will come back to you, I promise.
I am living proof.
Thank you, Nub Nation for the win.
I love you and I'll see you tomorrow.
For the dream!
Because the dream continues tomorrow.
Good night.
-Surfing Dude! -Surfing Dude?
I'm gonna have to change my Instagram handle, dude.
Surfing Dude!
This is truly what it really is all about.
Surfing is one of those things
where you can pass it on
from generation to generation.
There is waves here in Omaha, Nebraska,
and nobody surfs.
But now we got AJ,
our first surfer here at the wave pool.
Guaranteed, in 20 years, that guy has a crew,
and there's kid's surfing here every day.
Ben's amazing, dude.
He inspired me to live a dream, you know?
And that included my wife, included moving,
and included doing all the stuff
that I would have never done without seeing Ben.
He not only affects
my life, but he affects other people all the time.
Just his positive mental attitude
and driving people to conquer their dreams.
That's the tie and why he's so successful.
I mean, it's a dream just to be here,
watching him surf this crappy wave pool.
All right, we came to Nebraska today not expecting much.
And with the weather, I didn't even know
if I was actually gonna get to surf.
But we showed up at the Fun-Plex
and all the energy was just so amazing.
And sometimes it's not always about
the quality of the wave itself.
It's about the quality of the energy, of the location.
So Nebraska well and truly exceeded our expectations.
I'm honored to be here,
honored to check off state number 49.
Moving on to the last state.
Ben's an anomaly and they don't understand it.
Because a giant company could put out a video,
and it's probably not gonna get as many views
as one of Ben's videos, who is just one person.
I mean, just because you have a giant brand
with 500 employees,
it doesn't mean you put any work on YouTube
to deserve more views.
I think it has a lot to do with, like, charisma too.
You can buy a million views or a million followers,
but is that real? No.
Is the influence Ben has on some 8-year-old kid,
that he's never met, in a different country, real?
Yeah, it is. That's the thing.
So while YouTube's been around for a long time,
as far as the surf world is concerned,
it's only really been a big player the last
handful of years.
And, honestly, a lot changed in the surf world
when Ben started getting recognition.
and it's becoming this thing
where there's this community of people
that wanna be able to follow along with, like, their favorite surfers.
And now YouTube is a huge player in surfing.
And companies are realizing that
they can use the surfers
to directly relate to the consumer.
And it's such a more
personal feel than your advertising
that was in magazines, or on TV, or whatever, prior.
And the game has completely changed in the last three years.
What we're doing as a movement, creating content, is the dream right now.
It's not about winning contests because it's all about having fun.
So by making these videos on this rad platform,
and sharing everything that we love to do,
and, you know, be that person that could interact
like, "Oh, I can do the same thing as Jamie.
"I could do the same thing as Ben."
So, you know, it's like, "Hey, get out there.
"Get out of your house and film it. Document your life."
Because, hey, we only live once.
I think Ben was nominated for best vlog because
his dedication,
his hard work, his everyday grind
to go surf no matter where it was.
Whether it was in 50 states,
or whether it's in Puerto Rico,
he's out there making the best of life.
And people really respect that.
It was a really cool moment going to Surfer Poll, you know.
It's like we're rolling in together.
Ben Gravy, Jamie O'Brien, and our girls.
And it's just, like, this happy feeling
and we're both just so psyched.
If you haven't checked out Ben Gravy on Instagram...
Ladies and gentlemen, the number one,
vloggiest vlog in the whole vlogiverse,
the vlog the fans have chosen.
The J.O.B. Vlog
starring Jamie O'Brien!
We've been filming for years and we never won an award.
Uh, I'm a speechless surfer. Thank you...
for this award.
Um, best vlog. Big shoutout to Ben Gravy.
He really drived me to, like, see this thing in front of me.
And I'm, like, "I really wanna do it!" You know?
And he didn't really care about what people thought.
And I was, like, I like this guy.
And, um, I went for it because of you, Ben. Thank you.
You're the man.
It's honestly more recognition in that
than there would be from me winning.
Because, like, Jamie's the guy.
And he's up there just being like, "I'm here because of Ben."
And that was a moment that I'll never forget.
A camera? Is this... Hello?
By winning that award and giving my speech more so
as a thanks to Ben was a huge honor for me.
And I felt like we both walked away winning.
I mean, Ben's the madman.
He's the reason why I'm vlogging.
And this is the reason why we're all here right now.
I think the reason that Ben's more successful,
and it's hard for a lot of other people to do,
is because they don't break down the wall
and they're afraid of what other people are gonna think.
And to get to a position where you can change
outcomes, you have to let people see you.
You know, either in all your glory
or in all your failings.
And that's a really unique gift.
Who would've thought novelty waves would be
such a hit? But he wasn't afraid to put it out there.
And now it's like, "Love me or hate me,
"this is what I'm doing."
Here we are. We're in Anchorage, Alaska.
We are on Highway 1.
This highway goes down Turnagain Arm
where we're going to be surfing the tidal bore.
We pretty much got to the airport,
made sure the boards made it, loaded up the truck
and we are on our way to surf my 50th state.
I have been in contact with the Turnagain Arm surf crew.
They seem really cool and, hopefully,
we are gonna be able to find a wave today.
and check off the 50th and final state.
It's definitely a difficult wave to understand.
It might seem kind of basic, like,
"Oh, it's just this whitewater push.
You just jump in. You got it."
But It's so surgy and turbulent that it'll throw you
and it'll toss you around pretty easily
if you don't know what you're doing
and understand how to manage the energy of it.
We have 40 feet difference
between high and low tide.
And at low tide, it looks like a river.
And as the tide comes in, it forms a wave,
and that wave pushes for miles.
As it fills in, it's like your regular ocean wave.
If you have a super deep spot that goes right up to mountains
and you have a swell,
doesn't really matter how big the swell is,
if it's not the right shape underneath,
it's not gonna make a wave.
So it's the shape of the silt in the arm.
Yeah, there's totally some incidents
and some horror stories of people.
walking out of the mud
flats during low tide and getting stuck,
and then the tide comes in and they drowned.
There is definitely some juju out there,
and a lot of people have been raised
in this area to never go out there.
And the dangers are real every time we go out.
You know, Ben already had it in his mind.
He surfed 49 states. And Alaska,
this is going to be awesome.
But the tidal bore was...
It was definitely a wave.
And we saw the internet, and saw in all the great videos.
So we were, like, "Oh, Yeah. This is game on. No worries."
But when you go from that to actually being here in Alaska
and putting your feet in the water,
it's a whole different deal.
All right, here we are at the Turnagain Arm
with the Turnagain Arm surf crew.
These guys are the local experts on the wave.
They're gonna help guide me as to where the wave's
gonna be breaking, and what board I need,
and everything that involves the wave itself.
So, from my perspective right now.
it's looking pretty flat.
But these guys are saying there's a swell coming to.
Ben's, you know, a perfectionist
when it comes to, like, having fun
and really making this wave be the one.
So you kind of want all your homework put together.
And then, when you go out and get that one wave, you don't miss it.
And you get it, and you're in the right spot.
So there was a lot of stuff that we kind of had to learn
and figure out.
I, like, got off my board, planted my feet
in the mud. And the wave came, and it was just pulling me back.
And, like, the the next thing I knew, I was, like,
"Whoa, I'm in."
I'm in and I was just, like, ripping.
The injury made him take control of his life.
You know, it was actually a good thing that happened to him.
But, at the time, it seemed like it was horrible.
You know, you wouldn't that on anyone.
But I think it changed the whole path then for Ben.
It woke him up.
It snapped something in his brain. Like,
"I gotta take control of my life.
"If I want my life to go in this direction,
"I can make it happen.
"If I just do what needs to be done."
I mean, 'cause drinking is a cop out for a lot of things,
and it makes life a lot easier for people
because they just cop out
and they just stay in that state.
He got out of it. He just took it and said,
"I'm gonna change the world.
"I'm gonna make a difference."
And he is making a huge difference.
A lot of avenues.
With the soft tops, with the kids.
With surfing in every state.
Like, making it a universal sport for the whole country.
We did it!
The wave chose to pinch towards me
and give me the last bit of the ride.
It was just so much emotion.
Out of body experiences are hard to explain,
but it was so crazy 'cause I crawled up the rocks,
and a lot of it's hard for me to remember,
But I ran up the rocks,
and I knew that Jordan was up there.
So as soon as I saw Jordan, I just broke down in tears.
Because it was like...
all that crazy shit.
I did it.
Jordan was a part of this before
this was a job for me.
She was there when I was just doing this because
I needed to do it.
It's like I've never worked so hard
for something in my entire life.
I fucking did it! Like, I really did it.
I did it.
Ben, in my mind, doesn't have to prove to anybody
that he can rip like the top pro,
because he rips in his own way and he's as good as anybody.
But I think, for him, his important story
is to keep inspiring those people
that don't rip to be themselves and to go out no matter what.
and try it.
I think people recognize that
that Ben is being completely himself.
He's being true. He's being honest.
He's putting things out there, as they happen.
It's almost, like, kind of unfiltered, unedited.
He's being himself.
And I think that really resonates with people.
He really, genuinely is happy.
I think a lot of people are missing that in their lives.
And Ben brings that out.
People say all the time, they comment,
and just say, like, "Thank you. I needed that today
"because I was having a horrible day and your vlog
changed my whole outlook."
You know, we're all human. We all make mistakes.
And I think he started to see when he was vlogging, that
there's a lot of people out there who appreciate that
if you can put yourself out there for who you are
and not worry that you have a lot of problems
or things wrong with you, it doesn't matter.
Other people do, too.
And there's a camaraderie in that, and we can all
help each other.
Ben's change surfing and the fact's that
every kid growing up
has only gotten to look at the elite
as someone to look up to.
And Ben has shown everyone that you don t have to be that.
You can be you,
however you are and whatever, you know, gets you psyched.
You can be you and make a career out of that.
What he's done with the vlog and the surf world,
there's gonna be kids growing up
who get to experience a completely different lifestyle
of being a professional surfer than anyone before us.
I'm living proof that anybody can do anything.
Because I was that guy.
I lost. I literally lost.
And now, I'm here.
And whatever you want, literally is possible.
Anything that you can imagine is possible.
But you have to be willing to work for it.
For the dream.
The journey is now complete.
Ben Gravy has become the first and only human
to surf in all 50 of these United States.
In doing so, he's managed to touch the lives
of thousands of people.
Influencing and changing people's perspectives
in the most honest and heartfelt way.
Staring straight into the camera, baring it all,
heart on his pineapple T-shirt sleeve.
With the mission accomplished,
Ben's journey is now a completed story
that forever exists to help those in need.
Most, Ben Gravy will forever be known
as the novelty wave king, purveyor of stoke,
and catalyst for positivity.
No matter where you are,
no matter what you are going through,
know that there is an entire Nub Nation community out there
who is wishing you the best in life
regardless of how turbulent the waves.
Andy just bought a new hat.
Now he's psyching, bro.
Uh...
I don't know.
Dude!
Cool, dude.
Gnarly, Charlie.
Yeah, boys!
All right, ready?
Gnarly.
Can you show your dimples?
They're not even psyched.
Big dog!
Dude, I love you.
He's not even stoked.
He's not stoked.
Just by watching Ben Gravy, I've developed this attitude
where I'm gonna be stoked no matter what.
Whether it be surfing,
skiing, skateboarding.
Um, he just inspired everything,
like my style and surfing and skating.
Even art.
Beyond the scribbles.
El Slammo is right there.
Hi, Ben and Jordan. It's Lily from the UK.
I just wanted to say thank you for all the constant
stoke and inspiration.
Hey, Ben. It's Todd Giuliano from Connecticut.
Um...
Man, I just wanna thank you for all the stoke, dude.
You... You've definitely touched my life and
I am so grateful for it.
I just want to wish you all the best
in your future endeavors.
And Nub Nation for the win, man.
God bless you.