Best Sections of All-Time: Damien Hobgood in Secret Machine

It’s been a while since I’ve gone on an epic road trip surf mission. The kind where you sleep terribly and wake up before your alarm with excitement for the new swell. So much potential that you must be there before the sun comes up. On a mission like this you always pack a mini quiver of boards (step-ups, shorties, and maybe something bigger) and a couple of wetsuits in the dark and hit the road to check a spot that breaks once in a blue moon. Watching perfect empty waves rolling through the lineup, you suit up before the sun is out in an attempt to get out the back before the whole world is on it. It’s what every young surfer’s dreams are made of. An adventure filled with opportunities to score the wave of your life. Days like that are what keep us coming back. It’s the essence of being a core surfer.

Damien Hobgood captured the essence of the epic road trip, especially for one in Southern California, in Joe G’s 2006 iconic film, “Secret Machine”. (Every section of this film deserves it’s own mention in Best Sections of All-Time, and I’m sure we’ll get through them all at some point.)

While the film was mainly shot in sessions with multiple surfers, this part features Damo on a solo core-lord mission in Mexico where he had a day that went down in history at this illusive spot. He returned home with “The Goods” to prove it, carving out a section all to himself that featured the most incredible rides ever ridden at this fickle wave. His patented Hobgood backhand on display in perfect fashion throughout. Joe always has a way of stirring up certain emotions in the way that he puts his films together, and this one is no different. (Watch the ender to the film here for reference)

This part will get you hyped to hit the road, repel down the side of a cliff and jump into the freezing cold Pacific in the dark by yourself. We guarantee it.—Brandon