How surfing helped cycle champion Alfred Bobé Jr. find his flow
- Text by Huck HQ / Steven Turner
- Photography by Andrew White
After breaking into the messenger scene, Alfred Bobé Jr. quickly got a rep for putting himself in spots that may seem unthinkable for even the most hardcore riders. Take a look at Lucas Brunelle’s alleycat documentary Line of Sight and you’ll see Bobé pushing his ride headlong into oncoming traffic, squeezing between New York cabs and negotiating moving intersections. At racing speed.
Sitting in his Brooklyn home with his three young sons Sebastian, Kaden and Lucien, days after winning an unprecedented fifth Monster Track title, Alfred explains how surfing taught him how to live in the moment:
“I grew up in paradise. Back in the Caribbean I always had the ocean to escape to when shit went off. Out there I felt so good – that nothing else really mattered except this next wave coming in – and that’s what life really was to me as a kid. It taught me to live in the moment, right then and there.”
This is just a short excerpt from Huck’s Fiftieth Special, a collection of fifty personal stories from fifty inspiring lives.
Grab a copy now to read all fifty stories in full. Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss another issue.
Latest on Huck
In photos: Inmates of the oldest women’s prison in the USA
A new photobook, ‘Women Prisoner Polaroids’, revisits Jack Lueders-Booth’s seminal, humane portrait of women incarcerated in Massachusetts’ MCI Framingham.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Louis Stettner’s timeless portrait of mid-century America
In the largest retrospective yet of his work a new book and exhibition explores the legacy of the “world’s best-known unknown photographer”.
Written by: Miss Rosen
Jordan Stephens: “I don’t like using the term ‘Toxic Masculinity’ anymore”
In the latest edition of our masculinity column ‘Daddy Issues’, the Rizzle Kicks singer and author talks about his childhood, vulnerability, his relationship with his mum and more.
Written by: Robert Kazandjian
In Photos: London’s young riders take over the city for Bikestormz
Thousands of London’s most talented riders stormed the capital this weekend calling for bikes up, knives down.
Written by: Alex King
Celebrating Fire Island’s fabled “Invasion of the Pines”
Photographer Phillip Gutman’s recent exhibition pays homage to an important chapter of LGBTQ history with a sumptuous array of hand printed scenes.
Written by: Miss Rosen
An eerie window into Chernobyl’s exclusion zone
A new photobook documents the communities of workers, stalkers, nomads and more that occupy the skeletal remains of Pripyat, Ukraine.
Written by: Isaac Muk