Celebs Who Surf

From Adam Sandler To Jeff "The Dude" Bridges, Here Are Some Famous Surfers

I have to admit, I was pretty shocked when I learned that Uncle Fester surfed.

I mean, seriously – the guy was bald, chubby and, well . . . not exactly the image of a surfer dude. But, it turns out, that the actor who played the dumpy “Addams Family” ghoul in the 60s was once a hardcore surfer, who frequently dropped into waves at Malibu.

Malibu is, of course, the place to find celebrities like Matthew McConaughey in the water, getting away from the set for a little respite.

Here are my Top Ten Celebs Who Get the Stoke:

10. Cameron Diaz. A good friend of surf legend Kelly Slater, she told Self Magazine: “Surfing is a religious experience for me. You get to be a part of Mother Nature and experience its power. I have great respect for the ocean. It’s full of life and its energy is constant. When you ride a wave, it comes from across the ocean, from 1,500 miles away, and you get on it and ride it to shore, where its journey ends.”

9. Aaron Carter. The ‘tween heartthrob was hospitalized after a “minor surf accident” that required brief hospitalization in San Diego.

8. Minnie Driver. Driver once nearly avoided a gnarly collision in the lineup with “Die Hard” star Bruce Willis.

7. Chris Isaak. The smooth-voiced crooner took up  later in life (his early 30s), but he got the fever in a big way. A friend of big wave surfer Doc Rennecker, he has often been spotted paddling out at the notoriously treacherous Nor-Cal spot, Maverick’s.. “Surfing, if anything, helps me be relaxed enough so I can want to go back and write,” Isaak told me in 2003. “It just keeps you kind of mellow and balanced.”

6.  Ben Harper. Another surfing musician, Harper grew up a skater. But now he can frequently be seen in the waves.

 “The ocean is extremely melodic,” he told Surfing Magazine. “Whenever I am in the ocean and paddling out, ideas come to me in a way that they don’t in other places. I think anybody who surfs will tell you, you hear music when you surf; it’s a weird phenomenon.”

5. Adam Sandler. Surfers have been known to pitch ideas to him while in the lineup at Malibu.

4.  Jack Johnson. A former pro surfer, film maker, and musician, Johnson has provided the soundtrack for many surf trips.

3.  Jeff Bridges – It’s appropriate that The Dude – whose laid-back attitude is classic surf bum -- would catch waves. Bridges surfed a lot as a kid, then more recently got back into it before providing the voice of a surfing penguin in “Surf’s Up.”

 “It’s a wonderful metaphor, catching a wave, for how you look at other challenges in life,” he told moviesonline.com.

Right on, Dude.

2.  Jimmy Buffet. Buffet’s love of the ocean is well documented in his music. In addition to being an avid sailor, he’s also an old school longboarder.

1.  Eddie Vedder. With all his dark and moody songs, you might be surprised to learn that Vedder is a ukulele-playing surfer.  When asked to compare waves to crowds, he once said: “With a packed house, unless you say something incredibly offensive to God or country, a crowd of 15,000 people will not kill you. I guess they could if they wanted to, but they will not all jump on you at the same time and hold you down for two minutes. That’s the difference between a big crowd and a big wave. When Kelly (Slater) takes me to Waimea Bay, that wave does not give a sh– who I am.”