Best Sections of All-Time: Mikala Jones in Innersection
Mikala Jones is the type of person we all aspire to be. Cool, calm — and often casually and comfortably standing in cavernous remote pits…with a smile. Because he did the hard work. He waited out the back the longest, he knew all the things that go into making an image, a swell, a moment. He did the work and he got the proof, either an iconic water shot or his incredible talent at bringing us all into the tube (before this was fashionable) with a GoPro.
When the news broke about his passing my heart sank. The collective surf world’s heart sank. Tragic and random. I ran through the handful of times that our paths had crossed, the really cool demeanor that he always carried himself with and the countless barrel shots of him in the mags over the decades. He has been a regular, usually in a big old pit, to us all for years. His casual and calm style was a perfect representation of the Mikala that I got to know on land.
My first time meeting him crystallized. It was the only time I saw him scold someone and it happened to be me and Evan Geiselman on our first trip to Bali. We pulled up at Taylor Steele’s house one night to meet up with some of the crew that were hanging there. Evan was probably 13 or 14 years old and I was the chaperone on the trip.
Right as we hopped out of the car there was a small bright green snake slithering into the bushes. Young Evan, being the Florida boy that he is, grabbed a stick and started to prod the snake with hopes of catching it.
Mikala must have arrived right before us because he popped out of nowhere in the driveway and stopped us in our tracks. He explained that this snake — an Island Pit Viper — could cause some serious problems. Maybe lose a limb or even worse if you didn’t get the anti-venom quick enough. EG quickly scurried off as he didn’t want to put any kind of damper on his first trip to Bali.
After seeing him surf more on that trip and hearing his stories I was fascinated by his prowess. He was a true surfer’s surfer…sure, he had plenty of shots in the mags and often on the cover, not to mention the mind-bending GoPro shots he became even more famous for, but he was chasing down swells with or without a camera on him. He got more barreled than most pro surfers and did it all purely for the love of surfing.
Mikala’s part in Taylor Steele’s Innersection to this Miike Snow song had stuck with me ever since I saw it. The song has had tons of airtime and every single time I heard it I thought of Mikala and the nuts barrels he packed in this part.
Mikala’s family is in our thoughts and prayers and we can’t believe he’s gone but he left us with so much life. So much to aspire to be. A dad, a surfer, a good person. We wanna be like Mikala.—Brandon Guilmette
