Zoltan Torkos is still the first and only surfer to successfully land a kickflip on a wave with a surfboard—a wild statement considering what’s going on in wave pools and how far other maneuvers have progressed since he stomped the first one in 2011. But its still true: Zoltan is the only one with proof. And he’s still doing them regularly.

Last week I drove up to Santa Cruz to shine some light on the mystery that is Zoltan, and maybe extinguish the stigma that’s followed him and the kickflip since Volcom (almost) didn’t pay him the 10k bounty they put on the trick (they did pay him after public scrutiny got too hot) but that’s not even the detail I care about. I went up there to meet him, the kickflipping magician/butcher we are all guilty of writing off in surf media for so long. I wanted to see for myself if he was even real or a figment of our collective imagination—an apparition in the Santa Cruz fog, a street performer begging for sandwiches, a gimmick, a one-trick freak show—because it honestly seemed too good to be true: A life-long Santa Cruz surfer and wizard and now self-proclaimed professional weed smoker is still the only guy to ever pull a kickflip on a wave and we know nothing! If it seems too good to be true it’s due to the amount of reliable info on him being so inadequate.

I got a small budget to shoot some stories for for Red Bull Media House (the classiest of the energy drink varietals, in my opinion) and had filmmaker Jeremy Asher Lynch come along as we attempted to find out why the hell we know so little about Zoltan. We went up blind, uncertain if this was a fool’s errand since reliable recon from Santa Cruz locals didn’t validate or discredit. We got a lot of, “I actually don’t know what the deal is with him, but I’d love to find out!” I also noticed how much the current generation (Chippa, Craig, Shane Borland, Balaram etc) appreciate him—much more so than the past generations, perhaps it was a less open-minded era. Either way, we drove up to see for ourself.

What we found is an artist so far ahead of his time that we are only now able to process and appreciate his forward thinking approach and attitude. His enthusiasm and joy for surfing and the water is inspiring. He has a beautiful family. And he is a local character in the community—one only a place as awesome and weird as Santa Cruz could embrace so warmly. His story is not without its hurdles and hardships and regrets, but to see where he is now is a testament to the kind soul who pulled the ultimate rabbit out of his hat way before surf culture was ready for it.

Stay tuned for more on our time with Zoltan here and we’ll let you know when the episode airs. Thanks to Red Bull Media House for giving us the wings to get up there. —Travis Ferré