The Hog
I was a vegetarian for seven years. Prior to that I was a street rat subsisting (nearly) exclusively on Del Taco and light beer. I gave up meat because I wasn’t sure I’d be comfortable killing an animal myself, so I decided I shouldn’t eat them if that was the case. I eased back into eating meat through fish (I have taken the life of fish to eat) and I cut some corners, set some new guidelines (no fast food meat, etc) and now partake in anything thrown my way if it passes my loose guidelines. Once Anthony Bourdain died, I’m fairly certain he haunted me until I started eating meat again. Thanks, Tony.
All that just to tell you this story about our pal Eithan Osborne — a participant in this week’s inaugural Natural Selection Surf event held in Micronesia. An event I was lucky enough to attend and contribute to.
After the event finished, there were a few days of revelry. A lua. A couple days of surfing. Fishing. Foiling and exploring this land before time. Not so much for me — I was locked in some closet on the Starlink sending dispatches back home. One day while banging away at the keys covered in tropical sweat I heard Eithan Osborne come running into the house.
“I need a towel,” he said. “I’m going to kill a pig.”
Until that moment I hadn’t seen much animal life on our atoll so I followed him to see what he was talking about. There they were: two pigs experiencing their last moments in this world. That was our dinner.
How’d we get here? Well, Eithan woke up with a new haircut, hungover to the bone marrow after his semifinal performance that included “the ride of his life” and saw Kauli Vaast arrive with a massive dogtooth tuna on his shoulder. A true provider.
“I saw Kauli show up with that fish so I wanted to get one,” Eithan told me. “I hit up the local guys who had the boats to go fishing but they were like, ‘We’re not going fishing. We’re going to get a pig.’ So I just went along anyway. Didn’t know it would be a 2-hour panga ride in heavy seas but it was. So I wanted to see this through”
The boys picked up the pigs they had prearranged with a local “farmer”, put ‘em on the boat and started the fateful journey back.
Eithan, sporting some sort of new Hessian head shave haricut and the few onlookers who could stomach it (me included) came out to assess. A very strange feeling fell over everyone as the reality of what was happening set in. Death’s knell. The locals handed Eithan a massive knife and took him over to a table. The pig understood.
The rest doesn’t really require a lot of description other than Eithan did it. But that’s not why I’m telling you all this. It’s what he did after.
From there, he followed the guidance of the experienced locals, cleaning the pig and preparing it for cooking. While the rest of us played in the lagoon, watching baby blacktip reef sharks dart between our legs and soft topping backwash wedges in the air-clear water, Etihan prepared his hog for cooking. The spit was manual and required he spin the pig on a rotisserie for 4 hours. While we all played, Eithan spun the pig over hot wood, slowly roasting it while sipping on some cold Pacific Blues.
As night fell, he continued to prepare the pig for serving, carving it himself. He got to know the whole process. He even went so far as to make sure no parts of the pig were wasted and he ate any bits deemed…well, gross. Think tongue. Cheek. Hooves.
As weird and inorganic as it all sounds, there was a bit of pride that seemed to wash over Eithan throughout the process. A commitment to something that didn’t necessarily need to do.. Kinda like the wave he rode a few days before that would easily be the ride of the entire trip and project. He didn’t need to go. He didn’t need to pull in and try to make the impossible part of the wave. But he did. And he didn’t need to kill and cook the pig for us over a manuel spit, but he did. The whole trip was made significantly better through his commitments. Which is exactly why he got the invite to the first ever NST Surf. It’s also why I’m contemplating becoming a vegetarian again.—Travis Ferré
[Above Photo: Ryan Miller (@babboyryry_)]
