Surfer Taylor Knox Retires After 22 Years
The 2012 Billabong Pipe Masters in Oahu, Hawaii was the last professional event for surf legend Taylor Knox. When his last heat was finished, Knox retired after 22 years on tour.
Surfer Magazine conducted a great interview with Knox about the future of surfing, his years on the tour and his next move.
The publication asks some great questions, such as whether prof surfing is in good hands after ZoSea Media's takeover of the sport's media rights.
I think this is actually going to be a great thing for professional surfing. I fought for it and I'm confident that this group will be able to do things for the Tour that they couldn't do before. By bringing it to a mass market, we'll be able to add some more professionalism to pro surfing and take care of the surfers more. With things like the pension plan, the surfers will be taken care of—like other professional sports—when they leave. A lot of the guys that were on Tour and really helped shape the sport were sort of left on their own when they retired in years past. And to be able to give so much to the sport and not have it help take care of you when you retire...that just doesn't seem right to me.
To read the full interview, click here.
Knox, 41, is a California native who began competing on the ASP world tour in 1993. In February 1998 he won the K2 Big-Wave Challenge for catching the largest wave that winter–a 52-foot behemoth at Todos Santos during the Reef Big-Wave World Championships.
Knox was inducted into the Surfers' Hall of Fame in Huntington Beach, CA. in August 2011. According to Aaron Pai, the Surfers' Hall of Fame founder, Knox "influenced an entire generation of surfers."