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A godfather of Santa Cruz’s thriving surf community of the 1980s and 1990s, Anthony Ruffo was also a part of coastal city’s notorious party scene. His arrest on drug charges in July 2010 made the front page of local newspapers, shocking casual surf watchers, but sparking significantly less surprise among many fellow surfers who witnessed Ruffo’s escalating drug use over the past decade.

In the late 1980s to mid 1990s, at the peak of his game, Anthony Ruffo racked up surf competition wins and sponsorships. He traveled the world with a younger crop of surfers that looked at him as an older brother figure who never let go of his playful, childlike side. The world tour took Ruffo and his wave riding comrades from Portugal to Tahiti and every surfing hotspot in between.

“Whatever I had to do to be like him,” premier big-wave rider Pete “The Condor” Mel said. “Hands down; Ruffo was the guy.”

The positive perks of success made indulging in all the temptations that came with the money and fame easier. Partying had become part of the lifestyle and as a respected surfing icon, Ruffo had his pick vices. His drug of choice was cocaine, an addiction that led him into a world outside his tight knit surf crew and into a free fall.

The high cost of maintaining a cocaine addiction turned many addicts, including Ruffo, to methamphetamine. The drug spread in Santa Cruz surfing circles, crippling the careers of wave riders who dropped off the scene without warning and never returned. While knowledge about the spread of meth use was high, many chose to keep the issue quiet over concerns about damaging the local surfing reputation.

Despite picking up a meth habit in the mid-2000s, Ruffo continued to surf at a professional level, but his drug use began affecting his performance on the board. In 2005, after losing sponsorships and nearly all of his surfing income, Ruffo started selling methamphetamine. At his most active time as a dealer, Ruffo claims he was selling two pounds of meth a day out of his house.

Rumblings about the once-respected big wave legend spread around Santa Cruz as others in the community witnessed the destructive consequences of meth’s tightening grip. Fellow surfers like Ken “Skin Dog” Collins tried confronting Ruffo about his drug use, telling his friend, “You’re fucking our whole community up; what you’re doing is wrong.” Ruffo continued dealing and abusing meth, but also kept surfing, even after his 2010 arrest.

In September, 2010, award-winning filmmaker and photographer Rocky Romano was commissioned by Oakley to take photos at a Santa Cruz surf competition.

“I posted the photos to my action sports blog,” Romano said, “and instantly received a phone call alerting me that one of the [surfer] photos was of Anthony Ruffo. I was told that he was a convicted meth dealer who was still using every day. As the father of a 7 year old boy, I decided to take the photo down, as I really wanted nothing to do with a meth dealer.”

Rather than just delete the photograph and try to forget the surfer with a bad reputation and even worse addiction, Romano contacted Ruffo about filming him for a documentary. Romano assumed the film would tell the familiar tale of a sport star’s spiral down to obscurity, but he soon realized the story of Anthony Ruffo didn’t end with rock bottom.

Previously on Holy Kaw:

Anthony Ruffo, Part 1: The surfer and the drug sentence

Anthony Ruffo, Part 2: The surfer from Santa Cruz

Follow the story on Holy Kaw:

Anthony Ruffo, Part 4: The dangers of documenting a surfer’s journey

Total surfing coverage.