Post grommethood has made 19-year-old Jesse Hinkle of El Segundo an international surf man of mystery. The reserved regular foot keeps a low key demeanor not suggesting the places he’s been or the places he’s going.
When Jesse Hinkle was six years old his mother was in a panic watching a strong riptide pull Jesse out over the rocks at Carpentaria Beach.
 “My mom was running up and down the beach screaming for help while I had a death grip on my Boogie board in the impact zone of the 4’ waves,” Jesse said. “A homeless guy sleeping on the beach came to my rescue pulling me out of the surf and on to the sand.”
You would think Jesse’s scary encounter with the ocean would lead him into soccer or Little League Baseball but the following year Jesse was learning how to surf on a 7’ soft board to the delight of his father John, paddling along side. John had lived in Texas where he rode Gulf Coast’s chocolate chambers for years before moving to California. Now the Hinkle family resides in El Segundo and John is the president of the Malibu Surfing Association.
Jesse at 5’11”, 165 pounds, with a short dark hair cut,with big black horned rimmed glasses, looks like Superman’s alter ego Clark Kent. He told me his first surfboard was an 8’ soft top but now has quite a quiver from Bing Surfboards shaped by Matt Calvani. He shreds on his 9’11” Elevator Model but changes things up on his 7’, 7’8” and 5’6” Bing Dharma Models when the waves warrant it.
In 2007 Jesse started surfing in the Western Surfing Association surfing contests and in 2009 won the Malibu Call to the Wall Surfing Championship in his division. He loves surfing Malibu whenever it breaks. Jesse likes to cruise solo in panel van, but surfs El Porto almost everyday with Josh Gilbert who looks like his twin brother.
As Jesse has been to Australia five times, I wondered if he had duel citizenship. Over the course of these travels he made quite a few friends. He’s got plenty of complimentary couches to surf and Kombi bus backseats to occupy for Oz surf safaris. At the same time, it’s not uncommon to see Hinkle rolling with the hottest new Aussie longboarders up and down highway 1, boards aboard in his panel van, with the band “Fidlar,” on the tape deck.
His favorite place to surf in the world is Noosa Heads where three perfect point breaks come together in diaphanous 75 degree water.
“Little Cove — that zip’s along a shallow sandbar like Rincon on steroids  — is my favorite place to surf,”  he said.
While Noosa Heads offers picturesque point breaks, Jesse has a sweet tooth for the barrel. A few years ago, he went down to Nicaragua and first surfed Ponga Drops then Colorado’s. (At the time being, he’s in Nicaragua for the month of November).
He said, “Ponga’s had a steep Sunset Beach type take-off leading into a soft shoulder. Colorado’s was a super fast beach break with plenty of tube rides.” Jesse loves standing on the nose but gets his biggest thrills riding deep in the tube.
Dane Peterson and Jared Mel are listed as Jesse’s favorite surfers.
“Dane is so radical and has an unreal style that nobody can copy,” he said. He went on about Jared, “Jared is the kind of surfer that’s full of surprises. You never know what he will do next. He’s wacky, weird and super fun to watch.”
Jesse is sponsored by Hippy Tree, Bing Surfboards and is a member of the Malibu Surfing Association. Besides surfing, he recently discovered a passion for shooting pictures and picked up a Pentex K-100. He again lists Peterson as another influence but this time in the photography department.
“I have always been interested in surf photos from the surfing magazines but now I see what goes into them from the other side of the lens,” Jesse said. “I’m hooked.”
His new artistic endeavor just recently got him a double page centerfold photo in the surf magazine “Foam Symmetry.” In time, Jesse plans to turn the surfing world on to a lot more of his works of ocean art.Â
