BIOGRAPHY
Written by Robert Yehling
ABOUT JOEY BURAN
Joey Buran brings to his memoir, Beyond the Dreams, a rich and varied career and personal life. Born in Ohio, he grew up primarily in Virginia, where he was a multiple AAU youth swimming champion. When he was 11, the family moved to Carlsbad, Calif., where Joey quickly took up the most engaging local sport — surfing — and determined he would be the best in Carlsbad, then California, then the nation, and finally the world. By 15, he was one of the top amateur surfers in America, and by 17, he was a professional surfer and finalist in the event he wanted to win more than any others, the famed Pipeline Masters.
After legendary ABC Wide World of Sports host Jim McKay tabbed him The California Kid, Joey became the spirit and face of California surfing, just as the Golden State was becoming the cultural, competitive and economic Mecca of the beach and ocean lifestyle — a central component of youth culture in America for the next 20 years. He won Brazil’s Waimea 500 in 1980, then came home and captured California’s grand prize, the Stubbies California Surf Trials, a year later. He firmly entrenched himself in professional surfing’s Top 16 for five years, the first U.S. mainland surfer to do, peaking at No. 7 in the 1983-84 season. He was a star in the people’s eyes, the subject of endless media coverage, and a household name to millions around the world.
Three months after announcing his retirement from competition, on December 17, 1984, Joey won his final world tour event, the one about which he’d dreamed and focused his entire life since age 12 — the Pipeline Masters.
Joey’s contributions to his sport continued with another first — founding and producing the first U.S. Pro Tour of Surfing, the PSAA. After serving as producer for 1 1⁄2 years, Joey stepped away from surfing — and transformed from focusing on his own achievements to serving others.
He found his new calling as a minister in the Calvary Chapel community, first in North San Diego County, then in Orange County. His deep faith and surfing prowess were on full display in one of the most viewed surfing films of the past 40 years, Sonriders. He and his wife, Jennifer, and their family moved to the East Coast in the 1990s, where Joey founded churches in Virginia Beach and in Burlington, Vermont. Following almost a decade away from California, he returned to continue his ministerial work... and to return to the waves he so dearly missed. In 1998, he found the victory stand again, beating his former rivals — including several world champions — for the title in the World Masters Championship.
From there, Joey blended ministry, surfing and a new pursuit — coaching young surfers. He’d spent his life going from one to the other, but by the early 2000s, struck a balance that has informed his life since. He founded the Worship Generation in Costa Mesa, Calif., which became a national leader among youth ministries, and he also accepted the coaching reins of Team USA, America’s national amateur surf team, as the sport was making its drive to become an Olympic sport (which it did, in 2020).
Joey’s coaching career blossomed. He took Team USA to four Top 5 finishes in the worlds, including the 2017 World Team Championships with a crew that includes some of today’s greatest professional surfers. He’s had a hand in the careers of most of America’s top world tour performers in the past 15 years. Not only that, but he revived and built strong teams as the head coach of Team Great Britain and Team Chile between his stints as Team USA coach. He’d always been as much a patriot as a surfer, putting American flag stickers on his boards for a time.
Joey lives in Huntington Beach, Calif., with his wife of 36 years, Jennifer. They have four children and nine grandchildren. Beyond The Dream is his first book. His future plans include writing others.