Sidetracked

Ventura, Former Governor of Minnesota, Pro Wrestler and Navy SEAL, Says No To Politics and Yes To The Surf

Though he would take a post as America’s first ambassador to Cuba, don’t expect former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura to run for office again.

After all, he’ll be busy surfing.

“I’m enjoying myself attempting to be the best surfer I can be down in Baja,” Ventura told Larry King last week. (See the first video on this link, at the 8:54 mark.)

That’s right, Jesse Ventura — the Minnesotan-born, ex-Navy SEAL and former pro wrestler — has The Stoke. In a big way.

“Surfing’s a dedication, and it’s a life’s dedication to do it,” he told King. “If someone were that dedicated to religion, would they call him a religious bum?”

After a succesful career as a professional wrestler and commentator, Ventura shocked the world in 1998 when he defeated Norm Coleman and Hubert Humphrey III to become governor of Minnesota. After one term, though, he stepped down, saying the position was too taxing on his family.

Since then, Ventura has hosted a cable news show, briefly taught at Harvard and moved to Baja. While out of politics, he remains political, telling King he opposes waterboarding as an ex-SEAL who endured waterboarding during training.

When King asked him about public service, Ventura said he would become ambassador to Cuba but that he was too busy surfing to run for office.

He’s not the first pro wrestler or politician to surf, of course. In the 50’s, a wrestler named Sam “Steamboat” Mokuahi was a well-known surfer, who taught fellow wrestler Lord Blears to surf. And Hawaiian Fred Hemmings, a Republican currently in the state senate, is a former world class surfer.

Ventura has mentioned surfing before. When asked about running for the U.S. Senate in the past, he said,  “My decision came down to surfing vs. the Senate, and I found surfing to be much more honorable than the Senate.”

Posted on May 18th, 2009 by Pat
Filed under: Surf stuff