1. What has been your strangest fan encounter?
Sal Masekela: Last year at the Summer X Games, this kid followed me around all day, begging me for a dreadlock. It was like one of those movies where every time you turned around the corner, he was standing there. Finally, the last day, I was like, “All right. That’s it. Go get some scissors.” I cut off half of a dreadlock. I couldn’t believe how excited the kid was.
2. You’re at a magazine rack and can pick three magazines. What are they?
Complex, Vanity Fair and Surfer.
3. What’s your favorite sports team?
The San Diego Chargers. Ride the lightning.
4. When was the last time you were starstruck?
On Pico Boulevard, when I was driving home from E!, I stopped at a red light and Sidney Poitier was walking across the street in front of my car. I waved at him and he stopped, smiled and waved to me — but waved to me like he meant it. And when I went to drive off, he waved to me again and I had goose bumps over my whole body. He represents so much perseverance and so much class.
5. If your TV only carried three shows, which three would you want?
SportsCenter, Rob & Big and Big Love.
6. What’s your strangest sports injury?
I had a surfing accident about 12 years ago, where I compressed some vertebrae, and I didn’t realize what I had done. I had landed on my ass in the sand and sort of jolted myself. I tailed back out and caught another couple waves. Then I went to work, and I was sitting at my desk, staring at my computer, and the next thing I know, I can’t see. I lost my eyesight. It started fading in and out for a whole day.
7. Where’s the best surfing in the world?
In lower Sumatra, in the Mentawai Islands. You fly into Jakarta, then you go from Jakarta to Padang, jump on a boat for 16 hours and you’re in the Mentawai Islands, and you’re just going from island to island by boat, surfing perfect, uncrowded surf. It’s like the Augusta National of surfing, except without the membership issues.
8. How much money did Paris Hilton spend on snacks and other stuff while in prison?
I should know this, because, you know, I work at E! I’m just going to go for a wild number and say $78.
[Paris spent $145 on food, snacks and random junk in a single week while in the slammer.]
Masekela cohosts The Daily 10 on E!, and gives voice to a penguin sportscaster in the animated hit Surf’s Up, premiering this month on Pay-Per-View and On Demand.
