In elementary school, Jojo Roper gave Little League a try at Tecolote Field. But learning how to hit a curve ball only has so much appeal when you have San Diego surf legend Joe Roper for a dad.

“I played a season or two but I just wasn’t into it,” Roper, 35, remembered. “I just wanted to go surf. I am sure my dad was stoked we were going to the beach on Saturday mornings instead of a baseball field.”

At age 3, Dad Joe put little Jojo on a board for the first time near Crystal Pier. At 5, he got his own surfboard. Many of his first memories are on that water.

“There was a little shore break bottoming through and pulling into a little close-out barrel,” said Roper, who grew up in Pacific Beach and surfed up and down the San Diego coast from La Jolla to Point Loma. “I remember that clear as day. I had this funny feeling like this is so cool and my dad gave me a thumbs up. Throwing me in the shorebreak at a young age – I was scared but that showed me I was capable of dealing with the water if I was being watched by him.”

Roper, now a professional surfer in his own right, recently earned the highly coveted Men’s Paddle-in Wave of the Year award in this year’s Surfer Big Wave Challenge at an Oct. 19 commemoration in Nazaré, Portugal, for a near 50-foot wave he caught at Mavericks near Half Moon Bay.

“In terms of my career I think I am in the prime zone,” Roper said. “I’m striving for bigger and better waves. My whole goal is to catch waves that will stand up forever. You can ride big waves and they stand the test of time and win some contests in between.”

The next opportunity for Roper to catch one of those timeless waves comes in December with the 2024-25 Eddie Aikau Big Wave Invitational.

Scheduled to run Dec. 14 through March 13 in Oahu, Hawaii, at Waimea Bay, the invitational is commonly known as the Super Bowl of surfing.

“That’s like a lifetime achievement award,” Roper said. “Especially for a kid from California. It’s the hardest event to even get on the alternate list and I was invited, I couldn’t be happier, to say the least.”

The 39th “Eddie” will feature 28-40 surfers from around the world, but with a minimum swell height of 20 feet, the competition is never guaranteed to happen.

“You can surround the bay and watch giant waves – it’s the best show on earth,” Roper said. “There is nothing like it. The Aikau is insane. It only runs every two to eight years – I pray it runs this year.”

Roper estimated that he is out on the water some 300-plus days a year.

“It never gets old and I hope it stays that way,” he said. “I had a couple of days last year surfing perfect waves in Mexico with a few friends. ‘Are we spoiled?’ ‘Will do it every day for as long as we can until we have to get home.’”

That fear Roper felt as a kid in the shorebreak has never fully gone away, but it keeps him chasing the perfect wave.

“For anyone to say they aren’t scared is B.S.,” he said. “The thought of going deep under and getting your [butt] kicked in freezing water. The adrenaline goes nuts. It keeps you coming back for more. Sometimes people take wipeouts and never come back.”

On the water, Roper broke his back and tore a ligament in his hip.

“It wasn’t a full panic I am going to die kind of thing,” Roper said.

That’s not to mention the numerous times he’s been pulled underwater for longer than he thought possible.

“You start seeing stars,” Roper said. “Twice I’ve been under for so long I thought that was it. That’s the mental game. You can hold your breath so much longer than you think you can. I started smiling underwater; I caught myself laughing, which is bad because you lose air.”

Roper described his relationship with his dad these days as “best friends that are like two bickering brothers.”

Pro surfer or not, when they hit the water together, the father-son pecking order remains.

“When my dad surfs with me I block for him and make sure he gets his good waves,” Roper said with a laugh. “It’s more so like, ‘Still got it, kid.’”