Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: G'day everybody. Welcome to Barrel Surf Podcast Namu here with you.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: And in this week's episode, we have Azi having a big chat with Margaret river legend Andrew Sheridan.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: He grew up in the area and.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: He has coached people all the way from Carissa Moore and others at the Margaret River Pro.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: Spent some time on the junior series himself.
[00:00:19] Speaker B: He is a hard charger from the wires of Western Australia.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: It's an excellent interview.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Well done, Addsy. As usual, the show is brought to you by Sharkeye's wetsuit down South Physio Forrester Estate Wines and cheeky Monkey Brewing.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: Now, if you do want to get yourself in a bit of balance with your health, look out for ag one athletic greens. Get some greens back into your system during the festive season.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: It's always a good idea, so just head to athleticgreens.com barreled. Get your bonuses, support the podcast. And now it's on with the show.
[00:00:53] Speaker A: Barrel Surf Podcast.
[00:00:54] Speaker B: Barrel Surf Podcast.
[00:00:55] Speaker A: Barrel Surf Podcast. Barrel Surf Podcast. Barrel Surf Podcast.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Barrel Surf Podcast. Barrel Surf Podcast.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: Yeeha.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Alrighty. Hello everybody out there listening to Barrelserve podcast. Thanks for tuning in. My name's AdSi. I'm sitting in the Shedquarters. It's a Sunday afternoon in springtime in the southwest, and we're up the north end of the Cape to Cape region of the Southwest, and we have a very special guest in today. He is from the south end of the Cape to Cape region, a fierce battle that's been playing out for decades between north and south.
He is one of the arrows in the quiver of bows of Margaret River Board riders versus the yelling up board riders has been for a long time. He's a stalwart of the Margie's area. He's a former president of the Margaret River Board Riders. He's got possibly the best photo that's ever been seen at the box. And he's just a general, absolute frother of the highest order when it comes to surfing in the Southwest. And he's just a good old fucking regular bloke, too. Andrew Sherrow. Sheridan. How are you, mate?
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Good, mate. Thanks for having me. Thanks for stamping the passport and letting me cross the border, mate.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: We had a pretty funny little chat when we came in here and I was like, mate, you know, the wind's pretty light, pretty light onshore. It's probably some good waves. And you're like, no, it's not. What are you talking about? I check Margie's. It's offshore. I'm like, wow, bit different up this end of the cape.
[00:02:48] Speaker A: I know it's always offshore off here when it's onshore at Margaret. What's going on?
[00:02:53] Speaker B: That's what we like to tell you anyway. Yeah, but no, mate, thanks for coming in.
We've been talking about getting in for a while.
[00:03:02] Speaker A: We finally made it happen. I seen you at Margaret's a couple of days ago.
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah, got my parcel stamped down there and we decided, well, rinsing the weddies off in the shower, that maybe we should just get it done.
[00:03:14] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Awesome, mate. Waves are pretty good today. You get a surfing?
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I had a little surf at North Point, actually. It was quite nice. Little like Westwell, two and a half meters. It's always like a know. Sometimes you get a know the bay. No one really thinks it's going to be big enough and. Yeah, actually dragged a couple of sneaky ones off the M Bowl there today.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Sweet.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Yeah, I got barreled, mate.
[00:03:37] Speaker B: You're always getting barreled, mate. That's the problem. Were you surfing with your sons?
[00:03:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I went with my older son, Cruz. We were both lucky, actually.
He scored a good set off the peak, straight off the bat, so he was happy. And then I mosey on in about 15 minutes later and I actually got lucky myself and snuck a good one off the peak, too.
[00:03:58] Speaker B: Create your own luck out there. Sheridan's at North Point. Not a lot of luck going on there, I reckon, mate. You got two boys who are frothing surfers. What are their names? How old are they?
[00:04:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I got two boys, 16 and 13. Cruz and Khan, both frothing surfers.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Cool. Yeah.
And how old are you, Sharon?
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Just for the listener, I am 47.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: 47, fit as a fiddle.
Yeah, I try to keep fit, I.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Try to stay healthy.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Good. Mate. You surf a lot?
[00:04:27] Speaker A: I do. I love surfing.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: Still, that's the best way to stay in the water, isn't it? Just keep doing it.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't do any other kind of fitness. I play a bit of golf and I surf, so that's it, really. But it seems to be doing all right. Keeping me fairly fit.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: It is, mate. That's cool. All right, mate. Well, let's dial it back then. We're going to do a bit of a profile episode today and delve into the life of the Sheriff of Margaret River.
You were born and bred down here, is that?
[00:04:56] Speaker A: I am, yeah. I actually grew up in Willie Abrupt.
Grew up? My grandparents farm. Willie abrupt. I guess just we honeycombs down there.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: Oh, Moses Rock.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: Moses Rock.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:11] Speaker A: So the farm just across the street there.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: With the airstrip.
[00:05:14] Speaker A: With the airstrip, yeah, exactly. That's my granddad, all right. Butch Guthrie.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Yeah, he's an old school farmer from down here.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I've read a few stories in the annals of history and the surfing southwest, that name pops up. He wasn't a surfer, though, was he?
[00:05:33] Speaker A: No, he wasn't a surfer, but he was named well respected, kind of well liked, kind of honorable kind of guy. That farmer, he knew all the OG kind of surfers from down here.
He had an airplane. And Kevin Merryfield, you know him, they were friends. And I think they like, you know, he had a. So he had, like, machinery, bulldozers, graders and stuff. And he pretty much made most of the tracks, really, to the surf breaks, like. Yeah, honeycombs, guillotines.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: The pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are falling together very quickly in this episode here, Cheryl, to explain your prowess in the local waters here.
[00:06:20] Speaker A: Yeah, my great great parents, they had. Their farm was so. I guess from honeycombs to injured up. All that land was my great Great farmland.
[00:06:36] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:06:36] Speaker A: So they had those five.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Pity they didn't hold onto it for you, mate.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: I know it's all like.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Wouldn't be laying bricks.
[00:06:41] Speaker A: Wineries. Now. I could have been, like, a multimillionaire if they held onto.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: Billionaire.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: Billionaire, exactly.
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Right. So they owned a big. Yeah. So you got a lot of family history in the area.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: I have, yeah. So there's a bit of history there.
Some Good old stories about the granddad.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, mate, let's start there.
I know that property. I always remember hearing about an airstrip down the end there.
Is that your dad's dad? Woods. Good. Or your mum?
[00:07:14] Speaker A: That's my mom's dad. I think he maybe learned to fly. Maybe. I think he might have been, like, World War II, maybe learned to fly and always had planes and.
Yeah, like, some crazy stories. I think he saved a lot of fishermen and surfers and swimmers. And back in the day, a couple of funny stories. I heard that one day there was a swimmer maybe that got sucked out at rabbits.
And no one could get to this guy. So they called him up and he flew the plane up and he had, like, an old tractor tire.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: What?
[00:07:55] Speaker A: That he just pumped up and tied it to the side of the plane and flew over. And then this guy was like, way out the back of yellow. And apparently he just like.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:05] Speaker A: Threw out this.
[00:08:06] Speaker B: So he just dropped it out.
[00:08:07] Speaker A: Dropped it out?
[00:08:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: And this guy just floated on it and this guy. Yeah.
[00:08:11] Speaker B: And then what someone came and got him in a boat or something.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah, eventually, I guess. Someone got a boat eventually, and they got to him.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Just chucked a tractor out of the plane. That's crazy. And I think he, like, dragging along with a rope or something and tried to hook him up. Like, what do you ripped his head off?
[00:08:28] Speaker A: Yeah, some crazy old stories. And just fishermen that were in trouble, like him spotting their boats and then dropping out. Like, messaged in the bottles, like, you're okay. We've seen you helps on the way.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: Really. Wow. He was a full eye in the sky, wasn't he?
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Yeah, he was.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: There wasn't much aviation going on here in the there.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: No, he was pretty mad.
He was good at what he did. Like, good flying planes. And apparently used to dive by all the great pickers and stuff, like, come within 2 meters.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Really? All the crew picking grapes, just hassling them out. Just fun.
[00:09:04] Speaker A: Just for fun. Yeah, just for laughs.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: I heard he did the same to surfers in the lineup. Yeah, and surfers just used to bomb him within 5 meters. And all those boys back in the day knew who it was and were probably telling him where to go. And he was just not much about.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: It, but he probably knew half the crew.
[00:09:25] Speaker B: I think Kev Merrifield, when we did a potty with him, I think he was talking about how Butch would just come in and just go fly, and they'd all duck and jump off their boards and go underwater as he comes 5 meters overhead. What a mad dog.
[00:09:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I think they were pretty good mates. Like, they used to hang out and have a few beers, a cup of tea, and that stuff. I think maybe, Kevin, we're like, hey, I think there's a surf break down here. What do you reckon? Could know, make a track or stuff like that. Apparently even, like, three bears. I think before it was three bears, it was called MGM GMS.
For some reason, Budge had a. He made an airstrip out the back of yelling up just for himself. And then apparently, that's how the track got found, because someone tried to get in there, and then they found the airstrip, and then that's part of the track. So that's pretty cool story, that.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Oh, I wonder where that is now. You'd think you'd still be able to sort of see it.
[00:10:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess maybe that would probably be, I don't know, coming in from yellow up way, maybe.
[00:10:24] Speaker B: It's pretty steep, though. Yeah, it's pretty rogue when you think about it. Like, is this guy just with his bulldozer just Willy nilly making tracks wherever the hell imagine it now. It'd be, fuck, you'd end up in jail, like, in that quickly. Just our national park. I mean, they weren't national parks, obviously, but most of those are now. And he's just out there just bulldozing around wherever he felt like making it.
[00:10:49] Speaker A: That's how he had a farm. Eventually, when he sold the farm, Willie Abrah, he bought some land, like Rosa Brookway and. Yeah, it's like all trees as forest. And apparently. So he made himself an airstrip, but apparently everyone was like, how are you getting a plane in there? All the trees? But he was so good at flying that he could just drop the thing in bang, land on this strip.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: What was he farming at, Willie Aber up there?
[00:11:24] Speaker A: Yes. My grandparents, they were like, beef, sheep. They were actually, like, before their time, like, all organic. They grew all their veggies and fruit.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Everything was just organic back then, naturally, anyway, wasn't it?
[00:11:37] Speaker A: Of course, they just were, like, self sufficient. They just didn't have to go anywhere.
Everything was just, like, grown.
Pretty amazing, really.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Pretty cool. And how was your family? How did you end up on that farm?
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Well, yeah, so my mom, my dad. So he's an old school Bumbury surfer, so he's obviously coming down with his mates, surfing. And I think back in the day, they used to have, like, big parties at yelling up haul and stuff, and maybe, I think they've hooked up that way.
My mom was only when I. Yeah, when I was born, she was only 19.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[00:12:21] Speaker A: Yeah, my dad was 24.
Yeah.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: We're only eleven minutes in to this podcast with one of Margaret Rivers, surfing royalty. And it's fast becoming the fact that, mate, you belong up this end. Sherry, what the fuck?
You don't need your passport stamp. How'd you end up down there? That's the biggest question I know, mate. You know, born and raised in the city of Busseldon.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: Really?
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Willie Everup still this side of the border. And then bears, tracks come up this way. Parents met it yelling up, hall, I'm just like, what's going on here? We're taking a serious sidestep here, mate. I don't know if you want to release this episode in Margaret River. You might be shunned down there.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: I might have to move, mate.
That's classic.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Yeah, right. So, yeah, grew up there and obviously it was a big property, so multiple dwellings.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: Yeah, we grew up on the farm, in another house on the property.
Yeah, we ended up moving to Busselton, I guess, when I was just going.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: To school, moving to buso.
Yeah, right.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: And we moved there and then.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: How old were you when you moved to buso? Roughly six five or guess. Yeah. Had you surfed by that stage yet?
[00:13:38] Speaker A: No, I still didn't surf. But my dad.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Your dad surf?
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Obviously surf. And I still have crazy childhood memories of like, I used to just be on the beach and they'd go surfing like the typical.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Your mum surfed too?
[00:13:52] Speaker A: No, my mum didn't surf. I think I always got dragged along surfing like on weekends or something. They'd all get in the car and first thing in the morning, like we do probably still to this day. Go check this spot. Oh, maybe let's go check this spot down bumpy road.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: That's how we ended up in your neck of the woods the other day doing that.
[00:14:13] Speaker A: So I remember just having these memories of just being like, all right, we're going surfing. And I'd just be on the beach and I'd just be like building sandcastles or digging holes, for sure, doing whatever. So I never learnt to surf, I guess, back then as a kid, was it not really what you did?
[00:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah, there was no softboards.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: That's kind of when they start, I guess. I didn't really start till I was maybe like eleven or twelve.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Right, so you headed into Buso for a few years? Few years.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: And then my parents split up about three years in and so we moved back to the.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:14:58] Speaker A: And then we were there for maybe a year and then I guess we ended up in Margaret river for a year or so. And then.
Yeah, ended up in we, my mom, I guess, got a rental and I was in a house with a bunch of young surfers. Everyone's like renting rooms and my mom's obviously just single mum at that stage and just trying to make ends meet.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: Yeah, right, yeah.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: So we're like, I got a brother and a sister, so there's the three of us. So we were like, yeah, just bang, perched up at prevale and house with surfers. So I guess that's how I sort of.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Is that where you first started surfing or did you have a sip there, mate, it's all good. Or did you sneak a couple of little surfs while you were back at the farm after Buso? Or did it not really happen until you got to prevail?
[00:15:55] Speaker A: I guess maybe when I got to prevale, I kind of just was like, I think I'm going to want to surf.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Just going to paddle out to that bombie out there.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I think there was an old single fin, cordially, like this, light blue, probably six, I don't knoW, six. Six. Cordially. One of my dad's old boards on the farm in one of the sheds. And I'm just like, grabbed it. I'm like, I'm going to try this surfing thing out. And Mum's like, yeah, took me down to the Mug river mouth and I remember just that first day, just jumping in and having a crack, trying to surf.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Just did three to the beach straight up, didn't you?
The competition machine was born right then and there.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: I actually do remember there was like one other kid out there. We're probably just surfing whitewashes. But I was like, I'm just going.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: To be better than that because, mate, for the listeners that don't know, Cheryl is an absolute competitive machine. He's been Margie's board, riders, state rounds, you name it. He's been smashing away for years and years and years doing these things. Still does them to this day. So Margaret River Classic and all of the above. And he's done quite well, had lots of them. That's probably why he keeps going back. If I did well, I'd probably keep going back so I could win free shit as well.
And mates for those that also don't know, he has been on the competitive scene. He's been Carissa Moore's coach for the Margaret River Pro for many years in a row and she's had victories there under the guidance of Cheryl. But we will delve into that later. But I thought I'd just chuck that in there just to give the people that don't know the insight how much you love competing. Okay, well, yes. Prevale, Margaret Rivermouth, that's where all the kids in Margie started, wasn't it?
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Back in the day. That's where we all learn to surf and I guess, yeah, growing up in prevale and getting on the board and then there wasn't many kids at surf, but there was the Tomos, they were down there, Paul and Neil and Adam Thompson. And then there was another kid, Ryan Thompson. He was like my next door neighbor.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: And they're already pretty good surfers. I was kind of like, oh, yeah, you're surfing. So let's be friends, let's be up, let's go surfing. And you know what surfing is lIke? It's like as a kid, once you.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: Start, you just rolling and it's funny, it sounds like there was just no intervention from dads at all in that era, was there? Compared to. Especially compared to now. But it sounds like you guys sort of just found it by yourself.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: I definitely did. My dad didn't. He never wanted to teach me how to surf.
I guess. The Tomos, they had their dad, Lindsay Thompson, who was. He was actually a really good surfer and competitive surfer. So he obviously got his boys into.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: Surfing, so he was more active in getting them to learn to surf. Yeah.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: And Ryan Thompson, his dad was Warren Thompson, who was a surfboard shaper. Perth. So he had obviously learnt to surf. And then I think his parents had split up as well and he'd moved down to prevale. And so he was like my next door neighbor and then. So we were kind of like sparring partners for a cool.
[00:19:10] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, very good. So, mates, first time you got that clean face with a bit of speed and a bit of feeling, no doubt. It was at the Rivermouth, was it?
[00:19:21] Speaker A: It was, mate. It was at the river mouth.
[00:19:22] Speaker B: Can you remember it?
[00:19:23] Speaker A: I do remember it.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: Give us a lowdown.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: I don't know. I must have been just battling away. It's not an easy place to learn to surf.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: No.
[00:19:34] Speaker A: The river mouth is even kind of tricky. It's like always big and powerful. It's normally a reform, but I do remember this one day, I just got this one and I just came out. I just come off the bottom, then I've just got this face and I've just done like a Rio.
[00:19:50] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: And I'm just like, Rio.
Just yelling it out.
The Tomos are out, I think I was like.
And they're like, what happened? Did you do an aerial? No, I just did a Rio. I was just so happy.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it just felt that good.
[00:20:09] Speaker A: Yeah, it was just the best feeling ever.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Because it is tricky. It's got like. I mean, obviously the river can be running and it has little rip bowls and stuff, doesn't it? And then it's quite a slamming shore break, really a lot of the time. And as you're saying, there's reforms.
[00:20:22] Speaker A: Well, back in the day, it was pretty much. It was definitely better. Back in the day, I swear, we used to surf it all the time and it was always a reform. So you'd always just paddle out in the rip, catch the wash and then surf the reform. Little right in the corner was always like our little go to spot.
[00:20:39] Speaker B: Do you reckon? Just more water coming out the river?
[00:20:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I reckon. Maybe just the shape of the beaches just over the years has kind of changed. I remember back in the day, there was the car park and then there was all these big dunes. And then the river sort of came out through the dunes. But you look at it now, it's kind of like a big flat beach, like a lot of sand. I don't know, maybe that's affected it, I'm not sure. Yeah, some people reckon that maybe farming and damning, damning, damning the rivers has sort of affected some of the surf breaks.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: Yeah, sure it has.
Mates, give us a couple more stories about your granddad there. Budge Gutter. He sounds like a bit of a character.
Mates, I don't know if you got anything there, but I remember hearing from an old Bumbury surfer that honeycombs was never called honeycombs. It was called Guthrie's. Yeah, probably would have.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Yeah, because that was all my family. The whole strip was like our farmland. My mum had a patch, my auntie had a patch of land there.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: And did he ever take you surfing in his tractor or anything like that? Down some tracks or was he sort of getting a bit older by that?
[00:21:54] Speaker A: Yeah, he never took me surfing like, but, yeah, so he was just old school farmer.
We actually. Pretty funny. He had this old car on the farm and he made this sled out of corrugated iron. He'd like flattened out the corrugated iron and tied this sled to the back of the car. And then me and my brother and sister, our cousins, we used to hop on this sled and he just like tow us around the paddock.
[00:22:22] Speaker B: That sounds safe. Yeah, there's bits of corrugated metal edges on your sled, man.
[00:22:28] Speaker A: It was just nuts. Would have been so dangerous. But it was so fun. We had so much fun growing up on the farm.
I had a motorbike just bang around like a little P 50 thing on the classic kid or I used to remember. That was lots of fun.
[00:22:45] Speaker B: And what happened to that farm.
[00:22:48] Speaker A: So my grandparents actually split up and they actually sold the farm maybe in the guess, I think even like maybe there was like a bit of a land swap with the Eastos or something at one stage where their winery was vineyards.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: It just got sold. And he bought another farm down in Rosebrook Way. And he passed away in his seventy s. I guess he had aneurysm.
My auntie has that property now.
[00:23:28] Speaker B: Okay, cool. Still in the family.
[00:23:30] Speaker A: That's good.
[00:23:32] Speaker B: Yeah, cool, mate. Okay, well, what about mate, first barrel? I mean, the first Rio sounded pretty exciting. Was. Everyone remembers their first tube, surely. First clean one that you came out of. I'm sure you pulled into lots of closeouts at the rivermouth.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it would have been the river mouth. I'd say I can't remember, but I'm sure it would have been the river mouth for sure.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Cool.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: Because it gets pretty, like, in wintertime. It does get pretty barrely there. Yeah, it actually used to get pretty good.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: When was the last time you surfed it?
[00:24:03] Speaker A: I haven't surfed. It hasn't? Yeah, not this year, probably. Last year, actually hasn't been good at.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: And who were some of the core lords that you were looking up to when you were cutting your teeth at the Rivermouth there? Apart from the Thompsons, who obviously had a year on you or whatever experience.
[00:24:22] Speaker A: But some good old locals I used to look up to, for sure. Just like the Margaret's guys. It was like Rick Gaff and the Atkinsons, Sean and Sol Atkinson, Ken McKenzie. Those guys used to hold it down pretty well.
[00:24:41] Speaker B: And what were your first thoughts when you were looking out towards Margie's main break and stuff in those early days? Can you remember?
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I do remember just sort of thinking, wow, that's pretty cool. Like, one day off, I'll give that a crack. But at that stage, I was like.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: I don't know, everyone was just going left out there at the time. I guess you were like, fuck that.
[00:25:05] Speaker A: It was a left hander.
[00:25:07] Speaker B: Were crew going right at all like back then? Must have.
[00:25:10] Speaker A: I guess it would have been a couple that were going right for sure. They have to be.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: But mainly it was mainly just everyone holding down the lefts.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Yeah, classic and mate. So what about when did you first start getting into competing and board riders and that was there a Maggie's board riders up and going in the late eighty s?
[00:25:32] Speaker A: Yeah, there was a board riders.
I think Lindsay and Billy Gibson, they had the board riders going. And I think maybe like, just surfing for a couple of years.
Yeah, maybe getting a bit better. And then Lindsay being my neighbors, like, you should try and do some contests.
I think maybe I would have done a few board riders back in the, um. I don't think there was no divisions back those an open. You want to join the board?
[00:26:05] Speaker B: So who was towing you up in those early days, Sharon? Can you remember? Is there anyone that just used to break your heart week after week?
[00:26:12] Speaker A: I can't remember, but I had a little buddy that we kind of like, were just the two best kind of guys at Rivermouth. So we would always just go in it together. And it was always like a bet. Highest place. Junior would get a prize. We'd try and just see who could go the furthest in the contest.
That was kind of our was all we were like. Yeah, well and truly the youngest kind of guys, I guess, back in those days.
[00:26:46] Speaker B: What about the Hardy clan? The Hardy brothers? Where did they fit in the picture? Were they sparring partners?
[00:26:52] Speaker A: They were in the mix, yeah, for sure. The Hardee's was pretty funny watching those guys grow up.
Yeah. Brett and Ryan, I think they're maybe about three or four years younger than me and Gene's a though. They were all bodybuarders back in those, just on the lids. They loved it. But they just so funny watching those kids.
They just spent all day at the river mouth. They get dropped off in the morning, they'd just be there all day.
[00:27:23] Speaker B: Free babysitter.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: Loved it.
[00:27:24] Speaker B: Yeah, classic. That's epic. All right, mate. Well, what sort of age were you when you spread your wings from Prevale and started driving around a bit? I mean, Prev does have a lot of waves within walking distance, obviously.
Some of them are pretty heavy, though. And your deepwater reefs and stuff, which are not ideal for a 13 year old. Well, these days probably, but back then, not so much, I guess. You had the boujee down the beach. Were you walking down there or as a young.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: Sure, yeah, I think once we got a little bit better and we sort of were keen to like, oh, let's just check out where other spots we kind of like. Yeah, discovered gas and Boujee. And even back then, I guess we're talking like late eighty s. That was still kind of like secret spots. And really the boys would kind of like keep it like a secret.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: Really? Yeah, because it was probably gravel track from there to track.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Yeah, the track was like a gravel.
Yeah, from, I guess where Narabup is now. That's where you drove in and you had to get down to grunters and then you had to get down on the beach at sewers there, and then up onto gas, then down onto Buji.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: Yeah, right. And you did that in the car back then or just walking, obviously.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: Well, obviously the first time I surfed Buji was, I think we were like, me and my little buddy, we found sewers and we're like, oh, wow, there's another beach break.
[00:29:00] Speaker B: Unreal.
[00:29:00] Speaker A: We were surfing there for a while and then we're like, what's around the corner? And then we're like, oh, gas. And then we were surfing gas.
And it's like no one really surfed gas back then.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: It was like crazy.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: Not even really regarded as like a decent wave.
[00:29:14] Speaker B: Far out, which is so insane because.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: Now it's like it's crazy.
[00:29:18] Speaker B: Yeah. It's, like, regarded as one of the best right hand tubes on the coast. And every time the Maggie's pro is on, or especially back when it was a Qs and all that mate gas was just like Kodak Reef. Almost wasn't. It's like this crazy tubing wave right there, and it's pretty special time. You got to grow up pretty amazing.
[00:29:40] Speaker A: Hey, I know.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: I'm trying. And it's spinning me out just going, oh, we found sewer bot. It's like you're adventuring now. It's just, like, privily. It's, like, on your doorstep. It's absolutely on a platter there for the taking if you totally want it. And you're finding it as this new discovery.
[00:29:57] Speaker A: What's around. There wasn't even a wave. Like, no one surface.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: No.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: Now it's like what it is now. And, yeah, Budgie was kind of pretty held down.
I guess back then, I was like, yeah, let's keep this a secret. I remember the first day me and my budy, we were like, oh, what's going on down there? There's people surfing down the beach. Let's go have a look. We went down there and we're like, oh, my God, this is insane. This is perfect. Like, perfect beach breaks.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: And we just did our thing and surfed with all the boys. They're like. Everyone's like, hey. And then we remember that night, there was, like, phone calls to our parents.
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Really?
[00:30:32] Speaker A: Who told the grommets about, oh, man. Apparently everyone's pissed off that you guys came down.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: Really? Oh, that's awesome.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: Yeah, that was pretty funny, but crazy. That was probably the end of the days, I guess after that, it was kind of, like, became open slather because.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: The older guys were driving all the way there, weren't they, back in the day?
[00:30:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I think so. Maybe. I think eventually there was a track.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: I remember even when I first went to gas, I was driving my Kingswood down onto the rocks at gas there, driving down and getting stuck down there. But you could have just dropped on the beach and driven straight up. You never got to take advantage of that driving up to budge.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: You must have for sure. Once I got my license, my first car was like an old king. But then I saved up and got, like, an old Land Rover just so I could drive to budgie. It was like the track. And then a few of my budies, like, older buddies, had four drives, and we'd get stuck on sewers and try and bog it. Get bogged. And it was always a mission.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: So you'd have to drop down a sewer. Still.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: You still had to drop down a sewer. Come down at grunters and you'd have to turn.
That was like the worst part.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: Grunters is a really steep hill for those that don't know.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: And then Sewers was like a really soft sand beach. So that was like the hard part. And then you had to get up. So you know how we Headland sewers up another super steep hill? So that was another mission. And then once you got onto Buji.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: It was kind of a bit flatter.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: Bit flatter.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: But still.
[00:32:08] Speaker A: Yeah, it's pretty funny. Like, pretty epic. Epic times.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it's amazing. I mean, just to think now how popular and well known those waves are. To think that it was this Mysto semi secret spot days, and whereas now.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: It'S just those days, everyone knows about it. Crazy.
[00:32:29] Speaker B: Had so many covers and photos and video parts and all sorts of stuff made down there. Who were those guys? Can you remember the old crusty locals who were dobbing on your parents and stuff? Can you remember who they were?
[00:32:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I know who they are.
[00:32:43] Speaker B: Come on, tell us. Who was it? Oh, come on. I think it's cool that they did it. It was a different era. You can't hold it against it.
[00:32:49] Speaker A: Well, I guess it's all those guys that were living in, like, they're all mainly guys from Perth, I guess they've just gone. They're servers and they've found prevale and they've bought a plot of land and raised a family.
[00:33:07] Speaker B: Was it Billy Gibson? Did Billy Gibson Dob on you? Did he bring up your name?
[00:33:14] Speaker A: Yeah, those guys.
All that generation would have known about Woodgie and grunted and all those. Cool.
[00:33:23] Speaker B: So, mate, with all those waves, literally within walking distance of Prev and obviously some crazy outer reefs, which I'm not sure when you ventured out there for the first time.
Let's go on that path. But I was going to say, when was the first time you started driving out of Prev? I mean, it must have been to go to Gracetown. Surely would have been.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: Yeah. I do remember the first time I got to surf Gravestown. I think it was the first time I surfed Huzz's. I was like, oh, my God.
[00:33:53] Speaker B: This way, it's onshore and it's perfect.
[00:33:56] Speaker A: You don't even have to push through the beach breaks or like the most perfect little spot.
And then, yeah, I guess those first couple of days, there was like the Gracetown crew that we sort of, like, hadn't even met yet because we were.
[00:34:12] Speaker B: Like, ten K's away.
Yeah. You must have been going to the same schools, though, eh? Yeah, I guess you were Margaret River Primary.
[00:34:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it would have been Margaret River Primary.
A lot of those kids were a little bit older, but there was the Jakoviches and the inglets and the Caddos and the Bremners. Those kids.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: Cool.
We all grew up together and became good friends and we'd get dropped off at huzzes in the wintertime and we would go surf and build a fire.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: In the cave, probably.
[00:34:53] Speaker A: Cave, yeah, we were in the cave. We're in the cave every winter.
We'd just be perched up in the cave.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Which, once again, for those listeners that don't know, the cave ended up collapsing, unfortunately, and took, was it, nine lives in the middle of a school surfing competition. And it's easily the biggest tragedy in surfing Australian history, I would say.
Have to, maybe worldwide. Yeah, pretty hectic. You guys just would have spent countless days in there, wouldn't you?
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Yeah, we just spent days and days in that cave. It was just like we all did. We'd all just meet up in the cave and surf and come in.
[00:35:45] Speaker B: You weren't at that competition when the cave came.
[00:35:48] Speaker A: Was actually. I do remember where I was. I was in Perth for like a state round. I think a lot of us get. We all sort of turned up. I think we turned up to the beach maybe in the morning and heard the news and. Yeah, it was shocking.
[00:36:03] Speaker B: Yeah, it was pretty gnarly. I still remember it. I was in Perth and remember it coming on the news. It was pretty hectic. I could only imagine how gnarly it would have been in a small community like this at the time, in probably 93 or something, wasn't it?
It's pretty insane. Hectic, mate. So going back to Prev, when was the first time you ventured out to the sacred grounds of Margaret River? Mainbreak? Can you remember that?
[00:36:32] Speaker A: Yeah, I do remember getting out there, so wouldn't have been much further on, like maybe twelve or 13. I used to get out and just sit on the shoulder of the left.
[00:36:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:42] Speaker A: We'd just sit there and take it all in slowly, just work our way into a little bit further.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:53] Speaker A: I remember the first year I got into competing, I sort of had a pretty good year. I had done some state rounds and done pretty good. And then the Mugger River Classic came along and I think back in those days, there was open division and the local division, that was two divisions.
So I put my hat in the ring for the local division and I remember the first day, it was just like one of them, just giant stormy Margaret's days.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: Seems to always happen at the classic, doesn't it?
[00:37:25] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely.
[00:37:26] Speaker B: The last, like three or five has just been big and onshore.
[00:37:32] Speaker A: I remember it was just huge and everyone was just like. I think, yeah, back in the day, the sponsors had a couple of buses, shepherds and provided the buses and everyone was just like perched up in the buses, judging and hanging out.
I actually made the final by just sitting on the shoulder and just catching three ways.
[00:37:55] Speaker B: They were counting three back then.
[00:37:57] Speaker A: They were counting three back then. So I just worked it out. I was like, if I catch three ways, I might get through and end up making the final. My first crack at the classics, which was pretty funny. Yeah, that was all the heavy locals are all in the event.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: Yeah, they're all sitting out the back trying to deal with victories.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: Yeah, they'll just victory C. Like get one, maybe get one wave or two A's. That was pretty funny.
[00:38:18] Speaker B: So that's where the competitive Nauson strategies first came to fruition there.
[00:38:25] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe it was, mate, if I.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Get three fours, that's going to be better than that guy's one seven.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:38:32] Speaker B: There it is. Is that what you tell Carissa Moore when she goes out there now or not quite? Yeah, just catch three, catch three. Sit down the end of the left, you'll be right.
[00:38:42] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: Classic, mate.
What about the outer reefs, just to the south there as two predominant ones that are just way further out or fair bit further out and a lot bigger, a lot scarier, heavier, I guess.
When was the first time you went out to one of those?
[00:39:04] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess maybe like mid teens I used would get out to the bombing and boat ramps. I remember having a couple of epic sessions with, like. I remember Damonisto, Mitch Thorson. Those two boys always be kind of like the only ones giving it a nudge back. Know. They'd always be out the bombing on the big days.
Yeah, I remember having a few epic sessions with those.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: So people weren't surfing it that much in those days. In those earlier days, yeah, I guess.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: A few of the crew, like Rob Canally. I remember having a few sessions with Rob getting out at the bombie and boat ramps was sort of definitely like surfed.
[00:39:52] Speaker B: Yeah, because you go there now some days, boat ramps, it's like twelve foot plus and there's like 30 people out. It's pretty hectic.
[00:40:00] Speaker A: Big wave surfing has just come in vogue these days. Yeah, boat ramps is big and good. It can get really crowded. Yeah.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Which is the last thing I need when I'm going out there and trying to test my limits on an inside ten footer. And you just got these whole bunch of heroes just steaming in on the 15 footers.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: I'm like, fuck, when boat ramps is big, hey, it's just a psycho wave.
[00:40:22] Speaker B: It's crazy.
[00:40:23] Speaker A: So much power and just.
[00:40:25] Speaker B: It's long, too.
[00:40:26] Speaker A: It's a long barreling, kind of powerful, huge wave.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
Definitely not for the faint hearted.
[00:40:34] Speaker A: And also the bombing. There's nothing like the bombing.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: Margaret's bombing is Damon east, next level. That's what Damon said. He said the only wave that he has ever found down here that he said has Hawaiian power.
[00:40:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:40:48] Speaker B: So something going on.
[00:40:49] Speaker A: That's a good call.
[00:40:52] Speaker B: So that's the heaviest wave down here, you reckon?
[00:40:55] Speaker A: I reckon, for sure. Most powerful. I've seen Damon have, like, a two wave hole down at the bombing and I really. Oh, my God.
[00:41:02] Speaker B: Really?
Paddling.
[00:41:05] Speaker A: Paddling, yeah.
Big day. Like Giant day.
[00:41:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Mate, what's the biggest wave you've ever surfed, you reckon? Would it be at one of those two places or would it be overseas somewhere? Hawaii or something?
[00:41:23] Speaker A: Yeah, probably be the bombie for sure. Yeah.
[00:41:26] Speaker B: Pretty big.
[00:41:28] Speaker A: It gets big.
[00:41:29] Speaker B: Gets real big.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Yeah. When it's really, really big, it actually hits, like, a ledge that you can kind of, like, sit on, which is kind of good.
Aside from the fact a lot of the times when it's big, it's kind of shifty. But when it gets really big, it's sort of like there's one little spot you can take off on. So at least once you work that out, it's doable for sure.
[00:41:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Right.
[00:41:54] Speaker A: But, yeah, I've surf big waves in Hawaii. I went to Hawai when I was 18.
[00:42:01] Speaker B: I did.
[00:42:01] Speaker A: Spent two months, did a season there and I surfed some big waves there, too. Sunset was probably the biggest. Bigger waves I'd surfed.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
Cool. Yeah. Sick, man.
Okay, well, where was the first surf trip that you went on?
[00:42:23] Speaker A: First surf trip?
[00:42:25] Speaker B: Probably to Trigg point for a state round, possibly, if that qualifies.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I think.
My parents have always had a house in Calbary, so we've always done Calbari trips. I've always liked going to Calbari.
[00:42:41] Speaker B: Yeah, that's pretty cool.
[00:42:44] Speaker A: My first plane trip was to nationals, I think when I was 14, maybe to Queensland. We went to Sunshine Coast.
[00:42:56] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:42:56] Speaker A: Did the Nationals there.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: Sweet.
[00:42:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:59] Speaker B: Is there anything that may or may not have happened after hours there on those trips with a bunch of young crew and no camera phones around. Any good stories that spring to that was.
[00:43:11] Speaker A: That was definitely an opener, that trip, for sure. Yeah, it was so sick, man. Aussie titles was like, it was all like one big. So you had your opens, your seniors, your juniors, all in one event, and the contest went for like two weeks and two weeks and. Yeah, there was lots of good times, lots of fun.
[00:43:34] Speaker B: Yeah, sick.
[00:43:34] Speaker A: Yeah, lots of funny stories, I guess.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: Well, come on, give us one.
[00:43:39] Speaker A: I can't even remember. Yeah, the older boys were up to.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: Up to no good and you're just looking on going, right? That's how we do it.
[00:43:51] Speaker A: Our team manager was a guy called Benton Moran from Perth.
[00:43:54] Speaker B: His name's popped up a few times.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a good surfer from Triggs and yeah, I remember seeing him, he was having like shots at the bar.
[00:44:03] Speaker B: And the flaming, flaming sand bookers or something.
[00:44:07] Speaker A: I was like, oKay, that's our coach.
[00:44:11] Speaker B: Because he was a bit of a wild child, was he? Back in the day he was. Or maybe not a wild child, but maybe like eccentric. I think I've heard of people.
[00:44:20] Speaker A: Yeah, he was probably a good character, actually.
[00:44:26] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know him personally, but definitely a few people are like, you should get that guy on, he'll be interesting.
[00:44:32] Speaker A: Yeah, he would be epic, for sure.
He was a good surfer and he did well on surfing nationally and. Yeah, I guess he was a good coach.
[00:44:43] Speaker B: Yeah, right. But he was just hungover, which was standard, that drain. That's how everyone did it back then, wasn't they? Yeah, just was standard mates, have you ever won an Aussie title or anything like that? What's the best you've placed?
[00:44:59] Speaker A: That was my first go, was that one? That was cadets. I got fifth, I think.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: So that was a pretty good start.
[00:45:08] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: It was pretty cool. It was like guys like Danny Wills and Chris Davidson and some younger. They were kind of aged group, so those guys were doing well in that event.
Yeah, that was probably my best go at it.
I had a few good results in my teens. I made like a couple of Australian teams. Like school teams.
[00:45:39] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
Cool.
[00:45:43] Speaker A: I did okay. I was kind of like one, maybe won a state round once.
[00:45:48] Speaker B: Have you ever been state champ?
[00:45:51] Speaker A: I have been in older divisions, older divisions, but I don't think I got.
[00:45:57] Speaker B: One as a junior, as an open or anything.
[00:46:00] Speaker A: I was always kind of in the know. I was sort of like 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th kind of guy. I was consistent consistent for sure, mate.
[00:46:10] Speaker B: You're still consistent. Now, what about Margie's classic? Have you won a division or two there, surely.
[00:46:16] Speaker A: I have won the local division.
I think maybe, I don't know, maybe four or five times.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: Oh, there you go. That's pretty solid.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: And I've had like a second, a third or fourth in the opens, so I've almost won a couple of times.
It's been a couple of classic battles.
[00:46:36] Speaker B: You know, our mate across the paddock there, Jeff north, has got his name on that trophy for the locals division.
[00:46:42] Speaker A: Has he really?
[00:46:43] Speaker B: Yeah, he's got the trophy at home. I've seen it was like 89 or something. North, he won the locals division and now I know you're not allowed to go in that unless you live in Margie's, right?
[00:46:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I do remember that.
You could be from yelling up and Margaret. I remember. I think that might have been a little bit before my time, but he.
[00:47:04] Speaker B: Snuck down there and took one home.
[00:47:06] Speaker A: Down and took it out.
[00:47:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
You guys are both on the Rusty team. You're still got a sponsorship going. Rusty of sorts. And no doubt your boys do too, I would imagine.
[00:47:17] Speaker A: Yeah. My oldest son, Cruz, he's sponsored by.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: Rusty and Northy.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: Junior team is Jeff's boys, Otis and Remy and Cruz.
[00:47:31] Speaker B: There you go. I thought Northy would be reminding you of that, like, every second time he hung out, but obviously not. He's keeping it tight lipped in case you take it off him.
[00:47:38] Speaker A: Disqualifying.
[00:47:40] Speaker B: Go cold case on him and like, nah, sorry, I've got to give that one back. Yeah.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: I can't believe that I actually didn't know that. That's probably where the rule change.
[00:47:48] Speaker B: No doubt.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: They're probably like, how's this?
[00:47:50] Speaker B: What happened? Someone from the Chardonnay end has come down and taken our trophy.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: They probably thought it's ever going to happen. And then like, okay, let's change that.
[00:48:00] Speaker B: Let's change that rules. Yeah. He went for Medina. Just made him change the rules.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: He must have.
[00:48:06] Speaker B: Classic.
[00:48:07] Speaker A: Bloody naughty.
[00:48:08] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, have a sip there, mate. Yeah. So over east was your first surf trip on a plane. Where did you go? Overseas for the first time.
[00:48:19] Speaker A: I reckon my first overseas trip would have been Bali. Bali for sure.
[00:48:25] Speaker B: Can you remember how that one went down and how started?
[00:48:28] Speaker A: It was pretty epic. It was a family holiday, probably like, maybe I was 16 or 17, I guess.
Yeah. I got to surf, like, big outside corner Ulawadu. That was pretty cool.
[00:48:42] Speaker B: Sick.
[00:48:42] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a good memory.
Yeah. I was one of my budies from Perth. He was there as well. So we were just like, doing the thing, riding bikes around Bali and hitting the Sari Club.
And the other joint was it.
[00:49:03] Speaker B: Can't remember the one. Peanuts.
The one with the big wave on the wall, whatever that was.
[00:49:11] Speaker A: Yeah, we're staying at Legion Padma there and heading up to Ulawadu every day.
[00:49:19] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:49:20] Speaker A: And that was cool.
[00:49:21] Speaker B: Your brother, is he younger or older?
[00:49:23] Speaker A: My brother's four years younger than me.
[00:49:25] Speaker B: Yeah. And he was surfing, too?
[00:49:26] Speaker A: Yeah, he was surfing, yeah, my brother's. He's a good. Yeah.
[00:49:29] Speaker B: So he was a bit of a sparring partner in Bali there or was he a bit young to be heading out to?
[00:49:35] Speaker A: Was. Yeah, he was probably not up to that stage by then. He was just surfing the beaches, but, yeah.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:49:43] Speaker A: Me and my buddy, we were going up there and I remember the first time we went up, some American guy was like, hey, where are you guys going? We're going to Uluadi. He's like, can I jump in? Yeah, sure, why not? Let's go. And then, yeah, I remember he came out, was like big outside corner. And then I remember someone was saying, oh, there's some guy, like, washed up against the cliff.
[00:50:06] Speaker B: Really? It's a guy that you gave a.
[00:50:08] Speaker A: Lift to and then end up a couple of hours later, this guy's rolled back. He's just like, being just punished.
[00:50:14] Speaker B: Wow. And he's just like, who are these young kids who have led me astray? What do you mean they jumped? Did you guys have a car?
No, he just followed you on the bike?
[00:50:24] Speaker A: We just caught a beam.
[00:50:25] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:50:26] Speaker A: Got you teed up a beamer and jumped in. He just sort of seen us jump their boards in the foyer and jumped in with us. It was pretty funny.
[00:50:34] Speaker B: Yeah. Cool.
[00:50:36] Speaker A: I think that's.
[00:50:38] Speaker B: Have you done a lot of Indo over the years?
[00:50:41] Speaker A: Yeah, so that was my first time, was.
First time overseas was Indo. And then after that it was like a bunch of up north trips.
And then. Yeah, I think maybe late ninety s. I went back to Indo, went to Lakey Peak.
[00:51:00] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:51:01] Speaker A: And just loved it, mate. Just loved.
[00:51:05] Speaker B: It's like, again and just perfect. Tropical. Maggie's main break is just the best.
[00:51:11] Speaker A: Place in the world. I just loved it.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:13] Speaker A: The peaks, epic wave periscopes.
I guess I've been going back ever since then. Every year I've done Indo.
[00:51:27] Speaker B: Just like a couple of weeks or longer trips. When you were younger, I guess at.
[00:51:32] Speaker A: Least a couple of. YeaH, a couple of weeks a year, sometimes two times, sometimes three times. A year? I'll go.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: Yeah, cool.
[00:51:38] Speaker A: Go have a little trip.
[00:51:41] Speaker B: Mate. How's your beer going there, Sherry?
[00:51:44] Speaker A: Probably go another one.
[00:51:46] Speaker B: Yeah. All right. We'll press pause, we'll grab some refreshments and we'll come back.
[00:51:51] Speaker A: Sounds good.
[00:51:58] Speaker B: All right. And we're back there, mates. Yeah, we were talking about Bali and stuff like that. You did mention up north there, so, yeah, you were lucky enough to be hitting Calbarry pretty early, courtesy of your parents'holiday house. When was the first time you ventured just that little bit further up the road, another 600, 800 km up the way and got into the juice up there. How did that go down?
[00:52:26] Speaker A: Yeah, good.
I think the first trip I did, a bit further up north would have been. Yeah, I would have been 17, maybe, I guess.
Yeah. Surfing the bluff, just hanging out, camping was just the best, man. The first time you go there and you just living that life. You know how it is.
[00:52:48] Speaker B: Simple life.
[00:52:49] Speaker A: The simple life where you just surf and you just eating food and you're.
[00:52:54] Speaker B: By the campfire, you're relaxed, waiting for the next surf.
[00:52:58] Speaker A: Really surf some more.
[00:52:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Who did you go there with the first time?
[00:53:02] Speaker A: The first time I went there, my dad took me. Oh, yeah, it was good. We were surfing the bluff, just getting some killer, like, killer days at the bluff.
[00:53:13] Speaker B: Sick.
[00:53:14] Speaker A: Just loving it. And then I think maybe the first real big swirl came up and we're like, right, let's go up the road. Up the road a bit. And it was like, okay, this is kind of. You're laying your eyes for the first time on Tombstones. It's like, holy moly, this is amazing. This is just a dream wave.
[00:53:37] Speaker B: And was your old boy a pretty competent surfer?
[00:53:41] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a good surfer. But I don't think that day he didn't come out. I think it was me and my brother. We're just like. We just jumped in at Toomey's. Toomey's. And I think it was. Yeah, it would have been like six to eight foot, solid and clean and firing. And I remember paddling out and I seen a couple of people I know and I saying hello and JUsT chatting. And then a few sets come through and I got a couple.
And you know how tombstones is like, those big swirls, the periods high, I guess. And it's like 30 minutes between sets. So I just was like, got a couple of good long lefts and then back to the spot and just sort. I could see there was a pack of guys sitting up a bit further.
[00:54:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:54:33] Speaker A: So I'm like, oh, okay, what's going on there?
And then I think the first proper bomb set came through and they all looked at it and left it. And I remember just going, what are you doing? This is the one. And I'm just swung and I'm going. And I'm probably, like, on that first kind of bubble there. And I remember just, like, digging into it and then going to stand up and just looking down and going, oh, my God. I'm just like, the things just dry, so I'm obviously in the wrong spot. And there's a reason why no one's.
[00:55:09] Speaker B: Gone that long because it was just one of those long period ones that drains so hard, can't get into it.
[00:55:15] Speaker A: Yeah. And I remember just pin dropping from the top, hitting the bottom of the reef, getting all cut up. Broke my board in three spots.
[00:55:24] Speaker B: Really? Yeah. This is in your first session up there?
[00:55:26] Speaker A: First session, got lit up. Absolutely. Smoked. Yeah.
[00:55:32] Speaker B: Claret.
[00:55:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Bleeding.
Swam in boards in pieces, urchins, the whole deal.
And I thought I was coming from the bluff. I'd like. I've got this. I thought I had the place dialed. I was, like, a little bit cocky, a little bit confident, and that place.
[00:55:54] Speaker B: Just taught me no way. And did you get out there again, that trip? Can you remember?
[00:56:00] Speaker A: Yeah, we had a few more days out there, and I kind of, like, treated it, learned my lesson and had some super fun surfs out there.
[00:56:07] Speaker B: Classic.
[00:56:08] Speaker A: Couldn't believe it.
[00:56:09] Speaker B: Is anyone stand out in your mind as a guru of the place in that first time you're up there that you're watching, can you remember?
[00:56:18] Speaker A: I can't remember, but I remember all the goofy footers were just, like, ruling it. Yeah, it's a goofy footage.
[00:56:28] Speaker B: Dreamwave, pig dog.
[00:56:29] Speaker A: I was like, even like, the bad goofy footers were like, getting, liKe, hell pits. Hell pits, yeah.
[00:56:36] Speaker B: Pig dogging wasn't on the same level.
[00:56:38] Speaker A: It's just tricky backside. I don't know, it's just so hard to. Pig dog and hard to. I guess it's hard to read, but the goofy footers would just be like, they could just pull that line and just travel.
[00:56:49] Speaker B: Negotiate the little step.
[00:56:50] Speaker A: Negotiate the steps. Bang. Little step. Readjust.
[00:56:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:56] Speaker A: So that was my first introduction to that place.
[00:56:59] Speaker B: Awesome. And plenty of time since then.
[00:57:02] Speaker A: I did a couple more after that. Yeah. Like, mainly would just go the bluff and stay at the bluff. And did Xmouth, Yardy Creek, Warra.
[00:57:12] Speaker B: Yeah, all of that.
[00:57:14] Speaker A: Those spots. Yeah, it's just wicked up there.
[00:57:18] Speaker B: You got to put in a bit of effort at those other spots, which makes it what it is, obviously, even the bluff. And that even though you don't need a boat to get to the waves, it's still the effort of camping and water and food supplies. And that's what makes it so enjoyable is I think that we all thrive on going up there and trying to get a good set up and going out into the inhospitable desert and launching boats and trying to find out a reefs and. Yeah, it's a pretty special place these days.
[00:57:52] Speaker A: I'm a bit of a comfort. Creature comfort.
A few of my budies hassle me a bit, like, does your car not go past Kilbarry? What's going on?
[00:58:02] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, you don't go all the way. You surely have taken your boys up to the bluff and that, have you?
[00:58:09] Speaker A: I haven't yet.
[00:58:10] Speaker B: Haven't you really?
[00:58:10] Speaker A: I'm due. I'm definitely due to do it.
[00:58:12] Speaker B: You would have for sure. So you just can't go past the barrier. It's just too easy.
[00:58:17] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I'm just set. It's like Calbarry. I love just being there and I love going to Indo as well. Yeah, we just do that for sure, mate.
[00:58:31] Speaker B: Work wise. You're a bricky, aren't you?
[00:58:34] Speaker A: I am a bricky, yeah.
[00:58:35] Speaker B: Are you still working much as a bricky?
[00:58:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I do, yeah, I still work as a bricky.
I do love it.
Just having been a tradie, living a mugger river is quite a good life and it's given me a good life. It's given me all I've had.
[00:58:54] Speaker B: And when did you start that? Like, early doors.
[00:58:59] Speaker A: So my stepdad was a bricklayer and when I left school, yeah, I was like. He was like, okay, grommet, you're coming with me.
[00:59:12] Speaker B: Yeah, you need to do something.
[00:59:13] Speaker A: You're doing this.
[00:59:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Right.
[00:59:14] Speaker A: I don't think at the start I wanted to do it, but.
[00:59:17] Speaker B: No, of course not.
[00:59:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it was tough for sure at the start, juggling like surfing and working and stuff like that. But I guess being my stepdad here, he was probably a little bit quite lenient on me. So I'd be away doing contests or doing trips and stuff, and then I could sort of come back and just go to work and just do that. And then I think once I finished my apprenticeship and I was a qualified tradesman, I sort of had some time off and just did the traveling and traveling and just cashies and bit of dull action and just living the life. Sure, yeah. Three or four years of getting through it and then did that. So that was cool.
[01:00:08] Speaker B: Yeah, cool. And, mate, did you ever have aspirations to go on the qualifying series or any of that sort of stuff back in those early days?
[01:00:17] Speaker A: I think I did, yeah, I did give it a crack for out of school and I did start an apprenticeship, but then I was kind of half dabbling in doing contests. I guess the next step up back in those days was kind of the ACC, that circuit. It was like an Australian circuit. So they'd have a bunch of events in New South Wales, Queensland, a couple in WA. So I did that for a couple of years when I could and went to Hawai and that was kind of the rite of passage once you left school, let's go to Hawai and try and make a name for yourself, I guess, and just do that kind of stuff. And I was sponsored by Rusty.
They were helping us out a little bit and I was trying to do the right thing by them as a sponsored athlete to try and repay them and do compete and stuff like that. But I don't think I did too well. I think that my best placings on the ACC was like, I made the top ten one year, so that was pretty good. I was kind of like the highest rated West Aussie one year, so that was probably my best go. And I used to do the state titles and would always end up Making the state team and did a few Australian titles. That was early twenty s. I guess I used to do that. Yeah.
[01:01:54] Speaker B: Sweet. And, mate, you mentioned Hawaii there. It was sort of popped up a couple of times, but let's delve into that. When was the first time you went to Hawaii and how did it come about?
[01:02:05] Speaker A: Yeah, so the first I went to Hawai was when I was 18.
That sort of came about. Just like I was doing a few contests.
I was also at that getting. I was doing Margaret Rivers sort of coming on the map a bit and I was getting teed up, especially with Rusty and a few photographers. I was sort of in that kind of mix where I was going on photo shoots and doing stuff for Rusty. Back in the day, they were doing the movies, liquid Last and R rated and all those kind of old school Rusty movies.
[01:02:46] Speaker B: I was sort of got little edits in them. Did you? Yeah.
[01:02:49] Speaker A: I was lucky to get invited. I was always get invited to go with those, you know, it was pretty cool. Get to surf with all the Rusty crew. There's like Rob Bain and Powell, Kalani, Rob Taylor, Knox.
[01:03:06] Speaker B: And was that around here or you went on trips with them as well?
[01:03:09] Speaker A: That was mainly just in Margaret's. Oh, yeah.
[01:03:13] Speaker B: Give us a couple of stories that may or may not have happened from some of those days there.
[01:03:19] Speaker A: I remember the first.
Might have been the first trip I got invited on was a Rusty one where I think they teed up a trip to the.
It felt something happened, it fell through, but they ended up in Marg's. And I was getting ready for school, and the team manager at the time for Rusty's rung me up and could you reckon Budgie'd be any good, or do you want to come down and surf with these boys? And it was like, yeah, it was Rob Bain, Shane Powell, Jai Gofton.
And Rusty back then was just sort of the team manager. He was actually the videographer as well.
[01:04:06] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[01:04:07] Speaker A: And they had Paul Sargent. He was a photographer. And, yeah, we end up going down surfing. We end up going down a budget up. And it was just pumping, cracking, epic, epic ways.
And I think that would have been liquid lust. You remember that movie, an old rusty movie?
[01:04:25] Speaker B: I don't remember. I'm usually pretty good with my movies, too.
[01:04:28] Speaker A: It's a classic old school rusty movie. And, yeah, there's a section at budget up, and it's pumping.
[01:04:36] Speaker B: And you got a couple of good ones there.
[01:04:38] Speaker A: Yeah, I got a couple of good ones. Yeah, a couple of waves in the movie.
[01:04:41] Speaker B: Awesome.
[01:04:42] Speaker A: I ended up getting a double page spread on Waves magazine from that trip.
[01:04:47] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[01:04:48] Speaker A: So that was kind of like my first photo in a magazine.
[01:04:52] Speaker B: And where was that photo?
[01:04:54] Speaker A: That was at Buji.
[01:04:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. Epic.
[01:04:57] Speaker A: Classic. Like, big green right hand barrel stand tall, like, hands by your side kind of deal gold.
[01:05:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:05] Speaker A: So that was exciting. And then that was kind of like the start of, like, I don't know. It's kind of like, oh, I can just do this. I don't even have to do contests. I can just get on some of these trips, try and get a good photo, and my sponsors are happy, and I'm happy. So, yeah, a lot of that stuff kind of started happening from then on. Our house sort of became like the house.
Everyone would stay with us, or the.
[01:05:39] Speaker B: Rusty team would come and stay with you.
[01:05:41] Speaker A: Yeah, we had, like, the Rusty team would come, stay, and then it kind of branched out to anyone and everyone. Like, any pro surfer would sort of just know of me and hit us up and say, can we stay? And we'd have a back room and we'd rent out at our. Yeah, yeah, we had, like, all the Hawaiian crew come through.
[01:06:01] Speaker B: Really?
[01:06:01] Speaker A: Yeah, it was classic. Like Ann Yinz Taylor Knox.
[01:06:05] Speaker B: Oh, really? All stayed at your house? Yeah.
[01:06:06] Speaker A: Sonny Garcia. Some would stay. They would be Sullivan.
[01:06:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Any good stories?
[01:06:16] Speaker A: All those momentum movies, like the Taylor Steele would come around and all those guys. Wow.
[01:06:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:06:22] Speaker A: So it was pretty cool.
[01:06:24] Speaker B: Yeah, that's it.
[01:06:24] Speaker A: And it was good for me because I'd sort of, like, be with them and I'd show them around.
They'd be like, where's good today? And I'd go, well, let's go here, let's go there. And I was happy because I was getting taken surfing. And then maybe I'd get a good photo out of it or some footage or whatever.
[01:06:45] Speaker B: Wow, that's unreal.
[01:06:46] Speaker A: And, yeah, it was like.
[01:06:48] Speaker B: It was sick. Any funny stories that popped your head with any of those big names there? Of anyone?
[01:06:57] Speaker A: It was pretty funny. Like, yeah, I remember one time I had this Californian guy.
He was staying with us, and he was like, oh, I've never seen a kangaroo. You reckon we'll see a kangaroo? I'm like, mate, you'll see a kangaroo, like, today, guaranteed. I remember it was like we jumped in the car, and I was taking him surfing at Gracetown. I think we're going to, like, lefties or somewhere. And this kangaroo just jumped out and bounding on the road by the side of the car. And he's just like this California socks pulled up clean. City slicker. Just like. Couldn't believe it. He was cracking up.
[01:07:42] Speaker B: Yeah, that's good.
[01:07:44] Speaker A: And we had some funny couple of funny incidents with being out in the middle of nowhere and sharks. Few shark stories.
[01:07:55] Speaker B: Give us one of them.
[01:07:56] Speaker A: I remember one day we were surfing Ellensbrook, and I was with a couple of American boys, and it was like, really good surf. And we've been out for a couple of hours, and then one of the local boys has come out, and then he's been attacked by a shark right in front of us.
[01:08:13] Speaker B: Oh, really? Which break was that?
[01:08:14] Speaker A: That was Ellensbrook. That was a main break. Or the slingshots.
[01:08:17] Speaker B: Oh, slingshots.
[01:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:08:19] Speaker B: Really? Yeah, right.
[01:08:23] Speaker A: It was weird because it wasn't like a huge shot. It was like a bronze walla, but it went in. It went in, and I seen it, and he saw it, and he's like, paddling towards me, and I'm like, seen the fin? I see the fin go down and then seen the fin come back up straight at him. And then he's like, put his legs up and I'm just seeing the thing just like, grab onto his leg, really. And then he's screaming for his life. And he's like, punched in the face. Like, punching in the head.
[01:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Right.
[01:08:55] Speaker A: And it's let go. And then we've all come to the shore and he's got some pretty deep punctuation teeth. Puncher marks. Yeah, he's like, blood spurting out of his knee.
[01:09:07] Speaker B: Oh, shit.
[01:09:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that was pretty crazy.
[01:09:11] Speaker B: I know it's always hard to say, but how big was that shark? Was it?
[01:09:14] Speaker A: I guess it would have been like six foot, maybe.
[01:09:18] Speaker B: So not that big, really. Not a big shark, but still angry enough.
[01:09:22] Speaker A: Yeah. And then the next day, I remember we surfed.
[01:09:25] Speaker B: How did you get him back to the car park and all that?
[01:09:29] Speaker A: We just got him in and just like. You all right, mate?
He was in shock. He was like, oh, man.
Spewing the waves look so good.
[01:09:38] Speaker B: Really? Is that what he said?
[01:09:40] Speaker A: Yeah, he was all bombed. Couldn't get to go surfing.
Dude, you need to go to hospital.
[01:09:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Could he walk or.
[01:09:48] Speaker A: He could. Yeah, he was.
Some deep wounds.
[01:09:51] Speaker B: Did you guys tie him up with leggies or any of that stuff?
[01:09:54] Speaker A: Yeah, we tied him up and we sent him on his way to hospital.
[01:09:58] Speaker B: Yeah. You made him drive it by himself?
[01:10:00] Speaker A: No, he was with his buddy, his budy. Drove him in. We were just, like, freaked out. I was freaked out, yeah, for ages, for sure.
[01:10:10] Speaker B: And what, were you about to say something the next day?
[01:10:13] Speaker A: The next day, I don't know.
Me and the same guy, this American guy, we were surfing the bombing.
[01:10:19] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[01:10:20] Speaker A: And then Mark's bombing, just the two of us. And then I'm just doing this cut back on this wave, and I just see this fin. It was a dolphin, but I just seen the fin and I just stopped turning and was like, shark waving my hands.
[01:10:38] Speaker B: The same Californian that was with you the day before, and he's sitting out.
[01:10:41] Speaker A: The back at Bobby by himself, heavy.
[01:10:44] Speaker B: In the middle of nowhere, freaking out.
[01:10:45] Speaker A: Luckily, I just remember seeing him put his head down and he was just, like, paddling for the reef.
[01:10:51] Speaker B: No shit.
[01:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:10:52] Speaker B: And, I mean, you're probably, what, 800 meters out to sea at that wave?
[01:10:56] Speaker A: Yeah, we're a long way out.
[01:10:57] Speaker B: Long way out. And then you paddle to the deadly inside reef section, trying to find some safety. Just get leggy snagged and beat the shit and drown instead. And did you paddle all the way back in from there?
[01:11:10] Speaker A: We saw the dolphins and then we were like, okay, we're fine, and went back out. No, I can't remember if we went back or not.
That was the moment I realized I was like, I'm pretty rattled about yesterday.
[01:11:24] Speaker B: No kidding. I'm surprised he even went out. YeAh, it's a pretty traumatic event seeing the jaws come out of the water like that, isn't it?
[01:11:32] Speaker A: Yeah, and we had lots of crazy stories of just surfing the box with pro surfers and stuff.
[01:11:43] Speaker B: Give us some of them. What pops into your.
[01:11:49] Speaker A: Yeah, we had like, Mark Fu come and stay with us. He died.
[01:11:52] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:11:53] Speaker A: Yeah, that was like.
[01:11:54] Speaker B: You've had some real legends, don't you?
[01:11:58] Speaker A: Was a. He was sponsored by Rusty. He come and stayed with us.
[01:12:02] Speaker B: Was Mark Fu Rusty as well, was he or.
[01:12:03] Speaker A: No, he wasn't Rusty, but Mark Fu, he had like a TV. He had like a surfing show in doing that, he was doing a section on MAga river and so he ended up coming and staying with us.
He was a good.
[01:12:25] Speaker B: Surf the. Did he surf the box with you?
[01:12:29] Speaker A: I can't remember if he did or not.
[01:12:31] Speaker B: But he would have been loving those bombies, wouldn't he? Yeah.
[01:12:35] Speaker A: He was loving it for sure.
[01:12:38] Speaker B: Right. And you said, was there a couple of shark stories? You sort of sounded like it was plural when you said before, it was just.
[01:12:46] Speaker A: That was just.
[01:12:47] Speaker B: That one's enough. But I thought I heard plural there.
[01:12:54] Speaker A: There was other minor sighting stuff, I guess, but nothing like that was pretty great.
[01:13:00] Speaker B: And that's obviously the worst shark and county you've had in your surfing life.
[01:13:04] Speaker A: Yeah, pretty much.
[01:13:06] Speaker B: For sure. Pretty bad.
[01:13:08] Speaker A: Like, there's been some bad ones here lately, I guess. But back then.
I don't know. Back then it was never really thought.
[01:13:16] Speaker B: About or a lot of people say that. Yeah. Just wasn't on their minds that.
Yeah. All right. And, mate, some of those Hawaiian. What about Andy Irons? You got any good Andy stories from those days when he's staying at your.
[01:13:33] Speaker A: Like just surfing with him was pretty amazing for. Yeah, yeah, he was pretty wild. I remember the boys had a big fight with him one day at the Nights Inn. That was pretty hilarious.
[01:13:45] Speaker B: Which boys?
[01:13:47] Speaker A: A bunch of local, say, locals, lads.
[01:13:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:13:51] Speaker A: They all just got in this crazy fight.
[01:13:53] Speaker B: Oh, a big punch up.
[01:13:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it was pretty funny.
[01:13:55] Speaker B: Really? Yeah, down the local pub.
How did he go and did he see the fight?
[01:14:01] Speaker A: I wasn't there, but I remember the stories about it was pretty.
[01:14:04] Speaker B: Was it over girls or does remember. What were reports of his fighting prowess? Like, could he hold his hands up?
Didn't get the details.
[01:14:15] Speaker A: No, I don't know. I think he got stitched up.
[01:14:20] Speaker B: So with all these pro surfers kicking around were they just bringing back bevies of women back to your house. There probably wasn't really that many chicks back there, in all honesty.
[01:14:31] Speaker A: But yeah, there wasn't any girls in mugger. Anyway.
[01:14:35] Speaker B: That's it.
Classic.
[01:14:38] Speaker A: Some funny times, for sure.
[01:14:39] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty cool. Wow, that's pretty lucky to have all that.
[01:14:43] Speaker A: So lucky just to have just the way it all turned out.
A lot of those guys I still keep in contact with to this day, we became really good friends.
A lot of the guys would come back every autumn. Boys love Hotel Pancho.
A good guy. Photographer, John Bildeback, he came back and stayed for like ten years. Yeah, right through the 90s. So that was always pretty cool, pretty special.
[01:15:12] Speaker B: And you mentioned Sonny Garcia there. Did he stay at your place too, or was he just sort of hanging around?
[01:15:17] Speaker A: Yeah, he didn't stay, but he was sort of like hanging out a few times.
I remember him.
He was like frothing out on that photo, that box photo you were talking about before.
He was tripping on that.
[01:15:32] Speaker B: We're definitely going to talk about that box photo. So for those that know Cheryl, everyone knows what photo we're talking about, and we will go into that story because I believe there's a good story behind it. It's a pretty iconic photo, but, yeah. So he saw that and wanted a piece of it, did he?
[01:15:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:15:47] Speaker B: Did he?
Yeah.
[01:15:49] Speaker A: I can't remember him actually being out there, but yeah, he must have for sure.
[01:15:53] Speaker B: Well, because what happened with the comp? But for a lot of years, it was sort of at the wrong time of year for the box, wasn't it? Is that right? In the early days, then it went to Autumn and it was sort of a good time. But I think in the early days.
[01:16:08] Speaker A: Yeah, a lot of the times, the comp.
[01:16:14] Speaker B: Wasn'T it?
[01:16:15] Speaker A: A lot of the guys cotton on. Like, if you come later in autumn, it was like box season.
[01:16:20] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
[01:16:22] Speaker A: A lot of those times when the crew was staying at my house was like. Yeah, was normally like, after the contest, they were more so like just free surfer guys or guys. Back in those days, it was a different game. It was all about just there was no digital cameras or anything like that. There was no Instagram. It was all surf magazines. And you'd get sent on a trip and you'd have a photographer. He would be like, paid by the magazine professional and he had a film camera. So you'd go and pick a nice sunny day in some nice ways and try and get a photo in a magazine. And that's how we all kind of were relevant with our sponsors and stuff like that. Some of us had like a little bit of, if we got a photo in a magazine, we'd get a little bit of money or that would just keep you going till the next year.
It was a pretty all kind of work back then. It was a bit different to it is now.
[01:17:25] Speaker B: Yeah, it would have been a lot more focused.
The goal and the process would have, as you say, you would have had to really have pick and choose it a bit. Whereas now it's just like, mate, we'll just go and take 1000 photos every day and you'll get something good. But back then film was expensive and you had to swim in to change your film.
[01:17:44] Speaker A: Dogs would have to go out the box, take a photo roll of film.
[01:17:49] Speaker B: Swim in, swim the 500 meters, get.
[01:17:51] Speaker A: Another roll, come back out. That's crazy.
[01:17:55] Speaker B: Somehow change that roll on the beach with wind and sand and water.
[01:18:02] Speaker A: A lot of the times you'd go out and there'd be like an issue with the film or something.
[01:18:06] Speaker B: For sure.
[01:18:07] Speaker A: Overexposed, underexposed, out of focus. Like you said, something happened when they were changing the camera.
[01:18:14] Speaker B: Hard work.
[01:18:15] Speaker A: It was a hard slog for sure. Yeah, but the guys that were doing it were like full, really good at it. I guess they were like the guys, you know what I mean? Nowadays anyone can just spend a bunch of money and get a good camera.
[01:18:28] Speaker B: And quick way with a 64 gig memory drive that takes 2000 photos.
[01:18:35] Speaker A: I remember you probably like when you were back in your filming days, hey, you probably had similar kind of stories where you Sort of.
[01:18:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I was still digital. I was right at the very start of digital. So I definitely had it easier still than film, for sure. At least got an hour's worth of footage on one take.
[01:18:54] Speaker A: How would you do it? Would you edit it up?
[01:18:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I just used to film it.
[01:18:58] Speaker A: And then you'd edit it.
[01:18:59] Speaker B: Yeah, film it. Then you'd go home and chop out all the bad stuff and just keep the good ones and log it. And then after a year or two, you'd try and stick it all together.
[01:19:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Classic.
[01:19:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Spent lots of time smoking, medicinal, focusing herbs to sit behind the computer for hours on end and dish together.
[01:19:19] Speaker A: Your movies would have been a slow process.
[01:19:21] Speaker B: It was, man, it's really slow. You got to watch everything about a thousand times.
And mine weren't even really that complicated.
Anyway, mate, I think we were trying to talk about the first time you got to Hawaii and we got totally sidetracked there and started talking Hawaiians in your backyard.
I think that's where we, obviously, because of you were saying how you had a sponsorship from Rusty and stuff like that.
Were there some Hawaiian guys staying in your house before you went to Hawai, or was that a bit more after?
[01:19:57] Speaker A: That was probably before. Yeah, I went to Hawai with a couple of guys over east, actually, so I think I flew to Queensland, I think, and I did like a couple of ACC comps and then the four of us, we all flew to Hawaii and we rented a house at sunset.
[01:20:17] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, sick.
[01:20:18] Speaker A: And, yeah, just know, just surfed and enjoyed being in Hawaii. It was pretty cool.
I guess back then Hawai was still pretty crowded and pretty gnarly. Like, you had to be pretty watch, you know, watch who you couldn't.
[01:20:42] Speaker B: 495, something like that, maybe.
[01:20:44] Speaker A: I think it was 90.
Yeah, it would have been 94. I remember, like, sitting on the beach watching Pipeline and watching Tom Carroll and Derek Ho and I remember that was the year Dave McCauley was in the.
[01:21:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:21:00] Speaker A: For a world title. Him and Gary Elkton.
Oh, man, it was so sick to watch and been on the beach watching that contest. It was insane. Kelly Slater was in it.
[01:21:11] Speaker B: Oh, was he? Or he would have been a young whippersnapper, wouldn't he?
[01:21:13] Speaker A: He was, he was a young whippersnapper. I think he might have been maybe a world champion by that stage, but, yeah, it's pretty cool watching him surf around the North Shore. Got to surf with him quite a few times.
[01:21:25] Speaker B: Did you?
[01:21:26] Speaker A: Yeah, around this place. It was pretty cool.
[01:21:29] Speaker B: Yeah, mate, you could almost be a doppelganger. You've both got the same haircut.
[01:21:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:21:34] Speaker B: You'd be quite friendly with him, I would imagine, after all your years at the pro.
[01:21:38] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[01:21:39] Speaker B: He's got a pretty good memory, doesn't he?
[01:21:40] Speaker A: Yeah, he has over the years, just working on the pro coaching and stuff. I got to know a lot of those guys pretty well, a lot of the guys that have been there forever, so, yeah, got to hang out and chat to him a little bit.
[01:21:54] Speaker B: Sidetrack here. What's Cheryl's opinion? Slater this next year, what's he going to do? What do you reckon he's going to do?
[01:22:02] Speaker A: I think he'll go around again for sure.
[01:22:05] Speaker B: You reckon? Whole lap if he can't.
[01:22:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I think he feels like he could get into the Olympics. Yeah, I think that's his focus at the moment.
[01:22:15] Speaker B: Yeah. What if he was to win pipe again? You reckon he'd chuck it in or not? He'd still just keep going.
[01:22:21] Speaker A: I don't know, I feel like, the world tour is a pretty good life.
[01:22:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:22:27] Speaker A: Why you still can still make heats and still be on that thing. Like, man, the level of surfing is so high. That man, if he's good enough to still make heats and deserves to be there, and he's still such a big draw, still such a big name in surfing, hey. Like a big draw card.
[01:22:43] Speaker B: Yeah. You always want to watch Slater Heat.
[01:22:45] Speaker A: You still want to watch him. Even last year, watching him at Margaret's, he was sick to watch.
[01:22:51] Speaker B: He is, yeah.
[01:22:54] Speaker A: I feel like he'll keep you, I think definitely next year, but I don't know, after that, I guess he's probably pretty banged up.
As you get older, you do get a bit banged up. So maybe.
[01:23:09] Speaker B: I've noticed on a couple of times over the Margie's pro, he looks so comfortable in the settings of a competition. I remember once I was up in one of the surface areas and there's like people everywhere. It is hustling and bustling and the excitement of the big tours in town. Mate, he was just having a snooze on the couch in the middle of everyone. Like it was a surface area, so it wasn't like the public. But, mate, there's no way anyone else could have had a snooze. He was having a little power nap, mate, he's obviously that comfortable in that competition zone that maybe it's like his.
[01:23:46] Speaker A: House, he's been doing it that long, I swear, it's just.
[01:23:50] Speaker B: No one's that comfortable.
[01:23:51] Speaker A: It's like his living room. It is a contest.
[01:23:53] Speaker B: That's what it was like. And I just remember looking, just going, I can't believe he's having a power nap in the middle of everyone. There's heats going on the big screen and he's just having a little rest and he looked relaxed.
[01:24:05] Speaker A: He just looks so relaxed and he's almost like a mini coach. He's like, guys will come. And he'd be like, yeah, you did good. You should have done this, I should have done that. And he's like, to the next guy, yeah, I've seen you here. He's just like, just like giving away little nuggets of gold. He's just like having some food and then he's got people coming at him from left, right and center and he just takes it in his stride.
It must be a pretty wild kind of existence. Existence. But he seems to be pretty comfortable.
[01:24:39] Speaker B: Does it really easy, doesn't he? People just want a piece of him constantly. I've seen it.
[01:24:45] Speaker A: I think he looks like he seems to, like he's worked out how to manage it. Like, he'll come in and he'll be there for a couple of hours. He's heat before, after, and then he's gone. You won't see him.
[01:24:57] Speaker B: He'll rock up, like, do everything and then get out of there.
[01:25:01] Speaker A: Gets out of there and then you'll see him in the surf somewhere, like somewhere random.
[01:25:05] Speaker B: Just paddle out.
[01:25:06] Speaker A: You're like, whoa, Kelly Slater's out of here.
[01:25:08] Speaker B: Everyone's on the phone, he's here, he's here. And everyone starts blocking. And by that stage, he's vanished off to the next.
[01:25:15] Speaker A: And I remember the first year he came to Margaret's, he was just such a huge name. I Remember he was just like.
It was just crazy how everyone was just losing out of him. And I remember I was at Southside just by myself. And then he must have just snuck down somewhere and jumped in, maybe at the Bain beach and paddled out and no one even knew he was out.
[01:25:39] Speaker B: South side, it was.
[01:25:41] Speaker A: Holy shit. Me and Slater are, like, surfing together.
[01:25:43] Speaker B: Were you guys bald at the time?
[01:25:45] Speaker A: No, we both had hair, man. This is like the early ninety s.
[01:25:50] Speaker B: That would have been pretty cool. And he surfed it with you for a bit?
[01:25:53] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[01:25:54] Speaker B: Sick. That would have been a trip.
[01:25:56] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a trip for sure.
[01:25:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Awesome.
[01:25:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:26:00] Speaker B: So Hawaii, we got sidetracked again. So. Yeah. You went there for the first time, mate. How was the. Obviously you knew a couple of people because they had stayed at your house and stuff, so maybe you got a little bit of. A little bit of a leg up or. Mate, it was pretty tough in the mid 90s when the black shorts and all that sort of stuff was going.
[01:26:22] Speaker A: Yeah, it was pretty gnarly. I remember I got sent in one day.
[01:26:25] Speaker B: Did you?
[01:26:26] Speaker A: Yeah, Velzi land. I got sent in. I just pulled out of this wave, like, too close to some guy.
[01:26:32] Speaker B: Really.
[01:26:32] Speaker A: He started swinging at me.
[01:26:34] Speaker B: I'm like, oh, really? Swinging?
[01:26:35] Speaker A: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Lucky. I was like, riding like a seven footer, like, really a long board, because he was like, couldn't reach me. But I was just like, okay, I'm going, I'm going.
[01:26:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And just didn't know who it was. To some local horn dude.
[01:26:49] Speaker A: The early 90s, like, the North Shore was kind of wild.
There was some rough drugs and this guy didn't. I was like, oh, this guy doesn't seem right.
[01:27:04] Speaker B: He doesn't seem stable.
[01:27:05] Speaker A: He seems a little bit unstable, for sure.
[01:27:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And he just started throwing haymakers throwing haymakers at me. And you're just a little kid from country town.
Half the time you're surfing with nobody except for your mate. And if it wasn't them, it's just some old guy that lives down the street and everyone's friendly to you. Next minute you got some big Hawaiian cross eyed and throwing punches at you. That's hectic. So you got the hell out of there.
[01:27:30] Speaker A: I did, mate.
[01:27:30] Speaker B: Did you run up the beach? Did you run?
[01:27:35] Speaker A: I don't know, but I remember my budy, Damon Hayes. He had to run away from. He was there from Rocky Point that same year and I think he got chased up the beach. That was pretty funny.
[01:27:46] Speaker B: Fully chased, real cracking up.
[01:27:49] Speaker A: You saw it? No, I heard about it when we were sort of like. Yeah, it was. Know there was a lot of Aussies there.
Paul Patterson was there and the quicksilver guys had a house at Rocky Point and if we wanted to go surf down there, we'd go hang out with them boys. And. Yeah, we dabbled in a bit of pipeline. Get up early and have a. Give that a crack. And a lot of big days out. Sunset, that was probably my favorite. I used to love sunset. It was kind of like. It kind of gave me sort of felt like it was similar.
Margaret's and boat ramps and stuff like that. And riding big awards.
[01:28:30] Speaker B: Unreal.
[01:28:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it's good times.
[01:28:31] Speaker B: And, mate, did you give us an insight to one of your most memorable sessions in Hawaii? How many trips did you do there?
[01:28:39] Speaker A: Firstly, I've only done two.
I went back in 2018.
[01:28:47] Speaker B: So you did one trip when you were 18 and then you didn't go back for like 25 years?
[01:28:52] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:28:53] Speaker B: Wow, that's really cool.
Oh, that's cool. So that first trip, then, as a young fella, what was your most memorable session? Sunset, from the sounds of it.
[01:29:04] Speaker A: Yeah, probably. I think so.
[01:29:06] Speaker B: Did you attempt.
[01:29:07] Speaker A: Or pipeline, maybe? Pipeline.
[01:29:08] Speaker B: You surf pipe? Did you?
[01:29:09] Speaker A: Yeah, a surf pipe.
[01:29:10] Speaker B: How was that?
[01:29:11] Speaker A: It was intimidating, man. It's a scary wave. Yeah, for sure.
[01:29:16] Speaker B: And the crowd would have been gnarly back then.
[01:29:18] Speaker A: Crowd was so crowded. We had some good. Yeah, you picked some windows and you'd have some good.
[01:29:29] Speaker B: You ever. You didn't see an Eddie go down, I'm assuming, if you only been there to watch.
[01:29:35] Speaker A: No, I never got to see the Eddie. Yeah, I did perch up and there was some couple of days at Wyoming. It was like proper giant, really, and I just sat there and watched.
[01:29:48] Speaker B: It was just like, weren't keen.
[01:29:51] Speaker A: I didn't really have a boar.
I probably should have had a crack in hindsight, but I just was liKe, keen to sit and watch.
[01:29:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Just happy to see it.
[01:30:01] Speaker A: Yeah. I never surf one mirror, but, yeah, it's pretty amazing.
It's pretty cool to watch, for sure.
[01:30:07] Speaker B: Oh, mate, I'd be stoked to sit there and watch it and see. It's the original, isn't it?
[01:30:11] Speaker A: It is, yeah, for sure.
[01:30:14] Speaker B: All right, mate. So, Hawaii. Where did. Indo. What other far flung places have you traveled for?
[01:30:23] Speaker A: I haven't done a heap of traveling, I guess. I've been to got. Yeah, surfed like Hosago are pretty.
I've had pretty good.
[01:30:33] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Nice.
[01:30:34] Speaker A: I've been to Fiji.
[01:30:36] Speaker B: Cloudy.
[01:30:38] Speaker A: I've been to cloudy. Haven't surfed it. I didn't surf it, but I surfed all the other spots. I didn't really get it on. It was kind of like not amazing.
Where else have I been? Just a lot of Indo, I guess.
Cool.
I used to love Lakey Peak and I used to love G Land. Used to love going there.
[01:31:04] Speaker B: Yeah, right. Yeah.
Fair enough. Some pretty memorable sessions at G Land over the years.
[01:31:10] Speaker A: Yeah, big speedies. Yeah, big speedies.
That's a really good wave. Have you been in gland?
[01:31:16] Speaker B: I've been there once, but it was shoulder season and sort of four to 5ft and it was super fun. Money, trees and that. But I never saw, like speedies in full cry. I honestly don't think I would be up for it anyway, on my backhand. But it still would be nice to see. Pretty special place.
[01:31:35] Speaker A: Cool spot, man. I've been super fortunate that I've been in a couple of contests at G Land.
[01:31:40] Speaker B: Oh, have you? What ones are they?
[01:31:41] Speaker A: I was in an invitational event both times, actually. They were like invitational events. Like one year I did well at the pro and then managed to like.
[01:31:53] Speaker B: Yeah, at the Margie's pro, the Maggie's pro. Oh, yeah.
[01:31:56] Speaker A: I did really well in that one year.
[01:31:58] Speaker B: That was when it was a QS equivalent.
[01:32:01] Speaker A: It was like the biggest Qs.
[01:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah, the 10,000.
[01:32:04] Speaker A: Yeah, the 10,000. Whatever it was I did. Dylan went well on that and then got invited to this event at Gland, which was so epic. It was like everything was laid out.
[01:32:16] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[01:32:18] Speaker A: Big G Land.
[01:32:19] Speaker B: That was after the Quickie, the two years of the Quicksilver Pro. Yeah.
[01:32:23] Speaker A: The Quicksilver Pro had finished up and then they were trying to get it back going again. So the government, the Indonesian government had put this event on. Oh, yeah. So it was all sponsored by the government.
[01:32:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:32:37] Speaker A: Okay. It was crazy. We had the military there and all these officials there. We had this huge, big, like, this huge, big banquet before and after ceremony.
[01:32:52] Speaker B: Yeah. Cool.
[01:32:53] Speaker A: Yeah, it was really cool. We had, like, jet skis, like, taking us out and it was just pumping. It was epic. Super good experience.
[01:33:02] Speaker B: So the Maggies pro, because it was a QS 10,000 for a really long time, which those that can't remember that was basically the equivalent of a Challenger series now or however you want to look at it, was the biggest qualifying. And it was like that for a fair while, wasn't it?
[01:33:18] Speaker A: It was, yeah. Back then it was kind of like, still. So it was basically like a challenger, but also like a CT as well. So all the CT would be in the event. They'd all be in it.
I could enter it from way back. There'd be like 200. 200 people in the event, remember?
[01:33:42] Speaker B: Yeah, it was crazy.
[01:33:43] Speaker A: And they'd have, like. It'd go for like nine days. Crazy.
[01:33:46] Speaker B: Yeah. And they'd just run flat out all.
[01:33:48] Speaker A: The way through and they just run every single day no matter what.
[01:33:52] Speaker B: What was that place that you got? How far did you make it through?
[01:33:55] Speaker A: I made it to the round before the quarters.
[01:33:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. So I was round of 16 or something like that.
[01:34:03] Speaker A: I ended up getting 17th, I guess.
[01:34:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:34:07] Speaker A: Cool overall. And I started at, like.
I started the back.
That was a wild experience because I didn't even enter the comp. So it was basically like a market. The first round was like a trials, you know what I mean? It'd be local people and a few up and coming juniors from Australia. And then you'd slowly get into. So everyone had a seed and there's like, people that had been on it for a while. Internationals. And you'd surf? Yeah, lots of heats, day after day after day. And I entered it. I think I surfed. Started on a Saturday and surfed all the way to like a Sunday.
[01:34:53] Speaker B: Yeah, because they finish on the weekend for sure.
[01:34:56] Speaker A: And I actually hadn't even entered, but I remember the day it was on. I came up this end of town. I came up to surf Windmills Way. I was just doing some photos with one of the photographers that was there for the contest. I think I was with a couple of Yaden and.
[01:35:18] Speaker B: Yep.
[01:35:19] Speaker A: And we'd spent the morning just taking. Doing photos. And then I guess in the afternoon we're like, let's go watch the boys surf their heats.
So, yeah, we went down and then there was a spot just came up. Someone didn't show up. And I was like, you should go in it. So I was like, I'll go in it. And then, yeah, it was like a wild ride. I end up just going on this wicked roll and just kept on making heats and then.
[01:35:45] Speaker B: Yeah, unreal.
[01:35:46] Speaker A: I was like, yeah, remember, just, like, getting through heats and then I was like, on the final weekend when it's like the proper, like, everyone's down there.
[01:35:58] Speaker B: Everyone comes town, everyone comes to town. And for the last weekend, the concert was on and the footy concerts on.
[01:36:05] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a wild experience.
[01:36:07] Speaker B: It's good. Yeah, it was cool. I was definitely frothing around, partying on in those days.
[01:36:12] Speaker A: Yeah, you would have been around for sure, mate.
[01:36:13] Speaker B: I was keen. Driving down and going to the. Mate, the parties. The concert was a big draw card.
[01:36:19] Speaker A: The concert was so good.
[01:36:20] Speaker B: Hey. Until someone threw a bottle at that dude's head, Ben Lee or whatever, and just got canceled and never came back. One drunken dick, one guy has just stopped, like, years and years of tradition of a huge mini big day out, concert style event on a football over, people camping out everywhere. It was finals, day of the comp. And you'd go out.
[01:36:44] Speaker A: Good.
[01:36:44] Speaker B: No, it was always the night before the final because the final would be on the Sunday and the concert was on the Saturday night.
[01:36:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what it was. Action. You'd never watch the final because you'd.
[01:36:53] Speaker B: Be too comps already finished. Then some dude turfs a bottle at the singer's head.
[01:36:59] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[01:36:59] Speaker B: And that's it. It's just never come back. Like, what are we, 15 years later? They've still never run another concert.
[01:37:05] Speaker A: Did you go to that one?
[01:37:06] Speaker B: I think I was, yeah.
I didn't see the bottle.
[01:37:10] Speaker A: They had pendulum play before Ben Lee.
[01:37:13] Speaker B: Pendulum is like heavy metal stuff.
[01:37:15] Speaker A: Mad doof. It's just like, everyone was just like, frenzied up, just fired up, fired up.
[01:37:21] Speaker B: Then they put on some folks singer, finish the folks here, and then someone's.
[01:37:26] Speaker A: Just going, no, get off.
[01:37:28] Speaker B: You're ruining my experience.
That's so heavy. And this has never come back. 15 years. Never has.
[01:37:35] Speaker A: It was always just the best one.
[01:37:36] Speaker B: It was sick. Yeah, it was so good.
[01:37:38] Speaker A: Big concert.
[01:37:39] Speaker B: That's classic, mates.
Let's stay on the Margaret River Pro, then coaching Carissa Moore.
I sort of know the answer now. After chatting to you. How did that happen? Obviously you've been connected through Rusty and all these pros and Hawaiians for so long. I'm assuming that's just sort of a natural evolution. But tell us about how she first approached you for some help.
[01:38:07] Speaker A: Yeah, so I guess when I first started coaching Carissa, she was only 19, so she was just a young lady. She was already world champion. And she'd had a bit of, like.
She had her dad helping her, sort of coaching, but she'd worked out that I think she initially in Hawaii, she had Pancho Sullivan helping her, like, coaching her. And then I think she did a couple of junior events, like trestles and stuff, and she'd get Shane Beshen helping her. So she kind of, like, always kind of worked out.
[01:38:45] Speaker B: The fuck did Shane Beshen teach her? Jesus, I don't know. Let's not mention the T word around Carissa. Far out. But anyway.
[01:38:54] Speaker A: Yes, but anyway, so she had a bit of a deal with her sponsor, Red Bull, that they'd provide her with a local coach or the surf spot, the contest spot. So anyway, they approached me to help her during the contest.
Yeah. So we met up and I sort of just trained her up before the event. Maybe three or four days of just training and just helping her out with what kind of waves to take and line up markers and just all the stuff at Margaret's that I'd learnt over my whole life of surfing that wave. I was just trying to teach her and help her. And, yeah, that first year, it was big Margaret's. So it was kind of like, you can imagine being a 19 year old surfing big Margaret's.
[01:39:49] Speaker B: Guess, at least she's from Hawaii, that would obviously. Sure.
[01:39:53] Speaker A: She definitely had a bit more like a small bit of comfort, but it was definitely reassuring having me. And then back in those, like, the first few years, we could Caddy.
We could caddy them so we could jump in the water with them, paddle out with them, and then you could sort of talk them through. And a lot of the times you can just see that they're nervous and you just got to be a calming kind of influence. Influence. And so I kind of worked out that's what she wanted of me.
I worked out how to keep her calm and just go, right, we've done the work, you know what to do. And then she could surf waves, then I could. Right, that's good. And then do this or do better or whatever.
So the first year, it all went really well and she won the event. First time. Yeah, I coached her. Yeah, she was happy.
[01:40:49] Speaker B: Did Red Bull give you a bonus for that one?
[01:40:51] Speaker A: I got a bonus, yeah. I was like, wow, this is cool.
[01:40:58] Speaker B: She's from Hawaii, so she's used to heavy water, but as much as everyone loves around the world, that doesn't really. Keyboard warriors rip on Margie's for being fat and all this sort of stuff. As a contest venue, man, it's powerful, it's shifty, it's open.
Know there's a lot going on. So even though she's comfortable from Hawaii, it packs a fucking wallop and it's tough. Always get cleaned up out there. No matter what, you're going to get cleaned up. If you want the good waves, you're going to get cleaned up for sure.
[01:41:27] Speaker A: Especially with the contest. The better waves, they break a little bit further in, so you've got to be prepared to maybe duck and weave a little bit.
The big sets break out, which all the old locals love. The big ones right out the back on the back bubble. But as far as a contest way, they're not really the ones you want. You want the six footers wall, the ones that you can really rip into and surf well on.
Finding those waves is kind of like, not as easy as you think it would be. It takes a bit of, like, there's a little trick to it and it's just like, just learning, I guess. Any wave, you got to learn how to learn how to read the wave. And Margaret, it's not an A class wave.
It can be if you're on the right waves.
I think for her, just having me there to help her find the better waves, I think she found some value in that and, yeah, it's been ten years now. I've been helping her.
[01:42:25] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:42:26] Speaker A: Yeah, she's 29 now.
[01:42:28] Speaker B: Okay. How many times has she won Margie's?
[01:42:30] Speaker A: She's won it three times.
[01:42:31] Speaker B: Three times.
[01:42:32] Speaker A: So she won it the first two times? First two, yeah. And then last Red Bull's like, who.
[01:42:37] Speaker B: Is this Cheryl guy? We need to just get him on tour full time.
[01:42:40] Speaker A: Yeah, it was pretty funny. I was just like, oh, this is cool.
[01:42:43] Speaker B: This is easy.
[01:42:44] Speaker A: First time coaching, I just coach world champions and they just win comps and this coaching thing's easy.
[01:42:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
Was there any ever talk of you, like, going to another comp with her or they were just like, no, you're.
[01:42:58] Speaker A: Just, no, not really. I never really bothered. I just was like, I know my spot.
I got a young family anyway. I was sort of like, no, I've always been a family first kind of guy anyway, so, yeah, I'm always like, fair enough. Do everything for my family. And that was always a good, fun job for me just to be there. And a lot of the times it's like training. So you sort of going out, Margaret's and helping. I'm helping her, training her, but then I'm just sitting out there with the best surfers in the world anyway.
[01:43:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:43:35] Speaker A: So maybe catch a couple of ways and then I'll just sit back and just watch. And it's like, for me, as a surf fan, I'm just like, this is epic. I'm watching everyone just surf. And, yeah, it's a great job.
[01:43:50] Speaker B: So the majority of your surf coaching you do from the water with her, obviously, before until comp time, but leading up to the comp, are you surfing with her every surf in the lineup?
[01:44:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:44:04] Speaker B: Watch and analyze. Or do you get videos and analyze?
[01:44:08] Speaker A: Not so much video.
It's not teaching her how to surf or it's just like little bits of advice. That turn looked good. Maybe that's a turn you should do. Or maybe let's just do two big turns. Don't try and connect the dots and just stuff that I can pick up and give her advice. So a lot of it's just training before the event and then we normally like to just get out before the comp starts and have a look at it as a coach. A lot of crew have coaches and they're just like, do this, do that. And it's like, well, have you been. You haven't even been out there. You don't even know how you're given advice and you haven't actually even surfed it yourself.
[01:44:54] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[01:44:55] Speaker A: I think that's sometimes it's kind of helpful, like, okay, yeah, I felt like this was going on out there. What did you think? And she's like, yeah, I felt that, too.
And then just before heats, it's like a little bit of prep before the heats and that's all it is, really?
[01:45:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Awesome. Yeah, it must be pretty damn fun, man, because I know that as much as you've been a competitive surfer and a frothing surfer yourself, no doubt you're a big surf fan as well to be involved with it at that level. And no doubt have your groms running around with VIP passes, getting the good views and free bacon and egg burgers and chalk milks. Like, it's all pretty exciting, isn't it?
[01:45:36] Speaker A: For sure, mate.
[01:45:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Epic, mate. Give us a quick insight to Carissa. You mentioned to me the other day that you are quite friendly. Obviously, ten years of coaching and tasted some success must leave a good taste in the mouth of the relationship, mate. Trestles, two years in a row. In all honesty, she was lucky to win that first one. If Tatiana had finished that last turn, she would have lost three in a row despite finishing on top three years in a.
You. Have you spoken to her since then? And if you have or haven't, how do you think she's taking all that scenario?
[01:46:15] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. We have spoken about it.
I feel like she's content of what she's done in surfing. She's five times world champ. She's Olympic champion and she's had an awesome career.
And she realizes that, that sHe's done a lot and results don't define her as.
Don't control her life as much. I know, like last year it was obviously heartbreaking for her to lose because she dominated the whole year and finished so far ahead of Stephanie and then Stephanie's.
She's the world champion. But I think this year maybe she had. She maybe reflected on that loss and then was just like, you know what?
It's more than that.
[01:47:07] Speaker B: Her legacy is bigger than that.
[01:47:09] Speaker A: But yeah, I think she feels like she's content no matter what.
[01:47:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess the reason I say it is because 99% of surf fans are just like, fuck trestles again for the final format. Everyone wants something different. And then Carissa has probably been the biggest victim of it so far. There could be more victims in inverted commas, victims on the men's side. If we keep going back there, everyone's just like, far out. Give Toledo the crown already. Can someone beat him?
Know. And there's been a few articles going. Will John John decide to give the tour the flick because they keep sending the world title to trestles? Will Carissa do the same after losing two in a row?
Do you think she would go, oh, man, fuck this trestle shit. I'm out. Or do you reckon she'd just keep pushing on?
[01:48:02] Speaker A: I don't know. I think she'd still be keen to give it a crack.
[01:48:10] Speaker B: She won one there still.
[01:48:11] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
I don't like it at all. I don't like how you could call a world champion on one day in a wave of no consequence whatsoever.
You look at Carissa like she's getting barreled at pipeline and she's doing heirs and she's pushing the sport forward.
She's doing everything you want a world champion to be doing.
She's winning, Margaret. She's winning the wave pool and she's winning a pipe. She's dominating all kinds of ways. Yeah, and the same with the guys. It's like, what happens? How would we feel if that's, you know, like one of our boys, then he gets smoked by Philip at Chelsea, we'd be like, well, that sucks, but.
[01:49:04] Speaker B: I don't like our listeners will have to turn off. I'll be whinging that hard for that long. If RobbO gets Jit there, you just won't hear the end of it. We so devote, mate. That's probably a good segue.
Give us an insight to your experience watching a young Jack Robinson. You would have seen him from absolute pip squeak coming.
[01:49:24] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah, he was just a tiny little fella just growing up in Margaret River. It was cool to watch his growth, for sure. We would always have fun little sessions together at the river mouth.
He'd always be one of the kids that come out Margaret's surf. He's always loved surfing out there. I guess that's where he's honed his skills in powerful waves.
[01:49:49] Speaker B: So he did a lot of time out at did, for sure.
[01:49:52] Speaker A: Yeah, he was always, like, just in the car park, hanging around and surfing.
[01:49:57] Speaker B: Because his dad's a pretty competent surfer.
[01:49:59] Speaker A: Yeah, his dad only kind of surfs Margaret.
[01:50:03] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[01:50:03] Speaker A: I guess that was like, a lot of days. He'd be like, okay, well, we're going to Margaret, so go down to Rivermouth or come out good.
[01:50:12] Speaker B: That paid off dividends, didn't it? His dad, Trev, must have been. If he just pretty much only surf Margaret river for a good chunk of his life, his dad, then, gee whizzy. Must have been pretty happy when his son won the world Tour event there, wouldn't he?
[01:50:26] Speaker A: I'm sure he would have been super pumped to see that, for sure.
[01:50:29] Speaker B: That's pretty cool. And was the writing always on the wall when you saw a little micro Jack Robbo? Was he just like a couple of notches above every other kid, or did it take a giant leap somewhere along his progression?
[01:50:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I felt so. For sure. I felt like he was definitely, like, special talent. I remember at some stage when he was maybe twelve or 13, I was just like, holy shit, this kid can serve. He's just naturally just. Yeah.
[01:51:01] Speaker B: And was that out at Margie's, you were sort of noticing that, or just.
[01:51:04] Speaker A: Mainly at the rivermouth? Yeah, we'd always go down, like, Avo. Like, surfs at Rivermouth. And he would have been out there all day. Like, he was just frothing little grumble. Yeah, I've been out for 6 hours and he's like, really? He's like, yeah, it's so good. But you just see how he just worked out how to do airs straight away. He was doing like, big Stratis. And air reverses and really alley oops and stuff like that.
And then I guess, yeah, he was only maybe 14 or 15, and then he was out the box and he was getting, like, proper piped out there as well. And it's like, holy shit, this kid's good.
[01:51:43] Speaker B: Do you still surf the box?
[01:51:46] Speaker A: I do a little bit, yeah. Not as much as I used to, but I'll go out there with.
The last few years, I've gone out there with my son a bit and just sort of, like, tried to give him some tips. And I've taken Carissa out there, surfed out there with her.
It's still like, gosh, it's the best wave down here.
It's just so good, mate. It's just epic.
[01:52:11] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:52:12] Speaker A: It's just like the most intense pit. It's just a thrill. Yeah.
[01:52:19] Speaker B: Unreal.
[01:52:20] Speaker A: Just that feeling of just, like, pulling in and backdooring that legend, getting spat out. It's pretty cool. But, yeah, I definitely don't hunt as much as I used to. I've just got a bit older game, surely. Yeah. I don't know. You just get a bit.
I've had my time and I'm happy just.
[01:52:40] Speaker B: Yeah, well, that's probably a good time to go into it. You have had your time.
Not saying that it's over, but you, from all reports, were one of the first people to really regularly surf the box. Is that fair to say?
[01:52:55] Speaker A: I guess, yeah. Back in the day, there was obviously older people that would surf it. But I guess just as I was getting older and the box was becoming more on the map, I was getting photos and magazines and there was videos of it starting to pop up and, like I touched on before, a lot of crew would come stay with us, and it was always definitely at the pointy end of their focus. It was like, yeah, we want to surf the box.
And I'll be like, okay, cool, I can take you out there.
So it was always, like, a lot of box sessions back in the day with crew and, yeah, lots of fun.
[01:53:36] Speaker B: What about your first time out at the box? Can you remember that? And who took you out?
[01:53:40] Speaker A: There would have been just all us little river mouth grommets just going, I think we just, like, one day wE're like, let's get out there and have it. Give it a crack. And we all just paddled out altogether, like maybe four or five of us. I remember we're all just, yeah, I don't know if it was. I can't remember if it was what sort of day it was. But I remember we all sort of got pretty licked and gave it a nudge. And then I think we just had the taste and how it is when you're a grommet, you just want to get barreled. You're just frothing and it's like, you get one out there and you're like, okay, let's give it another go.
[01:54:18] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty funny. Your parents probably just dropped you off at the rivermouth or something, or they didn't drop you off at all. You just walked down there and had no idea that their young kids are just paddling 500 meters out to sea to surf one of the most dangerous waves on the planet. Sharks and totally, hey, gnarly ledges, and they're just oblivious. And you young kids are just out there thinking, oh, yeah, it's a bit of fun these days. Your parents would know about the time their kid probably first surfs a box. Generally, it'd be a calculated decision because it's a very heavy weight. Like, it could kill you. I'm surprised no one has died out there. There must have been some pretty gnarly injuries out there. I mean, Jade Avies recently got really busted up out there. But, I mean, is there some gnarly injuries that you saw over time out there that you can remember?
[01:55:09] Speaker A: Yeah, I can remember a couple back in the day, for sure. I remember this one bloke from Cronulla, Rusty Moran. He was sponsored by Rusty. And he was on a trip and he'd cut his teeth in some big stuff, I think in Hawaii in Cronulla and stuff. And he came over and stayed with us. And his first surf out the box, he dislocated his shoulder just charging like a madman. And I remember, yeah, that was pretty gnarly, having to pull him in.
Pull him in all the way back to the beach. All the way back to the beach. He has a pretty funny story, actually. I remember we pulled him into the beach and we couldn't get his shoulder back in, so we were like, okay, you're going to have to go to hospital and we're going to try and get your shoulder back in. And, yeah, I've run out of fuel on the way to the hospital.
Then we've had to hitchhike.
[01:56:10] Speaker B: What?
[01:56:11] Speaker A: Yeah, and his shoulder is like, down, like, man, 100 mil from where it should be crazy. It's just fully out. And then we get to the hospital and it's like it's a Sunday or something. And the doctor back in the day, he's like, yeah, I'm just going to have lunch and I'll get there and come help you out.
He was about three or 4 hours really, with his shoulder out. Poor guy.
[01:56:41] Speaker B: Was he squealing the whole time?
[01:56:43] Speaker A: Yeah, he was in pain for sure. He was putting on a brave face, but, yeah, I don't think he's. Yeah, I think his shoulder has ever been the same. Hasn't been the same, mate.
[01:56:53] Speaker B: No.
Did he surf the box again? Did he ever come back?
[01:56:59] Speaker A: I don't think he ever did.
But he ended up just staying with us for his whole stay. Like he spent like two weeks just hanging out.
We went to Calbari and back on that trip.
[01:57:15] Speaker B: And he surfed in Calbary?
[01:57:17] Speaker A: No, he just came for the drive.
I think we put him on the camera a couple of times, did some video.
[01:57:26] Speaker B: What a good sport.
[01:57:29] Speaker A: He was a champion.
[01:57:30] Speaker B: He didn't chuck in the towel and going home. He just.
[01:57:32] Speaker A: Yeah, no, he hung out.
[01:57:33] Speaker B: Yeah, that's.
[01:57:35] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a couple other ones. I remember Tod Chesser, his first time. I remember we were out there and it was like raw, kind of big scary box. And we just got out and he let a few sets go.
And then this one came through and I remember him just going, what do you reckon, Cheryl? Is this a good one? I'm like, yeah, this is a good one. And then I remember him just paddling and then just like looking over and then having to just pin drop out of the lip. And then he saying that he broke his board and punched at his eardrum.
He was the same for him too. He was stuck in mugs for a week or so.
[01:58:16] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[01:58:17] Speaker A: Punched a deer drum. But, yeah, there's been a bunch of. Yeah, I don't know where's worse to.
[01:58:21] Speaker B: Fall out there on takeoff or at the end.
I mean, it's pretty short, I guess.
[01:58:27] Speaker A: But yeah, it's kind of like a lot of the times you do kind of get pushed into like once you get past the reef, it's like a bit of a deep spot. So you do get. Yeah, I think falling on takeoff is probably the worst. Yeah, right, yeah, for.
[01:58:41] Speaker B: Yep. Mates.
Anyone that knows Cheryl knows about that photo at the box. I remember when I was really young and coming down and staying at the Prev caravan park. It must have been looking back now, that photo must have been fresh. But there was a big photo up on the wall of someone in just the gnarliest pit at the box. It was a really big barrel.
It was on stubby holders. And in the shop there and all that sort of stuff. And, mate, it's in all honesty, probably still one of the best photos ever seen at the box.
No doubt you remember that wave.
And, mate, tell us about that session and what you remember of it.
[01:59:27] Speaker A: Yeah, that was an awesome day at the box. I still feel like that's one of the best days I've seen ever. It was just.
[01:59:36] Speaker B: So Ant man did send in a text and say, obviously ask about that photo because he was claiming it was the biggest box he's ever seen. That was makeable.
[01:59:44] Speaker A: Yeah, well, actually he. He was out there that day. He came out a bit.
Yeah. Him and Jake paddled out Muddy Chandler that day.
But yeah, that was just the most amazing day at the box.
It was a pretty funny story, actually, because.
[02:00:05] Speaker B: No, you're not allowed to tell funny stories here, mate. It's not why we're here.
[02:00:08] Speaker A: Okay, well, we won't tell that story.
[02:00:10] Speaker B: Funny stories, I love them, mate. Is it a one sip or a two sip story?
[02:00:15] Speaker A: It's probably have a sip.
[02:00:16] Speaker B: No, I was talking about you, mate.
[02:00:17] Speaker A: I'll have a sip.
[02:00:19] Speaker B: Wet the whistle, mate, because I know it's a good story.
[02:00:22] Speaker A: I've told this story before, but that's.
[02:00:25] Speaker B: Okay, you haven't told it and there's lots of people out there don't listen to other mediums, so not everyone would have heard it. So give us the full story, mate.
[02:00:35] Speaker A: Yeah, so I guess the story with Rusty Moran, that was the one I was just talking about. But we were on a trip for surfing life.
That was the first year I met JohN Bilderback.
[02:00:49] Speaker B: Photographer.
[02:00:50] Speaker A: Yeah, photographer.
So he was documenting like doing a story on Australia and whatever. And he came over and he was on Surfing life's dime and he was like, we need to get some photos. And so Rusty must have been involved, I guess. So Rusty was there and we had another mate, Adam Colitz from Perth. He was on the trip as well.
And so we end up, you know how it was back in the.
Know how you forecast, how we forecast surf was like, get the West Australian, look at the three little maps in the back of the weather and go, okay, we think it's going to be this or that. That was how we worked it out. You just see the highs coming in, whatever. So anyway, we've decided that we were going to go to Calbari and try and get some photos there. So we got this little high car and we've all jumped in this little cheapest higher car you can buy and fanged up during the all we drove all night. So we drove all night, got to Calbari first thing in the morning and it's cooking and we. Yeah, and we've had a good morning.
[02:02:00] Speaker B: So the West Australian synoptic charts, did you press?
[02:02:02] Speaker A: We were like, well, it's going to be onshore on Mugger River. Let's go to Calbari. And then we've surfed Calbari and then we've gone, had some lunch, I guess we've gone to the bakery and then bought the paper and then we're like.
[02:02:14] Speaker B: Matt, I think, could be good at home tomorrow just from looking at the paper.
[02:02:19] Speaker A: Yeah. We're like, jeez. And what should we do? I'm like, let's go home. Let's just drive back. So we drove all night, had one.
[02:02:28] Speaker B: Surf of Calbari, casual 9 hours drive.
[02:02:31] Speaker A: Just a casual ten hour drive.
And then we drove back that afternoon and got up and the plan was we're going to surf North Point. Oh, yeah, we think it's going to be good.
So we've got to got up in the morning, first light, paddled out North Point, had a wicked surf.
[02:02:49] Speaker B: Oh, did you?
[02:02:49] Speaker A: Yeah, it was cooking.
It was like eight to ten foot Westwell offshore.
North Point's good.
[02:02:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:02:58] Speaker A: And so we surfed till like mid morning and then driving back to my house in prevale and we're like, should we, let's go check the box. And then. So we've pulled up at the box and just like soon as we pulled up, just seen this giant eight foot thing, just spit and just looked perfect. And we're just like kind of like that day when the pro, like a couple of years ago when they were all at the box and it's just hitting it perfect. You know what I mean?
[02:03:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess just had minimal sleep already. Yeah, we just session, have a feed in between. Surely copped a feed in between sessions.
[02:03:39] Speaker A: I think we were on the way home to have a feed, but then.
[02:03:43] Speaker B: The box is too good.
[02:03:45] Speaker A: Yeah. What do you reckon? Should we have a go?
Let's just go have a man, me and Adam. So we've jumped in with John Builder back.
[02:03:55] Speaker B: We've paddled out and he swam out with a.
[02:03:58] Speaker A: He swam out with his. Yeah, with his water housing and then, yeah, first wave, Adam's gone and just got absolutely lit up.
[02:04:08] Speaker B: Really?
[02:04:08] Speaker A: Yeah, broke his board, first wave.
[02:04:10] Speaker B: Really?
[02:04:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:04:11] Speaker B: Wow. Because it's big.
[02:04:12] Speaker A: It's big.
And then, yeah, so then he's gone in and then I'm just sitting out there by myself, just me and John.
[02:04:20] Speaker B: Really?
[02:04:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I think I've just let a few go, had a look, and then I'm like, hang on, this is quite doable. It was so big that it was just hitting this spot so good that it was just sort of just letting you in just nicely and, yeah, I end up having probably the best surf of my life, I reckon. Really barrel after barrel, just one paddle back out, get another one.
[02:04:45] Speaker B: What were you getting chip shots from?
[02:04:47] Speaker A: I was getting chip shots into these. Like, I was just chipping in, easy takeoff, bottom turning, and then just pulling up into these giant cabins. Sick. So good.
[02:05:00] Speaker B: That particular photo, can you remember that specific wave? Was it more special than the others or did you just get a heap like that?
[02:05:07] Speaker A: I don't remember if that was. Yeah, I got a bunch of good waves, but I was just like, what do you reckon? Do you reckon you got any good photos? And he was just so like, yeah, I think there's a couple there. We got something. And then, yeah, right. Yeah, and then sure enough, because, I.
[02:05:31] Speaker B: Mean, he would have only had one roll of probably, like 36 shots or something right back, I think so, yeah.
[02:05:36] Speaker A: I think he just took, like a.
[02:05:37] Speaker B: Roll, one or two shots of each wave.
[02:05:39] Speaker A: And then I think it was probably pretty late, late in the morning. And then. Yeah, I remember Antman and Jake and Marty paddled out, but then by that stage, it was kind of getting a bit low and the tide was already moving. And I sort of stayed with them for a little bit and then went in.
[02:05:58] Speaker B: Classic when you came in. Obviously had to wait for the film to get developed and all that sort of stuff. What happened in the aftermath there? Did he just, like, ring you up from the other side of the world or wherever he was frothing out or how did it happen?
[02:06:13] Speaker A: I think he sent the film off. He was still there when he got the film back.
[02:06:19] Speaker B: Oh, he got it developed in.
[02:06:20] Speaker A: He got it developed and it came back in slides and. I don't know, he was, like, bit superstitious. He didn't want to show me. But he was like, are they any good, the photos? He's like, yeah, they're pretty good.
I was like, okay, must be some good ones. I don't even think he showed me.
[02:06:39] Speaker B: But really didn't even show you. How different is that to now where it's like, mate, you're looking at him in the car park and zooming in on him, and here you've just waited, like, four days, the best surf your life, and he's like, no, you can't look at them just in case they get damaged or something.
[02:06:56] Speaker A: So he hasn't even shown me. So I'm just like, okay, cool, whatever. And then I reckon, I think I've got a phone call, maybe. I can't remember how long after it was, but it was like the editor of Surfing Life going, hey, mate, got these photos of you and they're freaking all time.
We want to put it in as a double page and we want to do, like, an interview with you. And who are you? Who are you?
So I had, like, this double, like, they had a. It came out in a big kind of booklet, and it was in the metal double page brand. And then I had a little write up and I was pretty stoked. Did you get the COVID Yeah, so that came out. AnD Then I got another phone call after that came out, and I was like, oh, man, I couldn't believe I had, like, this double page spread.
And then they've called me up after and gone, hey, you know what?
This photo is so good. We're going to put on the COVID as well. Oh, really? Came out again on the COVID of the next issue. Of the next issue.
[02:08:00] Speaker B: Really? Yeah. Wow, the same shot.
[02:08:04] Speaker A: The same shot.
[02:08:05] Speaker B: Really?
[02:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:08:06] Speaker B: It must have been a good photo if they're prepared to run it twice.
[02:08:09] Speaker A: Yeah. I couldn't believe it was, like, just one of those.
[02:08:12] Speaker B: How many copies of that did you buy?
[02:08:14] Speaker A: I bought a bunch of copies. I was so happy, man. That was like, the pinnacle of, like, winning a contest and then getting a cover shot was, like, the best thing you could ever do in surfing. I was just like, wow, this is just amazing.
[02:08:28] Speaker B: How many copies have you got still? Did you squirrel them away in someone's life? Like, surely you would have got, man.
[02:08:35] Speaker A: If someone's got a copy out there.
[02:08:36] Speaker B: I wouldn't get out of here.
[02:08:38] Speaker A: You don't have a copy somewhere?
[02:08:39] Speaker B: Come on, you must have.
[02:08:43] Speaker A: I've got one where I cut out and put it in a frame. Yeah, of course I've got that still. Yeah, but I don't know if I've got a copy. Actual magazine copy, but.
[02:08:52] Speaker B: Unreal. Yeah. It's so iconic, man. Is it still up on the wall.
[02:08:56] Speaker A: At the Prev store or they've just taken it down?
[02:08:58] Speaker B: It was up there for, like, a good 20 years, wasn't it?
[02:09:02] Speaker A: 20 plus years for sure.
[02:09:04] Speaker B: Unreal. Are they still punching it out on their stubby holders?
[02:09:07] Speaker A: It's still on all their merch. They got stubby holders? Yeah, they got stubby holders and stuff.
[02:09:12] Speaker B: Does that mean do you still get, like, a free pie when you go in there because of that?
[02:09:16] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure, man. Oh, you do I ask?
[02:09:22] Speaker B: Surely.
[02:09:22] Speaker A: Come on, give me a free pie.
[02:09:24] Speaker B: You've had me face on your merch for 20 years. Surely you're getting discounts, are you actually, though?
No, back in the day you did.
[02:09:33] Speaker A: Back in the day, I definitely did.
[02:09:35] Speaker B: You were getting buffed by the local store. Pretty handy. I mean, chalk, milks and pies next to your home break.
[02:09:40] Speaker A: How good? Best street cred ever, mate.
[02:09:43] Speaker B: It's iConic. I remember I was pretty young when I first saw it. Because you were young, right. You were probably only 17 or 18.
[02:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I was only 18 years old.
[02:09:52] Speaker B: It would have been like 15 or 16. I remember seeing it and coming down from Perth and just going, holy crap, that's the box. We all knew about the box.
[02:10:01] Speaker A: It's so funny, over the years, just having so many different people just come up to me going, I've seen that photo in the store. Is that you?
[02:10:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:10:09] Speaker A: That's insane, mate.
[02:10:11] Speaker B: You must be pretty proud of that to get what you're possibly calling one of the best surfs of your life. To get it captured in.
[02:10:20] Speaker A: Yeah, to get it captured and kind of documented is unreal. In looking back on it, it's like, oh, that's pretty cool. That's a good piece of time. These days you take photos of everything, but back in those days, we didn't even take photos or anything.
[02:10:35] Speaker B: It's hard to get a photo. A good photo. Well done, mate.
[02:10:39] Speaker A: Cheers.
[02:10:41] Speaker B: It's an iconic photo.
[02:10:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:10:45] Speaker B: And, mate, did you obviously would have got a couple of little paychecks from that one and just boosted everything in general.
[02:10:51] Speaker A: Wouldn't definitely kick some goals for me after that, for sure. It kind of like set me off on my way.
[02:10:58] Speaker B: Is that what got you to Hawai, you reckon? Or were you sort of going anyway?
[02:11:02] Speaker A: I think that might have been.
I can't remember if that was before or after Hawaii, but. Yeah, but definitely after that. I kind of. Yeah, it was set me on my way with doing the photo thing, mainly kind of after that.
[02:11:18] Speaker B: And you were sponsored by Rusty at that time, weren't you?
[02:11:21] Speaker A: I was sponsored by Rusty at the time.
[02:11:23] Speaker B: That's probably why you're still sponsored now. They're still running that photo, aren't they?
Having team milking it, yeah. And they're like, oh, this guy sharer, he's been on the team for 31 years now.
Maybe we should drop him. And he's still got this photo. It just keeps popping up randomly here and there. Now let's give him another couple of years.
[02:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah, a couple more years.
[02:11:43] Speaker B: Come on.
[02:11:46] Speaker A: I actually got a good one out there a couple of years ago. Really? Like a sick photo. THat's probably like. I don't know. I feel like it's kind of on par with that, really. I haven't posted or anything.
[02:11:58] Speaker B: Haven't you? Who took that one?
[02:12:00] Speaker A: That was taken by Tom Purcell.
[02:12:04] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[02:12:05] Speaker A: Driftwood.
[02:12:05] Speaker B: Driftwood Photography. Yeah.
[02:12:07] Speaker A: It's a killer shot.
[02:12:08] Speaker B: Sick. Yeah. Has he done maybe that?
[02:12:11] Speaker A: Give me the update.
[02:12:12] Speaker B: Yeah. There you go. You need to send.
[02:12:14] Speaker A: Hey, guys, here's another 20 years for sure. I'm done.
[02:12:19] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely.
Yeah. Cool, man. All right, well, mate, let's have a little break there and we'll come back for the third installment.
[02:12:28] Speaker A: Too easy.
[02:12:34] Speaker B: It. All right. And we're back. Got ourselves a fresh cheeky monkey out of the fridge there and made a bit of room for some more.
We're talking about that epic box photo and a bit of box history there, mates. Maybe just before we leave the box, who's the best? Who's ever done it out there, you reckon?
Aside from that photo of you, obviously.
[02:13:02] Speaker A: I don't know.
[02:13:02] Speaker B: Obviously.
[02:13:03] Speaker A: Jack Robinson's pretty amazing out there.
[02:13:05] Speaker B: Is he taking it to another level, do you think, out there? Or. I mean, you guys were sort of getting as pitted as you could anyway, back in the day, weren't guess.
[02:13:14] Speaker A: Yeah, possibly. He's probably taken it to another level, I guess.
John Florence seems to be pretty comfortable out there and he put some hours in out there over the years.
[02:13:26] Speaker B: Loves it.
[02:13:27] Speaker A: Yeah. I love watching him out there.
[02:13:28] Speaker B: Do you?
[02:13:29] Speaker A: I do, yeah.
[02:13:30] Speaker B: How did Carissa like it out there?
[02:13:34] Speaker A: Yeah, she liked we. It wasn't like a huge day that we went out, but, yeah, she got a couple of sick ones.
I guess maybe down the track, the future of the event could be going that way, you know what I mean? Especially this year, watching a couple of girls out there.
[02:13:54] Speaker B: Sierra Kerr.
[02:13:55] Speaker A: Nudge. Yes. Sierra was out there. Katie Simmons was like, super impressive.
[02:13:59] Speaker B: Was she?
[02:14:00] Speaker A: Yeah. One day my son went out there and she was out there and I sat and filmed.
[02:14:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:14:07] Speaker A: But I sort of just was like, watching the whole session go down and I was like, holy smokes, who's this kid getting, like, proper nuggets? And it was, you know, she's only a young.
She was out there getting a guess. Yeah, man, that could be where the contest is, like, would be if they.
[02:14:33] Speaker B: Ever fucking go over and run it over there, but they just never seem to do it. I know it was epic this year. On one of the days and they just didn't pull the trigger.
[02:14:42] Speaker A: I feel like when Kieran Perot was like the commissioner, it was like he was just like a frothy mess. He'd go out and surf it and go, yeah, it's good. Let's go. Let's run it out there. And then he'd have.
I remember standing by him one day and he's had so much backlash. Like, he had Medina in his face. He had all the goofy footers. Like, what are you doing?
[02:15:05] Speaker B: Really?
[02:15:06] Speaker A: Margaret's is as good as it gets and you want to hold the contest over there.
[02:15:10] Speaker B: Really?
[02:15:10] Speaker A: He's like, mates.
[02:15:12] Speaker B: This is what people want to see.
[02:15:13] Speaker A: It's good over there. Let's go. Yeah, like, have it. Give it a crack.
[02:15:17] Speaker B: The goofies are just devoed.
[02:15:19] Speaker A: They're just devoed. It's just like, so hard. Backside.
[02:15:22] Speaker B: I guess it's understandable, but that's what the viewers want to see.
[02:15:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
So good to watch the best take on because those guys are so.
Their level is so good, they need to be challenged. I feel Margaret's is definitely a challenge. It may not be good to watch, but it's definitely challenging for them to be put in an open ocean wave.
[02:15:46] Speaker B: That'S powerful and try to make it.
[02:15:49] Speaker A: Look and make it look good.
And the boxes also another great challenge for them.
[02:15:58] Speaker B: Cool.
Mates, let's talk about. You were on Team Rusty, another prominent West Aussie from this area who was on Team Rusty back in the early two thousand s one, James Katz Catto. I'm sure you're friends with him all through those years and, mate, our listeners all have heard many of his stories. He did a six hour session with us in here one night.
[02:16:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I did listen to that. That was pretty classic.
[02:16:24] Speaker B: It was pretty funny, mate. We all know that he was definitely a wild man. There's no dancing around it and everyone knows it's common knowledge. Give us a couple of memories of cats in his heyday. When you're on Team Rusty with him.
[02:16:37] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Cats.
Yeah, I grew up with cats and he was a funny little grommet. I guess he's probably maybe three years younger than me, so I remember back in the day we'd be on, like, in the state team together and he was just like this cocky little brash little grummer. Like, I'm like, way younger than you guys and I'm already probably better than you guys.
He's gnarly.
[02:17:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Right.
[02:17:06] Speaker A: But then, yeah, I guess he was king of the pack for a little while, and then another kid came along by the name Taj Burrow. And then they kind of had a good rivalry. I remember. I remember them going like, I remember them going back and forth in a lot of events.
James would be one and then Taj would win one. And. Yeah, it was good, actually. Good watching those two kids grow up and push each other and probably helped each other out, I guess, back in the day.
[02:17:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
And any funny stuff you remember cats when he was especially late teens, early 20s, where he was really. Mate, Rusty wanted him to be a rebel, didn't they? They were encouraging him to pull fingers, smoke siggies. Like, they wanted that image from him, didn't they?
[02:17:53] Speaker A: Rock and roll. Yeah, I think he was Gracetown kid growing up in Gracetown. And then I felt like he was stuck in this little zone where he didn't know what to do, compete or free surf. And I think. I don't know how it ended up happening, but he moved to Perth, and then Rusty is from Perth and they're like, put him on the team. And then I think Katz has just been cats. And then they're just going, this is marketable. This is kind of like, yeah, it was pretty funny. We had a couple of funny times, like, just drinking and stuff.
[02:18:35] Speaker B: Him just being a menace.
[02:18:36] Speaker A: He's always good fun, for sure.
[02:18:39] Speaker B: You got any one particular crazy story that you remember seeing him doing? Because he did a lot of crazy stuff. Like anything that you want to share?
[02:18:47] Speaker A: No, but I always remember him just.
He'd always turn up to a contest and he'd be so hungover or still drunk. But I think he kind of felt like that's how he needed to be. Like, that was the only way that he's like, no, it worked for Me once.
[02:19:04] Speaker B: Now, this is the standard.
[02:19:06] Speaker A: This is how I got to roll. So it was always like, yeah, pretty impressive to team, like, surf really well.
[02:19:13] Speaker B: When, you know, he's just 1 hour.
[02:19:15] Speaker A: Sleep, probably like, yeah, an hour's sleep or something.
[02:19:19] Speaker B: Classic.
[02:19:20] Speaker A: So funny.
[02:19:21] Speaker B: It's cool, man.
What about you're still a fan of surfing? Do you watch lots of edits and check all the surfing websites? Are you into all of that sort of stuff?
[02:19:34] Speaker A: Yeah, I am, actually. I love it. I'm massive fan of surfing. Yeah, I just love watching good surfing. Yeah, for sure.
I feel like I don't have favorite surfers. I'm a fan of good stuff, I guess. Good surfing.
[02:19:51] Speaker B: So all through the ages, you couldn't pick out a couple of favorites, you reckon too many?
[02:19:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I know, it's weird, I don't really have favorites. I've just sort of never.
But there's so many good surfers in.
[02:20:05] Speaker B: The world and it's just surely on the competitive scene, no doubt you'd be watching as much comp surfing as you could on the. Yeah, for sure that time zones and work allows. Surely you're just 100% going for Jack Robbo. Is he your favorite in terms of barracking?
[02:20:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm psycho on the.
I love watching contest surfing, I guess just coming from my background and competing and stuff. Yeah, I just love it.
Love rooting for Jack, for sure. He's good to see a little kid growing up. And then we got Jacob Wilcox. He's in the mix too.
He's going to be on the world tour next year and it's going to be super cool to see two of the young groms from Margaret river on the big stage and also watching. Bronte's been also watching her rise has been epic as well.
[02:20:59] Speaker B: Bronte McCauley.
[02:21:00] Speaker A: Bronte McCauley.
[02:21:01] Speaker B: Well, I hope Jacob makes the cut, the mid year cut and gets onto Cloudbreak because. Far out. That'll really play strengths there, won't it?
[02:21:09] Speaker A: I know, because that's the next event after the cut.
[02:21:12] Speaker B: Hey, is it?
[02:21:13] Speaker A: Yeah, it is.
Yeah. I feel like Jacob's like he could definitely. I feel like he'd be like Jack once he's on. He's going to be a top ten guy.
I feel like that's where his level is for sure.
[02:21:29] Speaker B: Fantastic bias, patriotism. I love it, Cheryl. That's what we're all about fucking. Why wouldn't you be? Why wouldn't you be? But, I mean, it's not like he's going to be the super green rookie. Like he's been dancing around it for that long.
He'll still be a little bit of a rookie in terms of. It will actually be the first time he's on there. But you would hope that it's not that much of a shock because he's had a fair few wild cards and stuff.
[02:21:54] Speaker A: No, for sure.
He's had a few heats at Pipeline, so I feel like he can do some damage at Pipe. And then what's the next event? Sunset. So Sunset's very riveriish.
[02:22:10] Speaker B: You know what, Antman Paddo. Did Taj ever win Sunset? I'm not sure if he did, but between the Patterson brothers, I think there's at least three. I think Ant man won it twice. Has he really or Jake won it? They've definitely both won it. Maybe one of them's even won it a couple of times. So we've got some good history with WA and Sunset, so they can really play. And Chippo's done well there before when it was a qualifier.
[02:22:35] Speaker A: Well, yeah, he's almost qualified a couple of times at the Sunset event.
He's fine out there.
[02:22:42] Speaker B: Sick.
[02:22:42] Speaker A: And then I guess after that, it's Portugal, where he's done well there, too. He's had wild cards into that event. Rip curl event. And, yeah, I remember that one year he beat Slater. He was only, like, 18 or 19 years old, and he took down Slater at that.
Not Iris Super Tubos. Yes.
So he could be. Who knows, man? He could be in the mix, like home.
[02:23:11] Speaker B: It'd be cool to make him see the cart. That'd give him a bit of confidence, wouldn't it? And then into cloud break. Boom. Tahiti. Boom. Hold on a sec. He's making the final five, according to me and Sherry right here.
[02:23:21] Speaker A: Two West Aussies. Two West Aussies in the top five.
[02:23:23] Speaker B: Oh, now, it'd be sick. That would be sick. And then they got to fucking go to Trestles. But anyway, we won't harp on about that, mate.
What about favorite surf movie? I mean, I know these days it's a bit harder to pin down because you just get a barrage of constant video clips and stuff like that. But obviously, in our era, when movies were these big production and they sort of came around a bit rarer, what was the one that you just flogged to death back in the day?
[02:23:52] Speaker A: Yeah, I guess if we go on back to VHS days, I used to love just the Taylor steel stuff was always pretty good, wasn't it?
[02:24:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:24:01] Speaker A: Momentum used to flog those ones.
Yeah, these days. Jeez, there's so much stuff in there, you can't even watch good surfing.
[02:24:14] Speaker B: There's a new edit, like, every second day.
[02:24:16] Speaker A: Really?
It's just almost got to the stage where, I don't know. For me, it's like you almost prefer to watch live surfing person actually surfing. Whereas an edit is like, okay, well, some of these top guys can make an edit in one surf, and then some guys are making an edit, and they're putting two years into true. Some of the stuff that the local boys have done, like Jacob start like, he's a couple of his videos. Kale Walsh's couple of his ones have done pretty insanely good, especially when, you know, a lot of the spots they surf is.
Davies is. Yeah, he's always nice to watch any as a local surfer.
Some of his videos back in the day were always. Yeah, that was super sick, weren't they?
[02:25:07] Speaker B: Yeah, they were iconic. Yeah.
[02:25:08] Speaker A: How about yourself? What's your favorites?
[02:25:10] Speaker B: Oh, mate, I hit momentum real hard, but I think Bunyip dreaming was sons of fun, those, Jack. But once again, because you knew there was lots of down here and, I don't know, they were pretty special.
I really loved that green iguana. Yeah. Watch them so many times. So good.
And you'd go, oh, that was like, wherever, down that honeycomb's bank, your old grandpa's bank, off the rocks there at the Bunyip Dreaming Munger and Luke Keegan. And you look at it now and you're like, the waves were actually pretty shit, but it wasn't that good. It was like a little wobbly fat peel and rider, but it just. The way it was edited and it was like, so fun. And the music, and you're just like, mate, it was the best. And you'd always go to that beach hoping that that little right was peeling off, which it hardly ever does. And then you look back at it, you're like, jeez, it wasn't even that good, but you still wanted to surf it. And it still got your frothed and amped. And it was just something about the way they were put together, I think.
[02:26:16] Speaker A: Totally.
[02:26:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty cool.
[02:26:18] Speaker A: Remember that movie the Sons of Fun where they're like the starting? It's like Shane Dorian and Russ Williams out, like, in Bali. I think it was at Balian or something. It's like little rippable rites and you just. Oh, my God. You just get so frothed up to go surfing. It's cool.
[02:26:34] Speaker B: Yeah, they're good. Yeah. All right, mate. Now on to. We'll round it out with a couple of my favorite questions that I asked everyone.
Mate, give us your worst surf trip ever.
I'm an optimist, I'm not a pessimist. But for some reason, I always find the worst surf stories are better than the best surf trip stories.
[02:26:59] Speaker A: Yeah. Wow. Surf trip.
[02:27:01] Speaker B: Worst surf trip. Have you got anything that jumps off the page that got skunked or shit went wrong or lost passports?
[02:27:10] Speaker A: I don't know.
I remember sitting at the bluff one year and it's just flat. I'm just stuck in it. I'm stuck in a tent. Stinking hot.
That was pretty next level. Torturous.
[02:27:23] Speaker B: Extended flat spell.
[02:27:25] Speaker A: Extended flat spell? Yeah.
Gosh, there's got to be something that's been pretty bad.
[02:27:33] Speaker B: What about all your Indo runs. Nothing's ever gone wrong on your Indo runs? No motorbike crashes or getting robbed or any of that sort of stuff?
[02:27:42] Speaker A: Definitely had a few motorbike crashes, that's for sure.
[02:27:45] Speaker B: Nothing too serious.
[02:27:46] Speaker A: Nothing too serious. Just a bit of skin off here and there, but, yeah, it's always part of it. And a bit of bark off here and there.
Gosh, I don't know, mate. I don't know.
[02:27:58] Speaker B: That's good. Sounds like you've been pretty lucky.
[02:28:00] Speaker A: I guess there's been times where it's just been. No ways, I guess that's always.
[02:28:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that is what it is.
[02:28:05] Speaker A: But always been pretty lucky, I guess, with, like, fair call.
[02:28:09] Speaker B: Well, sounds like you've had more.
You've had more good trips and bad trips. So give us your best surf trip ever then.
[02:28:17] Speaker A: Best surf trip?
Yeah, I guess.
I don't know. Just recentLy, the last maybe ten years, I've always just taken the family to Karamas. That's been my new kind of love spot. Love to go surf.
[02:28:41] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[02:28:42] Speaker A: So, yeah, I guess just the family trips to Karamas has always been staying.
[02:28:48] Speaker B: On the beach there.
[02:28:48] Speaker A: Yeah, that's kind of the first thing comes to mind. Just that get up early, go surfing, and then come in and have breakfast with the family and then surf again with my kids. And then lunch by the pool and then maybe another surf niavo.
That kind of stuff.
[02:29:08] Speaker B: Sounds pretty good.
[02:29:08] Speaker A: Yeah. Like when you're just sort of with your family and with your kids, it's pretty epic.
[02:29:15] Speaker B: And, yeah, you get good waves as well.
[02:29:16] Speaker A: And you got good waves.
[02:29:19] Speaker B: You're pretty handy in the surf. But how is the crowd at Karamus? Is it, like, unbearable or.
[02:29:25] Speaker A: It's crowded, man. Yeah, for sure. I guess you keep getting super busy, but, yeah, you learn to manage the crowd and then you can sort of pick your moments and pick your times. And then there's days when it's maybe the wind's not so good or this and that. You can get your uncrowded fix as well. You definitely get a lot of surf time surfing there. So that's what I like. I like to be just surfing a lot.
[02:29:52] Speaker B: You do?
[02:29:52] Speaker A: Catching a lot of waves on my water.
I just like catching lots of waves. Yeah.
[02:29:57] Speaker B: Good.
[02:29:57] Speaker A: Nothing wrong. It doesn't have to be a good wave. It just has to be a way.
[02:30:00] Speaker B: As long as you can do some Rio on it and you're all good. Sick. All right, mate. What about this has got to be one of my favorites. Worst wipeout ever.
[02:30:12] Speaker A: Worst wipeout I've had a lot of those, too, I guess.
[02:30:16] Speaker B: Yeah, give us a couple.
[02:30:17] Speaker A: There's been some good ones at the box, I guess.
[02:30:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:30:22] Speaker A: Probably the worst one was the one I did at Margaret's. It was, like, 2017.
I'd just come back from rotnest.
I'd won a state title. I was super pumped.
I was back to work on a Monday, and the ways are firing. It was, like, high. Remember? It was like, super high period. Big day. And I was like, all right. And I was like, okay, I got school pickup 320.
I got to do some work. I'm like, I got to get a couple.
[02:31:01] Speaker B: I got to get a sneak a.
[02:31:02] Speaker A: Little surf in some stage today. Anyway. Yeah, I end up knocking off work early, and I was like, right, I'm going to Margaret's. Going to punch out a quick surf and then go pick the kids up.
And then I remember it was pumping. It was big pumping. Not many people out, maybe four or five out. And I was like, okay, I haven't got much time, so I'm kind of rushing, and then, like, try to punch it out for the right, which I always do. And I didn't even get out for the right. Got licked, washed in, came around to the left, paddled out. And then I've gotten to my little zone. I like to surf the rights at Margaret's always. And I like to hunt the ones that break a little bit further in, pushed in a little bit, and then ones come through, and I've kind of, like, missed it. And I was like, damn. I don't know. Maybe I was just in a bit of a bad frame of mind where I was kind of like, damn, I should have gone that one. I got to get a bit deeper next time. So then the next time, next opportunity I had, I've pushed a bit deeper, and then I'm, like, right on the apex of the wave. And then I remember just paddling and then standing up, and there's just so much power because of the period was so high. Just airdropped and then landed, and I fell, and then I've just got wiped out. And then I remember my shoulder just getting yanked so hard, and I'd, like, bang, dislocated my shoulder and at the same time, all over again, broke my leg rope at the same time.
[02:32:32] Speaker B: No way.
[02:32:33] Speaker A: And I was just come up, I've got no board, and my shoulder is just completely, like, out, dislocated. And I felt like it was just like I couldn't even swim. I was, like, freaking out because I knew, like, a guy drowned the same way at the bombing a couple of years before.
[02:32:52] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[02:32:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Dislocated his shoulder and drowned out there.
[02:32:55] Speaker B: Drowned and died.
[02:32:56] Speaker A: And who could see why? It was a local kite surfer guy, I think.
[02:33:02] Speaker B: I remember hearing about that.
[02:33:03] Speaker A: Yeah, you would have heard about it.
[02:33:04] Speaker B: I thought it was a windsurfer or something.
[02:33:07] Speaker A: Maybe he was a windsurfer.
[02:33:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I could Be wrong.
[02:33:09] Speaker A: I think he might have been a windsurfer.
[02:33:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Either way, a sail involved. Yeah, right. And he drowned and died.
[02:33:16] Speaker A: I was like, oh, shit, I'm in trouble here.
And I was like, how am I going to get in? And then luckily, I don't know how, but my board had popped up, maybe, no way. 20 meters away. And I was like, okay, I've got one chance to get to my board before another wave comes. And I'm just, like, one handed, dragging my arm, just going, I got to get to my board. I got to get to my board. And I got to it so lucky, because I felt like I was pretty scared. I was like, man, this is heavy. Yeah, there's like four guys, like, way out.
[02:33:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Because I couldn't even inside, I'm just.
[02:33:50] Speaker A: Like, in the spot by myself.
So that was kind of heavy. And then I kind of got into a belly board or whitewash into the keyhole. And then there's so much period. And so much water rushing out. I couldn't even one handed paddle my board to the keyhole. I was like, getting really out to the sea. And then I'm like, I can't even get in. Wow. And then one of my buddy, like, one of my buddies is like, paddling out, but he's like, way. You know how, like, Margaret's like, but it's big. It sweeps you out so wide. And I'm just yelling, help.
[02:34:26] Speaker B: Us. No way.
[02:34:28] Speaker A: And then it was just weird because that morning I had a call from another mate going, was it to do with something else? And he's like, yeah, he's going to call you. I said, you're going to call him. So he's thinking it's about some other completely. He thinks I'm just waving at him, like, hey, I need to talk to you about something. Because he's like, yeah, I'll call you later. And just kept paddling. And then I was like, oh, my God. Yeah, right?
Anyway, I end up getting in.
[02:34:56] Speaker B: So he didn't help you?
[02:34:57] Speaker A: He didn't help me, but then I was like, no.
And then I've just managed to get myself in at fraggles down the way a bit got myself in and then.
[02:35:10] Speaker B: Yeah, because, I mean, even holding on in that whitewater, I came in on like, a four footer today up this end, and just seemed like the white. I was laying on the Whitewater and, mate, I was getting bucked around all over the place. I was just like. It went for a bit longer than I expect. Usually you expect one or two buckings and then it settled down and you just bellyboard in this thing. Just kept on bucking me around this morning, all the way in, I was like, that was pretty hard work, holding on to that thing that was with two hands.
It must have been really hard to hold onto your board and knowing that if you let go, it was gone psycho, man.
[02:35:46] Speaker A: It was tough.
[02:35:49] Speaker B: You would have sunk your fingers through the fiberglass on that thing, like, yeah.
[02:35:54] Speaker A: That'S kind of like a wipeout that comes to mind, where I was like.
[02:35:57] Speaker B: That'S a good one.
[02:35:58] Speaker A: Freaking out a bit. And then, yeah, I end up getting in and then.
[02:36:00] Speaker B: You didn't run out of petrol on the way to the hospital?
[02:36:02] Speaker A: No, someone gave me a lift in and I just remember, like, we're like, half. So Margaret was like a ten minute drive from Margaret's and we're driving and I remember him just looking at me going, you're okay. And I'm just like. I remember just the pain was just so hectic. I was like, sweat. Like, started to sweat and just getting really hot and just going, yeah, I think I need to get this back in this place. And then. Yeah.
[02:36:32] Speaker B: Did you try and get it back in yourself?
[02:36:34] Speaker A: Yeah, we tried for ages.
One of my mates, he's like, yeah, footy player. And he's like, yeah, this happens all the time on the footy field.
I think I know how to get it back in. And, yeah, the thing just wouldn't go back in, so.
[02:36:49] Speaker B: That's heavy. Yeah.
[02:36:50] Speaker A: Another funny. Yeah, wasn't funny at the time, but.
[02:36:54] Speaker B: Anyway, makes for a good story. See, I told you. Worst wipeouts. Always the best stories.
Everyone loves a good one.
[02:36:59] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a good one.
[02:37:01] Speaker B: And what about at the box?
You said you've had a couple of bad ones out there. What's your worst one that you've had out there? No broken bones or anything like that?
[02:37:11] Speaker A: Broken, but, yeah, some bad one. Yeah, just a couple of times. Yeah. Being hit by my board, like, falling off a couple of bad corkies and stuff like that.
[02:37:25] Speaker B: You ever had a two wave hold down?
[02:37:29] Speaker A: No, I haven't.
[02:37:31] Speaker B: I have.
[02:37:32] Speaker A: Really?
[02:37:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:37:33] Speaker A: That's hectic.
[02:37:34] Speaker B: I know, it's rough, and I'm not even like a big wave Dave. It was a big swell and it was a bombie, but, yeah. Anyway, I won't tell my story to tell stories about.
[02:37:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember having some wipeouts of, like, the bombing and stuff where I'm like, okay, I don't want to play this game anymore.
We just get that ragged, old and belted.
[02:37:59] Speaker B: Yeah, cool.
[02:38:00] Speaker A: That's part of it in it.
[02:38:01] Speaker B: It is part of it, but, yeah, it can turn out for the worse in rare cases, so it's all good having a laugh about them now, but can be serious for sure.
All right, mate. I think I already asked that question. What about the scariest session you've ever surfed? Where would that be? Probably one of those ones you're referring to then, I guess. Wasn't it out of the bombie, you reckon?
[02:38:30] Speaker A: Probably the bombie. I remember being at the boat ramps a couple of times and just being like, I'm kind of scared.
[02:38:39] Speaker B: Yeah, no doubt.
Did you ever tow in, getting to towing Jet skis at we?
[02:38:46] Speaker A: Yeah, me and Dave Englett, Sam Carson, but we all went thirds in the ski and, yeah, I think for about four or five years there, we're just, like, all over jet skiing. Yeah, we loved it. And, yeah, we had some funny. Jet skis are so funny. You just get in the funniest situation. You get the most incredible waves and barrels and stuff of your life, but then you get some.
Get into some pretty funny situations.
[02:39:15] Speaker B: Yeah, you can quickly.
[02:39:15] Speaker A: I remember this one. Yeah, this one morning, every time it was big, we were like, let's go take the ski out. So we were like, one morning we're like, yep, boat ramps, let's go. Let's get up super early if anyone wants to paddle it, and we'll tow it.
So me and ding are up. Yeah, we're out there just on daylight, and we're coming in from the side. So we're coming in from the right, and we're slinging each other. So we come in from the side and then pull out and then sort of like, get this. You get this mad speed from the takeoff and. Yeah, so we've been doing that. We had like six or seven goes each. And I'm towing him, so I'm like, flat stick, and then I'm, like, looking over and I'm watching him, and then he's let go of the rope, and then I look back and I'm just timed it a little bit bad, and it's like an eight foot wave. And I've gone off the back of the way on the jet ski, and next thing I'm, like, just airborne. I've just hit it perfectly, and I'm, like, flying through the sky on the ski, landed, and I lost it. So I'm like, I'm, like, maybe 510 meters away from the ski, and there's, like, another wave coming heavy for the forest. I'm like, okay, I've got to get to the ski, get on, and try and save the thing. So I've swam as fast I could, and I'm, like, jumped onto the ski, and I'm, like, trying to start the thing, and I'm still trying to get the lanyard in so I can start it, and I'm like, yeah. I'm just, like, blowing it. So then I'm, like, up going up the face on the ski, and then I've just let it go and then, ding. Sort of like he's pulled off, and then he's just turned around. Just seen the ski going over backwards.
It's like 06:00 in the morning, and now ski is going over the falls.
[02:41:16] Speaker B: Backwards on a ten footer.
[02:41:18] Speaker A: On a ten footer. And then it's got washed in over the reef, and then, I don't know, somehow it's just like it's there. And he just jumped on it and started it.
[02:41:27] Speaker B: No way. We just kept going as you kept towing?
[02:41:29] Speaker A: We kept towing. He just went, oh, yeah, we lost everything. Was kind of like, yeah, lost a.
[02:41:36] Speaker B: Bit of safety equipment out of the safety, what we had, which was minimal. Yeah, no doubt.
[02:41:40] Speaker A: Zinc stick.
[02:41:43] Speaker B: You got to watch out for skin cancer, mates.
Classic. Well, that sounds like a bit of.
[02:41:49] Speaker A: A get out of jail, even like the boat ramp. Getting out the boat ramp back in the early days was pretty funny a couple of times.
[02:41:55] Speaker B: Oh, it's gnarly, isn't it? Yeah. Full of seaweed and three foot swells.
[02:41:59] Speaker A: And seaweed and trying to get back up. It was pretty funny. Yeah, I think.
Just heaps of funny stuff on the ski. It's so much fun.
[02:42:09] Speaker B: Did you ever go out to cows?
[02:42:12] Speaker A: No, I never went out to cows.
[02:42:13] Speaker B: I didn't think you did because you said your biggest wave was probably out at the bombing or something.
[02:42:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I've never towed. I would like to maybe give that one a crack for sure.
[02:42:25] Speaker B: Yeah, cool.
[02:42:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Always, like, chasing the barrel. The ski was always good for.
I mainly like the ski just for chasing barrels. That was the funnest part, especially in Big beach breaks where it's, like, too rippy and it's just too hard to manage. But with the ski, you can just be anywhere and everywhere and you just chase them down. Chase them down.
[02:42:49] Speaker B: Sick.
[02:42:49] Speaker A: Yeah, we haven't done that for a while lately, but, yeah, it was fun. It was definitely a lot of fun at the time.
[02:42:54] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. All right, mate. Well, I reckon we probably covered a fair bit of ground there today.
[02:43:02] Speaker A: Thanks, mate.
[02:43:02] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for coming in. It's been quality sitting down and hearing a few of your stories. We do a little thing on barrel serve podcasts. I'm sure you're aware of the old Steve Irwin salute in a Clive Palmer cup. Did you want to give anyone the Steve Irwin salute? The double thumbs up? Anyone that springs to mind or anything. Doesn't have to be a person that you want to give me. I'm asking. You don't have to. If nothing springs to mind, but someone or something that you think deserves a double thumbs up, give them the Steve Irwin salute.
[02:43:38] Speaker A: No, mate, I can't think of anything.
[02:43:40] Speaker B: Can't put you on the spot too much. Fair enough.
[02:43:43] Speaker A: How about yourself? You got one?
[02:43:46] Speaker B: Not right now. I usually save mine up and try to have a think about them, but no, not at the moment. Maybe Sammy Tucker for sharing a surf with me this morning at the back of our local main break.
[02:44:00] Speaker A: Oh, was it good?
[02:44:01] Speaker B: Yeah, it was good. Sammy's going all right. And we were having a good old laugh about this movie that's getting filmed down in yelling up.
[02:44:08] Speaker A: All right. Okay.
[02:44:09] Speaker B: You heard about that one? No, what is that, mate? We can't tell you. Maggie's voice.
[02:44:12] Speaker A: Come on, spill the beans. Come on.
[02:44:14] Speaker B: Hollywood's come to yelling up.
[02:44:16] Speaker A: Is it really? Yeah, full on a Hollywood movie.
[02:44:19] Speaker B: Hollywood. Nicolas Cage.
[02:44:20] Speaker A: Wow.
[02:44:21] Speaker B: It's called the Surfer.
[02:44:23] Speaker A: THe surfer.
[02:44:24] Speaker B: It's going to be the worst.
They've fully blocked off the shallows car park for like, a month. You can't even go in there. It's full.
[02:44:31] Speaker A: Really?
[02:44:31] Speaker B: Yeah, the full scene set down there. They filmed the whole movie in there.
[02:44:34] Speaker A: No way.
[02:44:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[02:44:35] Speaker A: Has any local crew got jobs there or anything? Yeah, heaps.
[02:44:39] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know much about it, but, I mean, everyone knows. It's common.
It was in the news and that. That they're filming a surf movie. I don't know if it's a surf movie, but, yeah, it's called the Surfer, so there's something to do and you.
[02:44:56] Speaker A: Should shave up, mate. You could be Nicholas Cage, stunt double.
[02:44:59] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. No, pretty funny. So we were just having a laugh.
[02:45:05] Speaker A: About having a laugh about that.
[02:45:06] Speaker B: Out this morning, trying to peer down the beach and see if we could see any chaos unfolding.
[02:45:12] Speaker A: I wonder what it's about.
[02:45:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I have no doubt it'll be another surf.
[02:45:18] Speaker A: Terrible surf.
[02:45:19] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much.
But sometimes that makes them good, right?
[02:45:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[02:45:24] Speaker B: It's so bad that it ends up being good. I'm not sure if this one will. I have no idea what sort of. Whether it's like a thriller or whatever. Who knows? It could be something like that or whether. Surely they're not just trying to make one about surf culture. Surely not. But who knows, man?
[02:45:39] Speaker A: Yeah, it's hard to get it right in it.
[02:45:40] Speaker B: Yeah. But no. Heaps of crew have got little gigs and no doubt punch a whole lot of money into the local economy, so that's cool. One of the local board shapers got hit up to shape a bunch of boards as props.
[02:45:52] Speaker A: Perfect.
[02:45:52] Speaker B: No doubt. It's like Heaps of crew going to be getting little roles as extras and stuff like that.
I'm pretty sure they actually went down to Margaret River High School and were like, that was like a couple of months ago.
[02:46:07] Speaker A: They were looking for a young something. High school kid, hey?
[02:46:09] Speaker B: Yeah, something like that. Yeah.
[02:46:11] Speaker A: I'm not sure. I haven't heard who got that one.
[02:46:13] Speaker B: But, yeah, it's pretty cool. But anyway, mate's not about me. It's all about the sheriff. Andrew Sheridan, absolute competition extraordinaire out at Margie's main brEak.
It's been really good to have you in, man. I see you around for many, many years now in the car parks and we always have a friendly chat and have a laugh out in the water and, yeah, it's been a long time coming here to come in here and tell some of your stories. So thanks again for coming in, mate. Where's anything you want to last words you want to leave us with?
[02:46:48] Speaker A: No, mate. Thanks for having me. Hopefully.
[02:46:51] Speaker B: Sweet.
[02:46:52] Speaker A: And it's worked out well.
[02:46:54] Speaker B: Mates. Let's just finish on the future of the Sharrow Clan. How's things looking? I guess with your kids being on the competitive scene and state rounds and stuff like that, isn't it?
Have they got aspirations of trying to take it further or. Where are they sitting?
[02:47:12] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. My oldest son, Cruz, obviously he's a pretty good surfer, so he's going to keep doing what he's doing.
I'm super excited for the future now that both my boys are like 16 and 13.
It's like I'm coming into that zone where I can go on surf trips with my sons and, yeah, just super frothing on, just thinking about the future. Good times ahead.
Hanging out with those guys.
They're already like my best friends, working. And hopefully that continues and I can hopefully still kind of surf okay for the next while or so.
And we can do some fun stuff together, mate. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to all that kind of stuff.
[02:48:12] Speaker B: All right, well, up the Sheridans, up the sheriff. Thanks again for coming in, mate. And look forward to getting my passport stamp sometime soon down at Maggie's mains.
[02:48:22] Speaker A: No worries, mate. Are you on? Cheers.
[02:48:24] Speaker B: Thanks, mate.
[02:48:24] Speaker A: You.
[02:48:39] Speaker B: Say I heard a filter, I cranked it up and I sang along it was such a way out day I made I'm ready the girl and the way the wave it occurs to me there's no to you don't grab your girl and grab your damn. Your opinion your new Ray band I'll be dressed, baby, no. And dreaming of a GTO it for turn it for turn the sand the girl and the town the way new wave Then suddenly it occurs to me there's no Here's.
We'll be cruising through the burger land, you find the chicken and if we wind up leaving back we'll stay out late. You drink and try it for third to see the sound the girl and the town the way new waves.
