All right. Today we've got special guests. We have a proper set up here, so you know he's a special guest, A great man, one of the greatest men of Australia. I like to think from my time here, he is two thousand and seven twenty thirteen World Star League champion. You've got role models in Australia, I think, and like the people all over the world that I think represent countries, I think of people like yourself, Ash Barty, people that
represent this country of Australia better than anyone else. And it's credit to you and what you've done. We'll go through some of it. Man, it's it's pretty phenomenal, seriously, but we'll welcome in Nick Fanning, the absolute legend that is. Hey, it's so good to have you. Thank you so much for coming on. We'll start off the cooly kids from Kool and Gatta. Now you've got some of your great Mitess. You've got Joel Parkinson, Dean Morrison and yourself grew up together.
You always told y'all this is literally what I was told you waged school. Now, I didn't know what wag miant right in, so I had to I had to do a bit of deep diving into that and find out that meant hooky an American language. But you essentially skipped school together, used to sorry full time, obviously, traveled the world, won championships and stuff like that. What was
it like? I guess having those people you grew up with be part of your career throughout the time that you were traveling overseas, and I can imagine like at times it'd be so lonely being away from friends and family and everything else, like to have those guys there to be able to support you throughout those times.
Yeah, it was amazing, you know. I guess going back to the school days, they probably wagged a lot more than me. I'd get in trouble. My brothers would tell my mum that I had to go to school. But then, yeah, look, those two guys were pretty much the reason why I am where I am today. They were destined to be pro surfer since they like twelve years old and I didn't really know how to become a pro or how
to make the tour or anything like that. I just followed them, and I was always getting like second or third to those guys and just could never beat them. And that just made me want to try harder and just be better. And then yeah, we went through these leap frog effects where you know, one month Joel would be winning everything, the next month Dean would be winning everything, and then I would go over the top of them, and we'll just keep doing that, and then before we
knew it, we're all top ten in the world. Like it just happened so fast. And like I just said, the tour can be a lonely spot at times, but you know, when you've got two of your best mates that you grew up with, anything happened, would all be there, like supporting each other, especially our first year on tour, always watching each other's heats, making sure that we're getting
from spot to spot. And yeah, and it's still still like that today, Like we're always on the phone together, we're always going surfing together, and yeah, it's more more of a brotherhood than actual mates.
Yeah, and like, do you have a give a memory of like something of someone winning a championship maybe at a certain time that really just kind of jelled you on, took you to the next level of that friendship.
Our first year on tour was was big, Like it was really significant, you know, Joel won the first event of the year for US. Joel to actually qualified the year before us but sort of didn't do that well.
And then he won that event, and then yeah, we parted it his plays and then and then as we went through the year, I won an event and Dingo was sort of struggling, and there was a moment where, you know, he had a death in the family and and it was like it was us three just sitting there and trying to figure out the best plan for for Dean and making sure that he was okay to if he wanted to serve or if he wanted to go home, that he knew that he had support there.
And I think that first year sort of really cemented how strong our friendships were. And then Dinga had a pretty bad accident in Hawaii and actually didn't qualify for the following year, and he got a wild card, an injury wild card, and then he came out the next year and ended up winning the very first event, and so it was a really big It was a big win for all of us in that situation, and seeing you may have a hard time and then come out
in triumph was really special. So they're the things that sort of you know, carry on today and then even now we're off to it. We've always got each other's backs. We always know exactly what's going on in each other's lives, and yeah, good, bad, ugly, pretty, We're there for every moment. It's pretty funny.
It's great to have that kind of family feel I guess of people, and it's so so important. I feel like in that inner circle of your mates that you kind of do. Now I want to go We'll go back into a little bit, but I want to go into fanning. The fire video, the og like video. Right, So you're young at this point in your career, you're traveling the world, simply filming yourself, hitting all these different
waves around the world. That would have been one of the most exciting times of your life, surely filming everything just like I feel like, there's no real restrictions whatsoever. It was just like you're doing. I mean like at one point in the video you were in a fighter jet. It was kind of like just chaos.
Yeah, it was. To be really honest, I was so naive to the whole video side of things. I was just I was all about just trying to qualify. I was just trying to get on tour and see what I could do on tour and stuff like that, and yeah,
I'm so lucky. I get put in situations. Some are good, some are really stupid, but just get put in situations where I get to go and jump in a fighter jet or you know, I get to go on these trips where I'm just with a bunch of mates on a boat or something like that, and it's like, there's nothing better. It was a really fun time. I'll give you another funny story was when just after Fanning the
Fire came out. It was our first yeah, it was our first year on tour, and we went to Brazil and there was a blackout in this hotel and there was fifteen hundred candles all around this hotel, like jeez, yeah, like the whole place was just out of power. And Dingo and I just rocked in that day. We're in a room together and we were like, all right, he wanted to go and get some boards fixed from a friend next door, and so we're like, oh, let's go do that and we'll be back in like five ten minutes.
And so we left the candle on top of the TV and we essentially the candle went through, the TV exploded and we went back in five ten minutes. We'll be back in like four or five hours, because we ended up just going to hang out with these guys and we come back and people thought we were dead in the room and this and that, and all our boards were just covered in black silk. All our clothes just ruined, gone, had no clothes, had nothing. Dingo traveled
home on a burnt passport. But yeah, it was just like fanning the fire really stuck then, because yeah, me and Dinga pretty much burnt down my hotel. From then on, Dingo and I never stayed together over again, and I moved in with Parkay.
Fire out in Brazil. Yeah, oh gosh, don't license. How was that, like that video going out, like obviously kind of how the publicity comes with it, Like that's probably your first real, I guess, like experience of like kind of being known everywhere and a kind of a global standpoint, like being young in that situation. How was that, Like, how'd you end up handling that situation of having a bit of fame now with that coming out.
It was it was different because I guess back then was sort of before the Internet. It was you know, there was no social media or anything like that, just DVDs then yeah, so yeah, I sort of probably didn't get the same notoriety of what a kid would do today. You know, you do something good today and it's on the news like that, it's on social thing like that. So it sort of took probably a year or so, and it's yeah, look, it's a learning curve, I think.
You know, you get trained to to become a process. You get trained to talk in front of the media and stuff like that, but no one really goes through and trained you how to you know, handle your biers at the pub or not run around like an idiot. So it's yeah, look, as I said at the start of it, I made plenty of mistakes and that's just that's just learning. And but yeah, as you as you grow, Like even when I became world champion, it was like, I don't want that responsibility. All I want to do
is go surfing. But it just comes and you have to learn to deal with it and you have to learn to, yeah, just treat people the way you want to be treated.
A lot of people don't know how to handle it, and it's like, treat them as you were treating anyone else in life, and like obviously there'd be more people that come into your life because of the fan that you've kind of gotten. But that's a great, I think, a great way of putting it. But now I will move into this because you say, treat people the way you want to be treated. Now the Gold Cost floods recently here, I've heard some amazing stories about you and
what you've done. Even just walking in here. One of the guys are saying, you're just rolling around Jesski throwing beerd of people that needed it. But in all us obviously a massive, massive floods rolled through got the Gold Coast and a lot of people I need help. The government can't reach everyone, and you've essentially come to the realization you have the ability to get to these people through launching jet skis off highways. Have been told it's
a credit to you. Is there any like looking back at that time in life and when it happened, Like what was going through your brain whenever you know this is happening in your kind of your area that you live and you're seeing these people being affected by something that's just you can't plan.
For lack of better words, it was a shoot show. It was it was so wild. So it sort of all came about Parker went down down the river on his ski just to check things out, just to make sure that he went down the day before, and I was at home. I was dealing with you know, rising water where I'm at and and so I was like concentrating on making sure my family was safe and making sure that you know, the house wasn't flooding and stuff
like that. And then to get a text probably about seven pm that night and Parka is like, hey, boys, we might need some help tomorrow. And instantly our community out, you know, our inner circle just went all right, we're on. And so it wasn't just me, it was we had this community that just everyone just dropped everything they were doing and just went, let's go and help these people. And you know, we had as many skis as we
could get out in the water. We had them, we had boats, we had yeah, just trying to We're talking to people like SeaWorld to bring down their boats. The powerboat people came down from southward, just just trying to
get as much resources to people. And then the other part was probably the biggest heroes in all This is that probably didn't get the recognition was all our partners were back at the oat ramp and they're just texting us addresses and telling us where food's got to get to, and they're dealing with the calls, They're dealing with Instagram messages, Facebook messages, and they were just around the clock, just NonStop like some some some moms didn't even see their
kids in four or five days, and we're just like just putting their life on hold to go and help others. And they were just in a pressure cook of the whole time. I guess my role sort of as things went on, my role changed through just you know, just trying to figure out where I could place myself to
make sure that everyone got the best benefit. You know, as I said, first first day, I was on the skis and I was going up and down streets, well they were rivers, they were meant to be streets, and just making sure people were okay, transporting people to dry land, you know, making sure that people could if they needed food, we would flag houses, make sure that food water to
get through the night. And then the next day I went down to Mwoolembar flew down and I was on my way down, and that's when a woman by the name of Sky, she was a pharmacist down in Murbile, and she's like, I need to lift down, and she was in this tiny would have taken her hours and I was like, get on, let's go. So she got to open up the pharmacy down there, make sure that people got medication they needed, you know, everything to make
sure that they were healthy mentally and physically. And I stayed in my wombar that day and we sort of had we had house boats coming down. We had we had a fleet of probably about ten fifteen boats that would come down and they was just dropping food, water because these people were all just cut off, and you know, we're trying to help out the hospitals, the recovery centers.
I had the local police just filling up their paddy wagons and they're just going out places like Yukai and trying to make sure that people have food and water. So that was coordinating that at Murbile was pretty hectic. We're running out of resources, and so I was like, I didn't want to be the face of this. I didn't want to attract media attention or anything like. That's not who I am. But it was like, I'll do a media run just so we can get more money, we can get more food and get more water and
get more help because we're run in nothing. And so that's how that went in. And then and then and then the next thing, I know, I'm organizing choppers to go out speaking to the premiers and you know, trying to help these people that you know, the people who police, trying to sort the rescues out, and so it just kept evolving. And but yeah, I was just I was just part of a team. Man Like for me to
take all that credits, I probably it was. Yeah, our partners, the people out in the water, the people going and knocking on doors making sure people were safe. Like everyone was hugely, hugely affected, and we just tried to do our best to make sure that our fellow neighbors were and fellow communities were safe.
That's an amazing thing I've learned about Australia is like whenever people on dire diar need, the community comes out
and does their best. I've never seen anyone be as charitable of a country as Australia whenever people are in need, like whether it be just doing a good Friday appeel like today is good Friday, and like doing something like that, people just are so willing to give now would have probably in that situation think of like you and you're very selfless man, like you don't like to be in the front of the media, you know, and have that you obviously we just spoke about it, and you're talking
about the people and the community that made it happen. It wasn't just yourself. Was it good? Though? To be able to have the ability of being a bit of an icon and a bit of a model, like a role model in society, to be able to use that platform to actually get their supplies and like be able to use that in such a beneficial way for those people.
Yeah, it was great. Like to be able to get more food, more water, more first aid, more all that sort of stuff. That was that was our goal, you know when we started to help and then and then, as I said, like when we started hearing stories about people trapped out the back of a woolen bar and you know, hadn't had any contact for five days, no food, no water, and we're like, how do we do that?
And then you get people like just started donating how helicopters and then all of a sudden, we're coordinating where helicopters go, like people like Mick Dollon, another guy, Paul Gideon, Like, there were so many people that came and just wanted to help in one way or another, and I was just trying to figure out ways to help these people so they could you feel safe and you know, didn't have to worry about, you know, where they're going to sleep, or if they were going to be able to feed
their kids or putting appies on and all that sort of stuff. And it was, it was. It took a big toll though on especially our partners and the people that were in on all that, you know, just to seeing these people in need. It really affected everyone. And the community is still picking up the pieces and you know, you walk down the street of some of these towns and yeah, they're still trying to get their lives back together, which is tough. And so that's why, you know, we're
not forgetting about it. We want to keep helping. And that's sort of while we got other different things in place.
Now we'll go on to another person that's helped you out quite a bit in your life. Your mother yeah. Now, it's true, she was your agent.
She was hod that work.
I was the dynamic of your mother being your agent. Did you ever have any conversations the same mom put a few few zeros at the end of that contract or asked for more here, asked for more there.
Like, yeah, it was funny, it was funny. You know. I guess. I think I was around sixteen seventeen at the time, and you know, I started getting larger contracts and and you know, my mates were having agents and managers and stuff like that, and and I went, oh, that sounds like a pretty good idea. Saved me working. And so I went home and my mom's she was the managing director of a whole bunch of different hospitals.
She's mental health. And I went home and I was like, hey, Mom, what do you think if I got a manager or whatever? And She's like, no, you're smart enough to look after your own stuff. And you know, I'm going to help you, and I'm going to teach you the ins and outs
of your business. And I'm like, okay, yeah, well, I guess I don't I guess I don't have a choice on that one, because yeah, like mom's stuff like she's the nicest woman in the world, but she's a fiery lines and when and you know who better to to protect you in that situation than your mom pretty much guide me and teach me about my business. And yeah, here we are today.
Did she ever think you'd accomplish what you've accomplished? She still just got this is insane.
Yeah, I think so. I think, you know, I pinched myself too, like like you know, a kid born in Penrith to two migrants, you know in English, and that never swum. I think if you push my dad in the poorly drown you know, to become a pro surfer, it still blows my mind. And I think that's the beauty of it is that we all just learn on the fly. We all just learned as we went. And you know, there was probably probably situations where we could have made more money, or there could have been situations
where probably a deal didn't go right. But you know, I wouldn't change anything.
It seems like the people you like to surround yourself with, like giving them that experience also and doing it as a group means a lot. And like I think, like I said, that inner circle and having them be part of your career and sharing the successes and sometimes help you through the failures and things like that. It just makes it feel like such a more wholesome experience overall.
Yeah, for sure, for sure. And you know there's not dissing managers or anything like that. But yeah, if something went wrong, hang up the phone and throw it in the ocean because the lioness is coming for it was Yeah, I remember she lost it at my bosses so many times.
You know. I have a great relationship with my old boss at Ripke or a Ridgeway, and he remember getting on the phone's on stuff and that learnt for me too, Like it was like, you know what, if I don't like something in the contract, I'm happy to get on the phone. So we're not doing this or let's change this.
And it's it's a good way to learn doing and throwing as well, Like there are things that you don't want to do but you have to do, and then there's other things that I think the people that I work with trust that if I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it.
Yeah, we want Brie. Now you've got little Xander, two year old retired life. How is it now? Being a family man.
Oh, I love it. There's nothing better. As I said, I don't want to I try not to work just to be at home. And I love just learning each and every day from him, like not one day's saying it's crazy. But we have so much fun, Like even just walking down the beach last night, you know, we were just running and laughing for like two hours and it was just that's what you live for, you know. And Breeze. Seriously, she's the most caring, patient, mum person I've ever met. And yeah, I'm so lucky too that
she came into my life. And Xander's the luckiest kid on earth to have her as a mum, because if she wasn't around, his life would be a bit different with me.
Dropping on jet skis where everyone's yeah yeah and.
Things, you know, tantrums probably wouldn't wouldn't happen.
She's got patience, She's got so much. And Xander getting into swimming and everything else.
Loves it. He loves the beach. He had a year where he hated the beach and I was just thinking, oh no, I'm going to have that kid that doesn't Yeah, So I was thinking, maybe you might steer him into golf or something like that. But he's loving the beach. He's going, Yeah, he's almost pulling us down the beach more often. And just like there's times where you know, I could go surfing or whatever, and I'm just I'd rather just hang on the beach with those two just
have so much fun. And it was pretty classic. Just the other week, I asked him if I could go surfing. He's like, no, you can't go surfing. Mummy, go surfing. And I'm like, well, you know, three, you're off by yourself. And and she went and caught her first of a wave by herself. Wow. And me and him just sat on the beach playing trucks.
Two year old's running the house already pretty much. Yeah, I tell you what's going on. Have you got him onto the surf forward?
He's caught a few waves, yeah, yeah.
Like over the back or you put him on the front of the surfa.
At the moment, were sort of just putting him on the front. He's caught a couple where he's been laying on my back. Like, but yeah, I don't want to push him too hard, just because you know, I'm scared that if I scare and then he's not going to want to go back, so I'm doing everything at his pace.
Well, we'll get into a little bit of this. We haven't actually really talked about your surfing career too much yet, so we'll get into a little bit of the rivalryes you've had with some of these people, Right, You've got Kelly Slater, Gabrielle Medina Andrel Dezusa, Andy Irons, like some of these amazing surfers that have come through the system. How do you like obviously, whenever you travel around the world doing these different surf competitions and stuff like, you
would almost feel like a family. I feel like within a family of other people that throw up with the same competitions and stuff. It was it tough to separate whenever you go out there friendship from competitiveness. Is it like that whenever you get into the water, as soon as your feet hit the water, it's like, you know what, friendship goes to the side. This is purely business. Can't like get into the into the competition.
Yeah, that's how I Yeah, like that's how I always looked at it, Like I always tried to leave it out in the water. You know, sometimes someone might be a dick in the water, but you know, use the rules or whatever. But there's always I guess the same in footy, where there are some gentlemen rules and like if someone takes a cheap shot or something like that, you're going to be like, all right, I remember you.
And there were times like that, but a lot of the time I would always just try and leave it in the water. You know, if you play by the rules and you give it your best, we're good. Yeah, So that that was the way I was went about it. You know, as you said, you're traveling with these guys traveling with you, seeing their families and you know, helping each other through airports, and some people just see sports. You know, that's their team and they'll do anything for
their team. But at the end of the day, guys and girls actually get along with people from other teams, and that's the way it should be. Like I still talk and hang out with some of my biggest rivals, Like probably my biggest rival, Parker is like one of my best mates. So so yeah, you have to you have to be able to separate it.
It's funny because the people you compete against the people you have to actually go out there and try to be probably the most compatible to you as far as your friendships. You do the same thing, the same stuff.
You go to such different places around the world. Like after an event, did everyone go to the same pub and like have beers together and like hang out or was it like everyone went their own ways, went to their own families or was it just kind of like yeah, we're WSL, like we're all here together or just enjoy the time.
Yeah. No, there's after parties and everyone comes together and has way too many beers and and that's the beauty. Like we as as Ozzie is too. We had different traditions in different areas, you know, Like probably the most well known one is in France, we had the Cafe to Parry, which is this little pub right on the corner and they sell giraffes like the two liter beers in a tube, and we would have, Man, we don't have anywhere between twenty to one hundred people there, or
just celebrating like depends who won. And that's that's hilarious though, Like I go through photos now and I see those things and it's it's like they're the memories that you remember more than actually you know, round three heat lead
up competition. Say yeah, and that's where you build your friendships, and you know it's that's the memories that you last forever, and they're the ones that will carry on with you because also too, as a sports person, you're only got a last span of say fifteen, you know, ten to twenty years maybe unless you're Kelly Slater and it goes
on for four hundred and thirty years. But they're the times that you keep carrying on and you find out who you like and who you don't like, and who you like have a beer with.
Like, what's your favorite place to compete? Actually, what's your favorite place in the world to serve? I want to compete because that's going to limit you a bit.
It's probably the same thing. Look, I love home, you know, I live here for a because life's easy, amazing ways, climate's great. Probably the best places I love to compete where Fiji. We got to stay on a small little island and it was just the competitors and the crew and it's like almost camp vibes. And then obviously South Africa is a big one for me. I just love how raw it is and how you know you could be in the ocean, then you're going to see you know,
wild big five animals within an hour. It's just still trips me out to this day. But it's just beautiful place and the people are amazing. So they're probably my two favorites that I would go to.
You say, like, like surfing's properly shaped. Obviously it's been such a massive part of your life, Like is it now Like you obviously have the competition side of things, but now you go surfing and it's probably more of an enjoyment thing now than anything of You don't feel like you need to prep for the next competition or anything like that. Is it Is it really your escape now to just go out there and you just feel totally one hundred in your own environment whenever you're on the water.
Yeah, it's it's funny, like I go surfing. I really enjoy just going surfing, even if it's for like ten to fifteen minutes. But as I've gotten older, I've really noticed that if I don't surf, my mental health goes down, and so it's a good reset for me each and every day. And I know that briandsand to notice it too when we're at home, like if I haven't served in a few days. I'm a little bit snappier, and.
They tell you to go for a sec.
They're like, piss off, go to the beach, and so yeah, I the thing about surfing is that I go there and I concentrate one hundred percent on me. Yeah, you know what wave to catch, what turn to do, and I can right now, I can ride any board I want or you know, I'm not practicing for that next event. So that's that's the beauty of surfing. And you know, as I was saying before, like to be able to take my family down the beach and create memories is it's priceless.
So special advice or anyone that's out there and trying to do what you've.
Done, it's okay, aything, it's hard work, but you've got to enjoy it. Like, sure, there's days that absolutely suck, but you know that might be one in ten, it might be one in twenty. I was blessed to essentially like everyone, everyone says that their jobs are best in the world, but yeah, man, surfing is one of those things where you're not only going surfing for your job, you're going and doing surf trips for your companies and it's just Yeah, we're just spoiled.
It's a phenomenal life you be able to live. Like in Look, there's two massive Red Bull Jess kids behind me. I think that would be pretty fun to take out.
No lie for it.
You've been fortunate enough not only in the surfing well, now that you've retired, you've got into a bit of the business world.
Now.
A lot of people have known that you've been involved in the beer company that you've now sold. Like, do you look at yourself as a businessman now?
Nah?
No, Look, I think because you started Balta ber you've got like you and Joel obviously you talked about that friendship and it would have been pretty special to have a company like together that you started. Yeah, and like
have that together as a friendship. People say, don't get into business with like family or friends sometimes, but I think it's so special that you were able to have that obviously like life experience with them and then even post career be able to continue to do stuff with them.
Yeah, it was amazing, Like Balta's probably been the most amazing experience for a whole lot of different reasons. You know. I guess when we started Balta. We sort of all knew that our careers were coming to an end soon. And and as you learn to go through your career, you start figuring out that you don't need to be one hundred percent on point every single minute of the day to be the best. So you start learning that
you can do other things. And that one was just bolted was just one of those ones where, like, to give you the background the story, be derbych was on tour with us as well. He just hit me up in the Cornics club and goes, hey, do you want to start a beer company? He's like, yeah, what's the worst can happen? Your free beer? And then Be He's
like looking at me, goingreaking Joel get involved. I was like, I can only ask and he loves me more than anyway, and so we asked him, and then Bed already talked to Josh Kerr and then and then it sort of just started from them and the four of us got together, and then there was another guy, Sean Ronan from the States, and we all sort of caught up and we're like, all right, what's what do we need? Like, what's what's
the plan? Bad had this big idea to start it on Straty and I was like, mate, that's not going to work because one it costs way too much on that ferry and all the rest, and so yeah, we all decided to try and figure out if we get it here in Corumbon and and then yeah, and then
it was like, all right, what do we need? So we need one someone good in marketing, so we hit up Sterling Holland, who used to do their marketing for Billibong, so I already worked with Joel and all that, and then and then it was like, all right, we need a good CEO. And I my my favorite of all
time team managers is a guy called Anthony McDonald. He was my red bull athlete pretty much for the first ten years of our relationship, and I asked him and it all just sort of fell into place here and there. And then the next thing, we're like, well, we have to find someone who actually made really good beer so people actually come back. Yeah, you know, we could, we could do this gimmick of like surfers trying to make beer and it's going to taste like crap and no
one's going to come back for a second. But yeah, when we found Scotty Hargrove, it was like all the pieces came together and then Yeah, it was the beauty of it was that because everyone had been so successful in all their fields, no one had any ego. Yeah, everyone was learning off each other. And that's how it is. You know, you walk into Bolta today and if anyone's got an ego, they don't really last that long because
it's like you just don't fit. You know. When talking about our CEO and McDonald, he'd learned the whole industry just from going and doing things and learning on the fly and and and you know, really immersing himself in, you know, meeting different brewers, meeting different companies and all that sort of stuff. And for me it was great. I got to sit in the marketing side of things, I got to sit alongside the board, and you know, learned people like David Ginjo who used to be the
CEO of Channel nine. You know, just just sitting in these circles and just learning. Was just like, Wow, I've got lessons that I still carry on today. And and the other really cool thing is that I'm going to work my ass off for my mate, and I know my mate's going to work his ass off for me, and that's why we just we just yeah, it worked really hard and trying and do our best for even our staff as well. So that's that's how it all came together, and I think that's how it became so successful.
So call you get a bit of a crash course in business from because of you and what you've been able to do. Obviously, a lot of people they've finished their athlete career and they feel as though you're in it for all. Let's say like ten years. You know, you go, well, I've lost ten years of experience in the real world. It's almost because you've been able to surround yourself with good people throughout it. It's like you almost got a crash course probably within like a year
or two. That would have been ten years worth of experience probably outside of it, just because of what you did, and it would been like it'd been so cool, I think because you had been so focused on surfing for so long that now you had like a different outlet that was like totally new and totally exciting and had a massive like bell curve to try to you know, understand what you're doing and to do it with friends too.
It would have been like awesome, just to have that experience for first like year two and be like, oh my gosh, I'm just soaking in everything that's coming my way.
Yeah, soaking in a lot of alcohol. Yeah, look, it was it was just it was just amazing. Like you can't you can't get that from a course exactly. You're in the real time. You have to you have to make like big decisions and you know, pressure cooker moments where you know, we're dealing with other people's money and
stuff like that, trying not to lose it. And but I sort of see the business world very similar to the sporting world as well, is that you know you're going to make quick decisions and if something goes wrong, you have to let it go. You have to just keep going and moving forward and maybe evaluate after the game or something like that. And I think business is similar in that sense, but also too, it's like if you're working hard and you're giving it everything, then results
will come one day. You know, it might not be a billion dollars here or something like that, but something will come out of it. Somewhere down the track. Someone might see and go, hey, this person is perfect in this role. So it's not just working for today, it's working for tomorrow as well.
There's a whole persistence is kist gets you a long way? Well, we'll getting to the end of this. I've got a few people who wanted to ask you some questions now. One of them was, what's the most coveted thing you have? Is it a surfboard, the trophy? Is it just something you look back at as like if you if something were to happen, like you would want to make sure that's the one thing you take out of the house.
Oh, definitely the family.
Materialistic yeah, actual person.
Yeah, yeah, Look, I've got some incredible things, you know, obviously probably because Bells is on my bells. It's something I really love. I've got some surfboards. I've got one from Emma, I got to Jerry Lopez there. You know, there's just different heirlooms that are sort of collected over the years. But yeah, I don't know, I'm sort of sort of not like crazy materialist. You've got anything, really, it's like you've.
Got the experience. I feel like you're a man that like knows the importance of the experience rather than the actual like materialistic thing that comes out of it.
Yeah, like I'm hopeless of taking photos because I want to leave in the moment. And then I gave it home at the end of the trip and I'm like, so I didn't take that. What did you do?
It's awesome, tell the great stories the photos, like, don't have any.
Hopefully hopefully someone else took some.
I don't want me to ask you about the pipeline. And while who obviously one of the biggest, most coveted, you know, competitions of the year, and you had to win that to win the whole competition for the year and like be the champion, and they it was phenomenal the way you handled it, the way it all happened, the pressure he was under it to be able to
perform at that level. Going back to that day, do you remember did you just kind of let it, like what offer Doc's back As far as pressure, did you feel it on the day of feeling like you really needed to live up knowing what was on the line.
If you don't feel the pressure, then you don't really care. Yeah, you know, it's like streaking into a GF or something like that, Like you know what's at stake and you've worked your ass off to get there. You've sort of built yourself all the way to get to that moment in your career, and you know, I was. I guess for me, it was like I wanted to go out and create my own history. I wanted to be the one like, Okay, if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it to the best of my ability.
I'm not going to go out there and hope because that's not going to get you. No, So I'm like, I'm going to if I get an opportunity to do things, I'm going to try and do it the best of my and and I think that's sort of where you know, it all came down to. It was like, you know, it's almost like eminem you get one shot at situations like it's like you can't rewind it, so just do
it right the first time. And sort of leading up to that day, I had I had feelings I almost could have won the World titled of the event before and I stuffed up and and I got the emotions got too much for me, and I just crumbled, and so I was like, all right, we're going in that
final day, We're not doing that again. I've felt these feelings and I know what came out of it, and I was not happy, So that's why I just yeah, And you know, if you put your best foot forward and you do your absolute best, then that's all you can do. It might be the right result, might not, but you just go and at least if you know you've gone and done your best, you can put your head on the pillar at night and you don't have those two A M nightmares. That's how I look at it.
Did you have like a feeling of relief like I think of whenever big games have happened, when I lose and stuff, like whenever you win those big games, and in this case, whenever you won that big competition, like whenever you finished and you were given that the title. Was it just like the sigh of relief of like I've done it.
I don't look at myself as I'm the best surfer. I look at it as I was the best competitor. Yeah, you know when you got Kelly Slater there, like you can't really say you're the best surfer, So yeah, I was just the best competitor that year, yea. And yeah, like that relief, it's like it's heavy when you walk into those situations and you've got not only the pressure of yourself. You try not to look at media or
anything like that, but it gets in. And then you've got your family and your family sort of tiptoeing around you and you can feel it everyone everyone's tense, and I think that's what makes those moments so special as well. It's like everyone sort of comes together and you're not only doing it for yourself, You're doing it for your family and your friends and you yeah, you just it's just it's like, I don't know, it's almost going to war.
It's like it's on, and that's that's the beauty of it is just yeah, just what are you going to do when when when the time comes, it's like all right.
It's always chasing that feeling again.
To you feel like oh yeah, yeah, well some people don't, like you know, you meet people that you know, they work so hard to get one more title or one championship or one Grand final, and it's like I'm.
Good, I'm done. Yeah did the dream.
Yeah I'll see the pub. But yeah, for me, it was always like, you know, after my first World Tole, I was almost that person, and it was because I just put so much into that first year. It was just like I was just exhausted and you have like a hangover a fan almost and and then and then after the you know, you get your energy back and you're like, shit, I don't really like being fourth or fifth in the world. It's like, I'm going I'm going to fight to get myself back to where I want
to be. And and that's I enjoy the preparation and all the stuff that comes along with it. And yeah, just testing yourself in those situations against the best people in your world.
Persistence is key. Well finish out, mate, what's next? Because you do you do a lot of things, Mate, you do a lot of things, And is there anything that's spoking your passion at the moment that you are really going to launch into?
Family always comes first in my world, you know, making sure that you know, only work when he's little fellows at school. I try and try and be home as much as possible. But yeah, at the moment, the probably the biggest thing I'm working on is the charity golf day that I started last year. So that's that's going to be a giant headache coming into that, but it's it's so rewarding it and people have so much fun and last year was just such a great success. So
that's that's the biggest thing. And then after that under name, we'll see Dombleto.
There'll be something big on the horizon. I can almost guarantee.
Oh, who knows, maybe it's just the sun.
Thanks so much. I appreciate your time. I seriously an absolute icon of this country. You should be so proud of what you've been able to do. I know a lot of people are proud of you and what you represent. And yeah, just a massive thank you for coming on and a lot of people would have learned something.
Good, fine, good fine, good chat man and all the best thing you're created too. Thanks Jon
M.