The SURFER Magazine Interview: Fred Patacchia

Like Bobby this year?
Exactly like Bobby this year. And like Bruce his first year. Like me my first year. We’re getting on there and we’re staying on there and we’re taking out some names, so I think achieving Rookie of the Year is the kind of achievement that’s becoming harder to get. Like when I made it, I think we had like eight rookies, and now this year that Bobby made it they got like maybe 12 rookies, you know, maybe even more.

And what’s interesting about the names you just mentioned—yourself, Bobby Martinez, Bruce Irons—every one of you guys had serious struggles getting off the ’QS—you spent some added time there, wouldn’t you say?
Yeah, oh yeah.

When you look at Kelly’s whole story last year and this process of him letting go, it sounds like that’s almost impossible when you’re on the ’QS, because of that focus and that caring and concern about every little point. Is it hard to let go and have fun when you’re on the ’QS?
The only time you have fun on the ’QS is when you’re about six beers deep and there’s five chicks around you, and that’s usually after you’ve won or lost the event, so…On the ’QS the stress level’s high, you’re traveling with 200 other guys that travel with you on a consistent basis.

When you graduated from the NSSA you were the guy who got the big Quiksilver contract, and it seems like for you there was added pressure there because you were sort of pegged as this Golden Child, and people expected you to go straight to the ’CT. Did you sense that pressure? Those expectations?
Yeah, but you know what, at the same time I was still so young and I was pretty cocky—I’m still pretty cocky [laughs]—but I was like, “I’m going to wax these ’QS guys, no problem.” So I’d go out and drink before heats, end up hung-over and do all right, but not good enough to make it. And it just took me a little while to realize I had to get on it. That’s when I started traveling by myself and getting a little bit more serious.

But that contract was fairly unprecedented for an unproven rookie at the time, and you were still a grom, yet to hit the world stage. Some of your friends told me you had to deal with some animosity even at home in Hawaii. Did that make you more of a target out at a place like Pipeline?
I might have, but Pipe’s a place where it doesn’t matter if you make a million dollars or one dollar, no one’s going to give you an inch. No one really ever showed it, but I wouldn’t be surprised if guys felt that way. By Hawaii standards, I started surfing Pipe late, around 17 or 18 years old, and that was right around the Quiksilver contract time. I could see a couple of guys maybe being a little bit bitter about it, but no one ever came up to me and said, “F--- you, rich boy.”