The SURFER Magazine Interview: Fred Patacchia

Growing up on the North Shore of O'ahu, Patacchia grew accustomed to high-pressure situations at an early age. In fact surfers like him learn to thrive during high intensity sessions at Rocky Point. Today, Patacchia's career, like his surfing, is in overdrive.

You get glares and you get dropped in on and you get yelled at and you might get your head slapped, but it’s all a process. There are guys that don’t make half as much as me and they go through the same process. You don’t just paddle out at Pipe and catch waves. You keep showing up, do your time and people get used to seeing you. Then it’s like, “Oh, Fred’s been waiting for a f---ing hour, I guess I’ll give him one.” Then they’ll give you some huge stupid closeout, and eventually start respecting you. Have a couple beers with the boys and then you’re in.

Do you look back now at your time on the WQS and think it was probably a good thing you went through all those struggles?
Yeah, I think so. I think it made me a little more hungry to get on the ’CT and to go all out once I did. I spoke to Bruce his first year when he wasn’t doing very well and I asked him if he was doing any ’QSes, and he said, “No, I’m over it. If I can’t make it I’m over it. I should be able to make it.” That’s the same way I felt when I first started: “F--- it, let’s see what we’re made of.”

After you found your comfort level on the ’CT last year, you called Bobby Martinez and told him to get his shit together so he could join you in the big leagues. What prompted that call?
He’s one of my really good friends. We’ve been battling each other since we were kids and we’ve stayed pretty close through our amateur years. He traveled with me every now and then. We stayed together in South Africa. I could see he was having a tough time emotionally on the ’QS and, because I could relate, I just felt like I had to push him over the edge, like, “F---, let’s do this! Get your act together, you surf good enough to get on there, I need another goofyfooter that’s my age, come on!” I don’t know if it was my call or family and friends that lit a fire under his ass, but it’s still burning. [Laughs]

After all of that, I’m guessing the final you had together at Teahupoo must have been a pretty sweet moment for you guys.
It was. It was pretty cool. It was like, “What the hell are we doing here?” I don’t think either of us could believe where we were. On the podium they had us signing jerseys and doing all this press and we just weren’t used to it, you know. Guys like Andy and Kelly know the whole post-event routine. And I was off drinking beers. The PR people were like, “What are you guys doing? Get over here, do this, sign that, talk to this guy.” We were just laughing about it the whole time. It was classic—a good experience.