The SURFER Magazine Interview: Fred Patacchia

Patacchia says he'd like to improve on his back-hand at places like Snapper Rocks, Bells and J-Bay. But when it comes to the hollow lefts on the tour schedule , as in Tavi, Teahupoo and Pipeline, well, he'll be just fine.

Will you always live in Hawaii?
Yup, always going to live in Hawaii, man. This is where my kids are growing up. I love the people here and I want to give back as much as I can once I get done with all this. Right now I’m already starting some charity foundations and shooting this thing called the Freddy P Project, which is sort of a recap of my rookie season. I’d like to keep doing more of both, and see if I can somehow turn these Freddy P Projects into raising money for good causes. Right now it’s just little stuff like helping disadvantaged kids over here get to events on the mainland that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to get to. But eventually I want to take it way beyond surfing. If I can use my surfing to make a difference for other people I figure that’ll be a better reward than any title…but you sort of need that title to get the ball rolling, So that’s my immediate goal.

Though he grew up surfing on the North Shore, Fred admits to being a latecomer to Pipeline, at least by local standards. That said, he caught on quickly.