SURFERMAG.COM ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

SURFERMAG.COM: Australians by nature…the culture is very competitive, it seems like that if you’re hanging with the Burleigh crew and because you lived, as you say you did, probably a typical Aussie gromhood, there was a lot of competition involved. I know there was a point in your life where you took a leap away from the competition. Describe how that came about and what led to that.

RASTA: I started competing in my life was when I was five or six, we moved to the Gold Coast and joined the surf-lifesaving crew. I competed heavily in that ‘til I was 14, heavily. ‘Cause we were succeeding. I was a good paddler, I won all the paddling I did, paddleboarding, and also the group I was with -- really talented swimmers -- Grant Hackart, Noah Forke, all these amazing swimmers in Australia, in our age group, God, we were only 10, but we had this dynamic that was really amazing, so we won everything, so we enjoyed winning and so we kept being competitive and basically I did that until I was 14. At that time I was just starting to be sponsored for surfing as well and really wanted to dive into the surfing for fun and to forget all the contest seriousness and the emphasis on beating someone and being the winner. I dunno, by the time I got into the surfing world I was already looking at how I could surf for the sheer enjoyment of it and the sharing aspect, not the dominating aspect of it, so the very first stages of my surfing through now have always been emphasized firstly on my enjoyment and then sharing my enjoyment with other people, not getting my enjoyment from taking something away from other people and making somebody else a loser. At the same time, going into the surfing world, in order to get anywhere, you had to have sponsors. For sponsors to realize what kind of talent you had they (surfing establishment) somehow gauged you against the rest of the pool of surfers, grommets out there…you basically had to compete. I think that it’s probably still the same now. So I knew that I had to compete, so I did it. Mainly, pretty much wholly because I figured that’s the only way I’d get a sponsor and that’s the only way I’d get paid to go around the world and not have to do a 9-to-5 job. I did that to the point where I didn’t have to do it anymore, I felt.

SURFERMAG.COM: When you feel you’ve reached that point, what’s it like when you approach your sponsors with idea, the concept of “please pay me to free surf, I’m over competing”?

RASTA: It was nerve-racking to go to them and feel confident enough that they would still want to fund me to travel around the world and surf and just get photos and ride different waves and boards and whatever. So it was nerve-racking, but at the same time I felt an amazing release of pressure, or anguish, because I had all my thoughts and my ideas in life were different from my actions. You know everything was totally different, I was competing, I was really stuck in my ego alot, really worried what people thought of me because I was worried what I thought of me, because I wasn’t being true to myself and what I really enjoyed and wanted to do at that point. I was a teenager too; you’re really finding your feet in the world. I guess that was my way of gaining some clarity and direction, some really clear direction about what I want to do at this point in my life. It was a real relief to finally say that I’ve had enough, that if Billabong doesn’t wanna pay me to be a free-surfer that I was just gonna be a cocktail bum and go work around the world, slinging drinks at night and surfing all day and going to the tropics and all these beautiful places where there’s waves, where I can work at night and surf all day. I kinda had that plan in mind if they said, “No, you have to keep competing or you’re not going to be sponsored by us.” But fortunately for me, they actually preferred me not doing contests. At the same time as being nervous and all that it felt really cool to finally say, “I’ve had enough.”

SURFERMAG.COM: It’s so easy from the competition side of things to set goals – You can say, “This year’s goal are A) I’m going to breakthrough to the WCT or B) I’m going to earn X amount of money and ratings points”. As a free-surfer, do you buy into the concept of setting goals for your surfing and if so what are your goals?

RASTA: Originally I had the goal of being completely equipped, having the perfect quiver. Which for me meant going to the ocean on any day and have as much fun on that day as I would if it was six-foot and perfect on that day. So that was my original goal, my main goal, of having free time to be a free-surfer and what I was gonna do with that time was develop a quiver as broad as all the conditions in the nation…where I live and where I travel. I still kind of adhere to that, but I’ve gone more internal with that concept than external. So instead of going out and going, ‘okay, I want to develop all these surfboards and all these pieces of equipment so that all I’ll need is to go out and have lots of fun every day in the ocean and appreciate every mood of the ocean and this planet.’ I kind of saw through that, in a way, and have really now for the last four years decided to construct that mental quiver in my brain where I’ve got the diversity in my brain to say, “So what if it’s not six-foot and perfect, I can just go down and have a swim and I’m still gonna be a happy human. I’m still gonna be peaceful and treat people with an open heart and try to be as respectful and happy and feel the fun and joy as I would be if the surf was six-foot and perfect.” So I’ve drifted away from having that quiver of surfboards that would give me that happiness every day and gone more towards things that I can do for my brain and my attitude that will make me happy anyway. So I don’t need to go and build all these toxic surfboards to make me happy, I can just cultivate all that joy and peace without needing to build all these things and go all these places and do all these things.

SURFERMAG.COM: So there’s a quiver based on a value system that’s in your heart?

RASTA: Yeah. Like a quiver of practices that cultivate and create those feelings internally instead of externally, so I’m not dependent on having that paddleboard when the wind is howling and there’s no surf, or having a surf when the surf’s one foot, but I still have those toys, you know, I still have this diverse quiver that does that. So I’ve by no means reached that mark of needing no equipment or surf because I really enjoy it. I’m not there yet. I don’t have that ability yet.

SURFERMAG.COM: Obviously there’s no points that you’re chasing. But is there something that you’re chasing that’s of some sort of value to either you or your sponsors?

RASTA: For me the ultimate goal in surfing and in life, for me, is balance. Basically just balancing all the aspects of my life to a point where I’m at this really enjoyable and peaceful middle point that I can act from as a point of balance. So I’m conscious of every move I make, instead of acting unconsciously to people when they do something to you and you react with anger, or reacting to the ocean being ugly one day and you’re going, “Oh God, I wish it was perfect.” So my goal is a conscious balance of everything, so in surfing my goal would be to just live that. Because I’m fortunate enough to get paid to do this whole surfing gig and have it documented, like we’re doing right now, so my goal is just to share that balance and the joy of balance. Just sharing, like I was saying before, instead of competing and that kinda thing. I really love the sharing aspect of what makes me happy. But only sharing it through either doing it or when people ask; I don’t wanna push what I’m doing on anyone. I just enjoy what I’m doing. And with my position with Billabong and in the surfing world, that’s somehow an entertaining value in some way. I go surfing and someone takes a photo and it goes in a magazine. My only goal is really to just share the joy of balance and the joy of learning to balance, of going up and down, just the joy of being on that adventure, of finding out what it is that makes me continually helpful, happy, peaceful. A clear person and a clear mind.