BUSTIN' DOWN THE DOOR by Wayne Rabbit Bartholomew

Shaun rides very conventional boards. His unconventional surfing is purely because of himself.

In today’s interaction of professionals, an interesting development is occurring, being that the currently emerging crop is attempting to further extend the limits that the already established stars have attained, a process which once occupied the total being of the older pros, also. This courageous attempt has centered a great deal of attention upon various outstanding members of this new breed, namely Shaun and a few Austroids, and while many people have recently expressed their theories on why this new group have had so much competitive success and why they are considered to be HOT, very few verbal reactions have been reflected and recorded by the actual people in subject.

In most articles, we’ve been given little credit for originality, and many of our peers have expressed criticism towards our whatever. We’ve been faced with charges ranging from assault, battery and arrogant defiance against the faces of waves; and, according to some of our peers, the basic flow of our surfing has been lost in a sea of battleground tactics and aggressive abuse to our Mother Ocean. Apparently, we’ve also breeched the Sixteenth Amendment, in that we’ve been overampingly gliding with too much glitter. Many minor charges have been submitted, and due to our conquering approach, as Gerry would say, we’re experiencing a reign of supremacy within the professional arena, which of course, has been thoroughly analyzed and finally diagnosed as probably only a temporary dominance, as we’ve all supposedly reached our peak. Oh, I shouldn’t really get bitchy like that.

None of the younger guys can truthfully claim to have greater skill than the already established surfers simply because, B.K., Gerry, Hakman, and Nat, to name but a few, have been a major influence in contemporary surfing , and yet there is still room for individuals, whether known or unknown, to receive recognition by simply displaying originality and creativity. Today’s younger surfers have developed their skills in varying surfing environments; for example, Bertleman and Michael Ho were spawned in the paradise situations of Ala Moana, V-land and Backdoor; whereas Shaun Tomson put his act together in isolated waves of South Africa, and guys like Richards and Townend emerged from the competitive zones of Australia, and yet they were all drawn towards professionalism at roughly the same time.

It is true that we place quite a bit of emphasis on our competitive aspirations, but because of this fact, all the Australian and African stars have too often been categorized as having similar approaches and attitudes towards surfing and life in general, as though we’ve all been popped out of the same mold, and I really feel that our surfing goes much deeper than simply A, B, or C. Quotations like, “we’ve paid our dues,” and “we’re taking over now,” have been miscomprehended because people don’t realize the background and relevance of these statements. Some people even look upon our performances last winter as being overnight successes, but little do they realize how much time and money we spent in reaching our current status.

The fact is that when you are a young emerging rookie from Australia or Africa, you not only have to come through the backdoor to get invitations to the Pro meets, but you have to bust the door down before they hear ya knockin’. I mean, it was left up to people who weren’t even into surfing to say who was hot, and who was not. Our situation was that we had read about and seen photos and movies of all the established stars, for years and years, and then we’d travel to Hawaii as total anonymities, or nobodies, and literally eat shit each session, each day, each season. The pro contests were already full of super-hot surfers, and there were already a giant queue waiting to get in, so our only alternative was to surf each big-waves session with total abandon. Like there were ten young Aussies and Africans vying for three vacant slots in the contest circuit, knowing that at any time, Nat, Wayne and Midget could come over and snap up all the Australian quota of contest invitations.

There was no real need to have young blood in the circuit because the older guys were still red-hot, and to put some unknown Aussie kid in the lineup meant that some guy who’d put in maybe eight to ten seasons had to be put out, and understandably, nobody was keen for this to happen, except us, and so to gain both media and competitive recognition, we had to paddle out on the gnarliest days at Pipeline and Sunset, and literally attempt impossible maneuvers. This situation set the stage for the introduction of the hard rock-ripping, full-tilt boogie band, which, in true “Story of Pop” fashion, has for its first time climbed to the top of the hit parade, and now band members such as Shaun, Kanga and Mark Richards are top-billed features at many inside-out, upside-down jam sessions.

For sure, Gerry and Rory still provide the most in-tune front-side sessions at Pipeline; and B.K., Hakman and Reno are always showstoppers at Sunset, and their past notoriety is directly responsible for the emergence of the new boys, but this new band is developing the ability of versatility, in that they are displaying the same explosive intensity at 12-foot Pipeline and Sunset as they do at 6-foot V-land and Off-The-Wall. The already established surfers like B.K. and Hawk were into such heavy directions on our arrival that we were forced to delve into certain subtleties which they found unnecessary in their flights to new heights. Some people are either introducing original theatrical moves, or adding more flash to already established body English clichés, although some of Owl’s and Fitzgerald’s are patented, and increasing degrees of stylish statements, even the odd Jagger or Bowie-oriented moves are being witnessed on both large and small waves.