Ask Carroll

[godsavetheking]

Nick, we had Carwyn in the late '80s and Russ Winter a decade or so later, but do you think that the UK will ever produce another WCT surfer? I still think it's pretty amazing that Carwyn ever made it given the waves he grew up surfing and his chronic lack of cash, but it seems like these days with so many good surfers at WQS level, the odds are increasingly stacked against it ever happening again

[Nick Carroll]

It's possible but I suspect unlikely. Carwyn was good value but you will note he never qualified as a top end seed on the world tour. Russell was a better surfer than Carwyn yet slipped in and out of the top 44 at the time. The required skill level has increased a fair bit since both those boys' heydays and there is less room in the WCT as well (32 not 44). If there was a tremendous will within the UK surf community to see one of their own represent at that level, then I could picture a bunch of highly talented kids emerging and being able to work on their skills enough to get within shooting range - of course then it'd be up to them to engage and triumph over the big numbers out of Brazil, Australia, Hawaii etc - but I don't know if UK surfers really care about that, I'm not close enough to the culture to tell. I don't get that impression, nor do I get the feeling that many UK surfers would have a real idea of the levels needed to succeed in Primes and WCTs. Without that backbone of knowledge it is really hard for a surf community to produce a champion.

[godsavetheking]

I doubt it too. Following on from that, does the feral trialist still exist? Or are contest surfers now carefully handed up through the ranks, emerging pretty much fully formed, media friendly and backed to the hilt for their assault on the upper echelons?

Also, I remember you saying that you were increasingly driving away from perfectly viable surf for no particular reason. Are you still doing that? And if not, why not?

[Nick Carroll]

Of COURSE the feral trialist still exists.

Just in lesser numbers.

Only the super gifted surfers are treated as you describe. Many kids on the QS wagon are just pretty damn good surfers with a yen to travel and compete with their mates. They get some money from sponsors and some from their parents, maybe some from a part time job, and hit the road for a year or two of adventure. Very few of them get near the top 50 much less near qualifying. A few really get the taste, start winning heats, keep it rolling and eventually get some WCT time (Dion Atkinson is a good current example).

Re choosing to miss good surf, I think that came from an essay in White Horses, which was about the relaxing of the surfing obsession. I kind of feel like my retreat from that obsession has stabilised now, I have been paying attention to the conditions a little bit more and scoring some pretty magical surf in recent months. But a week or two will pass between surfs and I rarely if ever get antsy about it, probably because I'm spending a lot of time in the ocean doing other stuff, and so I don't have to surf in order to feel salt water or a moving ocean.

That said I'm going to Indo this coming week and I'm looking at the charts and Frothing.

[rmb]

davros try to ask yourself a few questions about this.

don't just be another cliched Western Surf Fan, vaguely horrified at the advent of another nation's talent.

40 years ago the same shit was being levelled by California's Old Guard at the Australians. We were "aggro", we had no respect, we were crass and unobservant of the deeper traditions of the sport.

It was utter horseshit at the time, even more so today, yet amazingly there are still older Californian surfers who cling to this vision of Australian surfers.

I would suggest, be stoked at the Brazilian rise, they're a great people, a nation of amazing mixtures, indigenous tribes. Africans dropped off the US slave trade route, European colonists, numerous others, and they are a coastal people like us who love their beaches and surf with a lot of stoke and passion.

They are the Australians of the 21st century.

G'day Nick,
Adriano De Souza is somebody who from what I have been told is a pretty good bloke in the surf but is probably one of the whipping boys of the surf media and the "cliched Western surf fan" would this contribute to him being unable to land a major sponsor because if he was Aussie he would be a hero in the the surfing publics eye? From what I can gather his major backer is a sports club? Considering he performs year in year out on tour and being from a country of 198 million people why wouldn't a major surf label want to support him and other brazilian surfers like Raoni Monteiro.

[Nick Carroll]

I don't think it is an issue of him being acceptable to an Australian surf fan. The real money in pro endorsement is in US acceptability. The highest paid pro surfer in the world right now by a long shot is John john Florence. JJF is a fantastic surfer but more importantly, he is OK as far as the US market is concerned. This makes him worth a bit over $5m a year. Adriano on the other hand is as unacceptable to that market as a top 10 pro could be. His major endorsement was Oakley for a long time; the Brazilian arm of the company backed Adriano to the hilt for ages, even helping him move to Orange County in CA to try to crack that US market. Adriano felt he needed the US to give him the OK in order to get a shot at the world title. But he underestimated the sheer antipathy of the US surf audience toward anyone outside the magic CA/HI loop. Even KS has struggled at times with that. To see its power, just look at Kolohe Andino. Kolohe is a very talented surfer but battles to crack 25th on the WCT; his surfing somehow fails to assert itself in that heavy hitting CT world. Yet he is pulling down money second only to JJF, probably in the order of $4m a year. This may make no sense to an Australian surf fan, but it is a demonstration of where the money in pro surfing is being spent, and how little that has to do with the rankings.

[rmb]

Makes perfect sense when you put it that way. So its all business sense about the product and not the sport I guess its easier to sell clothes with JJF or Andino than for a brazzo battler like Adriano. I take it the path to make it to the big stage would be more difficult for the brazilian surfers then if they don't have the financial backing of a californian prodigy.

[Nick Carroll]

More difficult maybe, but there's nothing wrong with difficulty.

[rmb]

More difficult maybe, but there's nothing wrong with difficulty.

Nothing wrong with difficulty its just that from the competitive sport side of things there's not really level playing. In AFL the sport is going towards equalisation were each club has the same monetary resources so a powerful club such as collingwood is not at an advantage over a club like Western Bulldog's. If Mick Fanning or Parko etc is able to develop further due to power of finance e.g. state of the art training and coaching compared to a brazillian such as Adriano the competition is not exactly on a level playing field. Could equalisation apply to pro surfing probably not as it would be a lot more complex but if the ASP want's to grow in the new era a world champ from Brazil or Europe for that matter wouldn't hurt.

Also I just saw that tonight on 3600seconds there is a story on your brother not sure if it will be worth watching will have to see.

[rmb]

Nick total respect to yourself and your brother to have the humility to speak so publicly of personal issues is an admiration. What Tom has done by speaking about not saving his dealers number and facing his problems is greater than being a surfing champion.

Definately worth watching.

[Nick Carroll]

Should I try and convince her or just let her do her own thing

My thought here is to let her go.

She needs to construct her own idea of surfing if she's gonna be any good at it. There's no predictting where she may draw influences from.

If you want to help her, maybe try to find things you feel she might like, put aside your own nigglings and look for what works for her. But give her heaps of space.

What she thinks is fantastic today may not be what she likes tomorrow. Just help her surf as much as possible.

Ps: I have an incredibly fortunate assignment that will keep me out of the book tour loop for a week or so, thus I doubt I'll be at the Sunny Coast one. Post me your copy with a return envelope and I'll sign it off. Or just get Tom to fake my signature next to his

[Nick Carroll]

Nick total respect to yourself and your brother to have the humility to speak so publicly of personal issues is an admiration. What Tom has done by speaking about not saving his dealers number and facing his problems is greater than being a surfing champion.

Definately worth watching.

Thanks rmb. It's terrifying being this far out on a linb. But at least we're both healthy now.

[Skipper]

Everyone loves a good redemption story.

[spork]

Tough being a big brother sometimes. I thought mine was a total loser, then he goes and gives up his life to look after my sick parents. That interview took more guts than any big wave drop. More power to both of you for standing up to face the reality of what must been a terrible strain on everyone. And Tom, you just ratcheted up your cred factor by 100 in my book, I hope that interview becomes mandatory viewing for schools.

[MrMik]

Tough being a big brother sometimes. I thought mine was a total loser, then he goes and gives up his life to look after my sick parents. That interview took more guts than any big wave drop. More power to both of you for standing up to face the reality of what must been a terrible strain on everyone. And Tom, you just ratcheted up your cred factor by 100 in my book, I hope that interview becomes mandatory viewing for schools.

I think it would back-fire if you show it in schools (as in: increase drug use).

[spork]

How so?

[Yuke Hunt]

Placing drug addiction aside for the time being ... hows Nicks rampant use of eyebrows going ... I mean fcuk me ... that a serious set of of hedges growing over those peepers. As good a set of magistrates eyebrows as you'll ever see.

[Nick Carroll]

Everyone loves a good redemption story.

well that's the funny thing. I don't know if it is really. The book gives you a bit of a broader picture. In the end for Tom especially it is a story of losses and gains. He defines himself by that choice to get clean and has gained immense self-awareness as a result yet lost a lot of other things too. It could have been worse and it could have been better and that I suspect is how life turns out for all of us. Celebrity Redemption Porn doesn't do it justice.

womble it is a deeply sobering thing seeing yourself on tv. I thought holy shit I did not know my head was made from a block of wood. But apparently it is.