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Yeah my name's different. It's actually
got a gnarly meaning.
It means God will judge so
thanks Mom.
I got into surfing
when I was young. I mean, I don't remember my first wave
or anything like that, cause I was just always around the ocean
My dad, he surfed.
He shaped boards and my mum
fished she loved fishing.
My brother and my sisters we'd just hang on the beach and dad would push me into waves
and stuff like that
so just as long as I remember I've been surfing. Yades was a classic kid like when he was
growing up. He was cheeky
as f@#k ya know, super cheeky, always playing pranks on hoops of people and... but you know,
he's an animal in the surf.
Gracetown
is probably the best spot to grow up surfing as- being a kid.
It's a big bay, you've got North Point on one side which is like
one of the best waves in Australia.
Anytime that was breaking I was out there with my friends and family and
that bay was,
was kinda me when I was younger.
Where I'm from and where Yadin's from is
pretty simple living it's just country towns. There's not much besides
wineries and
really nice beaches.
There isn't that much to do besides surf if you're a kid. So we'd, we'd surf
all the time.
It's a good place to grow up.
Well Yadin tried for a
few years to qualify for the World Tour which is
the top 32 in the world. It's really
tough. Only a few
guys make it ya know,
so he knew that if
he got a result at the US Open last year, he could qualify for the World Tour. Going into Huntington and needing a
result, I knew what I needed to do and that felt good.
I had an early morning heat against Royden.
Yadin Nicol, live action, on his back end. Boom. Nice snap.
I snuck through that one and I gotta, I got a couple
waves that I made work. Yadin Nicol
right here taking off.
That is what we're talking about.
I ended up getting Kolohe in the semis.
That was a pretty good heat. I mean he was
surfing great the whole event. He was kind of that guy that was blowing up.
Kolohe Andino with the arial rotation. Whoa! Kolohe.
What's it like in the
dying moments of a heat Yadin
when you know that Kolohe needs about a seven
and he gets a wave and you hear the crowd roaring?
Kolohe can get a seven in his sleep, so when he did that blast I was
pretty rattled to be honest.
I got a good left.
Backed it up with an average right
and umm, at the end he needed a score
so it was kind of a nail biter in that sense
That was critical.
Frick, I'm over the moon. At the start of the week
there's no way
I would've thought I'd be in the final with Kelly. You like it?
Yeah, I love it, I mean, what's not to like.
I didn't think I'd ever be in
the US Open final at Huntington.
Those waves don't really suit me that much at all. I've never really had a good result
there. I've never
got through that many heats. I've never done good there. So I was like, "Alright this is actually gonna be fun."
You know, there were peaks everywhere and a little wedge came that
I was deepest for and I could've got and I was like,
"Ahh, that's a small one." I let Kelly get it. I should've got it.
He saw something that I didn't in that wave and
that was just, that was it. I think what happened was I got that 8.5 to start and he knew
he had to get a big score to get in the heat and um...
so he was just going to be patient and wait for a good, big one.
It couldn't have gone any slower that final.
I was just
looking around everything was so surreal just like "F#@K look at
all these people watching
and I can't catch a wave."
There's guys on the pier going, "Hurry up and catch a wave!"
And I was just like, "Really? You f#@khead. You think I'm having fun?"
I said, "Kelly, I don't give a f#@k, if you're on the next good one, I'm going." And he's like, "Yeah, that's cool, I feel-"
He was like, "Usually like, I'd be- I'd want
the ocean to go flat, but you know, this is- this is heavy I kinda want you to get a wave right now."
And I caught a close out, went straight.
That was it, that was the final.
Well, I guess Yadin wanted me to win he just didn't catch any waves.
He was just sitting out waiting for the big sets.
You know if he'd got it he probably would've thrown one of those big rotations but he just
he just never got the wave.
I mean, it was the worst thing ever, seeing someone get cheered up the beach
I was just like, "Alright how do I find a way to get up, put my head down, get through this
crowd?" That's all I wanted to do, I wanted to just get out of there.
Like, glad that's over.
On to the next.
I like going on a surf trip before a contest.
We were having so much fun. The waves were pumping.
I'd just stuck a big air and I was
feeling good.
I got another one and
I felt it snap.
Life was good
before that. Life was really good.
They called the ambulance
and I was just sitting there tripping out like, "Whoa,
I don't think I'll be surfing for a while."