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INTERVIEW: FRED PATACCHIA
Rapping out with Hawaii's most professional 'pro' surfer
By:
Mike Cianciulli
Photos: Tim McKenna/Tim-McKenna
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It's mid-May and Teahupoo is four-foot and oil glass.
Perfect. No one out except for Fred Patacchia and a few of his friends. They're trading waves and laughs. Kamalei Alexander and Fred begin talking about how this session is far superior to any surf Teahupoo has seen during the Billabong Pro waiting period over the last four years.
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YOU BEGAN THE TOUR WITH THE IRONS BROTHERS, THEN BARCA AND PANCHO, NOW YOU HAVE DUSTY AND KEKOA. WHAT'S IT LIKE BEING THE LONE PERMANENT HAWAIIAN FIXTURE ON TOUR? I'd say I'm fairly young on the World Tour and the commentators and a lot of the media are like, 'Oh, he's the veteran now.' That makes me sound old. [Laughs.] But I think it's kind of cool. I got to see a lot of generations. I was on tour with Sunny [Garcia]. My first year on tour, I traveled with Kalani Robb -- which was his last year on tour. And then I got to travel a lot with the Irons brothers. And now we got Dusty and Kekoa -- Kekoa travels with me everywhere I go. So I try and give them as much tips and info on things -- like where to eat, what boards to bring to Tahiti and stuff, or to J-Bay. But for the most part, those guys got it pretty dialed and figured out. WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE YOUR LONGEVITY TO? I'm just really competitive. I don't think there's a secret to my success. I wouldn't really call it success just yet either. I'm always the guy that's in the teens -- the 11s, 12s, 15s, 16s, whatever. Honestly I feel like I could do better, but it's difficult. There are a lot of great surfers out there. And to crack the Top 10 is pretty nuts. With the cards that I'm dealt, I think I've done pretty kick-ass. I just want to stay on tour. I'm a competitor; I love to compete. I'm not really one of those guys that wants to sit in Bali or go on all these surf trips and get clips to try and be in the next surf video. That's not the way I'm wired. I like competing; I like surfing against the best guys in the world. I'm one of those guys that doesn't really look at free surfers as the best surfers in the world. Everyone's like, 'Oh, if he were to compete, he'd be World Champion.' Well, I've seen them compete and they got smoked. Some people don't think that Bede Durbidge has World Title potential, but on any given day that guy will smoke more than half the people in the world. A lot of us will that are on tour. I'm an advocate of professional surfing and being able to put your money where your mouth is in thirty minutes, rather than a whole year of free surfing and video clips. That's just the part of surfing that I enjoy. HOW IS THE TOUR DIFFERENT FROM LAST YEAR? It's f*ckin' different, man. [Laughs.] We're clipping guys, which is kind of gnarly. We're getting rid of sixteen guys. I'm looking at guys, like my boys, like Dusty and Kekoa -- they're kind of on the cut line. And I'm thinking to myself, 'Should we really be doing this?' We're losing out on these guys. We're also losing out on our only Portuguese surfer [Tiago Pires], if he doesn't make it, a few French guys, a few international guys...and we're an international sport, so I think we might lose a bit of our international appeal cutting the numbers. But I feel like it's good to cut the numbers because instead of a four-day event we have a three-day event and we can utilize the swell to get better waves. But at the same time I think people love to root for the underdog. And with only thirty-two guys, that's not too many underdogs left. So it's changing, and not only do you have to make the halfway cut for thirty-two, you have to make the end of the year cut -- you have to be in the top twenty-two. And then the QS guys...I think they're only taking eight, not fifteen. So, we're just basically repackaging the way we do professional surfing and it's a crazy year. It's the worst year for guys to make it. I feel bad. They don't even get a full year to show what they got. But at the same time, you can't really feel bad for them, 'cause if you do, it could be you falling off. I only hope that the decisions that we made collectively as the WPS and with the ASP and with all the sponsors are the right decision for professional surfing. YOU GOT OFF TO A DECENT START IN OZ. HAVE YOU BEEN DOING ANYTHING DIFFERENT THAN LAST YEAR? Yeah, I completely revamped my surfboards. I've been riding the same boards for the last five years. I knew what the board was gonna do, I knew what I could do on it, and it was just stale and really boring. I didn't like free surfing and I didn't even really like the way I was surfing in competition last year. In Portugal, Bobby [Martinez] let me try a few of his boards and I was like, 'Oh, these are different.' I wouldn't necessarily say that they were better than my boards, but it was just like a breath of fresh air. I was riding something that's completely different -- it had single concave and thinner rails. I basically brought it to Kerry Tokoro, Eric Arakawa, Chris Gallagher, and a couple other guys and I just said 'Look, I don't want you to copy this thing, but I kind of want the same idea. I want a flat rocker, single concave and thinner. Just make it.' And I got pretty good boards from all of them. "I'm an advocate of professional surfing and being able to put your money where your mouth is in thirty minutes."
-- Fred Patacchia
WHAT DO YOU THINK IT WILL TAKE TO WIN A WORLD TITLE? I'll be honest...I'm never gonna win a World Title [laughs]. I don't even really know if I want to win a World Title. I don't even really know if I can. I don't think I'm consistent enough at a lot of the spots like Bells, J-Bay or Snapper. It's difficult -- for guys on their backhand in those spots -- to be consistent throughout the whole year. You see the Hobgoods do it. I've made the quarters out at J-Bay, the semis at Bells. But in order to do 'em back-to-back...Snapper is a right, Bells is a right, and J-Bay -- those are the first events of the year. So to be that consistent on your backhand is pretty difficult. I'm not saying it's impossible, but with guys like Parko, Kelly and Mick -- who are just so good at fronthand surfing -- it's hard to compare. So statistically, I'd say...I'm not gonna win [laughing]. I know I could be a lot more focused with what I do. I like to have a couple beers at the end of the day or have a couple glasses of wine with my girlfriend. And I like to get drunk, too. I like to have one too many as well. I'm not afraid to say it because I feel like I'm a pretty responsible guy. But at the same time I know what I'm capable of with what I'm doing now. And I think if I were to go the extra mile and change my life habits, I could do a little bit better. I think I could crack the top ten. But winning a World Title, I think it's pretty far fetched for myself [laughs]. EXPLAIN YOUR POST-HEAT CALL OUT OF THE ANNOUNCERS AT BELLS. Yeah, that was kind of a spur of the moment thing. I was out there in the lineup and I was just thinking to myself, 'God, these guys just cannot stop talking about Owen [Wright].' And it was really nothing about Owen, it was about: I want to hear what my scores are, I want to know how much time's left, I want to know what I need in order to get into first. While you're sitting out there at Bells, it's not really that consistent, so I started listening to the commentators (which I really never do). But I started listening and they didn't say one thing about me or Drew Courtney. It just seemed like it was really heavy in Owen's favor. And you feel a little defeated like, 'These guys are over me.' And you start thinking, 'Wow, Owen's so cool. He's so much cooler than I am.' You start thinking, 'I shouldn't win this heat.' You start losing confidence. I'm pretty passionate, so I got pretty angry. I'm splashing water and I want to say something. And I was thinking to myself, 'I need to win this heat so I can get my post-heat interview and say something and people can hear it.' So it kind of drove me. I paddled up the point, I got another wave, I got a six-something, it put me into first, and I went over and sat on Owen. So I won, I came in, I said my piece, and it was a little bit more controversial than everyone thought it was going to be but it was fun. It was probably one of the coolest things that happened that whole event [laughs]. It was all over the news -- people were tripping out. I got a lot of people coming up to me and telling me, 'I'm glad you said something.' And some people get it twisted like, 'Oh, you don't like Owen.' It has nothing to do with that. I like that kid; he's super cool. I apologized to him for sitting on him after the heat because I don't really like sitting on guys, but I knew I had to do it. He never cared. He's super cool. TALK ABOUT YOUR WEBSITE, INSURFNEWS.COM. Insurfnews.com is Andrew Oliver's and my website. It's this rogue media outlet that really has no strings attached to any major company. We want to be able to say what we want to say. But we're not extreme. We also wanted to cover the guys that we feel should be covered that are on the World Tour. A lot of guys that are outside of the top ten don't really get talked about. If you're getting 33rds all year, you don't get any post-heat interviews. So we try and bring out those guys as much as we can and interview them and get them free surfing so people can see who these guys are 'cause they're pretty darn cool. I mean, one year at Bells Beach, Jihad Khoder was living in his van with his buddy. And mind you, it wasn't like a camper van. We're talking about a VW van, super small with two dudes in it. He had to buy his own wetsuit 'cause he didn't have one, and he was riding on a buckled board the whole time. I was just so surprised on the way that guy was living. I think that's a cool story in itself. We didn't get it [laughs], but no one else did. I tried to interview him. But, it's just something that we do for fun. If it takes off and goes somewhere, that'd be great because I'd like to see some sort of media source that knows what's going on with the conflicts between the ASP and the WPS, between the ASP and the sponsors, and the surfers as well -- their take on their professional sport and how they see it going. There are a lot of things that go on that people don't really see and a lot of things that we don't even cover because it's kind of gnarly. DO YOU FORESEE A CAREER IN SURF MEDIA AFTER YOUR TOUR DAYS ARE OVER? Actually, I do. I don't want to be a beach commentator. I don't really want to be a webcast commentator, but I would like to be like an ESPN analysis kind of guy, like what Troy Aikman and Warren Sapp and those guys do for the NFL. I wanted to sit behind a camera in a little studio with a couple other surfers and one other guy that's actually a sportscaster guru and just shoot the shit about surfing. Talk about who's doing well and who's over-hyped, the World Title contention, just that kind of stuff. I'm a big surf groupie. I'm a fan, that's why I started InSurfNews. I like talking about surfing; I like debating with people over surfing. If you go to InSurfNews and you comment, I pretty much comment back to everyone that goes on there and I try and give an honest answer. I would enjoy doing that, but that's the only thing I would want to do. Other than that I'm trying to get my eggs all aligned to where I can retire after surfing because I want to be one of those guys that doesn't just blow all their money. [Laughs.] WHAT'S YOUR TAKE ON ALL THE NEW SCHOOL, MOD-COL PROGRESSION RECENTLY? I love that question. [Laughs.] I think half the guys that are video surf stars can't even do a decent bottom turn, can't do a decent top turn, and can barely pull into the barrel. You'll see these videos and onshore is the new offshore. Basically, small waves are the new big waves unless you're a big wave surfer guy like Greg Long. The [videos] don't really have that. They've still got Taj and the Hobgoods, which is cool because you'll see them pull into big North Point and get big barrels at Tahiti and stuff. And they can do the airs and the big tricks and whatnot. But I just don't like these videos where it's just one clip, one clip, one clip. I like to see guys put a whole wave together, where you're doing a big turn out the back, maybe an air in the middle...air 360 or sushi roll or whatever you want to do, but just surf the wave. Don't pump all the way down the line, wait for that one section and try and do an air and then don't even make it and blow the whole wave. But I think that the main guys that are starting that movement are on tour and doing what I'm saying. Like Dane Reynolds can put a whole wave together. He's got a great bottom turn, great top turn, and he can punt bigger airs than anyone I know. Dusty Payne does it really well. Jordy Smith obviously does it really good. All these new up-and-coming kids should look up to those guys and be like, 'Alright, I need to be able to do a top turn, pull in, and do a solid bottom turn.' Because if you want to be in World Title contention, you have to do that. It's not just a skate park out there at J-Bay, at Bells, at Pipeline, and Tahiti; you've got to know how to surf. You got to know your way around small surf and big surf. I think that's why competitive surfing has the true guys that are the best in the world because they can do it all. But it is cool to watch these kids do flips and sh*t. MORE SURF NEWS SURFLINE HOME PAGE |
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Comments: (29) Add Your Comment
Davo 06/21/2010 05:31 PM
Exactly! Well said. The best surfers in the world are (and should be) at the top of the world tour. Groms grow up in a culture these days where airs are all that matters.
Lito 06/19/2010 12:44 PM
I dig seeing comments posted from my surf heroes from long ago. It's cool to recognize names and see that the likes of Shaun Tomson are doing what I always do read interviews and admire good photos. Great job Freddy P. you definitely ariculated perfectly the opinion many of us have of fragmented video surfing, you have a knack for clarity of expression. Thanks for keeping it real!
Alex Patterson (regular foot, but hoping to start a discussion) 06/18/2010 10:23 PM
WT goofies should be VERY upset at the venues: Snapper, Bells/Winki, and J-Bay = all long waves that section down the line & onshore on final afternoon as the swell drops. By contrast, the main lefts (Chopes and Pipe) are big perfect drag-butt barrels that don't prejudice regular foots (maybe favoring them, not to mention Backdoor). Exceptions are tricky waves Cloudbreak & Mundaka (if it breaks) = goofs do A+. Brazil/France toss-up. World champ/Top 10 illegitimate in this system. Feel for Fred.
Layne Inouye 06/18/2010 09:34 PM
Freddy P is talking about the real deal. Being a judge and watching on line a lot and really understanding it, you got to give it up to all the surfers on the tour. Its not all peaches and cream. You have to give it up to all those guys. Sponsers can only get you so far. The rest is up to you. Any one can make a good video now days. But a lot of the kids, thats all that counts. They have to prove it when it counts. Talk is cheap. Go FREDDY "You can do it". Never give up. All of Hawaii supports U
mikypicon 06/18/2010 08:52 PM
put more lefts on tour and u will see freddy in contention for the world title..no doubt
Tsuki 06/18/2010 01:27 PM
total package... well spoken, intelligent, and charming. More please!
whamo 06/18/2010 11:37 AM
I agree with the columnist. Surfers need to ask themselves if they're riding surfboards or skateboards. Are they riding waves or riding gusts of air?
Aaron New Zealand 06/17/2010 05:54 PM
Finnally a surfer who speaks the truth freddy p has been one of my favs but is now my number one.. I agree with mod col airs are cool but i like seeing a wave ridden from the point to the inside linking tricks.. freddy please come surf gisbourne new zealand and if you do post it on your site.
doug silva 06/17/2010 04:57 PM * PREMIUM MEMBER - Real Name
Freddy is awesome and he is surfing better every year. Great speed and technique. Wish I did not suck in contests these past couple of decades would have enjoyed some good times with the boys on tour. Oh well, Go Freddy....
Cali4nia 06/17/2010 03:16 PM
Nice responses freddy, way to get yourself back on the map. You should of just called out Dion when they asked about mod collective haha its obvious your talking about that little hobbit
Merv 06/17/2010 01:21 PM
spot on about the modern collective vid. I've debated with my friends saying that above the lip stuff was incredible but on wave surfing was lacking by some of the surfers in the vid.
Shaun Tomson 06/17/2010 09:51 AM
Good stuff from a power man who is not scared to stand behind a strong and intelligent opinion.
Richard Hong 06/17/2010 08:52 AM
one of the best surfer interviews ive come across..
was a breath of fresh air...
i will officially be rooting for freddy p...
hes a cool mutha f**ka
Terry Thompson 06/17/2010 08:00 AM * PREMIUM MEMBER - Real Name
I am a little surprised that someone who says they are very competative would sell himself short on the possibility of winning a world title. I do believe that he would have a real chance if there were more lefts on the tour. Fred's surfing has come a long way in the last 2 years. He is like a modern day Luke Egan, super strong fundamentals and the working mans hero. Keep up the good work Fred...enjoy!
Kyle 06/16/2010 08:25 PM
View All Comments (29 comments)
Spot on Fred. No one has commented about the whole mod-col thing better.
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