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JAMIE STERLING WINS BIG-WAVE WORLD TOUR
Catching up with Hawaiian charger after truncated XXL season
By:
Mike Cianciulli
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March 4, 2011
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Starting a new surf world tour is not an easy task.
Just ask Gary Linden. But the key is getting the surfers behind it (which he did). Next step is getting the sponsor backing (which is happening). But the third, uncontrollable variable is being on the receiving end of an XXL swell. (Or, ideally, a few XXL swells.)
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HOW DID YOU FIRST RECEIVE THE NEWS THAT YOU BECAME THE SECOND-EVER BIG WAVE WORLD CHAMPION? I had been obviously tracking my rating on the tour all year and I was waiting for Maverick's and Todos to happen. That was going to change things as far as the ratings go. Either it'd increase my lead even more or have my lead decrease depending on who won. But these events didn't get to happen this year, due to lack of big swells. So the closing periods ended on the 28th of February and it was like...I won. [Laughs]. So I just kind of waited for the February 28th date. I was hoping that there would be a swell and I could win it with Todos or Maverick's happening. But hey, a win's a win. I'll take it. YOU FINISHED THE SEASON WITH A FIRST, A THIRD, AND A FOURTH, MAKING ALL THREE FINALS (AFTER COMING IN AS AN ALTERNATE IN TWO OF THOSE EVENTS). HOW'D YOU COME THROUGH WITH SUCH CONSISTENCY? I think it's been a big turnaround from last year for me because I was injured during one of the best big-wave seasons. While I was injured, I spent a whole lot of time watching the world's best surfers surf the world's biggest waves. And I think taking notes last year helped. I'd pick apart what they were doing. But my drive and motivation and determination was so strong this year as well because I missed last year. I just wanted to surf as best I can and be precise. Not just go out and only charge. I wanted to charge, but I also wanted to charge with a strategy. And the combination of charging and strategy was how I played my year this year. FOR THOSE WHO MIGHT NOT KNOW, EXPLAIN THE TOUR STRUCTURE. There are five stops on the tour. We start in Chile, and then the tour moves over to Peru and then goes to Nelscott, Oregon. The last two events are Maverick's and Todos. We try to have a fifteen-foot minimum -- thirty-foot face minimum for each event. There are twenty-four guys in each event. The heats are about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on the conditions and the time that we start. There are usually twelve locals from each area, and then twelve internationals, along with a whole list of alternates. And it's four six-man heats in the first round, and then two semi-finals, creating a six-man final and the end result. And the top three events count towards the overall championship. WHAT MAKES COMPETING IN BIG WAVES MORE CHALLENGING THAN YOUR AVERAGE SURF CONTEST? The challenging aspect is obviously the conditions we're up against. You have to be mentally and physically in shape to win a contest, let alone make the final, because along the way you're taking beat-downs and wipeouts as well as enduring the cold conditions. Plus it's two, hour-long heats to get to the final -- but then you have another hour in the final. You have to be a waterman. By the end of the final, you're drained. Emotionally too. Because you're not just sitting out there waiting for sets, freesurfing. You're sitting there waiting for sets with competition nerves in your stomach. Mix that with big waves and the world's best big-wave surfers wanting to beat you and it's a lot of pressure. ARE THERE TACTICS OUT THERE, OR IS IT MERELY SURVIVAL? It's very tactical. Like I said, the reason why I think I did so well is I strategized and I know how to charge. But before I didn't really have much of a strategy. It's not always about going out there and catching the biggest wave. You have to catch two good waves during each heat. And there are guys that have been competing for many years in these events. So it is a contest. You have to treat it like you would on WCT. Like, Kelly Slater, he's the world's best because he's tactical and he strategizes in every event. As well as he surfs amazing. It's like a chess game. "The reason why I think I did so well is I strategized and I know how to charge."
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THERE ARE MULTIPLE RIDERS ON A WAVE? They try not to throw an interference unless the guy in front totally messes up the other guy's wave. But if the guy in front kicks out without hindering the deeper guy's score, they won't give an interference. But the guy deeper will get a higher score. Unless the guy was too deep and wasn't going to make the wave anyway. So it's a fine line -- you can go deep, but then we can drop in if we know he's not going to make it. Gary [Linden], the contest director, made this rule because certain guys will use that tactic and try to go deep and take every wave. And there's only a certain amount of waves in each heat. TELL US ABOUT THE EQUIPMENT CHOICES YOU MADE FOR EACH VENUE. Rusty Preisendorfer has been shaping my boards. And I've been riding quads at most of the events. Except at Peru, I rode a thruster because the conditions were kind of bumpy and I tend to ride quads on cleaner days. So I rode quads in Chile and Oregon, and then Peru I rode a thruster. And they're all 9'8". OUT OF ALL THREE EVENTS, WHICH ONE HAD THE BIGGEST, BEST SURF? I'd say Oregon had the biggest surf, for sure. And it was clean too. It was a very rare, Oregon clean day. I had visualized bumpy, grey, cloudy conditions, but it was actually really warm. I actually wore a 3/2 in Oregon. It was like 70 degrees out. So it was an awesome day. And it was all new to us because none of us had really paddled Nelscott too much. Guys have been towing it, but now the paddle push is on and people are paddling into new realms that have never been paddled into. And Nelscott was one of them. WHAT WAS THE LARGEST WAVE YOU RODE IN COMPETITION? Probably like a 20-footer [Hawaiian scale]. So like a 40- to 50-foot face. In Peru and Oregon, I caught similar-sized waves. IT WAS A RELATIVELY QUIET WINTER IN THE NORTH PACIFIC. WHAT DID YOU DO TO KEEP YOURSELF OCCUPIED? Well, I live right here at Rocky Point, so it was a really good year for a lot of really fun-sized days of freesurfing. I've been on a really good routine of doing yoga everyday. And then I've also been on the P90X and Insanity regime. It's a video workout that I've been doing in the evenings with my friend Billy. So P90X and Insanity in the evenings, yoga in the morning, and surf midday. I tried to stay as fit as possible knowing that I was in first place and wanted to defend that title if Mavs or Todos came around. I just wanted to be the fittest guy out there when they called it. I guess I'll just have to stay fit for Chile, which is the next event when the tour starts up. WHAT DO YOU SEE FOR THE FUTURE OF BIG WAVE SURFING? The future of big wave surfing will see guys paddling spots that have only been tow spots, like we're starting to see already. And guys riding shorter boards with more volume -- to still be able to catch the wave and have the paddling power, but going shorter to promote maneuvering on the big waves. Throwing down tighter carves and tighter curves on the waves. And going for barrels. 2010/2011 Final Rankings: 1st Jamie Sterling - 2509 2nd Kohl Christensen - 1300 3rd Anthony Tashnick - 1257 4th Carlos Burle - 1250 5th Marcos Monteiro - 1131 MORE SURF NEWS SURFLINE HOME PAGE |