Owen Wright appears on Fox Sports, Stab tags along

Owen Wright strode into the Fox Sports studio in Sydney’s Pyrmont area this afternoon with aplomb gained over a good year. He’d been invited in by the sports channel for a live talk show spot, before heading off to host a party in King’s Cross later in the evening. We ride the lift upstairs and are asked to sit down. While we wait, Owen, who’s only just signed up to Facebook and Twitter, asks how to ReTweet. He figures it out just before being ushered into the studio, where he speaks briefly (and v confidently) about, among other things, being in three consecutive finals with Kelly Slater, winning in New York, scooping $300k (minus 30 percent tax – ouch!), sis Tyler, Carissa Moore in the Triple Crown and Garret McNamara’s 90-foot wave. Owen answered in a way that was instinctual, not remembered. He then sat down with Stab for a brief chat about elite competitive surfing in 2012.

Stab: So, who’s gonna win the World title next year?
Owen Wright: From the outside looking in, I’m looking at guys like Jordy, Kelly, um…

Are you a contender?I’ll be going for it.

Do you feel confident? Yeah, for sure. To have the pressure of being a contender put on me halfway through the year, which I wasn’t really ready for… that was a learning curve. It’s been the best thing for me, to have that pressure put on, because now I know how much attention you get and what it’s like. So, I feel ready for it and I feel confident.

What changes are you gonna make to your game next year? This year, I didn’t get onto my boards early enough before the Quiky Pro (Snapper), so I’ll be doing that much earlier. And, I’ll also start training a lot earlier. I kinda left it a bit late last time and ended up getting some injuries. I’ll be onto all that before the season starts. Being on the road, you don’t get to train as much. And being so tall, holding my limbs intact is one of the biggest things for me.

*At this point, a tall man with frosted tips appears and grips Owen’s hand: “Owen Wright? You’re a fucken legend. Well done brother, well done. I’ll be watching you.” Owen smiles, laughs a little and looks the man in the eye as he shakes his hand.

What are your biggest strengths at the moment? I guess the fact that I love to compete and I’ve been doing it for so long. I’ve always been competitively surfing since I was so young. I really do like to compete and I think that’s a strong point for myself. The events that’re strong for me are reefbreaks and more hollow waves, like Tahiti, or Cloudbreak next year.

But you didn’t do too badly in the beachies… like, uh, New York. Well, the beachies too, yeah. I feel like I’ve got every chance. I’ve worked for a long time to get my surfing to a level where I can ride barrels, do airs, turns, etc. Something I’ve been working on a lot is my backhand. I don’t think it’s a weakness in the beachbreak situation ’cause you can just hit it really hard, but on the pointbreaks, down-the-line, backside… like, at J-Bay and Snapper, I didn’t do too well this year. I really wanna improve on that. I’m taking the poor results from this year and trying to improve on them.

Who will be the top five guys to win events next year? I think Mick will be there, I think Parko and Taj will be there. As much as all those young guys surf really well, it’s a long year and those older guys all know what it takes. The rookies are rookies for a reason. Getting your head around the whole thing takes a while. Next year, Taj, Mick, Joel… I want myself to be in the top five… and I think Jordy will be there. And, you never know with Kelly. I think he’ll compete. Whether or not he’s got another crack at the title in him is… I’d never doubt him. He will compete next year. And the fact that he’ll be going in there with a “let’s see how it goes” attitude is probably going to make him more dangerous. – Elliot Struck