First port of call was Gage Roads’ riverfront Fremantle venue to sign off on the mighty machine and pressure test the Single Fin taps. Both passed with flying colours. Photo: Scotty Bauer

This $90k Custom Troopy Could Be Yours

Check out the Gage Roads surf team Jack Robinson, Jacob Willcox and Margo taking it for a spin here.

features // Dec 5, 2024

Words by Stab

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Enter the Gage Roads Troopy giveaway here.

Jacob Willcox often finds himself wondering why he lives on the Gold Coast. “I had to learn to surf shitty waves,” the West Australian told Stab earlier this year. “It’s strictly a business decision — I’ll be back home one day.”

Jacob’s not alone. His longtime pal Jack Robinson, who grew up around the corner in Margaret River, now lives a few suburbs away in Queensland. “One day I’ll come home,” says Jack. “Forever.”

While the pair mightn’t be back full time just yet, they did recently fly West alongside ’90s cult hero Brenden Margieson to pick up the Gage Roads 2012 LandCruiser Troop Carrier and head south for a run of spring waves, dirt tracks, and sunset tins. At week’s end the boys gave the Troopy and its 15-grand Dometic fit out the stamp of approval, and now Gage Roads are giving you the chance to win the beast itself, simply by purchasing 2 pints, a six-pack or case of Gage Roads beer or cider next time you’re at a bar or bottle shop. There’s also a share of $250,000 worth of Dometic vouchers up for grabs with eligible purchases and Jack’s Synergy model sleds from SharpEye, signed by Robbo himself. Full details at the bottom of the page.

To ensure no one goes home empty handed, here’s what we learned in a week bouncing around in the back of this custom Toyota cult classic with three of Australia’s most popular surfers.

Gage Roads had a camera crew follow Robbo at the Margaret River Pro this year and he damn did went and won the thing. Worth viewing for the archive footage of young Robbo’s bowl cut alone.

“I was three when I first stood on a surfboard,” says world number four Jack Robinson. “It was at Trigg Beach in Perth, and it was the best feeling ever.”

That feeling has led to an immense career for Jack, and you don’t need to be particularly mystic to forecast his best is yet to come.

After winning Olympic silver, Jack’s return to the West was far from a mellow homecoming, complete with live TV crosses, a dedicated Surfing WA gala day, and brunch with the West Australian premier at Parliament House.

“I need to get a suit!” laughs Jack, the night before his breakfast date with WA’s highest office holder, some three hours drive away. “And where do I find shoes in Perth at eight in the morning?”

Such is the life of Robbo, the pre-teen prodigy who grew up in the surfing world more than he did wider society. The precocious-yet-awkward grom who found comfort in waves of terror is now a humble, married and unfailingly polite father-of-one who still can’t believe young kids are looking up to him the way he did Kelly, Taj and the Irons Bros.

“It’s crazy,” he replies, when I ask him if it seems crazy.

“I think I’m still the same person,” says Jack, after coming home with an Olympic silver medal. “You evolve and you accomplish things and life happens, but I’ve still got the same vibe, still feel like I’m from here.” Photo by Scotty Bauer

Since the WSL Finals wrapped in California, Jack put in a quick stint at his Gold Coast base, spent a month in Bali, hit the new Surf Abu Dhabi pool as a guest of YouTuber MrBeast (he was meant to surf a pool table, this guy did instead) and was contemplating a dash to a Red Bull performance camp in Portugal to prep for the start of the 2025 CT season.

With the WSL Finals moving to Fiji next year, Jack’s world champ window has now been flung wide open. A month in Hawaii before the Lexus Pipe Pro shows how seriously Australia’s next great title hope is taking his mission.

When he needs to be on, he’s on, but when nobody’s looking Jack is exhausted. Despite missing his son crazily, when he’s on the road and away from his family, he’s taking full advantage and sleeping for his country while he can. The boy who grew up in the spotlight has already lived a dozen lives, and now, as a 26-year-old man, has his work-life balance well under control.

“This trip makes me feel like a kid again,” laughs Jack, in between surfs with old sparring partner Jacob. “Driving around, searching for waves, going fishing and having fun, never knowing what’s around the next corner. That was my childhood. Brings back a lot of memories.”

Come for Chippo’s red ute, stay for the good surfing, bad jokes and ugly golf.

The mini-movies are two of three “Chip’s Clips” that Jacob “Chippo” Willcox is releasing as teasers for a bigger project he sees touching down right before Christmas.

“I want it to be a bit of a deeper look at my year,” says Chip. “I didn’t make the cut but I don’t want that to define me. I still got a bunch of waves and had a pretty great time around the world. I’m going to have a few premieres, and use them to raise money and awareness for (mental health charity) 20 Talk.”

While Jacob’s philanthropy alone is admirable, most of the commentary about the edits so far is along the lines of “These are your B-sides?!?”

Willcox has shown a proficiency for not only starring in clips, but managing them on his YouTube channel. He uploads regular full length edits and Shorts, he engages in the comments, and he ties everything together with his Insta offering. Clever play in an era of precarious sponsorships — and with a huge hole looming on his 2025 schedule.

Although Chip didn’t requalify for the CT, he’s already locked in a spot on next year’s Challenger Series, making him one of a dozen men in the world who are now on an eight month competition sabbatical that stretches from their last heats in Saquarema until next year’s Newcastle Surfest. To fill this downtime Jacob’s making his movie, chasing waves whenever they present, and living life as best he can with his beloved Lucie and an army of mates on every coast.

“I was six-months old when Mum and Dad drove across Australia from Brisbane. Dad had seen all of Jack McCoy’s movies, packed up everything they had into a Troop Carrier and drove over here. We ended up in Margarets but have been going up north every year since. That’s me sitting on the front of the Troopy in 2000.” Photos: Big Mick Willcox

“I was stoked to spend some quality time with Jack, a good mate I’ve known my whole life,” says Jacob, of this week on home turf with Gage Roads. “And then to connect on a deeper level with an icon, Margo, who is in the movies that made my parents move West in the first place, driving up and down the coast in that beautiful vehicle? It doesn’t get much better.”

As for Margo, he’s still eternally grateful to be surfing, still shocked he gets paid to do so, and still the people’s champion. One morning we pull up at a heaving beachbreak to find a bunch of local Yallingup lads are paddling out for the second heat of their annual Surf & Turf golf and surfing comp. Although there’s nothing official about the event, and despite Jacob not hesitating to paddle out among the crew, Margo can’t bring himself to do so.

Since the launch of the 47 Series LandCruiser in 1980 the Troop Carrier has gone onto become one of Toyota’s highest selling and most loved models. Although Japan hasn’t had a military since the 1940s, the car has carted armed troops to all corners of the planet, and these days ferries everyone from honest tradesmen to offroad maniacs, guitar slinging hipsters and desert tube pigs of the highest order. Want to enlist with the Troopy brigade? Find out how below. Photo by Scotty Bauer

“I’ll wait,” he grins, before running into Antman Paterson for a quick chat and then a round of selfies with the oldest groupies you’ve ever seen — all men in their 50s. Tell someone in these parts that you’re with Jack and Jacob and they’ll barely raise an eyebrow, but Margo? The man was a king to anyone who surfed in the 90s, and if they’re still surfing today he’s a god.

Margs recently relocated south towards Coffs Harbour, where he not only indulges in one of the east coast’s last untouched stretches of beachbreak, but also looks after a 400-hectare property and occasionally finds himself having to chase sheep around paddocks. When not wrangling livestock, Margo’s a birdwatcher. Turn your back for an instant and you’ll lose him as he wanders off, his Panasonic Lumix FZ80 pointed in the direction of a black-faced cuckoo shrike or red-winged fairywren, trying to capture a crisp shot to add to the thoroughly charming Instagram account he runs with his wife of 18 months, Lorena.

And like that, we’re done. Jack bails to meet WA’s big boss and make a couple of hundred groms’ years. Brenden Margieson is off to Krui with Micah Margieson, on their first ever father-son surf trip. Jacob’s happy to hang in the west a little longer, while the swell hangs in, and plan his next nine months as a moonlighting freesurfer.

With the stamp of approval from the Gage Roads surf team, get your hands on some Gage roads beer or cider this summer to WIN the ultimate dirt track chariot — we’ll see you at checkout.