Stab Scorecard: 460 surfs in 440 days

We take you back to the days of grom. Teenaged, surfed stoked, sun-bleached with mom dropping you off at the beach so you and your shithead friends can run amuck, safely sputter over-used curse words through braces with squealing voices and do your best not to piss off the older gen. The good old days when your body was still rubber, you could spend eight hours in the water and your only nutrients were candy, soda and Mickey D’s.

Now, make your acquaintance with Tully Wylie who just turned the tender age of 15. You see, Rip Curl makes these GPS watches. They have a database of all the logged sessions and Tully here’s the surfing-est grom who owns the watch. He’s not just the surfing-est grom, he’s the surfing-est. “I surf most mornings,” Tully tells Stab, “and most nights. I probably surf at least 10 times a week, but it’s really conditions pending. If it’s pumping I surf at least surfing twice a day.” The young pup here goes to school in-between sessions. And as we all did at some point, sits in class, staring at the clock with his right leg jiggling, waiting for that moment he can get back in the water. “I just love being in the ocean and surfing everyday,” he says. “It’s my favourite sport, it’s my favourite everything! I’m just a two minute drive from the beach, so it’s easy and I just love it.”

Tully likes to throw some tail from time to time. Photo: Nichol Wylie

In the past 440 days Mr Wylie’s tallied up 460 surfs and that number’s actually higher. Which is enough to make any surfer proud of their time spent in the water a bit bashful. “I’d say if I have 10 surfs in a week I probably only wear the watch for six or seven of those sessions.” In his recorded sessions he’s caught 6599 waves and has spent nearly 19 total days in the water (that’s 456 hours!), and has traveled a total 1527.4 miles (2458.1 km) between caught waves and paddling. “My favourite part about the watch is seeing how fast I’m going, you can view it right after each wave. Then I can go home and compare it to how fast Mick (Fanning) went.” The fastest wave Tully scrapped into was at Winkipop; 28.1 mph (45.3 km/h). His longest wave was at Lennox Point; 352 yards (322 m).

“I just want to surf with my friends and compete with each other on who surfs the best and gets the biggest waves. I wish it barreled more here. Getting barreled’s my favourite thing ever.” His best recorded session took place at Uluwatu in Indo this September. He tallied up 40 waves: “I got back from Bali recently. We absolutely scored, I went with my whole family and we just surfed all day.”

Owen-esq backhand, some more meat on those bones will yield the power. Photo: Nichol Wylie

Tully’s in a club on the GPS app with some friends and people he surfs with. “It’s fun, there’s heaps of good groms and heaps of older guys. We compete with each other to see who surfs the fastest and spends the most time in the water. But it’s really all about who surfs the best and has the most fun.”

“I just want to catch as many waves as possible and surf as much as I can, my favourite sessions are the one’s where I catch the most waves.” In the time Tully’s been recording his sessions, he’s gone through four boards. “I broke one completely in half in Indo, the others I just buckled. Right now I’m riding all Channel Islands shapes. I have a 5’6 flyer that’s my groveler, a 5’8 Fred Rubble and when it’s good I ride my 5’10 Rook 15, that’s the magic one.”

“I want to surf like Owen Wright because he’s also a goofy foot, but I also love Mick Fanning he just surfs so good. And, John John because he does the biggest airs and is so calm in heavy waves.”