Jack Freestone in Mexico

All Photos by Pat Stacey

Jack Freestone is well-grounded. ‘Specially for a handsome, eighteen-year-old junior world champ who leads a very charmed, globetrotting life. The kid recently went down to Mexico for the first time to wrap some clips for Billabong’s new film,Blow Up (which looks awesome), and boy, did he score. Stab caught up with the Gold-Coaster for a quick three-pack questionnaire, re: Me’hico. Oh, and we realise there’s no barrel shots here, but you’ll see those in a clip that’s coming real soon.

Stab: Has a Mex trip been on the Freestone radar for a while?

Jack Freestone: The first time I saw waves in Mex was when they ran the Rip Curl Search WT event there. I was blown-away. The wave looked like a longer, better, improved Kirra, so I always wanted to get there. The trip was a late call. We weren’t even going to go, but we ended up getting the last flight, just before the swell hit. I was travelling with my coach, Brent Savage, who’s also a really good friend. We hit up the points of Salina Cruz. When we rocked up, it was nothing short of amazing. Just point after point of below-sea level barrels. We scored some of the best waves of our lives.

What spots did y’frequent and where’s the footage going? Mainly, we just surfed the points, which were just these long, barreling rights. Really more of a slower, more powerful wave, but really easy to surf. I was filming for the Billabong movie, Blow Up. The work wasn’t too hard, it’s sorta easy to get good footage when you’ve got such good waves. Being under the pump to get clips wasn’t bad, ’cause I’m usually always filming anyway, so it just felt normal.

What sticks out in your mind about the trip? The sketchiest thing was trying to get money out of the ATM in town. I got dropped in the middle of the city by myself and it was scary ’cause I didn’t know my way around or where the heck I was. I’ve also heard a lotta dodgy stories about people getting robbed there, so I was freaking a little bit (laughs). The lasting impressions I think I’ll have of my first trip there will be the amount of fun I had – everything, from surfing the most amazing waves of my life to being with friends and having good times.

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