Mitch Coleborn

Tail-riding goofy-foot hucksterseeks tropical troughs and large paychecks for good times…

Talk about yourself I look like Leonardo DiCaprio in Romeo and Juliet – nah, fuck that. You have to meet me. I’m not comfortable putting myself out there and I would never go on a dating game. Please think about your most significant accomplishment. Now, tell me all about it? When I bought my first house on the Sunny Coast. I will live in that area for the rest of my life. It’s very mellow, way more than the Goldy but more upbeat than Yamba. There is a bunch of talented people coming from there but you’ll never go anywhere if you don’t leave. It’s a good place to raise your kids and surf and there’s just heaps less people in the water. Where is your favorite place in the world? New York was fucking crazy. I loved the vibe. I was only there for a day but the taxi ride in and seeing how the buildings are so tall and close together and there was so many people. There’d be days there with only be an hour of light on that city. Kai [Neville] and I got a coffee one morning and walked down to Central Park and it was covered in snow and all the lakes were frozen over. Amazing. What is your greatest strength? Once I have something in my head, I never fail doing it. It could be getting a rack of lamb from the shops and cooking myself a BBQ like I did the other day, to larger things with my surfing, like winning the junior series and getting some good clips in The Modern Collective, which I think I did. I had a big part in a big project and I am pretty rapt about that. What is your greatest weakness? I am easily persuaded by people and can be talked into doing shit I might not want to do. What qualities do you feel a good human should have? A kind heart and to not be a bullshitter. I hate cunts that talk shit and tell little fibs along the way. They’re annoying. Trustworthy, honest dudes with a kind heart. But they have to have a personality, too. What qualities do you admire? The kind of person that is a leader and not a follower. If you had to live your life over again, what one thing would you change? I would live in the snow. Snowboarding is one of the funnest things I’ve ever done. The vibe and atmosphere of the snow is so sick. It’s another world. When did you decide on this career? When I dropped out of school at 16, I decided on it. I thought, maybe I would be a pro footballer when I was real young. I was into all sports, whether soccer, football or motorbikes. Motorbikes were short lived. We had a bit of acreage and I had a motorbike. We moved when I was 13 to right near the beach and that’s when I began surfing everyday. What goals do you have in your career? I haven’t set any qualifying goals because of how uncertain the tour is right now and how many outlets there are in surfing. I want to fulfill my potential and keep progressing with the sport. A massive fear of mine is being left behind. One day you are this rad dude and the next no one cares. How do you define success? Happiness. Having a nice family and kids and knowing that I have provided will make me happy. What does it take to be successful in this career? You need a personality, not necessarily loud, but your own spin on things. Your sponsor is a huge part in who gets to become a pro surfer. The people that look up to you. You can be a pro if you’re getting paid 20k and doing the WQS all year but you have to appeal to the right market to earn a proper living. What accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction in your life?Being a paid surfer.

What motivates you? Other surfers and even other sports. When I see someone do something amazing, or how hard I see someone training for another sport, I go, “Fuck, look what I’m doing, just a threeo on a surfboard.” Where do you want to be five years from now? Doing exactly what I’m doing, just 10 times richer. How do you handle verbal conflict? I don’t like getting in verbal conflicts because you look like an idiot. I was in Morocco this year [on the Modern Collective trip, from our hard-cover book] and I thought this guy was gonna spear me in the face. We surfed this gnarly local wave that breaks three times a year and they’re all kooks but they snake you. I took off and looked back and this guy was just standing up and then fell off. I surfed it to the end of the point and he paddled all the way down and unloaded on me, half in his language and half in English. I just sat there and copped it. I felt like a kid at school and getting yelled at by some fucking kook. You’d think they would have been stoked we were there. Who do they look to in surfing? I felt twofoot tall. How do you handle physical conflict? Depends how drunk I am. If it was the middle of the day and that guy had have swung at me, I wouldn’t hit back. There is a line though, if I’m about to get my head bashed in. When you’re out on the town you feel a little more confident and get in there and have a swing. I haven’t been in a fight since Bali last year. I threw a drink on my mate and he threw it back on me but it missed and hit the Hawaiian guy behind me. He lost it and gave me a nudge on the cheek. I laughed at him. Is money important to you? I like to have nice things.