Mitch Crews Answers Six Questions On A Sydney Street

Mitch Crews is wonderful company. He doesn’t do dull, nor does he coat much with sugar. Having qualified for the World Tour at the end of 2013, and finishing the always-difficult rookie year just short of re-qualifying, Crewsy has since been keeping his game tight and preparing for another Q push. He did a stint in LA last year, enjoyed the snatch-and-grab proximity to Mexico, had some experiences, and now he’s wondering what next. Stab bumped into Crewsy on a street in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and took a concise verbal snapshot of his world right now…

I saw Kelly Slater at (Bondi Beach cafe) Porch and Parlour, getting a coffee, and he just randomly surf-nerded me into it. He said, hey, you wanna go get waves? You should watch this blob going up to Fiji. I just went, that is a fucking brilliant idea. So I called Spawn (Mitch Coleborn), and Jack (Freestone) was supposed to go with us too, but his knee is tweaked. It’s looking like it’s going to be 10 foot… at least, it’s supposed to be. The biggest board I have is a 6’9”.

I’m currently doing an accounting course. I just felt like doing it, mostly because I have a whole lot of mental energy that I need to use, and I thought why not learn something? Why not do that, just to have some idea of that world? I want to do a few more courses too, I’m going to do a nutrition one, and all the stuff I want to learn about. I’ve learnt so much, so quickly. Obviously I’m going to give qualification a real nudge again this year, but basically I’m at that stage where I want to learn things as well as still surfing. I am fully in that headspace again of when I really wanted to qualify. It’s just time you have to put in. I’m definitely not the same person as I was then, I guess now I want to do more fun shit but be way more disciplined about it and have that same goal in my head. Which is still fun because I can train a bunch, surf a fuck load and do some trips.

Evan Geiselman’s accident at Pipe was the heaviest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. I took him to hospital and thought he was gone, for sure, 100 percent. I’ve never had a close family member or friend nearly pass away. I’ve known him for years, we were on Hurley together when we were young and then Reef. And that was the heaviest shit I’ve ever experienced.

I still watch my friends’ heats on the webcast, and I watch Mick because he’s just… the gnarliest. But I’m gonna back Wilko for the world title. My heart is telling my that I don’t think he will, but I just want to back him and put that Fuck Yeah energy out there. Realistically, Medina or someone will have a crazy late charge and win everything. But Wilko being number one is amazing for surfing.

I’m up in the air about where I’m going to live next. I definitely want to experience living in Sydney’s eastern suburbs. I want to do new stuff, I’ve always said that. Like, LA last year was a sick new experience, and I got to do rad stuff. I ticked that off the list. I’ve always loved Sydney, so I’m thinking about it, but I’m going to be traveling so much this year… But Sydney, or Bali, I don’t know yet. Sydney is number one right now, though. I like a lot of people here and there’s a lot of cool stuff I want to get involved in. Seeing music and stuff.

I’ve been playing around with some music stuff, but it’s just all for fun. Just a little hobby and an enjoyment. I’ve got a mixer and a little synthesiser that I muck around on, but really I know nothing about that world. I understand it on some level, I just don’t really get the science behind it. But it’s all just for fun.