You Can’t Stop The Music

Mitch Coleborn is fabulous. Australian (Sunshine Coast), entrepreneur (Epokhe), goofy (footer) and now, contest winner (Saquarema Prime). It was Mitch’s first major win and he did it without hucking any airs. Which is odd because Mitch does some of the most powerful airs imaginable. Now, he’s about to fly to Fiji and compete in the Volcom Pro as wildcard for the second consecutive year. And a ‘QS win sure makes for a tidy confidence-booster against the big guns. Calling a someone at 10pm local time on the eve of a contest win ain’t the smartest idea, but then, you’ve gotta try, right? Luckily for us, Mitch’s trajectory was less glamourous than anticipated…

Stab: I’m picturing you naked in a bath of Cristal as we speak.
Mitch Coleborn: I’m actually just kicking it at the airport in Rio. No partying festivities going on. Nothing! I’m about to get on a flight to LA, then LA to home. I get home on wednesday morning, then fly to Fiji on wednesday night. It’s gonna be a wild coupla days. I’m gonna meet up with a coupla the boys in LA and have a few celebratory beers then. But I pretty much had to just pack the boards and get outta there, it was heavy.

No rest for the wicked! But, you landed nicely on the ratings! It’s wild, I just checked the ratings and it just hit me then, I’m fucking leading the ‘QS. After the guys on the world tour, I’m number one. I never thought I’d see that.

Have you cracked the code? I’m just gonna take every event how I took this one. I felt so clear and good. Everything was clear and I knew what I had to do to get through those first coupla heats. I’m not trying to think too far ahead. Coming down to Hawaii is nerve-wracking, so having qualification in the bag by then would be the ultimate. I’m only doing the Primes, no six-stars from here on in. Concentrate harder on fewer events. The next one for me is Ballito (South Africa).

You head to Fiji next for the CT event as a wildcard. But, you don’t get any CT Points. Jack Freestone sent me on a wild goose chase at the start of the year, telling me that you do get to keep the points this year, but I found out that’s not true. If you’re good enough to win a WCT event, then you should get to keep the points, I think. You’re beating the world’s best and the points are just going nowhere.

So you end up just competing for cash with nothing to lose? Last year going into Fiji I didn’t think about winning or losing at all. I just thought about how pumping the waves were, and trying to get barrelled. That’s the way you’ve gotta take it. I won’t be thinking about winning or losing this time, either. Getting no points, you’ve got nothing to lose. More than anything else, I was nervous about looking like a kook in front of my fucking sponsor. I got out there and a set cleaned me up before I even caught a wave. I got washed in and paddled around and thought, “I’ve gotta just get barrelled.” It was so pumping and I just didn’t wanna not get a good wave. That’s my biggest fear. Not getting a good wave.

What’s more important – being the best in a Kai Neville movie, or making the world tour? My focus has definitely shifted. Getting on the world tour is the next part of my life that I wanna try and accomplish. But hopefully at the end of the day, I wanna be able to do both, being on tour and having a sick part in Kai’s flicks. For now I’m more focussed on the competitive road.

We last spoke 18 months ago and you were disenchanted with the ‘QS. Where did this newfound clarity come from? I’ve been doing a lot of work on my routine. Keeping it super simple and doing the same thing over and over. Doing more training and pre-heat warm up, and travelling with a coupla people like Wes Berg and a guy from home, Mitch Roberts, whose gonna do the QS with me this year. Just having someone there for support and to kick my ass when I’m being lazy. I’m there to do a job, it’s only a week out of my life and I’ve gotta knuckle down, focus and get it done. Having someone who’s gonna push me there is worth it, I feel. But who knows, maybe it’s just time and experience.

So you were more show-up-and-blow-up before? Yeah I guess, but I was also listening to the media and I felt like I had something to prove, and I was trying to give them what they wanted. But this time around I just surfed the wave for what it was, didn’t do any airs, didn’t try and blow minds, just tried to surf. And it worked out. – Elliot Struck

Mitch’s whole rail situation here is kinda excellent. Photo: Smorigo