Who The Fuck Is Coby Perkovich?

Coby Perkovich: who is he? Where did he come from? And how can someone who surfs this good slip under everyone’s radar?

“I’ve only been shooting with Coby for a year and he’s gotten way better in that time. He’s probably the most motivated guy I shoot with now, but he’s such a humble and mellow dude too so I have all the time in the world for him”. Dan Scott who shot “Drenched In Black” told Stab. “The clip was shot in about four or five sessions from this year in total”.

We’ve seen a few clips from Coby, but that didn’t change how little we knew about him – other than that people love making Chippa Wilson comparisons.  

To shed a little light, we dialled Coby up to find out a little about the Aussie (turns out he’s actually from NZ) that is Coby Perkovich.

In short, he’s a 25-year-old who resides on the Gold Coast, who surfs, has long hair, a couple of sponsors, a girlfriend, and isn’t overly fascinated with the WSL – not a particularly unique bunch of characteristics for mid-20 something on the East Coast.

However, Coby didn’t quite undergo the peachy upbringing you’d anticipate living on the Goldy.

Open vests are acceptable when the straighties you’re sticking are of this calibre.

Photography

Dan Scott

On growing up.

Coby: I was born in New Zealand and moved to Palm Beach on the Goldy when I was about four years old. I grew up here and then started surfing when I was about six, at the time my dad worked at Nev’s factory before he started his own surfboard company.

When I was 14, we’d lived at Snapper for about two years after our parents broke up. The place where we lived got knocked down, so all three of us has to live in Dad’s Nissan Pulsar for a year.

Dad was a single parent, so it was tough for him and I was a bit of a bum after dropping out of school in year 10 – I just surfed all the time. We lived in a house for a bit and then when I was 17 we were out on the streets again, this time we drove all the way from the Goldy to WA to buy a bus dad wanted, but that ended up being a piece of shit and then we moved to Bali.

On Bali, Cash Converters boards and being homeless.

Bali sort of sucked initially, so I went home and was pretty much homeless. Just staying on friend’s couches.

It was hard to get a job, but I still wanted to surf so I just rode cash converter boards and looked for the ones that weren’t priced correctly.

Shaping your own boards

I learnt to handshape a couple years ago after spending so much time in the factory with Dad growing up, I was riding my other shapes until recently when I joined the crew at …Lost.

Shaping your own boards means you’re in control. None of that ordering something and it doesn’t come out how you expected. Making a board from scratch makes you appreciate surfboards a whole lot more too. They’re not just some easily replaceable product in that sense.

On the negatives of competitive surfing…

I was watching the Keramas comp today and thought it would be sick, it was the best day of the comp, but still disinteresting. Someone did the flattest 180 air I’ve ever seen in my life and was stoked on it, I’m sitting there thinking fuck, ‘are these actually the best dudes in the world? I’ve seen my Dad surf better than some of the dudes on there to be honest, my Dad can put it on rail.

Then there are guys like Callinan and Freestone who absolutely shred, but can’t stay on tour. It’s like they get on tour and somehow drill into their mind that they can’t surf innovatively, although I can’t relate to that headspace since I haven’t surfed many comps…(laughs).

The WSL is like that TV show that was on as a kid you never really liked, but you just watched it anyway because it was on.

Coby wasn’t lying. Here’s his dad, circa short john’s going out of fashion.

On people who hate on airs.

There are all these weird dudes who hate on airs, they say, ‘all they do is race down the line and do a punt’, but then the WSL constantly talks about ‘progressive’ surfing, it’s conflicting and weird.

On copping a free board off Dion Agius.

I was like 14 and Dion was whistling at me to come in. I came in, he spoke to me for a bit then gave me his board – he probably hated the thing – it was way too big for me at the time but better than the cashies board I was riding…(laughs).

I saw Dion last year again and he was tripping on how much different I was compared to that little kid, I was like 7-foot compared to Dion…[laughs].

This one met both Dan’s full-rote and tech criteria to make the clip.

Photography

Dan Scott

On the new clip.

“The whole clip was filmed in four or five sessions essentially, all from this year” Dan Scott told Stab before the drop of the clip. “After New Zealand we thought we were done, then we filmed a few right handers the other day.”

“Most of the stuff in the clip he does in full-rotes too, the way we saw it was if it’s not a full-rote then it has to be tech to make the cut. That end section full of consecutive airs was all filmed in 30-minutes before dark at Raglan too”.

Just in case you thought he was just another ‘flyboy’.

Photography

Dan Scott