The Confession Album

A collection of responses and thoughts from Jack Freestone, 18, Coolangatta, Qld. Portraits by Sylve Colless What’s the biggest mental hurdle you’ve ever had to overcome? My dad went to jail last year. That was hard to get over. He did something stupid (got in a fight), got caught and was taken away. You get over everyone trying to give you sympathy for something that he’s done. It’s, like, I don’t wanna be a part of it. It’s annoying. My sister and I weren’t allowed to go and see him ‘cause I wasn’t 18 at the time, so he’d try to call us once a week. He’s out now, though. I got through it and now everything’s all good. What’s been the greatest moment of your life? Winning the world juniors. That was the best day of my life so far. When I got to the finals, I really wanted to do the Australians proud. I went out there and gave it my all. I really wanted to bring it home. Mitch Crews is one of my best friends and he nearly made it to the final – that would’ve been the best thing ever. I had mum over there with me, too, and I stayed with the Quiksilver International team. Everyone was really supportive of each other. Have you ever truly believed you were about to die? Yes, I have. I was surfing Kirra when it was huge one day and I got the worst hold-down of my life. I was panicking so bad and thought “Yep, I’m going to die. I’m going to drown.” I was panicking, just trying to get to the surface. In that moment I couldn’t think of anything else except that I was about to die. It was sheer panic. All of a sudden I hit an air pocket and boosted straight up. I was just thinking “Oh my god, I should’ve died just then. I’m going in.” What do you dream about? There is this one dream I always have – the world gets infected by zombies. I’m really into zombies and gory movies. So every now and then, I dream that everyone in the world gets infected and turns into a zombie. I’m trying to stay alive the whole time, then next thing I know I’m getting eaten and I wake up as I’m getting eaten. It always ends in me getting eaten. Dreams are so weird. One minute you’re doing one thing, then the next you’re doing something completely different, just like that. And you can never run in dreams. You can’t run and you can’t get up if you’re on the ground. What about real-life, childhood dreams? When I was really young, I was right into my football. So I was trying to follow in my dad’s footsteps and be a professional football player (Jack’s dad, Scott Freestone, played for the Cronulla Sharks.) But I got over it ‘cause he was constantly telling me about the injuries. It didn’t sound too fun. He started taking me surfing and I decided I wanted to be pro and make a career out of it. It wasn’t really my dream to become a professional surfer, it’s just something that sorta… happened. I’m not complaining, though. It came naturally. It was either surfing or football. Ultimate sense of happiness? Winning was a good emotion. That was the best I’ve ever felt. But, to feel complete happiness, I’d just need a house, a family, money and cars. Stability. I do have simple tastes, but you can get so much money from surfing now, it’d be good to splurge a little bit. I really want a nice house and car, though. I’ve never thought about what my dream house would look like, just imagined having a house. It’s more just the idea of having one. When you lie in bed, late at night in the dark, what do you think about? Girls, surfing and money. I think about sex. I think that’s something everybody thinks about on a second-to-second basis in their life. Everyone does it, lying there, just casually thinking about sex. Surfing pops into my head. What’re the waves gonna do tomorrow? When will I surf? Stupid stuff like that. I mind-surf sometimes. I also always think about having a lot of money. What do you dislike about your body? I hate all my scars. I’ve got a lot on my feet. I have this one on my eye that’s annoying. When I was younger I used to do the triathlon camps. I was balancing on this wooden beam. Next to it, a metre away, was this fence, about two metres tall. It had hard, sharp tips. I was balancing on this thing and all the other kids were playing some game. This girl came up, trying to grab me. She pushed me and I fell straight onto the fence. I woke up in hospital, I’d been out for two-and-a-half hours. I could’ve lost my eye. Have you ever felt love? I’ve felt love once. I think. I don’t really know what love is, though. I think it’s when you enjoy a person’s company and you’re happy with them. There was one girl who was as close to my interpretation of love as you could get. In the end, I made a stupid decision and let her go. Have you ever felt like you’ve truly hated someone? I don’t really hate anyone, I just dislike people. Hate is a very strong word. It’s only ever been because someone’s done something that’s affected me. One thing in particular is a bit heavy. It’s too heavy to tell – I’ve never spoken about it to anyone, not even my best friends. It’s a touchy subject and I don’t like to get too deep with it.