Julian Wilson is known to the non-surfing public for his part in 2015 as the best supporting actor in Mick Fanning’s famous real-life drama, when his fellow Australian had an unwelcome confrontation with a shark, Wilson swam heroically to his aid.
“It was pretty gnarly,” Wilson said.
However, within his sport Wilson is known for other reasons too: the world championship contender is among those pushing the boundaries of surfing, bringing techniques that take a leaf out of the playbooks of skateboarders and BMX riders to elevate it to new, airborne heights.
Photo: EPA
Sport, and surfing is no exception, is malleable, shifting in shape as times change and when individuals like Wilson introduce new ideas.
“It’s great to be a part of that movement,” he said. “I feel like I’m part of the group that is pushing to innovate and progress and look outside the box.”
“I really enjoy that space and I want to keep working on things and keep stimulating that thought. I definitely think about [innovation] and try and apply it to the ocean, to the waves. I feel like there’s still room to grow, there’s room left there to land first maneuvers of some sort,” Wilson said.
Wilson is widely regarded as one of the best surfers in the world.
He competed in the Australian Open of Surfing earlier this month, a prestigious qualifying event before this week’s World Surf League Championship Tour opener, the Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast at Snapper Rocks in Australia.
“Surfing’s a very traditional sport, barrel riding and surfing on the face of the wave,” he said. “There’s not really much room to grow in those aspects, except for mastering it. With the aerials there’s still progression to be made and different stuff to be landed.”
He describes his style as “somewhat aggressive,” but “not too predictable.”
The way he surfs now is born out of a youth spent on Australia’s Sunshine Coast in Queensland State, where he and his mates would alternate their time between ocean and skate park, surfing, skateboarding and BMXing.
Now 28, Wilson said the aerial aspect of all three sports appealed to him from a young age.
“I love jumping, I love being able to go to the skatepark and fly over the ramps and get in the air. In surfing, any opportunity I had I would try and do an air. There’sAsia been quite a change in the last four years toward the progression of aerials and introducing that into competitive surfing. It’s been really fun to be a part of it. I love the challenge of trying to stay at the forefront of it and be creative and go higher, go further, rotate more,” he said.
The ocean is where Wilson is best able to allow his creative juices to flow, although he stops short of describing himself as a showman.
Although, if he is trying to avoid the label he hardly does himself any favors when he soars clear of the water, salmon-like, not once, but twice on the same wave, executing two stunning, gravity-defying maneuvers, the second coming even as the wave begins to fade at a qualifying event in Manly, Australia.
Collective jaws dropped on the beach and the judges in complete agreement give him five 10s across the board and the first perfect score of the competition.
Wilson, somewhat typically, refuses to get carried away and played it down afterward.
He told a television interviewer he would try his best to serve up another dose of perfection during the competition, and although he did not manage to, he did end up reaching the final, where he was edged out by a like-minded Brazilian, Jesse Mendes.
The Wilsonian theory of surfing evolution might involve pushing the envelope in certain areas, but he is professional enough to know there is a time and a place for experimentation. The heats of a pre-season qualifier might be well suited to unorthodoxy, but a degree of convention is required when it matters. And when it matters for Wilson this year is on the world tour.
His aim is clear: He dreams of becoming world champion. He has been in contention a few times, but by his own admission has lacked the consistency over the course of a season to emulate the likes of his good friend Fanning, the last Australian to win the world title, in 2013.
“I feel like [this year] I’m a bit older and a bit wiser, I’ve learnt more lessons and I feel like it’s just about applying time and time again and being in the mix when Pipeline [the Hawaiian Tour event] rolls around, the last event,” he said.
Since his ninth-placed debut season on the world stage in 2011, Wilson finished ninth again a year later, then sixth, 14th, sixth and eighth last season.
And during his six years on the tour, he has picked up just two event titles — the 2012 Rip Curl Pro Portugal and the 2014 Billabong Pipe Masters, held at Banzai Pipeline, Hawaii.
Championship Tour surfing means a competitor can be crowned world champion without actually winning a single event during the season.
Rather, consistency at every event throughout the season is rewarded.
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