Owen carefully waxes up at The Point Photo courtesy of craigparryphotography.com
Kids are deciding they want to be pro surfers at a very young age and setting clear goals. But, it is generally somewhere in the teenage years where that can be critical. How did you stay focused during this time? Your teenage years are critical and at the time I stayed focused by hanging with crew that had similar interests to myself, surfing and traveling, we had a lot of fun and still kept our main interests.
When did you decide to be a pro surfer? Did you have a plan B if it didn’t work out? I always wanted to be a pro surfer but when I turned 19 I decided it was now the time to have a solid effort to qualify for the world tour to join the best. No plan B although my dad had offered me a plumbing job, that was a good motivation to qualify!
Would you have done anything different on your path to where you are now? No, there is not much really I would change, I had a good all round foundation to where I am now, I played soccer, football, did surf life saving, swimming, worked on a building site once or twice, went camping and travelled with my family.
Competing
It could be said that one of the hardest things about competing is actually learning how to lose. How do you cope with losing? Coping with losing is always a tough one at the time of impact, I find coping a little easier when I don’t view myself as a loser but learn from it to come back stronger in the area I lost and ready for the next competition.
Does being fit help you compete mentally? Yes, totally.
Do you think they should have held the Volcom Pro last year at 15-20 foot Cloudbreak? I think they made the right decision to call it off because all the competitive surfers were not prepared for those conditions and I’m glad they took our safety into consideration. It was amazing to witness the professional big wave surfers do their thing with the right safety equipment. Life vests, inflatable wetsuits and the lung capacity of 5 minutes underwater, which I don’t think any of the competitive surfers have, haha.
Owen taking his time over the rocks at Lennox. Phot courtesy of craigparryphotography.com
Sponsorship
Who are you sponsored by? Rip Curl wetsuits and clothing, Monster energy drinks, Dragon sunglasses, House of Marley headphones, Ocean and Earth traction and accessories, Power Base Fins and Byrne surfboards.
Do you have any signature products? Rip Curl Mirage Aggrolite boardshorts http://www.ripcurl.com.au/?aid=1943#!/owen-wright
Dragon and I worked together on a signature range of sunglasses. We called them the Remix. Check out the links
http://www.dragonalliance.com/enus/sunglasses#global/all/group/remix
http://www.dragonalliance.com/en-au/team-member/owen-wright
Ocean and Earth – Customix tail pads… http://www.oceanearthstore.com/owen-wright-customix-pro-330mm-tail-pad/
What advice would you give a young kid on the North Coast who wants to get sponsored or keep his sponsor? Be a kid, have fun and enjoy your surfing, but when you need to put in the work, train hard and make sure you are in regular contact with your sponsors.
Thanks Owen!
