Chris Hubbard Interview by Doc

 

Doc: A big Jack Stance welcome Chris. Tell us a little about yourself and the waters where you ride in NZ to give the readers here an intro to who you are.

Cheers man. We’ll I’m originally from Whangarei Heads on the East Coast of the North Island of NZ, around 3hrs north of Auckland. I grew up surfing a super fun beach break called Ocean Beach which is definitely one of the more heavy swell magnets in the region which doesn’t really say much for much as the East coast of the North Island which can be pretty wave starved at times. Anyway it’s a pretty beautiful coastal region with amazing relatively untouched and uncrowded beaches and Rivermouth bars but like most of New Zealand (baring the Deep South) a distinct lack of ledgey reefs. Really amazing place to grow up with chilled people and a super laidback lifestyle. I went to University in Hamilton for four years which gave me convenient access to Raglans famous point breaks (shit for prone fun for the knee) on the West Coast and the fun beaches of the Coromandel Peninsula on the East coast. I then travelled Europe for a couple of years before moving to Australia where I have been on and off for the last 3-4 years currently based in Manly on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Loving it here at the moment, one of the few places where I have been able to find the perfect balance between a serious career while still allowing for plenty of time in the water. Nothing better than a dawn session before shooting off for work.

Doc: And what about the geography, wave types and even a little about the people round the place where you are?

I kinda answered this already :-0

Doc: The raw stuff – Age/weight/height and Goofy or Natural footer?

Age: Old, 30. Height: 165cm. I’m short apparently. I’m not very good with numbers but I think that’s around 5ft 10 or 11?? Weight: 75kg weigh around 67 this time last year but apparently muscle weighs a lot more than fat….well that’s what I keep telling myself. Stance: Goofy.

Doc: Who and what inspired you to start throwing the knee up?

Well I wouldn’t really say it was a “who’ that inspired me to DK but more of a “what” with the “what” being the lack of waves that are suitable to prone. My feelings being that if there aren’t barrels or sections to hit then prone can be pretty damn boring…..I just find prone spins and turns on the shoulder totally uninspiring…..no offence to the prone guys but when I see someone do a prone soul carve on an air section it fucking drives me crazy. So basically when the waves were crap for prone then I would start trying to get up on the knee more, I soon started to really enjoy it so stuck with it. Don’t get me wrong prone is sick but if the conditions aren’t suited to it well it can get pretty boring, basically dropknee gives me the avenue to have fun in all conditions.

Doc: Which riders in our DK heritage would you like to give respect to?

From NZ, while growing up I would definitely have to say John Lee Diamond who I grew up surfing Ocean Beach together as a grommet. Surfing with him would definitely push me to go harder in the water. The guy was an absolute ripper both on the knee and prone and had one of the strongest competitive drives I have seen from a NZ rider bar Benny Mackinnon. He had a shot at the world tour when he was young and was even seeded in the Shark Island Challenge the big crazy year with the 8-10ft North East swell which was basically closing out and I think he was only 17/18 then?. I think these days he is setting up a surf charter business around the Pacific Islands. We had a pretty sick lil bodyboard crew in those days consisting of Johnny, his lil bro Matt, grommet ripper now stand-up Joseph Carrol, Lindsay Butler and my lil bro Mark……times always seemed so much more fun when you are carefree grommet with absolutely no worries in the world. In regards to pro riders I would have to say Aka, Roach, and Kainoa were definitely the riders that would get me amped on DK……if you could combine the three into one rider you would have the perfect Dker.

Doc: At the cutting edge, who is tearing the seams out of lips and making you go harder? Make sure to include some local shredders who push you on a day to day basis.

On a personal level I would say that my close friend Chad “The Milf Hunter” Barlow who is a super Obese American Dropkneer also living on the Northern Beaches pushes me the most in the water and keeps me amped on riding especially if my motivation starts to wain. We surfed together all the time and both being goofy foot dropkneers we have similar taste in waves, he always pushes me to get up for the dawnie and he throws massive chunks both in and out of the water.

Doc: Fiercest Dragon’s tail you’ve witnessed?

Probably most of the surfing that went down at this years Dropknee Sessions at Tiona and last year where Bud completely dominated it. The waves were pretty average to say the least but guys like Jake Sharpe, Dane Pope, Kim Feast, Justin Welsch and pretty everyone else who was there were absolutely destroying it….it blew me away how much power that they could draw from such small weak waves….kinda frightening really. It was also amazing to finally see Roach surfing in the flesh in the expression session with one wave in particular he absolutely destroyed. Pretty humble guy as well. It is beyond me how these guys get next to no exposure in the various bodyboarding media which basically thrashes one rider over and over again. Personally I believe it is one of the things that is stunting the development of dropknee in Australia and the world is the lack of exposure of all these riders that absolutely rip and no one is seeing it. Don’t get me wrong….Lackey absolutely rips and is definitely one of the best in the world ….. his footage speaks for itself…he chases it hard from what I have heard and put in the hard yards to get the coverage and definitely deserves to be where he is. My point being is there are other guys out there that rip hard also and deserve more exposure …enough of that rant.

Doc: Sickest move you’ve seen?

Probably Mason’s big boost in the final of the 05 DK Sessions final at Port …..didn’t ride it out but it was big. Also Bud’s pop air revos last year were sick to.

Doc: Can you give us a description of the meanest reef you’ve hit up?

Ha it’s usually the other way around. Probably some of the funniest reefs I have surfed are a range of reefs in NW Ireland, Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and in Aussie around the Shell Harbour and Blackrock/Aussie Pipe which is the funnest wave I have rode on the knee.

Doc: The Ocean is a powerful place – would you share with the crew one of the times when you were totally ‘owned’ by great mother ocean?

Ok I’ll describe my two worst moments in the Ocean.

The first story was when I was a grommet, 16, the day after the getting tanked at the School Ball/AfterBall despite planing a trip to the West Coast as the East had been completely flat for a couple of weeks. Anyway early the next morning after barely 2 hours of sleep we shot over to Bayleys Beach which is pretty much a 60km + long raw, rugged and super exposed black sand beach near Dargaville. When we arrived we were greeted by a solid 6ft raw swell and pulsing hard. The furtherest bank was breaking about 200m plus out to sea which equals a long paddle. We finally get out and my friends both pick off waves early and disappear out of sight. So I get caught out by a solid set wave and basically bail my board as a chunky lip aimed straight for my head. I pop up after a bit of washing machine action thinking I’m unscathed but then it dawns on me that my board is gone….fucking leash snapped……I dive under another solid set wave and as I’m getting worked I feel a sharp pain in my left calf….fuck cramp….fucking bad cramp. So I start trying to swimming in….another wave comes I dive under and get one fin sucked off and I cramp in my other calf and right thigh ….this ain’t good. So I’m basically floating there with only my arms keeping me a float stuck in the impact zone along way out to sea for the next 10 minutes until one of my mates turn up with my board which I precede to ride all the way to the beach. If my friends hadn’t been there that day I don’t think I would have made it back in. It’s funny how when you are grommet you can get yourself into pretty stupid situations without really considering the real significance of it all.

The other beat down occurred on NSW South Coast a couple of years back. I was surfing a fun right hand sucky and shallow ledge at around 3-4ft. I basically get into a set wave a little too late prone, freefall top to bottom…..bounced….totally lost it and got sucked back up the face and pitched in the lip. I was pretty much get driven into the rock ledge back first, whip-lashed my head on the rock and my legs got dragged through the rocks. I remember thinking “Oh shit this is not good”. You know when you have hurt yourself and for a split second you don’t really know how bad it is. I surface and just lie with my back killing me in the water too scared to move encase I have really fucked my back up. In the end there was no major damage just some pretty bad bruising on my butt, lower back, lumpy head, a few gashes and really slashed up wetsuit. Yup stick to DK Chris.

Doc: And in reciprocation, what is one of the times you totally owned a wave and were completely in “The Zone”?

Again it’s usually the other way around. See above.

Doc: What board(s) are you riding at the moment?

My mate Chad leant me one of his Toobs custom from the US recently….based on the dimensions of the told Toobs DKB and experimenting with polypro (love a siff light board), double stringer, nose rocker and channels…..so far it is solid in a variety of waves….usually when I get a new board it will take 5-6 surfs to get used to it…..I had no transition with this board.

Doc: What is the history of your quiver and do you have an all-time fave ride?

I am a horder and sentimentalist so I never give away or sell old boards. Off the top of my head I have Chad’s Toobs custom, Funkshen Custom, a snapped Nomad Lackey (I have no idea how I snapped a board with mess and double stringer???), a MoreyMez dk board (one of the best all round boards I had, rode it for five years was pretty much indestructible, unproneable and weighed like 10kg), Wave Rebel Kainoa Mc Gee, Manta Ballard and a Manta Venom. But probably my all-time favourite board to ride and if you ask the older Dkers many of them say the same……would have to be the old Toobs DKB’s that board went insane and have never had a board ride like this.

Doc: Places you have seen and scenes you have seen in your travels?

A shitload of NZ. I spent two years working and travelling through Europe. Lived in Newquay, Cornwall for a summer scored surprisingly fun waves there they have the coolest bodyboarding scene there just a tight knit crew of super funny and friendly guys just amped on bodyboarding. Lived in NorthWest Ireland for a year in the town of Bundoran in Donegal. Was an amazing experience some of the craziest and most welcoming people you will ever meet and the amazing waves were just a bonus. Was also lucky enough to travel through Wales, Scotland, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and the Cannaries. Europe is amazing the amount of history, heritage the diversity of the culture and architecture blows your mind….and with cheap flights you can literately fly from country to country for peanuts. Apart from Sydney I also spent around six months living on the South Coast of NSW and a winter in Margaret River…..both places had such an amazing variety of reefs, wedges and beaches in such a small geographical area ….definitely up there in the best surfing locations I have visited.

Doc: Photogs that you see as representing DK strongly?

I pretty much have to plug Kiwi photog Chris Garden here…..not for specific DK focus but bodyboarding in general…..this guys work is so different to what you see in most magazines….he can capture something in the photo that isn’t just the wave or the action but more the mood , atmosphere or the “vibe”….you know its Marbo it’s the Vibe….he is able to drop away from the action and take in the amazing backdrops and lighting. His photos almost make you feel like you are actually in the water too. He doesn’t give a toss about a riders rep or sponsors he will shoot what he thinks looks good. He shoots because he loves it, not for the money infact he will probably tell you he has made sweet F’all from it….to top that off he’s also a good all round c&*t, so passionate and dedicated…… he wants nothing in return except for someone to hold him tight and tell him everything is going to be ok…..everything is going to be ok. Seriously though check his work out at www.chrisgarden.com.

I reckon he could easily make a coffee book of his images and it would seel like hotcakes.

 

Doc: Your thoughts on competition riding?

Now days I just enter comps like DKS more for the social side…I haven’t done well in a comp for a couple of years, its good just to go to comps to hang out with the with the other riders, get amped on their riding and have a few beers afterwards definitely the best chilled out vibe out of all the contests I have entered. Clayton has done an excellent job with DKS and needs more people to get behind him and support it. While New Zealand has a really tight scene through the tour there too, were everyone knows everyone and is keen to go there to hang out, have a laugh and write each other off. The website www.isolated.co.nz definitely acts as a means to unite all the bodyboarders around NZ which are otherwise highly dispersed due to the geography of the country. Kevin McAlister and Mihi Wells have done an amazing job with the New Zealand bodyboarding scene rescuing it back from obscurity and asking nothing in return. Personally I hate the 20 minute heat format for DK as I feel it puts more pressure on riders to churn out the moves like in prone comps as opposed to flowing with the waves.

Doc: Sickest Free-surf session you’ve had with your mates?

Lately I would have to say all the missions down to the South Coast with Chad “The Chad” Barlow and Brendan “B’Diddles” Dorman to escape from the Sydney crowds have been super fun sessions at a certain left wedge which rarely seems to let us down. The old sessions back at Ocean Beach in the day with the old crew will always go down in memory and are the sessions I will always remember most.

Doc: Tips for those seeking to get into the DK vibe?

I reckon just do you own thing, if you want to dropknee then and you wanna prone then do it (as long as you aren’t doing prone cutties on airbowl sections hahaha), if you want to surf then surf…..as long as you are having fun and aren’t hurting anyone then do what either the fuck you want, don’t listen to what others tell you that you should do its your fucking life and do what makes you happy..

Doc: Who would like like to send some respect and thanks to?

All the aforementioned people.

Many thanks for your time Chris.

No probs, thanks for having me