Stylish and powerful are two ways to describe Ricardo Christie’s surfing. He’s the first surfer from New Zealand to qualify for the world tour since Maz Quinn in 2001 and after his performance at Sunset on the final day he looks every bit capable of lighting up the world stage. After a promising junior career Ricardo found himself without a sponsor and took time out from competition. The break paid off and after a successful crowd funding campaign to make sure he could compete for valuable QS points he achieved his dreams of qualifying for the dream tour at the last event of the year, the Vans World Cup of Surfing Sunset Beach.
Ricardo caught up with Tracks to discuss qualifying, crowd funding and why we can expect to see more Kiwis on tour in years to come.
Ricardo on…
Waiting 16 days to know that you’d qualified for the CT?
Ricardo Christie: Yeah when I was at Sunset it was a pretty big deal for me, it was a test whether or not I could do it because it pretty much came down to that last day. I only just did what I needed which put me in the position to wait for what happened at Pipe, which was another test of patience and dealing with stress management.
How’d you quell the head-noise on the final day?
All that knowledge over the years kind of came into that moment and I thought if it was going to happen it was going to happen and I’d done everything I could possibly do. That took the pressure of me.
You reached out and crowd funded your QS campaign. How important was that in terms of reaching your goal of qualifying?
Yeah, that was the main thing you know. Obviously I was in a position where I didn’t have the [financial] backing to do the full the tour but the crowd funding helped get me to events on the other side of the world that I wouldn’t have gone to. But also there was all the support that everyone gave me. All those people will be lifetime supporters of mine and they helped me get to this point.
Did the fire inside burn brighter each time you paddled out?
Oh yes for sure. It just gave me a boost of energy especially during the moments I was thinking, “Oh no it’s not going my way.” The support I felt from New Zealand was overwhelming. Everyone just gets behind people doing things over there so when I would do well people would just blow up and that would drive me.
Would you recommend crowd funding to other surfers that are on the bubble of qualifying without a major sponsor? Garret Parkes for instance?
Oh totally. I wouldn’t be in this place without it. It’s awesome and I would definitely support people who did the same thing. If Parksey did it I’d throw him a tenner, and that’s all it takes, people just chipping in for something. At the end of the day it can really change someone’s life.
There’s no shortage of talent of quality waves in NZ. What’s the biggest hurdle facing the next wave of Kiwi surfers?
We haven’t had a Maz Quinn for a few years. When he got knocked of there were a few good surfers younger than him and we all thought they would get on but they had a bit of a bad run and maybe that knocked the confidence in the sport in New Zealand. So hopefully me being on tour will get the confidence back up and show people what we’re capable of.
Do you think your story will inspire the next generation?
Yeah I hope to inspire and get everyone believing in themselves. I think New Zealand is such a cool country and we’ve got amazing waves here and awesome surfers and I think if I can try and guide the younger crew to get into it more and grow the whole scene that would be pretty cool.
Finally tell me three Kiwi expressions you never leave home without?
Churr
Churr can kind of be used in any situation. It can be a thank you, an excited word, or any awkward silences just throw a churr in there.
Cuzzi
That’s a brother, a bro or a mate. I guess you say cuzzi to a mate or someone whose name you’ve forgotten. It’s like churr it just works.
Mean
When something’s good, it’s mean bro. (laughs)
Ricardo Christie | Indonesia from RVCA on Vimeo.
