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Australian surfers love an out-of-control rebel. Particularly if they surf exceedingly well. We admire their free spirited, devil-may-care approach to life; both in the water and on the land. They do things in their own way, on their own time, and by their own rules, and are often motivated by a raging fire that burns deep within their damaged psyche. Initially, they’re driven to prove themselves, but ultimately, they’re driven to destroy themselves. It’s not pretty, but we can’t look away.
Our new mag features the final chapter of Monty Webber’s provocative ‘Dark Lineage’ series, which details the journey of Shane Herring, the boy wonder saga of Nicky Wood and the tragic trajectory of Chris Davidson.
The series is a gritty and at times confronting body of work, which deals honestly with the issues around mental health that are often overlooked in the quest to romanticise and deify surfing figures. Below is an excerpt of the Nicky Wood profile which featured in Issue 594 .
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Nick ‘The Phantom’ Wood
Some people are too sensitive for this world. It only takes a couple of really bad things to happen in a row and they become discouraged. Injury, expectations, bad luck. They visualise, all too clearly, the dreaded pattern ahead, and follow it obediently, in a downward spiral. Sometimes they become melancholic, other times they become addicts. Nick Wood became both.
Nick was born in 1970 and raised in Newcastle. He was a child prodigy, born into surfing royalty. His Godfather and personal shaper was four time World Champ, Mark Richards. His uncle was Peter Cornish. Nat Young was a family friend. He started surfing at the age of six. A year later he was surfing Snapper with Michael Peterson.
Nick told Tracks; “That whole trip, Snapper was better than I’ve ever seen it. It was six o’clock one morning and there was this beautiful sunrise. I was in board- shorts, and the water was really warm. For an hour there was only one other guy out. It was low tide, dredging, just like Kirra. This guy was way behind the rock, taking off really fast, then fading into a double- up every time, with a super long section already folding. I was trying to catch those waves, but every time there’d be this high- pitched whistle that’d go on forever, and it’d be this guy, so deep in the tube…it just kept going till he was way past me. I paddled for those waves, four or five times, and he whistled every time. He never fell off. My Uncle Peter Cornish was on the beach and when I came in he told me that I’d been surfing with Michael Peterson… I’ll never forget that whistle.”
For a while Nick won almost everything he went in. Too many club contests to mention. He was two times winner of the Cadets in the Australian National Titles. He dropped out of school at 15 and was runner up in the Australian Professional Surfing Association. That year, 1987, he also won the first pro event he ever went in, Bells. He remains the youngest male to ever to win a world circuit event, and the only one to win in his debut effort.
Not long after his Bells win, I filmed a session of Nick surfing at Bondi Beach. It was the ’86 Surf League Club Challenge. The surf was pretty good for Bondi, about four feet, with some nice glassy walls and floater sections. Even though the surf was crowded with some of the best boardriders in Australia, it was obvious at that time that Nick was the best surfer there. The footage (below) I got of Nick drew hoots from the audience when I showed it at the local RSL a few weeks later.
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