The 32-year-old has been one of Australia’s most popular surfers for more than a decade. Ever since videos of a blonde grommet from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast surfing at a level beyond his years went viral, Australians knew that Julian was destined to be one of surfing’s next big stars. Tracks caught up with Julian recently. Here are seven thing we learned:
1. He named his new brand ‘Rivvia Projects ‘ after his two kids
When Julian cut ties with Hurley, there was speculation he was in talks with brands such as Lululemon and Oakley. However, Julian had a close friend reach out to him and present an opportunity to create a brand together.
“It’s a brand that’s about surf and men’s active wear, a style of brand that’s influenced sort of by my hobbies. And that’s something that I’m really passionate about and makes a lot of sense for myself and what I want to do I want to use it to share a message of, you know, staying healthy and active and enjoying doing the things you love and not neglect them.”
His kids are called River & Olivia and when you combine them together you get, wait for it, Rivvia. What makes it even sweeter is the two v’s equal a W(ilson).
2. His relationship with Hurley couldn’t be recovered after Nike sold the brand to wall street investment firm
Sponsors were never an issue in Julian’s career as all surf brands wanted the nose of his surfboard with his skills in the water and handsome face to model their products.
Julian signed with Nike (Hurley) in 2011 in what was seen as one of surfing’s biggest contracts at the time estimated to be in the ballpark of a million dollars a year. Julian would be a part of a stacked Hurley roster featuring John John, Carissa Moore, Rob Machado, Rabbit Bartholomew and a long line of elite surfers. Founder Bob Hurley called them “ the most exciting, innovative and successful team ever in the history of surfing”.
Nike sold Hurley to investment firm Bluestar Alliance in 2019 for an undisclosed amount.
“I was always super proud of representing the Hurley family. It meant a lot to me and then sort of when Nike sold, it was passed on to the new owners and then they were dissecting everybody’s contracts and had their sort of view on how they wanted to represent the surfer.”
“And there wasn’t really a relationship to continue. Once, Nike sold Hurley, I only had one year left on my contract and just wasn’t comfortable with where it (Hurley) was heading.”
3. On stepping back from the CT Julian headed to Cloudbreak at the first opportunity
In his first surf trip since stepping back from the CT Julian would go on a strike mission to Fiji hoping to find himself in some big barrels. Big swells were expected so he got in touch with local chargers Tevita Loca and Che Slater who are always on standby at Cloudbreak.
Once Tevita and Che said it was on, Julian with no competition schedule would fly over and head straight off the plane and paddle out to Cloudbreak. The session didn’t start as planned, waves were underwhelming and conditions onshore.
“Then the wind completely stopped. The tide bottomed out then there was like a window of like an hour and a half, maybe two hours on that back ledge where it got quite consistent and every set was like really drawing off the reef and doing its thing which was pretty incredible to be a part of and like, honestly in that little window there was like me, Che and Tevita . It was just sort of us just looking at each other going, is it just us (out here)?.”
After the session Julian would claim it was the first time he experienced “a wave so big and so perfect” and that “it really felt like Cloudbreak showed me the fruits of my decision (leaving the CT).”
4. Julian is most surprised by Jack Robinson’s rise amongst the new Aussie crop
Australian surf fans were not confident in having a title challenger on the men’s side of the tour this year. With Julian out and a new group of young surfers who hadn’t proved their competitive ability, there were a lot of questions to be answered. We have now passed the halfway mark in the 2022 WSL season and Aussie surfers such as world no.2 Jack Robinson and Ethan Ewing have outperformed expectations and found themselves in the title race.
“There’s been some performances from Jack and from Ethan that I think that some of their best surfing is starting to be done in competition, which is such a big shift to get to that place because those guys are incredible free surfers.”
“I think Jack’s really improved and stepped up and probably surprised me the most. But he’s always been extremely talented, just about you know, focusing it on the right places.”
Julian is still undecided on whether he’ll have another crack of winning a world title.
”When the waves are pumping and I’m watching the contest, I do miss it a little bit. But at the same time, I’m really enjoying taking a break from it. There’s a lot of big changes that have that have happened on the tour. It’ll be interesting to see how it lands and how it evolves from here.”
5. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics was the highlight of his professional career despite a controversial loss
Long-time rival Medina would narrowly beat Julian in round three of the Olympics with Wilson contesting the result believing Medina stood up illegally on a wave outside the competition zone. The officials didn’t agree with Wilson and Medina advanced. The three-time world champ has been Julian’s toughest opponent in his 10-year professional career.
“It didn’t matter what the conditions were like. He (Medina) was the guy that was going to show up with big scores and was always going to find a way to get the scores and probably brought the best out in me competitively and I had my best battles with him.”
The loss didn’t diminish his overall experience of competing in surfing’s first event at the Olympics.
“It was a highlight of my career. I was so proud to represent Australia at the international level, you know, being on the CT and following in the footsteps of my idols, it was always such a big deal to me to represent Australia. And then the Olympics was just like a whole another level to do that.”
6. His biggest inspiration is Test Cricket legend, Matt Hayden
The cricketer has been a close family friend of the Wilson family since Julian was a young boy.
“Matt Hayden’s always been a huge inspiration to me through my competitive career and even now he’s just obviously a very good father and role model and has been able to continue his career in business. I think Matt Hayden is probably still one of my biggest inspirations, no matter what chapter I go through in my career.”
Both athletes share a thirst of wanting to be the best in whatever they choose to pursue. Julian’s mother once said that the 103 test match batsmen “taught them (Julian and his brothers) that you need ‘bottle’ to get anywhere.”
7. More kids and a new surf movie may be on the way
Scratching The Surface was many grommets favourite movie to get hyped on before heading out for a surf. We had to ask if there will be a sequel of the film more than a decade later.
“I obviously have a lot of time now to focus on different projects. And yeah, I’m not exactly sure what it is. I don’t think I’ve completely made my mind up on the tour yet. Whether it’s something that I want to do again or not. But filming and making some good content is on top of the list.”
On Julian growing his family “I think more likely than not. But as well, sort of undecided, kind of just trying to enjoy having two healthy happy kids at the moment and having the time to spend with them. But I always loved growing up with two brothers. I think three would be amazing, but also super, incredibly thankful to have two healthy kids.”
Check out Rivvia Projects first collection: ‘Active Discovery’!
