Tim Boal : photo courtesy Stab

Interview with Tim Boal

The contest you've never seen  - by Stab Magazine 

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 14 September, 2009 : - - He calls it 'the contest before the contest'. In the lead-up to a world tour event, often surfers give themselves only a single day, a single session even, in which to familiarise themselves with the wave.

Forty eight of the world’s most competitive surfers in the one line-up, all trying to iron out their kinks before the contest, can pose a problem for certain personalities on tour.

For someone like Tim Boal, the problem is twofold. Being from the northern hemisphere, he had never even been to many of the southern sites on the first half of the tour. As such, a pre-contest free surf holds more importance to him than most. In the lead-up to Trestles, there was barely a day of rideable surf.

Here he paints us a picture of the free-surfing scene leading up to an ASP world tour event and tells us how he approached what is a very important contest for European surfing.

As a newcomer to the tour, and a European, how have you found the free surfs in the lead up to an event?

Everyone is pretty accommodating but it took a bit of time for me to get comfortable. The same as it took me a bit of time to get comfortable on the ‘QS. It’s hard because there are a lot of people in the water all the time for those free surfs. But I learned from it and I feel more comfortable about it now. I look forward to it now, where I didn’t before. The free surf is like the contest before the contest.

So you mean, guys hassle and play mind-games, before the contest even begins?

Maybe. I don’t really pay attention to it, but there must be. Everyone gets along really well on tour but it’s good to get away from it sometimes. Everyone wants to get the best waves when they surf. When there is fifty of the world’s best guys wanting to do that, it’s not that easy to have fun.

Who dominates the “contest before the contest”?

Dingo for sure, if Parko’s not dropping in on everyone (laughter). I guess Dingo hassles pretty good. I don’t really pay attention but he’s always on the best waves.

How do you deal with it?

I’m getting used to it and getting comfortable with more and more guys in the water. You don’t know anyone at the start but you get to, little by little. After a while it gets easier to surf with them.

How does the European surf culture differ from, say, Australia or the States?

I don’t know how different it is culturally. It’s not easy to surf the year round in France. In winter it’s dark until nine in the morning and dark again at six at night. When you are going to school you can’t really surf. The surf scene is getting more and more excited. Those days when you could surf by yourself are finished. It’s getting more and more like the States and Australia.  

How did you prepare for Trestles?

I only arrived today (Friday). I didn’t surf much at the start of my holiday break. After a week or two I started surfing everyday. I would have not surfed four or five days since J Bay.

Read the full interview at www.stabmag.com 

 

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Jed Smith / Stab

Interviews - Surfersvillage