– to access more content and expert support, check out 
.
Full Fanatic Interview:
Fanatic / Great to have you in our Fanatic SUP & Surf Team! What were your reasons to ride Fanatic?
I have been riding SUP in the surf for about seven years now and saw the racing scene getting bigger and bigger. My good friend Derek O’Neill was training with the crew at Roar Industries in Currumbin and I could see he was enjoying it. So I joined in and started training with them and got hooked straight away. SUP Racing, Downwinders and SUP training in general is the best I have ever done for my Shortboard surfing, I really wish this was around when I was doing the ASP World Tour. This gains in so many different areas for surfing and you don ́t need any other cross training. We are seeing a lot of pro surfers taking advantage from SUP.
Fanatic / Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into Stand Up Paddling and Surfing?
My father has been shaping surfboards for fifty years, so all my life I’ve been in Surfboard factories and Surf shops. I was surfing from when I was around eight years old, I loved surfing and as a teenager nothing else mattered but surfing. Once I had to think about a job or career, I knew I wanted to be in the water full time and worked hard to become a pro surfer. The rest is history, twenty two years on the ASP World Tour and still passionate about surfing as the day I started.
I started to SUP around seven or eight years ago, Brian Keaulana gave me a SUP paddle in Tahiti and explained to me how it works. I went home and taught myself on a twelve foot Tandem board my dad had shaped. Brian came over to Australia with some boards a few months later, he had worked on the design and the boards were for sure more surfable than the old Tandem. I bought a board off Brian and Todd Bradley, they gave me some more tips and I’ve been hooked to SUP ever since.
I am loving the design process in boards, when I started working with JS Industries (my short board shaper) on SUP design, combining the knowledge from working so long on my short boards for competing. This taught me a lot about SUP design and I enjoy working on the designs as they evolve.
Fanatic / Did you get a chance to try any of our gear yet and what do you think?
I like all Raceboards, but my favorite is the 14 ́0 Falcon for downwinding. Any of the ProWave’s are really good as well.
Fanatic / Are you planning to do any SUP or Surfing events with Fanatic boards?
I am going to try and do a few Surfing and Racing events when I can around my work with Billabong event directing and coaching key athletes on their team.
Fanatic / Your video Magic Carpet Boards is still a reference, are you working on anything similar in the future?
It would be great to film some more surfing on SUP boards, would love to go away on a trip with some of my new Fanatic team mates to put some clips together.
With more and more professional waterman/surfer like Luke Egan becoming a part of the SUP world. The growth and development of the sport is growing faster then ever. This is a fantastic thing for SUP and the future of it. Who will be the next to become a SUPboarder?