The famous bauble sold after Nick defaults on storage shed bill!
It’s happened once. Once. A sixteen-year-old kid in his first big event winning the damn thing. Nicky Wood. Newcastle prodigy. Godson of the four-time champ Mark Richards.
A wildcard at Bells in 1987. Beats Tom Curren. Wins it on a little five-seven Gunther Rohn channel bottom.
Nick’s career post-Bells was a little underwhelming. Grew more than half a foot in a year and blew his knees. Got busted for hash. Accidentally fed the South African pro surfer Pierre Tostee, an anti-drug Christian, one of his hash cookies. Pierre went into a drug-induced psychosis and had to be hospitalised.
In 1994, Nick failed to qualify for the world title and that was it, pretty much.
I remember, years later, finding Nick and asking what had happened.
“If you take a lot of drugs it fuckin’ disorganises you. It dregged me out, pretty much,” he said.
A couple of days ago, Nick’s sister Rochelle put out a hit on Facebook asking for help in retrieving his famous Bells trophy.
I need everyones help. When my brother Nicky, was 16, he won the Bells Beach Surfing Pro and when anyone wins Bells, they receive a bell trophy. Its a part of our families history, my mum used to ring it at dinner time as a joke and we would all know tea was ready lol. Because you cant enter Bells now unless you’re over 18, no one will ever beat his record so the symbolicness of the trophy is huge, as well as it being a part of our families history. About 10 yrs ago when Nick was between houses he left his stuff all at a mates and unbeknown to Nick, that mate moved from his place at Byron Bay, and some of Nicks stuff that didn’t get lost, left or sold, got put into a storage shed in Newcastle. Apparently this guy then didn’t pay his storage fees and everything inside the storage unit including Nicks Bells Beach trophy, was sold at auction. I was told some guy at Merewether had it but I couldn’t find out his name. If anyone knows where it may be, or the guys name who actually did or does still have it, I would be overjoyed and would be happy to buy it back for double what was paid for it so I can return it to my brother. I know the auction house where it was sold was in Wickham because I went there and spoke to the owner who confirmed it had been sold but wouldn’t tell me anything else and to ring the police and at that point i didn’t really want to involve them, and still havent, because i know they’ll do nothing anyway. Thank you everyone please share share share hoping someone who knows may see it 🙂
You got it?
Want to sell it, return it?
NC – sociopath. “When asked what was the funniest thing he had ever seen whilst competing and covering the world tour, Nick Carroll said. “Funniest, probably Nicky Wood’s unintentional spiking of Pierre Tostee with a bunch of hash cookies that Nick had cooked up for his own use. Pierre came home after a surf and thought “hey, fantastic, chocy biscuits!” However after devouring about six, it wasn’t so funny for the South African pro surfer, a clean living Christian. He went into a drug-induced psychosis and had to be hospitalized. It effectively ended his pro surfing career. Now a successful ASP photographer, Pierre is very careful about what biscuits he eats.”
Ok my bad , i found it in flea market near lorne , took it home stripped the wood of it for my BBQ , then melted the bell down to make spoon and shot sinkers , everytime i catch a nice feed of fish , i think of Nick Wood and thank the stars he was such a fuck up other wise i would have never caught all these fish.
Thank you Rip Curl for making my search for sustainable fishing so rewarding.
Can you do a story on the lost generation Nicky wood ,Sam watts
Jason Buttonshaw ,China Danny wells Shane and Brett herring .
To show kids you need a plan B
To fall back.
Why doesn’t he just win another one if it’s such a big deal?
Just go win another. Done.
The doo-dah’s not all bad. Writing it off altogether for everyone is a huge mistake. It’s complex, like everything.
What was his name again? Nicky what? Nicky Wood? Hmmm. Nope. Doesn’t ring a bell.
Winner of the AAA Billabong 1990 Sunset Pro . Took down Sunset beach heavy weights Hans Hedemann ,Mike Latronic and Oz big wave rider Tony Ray in the final, catching only 5 waves when best 5 waves were counting, and walked away with US 40K at 20 years old ( before priority) . A feat that the GOAT has not achieved during his 27 years on tour . Ps upvote for the pun .You definitely rang my bell .
I won’t apologize for having been a bigger Jason Buttonshaw fan. His surfing in Surf into Summer was what I wanted my surfing to look like if I wasn’t such a kook.
Byron Bay Easter Classic mid 80s and the best surfing I saw in the whole contests was in the final of the under 15s and Butto and Sam Watts absolutely smashed it .
Also he used the winnings to pay his tax bill. Didn’t they have managers back then? Or only Tom Carroll and the fax machine guy?
ScottSanDiego: the biggest baddest drug taking cowboy in all of the Internet’s comments sections!
Jesus christ you’re all a bag of fuckwits today aren’t you.
You appear especially grumpy-your little paddle darlings not make it out through yesterday’s swell? Couldn’t display their athletic greatness?
No, this is pure Beach grit comments section sourced grumpiness Dirk Diggler. The eighth wonder of the western world.
“a bag of fuckwits “
(Raises hand)
I wonder, of those winners still with us, how many “bells” are still in possession of the owner?
Peter drouyns 2nd or 3rd place bell was found in a Coolangatta 2nd hand store and later sold at auction in Lorne about 15 years ago. I think someone in the torquay surf Mafia has it.
The only person who wants to get their hands on that trophy more than Nicky’s Sister is Dog Marsh who as an ambitious competitive animal must still be pissed off about coming second at Bells 30 years later . Everyone slagging Nicky off today but he was a great surfer in all conditions having won the 1990 Billabong Sunset beach pro ( something the GOAT hasn’t done in his 27 years on tour ) and got a 3rd there a few years later on one of his attempted returns from the Darkside . Jebus might advise the stone throwers not to be too quick to judge MR’s godson ?
In the subject of child prodigies gone to the dark side…Chappy Jennings? Where is he now?
Can’t help you there. Last time I saw him he was going seriously upside down on some chunky Dbah rights circa 87 . Inspirational .
the last update I had was kongs island.
This is without a doubt the best string of comments on Beach Grit for the month. Thanks to all here!
I remember eating a large slice of hash cake the first year I worked deck of a cray boat. Boy was that an interesting day…
Didn’t need a psych ward though
Look how wide Dog’s template is…. wow.
Has he looked behind the couch?
Please tell me you are going to do some kind of write up on what went down between Towersey and Stab today. Strippers, drugs and tacos. Right up your alley!
I’ll examine!
wot?
Expand pleez
Hopefully someone saved the InstaStories from OCInstaNews yesterday. He wanted to get picked to commentate the StabHi aerial comp in Waco. He somehow thought the below would get him the job!
1. Hire a mexican at a local U-Haul after bribing him with $40 and weed
2. Hire a Latin stripper to show up at Stab headquarters cause he somehow though women couldn’t possibly be working at Stab HQ
3. Get tacos and beers for the Stab team
4. Show up at their discrete Venice office w/ all the above
5. Get kicked out of their HQ and get told that Monster Energy blocked him from commentating
Safe to say he lives in an alternate reality where all of this is not only acceptable but welcome in corporate america.
Oh, that’s hilarious.
Chas def needs to get onto that story. Uncle Titso strikes again. Doinker.
Stab also complicit in being douches, likely. Need more info.
Holy fuck.
Never heard of this bloke until this comment.
I thought Bondi and the Northern Beaches were terrible. If your average OC local is even 15% similar to this cunt how the fuck do you even manage to check the surf without self-harming?
the Northern Beaches would be heaven to an OC surfer…. incomprehensibly good.
California is like that chick that you thought was hot in middle school. She recognizes you on the street after college and you’re scrambling for an exit. Echo Beach, 1975-1984, RIP.
Uncle Tito!
Follow up story- WSL to bring legal action against Nicky’s mum. Very strict about their “You gotta win it to ring it” policy.
So he forgot about it. Was sold legally, and now he wants it back? Douche
thats what happens to people who have strict belief systems. their minds are blown when they encounter the true absurdity of existence revealed through special plants made into special brownies
Ah to be fair I think there’s a genetic element at work here.
I’ve known a couple people who are still shadows of the vibrant youth they were, after a couple too many bongs in the heady days of early university. No exaggeration, and it’s really sad.
One day they were partying, then next couple of days they have a breakdown and mysteriously disappear, only to emerge from the psych ward, a shattered mess. We were all on the same stuff, but not all of us had the biochemical robustness to chew through it.
true
I’m fascinated by this new word: “symbolicness”.
I was fascinated by Derek’s board comment that some credit was owed to a 5’7″ stature Gunther Rohn channel bottom.
I sooooooo miss my Minami channel-bottom twinzer…
Would have been more accurate to give credit to the backwash at Rincon. He did a floater in 2 ft backwash and it blew everyone’s minds (it even made the rip curl video). I was standing there on the rocks as a 14 year old watching. Fuck it was rad for 1987.
With hindsight dog marsh was a bit stiff to lose.
Be gentle, she was educated in Newcastle’s darker, industrial, times….
I am being gentle.
These sorts of malaprops are interesting.
Sign Nick’s sister up, Derek. She’s got Grit class and she’s got Grit style.
Stray Grit. Nice.
I’m the biggest of bitches,,,, and a hash cookie would barely send me to The Gap, let alone the psyche ward… even if u ain’t into drugs, a hash Cookie is an eternal gift of memories
Might send me to MacDonald’s, if my arms and legs weren’t so damned heavy
Nick was a very talented surfer…. may still be. He challenged the elite at the time. A woman may be as involved in his demise as were the drugs.
As for the edibles, you have to be careful.
fucken hell Hippy, you’re the only person making sense in here today
You see that footage in the link Nick? You’d have thought it was the 1940’s quality wise. I got a kick out of the templates, weird soul I am. One thing about that era in board…. neutral and could be ridden anywhere effectively. I had two boards I traveled with for years…. anywhere too.
Now my storage is filled with sleds for this place, that place.
Well all the pics were shitty Tracks newsprint quality. I used to love getting my hands literally dirty with that rag.
But yeah boards looked different before they developed rocker.
Must agree . Had lots of boards at that time but only two sizes 6’x 19” rounded square and 6’6” x19” rounded pin .
I played with lots of things, but essentially all the boards were from the same templates. My mom’s garage rafters were filled with 6’2″s. I used to squeegee my hot coats for “texture decks” and shape in foot wells…. heeheee, went through a lot of very light boards in short order.
The Black Widow