High emotion yields a wonderful and unexpected drama at surfing contest.
Rare is the surfing contest that takes its theatre from the water and brings it directly to the audience.
In this short video taken at Duranbah by Cam Macdougall, a sixteen-year-old high jumper, we see a freesurfer who, believing he was wronged in the water by a competitor in the Red Bull Airborne trials, “gutter stomps” Tane Bowden’s board.
For further effect, he adds,
“Cmon, pussy!”
“You’re all fucking cocks.”
“I put Occy in jail!”
“Occy’s in jail!”
“I’m going to put this in your arse.”
“It was so good, so entertaining,” reports Macdougall, wh0 was preparing for his own heat when the action took place, “pumping waves at a comp, blow-ups.”
What happened?
“I was in the middle of a heat,” says Tane Bowden. “I creased my board which could’ve been fixed. I then grabbed my other board and surfed the rest of my heat and as I was in the heat this dude runs up and snapped it. I come in and ask, ‘Why did you do that?’ He said he didn’t give a fuck.”
The freesurfer, Brett Fairbank, a forty-four-year-old artist noted for the“positive vibes” of his work says, and this is coming via a DM ‘cause he didn’t want to do a phone interview,
“The sponsored guy (Tane Bowden) rolls into the tent with snapped board. I was waiting for my *heat. I’m like board’s done and jumped on the snapped board to finish it off in a fun way. He got pissed off then I have five guys chasing me down to bash me. So I just got out of there and went home.”
In reply I write,
“What was the ‘I put Occy in jail!’ line about?
I get a message about Occ (allegedly) punching him in the head when he was a grom and (allegedly) “assaulting” his pal.
There is no clarification on jail time served.
A further investigation reveals,
“I’m a spiritual surfer artist that enjoys a free life. I also do uber driving two nights a week for money I love it for fun and enjoy the conversations interactions meeting new energy. During the week I surf, and paint, and live my free life,” Fairbank told USA Art News.
Good times!
* Name not on heat draw.