Jack Robinson breaks silence on unbearable weight of being “the next Kelly Slater!”

"It came with its challenges, for sure..."

The Olympics, as you may or may not know, is almost around the corner with excitement building by the second. The slots for the surfing component, which will be held at the “Cave of Skulls,” are now all, officially, filled with jingoists ready to tear each other apart, limb from limb.

One of the better parts of this lead up, as a surf journalist, is getting to know characters whom I thought I already did. Japan-by-way-of-Huntington-Beach’s Kanoa Igarashi, for example, who used his heritage to overcome all of the troubles and tribulations of professional surfing competition in order to capture the silver medal at Tokyo 2020 by circa 2021.

Or the fact that Jack Robinson was once dubbed “the next Kelly Slater.

In a wide ranging interview with the Olympics official online organ, the Australian standout discussed his unconventional upbringing, charging meaty waves at a tender age, feeling that pressure from sponsors etc. but most of all staggering under the unbreakable weight of the greatest competitive male surfer of all-time.

The current World Surf League number two was introduced to the broader public thusly:

Robinson’s talent and fearless nature growing up quickly caught the attention of surfing connoisseurs. Magazine covers introducing him as “the next Kelly Slater”, sponsorship deals and trips around the world followed. And all this before he was a teenager.

While his childhood was far from ordinary, Robinson has no regrets.

“I think it was a full childhood just because of where I grew up,” he said. “I still got to have fun and be a kid, but it was full. It came with its challenges, for sure, when I travelled, and sponsors, everything. But in the long run, you got to get through it. That’s part of the job.”

To be honest, I don’t recall Robinson being touted as “the next Kelly Slater” when I worked for the aforementioned magazines. It seems lazy, frankly, and weird, and I can certainly understand those challenges.

Robinson, anyhow, plans to use that burden in order to crush all-comers at Teahupo’o, declaring, “I feel like if you can make it through that time when you’re in the spotlight as a kid – because it’s so many expectations on your shoulders and you don’t really know how to handle it because you’re so young – if you can make it through that and have the right people around you, then it’s better for the long run because now having expectations and people all hyped, it would almost be too new. You’d be like, ‘Oh, how do I handle it?’ So, I feel like I handled it at a young age and got it out of the way.”

Australian nationalists, certainly, ready to rub the southern cross in Brazil, America, France’s proverbial face.

Oi, oi, oi.