"It’s too much fun doing what I’m doing right now.”
Hughie Vaughan, surfing’s newest sensation, has enjoyed time in our spotlight for a year, or such, but is on his way to mainstream fame. The 19-year-old made his mark in various wave pool air events, including Stab High, nailing perfect scores by doing incomprehensible spins, getting featured on surf-themed Instagram accounts, probably also a feature in Surfer Magazine. All very cool but the Boy from Bateau Bay is now bigger than us and sitting down for interviews with the likes of The Guardian.
Kieran Pender, writing for the over-200 year old broadsheet out of Manchester, England, sat down with Vaughan to discuss all manner of surf airs and what’s next for the fly kid, which is where we see the World Surf League catch some wild strays.
“Vaughan’s preternatural composure suggests a promising competitive future,” Pender writes, “But the surfer himself is less sure. A decade ago, surfers like him would be on the fast track to the World Surf League. Now, Vaughan admits to being uncertain about his next steps (promising aerialist Milla Brown is in a similar position).”
Ouch.
The dagger is further twisted when Pender explains the “hit-and-miss” conditions that haunt the WSL, and its “grindy” nature, contrasting it with Vaughan going to strike missions to exotic waves and lucrative pool gigs before handing the hilt over to Vaughan, himself, and letting him coup de grâce.
“When I was younger I always wanted to be on the world tour. I looked up to Mick Fanning, Kelly [Slater], John John [Florence]. It was definitely where I wanted to be. But it’s too much fun doing what I’m doing right now.”
Blood squirting everywhere.
The “Global Home of Surfing” losing out on generational talents because it is “not fun” certainly does not bode well and especially when the hot surfers coming up are opting to do wave tub novelty events instead of collecting points at the SLO CAL Open Pismo Beach.
Vaughan, Pender adds at the end, “does not rule out a WSL stint,” though, Vaughan adding “it’s just a matter of when” but what if “when” is in 20 years and the World Surf League becomes a sort of aged senior division?
Scary.
Well, I guess that is that. Who do you have for World Cup semi between France and Spain today?
Should be a dinger.