Ginger Men

Here are some great surfers who have risen against their mane disadvantages, and one who succumbed.

Nat Young

The highest-placed bloodnut on the WCT, Rookie Of The Year 2013 and a goofy-footer to boot, Nat had a great event at the Rip Curl Pro Portugal, placing second behind Kai Otten in the dumpy Supertubos barrels. Nat’s a young dude, from Santa Cruz, and born in 1991, which is just the other day, so he has a long and exciting career ahead of him. He’s the diametric opposite of his namesake, the 1966 World Surfing Champion Nat Young of Australia who is close to a hundred years old and has grey hair. Nat’s surfing at the Oakley Pro Keramas 2013 was a joy to behold, with his backhand hooks totally critical and on edge, and Nat follows through with a pleasing style and arcs of spray whenever he sinks that rail. He’s got a rail game and an air game, as well as a set of nerves when it gets solid.

Fun fact: Redheaded women bleed longer, which is why special preparations have to be made for them in childbirth.

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Bobby Owens

When we were younger and the world was a strange place the only way that the surfing word got spread beyond magazines was by movies. The original Wave Warriors movie was one such pic, with VHS copies being played endlessly like porn till they were broken. One of the surfers in the movie was smooth Hawaiian natural-footer Bobby Owens, who is described in Matt Warshaw’s Encyclopedia Of Surfing as ‘an unlikely looking surf hero with incandescent red hair.’ Bobby charged the big stuff in Hawaii, was smooth and fast, and was placed in the prestigious ‘top 16’ four times. His top rank was 7th in the world in 1978 but he was the first time that the professional surfing world had a ginger in its top ranks.

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JOB

When he’s not burning rule books, pulling into the biggest barrels in the world, punching Brazilians, apologizing to Brazilians and receiving all sorts of rage from the ASP, Jamie O’Brien stands out as one of the best ginger surfers in the world. Jamie is from Hawaii, growing up at Pipeline and looking into the barrel every day from his house. He’s one of the best surfers of any colour hair at Pipe and it’s a great pity that he won’t be surfing in the Billabong Pipe Masters this year. Someone with JOB’s skills could easily come between Kelly and Mick and totally mess with the World Title race, especially now that it’s all going to happen right there at the Banzai Pipeline and let’s face it - they’re both hungry as shit for this title.

Fun Fact: Redheads make up between 1 and 2% of the world’s population.

Dusty Payne

Another Hawaiian red-head, Dusty from Maui keeps his ginger hair cropped short. Isn’t it amazing that we have three red surfers from Hawaii, the home of dark-skinned mokes, of brown-hued Hawaiian bloodlines and of surfers as dark as the legendary Dane Kealoha. Another natural-footer, Rusty hasn’t had the best year, with a few poor results and then an injury that resulted in him missing the last four events. Dusty has the full package of above the lip moves, fast acceleration and power surfing derived from his Hawaiian background and at 25 years of age, is going to be around for a long time.

Fun fact: A massive conspiracy theory exists that redheads are alien-human hybrids.

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Chippa

Indeed one of the best aerialists in the world, Christopher ‘Chippa’ Wilson is an unashamed longhaired ranga. Makes no difference, as he does better airs every day of his life than blondes and brunettes worldwide. Prospective aerial surfers from all over the globe do their utter best copy Chippa and his innovative technique, even though he comes up with so many new fresh moves it’s hard to keep tabs on what he’s doing at the moment and what he’s going to do next. Not bothered with contests, Chippa also gets more exposure than the majority of WCT surfers, and probably gets about an equal amount of exposure as current World Champion Parko who has jet-black hair and sometimes sports a luxuriant black beard.  

Fun fact:  Remember, gingers do have souls, as this red-headed step-child very clearly states in the above clip

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Shawn Barney Barron

He burst onto the scene as a young ginger air freak, but his game was so much deeper than that. From Santa Cruz, Barney soon turned into a big wave charger and was one of the boys charging Mavericks whenever it got solid. Now in his 40’s, Barney is currently producing some amazing artwork, and works for many non-profits including fund raising for Fleahab. http://fleahab.net/

In a somewhat remarkable twist of irony and very dark humour, Barney also got all of his surfing trophies together to direct the ‘Trophyman’ series of video clips (In the above episode Trophyman enters a tattoo parlour). Trophyman is described thus: Trophyman is a metallic being constructed of Shawn Barney Barron's surf trophies and a copper wire exoskeleton. Trophyman rose from the graveyard of surf legends and contests, the wastelands of sponsorship extinction, and the purgatory of lost souls inhabiting the rockstar ladder of professional surfing that inevitably ends with age. He continues his struggle to find himself and meaning in an ever-shifting landscape of values, economics, and what is "cool."

Fun fact: red-heads have the smallest hair count on their heads, coming in at about 90,000 as opposed to the regular 140,000

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Shane Herring

One of the best surfers ever to come out of Australia, Shane Herring is now a burnt out case, a drunk with a red beard, but a likeable chap from all accounts. He shot to fame by beating Kelly Slater in the Coke Classic 1992, and was immediately declared the greatest Australian surfer since Michael Peterson. He rode weird boards, partied hard, and was soon off the pro tour with nothing to show for it. His whole career, from discovery, to 4th in the world, to off the tour, took five years in total. That’s a very quick career in today’s standards, and a cautionary tale as to what could go wrong. As Derek Hynd puts it, “that guy with the red beard, 20 years back he was the Kelly Slater of Australian surfing, and no Australian surfer has come close to that level since.”

The top vid shows Shane in his prime in the early 90’s. The bottom depicts a fairly recent interview

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Fun fact: British author Will Self wrote in his book Great Apes that most animals have an immediate distrust for humans with ‘disgusting red bodily hair.

Mark Matthews

Our charging ranga, Matthews is a super-fit and tough fucker and pretty calm about life, much unlike the stereotypical red that has man-boobs and is extremely uptight about a lot of things. Matthews’ status in the Bra is one of legend, and in the world of big wave surfers and slab hunters he is on top of the pecking order. Mark is fearless, has some tough friends, has chalk white skin and has admitted before that he doesn’t look good with a beard. He has surfed some incredible waves at The Right as well as at Ours, including a crazy night session there, and is always looking for the next big slab. He also featured in Fighting Fear, a movie that might be about how he overcame the prejudice and intolerance he suffered as a young redheaded kid.