Andrew Farrell's profile on Brenden Margieson ran in the November 1999 issue of Australia's Surfing Life magazine.

Our boat is steaming at full speed toward a thundering lefthander called People Eaters. Eight-foot sets are screaming down the horribly shallow reef. Some of us are hooting, some are silently in awe. Brenden Margieson is on the bow, waxing his 6' 10" and occasionally looking up to see another thick slabbing left that may as well have chunks of flesh exploding skywards with the whitewater and a red stain of blood on the face.

Margo keeps waxing, takes a few deep breaths, and quietly says, "Go away butterflies." He has ridden bigger, nastier waves than these—but he's not afraid to admit this kind of surf still gets his heart racing. No false bravado, no macho stance, Margo is open, honest and straight- up. He's a Good Bloke, a textbook case, the kind of guy you'd be happy to have on a surf trip. It's almost an afterthought that he happens to be one of the best surfers in the world.

His journey to this moment of tension was like your life or mine—a succession of millions of little events and decisions. Some flash by without you noticing, others change your life. The first big one for Margo was made by his parents. When he was five they moved to Byron Bay (this isn't counting their decision to actually make Margo in the first place, which turned out to be a good call too). This was pre-yuppie, pre-backpacker Byron. A mellow country town with exceptional surf and surfers to match. "Growing up in Byron, the talent was at such a high level," he told me. "I think that was one of my biggest helping hands to my surfing career." It wasn't long before people began to notice Brenden's distinctive, power-based style. His surfing dad Rod was a big influence. "He said 'Keep your own style, you've got your own style.' This was when I was 14."

But in one of those everyday chats you have after a surf, one of his mates sparked a decision that helped shape the rest of Margo's surfing. "This guy up the road said, 'Man you've got the best style, but every time you come off the bottom I swear you don't do anything off the top'." Young Margo was spurred into action. "I went, 'That's it, I'm gonna try and hit it as hard as I can.' I was so insulted by what that guy had said. Then this one day at Lennox when it was four foot—I remember these perfect long walls, and every wave, first bottom-turn I'd be trying like crazy to do the hardest turn off the top I could. For a long while, I just wasted so many waves. Then I pulled off some real rad turn and I thought wow! 

Not long after that, Brenden was surfing Walkers (the old Byron Meatworks) and pulled off a crazy move he could hardly describe. He excitedly told his old man about that night. Six months later 

 is released. Here's Kelly doing these 'new school' reverses and slides. Margo can't believe what he's seeing, and tells his dad "That's it! That's the move I did at Walkers!

It was another turning point. While he'd never said out loud that he had any intention of becoming a pro, he carried the idea around with him. "Deep down I thought maybe I could be good enough."

The hunch was right. After he made the quarterfinals in the fledgling Billabong Junior Series, the company offered him a sponsorship deal, opening the door for his next big turning point. It began with a phone call. Eighteen-year-old Margo answered at 10 one morning and was told to get up to Coolangatta airport by two that afternoon. "They sent me on a trip to Western Australia with Occy to shoot with Jack McCoy for 

. Munga was meant to go but he got injured or something."

A few years earlier Margs had been another wide-eyed grom getting an autograph off Occ at the local surf shop. Now he was on a surf trip with him. "I remember Occy and Jack on the phone with [Billabong head honcho] Gordon Merchant, they were going "The kid’s pretty hot" sorta thing, and I was in the background. I know I wasn’t meant to hear, and I’m going 'Oh my god I can't believe it. I've been with Occy on this trip and now he's tellin' the boss of Billabong that I surf good!'"

Retelling this story all these years later you get the feeling he still can't believe it. He quit his chef's apprenticeship and began surfing fulltime. Straight away, Brenden was a stand-out. The cameras, especially, loved him. Margs is typically modest about the whole thing, "I was lucky enough that my surfing style, I guess you could say it's photogenic. I think Billabong was looking for someone like that. I just happened to be the guy in the right place at the right time."

The job suits him. "I love checking out photos of myself and seeing myself in videos. I get stoked on how time is just frozen there for that one moment. When I'm an old fella I'm gonna sit back and check out all my pictures, show 'em to my kids. Why not boast about it? I'm something I'm proud of."

Marg's favorite of himself shot is a radical top turn at Nias, taken by Jason Childs. That was the year he blew the rest of the world out of the water to win the Nias WQS contest. A performance that people are still talking about, three years later. "That's my claim to fame," Margo laughs when he jokingly makes a point of his otherwise less-than-stellar contest record. He followed up the Nias win with a serious run at the world tour, but his kind of surfing wouldn't fit. "I really tried, but I didn't make it. That's okay. I'm glad I gave it a shot. Ten years down the track I won't be going 'Oh what if I was in the top 44 and I could have been up there with Slater and that.' But the reality is I wasn't, and I didn't. I still feel good about it. I know I was meant to do what I'm doing now."

Margo is not particularly balanced on land, sharing that tumble-factor many great surfers have when forced to negotiate the terrain of everyday life. Watch out for that door! 

 In his head, however, there's plenty of balance. He is utterly, happily married to Samone, loves his gardening, and is an ex-birdwatcher who can still identify obscure Australian species, and loves to draw. He's already thinking about his post-pro future—although he's got a few good years left in him yet."I feel like I haven't peaked yet," he tells me. "And that's a good thing."

Brenden Margieson has been very lucky, but not in the random sense like a lottery winner. He created his luck. The style he chose for living and surfing turned out to be the right one. The way he treats people wherever he goes, and the way he presents himself, is the right way. He's almost embarrassed that things have gone so right, and it's that calm self-depreciation that's one of Margo's most typical and endearing traits. "I have been pretty fortunate I reckon. I never take what I've got for granted."

He's not the kind of bloke to stand on the bow of a ship and yell "I'm king of the world." He'll be sitting down the back with a sheepish grin and a sideways glance saying quietly, "Hey this is going all right huh?"

Yeah, Brenden, it's going really, really well.

"FORTUNATE LIFE: HOW MARGO MADE HIS OWN LUCK," BRENDEN MARGIESON PROFILE BY ANDREW FARRELL (1999)

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