This interview, by Jack McCoy, ran in the May 1976 issue of SURFER, and was titled "Ian: We're Number One!" Cairns was 24 years old.

Why do you think the Aussies have been so successful this year?

The Australians are a really competitive bunch. Out in the water we’re all sort of competing against each other continually. Once you get a group of guys who are consistently pushing themselves further and further, the standards are undoubtedly going to rise. That’s what happened over the last few years. There’s been a resurgence of interest in Hawaiian surfing contests because we seem to be able to push ourselves harder than the Hawaiians do. Our surfing, as a group, has improved outrageously; whereas theirs, as a group, has stagnated a fraction. We’ve all been working hard to get into contests over here, and now that we’ve got a stack of Australians in them, we’re super keen to do well.

Most of the contests this year were held in big surf. Do you enjoy riding big waves?

It’s tremendously exciting. It’s one of the few challenges I’ve ever been faced with. Here's this phenomenally huge body of water coming at you, which has the potential to crush and maim and do whatever it wants to you. And you're sitting there facing it, knowing you’re going to take off on it and ride it and control it.

You have to control your adrenalin, your heart pumping, your terror. You have to swing around and paddle into the thing forcefully and with confidence, and ride the bloody thing. You can't let it beat you.

This year you astounded spectators by hotdogging at Waimea. Is this part of your approach to big-wave riding?

The classic old-style Hawaiian approach is entirely divorced from the way performance surfing has evolved. I thought to myself, "Why are all these people going straight?" Here we’ve been practicing all these turns, and here’s the ultimate medium for doing them—a giant face with more room to correct your errors. So I went out and endeavored to ride 20'-25' waves in the same manner as if I was riding a four-foot wave.


How did you feel winning the Duke? I know you have a lot of respect for Duke Kahanamoku.

It’s a tremendous honor for an Australian to win a contest in the Duke’s memory. It was one of my ambitions to be able to compete in it, and then to actually win was a dream come true.

I went out in the finals [at Waimea] feeling really good after winning the semi, and started to get a few waves, and I just felt really confident I could win it. I gradually began to build up my aggression and my confidence, getting further inside, taking off later, getting steeper, getting to the borderline of impossible, insane maneuvers, and I was making it. I thought, “I’m invincible. Here we go.” So I took off on this wave, the biggest wave I’d seen, and I was taking off, then all of a sudden I wasn’t taking off. I wasn’t going down; I was being pulled backwards up the face of the wave. It was impossible! I was invincible! Then I'm thinking “My God, I’ve made a bit of a bad judgment here." I jumped off, went about twenty feet straight down the face, went over the falls, which took an incredible amount of time, ’cause you go from the bottom of the wave up inside the wave back down, about a forty-foot circular trip, and when I hit the bottom, I thought, “Now, this is a big wave, I’ve made a terrible error. I’m going to have an incredible wipeout." And then when the thing hit me—I just didn't think any wave could be that heavy. Eventually I came up, but that was sufficient to drain my confidence. I rode a couple of dribblers after that, and fortunately the waves before the wipeout were good enough to let me win.

How do you feel about professional surfing?

We put our lives on the line, we go out there and take insane risks, we go over the falls and get annihilated, impress the crowd—yet we make such a measly amount of money. It’s astounding that a sport as impressive as surfing can’t engender enough excitement in the sponsorship circle to organize more prize money.


Are you satisfied with your performance this year?

I haven't surfed anywhere near the goal I set for myself at the beginning of the season. I don’t surf religiously every day. I’m more into surfing for my own pleasure and enjoyment. That's when I surf well and really feel enthused and excited.

Could you comment on some of the top riders on the North Shore?

Mark Richards is one of the most explosive, radical, incredible surfers I’ve seen. And he’s going to improve outrageously. He’s got an untapped amount of talent. He's emotionally sound—he won’t be a one-day fizzle. He’ll be around for a long time, and he’ll be the guy to beat consistently in the future anywhere in the world. He’s good in small waves. He’s good in big waves. He's just a well-rounded, incredibly hot surfer. I don't go for his style, it's not relaxed or eye-pleasing, but the maneuvers and positions he gets into on the wave are phenomenal.

Shaun is the best tube rider because of his control and his ability to turn around sections in the tube. He's an incredibly strong, powerful surfer. He's got cutback maneuvers down unbelievably. He’s fantastic. He’s the one person who is a real strong threat to the Australians.

Does that mean you think the Australians are the best?

We’ve had a really strong competitive record over the years. It slumped a fraction in the early '70s, but since then the new crop that has come up to take over from Nat Young and Midget Farrelly has consistently improved each year until now—we're number one.

[Photos: Lance Trout, Rob Hutchinson, Lost and Found]

Ian Cairns

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