Ryan Hardy Interview

Sláine: Today I will be interviewing Pro Bodyboarder Ryan Hardy fresh from
his victory at the Human Shark Island Challenge. Ryan could you please just give us
your age and favourite surf spot.

Ryan: I’m twenty-six turning twenty-seven this year and
my favourite surf spot would have to be the ‘Box’ at home in Margaret River.

Sláine: When did you first get hooked on bodyboarding?

Ryan: My first body board was…my family got two Mach 7”7’s kinda
not long after they first came out and I was just riding them in the white wash,
and getting the thrill of riding a body board on a wave, was the starter for
me, the start of my addiction, and seeing all the guys like Mike Stuart and
all the early Australian guys Ross Hawke, Doug Robson seeing them in the
magazines doing the same manoeuvres and get big barrels and stuff that was
what sort of ignited my passion and excitement for body boarding.

Sláine: When did you first get noticed as a bodyboarder? When was your first
cover shot?

Ryan: Yeah, my first picture in a magazine was just a small advertisement
for one of my sponsors when I was fourteen, and probably a year later I got
my first editorial photo when I was fifteen and my first major photo spread
when I was in year twelve at sixteen just turning seventeen, that was kinda
the launch of my career in professional bodyboarding.

Sláine: And did you finish school?

Ryan: Yeah, yeah I finished school at the end of year twelve and then, all
through school I was kind of, pretty focussed on school, I wasn’t surfing as
much as I could during my school years, I’d surf maybe twice during the week
and then through the weekend and then, it was kind of good in a way having
that discipline cause once I left school I was just so fired up to go
surfing everyday and improve my talent on a body board that it just allowed
me to peak at a good age, and leading into my twenties.

Sláine: Did your parents and your family support your decision to go into
pro-bodyboarding or did they have higher expectations for you?

Ryan: Yeah, well first and foremost my mum especially pushed me towards
finishing my schooling, finishing year twelve and that’s was kinda why she
enforced that I didn’t surf to much was so that I got a good result out of
my TEE and out of my studies. From there she was happy for me to chase
competition and chase a career in bodyboarding whilst I was young
and excited for it and I think once I got to the stage where I was earning
quite good money in it and as much as I would’ve if I had left school and
followed university or got a job, that was when she kind of accepted that
you know, I was going places with it a bodyboarding career, and nowadays
she’s really stoked for where I’ve ended up (nods head)

Sláine: When you first sponsorship for what you do, did you
think it would change your perception of bodyboarding?

Ryan: Lets see… I guess when your young before you get sponsored, you so
amped to get sponsored to be able get free equipment, but I don’t know,
there kind of a couple of ways you can take it, you can take it as if ‘Oh
look I’m so good now that I’m getting this free gear you know I don’t need
to try so much anymore because I’m sponsored and I’ve got prestige because
I’m sponsored, but I looked at it in the respect that I’ve got sponsorship,
people are believing in my ability to be successful in bodyboarding and just
sort of push me that little bit more towards wanting to succeed in
bodyboarding and to get to a higher level in my ability.

Sláine: You mentioned earlier your inspirations were guys like Ross Hawke
and Mike Stewart, but who has been your main source of inspiration, the main
person who has pulled you into the sport?

Ryan: Umm yeah the one guy that’s primarily inspired me to body board and to
aspire to be the best body board that I can be would be Mike Stuart just
‘cause I think he set a level of riding above, what anyone else in the
sport ever has...

Sláine: Like the godfather?

Ryan: (nods) Yeah pretty much he’s just the legend of the
sport, the guy that set a standard for all others to follow and watching his
riding and I suppose trying to emulate his riding has been a major part of
my developing the style that I have today.

Sláine: You Travel around a lot, you go to Hawaii and various other parts of
the world do you take Leah (wife). With you? What I’m really asking is how
does she feel about you travelling around the world?

Ryan: Yeah well having a girlfriend and recently a wife does make it kind of
difficult when you’re travelling away a lot but it’s definitely encouraging
when I do have my partner with me travelling and because she likes to travel
too just, makes an awesome combo when we get to travel together, but she’s
got her own commitments of study and working at home so I think a happy
balance of going away with the boys and going away with my wife is ideal.

Sláine: Like a dream come true? How you always vision it?

Ryan: Travelling away and doing competitions and going TO surf spots on
trips for magazines and videos that’s just the dream yeah, that’s all I ever
wanted to do, go through high school and once the dream of bodyboarding was
born for me that’s all I wanted to do and so today yeah I am living the
dream.

Sláine: It’s all right for some

Ryan: yeah (laughs)

Sláine: The world title, your obviously going for it, you’ve just won three
events in a row on tour is that really driving you a lot further especially
after Bens Players just won it are you really that determined to win it this yearand again and again as Kingy
has?

Ryan: Yeah definitely, just the past few years seeing my good friends and
rivals around the same age as me win the world tour which has been a dream
of mine since I started competing has totally inspired me and driven me to
the point where I just can’t think of anything else but wanting to get a
world tour, a world tour title so I’d definitely say that right now in my
career I’m more driven than ever to competition success and ultimately a
world championship, a world title.

Sláine: You talk about rivalry, who has been your main rival? A lot of
people have said its Mitchell Rawlins?

Ryan: Yeah I’d say that the guys that I feel that I’m on a similar level and
they push every time I surf with them, every time I compete with them would
be Mitch Rawlins Mike Stuart and Ben Player, not Mike Stuart (laughs)

Sláine: He’s retired (laughs)

Ryan: (laughs) yeah the guys that I feel that are around my age and around
my level and profile and level in the sport I guess are Australian guys
Mitch Rawlins, Ben Player and Damien King, and especially Kingy and Ben
because I’ve been competing against them since I started competing, and
we’ve always kinda been at each others heels and just sort of going up
the ranks together and now those guys have gone above even more, which has
made me want to chase them and driven me to chasing the title that I’m doing
today.

Sláine: Back to Mitch you both share the same sponsors, you both share
Billabong, you did share fourplay before Mitchell signed with VS did that
make the Rivalry more intense or did it bring you close together as friends
as mates?

Ryan: I think rivalry depends a lot on the people that are involved and I
think Mitch is fairly similar to me in that he’s very before he’s
competitive with other people, he’s competitive with himself, where he’s
driven to beat his own expectations and to better himself, rather than to be
better than other people and driven by other peoples expectations which I
feel we both have that same trait so, you know, when I see Mitch do well I’m
more stoked for him than I am jealous and angry that I want to be there so
it’s a kinda good, really healthy rivalry in that we’re both highly
competitive but highly appreciative of what the other guy is achieving, so
it’s a healthy rivalry that pushes us to the top without the bitterness and
without anything ugly.

Sláine: Where do you see yourself in bodyboarding in ten years?

Ryan: (Looks dazed) In ten years?

Sláine: It’s a long way down the track

Ryan: Yeah it is a long way down the track I’ve never really thought that
far, I mean if I had to think of it I’d like to think I was quite fit, and
still perhaps not competing at the top level with the top guys ‘cause,
‘cause I think the levels are getting higher and higher that, in the future
your going to have to be pretty much unbreakable to be competing against the
best guys and once you get towards forty you don’t really have an
unbreakable body so I’d like to still be fit and testing myself in the ocean
and still challenging myself in good heavy waves, but perhaps not competing
against the best guys but still involved with the sport and seeing/helping
with the sports evolvement and with the healthiness of the sport yeah

Sláine: Where do you see bodyboarding itself as a whole in ten years time?

Ryan: In ten years time, I could see the sport of bodyboarding in a pretty
good way just, you know I don’t see it as being a massive sport like surfing
is today, I see it being probably a more organised and a more professional
sport in the future and I don’t see it necessarily more bigger in numbers
but I just know that everyone that will be doing it and everyone that will
be involved will be highly passionate with the sport that they’re involved
with not for any fake reasons other than the fact that they like to ride a
body board and see the sport going off.

Slaine: To stretch out their passion?

Ryan: Yeah

Sláine: Your aiming for the world tile but have you got any other future
plans, like bigger things like maybe you want to open your own shop or
your own brand?

Ryan: (pauses) Bodyboarding wise I guess you know when you’ve got a goal
like being set on the world title which is such a heavy and intense thing to
be chasing your whole thought and drive becomes so obsessed with that, that
you don’t really think beyond it so, I have not really considered much
beyond the world title.

Sláine: Focussed on the one goal?

Ryan: Yeah it takes so much focus and energy on trying to achieve a world
tile everything else is secondary so I think once that’s achieved, or at
least had a good dig at it then, then you start to mellow out and accept
other goals and other ambitions in to follow in life

Sláine: Thanks a lot Ryan and good luck with the world title

Ryan was knocked out into the quarter Finals of the Honalula Bay Pipe
Contest. Taking home the world title was Hawaii's Jeff Hubbard, we wish all
the best to Jeff and Good Luck to Ryan Next year.