Words by Brad Bricknell
We boarded the plane for Hawaii; five of us clamouring on board the Honolulu bound flight from Sydney. My son is hoping for a window seat after I told him I was pretty sure we had the whole row to ourselves (without actually looking at our boarding passes.)
His older sister shot-gunned the window on the domestic flight and he was charging down the aisle to find our row. We settled into our seats; the boy carrying a sulk the size of the harbour bridge as he realised the window seat was taken. But that quickly changed when I pointed out he was sitting next to a pro surfer who had all but qualified for the World Championship Tour next year. All of a sudden he became Connor O’Leary’s number one fan.
Fast forward a week and Connor finds himself in the Semi’s of the Hawaiian Pro, catapulting himself to number one on the world qualifying series rankings. We watched most of his heats at Haleiwa and my son kept running up to me after each heat saying “Connor made it through Dad!” And he did all the way to a 5th place finish, even knocking off the 11-time world champ in the process.
We caught up a few days after at his condo at Turtle Bay. He’s chosen to stay slightly out of the hustle of the North Shore strip, he prefers the quiet life and it seems to compliment his temperament well. He grabs us a semi-cold Coors Lite from the fridge and we talk freely on surfing, qualification and life. I had met Connor once before and was struck by his level-headed views back then, and this 30 minutes we spent together solidified what I had already suspected about him. What you see is what you get with the kid from Cronulla; well mannered, respectful and humble.
And it seems you don’t have to be a frothed up competitive animal to succeed. Connor is quite the opposite; he’s laid back, yet internally driven – He just wants to improve himself and his surfing. He study’s technique, loves watching back-hand surfing and doesn’t need a set of head phones and ear-bleeding heavy metal to stoke his competitive fires before heats. There is certainly no hint of arrogance or over the top confidence here either, but rather a mental maturity that seems to bely his age. “I just stopped thinking too much, and that’s kind of worked” he says nonchalantly. He talks about psychology and managing negative thoughts – the stuff coaches and managers dream about. For the most part his Dad is all that for now, but once he hits the big league next year it may need to change.
But Connor isn’t really thinking about that just yet. His main aim was to make an impression in Hawaii, get a result that would show himself (and any fence sitters) that he was the real deal. This time last year he even surprised himself being in a qualifying position coming into the North Shore winter although he says he didn’t deal with that situation very well. 12 months later he’s made amends, bagged a result on the rock and one could say has ‘quietly’ put a stake in the ground, right on top of the world qualifying series mountain.
He may have ‘stole’ my sons window seat, but he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. And my bet is, this laid back, smiling assassin may just do some damage on the dream tour next year.