By Dan Walsh
Australia’s highest-ranked men’s surfer has revealed the majority of his breakout World Championship Tour campaign came while suffering symptoms of chronic appendicitis that had him vomiting before a pair of career-changing victories.
Jack Robinson enters the 2023 WCT campaign as one of the top title contenders thanks to a third-place finish last season, with wins at his home break of Margaret River and Indonesia’s G-Land shooting him to No.1 in the world midway through the year.
It wasn’t until December, however, when the 25-year-old was admitted to hospital with crippling stomach pain, that it was discovered he had surfed and competed for much of the year suffering from long-term appendicitis.
Robinson’s symptoms of cramps and vomiting were especially severe leading into events.
His G-Land victory over eventual world champion Filipe Toledo (Brazil) in June was particularly rough on the WA product, as was a slightly underwhelming finals loss at Trestles, California.
“It’d happen a lot before an event, I think just because of the stress your body goes under in that environment,” Robinson told the Herald ahead of the Billabong Pro at Pipeline, Hawaii.
“It’d happen and that’d be the only common denominator. G-Land, two nights before I was up all night vomiting and struggling. And then my energy is just zapped for the rest of the contest.
“I was dropping kilos all the time this would happen. The finals in California were rough, that was another all-nighter.
“Bells Beach too, Margaret [River] not as much which was a nice relief, but then it came back at J-Bay (Jeffreys Bay in South Africa) and then in December it kicked off again.
“All of a sudden I couldn’t sleep and I [turned] to my girlfriend Julia and said ‘I need to go to hospital’.
“I had probably been in that situation eight or so times throughout the year. But that was the extra big one, I waited all day and they got that thing out in surgery that night.
“By that point it was, ‘just get it out, please’. I was so over it because this just kept happening all year and now I’m just happy to be healthy again. It’s all good now and hopefully, fingers crossed, it’s a clean year now for me.”
This time last year Robinson was only just truly putting himself on the WCT map, having been touted as ‘the next Kelly Slater’ from as early as the age of 12.
In what Slater described as “one of, if not the best day I’ve ever seen” for a tour event at Pipeline, Robinson trumped the greatest surfer of all time with a pair of nine-out-of-10 barrel rides in double-overhead conditions.
Jack Robinson in the eye of a Banzai monster at last year’s Billabong Pro Pipeline.Credit: Getty
This year’s event has started with two lay-days, but hopes are high on the North Shore that the women’s and men’s competitions will get underway on Tuesday (Wednesday morning AEDT) in favourable six-foot conditions.
Robinson’s prowess as one of the world’s best barrel-riders has him well-placed to start 2023 with a podium finish, particularly given Toledo’s reluctance to take on heavy waves like Teahupo’o and Pipeline last year.
Robinson had questioned Toledo’s half-hearted attempt in Tahiti last August but played a straight bat to suggestions he held an advantage against the Brazilian in this week’s event.
“We start from zero again,” Robinson said.
“When the waves are good you’re not thinking about your competitors or how they’ll handle that. But Pipeline is its own beast and creates a different environment.
“Doesn’t matter how often you come or even the local guys who push it out there, you still respect that wave like nothing else.”
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