Landscape Altered is an initiative by Kustom and Modern Collective director Kai Neville, to put some of the globe’s most progressive surfers in an environment conducive to stomping a move worth $50k in Kustom’s Airstrike. A team including Clay Marzo, Jay Davies, Mitch Coleborn, Josh Kerr and Chippa Wilson are currently making their way through Mentawais. Click here for more details at STAB Magazine.
Josh Kerr - Flip
Jay Davies - Air Reverse
Josh Kerr - Hand Plant
Jay Davies - FS Varial
Jay Davies was spotted laying it down on his new Dwart! The double wing round tail makes it easy for Jay to go rail to rail and the stubby design help maximize his wave count. The Dwart is very versatile and is great for getting critical on, under, or above the lip…
Photos: Brody
Josh Kerr, Marlon Gerber, Jayke Sharp, and Jay Davies head down to Forster for a boardshort shoot.
Jay Davies and Kalani Chapman pull into a couple bombs at Pipeline…
Jay Davies answers some off the wall questions and speaks about competing in a Pipe contest…
Interview and Picture from Australia Surfing Life
Jay Davies has the complete package. His high flying punts are among the best in the business and this big lad can throw bucket loads of spray. After he scored the opening spread of our current issue’s Hawaiian feature, we sent Jay and mates Mitch Coleborn, Ry Craike and Brent Dorrington to the middle of the Pacific for an upcoming magazine feature. We caught up with Jay to find out about the trip, his plans for the WQS and why Dusty Payne didn’t give him 25 grand.
Hey mate, what are you up to?
Just wasting time on the couch in Hawaii.
So you’re over there for the Volcom Qualifying Series event? How are the waves?
Yeah, it was fun this morning. It’s pretty fun right now actually, it’s like four to six foot Backdoor and Pipe. The wind is a bit funky but there’s still the occasional barrel. It’s been good to get my feet wet and get into the swing of things.
You’ve made a name for yourself as a freesurfer over the past few years; does entering this comp mean you’ll be having a dig at the WQS this year?
Ahh not really, last year I did a few QS events, I pick the ones that I wanna do and that suit my style. I don’t want to be labeled as a freesurfer for my whole career, that’s just kinda how I’ve gotten my face out there. I still want to compete and challenge myself, that’s why I’m here. I know this is going to be a good event with good waves and to surf Pipe with three other guys is just unheard of, so I couldn’t really turn it down. It’s just a five star, but in quality waves, it should be a six star prime. But what the hell, it’s just good to be able to get some waves at Pipe.
When do you think you’ll have a full crack at qualifying?
I’m getting older, I’m 23 and I should really be giving it a solid crack this year because I’m young. Well, kinda young. I dunno, it hasn’t really crossed my mind. I’m still not sure if I really like doing it. I’ve had some good and bad experiences, but I think that’s what comes with competing. I’ve just gotta be more mature and suck it up. I’m not as confidant as I should be and there are some things I’d like to work on in my surfing, but hopefully in a year or two I’ve got it all worked out and I’ll give it a go.
The Kustom Airstrike has started back up. Weren’t you and Dusty meant to split the prize money last year? What happened to that?
We were playing golf at home and Taj or someone was saying that I was in the running with Dusty. I brought it up with Dusty and he was like “fuck, if one of us win we should go halves.” He ended up winning and I didn’t see any of the money, but I know if I won I wouldn’t have given him anything! So it’s understandable that I didn’t get 25 grand off him.
MOVE OF THE WEEK #2 from KerrAzy Productions on Vimeo.
How was your summer? What did you get up to?
It was pretty hectic, everyone comes home from travelling or working away and everyone congregates in Yallingup on the hill and everything turns pretty wild for three or four weeks span from early December to New Years. It’s all kinda a blur really. It was quite funny at stages and then I had to pull the pin on a few nights. I had a great Chrissy and New Years, but then got the bug to get back out and leave home because it was still all partying and carrying on, so I worked out a trip and got out of there.
Yeah we heard a rumour that you’re calming down a bit these days. Little less loose behaviour?
Yeah that’s kind of true. I try to hold myself back a bit, it’s hard though especially when all of your buddies are around and they’re having fun, but I’m sick of waking up feeling shitty and missing the first session of the morning. It’s not the best thing for your career being a wild prick. Don’t get me wrong I still get lit up every now and then but it’s slowed down a bit.
You just went Pacific Island hopping with our photographer Shieldsy and filmer Talon, tell us about the trip.
It was interesting, I didn’t know what to expect out there. I’d heard that there were heaps of set ups and some great waves and when got there and had no idea where the set ups were or what swell direction we needed. We were kind of like blind mice driving around this island.
We found this one spot across the road from a golf course and the airport that was called Socials. It was called Socials because that’s pretty much the only wave on that island, so we were surfing with everyone else. But the wave was pretty cool, it was a crazy right slab that kinda ran off and ended on dry rock, so it wasn’t the best for us. It’d give you enough speed to get out in time so it was really exciting wave, but we had one session out there and Mitch got some bark off him and Craiky got like ten urchins in his foot and we were like “fuck this wave is just too heavy”. We couldn’t do any turns or anything but get a little barrel and pull off. We were like this is sick that we’re getting barreled but there was no variety in the shots we were getting. We stuck it out there for a while and the boys called “let’s go to Raglan,” so we flew to New Zealand and had a road trip and got kinda skunked there. So it was a fun, interesting trip.
What else does the world need to know about Jay Davies these days?
I’m just doing trips that come up, I know I’m heading off the Mentawais during the Quikky Pro with a few guys for the Kustom Airstrike thing. Besides that I’m just doing photos and videos and gonna try and get some good waves this year. I’ll do the odd contest here and there and if I can do something great I could find myself sitting on the World Tour in three or four months.
What do you think about the one ranking system, a couple of big QS results and you’re on tour?
Yeah, I’m like “fuck, if I do good in like three or four events I could wind up on the tour.” It’s definitely on my mind. I’m just picking the right ones that suit me, so I’ll just have to see what happens but it’s definitely a cool thing for me.
So look out for Jay Davies at the Drug Aware Pro Margaret River?
Yeah no doubt.
Thanks for that mate, good luck this year.
No worries Will, thanks.
Jay Davies blows up and does a huge frontside no grab air reverse…
Check out some photos from the Rusty team’s stint in Hawaii in our More Hawaii Highlights Photo Gallery!
