Caitlin Moir speaks to Local Legend Micky Duffus about his two favorite boards and his two best rides on them.
THE SUNSET LEFT
Caitlin: Board dimensions, the wave, the day… did you feel that the board was the right equipment for the moment?
Mickey: Sunset story. Riding my trusty 9’10” DVG, probably one of my best big wave boards ever… in fact it is the best big wave board ever.
Caitlin : When did you get it?
Mickey : I can’t remember when I got it. I borrowed Andrews (Marr) board once, his chubbalubba (as he calls it), and I realised what an advantage he had. I immediately called up DVG to shape me a board similar to that to get me onto that sort of level. And, yeah, the board lasted forever… we had a few bumps and scrapes along the way. It’s an all time favourite board! On that day, I was paddling and looking to go right, and then as I stood up I realised I was way too deep, and had to go left, the board reacted perfectly, it held it’s rail on a hairball drop, and I was very thankful to have made it. And yeah, thats the story of my sunset board.
Caitlin : How often do you go left at Sunsets?
Mickey : Uhm… sometimes you can catch a bigger wave on the left, but the drop is something else.
Caitlin: But the board took you on that one?
Mickey : The board took me through it that time {laughs}, but I don’t go left often. I’ll leave it for Roddy!
Caitlin : And the goofy footers {laughs}.
THE SUNSET RIGHT
Caitlin: What about the Simon (Lowe) board?
Mickey : Yeah…. And so the Simon board… Sunset take two. The boards a 10 footer, about 3 and a half, 21 and a half, shaped for Simon so it’s obviously a lot bigger of a board than I would ride, but I like a bit of volume. I rode it once, it went incredibly well. I begged and begged and hounded him to sell me the board. Eventually I got the board and it’s been in my quiver for quite a while now, and it’s really a steady Eddie type of board. That particular session was in August 2022, and I’ve been out the water for over a year with a shoulder injury. I’d been surfing for about 2 and a half months and it was my first session back in big waves. This pic was also my first wave of the session.
Caitlin: And AVG (Alan Van Gysen) was swimming by the looks of it. Right in the spot.
Mickey : We had been at Dungeons earlier that morning and I was driving the ski for him.On our way back Sunset looked really good, so we decided to paddle a few. Got a couple of waves and it was a really nice icebreaker to be back. I missed the crew, missed the waves, especially the Queen, Sunset.
Caitlin : What do you think the magic in this board is? To me it looks quite narrow and straight…
Mickey : I don’t pay too much attention to that stuff, it either works or it doesn’t. I’m quite easy to please.
Caitlin: I think that’s the magic.
Mickey: I think you need to create the magic.
Caitlin: I think that too {laughs}. Boom! Thank you Mickey!