Surfing: The Brothers Quinn

Maz and Jay Quinn - bringing Gisborne guts to the world surfing circuit. PETER JESSUP reports.

The Pipeline on the north shore of the northern Hawaiian island of Oahu is the wave surf dreams are made of. It is a hollow, spitting tube that jumps out of deep water to explode on a shallow reef - often within 20 metres of the beach. There's the danger of being pitched from a great height and hitting the slashing coral - or the glory of making the breathtakingly quick drop to be inside a blue-green cavern of tonnes of water and finally to be spat out of the ocean's womb on a hiss of spray as the pipe closes.

Up until now, the best result a New Zealander has achieved at that top level is a second scored by Gisborne's Allan Byrne at the Pipe Masters in 1982.

Now, in Gisborne, another young New Zealander is preparing to take the drop at The Pipeline in a world event. After four years touring the globe to chase qualifying points, Maz Quinn, 25, has become the first New Zealander to be ranked in the top tier of world surfing. And his qualification for the top 44 means he will compete in the Pipeline Masters, which is the first of 10 events in the World Championship Tour of 2002.

Maz - yes, his real name, bestowed in honour of a good friend of his father's - is a local legend after dominating national contests until he decided to pursue an international career in the waves.

He has since competed from Brazil to England and came home to win the national title again last year. He also met his partner, Jo Dart, at a contest in Newquay and has earned enough money to consider buying homes in Gisborne and the South of France.

Right now, Maz is third in a qualifying circuit seething with hundreds of surfers keen to gain entry to the big money events and is about to start his assault on that pro career - and the world title - in February next year. In August he won $US4000 for his World Qualifying Series third place at the Hossegor Pro in France which, with other podium placings, confirmed his elevation to the World Championship Tour.

Then there is his younger brother, Jay Quinn, who looks like following. At 18, Jay already holds the "world grommet title" after winning the world juniors contest in Sydney in July. It was in big surf at Warriewood beach on Sydney's north shore and Jay blitzed the opposition with a score of 9.5 out of a possible 10 to lead the New Zealand juniors to the world team title.

He now lives on Curl Curl beach in Sydney and is competing in the Aussie junior pro tour in an effort to break into the World Qualifying Series that Maz has just graduated from.

Next month, while Maz is off to Hawaii for the last of the qualifying events at Haleiwa - and also planning to surf The Pipe as a tune-up for his premier division start - Jay has one more year in the junior pro-tour. Most recently he proved his worth with a seventh place against Australia's best at Duranbah on Queensland's Gold Coast.

He'll stay in Australia because it offers more pressure, more competitive edge than here, then follow Maz into the World Qualifying Series. Although Jay agrees he "grew into it" as a result of Maz's achievements, he confesses that there is a competitive feel between the brothers now, even though they rarely get to surf together.

The surfing hierarchy is complicated and tough. Each year the top 15 from the World Qualifying Series move up into the elite group of 44 that compete in the World Championship Tour and 15 go down. At top level there are 10 contests. They include the Hawaiian "Triple Crown" of The Pipe, Sunset Beach and Haleiwa; then Australia's Bells Beach, in Victoria at Easter; "Trestles" on the north California coast; Jeffrey's Bay in South Africa; and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Maz Quinn, sitting in third place on the World Qualifying Series ladder, could win the qualifying tour if he's up at Haleiwa and others are down. He cannot finish worse than fifth-ranked.

On the WQS, the demoted WCT surfers, others who have qualified by winning national titles and a few invited locals at each location compete at anything up to 22 contests from England, France, Spain and Portugal to Japan, the US including Hawaii, Brazil, Australia and South Africa. The Pipe draws the world's best riders, shoulder-to-shoulder cameramen and so many fans it is standing room only when the swell is from the right direction and the wind comes light offshore to gently fan the wave faces clean.

Maz Quinn knows what it's like to be hammered there. "It's difficult at the best of times," he says, speaking from the experience of battling 60 or more surfers for the one take-off spot.

To make the wave at The Pipeline, you have to be in the exact spot where the peak jacks up as its rolling power hits the reef. Too far inside and you get thrown "over the falls" to land in the one metre of water left covering the coral as the lift of the wave drains it. Or the wave hollows and the spitting air blows the board from under your feet before you have time to slide down the face. Or, if you make the drop, the tube simply overtakes you and runs you down. In all cases it's a close encounter with death that follows.

Is surfing The Pipe as treacherous as made out? "Definitely," says Quinn. "It's a horrible reef, there are holes and caves you can get trapped in."

Despite the dangers he will not wear protective gear, as some do, such as a wet-suit or other body cover. "They can get dragged over your head - it's board shorts only."

Is it scary? "Getting hammered is. It shows you that the ocean doesn't respect you."

At 49, Allan Byrne still commands respect for his big-wave riding in the islands. He is still invited to compete there as a wildcard and still shapes boards for some of the world's top competitors. "He gives me advice about both the waves and how to behave in the water," says Quinn, who has had no trouble with serious injuries in his times in Hawaii and cannot wait to get back to the big waves.

Over the past month he has trained two hours in the local pool every day, lane swimming and completing full laps underwater to build lung capacity to take those hammerings. He also does leg curls and other repetitive weight work to build strength, but the real guts of his training is at the beach. "The more time in the waves, the better."

As with most athletes he follows a strict diet, eating little red meat and none at contest time. The occasional social drink has been cut to none this year. "I stopped going out and focused on what I wanted to do," Maz says. "I want to be recognised as one of the world's best."

Surfing is an all-family, lifetime pursuit. Maz's father, Gary Quinn, who works at the Gisborne polytechnic, still surfs. Both he and his wife, Philippa, a primary school teacher, are 100 per cent behind the kids.

The family used to live "in town", meaning Maz had to cycle to Gisborne's version of The Pipe, a sandbar formed over a stormwater drain that runs off Midway Beach. They moved to Wainui, with the waves 50 metres away, by the time he was 13.

Gary Quinn insists being close to the beach was crucial to the development of his two boys and their sister Holly who, incidentally, has also won national distinction at junior level.

Holly, now 20, came second in the world juniors in the under-16s division in 1996 in Bali, meaning that for seven successive years the whole Quinn family went to Bali to support Maz then Holly and Jay.

Although the parents "have lost several new cars out of it," Gary Quinn is convinced his sons, at least, can make a good living out of surfing.

"In Europe and the States, grommets can earn a quarter of a million [US dollars] from sponsorships. If you want it, it's there," he says. "We just want to make sure they earn enough out of it so that when they finish they don't have to start from scratch."

Holly, however, is not so certain. She decided there wasn't enough incentive or money in the women's tour to carry on and is now finishing a degree in graphic design.

Gary Quinn puts the family's surfing success down to a variety of factors from genes, upbringing and family support to proximity to the beach and a strong competitive environment. The Gisborne Boardriders have had around 120 members since Maz joined as a young teen. They run a local competition every month and take a van full of surfing champions to other provincial and national competitions.

Then there is their father's passion for the sport. Only now, at 47, after three years as president of Surfing New Zealand and 10 on the board of the national governing body, is Gary Quinn retiring. He is confident he leaves the sport in good shape.

Hillary Commission figures show around 240,000 New Zealanders ticked the box that asked if they'd tried the sport in the past two years. Surfing New Zealand has helped six young surfers into the junior pro tour in Australia including Michael Banks from Raglan, Danny Carse from Dunedin, Daniel Scott from Whangamata, Llewellyn Thomas from Christchurch, along with the highly-rated Bobby Hansen and Jay Quinn of Gisborne.

Gary and Philippa are proud of the kids' achievements and look forward to seeing the boys push on in the surfing world. "It's been a lot of fun. We've been to a lot of places we wouldn't have otherwise."

Now, however, the sport is keeping the family apart. The brothers see each other and their parents rarely. Last year it was twice, at Christmas dinner and at the Surfing New Zealand Awards, in which the family has shone as regularly as in Bali. Meanwhile, Gary keeps right on surfing - even if the board is getting longer.

So, Maz, what does it feel like gliding on a wave, down that steep, shifting ski-slope and turning into the tube, cruising the smooth face then bursting out to daylight again? "That's the hardest question to answer," he says, trying to describe the sensation. "All I can say is it feels good, it feels like you're doing the one thing you like doing most of all and you're doing it all the time. When the waves are good, you just want to get out there."