OnFitness Magazine - May/June 2017 - 41

2 0 1 7

Be creative: do
backward broad jumps
and side-to-side jumps
over the tire, then drop
down and do pushups: hands on the tire
or, to make it harder,
feet on the tire.

|

How about doing
broad jumps over the
tire? To make this more
challenging, add a
vertical component. Or
you can add a speed
component: how many
times can you broad
jump over it in a
minute?

6

For smaller tires, you
can do overhead
presses while lunge
walking - forward and
backward. You can
jump in and out of the
tire as quickly as you
can for some speedbased plyometric drills.

N O

What about all the people out at
Waimea and Mavericks these days
who aren't as well prepared,
experienced or capable? A lot of
these people don't know what they're
doing, they're dangerous and they
get in the way.
Of course, there are a million
reckless people that shouldn't be
out there, but can get out there
and get in the way. ... That's fine,
too, I guess. I've come to
recognize that that's the world we
live in now. If you can't get your
head around it, you're going to be
grumpy; it's not changing. Things
are only getting ... well,
sometimes I feel a little guilty
because I've had a big part to do
with that [hype] with Quiksliver,

--------------------
If all you had was a tire
to use for training,
what kind of exercises
could you come up
with? Well, it depends
on the size of the tire. If
it's huge and heavy,
you're limited to just
flipping it. But if it's
smaller, there's a lot
you can do with it.

1 7

What does being a "waterman" have
to do with big-wave riding?
You have to be well-rounded,
confident, really good in the water
to paddle out to Waimea or any big
wave spot. I'm talking about the
guys - like Charlie Walker and
Brock Little, for example, back in
the day at the Bay - who paddle
out and line up the good waves.
The watermen - those are the
ones getting the best waves,
making waves. They can do that all
day long. They can save themselves
and save others if necessary. It
takes a good guy to do that, and
you know who those people are.

The tire
workout

V O L

What's the benefit of that? That
striving? The doubt, the nerves, all
that.
Yeah, well, for me, I've always been
confident in my abilities in the
ocean. I don't need anyone.
Barring something catastrophic
happening, I can swim. If I need to
swim to Haleiwa from Waimea, I'll
make it. If I need to paddle, I'll
make it. So, that confidence in my
ability gives me a really good sense
of orientation, especially when the
conditions get crazy, like when it's
heavy. I'm confident, and that
confidence is a good thing to have
in the back of your mind. For me,
that was always really nice.
The thing for me was just
trying to get out of this ... well,
when I started coming to Hawaii,
surfing Sunset, Waimea and the
Outer Reefs, I'd have these guys
go, "Oh, I didn't know that you
surfed, you're the paddle board
guy." So, for me, there was this
feeling of trying to get out from
that, the box that others had kind
of relegated me. It wasn't like I
didn't want to be "that paddle

Mitchell, making a name
for himself at Mavericks
Did you have some kind of vision of
yourself for the future?
I had a vision of just trying to
perpetuate my career, you know.
My job with Quiksilver has been
on the waterman side of things,
back in the day when it was
Quiksilver Edition, so I wanted to
expand. I wanted to test myself.
I think that I've been lucky.
I've been super passionate about
both paddling and surfing - it
wasn't just 1 or the other. I never
really thought about big-wave
riding in terms of "I've got to do
this to keep my job or get another
living." It was more that I just
really love it. I truly do. The
whole waterman ethos.

|

How much of that competitive
experience translates into surfing
heats?
I don't think it really translates
into being a good heat surfer, but
everything I've done in my
competitive athletic career has
helped prepare me mentally and
physically. For me, being

Have you always been so
nonchalant when it comes to riding
giant waves?
No, not always. There were
moments when I wasn't like that.
There were times when I was trying
to prove myself, to make a point. I
totally went through that stage.

board guy;" it was more like I was
trying to transition to surfing,
especially big waves. I had surfed
my whole life, but in Hawaii, I
was known as a paddle board guy.
I was just trying to make a name
for myself.

W W W. O N F I T N E S S M A G . C O M

Mitchell on the contestwinning wave in the final
of the 2016 Nazare
Challenge
That you won, in very challenging
conditions against many of the best
big-wave riders in the world. The
competitors themselves described the
conditions as "horrifying."
Yeah, I won. And it was pretty
heavy out there. That was in
December, right before Christmas.
But I'm not a contest surfer. I've
never really been a contest surfer.
My competitive sporting career
was always long-distance paddle
boarding, Ironman Triathlon,
swimming or running. The
Ironman Triathlon in Australia is
all in the ocean, like lifeguard
racing: swimming, paddle board,
and surf ski.

physically ready and mentally
ready for situations is important. I
very rarely get nervous anymore
before a contest or a big swell. I'm
actually just really excited. I've a
worked a way now where I'm able
to ... say I'm looking at a swell
[forecast], and I push that button
to pay the credit card. I know then
that I'm going. At that moment,
I'm at ease. It's like: "I'm going."
It's going to be 30 feet and offshore
or it's going to be 12 feet and
onshore with blown-out closeouts.
From the moment I commit to
the moment I get there and set my
eyes on the water, there's really
not anything I can do to change
my decision. The only thing I can
do is just relax, eat well, hydrate,
stretch and be ready, ready for
whatever is in front of me. And -
I don't have to surf if I don't want
to. If it's too big, I don't have to
surf. Nobody is making me surf. I
don't have to do anything that I
don't want to do. I'm a big boy,
you know.

4 1

on. You walk out and there are 2
spots you can paddle out. You can
try and sneak around the left,
which is a short paddle. Or you
take the long route that everyone
usually takes, which is a little
longer out into the bay. Only the
real gnarly locals like Grant
Washburn paddle out around the
left, straight off the rocks and
around the peak into the lineup.
At Mavs, you can just turn up.
You don't need anyone. You really
don't need any help like you do at
Nazare and some other places. I
could tell anyone to fly into San
Francisco - there's Pillar Point.
You walk out and, guaranteed,
you're going to see people walking
down the path to the waves. And
you just paddle out and around
and you're in the lineup.
With Jaws, you can fly into
Maui, obviously; you can get the
car and drive in and jump off the
rocks. But jumping off the rocks
there, well, there's a lot more
consequences. So, there are certain
spots. That's the beauty of places
like Waimea Bay and Sunset
Beach. You can just literally pull
up to the beach and paddle out, if
you want it bad enough.
But, for me this season, the
highlight was Nazare.
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OnFitness Magazine - May/June 2017

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