Taj Burrow had a great life on tour, and he’s got an even better one off of it. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
Taj Burrow should have won at least one world title. He was on tour for a year shy of two decades and during that time he cemented himself as one of the best surfers on the planet. He’s widely regarded as the best surfer never to win a title, but when he hung up the jersey, he’d made his peace with it.
While he generally spends most of his time at home in Western Australia, Fuel TV caught up with him on a quick trip to Portugal, a place with a coastline rich in waves and culture. He spoke about a lot of things, from growing up in Yallingup to his parents’ influence and contest surfing versus freesurfing.
Taj is an interesting surfer. To me, at least, he’s one of those guys who had great success on the tour, but always felt a little more like a freesurfer who was playing a contest surfer.
“Throughout my career,” he said, “I really tried to cover both freesurfing and competitions because I was a fan of filming surf sections and shooting photos. I really loved surf videos and I really loved getting good footage. Just good surfing and putting something together and hopefully get the groms excited about surfing… but I was crazy about competing, too.”
Freesurfing, however, is very different than surfing in contests. When you’re surfing for a film, you’re chasing the big stuff. The big maneuvers, the big barrels, the big airs. That can lead to things that make competing hard — like hurting yourself.
“You’re really susceptible to injury,” he explained. “When you’re on the tour, you don’t want to injure yourself if you got 10 months or so of competing. It’s a fine line of juggling both, but I loved doing both and I tried to do both.”
No one can say whether that mix might’ve played a role in Taj not winning a world title, but whatever the case may be, he had a long and extraordinarily successful career as a surfer. And it’s still not over. Now, life is different. He’s a father, most importantly. “Being a dad is amazing,” he said. “…just to be a little bit more still than I used to be is such a great feeling.”
As far as his legacy goes, Taj is typically humble. He’s just glad to have been along for the ride. “I’m just such a big fan of surfing,” he finished. “I’m happy to influenced some kids along the way — or anyone along the way. That was part of the thing why I really enjoyed putting together videos. I know the feeling that I used to get watching surf videos of my favorite surfers, and it was just an insane feeling. I always wanted to try and produce something along the lines of giving someone else you know… just some amp. Some surf stoke to watch something and get fired up to go surfing… to know that people have watched me to get fired up to go surfing is an insane feeling.”
