Photo: Jimenez / APB
26-year-old South African Iain Campbell has dedicated the last fourteen years of his life to mastering the humble bodyboard. Today, he sits on top of the world leaderboard on the Association of Professional Bodyboarders Tour. It’s quite an achievement, given the high standard in professional competitive bodyboarding these days.
During the Euro leg of the World Tour, Iain gave me a little bit of his time to pick his brain and learn about what’s brought him to the top of that leaderboard.
Congratulations on your big win at the Sintra Pro 2017. How was it for you?
The win was a big one for me for obvious reasons and reasons that are personal to me. The obvious reason is that winning contests is one of the most amazing feelings, especially when you make a breakthrough at an event that you have been battling with for three years – coming in second twice. Secondly, I needed this win to boost my points standing for the World Tour race. Now I have extended my lead by a bigger margin, which is good.
Personally, I have been a bit sick and this proved that I still had it in me to go and win the event, plus it gets the monkey off my back.
I was on the beach at Sintra last year when you were defeated by Chilean Alan Munoz and the ocean just literally gave him the winning wave. How do you deal with defeats like that and how much sweeter is the win this year because of it?
I treat them as learning curves. For me, competition is always tough – especially when we are dealing with mother nature. She can be tough on you and she can help you. During that heat, I slipped up and did not focus on what my strategy had been the entire contest. Alan got some of the good waves and it happens. This year I have focused on a strategy that seems to be working for me and I am sticking to that for all the competitions. It has been hard work with lots of long hours out of the water to keep up my form but its working and I am reaping the benefits!
Photo: Perez / APB
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey in competitive bodyboarding?
The journey hasn’t been easy. The battles with money to keep traveling and finding sponsors to support my dreams has been tough. Only in the past two years have I been able to travel and make a living off bodyboarding to a certain extent. I have done some other work to help pay the bills at times, but this is the first year after four years on tour that I have been able to just let bodyboarding be my priority and not work a second job.
2017 has been amazing: five events with five podiums including a win last week is more than I could have ever wished for. With three events still to come I am in a great position to pick up my first title and I will push as hard as possible till the very end.
You are sitting at the top of the rankings. How does it feel and who are your biggest threats?
It is a tough place to be in, everyone wants to be here. For me, though, I don’t focus on that. I have to just focus on the heats I am in and what I must do to win those heats and progress. It is always a tough ask but mentally I feel I am prepared for this and I have to keep pushing as if it doesn’t matter. As for the threats, everyone is going to be a threat. Once you get in the water, friends become enemies and we have to fight to get the top positions of these rankings. Threats are the guys in the water with you every heat. They want to win but so do I.
Photo: Perez / APB
What is your view on longevity on tour? Do you still want to be winning major events at forty like Jeff Hubbard?
This tour serves the people that are able to make it to events and do well. For sure these guys come to events and shred harder than anyone and it is crazy to see guys like Hubb, Player, and Stewart enter events at their age and be competitive machines. I love watching guys like this come out and blast a 10 or watch Eder and Uri tear waves apart. This is what the sport is about. For me, I would love to be winning events at the age of 40. If my body can handle the beating I am giving it now at that age – I am healthy and I am fit – for sure I would love to be winning events at the age of 40 or even 50.
How important is it to have a different mix of waves and venues on the World Tour or should the tour try and aim to go for just sick slabs?
The way the tour is set up now shows the perfect mix of riding in all conditions. We see crazy waves at Pipe to start the year and then head to beachies in Brazil, slabs and point-like waves in Chile, beachies and wedges in Portugal, and crazy slabbing death ramps in Fronton. These events will show how riders can adapt and change their riding styles to suit the waves that they ride. At the end of the day, a world champ should be the best all around the world and we cannot focus on one wave type to depict who this rider should be.
Does sports psychology play a big part in your preparation for events or individual heats? Has (six-time world champion) Tamega passed on any of his contest-winning knowledge to you?
Sports psychology plays a huge part in the process of preparation. I have got some help with speaking to GT at the beginning of the year but it wasn’t until I found Philip Nel, my trainer in Cape Town, that it all really came together. He and his team at Le Roux & Nel Biokineticists have helped me train and prepare for these events almost to the individual event, and this has played a huge roll in prep for this. Mentally, I feel stronger than I have ever been. It seems to be showing in my riding and getting into the competitive mode. Without this, I don’t think I would have been able to do what I have done this year.
Photo: Jimenez / APB
How has this year’s APB Tour been for you? Many ups and downs? I mean Pipe pretty much pumped and Tahiti went off with a big win from Houston, which was beyond epic, and another win for camp South Africa… And then Pierre came from nowhere to win Chile.
I mean the tour has been epic. Ups and downs of course and a guy like Pierre coming from having his first child then winning an event is something I really admire. Jared also came back from an injury and wins Tahiti. This can’t be written in a script. It really just happens and it has been awesome. I have had a good year, some ups lately, winning my first event after four podiums and being the tour leader after the last two events have been insane. The waves have really played their part; Pipe and Tahiti pumped. Brazil had some really good days and then Arica was mental. Looking at the next few events in Portugal and Canary Islands ,we are in for a show and I can’t wait to get there and start getting some epic waves.
