Troy Brooks

Troy Brooks is a product of nature and nurture. On the nature side, if you look up the name "Rod Brooks" you will find one of the best Australian surfers of the 60s who made the final of the epic 1965 Bells contest with Nat Young. Now an executive for Quiksilver. Rod is the father of Shaun, a former Victorian Open champion and World Junior Champion who retired in 1990.

That's the nature part. The nurture part is that Troy grew about a kilometer from the world famous Bell's Beach and it's red-haired cousin Winkipop, near one of the southernmost hubs of the surf-industrial complex at Torquay: "As a kid growing up in Torquay," he told Stephen Reilly of Australia’s The Age. “I’d wait all year for Easter to come along to see what the pros were up to, what was new and who was doing what.”

Contacted by email at Quiksilver HQ, Rod Brooks knew his son’s amateur as only a Rad Dad would: “Troy finished second to Taj Burrow at the Australian Junior titles in 1996 at Newcastle Beach. Later that year he made the final of the ISA world Junior at HB behind Damian Hobgood and Taj Burrow (plus a kid from Brazil ) to finish fourth. He was also a Top 5 finisher on the Australian Pro Junior series for four years: 96, 97, 98 and 99. I thought I'd forgotten all that stuff, seems so long ago."

At 24 years old, Brooks took a wildcard into the 2003 Quiksilver Pro Fiji. He impressed all who watched with his courage, but later that same year, on a boat trip in Indonesia a wipeout into coral caused a staph infection which in turn started a bone-eating disease called Osteomyelitis which kept him out of the water for four months.

In June of 2003, Brooks made a big move from his homegrounds of Bells to Currumbin in Queensland, home to the Coolangatta Kids, Occy, Luke Egan, warm water and a lot of long point breaks: “Basically, in Torquay, you’ve got good waves but cold weather and water," Brooks said to The Age. “Up here, most days you’re walking around in boardshorts, with a board in your car, and it only has to be half decent - it doesn’t have to be that good - to go out. It’s nice to get wet. Whereas down south you're looking for an excuse not to go out. The other thing is that with so many CT (WCT) surfers in the water up here, there is a competitive push that you just don't have back home. On a good day at Snapper (Snapper Rocks) you see 'Parko', 'Occy', Fanning and the next generation as well in the water. Some spectacular surfing is going on."

That year of schooling in Queensland was like a PhD, because in November of 2003, Brooks beat Kelly Slater in the semis to come from nowhere to win the $125,000 Vans Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa Beach. Brooks scored an 8.17 and an 8.27 on his first two rides in the first eight minutes, and that was all he needed. The victory shot him from 51st to 22nd in the ratings and brought the Brooks name from the 60s and the 90s into the 21st Century.

That win in Hawaii put Brooks close enough to the WCT Top 44 to spend the 2004 ASP season as a replacement surfer, which made for a somewhat neurotic year: "It was weird," Brooks said to Stephen Reilly: "I was getting rung up the night before a contest began to be told I was in the event and I'd have to take off around the world somewhere in a mad dash to make my first heat. It wasn't the best way to prepare for a contest but I did it and did OK (he finished the season 31st on the points ratings). With a confirmed start and the proper preparation I know I can do much better.''

Brooks won the O'Neill Pro Anglet in 2004 to make the 2005 WCT tour, and won the 6-star Salomon Margaret River Masters in 2005 to make the WCT for 2006.

The Bell's Beach area is home to the longest-running professional contest - the Bells Easter Classic which dates back to 1963. But that area has been spotty when producing international competitors. There is Troy's dad and from that same era Wayne Lynch, who won the 1970 World Contest down there and then never competed again. Tony Ray and Glyndon Ringrose made names for themselves, and now it is time for Troy to represent the land down under the land down under.