Margaret River’s Jacob Willcox rides bumps to come full circle after earning tour card

When Jacob Willcox surfed his way onto the sport’s elite tour in October the symmetry of doing so at an event in Portugal wasn’t lost on him. Almost a decade earlier to the day, a then 16-year-old Willcox announced himself as a star of the future at a beach 50km up the coast by defeating 11-time world champion Kelly Slater as a wildcard in just his second championship tour event. Now 26, the Margaret River goofy-footer admits his journey to securing a full-time place competing against the world’s best had been longer and bumpier than expected but worth every bit of the hard work and heartbreak along the way. “It’s funny, when I was young I just thought it was just kind of going to happen naturally and that it would be easy after having some early success, but there was just a lot of lessons for me to learn personally and in the sport,” Willcox told The Sunday Times after arriving home in WA last week for Christmas. “It (qualifying for the world tour) was something that I had dreamed of happening for so long and it felt like it was quite special for it to happen in Portugal as well because it’s somewhere that my professional surfing career kind of got started when I beat Kelly Slater and that’s when I put myself on the map.” Among the many lessons of his 10-year odyssey to surfing’s top echelon, were several qualifying near-misses, including 2022 when he finished just a few place outside of the cut-line. “There was a few years where I came so close, I think three or four years where I finished in the top 20 (of qualifying), and each year I kind of reminded myself that I just wasn’t ready for whatever reason and I just had to get better,” he said. “I feel like I had a pretty good growth mindset throughout it all to keep me hungry and not wanting to give up on this dream that I felt like I could do. It’s been a great journey, sport is pretty good for that in trying to teach you some life lessons along the way and teach you a lot about yourself, so I’m pretty grateful for that. “I was able to share (the qualifying moment) that with some friends who I have been travelling with for the past few years so it is definitely a moment I will remember forever and probably good reward for all the sacrifice, work and heartbreak I’ve gone through over the last few years. “It is kind of funny though when you achieve a goal and a couple of days go past and your brain just thinks about the goal.” Having grown up on south west WA’s world famous Main Break, and having competed at 13 previous championship tour events as a wildcard, Willcox feels he’s not your average rookie and has the skillset and maturity to have an immediate impact. “It’s an extremely competitive environment and anything can happen but I think my strengths are good backhand surfing,” he said. “You look at the majority of the waves before the cut and I think there are four right-handers in pretty open water so it will be pretty big and wobbly kind of ocean which is something I’ve grown up in and have learned to be pretty good at. I’m excited to be able to compete on those waves. “Pipeline is the first event of the year and that’s somewhere I’ve spent a lot of time and it is petty mesmerizing and impressive when it breaks good. It is generally a big barrel and I like big barrels so that event has got me so excited for the start of the year. “The biggest thing I keep reminding myself though is that you can be the best surfer in the world on any given day and still lose, there’s a lot of things that go into it with mindset and wave selection and those are the things that are often so crucial in the heats.” Willcox isn’t putting a ceiling on what he can achieve in 2024 and said his home event — the Margaret River Pro in April — would hold special significance with world rankings points being on the line for the first time for him and it being the last event before the mid-year cut. “Obviously you want to make the cut but for a start I just to make good decisions in and out of the water. Results always come off the back of that,” he said. “It’s the same as this year, my biggest goal was just not to let myself down and come in from a big heat and think, ‘OK, I’m pretty happy with how I went and I feel like I wouldn’t do anything different’. “That’s generally what I base my success off because it’s a hard game and you lose more events then you win. “It is always special getting to surf at home but in the past I’ve probably come up against all the hard seeds because I’ve been a wildcard so hopefully this year I can be meeting up with them in the quarters and semis instead of the first round. Not the only South West shredder on tour, Willcox will join fellow Margaret River product Jack Robinson in the 34-man championship tour field in a further boost to the surfing Mecca’s reputation as a breeding ground for some of the world’s top talents. Robinson, also 26, has already established himself as one of the best surfers in the world, winning two events in 2023 and finishing fifth overall in the championship race despite missing a big chunk of the year with a knee injury. Willcox hoped to join Robinson as a role model for the young grommets in their hometown, just as the likes of Taj Burrow was for him as a kid. “Jack and I grew up and surfed the river mouth pretty much ever day together,” he said. “We’ve always had a good healthy relationship in and out of the water. We are both competitive but we are good friends and I’ve shared a lot of great surfs with him over the years. “The last few years we’ve kind of been on our own journeys. Jack has been killing it and I’m pretty excited to be able to join him on that level.” Now based on the Gold Coast, Willcox has spent time at a training camp in Tahiti before heading back to Australia to map out his plans for 2024. He plans to travel next year with some close mates as support and link up with different people throughout for expert advice on specific waves. Sponsored by Rip Curl and DHD Surfboards for much of his career, Willcox said other opportunities had presented since his world tour breakthrough. But don’t expect him to lose the humble roots he comes from, having spent time over recent years packing boxes in the DHD factory to fund his surfing dream. “I think for any professional athlete it doesn’t hurt to do a day of work here and there,” he said. “It keeps you honest and makes you realise a little bit how lucky you are and how the rest of the world operates. I feel as a professional athlete you can sometimes be quite sheltered from that so it’s good to be connected to how other people live. “I enjoyed it, I needed to do it at the time because I needed the money but it probably helped push me to do better at those first few events and my results kind of spoke for themselves.”