Somewhere during the second round of two weeks in hotel quarantine, staring at the walls of a room with no natural light, Julian Wilson stepped back.
One of the best male surfers of his generation, he was once just a single heat away from ending Australia’s 12-year men’s world title drought. An Olympic surfer. And of course, the guy who actually paddled toward his mate Mick Fanning when a great white shark circled him mid-competition in 2015.
Former Olympian Julian Wilson is making his pro surfing comeback.Credit: Rivvia Projects
But in 2021 COVID-19 times, with yet another bout in a claustrophobic box – his third in less than a year – and a third kid on the way at home, Wilson stepped back. For the sake of his family and his own mental health.
Now, four years later, at 36 with his family parked on Newcastle Beach and his own self-started company sponsoring his rivals, Julian Wilson is back.
“I thought I would’ve been back a little bit sooner,” Wilson says, with a new WSL Challenger Series wildcard for the season to his name.
“I’ve got three kids, I’m pretty settled but I still love surfing and I’ve been missing that challenge of competition, it’s the only thing that I’ve been lacking.
“In the back of my mind I’ve been a bit itchy to see where I’m at. I feel like I still have the ingredients to mix it up with the best guys. And there’s only one way to find out.”
Wilson pulls on the rashie in Thursday’s EJE men’s Qualifying Series in Newcastle, with the chance to surf his way through the WSL’s lower tiers and back onto the Championship Tour next year.
The Sunshine Coast product will turn 37 in November. But given his aerial repertoire and a career that placed him in the world’s top 10 for seven of the 10 years he was on tour, there is equal parts anticipation and expectation around his comeback.
Which is a world away from those lonely pandemic days, when COVID chaos had the WSL schedules in flux and Wilson staring down months at time away from home, isolating on his own.
Julian Wilson hugs Mick Fanning after Fanning was attacked by a shark at the JBay Open.Credit: WSL
Despite making history in surfing’s 2021 Olympic debut, the hotel quarantines either side of Tokyo broke Wilson given his wife Ashley was already handling Olivia (now seven), River (five) on her own at home with Sierra on the way.
“I needed to prioritise my mental health for sure,” he says.
“Everybody was affected in one way or another by the pandemic. I took a leap on my own. Nobody else made a similar decision but I was ok with that, I just prioritised my family and my own wellbeing. It wasn’t so much about what I wanted to do. It was more about what was my responsibility.
Julian Wilson surfing for Australia at the Tokyo Olympics.Credit: AP
“It was the best decision I could possibly have made”.
Wilson returns to the game after four years of free-surfing and is self-sponsored by his own Rivvia Projects brand. He’s the principal backer of Australian WCT veteran Ryan Callinan (who has been ruled out of this week’s Portugal Pro with a tibia fracture) and Challenger Series rival Hiroto Ohhara from Japan.
In 2018, Wilson was just one heat away from claiming a world title, when the race boiled down to he and Brazil’s Gabriel Medina at Pipeline. Had Medina fallen in the semi-finals, Wilson could have pinched Australia’s first men’s title since Fanning in 2013. But that is as close as he expects to come.
It’s a competitive itch he’s scratching, but not a world title one, he says. And a chance to show his kids what he can do on a board when it matters most.
“The older two kids definitely know,” he laughs of his standing in surfing circles.
Mick Fanning battles with the shark at Jeffreys Bay.Credit: World Surf League
“My seven-year-old, if she’s ever not getting her way in public or she’s not happy about something, she’ll embarrass me in public places yelling ‘Julian Wilson pro surfer’.
“I’m excited to show the kids what dad once did pretty well and hopefully still can. I want to show them what I love to do, and that it’s worth the effort and discomfort of putting the rashie back on.
“No doubt in my mind, it’s daunting. I don’t know how I’m going to perform. I don’t know what level I’m going to be at compared to the guys that are there. But I need to go and find out and put myself back in the ring.”
