Chayne on Jeffreyâs Bay 2024.
A couple of years ago, after some twenty years of crowded sand bottom points, endless closeout beachbreaks and logjam Gold Coast traffic, I packed up and moved south. Following the dominant theme in my life, there was little planning involved, so when I finally fetched up on the outskirts of Ulladulla, down in Yuin country, it was pure happenstance that I found myself occasionally bumping into Chayne Simpson both in the water and out. I first got to know Chayne over a decade ago through our mutual involvement in Legless.tv. Iâve always found him a kind of calming presence. He exudes a blend of confidence, contentment and charisma that never fails to improve my mood. Given that my mood is usually fairly positive, I took these occasional meetings to be good omens indeed.
Late last May I pitched up at one of my regular spots for an early morning surf check â it was small and clean but already starting to choke on the incoming tide - and found Chayne leaning on the rail next to me. We both had things to do, so the conversation was brief, but I thought to ask if he was planning on making the trip to J-Bay for the World Title competition a few months ahead in August. He didnât think so. âIf it was J-Bay proper, Iâd definitely go, but itâs going to be on The Point, which isnât the same. Itâs a lot of money just to get there, so probably not.â I left shortly after to go about my day and that was that.
Over the next couple of months life became pretty busy and a couple of nagging injuries kept me out of the water, so I saw nothing of Chayne but I kept an eye on developments with the Jeffreys Bay contest all the same. I wasnât really surprised to learn â in an entirely incidental way - in mid-August that Chayne was going to South Africa after all. Not long after that I watched on YouTube livestream as he beat Albert Munoz in the Open final. The next time I saw Chayne was a cool Friday afternoon in mid-September, when  we sat on his front verandah to talk through the 2024 World Title and what it all means for him.
R. People are saying it was the best run kneeboard contest theyâve ever seen.
C. 100% Couldnât fault it. They put a lot of money into it. Gigs (Celliers) is quite well known over there, heâs done a lot for surfing, a lot for kneeboarding Iâd imagine he probably called in a few favours from people. Thatâs just an assumption, but ⌠Micky Kirsten - CineFx - was the main sponsor. I donât know where the rest of the money came from, but I know it would have been an expensive gig. They had live broadcast, jetskis, professional judging. We have a contest here and we ask for priority and they say âOh, we canât afford the extra judge.â They had everything over there - it looked like a WSL contest.
Gigs has some connections!
I canât imagine thereâs anyone else in kneeboarding who could have done what Gigs did.
Do you think, with the bar set so high with this one in South Africa, that itâs going to be achievable elsewhere?
I couldnât imagine it happening here. I couldnât see us getting the money here. New Zealand, I reckon theyâve got pretty good connections over there, with government grants and things like that, they can get access to those sorts of things. I just donât think we can. I just donât think weâre seen as a good business opportunity.
So is that what it is? Weâve got to be seen as a business opportunity? Whatâs different about SA? What is it, is it just Gigs? Cos heâs a kneelo, and heâs got the contacts and the experience, he can say âWell I know how to do thisâ?
Heâs very well respected.
And Mickey Kirstenâs a kneelo too.
Yeah, kneeloes in high places!
So how long before the contest did you decide to go?
Probably 4-5 weeks, I got a message from Steen and he said, âAre we going to J Bayâ and I said âIâll go if you goâ, and he said âLets go!â and then he organised it all. I spoke to Shauna about it and she said, âDo it!â She knows Iâve always wanted to surf J-Bay. It wasnât long. Most people didnât know I was going until I was going. Usually if youâre going on a trip you book it 6 months in advance and somehow run into people and you tell them and so they know youâre going. Well ⌠Shauna would say âOh Chaynes off tomorrowâ and theyâd go âWhere you going?â and Iâd say âOh, South Africaâ and theyâd go âWhat? tomorrow?â So it was a pretty quick turnaround. I didnât tell most people it was the World Titles, I just told them it was a surf trip with a bunch of mates. Word got out, obviously, but I wasnât telling people I was going in the World Titles, but they all found out.
So why didnât you tell anyone?
I dunno. I donât really have a reason. I was just going on a surf trip. Didnât want to make a fuss. I was just going on a surf trip, and there was a contest there. Thatâs ⌠like I was saying, my whole approach to it - I just didnât surf the contest, I surfed Supers. The first day we got there, it was massive and it was pumping and Shauna rang me and said âHowâd you go, I saw the photosâ and I said âI just surfed perfect Supersâ and she goes âJob doneâ.
Everything from that point on was a bonus.
Yeah. And that was pretty cool from my wife too. I guess a lot of wives would be like âOh, youâve gotta do well in the contestâ, but she was just pumped that I got real good waves at a place Iâve wanted to surf forever and she was just satisfied with that, which was pretty cool. So, it was more like a surf trip than going for a contest.
So lots of surfing Supers - any practice sessions at the Point?
Not once. Actually, I lie cos the first two days when it was quite big, I couldnât find the keyhole to come in at Supers, so I surfed my way down and then caught a wave in at the Point.
And that was your practice wave?
One wave from each session, on the way in. That was it. Itâs just another wave. You take off on a wave and you do what it does, you do what it asks you to do, I suppose.
What did it ask you to do?
Cutbacks, lots of cutbacks!
 And a big bash at the end.
Yeah, it had a good end section on it, especially when it was bigger. When it was smaller you couldnât really get to that section, it would run away, which ⌠the end section runs away from you so youâre coming at it, at it, at it, thinking youâre going to get it, but it keeps moving away from you. When itâs bigger, it comes at you. It was quite intimidating to hit that end section. Youâll see a couple of photos - thereâs one of Gigs especially, turning out - and itâs heaving. Itâs a pretty big section to hit. Guys were getting smashed hitting it, guys were sending it, and there were guys in their sixties, fully sending it. It was pretty cool to see. I donât know if they wanted to win or just wanted to show they could do it, to impress people or whatever, but they were doing it. Just that push from having everyone there that made everyoneâs level go up. There were some guys ripping that Iâd never heard of.
Thatâs what you want though. If the surfâs good, then thatâs going to happen. If the surfâs shit, itâs just shit.
Yeah, at J-Bay we got very lucky.
For the duration of the contest, you and Albert and Steen took up residence at Dreamland, a two-storey house right in front of Supertubes. On the morning of the final day, you were in bed when Steen opened the curtains and looked out.
Yeah. He went, âOh hoh, itâs BIGâ and I remember laying in bed thinking oh fuck, whatâs going to happen here today, and he said âThis is you; youâve got this! Youâve trained for this every day just by going surfing in Ulladulla. This is you.â That sort of gave me quite a bit of confidence. That was before the semi. We were the second heat out, Albert went first heat, I was in the next one, and just ⌠the way Steen was talking that morning, building my confidence, made me feel so comfortable out there.
The conditions during the final were ideal for your style of surfing.
I like a big smooth canvas to work on! I dunno, it just all seemed to click. Iâm not a big wave guy. It was 6ft, it wasnât BIG. A 6-8 ft wave like that, yeah, comfy as. Thatâs what I like to surf now. Fully in my comfort zone. Just because Iâd been surfing so much in that two weeks, I knew ⌠you know the keyholes there are a real drama, but they didnât worry me. Iâd just sort of jump off the rocks and float out, whereas everyone was worried about it. Youâll see some photos of the keyhole where thereâs like ten-foot waves, but you just, I dunno, you take a breath and duckdive and get out there. The jetskis were there, that was a big plus. Knowing they were there helped the confidence too, knowing you could ride a wave all the way in and still get back out to get another one, that really took the pressure off.
You love connecting full power turns, carving smooth arcs on big, open faces âŚÂ
Style in surfing is pretty important. To look good on a wave, you know. Thereâs a lot of guys who surf really well but look terrible on a wave. Itâs Italo compared to Ethan Ewing - Iâll watch Ethan all day, but Iâll get pretty bored with Italo pretty quickly.
The best surfing often appears effortless - each turn flows into the next so that the whole ride seems to be simply doing what comes naturally on the wave. I know you rank Simon Farrer as the best ever kneeboard surfer. Itâs obvious youâve drawn elements from Simonâs surfing: line, economy of movement, precision and above all, flow. Yet no-one could say that youâre a Farrer clone.
No. I think our styles are quite different, Iâm a lot more upright, whereas Simonâs hunched and forward. His arms arenât moving heaps, heâs just there the whole time. Iâve probably taken parts of his surfing: the whole not having to fit a million turns in, go around a section cos the next oneâs ⌠putting the turns where theyâre supposed to be on a wave, thatâs what he does, and Iâve definitely taken that from his surfing. Definitely.
I want to ask you about something else. Pretty much at the end of the street here is (a reefbreak, predominantly a sectiony right-hander popular with locals and blow-ins alike.) It can be excellent sometimes, but itâs a fickle spot, often an exercise in frustration. I couldnât help thinking of it while I was watching the final.
Ha ha! THAT wave is a lot like where we had the contest! The Point is definitely a better version of it, but, well ⌠before we went, the reef here was breaking quite often and I was out there quite often. A lot of that had to do with the fact I had things to do here (at home), and its right there, so I was just surfing that. Surfing that wave got me over there without meaning to have that happen. It was just uncanny that it was breaking. Itâs not a wave youâd look at and think âItâs like J-bayâ - but itâs similar to where we had the contest. Itâs not a predictable wave, youâll have a section come down here and you have to go around it and readjust, and another section will pop up there - it was really good preparation, but not on purpose. It was a happy accident.
You said earlier that you had a lot of strong support from Kyle Bryant - he wasnât able to make the trip himself but was able to watch heats live on YouTube. He took on a mentoring role via SMS messages throughout the contest?
Yeah, I felt that luck was on my side. He actually said that. Kyle said in his messages that the cards were falling into place, âLuckâs fully on your side for this whole contestâ. He was watching the live feeds, watching the free surfs, watching who was getting knocked out. Gavin Colman went down early, he was a very big threat. He was surfing with me at Supers every day, first one out every morning. There was one day there that was only 2-3ft, sort of semi-onshore, I think Gav may have gone down then. I donât know, I didnât see his heat.
A day when those who rely on power paid the price?
Well, yeah ⌠Iâve been surfing my whole life in a variety of different waves. I can surf the grovelly stuff too, I can still make it work, but I just donât enjoy it. Someone like Albert, heâs the gun in that stuff, heâs almost unstoppable in that. This isnât a write-off of Albert at all. In 2-3ft sloppy waves, I donât reckon anyone can beat him - he still throws spray, he still gets it vertical. I donât enjoy doing it. I feel like I can do it if I have to, but probably not to the calibre that he does. You know, if that final had been in 2-3ft onshore waves it might have gone the other way.
But it wasnât, and it didnât: it was smooth water, a strong swell and a favourable tide, jetskis, real-time commentary and live-streamed video. Two good mates in a world title final going down to the wire, with you and Albert both taking potentially winning waves in the last minute. Your last wave was the last of the heat, scored you a 9 and you took the Open World Title with a heat score of 16.17 to Albertâs 14.43. Was it a kind of redemption for you after that 2020 Dunedin victory, the one you didnât defend in Portugal in 2022?
Thatâs what made this one such a meaningful win: that it was held in good solid waves. That final in New Zealand was the worst waves Iâve ever had in a contest. I won with two 4s. This one I got a 9 on my last wave. It seems like everyone who surfs in Ulladulla was watching and it wasnât embarrassing. Theyâve all said how good it was to watch. Theyâve all said they havenât seen kneeboarding like that - ever - over all the competitors. âI didnât know you guys could do that. It looked so smooth on those waves.â You know, when they said they were going to do the live feed I was worried, but no-oneâs had a negative thing to say about it.
That was an important factor for you, wasnât it? Why?
I wanted people to watch it and think âKneeboarding looks funâ, or not just fun, but impressive too. And they did watch it and they are saying that, so thatâs a pretty big deal, donât you reckon?
No pictures of you in the local paper?
I donât know that there even is a local paper anymore! I think itâs all about Instagram and Facebook now. The support I got from down here was unreal. You know, the Ulladulla Boardriders, Aqua Surf shop, all the people just putting things up on their Facebook or Insta â âCheck this out, Chayne at the World Titles, you can watch it here.â Never had that in Wollongong, not even close to anything like that. In saying that though, Sandon Point Boardriders shared a thing saying âChayne used to live here, heâs in the World Titles, check this outâ. Yeah, definitely the most support Iâve ever had going into a contest, for sure.
Did that help?
Oh yeah, 100%. Just, if you could go back through my phone and see the amount of well-wishes I got when I was going there, before it had even started: it was pretty incredible, like the people that wanted me to win, thatâs pretty incredible. It makes you heaps keener to win when people want you to win.
So the boards you were riding are the same youâve been riding for years: the burgundy board âŚ
Yeah, the one burgundy board! Thereâs about 15 of them, itâs a bit of an in-joke with Parkesy. Everyone thinks Iâm on this one burgundy board all the time, itâs like - why does this board work in two-foot slop and it works at 8ft J-Bay as well? Itâs actually a lot of different boards. Most of the contests Iâve been in over the last four or five years Iâve been on my grovel board. This one I was on my step-up. Itâs a 5â9â. Itâs more of a pin. My standard boards are 5â7â, my grovellers are 5â6â, this oneâs just got a lot more pin in it. Itâs the board Iâd ride at waves around home most of the time. I had a fair few surfs on my 6â0â. I could have ridden that in the final. Looking back, I probably would, I was a little bit undergunned on the 5â9â at times. Thereâs a couple of waves you can see in the footage where Iâve gone to hit it and havenât got there in time. I would have got there on time on the 6â0â. I donât ride the 6â0â very often, you need a big wall, you need a bit of area to move, obviously. Itâs alright to have a big board to get onto the wave, but then if the wave doesnât give you room to move when you are on it, you donât want to be on a big board .... Albert rode his 6â0â. Itâs pretty much the same as mine. He was drawing nice lines on it but again, I think he was getting smaller waves. He should have been on the bigger waves, then he might have done a bit better. He still did well. I think he was beating me until I got my last wave.
It was close, but he didnât beat you, did he?
Yeah, I think he got a wave, and I caught the one behind him and the wave that he got put him in front and then I got the wave behind him and got the 9. So it was pretty lucky.
Did you know at that time, that youâd got the score?
No. I didnât know. I figured it was a pretty good score but I didnât think it was a 9, and I didnât know what he got, I just knew that his wave was a bit smaller and probably wasnât going to allow him as much. He was paddling for it and he was going âYou gonna use priority?â and I went âI will if I have to.â And he said are you gonna use it on this one? And I went âNo, you go.â I knew there was a bigger one behind it, so he went that one and I got the next one.
So, in the last minutes of the final it was just, âOh no, you goâ âŚ
Yeah, but I knew there was a better one behind it. I could have blocked him. I had priority, but if I had, he would have had the one behind me, so I had to make that choice. So to get back to the other question, I was on the jetski going back out and there was a minute to go. At that point I didnât know if I had the score. We couldnât hear a thing, the jetski riders were giving us our scores. And I had like a minute, so Iâm going âGotta get back out â go go goâ â and he - the ski guy - was just cruising. I donât know if he knew I had the score or not, but then I jumped off the ski and was paddling and he calls out â 9.2â or whatever it was, and that was it. I just paddled over and caught one in and that was the end of the heat. Thatâs when I knew, when he gave me the score.
Was it a good feeling?
Yeah. When I was coming in ⌠you know it was a bit of a monkey off my back, cos Iâve always been ⌠plenty of people say Iâm a small wave guy - if the waves are small Iâm going to win the contest, cos Iâm small. So to win it in good bigger waves, that was the whole feeling for me â âThere you go, I can do itâ. I knew I could do it, Steen knew I could do it, he was telling me every day, but I felt like half the people didnât know I could do it in decent waves.
The small wave guy.
Yeah, me and Albert. The small wave guys, weâve always been told that. So to get us at 1 and 2 in good surf, thatâs where that thing ends I reckon.
Thatâs crazy, isnât it.
Well we just donât have contests in bigger waves. People arenât out filming, so you donât see much footage of kneeboarding, so when people see us surf, they just see us at contests, so they just go âthese guys areâ âŚÂ thereâs heaps of footage of me online at Pipe - itâs only 4ft, itâs not big.
So. whatâs big? There are waves around here that get up to like twenty feet. Thatâs huge.
Iâm not surfing that! Thatâs big. I think thereâs calling someone a small wave guy and calling someone a big wave guy, Iâm neither of those â Iâm just a guy! Iâm happy at 6 to 8 feet, unless itâs heaving on dry rock, but if itâs safe like that was, itâs good. But Iâm not kneeboarding waves over ten foot, itâs just too bouncy on the knees. Iâve had some days out around here when itâs been ten foot and Iâm just bouncing! Itâs gotta be super clean or you just bounce off. And thatâs only fun for people watching from the rocks.Â
Given the logistical hurdles - access to a quality surf break at the right time of year, an adequate waiting period, the availability of qualified judges, (including enough to run a workable priority system), internet access, video cameras and operators for a live feed, commentators, food trucks, merchandise, PAs, press and promotion - do you think it will be possible to produce a contest of this quality in future? Will it happen again at J-Bay?Â
There was talk of it, but I think we only got to have it (at J-Bay) this year because they didnât run the WSL contest there. It was the best winter theyâve had in 60 years. Iâve never seen so many teeth at a kneeboard contest, ever. Everyone was smiling. Even the sun came out.Â
Maybe 2024 at J-Bay will forever stand alone as the year it all came together. Whatever happens from now on, one thing is certain: every World Title contest is going to be judged by a new standard, and that goes for the surfing too. Who are the next generation moving into the top ranks?
Owen Fairweather, Liam Taurens and Tom Novakov, although Tom is hardly a newcomer. Tom looked like the one to beat. On a righthand point like that ⌠I was quite impressed with him, he came out at Supers one day and he was killing it - good style, good bloke in the water too, not all frantic and carrying on upsetting people, he just cruises. Owenâs the one though, heâs just 18. Heâs the next big thing for sure. I donât think youâd find anyone whoâd argue with that.
So the NSW south coastâs long-standing dominance of kneeboarding might be coming to an end?Â
Itâs hard to say. Owenâs just one guy, but there seem to be quite a few kneeloes in Victoria, just underground dudes jumping out when thereâs a swell. You always see someone out at Bells and Winkipop when you see video of the big swells.Â
When we look at kneeboardingâs future we tend to despair at the lack of new young blood adopting the low centre of gravity approach. Whatâs your take on it?
Theres not a heap around, but weâre still ticking over, arenât we? I donât think itâs as big an issue as everyone carries on about. A lot of guys start kneeboarding when theyâre 30, 35, for one reason or another, probably injury, ha ha! I think for kids, itâs not cool. When youâre a kid, you just want to be cool, everyoneâs just doing what their mates are doing, no-one wants to stand out.
Your two boys are pretty keen and competent surfers, but they stand up, right?
They kneel on their surfboards all the time. They might stand up on 5 or 10 waves, then theyâll kneel on a couple - they love it. I probably stand up 50% of the time, I reckon, so they see that Iâm not just a kneeboarder, I can stand up too, and they probably think, âOh, maybe I can do both.â I surfed bodyboards till I was about 17, and then slowly moved over to fulltime kneeling. Iâve always stood up on the kneeboard, but now Iâve got a couple of surfboards that Iâll take out quite regularly ⌠on smaller days. If itâs good, Iâm on the kneeboard.
Which makes you a bit weird, but a World Champion. A weird World Champion.
Yeah, Iâm happy to be weird, but I donât like that world champion thing. THATâS weird, I reckon, that we have a world champion. I dunno. People congratulate me on winning this, but âŚÂ itâs a funny one. I went in a contest. Itâs not like a tour. The stand-up guys have their tour, we have just one event. I just won a contest and suddenly Iâm world champion. Iâm not the best kneeboarder in the world, Simon Farrer is. Someone will say âChayne won the world title, heâs the best kneelo in the worldâ and Iâll say âNo Iâm not. I won a contestâ. Thats what Iâm trying to get at. I donât think Iâm the best kneeboarder in the world.
Will Simon always be the best in your opinion?
Yeah. Heâs the one I most looked up to in the water as a kid, heâs still the one I look up to in the surf now, probably. He doesnât look like heâs slowing down either.
It makes a world of difference to have a competition with good waves where you can see the best surfers at the peak of their ability. The best surfing in the world: thatâs what you want to see in the World Championship. That has to be good for the sport. Do you think of it as a sport like that, or is it just a thing that you do?
It's a thing I like to do ⌠but if itâs competition, I guess it is a sport. If I were to grab my gear now and go for a surf, I wouldnât consider it going to play sport. Iâm just going and doing what I enjoy doing, but then as soon as you put a rash vest on and you have judges and what not ⌠itâs a sport.
You were saying before that Albertâs the ultimate strategic surfer - the heat IQ thing - yet here youâve come ahead of him with your approach, which is completely different. Not just your style, but your contest strategy. You have any thoughts on that?
I think the main difference between Albert and me is that Iâm big on wave choice. Iâm big on getting the best two waves in the heat whereas Albert will just catch whatever comes his way and rip the shit out of it. My strategy is to wait, get the best two waves in the heat and that allows me to surf them better because theyâre better waves.
When youâre free surfing is he the same?
Mm-hmm A wave will be coming, and heâll go âAre you going this, its your turn?â and Iâll go âIâm not going that, itâs shitâ. And heâll turn round and get it and it might be shit but heâll make it look good anyway. When we surf together, Iâll probably catch half the waves that heâll catch, cos Iâm waiting for the good ones, Albert spends a lot of time catching shitty ones. Itâs the same in a heat.
So J-Bay really worked to your advantage because it let your style come to the fore. Just the way you time your turns and flow through critical positions. Obviously, style is just one element in the judging criteria, but your approach - concentrating on just riding the wave, thatâs who you are as a surfer and it really worked for you in that contest.
I think when it comes to a good wave it is a lot about style. It's definitely the best win of my life, for sure, but by a long shot. All things considered, the fact that it was probably the greatest contest weâve had since Iâve been doing it, with the organisation, the live feed, the jetskis, the judges, the priority judges, just everything. That contest had everything, and it had good waves as well. All the guys were there.
And to come out on top, it must fill your heart with pride. Your cup must be runnething over.
Yeah, 100%. And again, it fills my heart with pride and I hope it fills my kids hearts with pride. My youngest just had to do a speech yesterday. They had to choose a country to go to, and he chose South Africa. Never been there, never talked about going there, but he said âDad just won a comp in South Africaâ in his speech, so thatâs pretty cool. I reckon if they ran another one there in 4 yearsâ time theyâd be coming with me.
It may not be there, it might be ⌠I just hope they can continue with the venue choice, that they pick the right places.
Yeah, thatâs probably the number one most important thing. If you get the right venue the rest of it just comes. The people will come! Like I said, me and Simon particularly werenât going to go, but ⌠it was at Jeffreys Bay, so we went.
Rob Harwood Legless.tv
Pics: Steen Barnes @16images
















