Six Set Q&A Shane Campbell

Six Set Q&A Shane Campbell

With Olympic hopes in the air, this year Rip Curl Nationals seen many new faces from far and wide gunning to represent the Canadian flag. This year’s freshest face from Sydney, Australia took down the field, taking second place in nationals and first place in the Olympic team selection. Adding to the elite line up of Cody Young, Peter Devries, Shane adds a tremendous amount of talent going into the qualifiers toward representing Canada on the Olympic stage. For many, including ourselves who have no clue who Shane is, we sent him a Six Set Q&A learn what he is all about.

1. For ourselves and many of our audience who know nothing about you, fill us in on who Shane Campbell is?Hey everyone my names Shane Campbell I’m a surfer currently living in Sydney, Australia. My background is Canadian, Australian, Italian, and I was born in Vancouver, and I spend my time competing on the WQS.
2.  To our knowledge, this is the first time you have competed for the true north strong and free (Canada). Where does your Canadian heritage come from, and how did you come about competing in the Nationals?It’s actually the first time I’ve been back to Canada since I was about eight years old, not by choice, though. I’ve competed on the Pro Junior Circuit and the World Qualifying Series since I left school, so I guess I never got a chance to come back over until now! But yes, this was the first time I’ve competed for, or even surfed in this fantastic place. My Dad is full Canadian, and my mum is Australian, Italian, and they had my brother and me in Canada, then my mum got homesick, so we moved to Australia when I was about two years old, and I’ve been here ever since. I think CSA reached out to my Dad or my Dad to them. But to be frank, I had no intent on competing because I felt bad about possibly taking someone’s spot or if I would even get accepted until CSA said it was possible, which is why it took me so long to come over.
3.  How did the Nationals feel in comparison to the QS?I had no idea what to expect with the quality of the surfers; people still ask me “oh there’s surf in Canada?” So I had no expectations, I just wanted to go and do my job, but man, the quality was a lot higher than I thought. Realistically it was a mini WQS event.
   

   

4.  How does it feel taking the top spot and holding the reigns for team Canada?Of course, I am stoked, I had a lot of fun and met some great people and to take it out with the talent level was something I didn’t expect, but it was what I was there to do so I’m happy with how I performed.
5.  What was your favourite Canadian pastime while visiting?Play any hockey or test our Maple syrup?Hahaha, I didn’t get to play and hockey, unfortunately. My favourite thing was probably actually seeing Tofino itself. I’ve been telling everyone that it’s in my top 3 most beautiful places in the world. So definitely the site seeing or the ping pong tournaments at Shazza’s house.
6. Lastly, would you ever consider relocating to Canada?To me, Canada feels similar to Australia, based on the people, cleanliness, the town structures and I also do have family there. I could see myself making a move, but for the meantime, I would probably stay in Sydney because I’m doing university here and I have too much fun with my longtime friends here. But I’m hoping to get to Canada a lot more in the future because as I said I bloody love the place.