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Interview with Gabe Davies, one of Europe's top pro surfers

Gabe is a very busy man, traversing the world. He has recently been involved in the film ‘Waveriders’, which won the Dublin International Film Festival in February this year. Directed by Joel Conroy and written by his wife Lauren Davies the movie traces the origins of modern Hawaiian and Californian surfing back to Ireland, and showcases the world-class surfing scene of Ireland’s North-west coast.

Where do you come from and where are you based now?

I grew up surfing in Newcastle but I’m based in the south of France. I currently surf a lot in Britain and Ireland.


What titles have you won?

I’ve won English titles from the age of 16 upwards. We used to drive down from Newcastle to Cornwall a lot. Being a pro-surfer in the UK involves a lot of driving! All the pro-surfers in the country are driving round chasing titles. I’ve won three British National Titles as well as other contests all around the UK.

The surfing community in Britain is used to travelling, so as far as Bournemouth goes, people will travel if there are waves. That’s reassurance for you guys in Bournemouth to know that if there are waves, surfers will come from the four corners of Britain to surf them. It’s part of that in-built surfing thing that you go surfing for different waves. It’s down to weather charts. At one moment Cornish surfers will travel to Newcastle to surf waves, they’ll drive to Scotland or fly to Ireland. Likewise, if there are waves on the south coast, people will come to them. It’s surfing tourism.

Have you been surfing in Dorset yourself?

Yes, I’ve been down there. Lauren, my wife’s folks live in Winchester, Hampshire, so we nip down to Bournemouth. There’s a great community down in Bournemouth. I know alot of surfers and have many friends in the area, and it’s just a matter of being there on the right day. With the close community down there, it’s great to come and see them, and vice versa, when there’s great waves in Newcastle, they come up to surf them.

What do you think about the facilities that are being built on land for the reef, such as the warm showers, cafes, restaurant and changing rooms?

It’s the way surfing is going. You go to a lot of beaches in the UK, France, or Ireland and on any given Sunday afternoon, there’ll be 50+ surfers in the water all day constantly rotating. So there may be as many as 200 surfers visiting the beach on any given day. Plus you have the families and friends coming along for the ride. That’s the wives, girlfriends and children all spending their day around the ocean. When you come out of the water, the first thing you want is a hot chocolate or warm shower- somewhere to escape the cold. You want to reheat as soon as possible and get back out there again. There are not many places in the Northern Hemisphere where people have got it right, with those facilities on-hand and a real community feel. The surfers will obviously appreciate having a hot drink on hand, but so will dog-walkers and people on the beach. It’ll give the whole area a focus.

I guess the partners and the girlfriends watching on the beach will appreciate a bit of warmth too.

And the husbands and boyfriends! Surfing has been flipped on it’s head a bit. It’s often the women leading the way out into the waves these days, sometimes it’s the guys who stay on the beach!

What would you say to someone who thinks that surfers are all low-spending beach bums?

There are a lot more surfers with disposable income these days. Kids are financed by the parents, who are happy that their kids are in the water having fun, doing something healthy in a friendly environment. The parents will happily fund the requirements for new boards and wetsuits. Then you have the weekend surfers who are always super keen. People love having all the latest kit for their hobby, whether it’s kite-surfing or wake-boarding. People are prepared to spend their money on their leisure time. Surfing is one of those lifestyles where everyone wants the latest gear or the latest wetsuit. Along with that, there is a lot of money being spent.

You made quite a few of the front pages in the national media with your antics in Ireland riding the huge monster waves. How was that?

We’ve been waiting for those waves in Ireland for years. It was a matter of waiting for those huge weather systems to be in place to get optimum conditions. We knew we had the potential to ride 30-50ft waves and under the right conditions we did it. It was a fantastic experience and the highlight of my personal and professional surfing.

We were using jet-skis because the waves were too big to paddle to. We had a film crew with us, filming a documentary called “Waveriders” funded by the BBC and the Irish Film Board it was a cross-border project that got a lot of local support. We had this really good team behind us, including an RNLI skipper on a boat on standby, with dedicated safety jet-skis. It wasn’t as if we were just flying out there, risking everything for glory. We fully appreciated how dangerous the conditions were; they were phenomenal, but dangerous as well.

How did it feel?

It was a real mix of fear and adrenalin. We were really scared on the beach at dawn. My wife, Lauren was the script writer for the film. She had written the final climax in the script, “surf giant waves,” so of course, when the giant waves came, we had to go out there and do it. When we saw how big they were we were pretty terrified! I’ve spent years and years in the water, but as soon as we were in, it really hit home as to how big they were. I was with my tow partner Richie Fitzgerald. Once we were in the water the nerves went and we realised we just had to get on with the job. It all came good in the end and it was fantastic.

And the best thing is, you did it and you’re still here to tell the tale. Lauren got the ending to the film she wanted.

Absolutely! It wouldn’t be such a great ending if we had got smashed on the rocks!

Gabe was nominated for the global Billabong XXL Award and the H30 Surf Awards. Waveriders is planned for Irish Cinema Release in the Autumn and worldwide distribution thereafter.