behindthecover

After 28 years of pulling on a coloured competition vest, the man who is arguably our best surfer ever has pulled pin on a competitive career that took him from grom prodigy to Australasian Pro-Junior Champion, to WQS World Tour winner and our first ever surfer to qualify for the World Tour, where in his first event he set a rookie record at the time for the highest place on debut. As well as his international exploits Maz Quinn won the NZ title four times and the NZ Circuit Championship so many times we’ve lost count. It would be fair to say that Maz put NZ competitive surfing on the map as well as introducing Aotearoa to the world, with many not even knowing where we lay. In his prime Maz was in high demand, being called on for photo/video shoots all over the world by every publication on the planet, with his powerful frontside hack and backhand upside down vert, freezing anyone that would be lucky enough to witness it. Maz’s story is one of great example to the next generation, that if you want something so bad and you dedicate everything you have to the cause, that you can achieve your wildest dreams. And our future surfers have Maz to thank for paving the path and opening doors so that kiwi surfers are taken seriously on the world stage. While Maz still takes his surfing as serious as ever, and can be seen training and getting barrelled all day long when conditions are favourable, the heartbreaking thing for NZ surfing is currently Maz is surfing as good as he ever has, and if he should ever contemplate a comeback then look out! After all the man has just turned 40 while one of his former competitors Kelly Slater just knocked down 45. Yet respect and admiration must be given to the man, who gave so much to surfing and will continue to do so, just in a slightly different format. He will still surf for 10 hours straight when it pumps, he will still travel chasing epic swells, he will still be the most barrelled man in NZ, just as this picture shows from a recent session. He just wont be doing so confined by a rule book, a 20 minute timeframe and a fluoro rash shirt. Maz Quinn we salute you! One hell of a legend!