The legend who shaped lives!
Earlier this year the community of Gisborne, as well as the wider surfing community of Aotearoa, lost one of its favourite sons. A man who had time for everyone, a man who genuinely showed he cared, and a man who always went into battle for the underdog. On March the 11th Bob Hansen, also known as “The Sheriff of Makorori” or “Big Bob”, lost his battle with cancer. While Bob was a renowned community leader through his career as a teacher and his involvement in surfing locally, his greatest claim in surfing circles, and one he was very proud of, was through his role as the NZ Junior Surf Team Coach when in 2001 he took his team of talented charges to the World Junior Title making him our only coach in NZ surfing history to hold such an esteemed accolade.
Bob cut his teeth on the isolated and rugged waves of the Wairarapa Coastline, with his favourite breaks being Tora, Whiterock and Ning Nong, before he moved to Gisborne in 1979 and settled down at Makorori where he raised his family until his last days. He became a local icon and had the respect of all those that frequented the surf locally as well as up the coast and down to Mahia... but it wasn’t just in the surf that Bob was respected. Through his teaching he had moulded and supported a vast range of kids over his 33-year career and gravitated toward helping out what were often referred to as ‘The Rough Ones’ and Bob reckoned he could always find the good in any troubled child. On one occasion, out at the beach during a NZ Surf Mag photoshoot which included his son Bobby, we got to witness a measure of his regard and respect first hand. All the gun surfers were out on this bank when the local Mongrel Mob turned up staring into our cars, swearing their heads off and generally being intimidating. Then Bob showed up and immediately their behaviour changed and they bowed their heads and said “Hi Mr Hansen Sir!” They then exchanged a few words and in true Bob ‘tell it like it is style’ he said, “What have you got those patches on for boys, learn to stand on your own two feet!” You couldn’t imagine anyone else getting away with something like that.
A few years later we ran into Bob on another road trip up on the East Cape when we pulled up to this underground break in the middle of nowhere with not a soul in sight and there was Bobs old Black beast 4WD, yet no one was in the lineup! When we pulled up beside Bobs car we could see these two legs hanging out from underneath, he had been lying there for half an hour with his finger blocking a hole in the petrol tank waiting for someone to show up. We all scrounged around and managed to find a few bottles to catch the gas in and scored more bottles off others as they pulled up. Once the tank had been emptied, he lined up all the bottles and said right it’s time to go surf! I’ll worry about how I’ll get the car home later, surf comes first! All he had been worried about was not spoiling the environment with spilt gas and then scoring some waves. Once he had his share of waves, he got back in under the car, took a screw out from somewhere else and screwed it into the tanks hole, filled it back up and was on his way. “First surf, worry later!”
While Bob was a good surfer, and a respected member of the local lineup, probably his greatest claim in surfing was bringing one of our country’s best surfers ever in his son Bobby into this world. And it was through Bobby’s exploits that Bob got the chance to share his people skills in a way that would forever be remembered when he took on the role of the NZ Junior Surf Team Coach for several years, at competitions throughout the world. Never had a NZ Surfer or Team won a World Championship but in 2001 Bob took the team to the top with Jay Quinn winning the World U18 title, Bobby finishing 2nd in the U16’s and the Team winning the 2001 Title THE GREATEST DAY IN NZ SURFING COMPETITIVE HISTORY. This was a massive accomplishment that Bob was super proud of and many members of that team still to this day credit Bob’s coaching and mentoring to transforming their lives! He wasn’t a super coach or a coach that was going to start telling his charges to hit the lip harder, or be screaming up and down the beach surf here, surf there! He was simply a calming force, who focussed on living in and enjoying the moment…his skill was bringing the best out in people. Luke Cederman was one of the members of that team and he shares a few words on Bob.
“We had a pretty solid team, some great surfers, so the act of riding the waves was no problem. We'd come agonisingly close to winning the title the previous year in Bali where Bob was also our coach, so we had the confidence in knowing we could do it, and I think that was one of the main things that Bob would make sure we knew. We were as good, if not better, than every other nation there.He never put any pressure on us, he was so chilled in the w ay he managed us all, individually and collectiv ely.He'd never tell us what to do, he'd listen to us, offer advice where he could, but for the most part he believed in all of us and really let us know that. It was a special day for all of us and speciall y to win it for Bob, because the thing about Bob w as, you always wanted to make him proud, and that day he sure bloody was.”
From now on Bobs presence will be riding the lineups of NZ along with us, but if you so happen to be out of Makorori then Bob will be that presence riding out in front of you as that’s how he often liked it at his local.