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7 Days 7 Slaves ripped me a new one as a grommet. My fresh eyes were peeled back and my skull was injected with the then new breed of raw talent coming through the Y2K.
Between the grainy Super 8 intros, Luke Hitchings’ backside, and Ozzie twirling around on Insights painted like a Basquiat door, Hoyo’s section would always be one worth waiting for, and if I was lucky it would get the odd rewind and rewatch if there was time before school. The Bintang guzzling, nautical star tattoo bearing figure sending his Pacific Dreams logo through the lip at Macaronis and gouging the poor face off Lance’s Right will be forever imprinted in my 12 year old brain. This was my intro to Hoy, and it was awesome!
Seventeen years later I found myself sharing a roof with Matt Hoy at the Surfing World House, still feeling like that grom watching all my heroes, except this time it was real life and I was sharing a beer with Hoy.
Hoy’s father was a shaper, mine as well, so whenever we connect I’m always pumped to see what he is riding – in this case he had some smaller, wider channel bottoms; his surfing demands hold and the boards reflected his need for speed and drive. We chatted about details of his retro board collection and the ‘70s Nirvana he was ripping on earlier in the year at the Burleigh Single Fin Festival. Hoyo’s one of those blokes, no matter how long since you’ve seen each other, it’s like no time has passed at all.
One night during a staple Robbie Warden barbecue, longtime friend of Hoy (and fellow Novocastrian) Andrew Johns of the Newcastle Knights popped down for a visit to the house. Dinner was served, and I swear I witnessed the enlightenment of young Harry Bryant with a couple of “off the record” stories about Newcastle in the 1990s. Story after story, so many laughs – a wide eyed and fresh bowl cutted Harry soaked it all up like a sponge, and from what I’ve heard since then Haz has been going “Johnsy” on it lately! Whatever that means…
A favourite moment, though, and probably one that will stick with me from the SW House, was watching Hoy belt out his favourite AC/DC cover down in the music room, his live and let live attitude in full effect!
The Hoy we all know and love, a couple beers deep, VB in one hand, mic in the other, singing:
HOY! HOY! HOY!
HOY! HOY! HOY!
HOY! HOY! HOY!
See me ride out of the sunset,
On your colour TV screen…
To walk the line between radical and relevant within surfing is no easy feat, and to pull it off over decades, well that’s just pure genius, and that’s just pure Hoy.
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