“Never Get Between Shaun Cansdell & His Ice Creams… Or A Good Lefthander”
I first saw some footage of Cans when I was about 14. I was doing some coaching with Martin Dunn who really had his finger on the pulse in terms of new talent. I quizzed him on who he thought was exciting in my age group. He showed me this footage of Shaun surfing at home in Mullaway and I just freaked out on his maturity, timing and ability to read a wave.
Not too long after that we both signed with Billabong and did a bunch of memorable trips together. We started meeting in State, Australian and World Junior Finals and had a great rivalry. It was a cool trade off because Shaun was definitely the guy that pushed me the most to improve as a surfer and I think I pushed him to improve as a competitor.
In 2001, the year after I finished school, we travelled together and mid way through the year did a boat trip to the Mentawais. Once the waves got good Shaun really lifted his game. Half way through the trip we anchored up at Macaronis.
Shaun had been pestering Matty Cruden, the captain of the Mangalui and one of the most respected Sea Dogs up there, to go to Macca’s for days and when we finally pulled in there you could just see him getting into this almost savant like state. He was super particular about his boards, would pour over them for hours asking you if you saw the little nuances here and there that he did or didn’t like. He did things like sanding the deck himself to try and make his boards lighter. He had this little cut down swallowtail Dahlberg, maybe a 5’10, that he’d been saving for Macca’s on this trip and once he got on that thing… Wow!
His surfing was electric with incredible energy and panache. Everything was spontaneous. He was doing these cheeky little fades but not to get barrelled it was to give himself a different angle of approach at the lip – that kind of became a trademark of his in rippable lefts. And he would just blast those things to pieces. Blow tails, drop wallets and carving threes… he had the best bag of tricks anyway but all put together with this impeccable flow and an innate ability to react to what the wave was doing, it was next level. Nothing was premeditated.
Macca’s is such a great canvas because it doesn’t change too much from wave to wave. But it does lure you into dropping straight into the barrel and you would fly out of that with so much speed that you’d be out on the face and cutting back in no time. Cans had a different approach. He was catching so many waves getting in a crazy rhythm, not waiting for the bigger sets but looking for the mid size rippable ones, and just unleashing his full repertoire. Big frontside wraps into square up fin drifts and followed up with an air 360 or one of his signature laybacks. From behind it looked unbelievable.
“When you watch Shaun surf and he’s really ‘on’ it’s kind of like watching great live music. There’s a lot of feeling in it and I love that.”
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little intimidated but at the same time it really excited me because Cans showed me that our generation was coming of age. I knew at the time that the surfing he was doing there was truly world class.
We surfed our brains out for three days, drank Bintangs at night and gave each other mowhawk haircuts as you do on a boat trip. Cans is known to have a big appetite and this trip was no exception. He’d already been getting into the Mangalui’s secret stash of cookies and Beng-Bengs between surfs to keep himself going and the Cook Wally was starting to get a little pissed. One day he put a dozen ice-creams in the freezer for dinner and told everyone not to eat them until that night. Sure enough Shaun started hitting the stash between surfs and come dinnertime half the ice-creams were gone. Wally hit the roof and wanted a piece of Cans. Things got a little heated and we had to calm them both down. I learnt to never get in the way of Shaun and his ice-creams or a good lefthander.
Even though he’s not on tour Shaun still has a huge amount of respect from the top surfers in the world for his natural ability. I’m not sure the general surf public really ever got to appreciate just how talented he is because he only spent a couple of years on tour. Our first year he made everyone look silly at four foot Cloudbreak. Just drawing these crazy, radical lines at top speed. To me that performance really vindicated his talent and what a lot of his peers had known for a while.
If he could have bottled that feeling he had when he got excited over reeling lefthanders and put that energy into the other parts of his act I think he could have challenged for a World Title.
When you watch Shaun surf and he’s really “on” it’s kind of like watching great live music. There’s a lot of feeling in it and I love that. On tour a lot of surfing can be pretty devoid of emotion so Shaun really inspired me to let out that inner love of what we do.