Pivotal Moments In The Life of Jay Davies

Hey Jay, tell us about the moment…

…a surf movie changed your life.
It was Sabotaj. Taj was my idol growing up. He was the new kid in the whole world of surfing and he was going bananas, and being such a frother from Yallingup, it made me realise there was no reason why I couldn’t do it. I think it was one of the main things that drove me to become a surfer myself. He grew up, doing most of the things that I did living here. Y’know, surfing Rabbits every day, it gave me a super froth to try and rip as hard as he does. I was obsessed with all the Jack McCoy films of the time but this one made me go, “Holy shit, this guy is incredible and he lives just ten doors away.”

…you got freaked by sharks at your local.
I haven’t had too many encounters but yesterday my brother and a friend were out on his little ten-foot tinny, and my brother was about to jump off the back of the boat to dive into the water. He kind of ummed and aaahed for a while, and about 30 seconds later there was a three and a half metre white circling the boat, sussing them out. They’ve got footage of it and it’s so fucking spooky. That hit home, my brother could have lost a leg, he could have died if he jumped in. Easily. The sea at the moment is so alive. There’s heaps of fish around, tuna everywhere and heaps of whales. I had nightmares last night about sharks. You can really feel it in the air at the moment.

…you stood up for yourself in the line-up.
I was surfing at home with my next-door neighbour and a guy was being really aggressive, taking heaps of waves off everyone. He was a bigger bloke, much bigger than me and he was hassling my friend a lot. I was like, “Man, have some respect.” He got really aggro and tried to get me to have a hit out with him and I said something that he couldn’t really take as an offence, something like, “Look at everyone else out here, we’re all having fun, there are nice waves and enough for everyone. You may as well go in, or just start sharing waves with us.” It was pretty funny because he was so angry but by the end of whatever I said he just went, “Ahhh… shit. Better go in.” I was about 20, so not super young, but the guy was a big bonehead and wanted to fight someone.

…you first left the west.
I did my first surf trip to Bali when I was 14 for a Matty Gye and Shagga movie with a bunch of crew, Dion Agius, Dean Brady, Michael Short, there were about ten of us. I got there and I was freaking out how fun it was to be away from home. And not even being that far, it’s only like a three and a half hour flight. Just to be able to surf and rip and have a hell time being elsewhere, it felt so different.” It sunk in that you could do this wherever you go. Wherever there is a coastline you’re going to be able to find waves and rip and meet new people.

…you shouldn’t have paddled out.
There’s been a lot of them. I was doing a trip in the Mentawais with Kai Neville for Kustom Airstrike. The best air of the trip would win 50 grand so we had all been trying to hammer it. We pulled up at Bankvaults and it was a really devilish wind, kind of ramp wind but not really. I remember going for this air and I knew I was going to break my leg or break my foot. Everything came together and it’s hard to explain really but my foot folded over on top of my board and my whole leg compressed together. I broke my foot, I chipped my fibula bone, and I fractured my other foot. I was in two moon-boots after that. I’ve still got problems with my ankle from that one air and I always cringe about that moment of my life but that’s just life I guess. I can still surf, I’m still lucky and blessed to be able to surf.