“Inflection Point” Captures Four Surfers in Pursuit of Qualifying for World Surf League Championship Tour

For six weeks a year, the world of elite professional surfing converges at the North Shore of Oahu for the VANS Triple Crown of Surfing series. While hundreds of surfers from around the world compete in the year’s final two events at Haleiwa and Sunset Beach, only 10 spots are available in the top 34 for the following year’s World Surf League Championship Tour— the ultimate goal of all that devotion.

“Inflection Point” is an honest look at four of these stories, and captures the turning points of the following professional surfers:

Jack Robinson: Margaret River, Australia; Cam Richards: Garden City, South Carolina; Barron Mamiya: Haleiwa, Hawaii; Benji Brand: Cape Town, South Africa

For these surfers, the events at Haleiwa, let alone the final deciding one at Sunset Beach, will either make their life’s dream come true—or send them home, tragically, to reset the following professional season.

“That feeling of coming in after a heat at Sunset that decided if you qualified. It’d be a high that you could live forever”, says Cam Richards.

The series is now available on Red Bull TV. Visit redbull.com/InflectionPoint for updates.

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ADDITIONAL QUOTES

“It was my dad’s dream to be a pro surfer, so to watch me become one, I mean, he gave his life to this sport. He shaped me boards, bent over backwards for me to give me this career, he probably went into debt for me, drove me up and down the coast through the night and he didn’t care. He did it for the love, and to give us the life he’d always wanted to have.” - Cam Richards

“My dad did so much. He helped me and my brother so much. Without him, we would not be where we are. But my dad was always strict. If we didn’t have to miss days of school, he wouldn’t let us. He made sure we made all As and Bs. He knew that you needed a backup plan. That’s the good thing about coming from where we come from — we have reality where we live.” - Cam Richards

“I think comps have started to mean something different to me. It’s more about the love for the ocean. That’s why I surf.” - Benji Brand

“It’s been one of my dreams [qualifying] my whole life, since the first time I touched a surfboard. So, yeah, I’d love to make the CT. I’m not putting pressure on myself though. I just want to go out and make a few heats.” - Barron Mamiya

“Last year was up and down. This year I’m making it a point to enjoy the process more. I love surfing. So that’s going to be my mindset in every heat: go surf and have fun.” - Barron Mamiya

“It’s been crazy and fun watching Barron’s surfing progress over the years. Once he hit 16, it’s been like a raging fire of flaring all over the North Shore. Now he’s easily one of my favorite surfers to watch at all the main spots like Sunset, Haleiwa and Pipeline.” - Mason Ho

“The confidence is always there for (Jack). Coming into the Hawaii leg; it’s one of his biggest strengths. Every time he’s over there and competing in those types of waves, he’s doing well. We knew he was going to do well; he knew he was going to do well—it’s just about him riding waves, simple as that.” - Matt Bemrose, Volcom Team Manager

ATHLETE BIOGRAPHIES

A West Australian tube-maestro who was just 22 when he claimed a win at the 2019 VANS World Cup of Surfing and qualified for the 2020 World Surf League Championship Tour. Jack’s comfort-level in waves of consequence has been on display since gracing the covers of international surf magazines as a 12-year-old grom. The clips then showed a tiny grom with a shock of blond hair not only navigating some of Western Australia's heaviest tubes, but navigating them with a relaxed poise and calm assurance. That assurance has only grown in the intervening years. The dominant win at Sunset was enough to grab his Championship Tour spot and ensure that one of the sport’s most electric surfers was finally going to compete at the very highest level.

(Source: World Surf League)

A hard-charging local boy from the North Shore, Barron Mamiya has officially come into his own. Last year, Mamiya was more tubed and more poised than anyone else his age on the North Shore. This earned him the Breakthrough Performer nod during O’Neill’s Wave of the Winter window. The year before, Mamiya earned the VANS Triple Crown of Surfing Rookie of the Year Award. The now 19-year-old has been pumping backside through big tunnels for nearly half his life, and has thus been the subject of Andy Irons comparisons for nearly as long. While the hype might be warranted, the expectations for Mamiya to make the Championship Tour are absurdly high for a teenager whose only just began his second Qualifying Series campaign. That said, Mamiya is just as cool headed about chasing a spot on Tour as he does about pumping heelside through a drainer.

(Source: Matthew B. Shaw, SURFER Magazine)

Cam Richards is a quiet charger on the qualifying series tour from South Carolina. By the time he was 10 years old, he had won money in a professional surfing event. By 11, he had secured sponsorship from a major surfing equipment company. By high school, he was earning more than some of his teachers. While the waves rarely get over head-high where Cam’s from, he’s been bagging waves at Pipeline recently that have been considered for the prestigious, annual O’Neill Wave of the Winter award. How he got so good at surfing in general, let alone at maxing Pipeline, will never be understood. But in modern times, there’s an argument to be made that there's no non-North Shore resident who packs more consistently Wave of the Winter worthy tubes on the North Shore. Last year, Cam finished 45th on the Men's Qualifying Series, meaning a Championship Tour birth is within reach.

(Sources: Stab Magazine | David Caraviello, Post and Courier)

A South African-born transplant now living on the North Shore, Benji Brand has been able to quietly slip under the radar while establishing himself as one of the premier heavy wave riders on the planet. The 23-year-old is a true throwback to the now antiquated notion of “letting your surfing do your talking”. Brand’s surfing has spoken loud and clear garnering some major attention and awards over the last few years including 2015 GoPro of the World, 2017 WSL Hawaii Regional Champion, 2018 Surfline Wave of the Winter Outstanding Performance, and the 2019 Rip Curl Padang Padang Cup Champion. He’s also been invited to the Pipe Masters Trials and secured a spot in the 2019 Billabong Pipe Masters. That’s every great surfer’s dream event, competition guy or not.

(Source: Andrew Oliver, Freesurf Magazine)