Anyone who free-surfed Lowers back in September might've seen a surfer drawing lines on waves as smooth as Michael Peterson in his hey day. But they might've not known who it was because he doesn't have the same ultra beach-blond hair he had when he was on tour himself in the 1990s. It's a little sandier now. But don't trip. Ross Williams won't get mad at you. He's too nice. Anyway, Ross has a sick new job as commentator on the ASP Webcasts, a great wife and a couple young daughters who are lucky enough to travel with their dad. Bascially, he's BACK ON TOUR after all these years! GJ's Skip Snead caught up with the former ASP Top 16'er for a few minutes and here's what he had to say ….
Ghetto Juice: It was nice to surf with you while you were in town during the Hurley Pro last month … Great to see you still throwing those huge Ross Williams fans!!
Ross Williams: Oh yeah, huge buckets! (Laughs). I'm just stoked to get in the water. I get fired up to surf good when I can. I got all kinds of little injuries so sometimes I literally can't even go surfing, but when my body's feeling good I'm as motivated as ever to get in the water.
G+J: So Ross, you're back on tour!! How stoked are you?
R+W: It's really good. I like it. I haven't been to a lot of these venues, sheesh, in 14 years years, some of them. So like visiting West Oz, even Bells, and now France and Portugal, all those memories (of being on tour) come back to me. So it's a guilty pleasure for sure. It's a bonus. And I'm enjoying myself doing the commentary. I'm super into it. Really having fun with it. And getting a personal seat to watch the world's best. I'm a huge surf fan, first a foremost.
G+J: Got any taglines or one liners you're becoming famous for saying during the webcasts? What's one of your go-to catch phrases?
R+W: I don't have one. (Laughs). I don't want one because I think it just becomes, kind of … I would be afraid that people would link one word to me too much. But people do come up to me a lot and say I say the word "spicey", that I've used that a few times, so "spicey" it is, and it's definitely not spicey, so I always try to mix up words.
G+J: What's it like to see your boy Kelly still on tour doing his thing?
R+W: It's actually … it's become normal, believe it or not. It was actually more weird about ten years ago, because even back then it was sort of odd that he was still on tour doing events, but now it's gotten to the point where we almost don't talk about it. He's 42 years old and he's still on tour. Really, it's just hats off to him for keeping his body free of injuries. That's what it all comes down to. Usually when you hit your 40s, sometimes you can wake up feeling a little bit slow getting out of bed, and it's pretty amazing that he can still surf like he's 22. It's alien-like.
G+J: What about the other elders on tour. Parko, Fanning, Taj … do you see them competing on tour just as long as Kelly has?
R+W: It's a good question. It seems right now they're really motivated. Their bodies, for sure, are a big part of it. Kelly's really motivated to still win, I think that's why he's still out there. He's inspired, so I have no idea, you'd have to ask Joel and Mick. As soon as they lose that inspiration or motivation, they'll pull out I'm sure. But right now they still seem interested.
Posted by: Ghetto Juice at: 14 Oct 2014 16:30
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