PIPELINE, Oahu/Hawaii (Saturday, December 8, 2012) - Taylor Knox (USA), 41, has competed on the ASP WCT for 20 years and the iconic Californian is set to enter the Billabong Pipe Masters in what could be his final ASP WCT event, but Knox feels his professional career is far from over. TransworldSURF sat down with TK to reflect on his incredible career and see what’s he’s got in mind for next year. This… is their story…
With your historic tenure on tour there’s a lot to talk about. First off though, do you know what you need to get at Pipe to keep your spot on tour?
No, I don’t really know.
This is obviously something you’ve given plenty of thought to though, yeah?
Yeah, it’s hard to explain. I’ve been on tour longer than anyone ever, and now there are some opportunities for me to do some pretty cool projects next year. They’re the kind of projects that I haven’t been able to do because the tour takes up so much of your time. I obviously want to do really well at Pipe—I expect to do well at Pipe. The tour is great, but if I don’t make it I’m not too stressed about it.
I want to do some movies, travel and go on good surf trips, but with four of my best friends, not 40 [laughs]. I’m definitely going to miss the level of surfing on tour, but I still have my friends to go surf with, and they happen to be some of the best surfers in the world. There’s never been an issue with laziness or getting better at surfing, that’s always been the goal for me. Maybe I focus too much on that rather than being a better competitor.
I love surfing, and my plans for next year will be like what Rob [Machado], and Dorian and my other peers have been doing for ten years. The only guy that’s still on tour from our original group is Kelly. If it wasn’t for Mick [Fanning] being on tour I probably would’ve got off tour before. But we’re such good friends and his surfing is inspiring, it made it fun again. And then getting on Rip Curl was a huge inspiration, to do well in contests. And now talking about some of these projects, they’re pumped and I have their support. But if I do well at Pipe and I qualify, that’s another discussion.
For the full Taylor Knox interview log on to TransworldSURF.
