Chris Michalak landed a decisive win in a respected Californian surfing carnival earlier this month as his vision to reach the big stage becomes more real.
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The Anna Bay natural-footer this year joined the World Surf League qualifying series and according to his brother, Luke, it’s begun to pay off.
In just a few months he’s climbed to 179th on the Qualifying Series rankings out of 1400 surfers and he’s now among the top 30 Australian surfers.
“He’s been going in anything he can trying to earn a bit of prize money to keep touring,” Luke said.
“It’s tough and he’s training all the time but he’s moving forward.”
Chris shone in the fourth event of the 2016-17 South Bay Surf Series at El Porto in Manhattan Beach, California, to win first place in the open mens.
Luke, who runs Port Stephens Surf School, only found out from one of the other surfers via a message.
“Chris doesn’t say much, he’s quiet and modest like that, he’s been that way since he was a kid,” he said.
“He can get a 10 point wave and just head straight out for the next set. He doesn’t say he ‘owned it’ like other guys will.”
In the following event, Chris finished 65th from 128 competitors at Barbados, the fourth found of the Qualifying Series.
Chris was competing in the Krui Pro, Indonesia, at the time of publication.
Visit chrismichalak.com to support his dream.
