DC Green's feature on two-time world champion Damien Hardman, "The Last Emperor," which included the interview below, ran in the February 1998 issue of Australia's Surfing Life. Hardman was 32 and three years from WCT retirement. This version of Green's interview has been slightly edited.

Let’s compare Tom Carroll and yourself. You’ve both won two world titles. Though you’re our last world champion, you never seem to have fired the public imagination like Tom. Not even like Occy, whose highest world ranking at the end of a year has only ever been third. Do you sometimes feel neglected?

Not really. You know, Tom’s a great surfer. But I think his career was definitely helped by the fact he rode for Quiksilver and they promoted him really well. They spent all their advertising dollars building up that image for him, whereas I was sort of in the shadow of Tom Curren at Rip Curl, so I didn’t have all that money spent on me. I think it also helps when your brother [Nick Carroll] is the editor of a major US publication [

Tom’s now working at Quiksilver. Do you think you’ll eventually do the same with Rip Curl?

Tom’s just the golden child. The silver spoon’s been thrown at him throughout his career. Good on him—he’s created all those opportunities. A lot of it is being in the right place at the right time. In hindsight, if I knew then what I know now, I would’ve done things— financially—in a different way. But I think I’d prefer to create my own thing, to do something under my terms rather than someone else’s. I’m not expecting to fall into some cushy job with my sponsor.

Do you regret anything, like maybe that infamous “drop-in”, where you took Tom out at the Coke? 

[Note: Hardman eliminated Carroll in the 1989 Coke event by way of a legal but ticky-tack interference call]

I don’t regret that at all. I’d do the same thing again. If Tom was smart enough, he'd have done it to me. I’ve had heats with Tom where you hassle the crap out of each other the whole time. It’s the same with everyone—Bainy, Pottz, Barton. Anyone would have done anything to win that heat. It was just one of those things. I didn’t think of it consciously before, but the situation arose and I somehow pulled off an interference. I probably wouldn’t be able to do it again. It was just a freak thing, the way I caught that wave. It was almost a fluke.

Do you think the public may have turned against you at that moment, with Tom the sentimental favorite for a third world title?

There were people with vested interests who portrayed it that way. There were others like Rabbit—who at that stage was regarded as the ultimate competitor—who thought it was great.

Like what Kelly Slater did to Shane Beschen at the US Open?

[Note: Slater beat Beschen on a similar interference call to win the 1996 US Open in Huntington Beach]

Definitely. But he didn’t get half the amount of shit I did, because he's Kelly Slater. I’d do it again tomorrow. You’re out there making a living. I’d just bought a house the week before, and I remember thinking before the heat, “I need this five grand more than Tom Carroll does.” I really wanted to win that heat, and at that stage, it was the only way to do it.

Then why aren't you more highly regarded? You do everything an Aussie aspires to—you have a sense of humor, you’ve got your mates, you love a beer, you could hardly call your style of surfing flicky or un-Australian. What is it?

I think it’s because I don’t beat my own drum. I let my surfing do the talking. I don’t go chasing photos or telling people how good I am. I’m happy and content. I’ve got confidence in what I do. I’m not going to say to the average Joe Blow on the street, "I’m Damien Hardman." I’d rather blend into a crowd. My results speak for themselves.

You came along as world champion at the end of years and years of Australian world champions. Maybe Australia became blase about it. If you were to do what you did in 1987 and 1991 right now, your driveway would be paved with gold.

Yeah, Aussies were dominating then. I think there were, like, 12 Australians in the Top 16. Now you’re lucky to have four in any one year. (And) we like the underdogs. So if any Australian comes along now to win a world title, they’ll be set, they’ll be laughing.

Must be nice to see Occy back in form and back in world title contention.

Mate, to see Occy surfing against Shea Lopez or one of the young US or Australian guys—I mean, his surfing is just head and shoulders above what the young guys are doing. I think for a while (the judges) got into that flicky sort of surfing, with as many turns as possible, and away from the carving power style. But since Occy’s come back, he’s sort of been the yardstick. Everyone’s had to raise their level and go back to traditional power surfing. So yeah, he's made it easier for the judges to appreciate what the older old guys are doing.

Do you think there’s too much emphasis on youth and the next big star when we ignore the fact we’ve got some perfectly good existing stars?

The way the whole surfing industry markets their product to 14-to-20-year old kids—I reckon they’re shooting themselves in the foot. The whole focus is on young guys. But there are probably way more surfers between 30 and 50 these days than there are young kids. According to the industry, as soon as you hit 28 you’re history as a competitive surfer. You’re actually not; that’s what they want you to believe. It’s just the way the industry markets its product. So most kids these days wouldn’t know who Simon Anderson is, or Mark Richards. And I reckon it’s really sad. Any other sport, the legends put a lot back in. Surfing just doesn’t encourage that. They’d just rather forget about them.

The media haven’t exactly been generous to you, either.

Well, I haven’t been the most media-friendly person over the years. I tell it like it is. I don’t bullshit. And a lot of people don’t like that. I’m not gonna kiss arse to get my photo in magazines. I know that’s a fact of surfing. People will go, “Oh that’s bullshit,” but it’s not. Surfers know it and the industry knows it.

Probably Bainy. Bainy and Ces Wilson and I traveled together my first few years. Barton. Probably the last few years Simon Law and Hoyo and Luke Egan. Most of the Aussies, we all got on pretty well, we all traveled together and we’re still good mates even now a lot of them have stopped. Once you get in the water during a heat you hate each other, but it’s good to get on with life after that. At the end of the day when your surfing career is over, all you’ve got is your mates.

Advice to aspiring Aussie world champions?

Most young guys these days either smoke too much dope, or they just go off the rails like Herro [Shane Herring] did. They’re sort of overpaid, under-worked spoiled brats who don’t realize how good they’ve got it. I remember when I was young, coming up through the ranks. You got nothing. If you got a free wetsuit, you were stoked. Now there are 16-year-old kids demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s a joke.

You've been surfing better than ever, but you've also been at this game a long time. What's the retirement plant? You gonna hang on for as many years as you can and break some age records?

I’ve thought about it (laughs). If someone was to pay me for another 10 years, I’d probably try and do it. But the reality is, someone won’t. You know, I’ve always said I wanted to finish on top. I always saw the way Cheyne and Winton slid back down the ratings, and they were trying to hang in there. I reckon for guys like that who were champions, it’s not a good way to go out. But it’s hard knowing when to stop, especially when the alternative is going to work at a real job. Surfing is the best way I know to make a dollar. So I know why everyone wants to hang in there, I fully do. I’d hate to be at home and hearing Grajagan is six to eight foot, and knowing you could be there, but you’re not.

[Note: Hardman announced his retirement not long after this interview, changed his mind, and the following year climbed back up the ratings to #9. He retired halfway through the 2000 season.]

Photos: Tom Servais, John Seaton Callahan, Ted Grambeau.

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