Mark Sainsbury, 21, was the newly-crowned amateur world champion when he did this interview with Nick Carroll. A slightly longer version ran in the March 1987 issue of Surfing.

What do you reckon the amateur world title is worth nowadays?

I’m not quite sure. People might think it’s worth something materially, in terms sponsorships and things, but as yet I haven’t lined up anything new. On that side of it I can’t say it's worth all that much. But to myself, it’s worth a lot! Confidence-wise. I feel heaps better when I’m surfing.

What happened after the world titles [held in England], did you guys go traveling around a bit?

Yeah, we took off to France almost immediately. We hung down in Biarritz for 12 days, and got good waves; I had my birthday down there and we had a bit of a party. It was good. Just slowed down for a while, because in England we were in full-on competitive mode for eight days. It was the biggest contest I’ve ever been in. The event was made up of four of rounds, and if you made the final in any give round that meant you were out there for a lot of heats. One day I surfed five heats, plus the final.

Did you feel much pressure to do up the Americans in the contest? [Note: America beat Australia for the team both the 1984 and 1986 team titles]

At the beginning of the contest we felt like we were on top of ’em. If anything, there was more pressure from the Hawaiians and the Tahitian team. We got off to a good lead right at the start, which we shoulda been able to capitalize on. But later, when the waves got smaller, our guys started to drop out while Americans started to do really well. This guy Chris [Brown] ended up winning the second round . . . this is going in an American mag, isn’t it? But yeah, I would write him off because the next day the swell came up, and he sat on the inside trying to catch reforms. I mean, it was only five-foot peaks outside, it wasn’t horrendous or anything. Anyway, the Americans won the second round by something like 85 points and they just went on from there.

Were there any surfers who impressed you?

I reckon Jeff Booth, if he ever turned pro, he’d be good. He doesn’t go outta control, he's got everything’s pretty much down. Nicky (Wood) was surfing good. Out of all the surfers at the contest, Nicky was always doing well whenever you looked.


Kelly Slater does some nice turns. He’s all over the place, he’s like [Queenslander] Jason Buttenshaw.

I guess what people might read into the world titles this year is that, while the USA won the team trophy, the Aussies took the major placings, so you might extract something about how the American new wave isn’t quite up to the Aussie new wave. What do you reckon?

Here's the difference between the two. There was aggressive surfing and a lot of individuality coming out of our team, in comparison to the Americans. We have more aggressive people. Our guys were all fighting (laughs). Just arguing all the time.

Whaddya mean? What were you arguing about?

It was just a crew of real individuals. Nobody took crap off anyone else. You’d get in the bus and you’d almost expect some kind of comment like: ‘You’re fucked!” So you’d hurl abuse back, and there’d be abuse hurled around everywhere. Then everyone would calm down and we’d be off to the beach.

They were good. It’s not a two-horse race anymore. It looked that way in the end, I suppose, 'cause the US and Australian teams pulled through. But there were actually a lot of strong teams.

So what about you? You’re going to be a full-on world tour pro now?

Yep. Full-on. I've done a few already. Have to see if I can do better than a 17th place, though. That’s the best I’ve done so far.

Coming from the NSW Central Coast, do you think people are gonna start labeling you the second Glen Winton?

(Looks amused) That's funny, 'cause I just had the pleasure of rooming with Glen in Margaret River, and I can definitely say there’s no likeness between us at all (laughs). Maybe we’re both interested in a bit of surfing, but that’s about it. I mean, for one thing, he goes to sleep listening to Black Sabbath. I don’t think I could bash that music into me then fall asleep.

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