80*s POWER revolution...

Martin Potter – Biography

Professional surfing needed Martin Potter. He was an adrenaline needle that pierced the heart of a bloated 1980’s ASP schedule, a contest lineup dominated by gutless venues favoring only the most emaciated and delicate of surfers. But Potter was pure power, applying modern embellishments to Richard Cram’s gouging figure eight roundhouses and setting vertical lines that catapulted him beyond the lip. Lacking the nuanced artistry of Curren or the coiled tension of Carroll, Potter’s surfing was fully extended and obvious. His turns were marked by meat and muscle. He could fly off the shoulder of a knee high dribbler or thread the guts of a 12-foot drainer. A Pipeline prodigy at 15 and among the first to incorporate aerial surfing into a powerful carving aesthetic, Potter called to arms apprentices the likes of Matt Archbold, Christian Fletcher, and later Kelly Slater. Often described by way of “beast,” “erratic,” “explosive,” “hyperbolic,” and “unpredictable;” “Pottz” entered pro surfing like a shooting star that wouldn’t dim until reaching maximum altitude.

Martin Potter was born October 28, 1965 in Blyth, England, but fortunately for the infant, his family moved to Durban, South Africa 2 years later. Realizing destiny, he began riding waves at 10 and progressed at light speed from there. In 1981, he beat Tom Curren to win the NSSA International Team Challenge immediately followed by his first professional win (and first ever pro event) against Shaun Tomson, who would later remember an already progressive Potter: “I saw him pull off a beautiful no hands air at Rocky Point in Hawaii in 1981 and right there, right then, I could see that the future had arrived.” Potter placed second in the Gunston 500 and took another second in the Mainstay Magnum to finish the year ranked 8th.

Potter’s parents moved back to the UK a few years later while their son was on tour, at which time his status changed to that of British citizen (worthy of note mainly due to an historical dearth of Brits in the ASP top 10). But while a berth high in the rankings was stellar, Potter’s arrival on the world stage probably came on one wave in the Pipe Masters, where as a teenager with limited North Shore experience, Pottz scratched into an outer reef bomb and held tight all the way to the shoulder amid collective gasps that reverberated around the world.

Potter would find early support in sponsor and Astrodek owner Herbie Fletcher. Fletcher on his jet ski in 1987 towed Potter into a set wave at Pipeline inadvertently planting the seed for Laird Hamilton’s big wave revolution a decade later. Fletcher also offered Potter opportunity through Astrodek’s Wave Warrior video series. In high energy segments that covered the gamut from playful beachbreaks to throttling Waimea, the powerful natural footer found a new platform for global exposure beyond the contest heat. It’s obvious from viewing these segments even today that his surfing was light years ahead of his time. His star had risen, but it had yet to reach its competitive apex.

He became a pro in 1981 and In 1989 after claiming 6 tour victories from 25 events he became "World Surfing Champion". This would come fourteen years after learning to stand on a surfboard. 'Pottz' redefined competitive surfing through performing technically high-risk moves such as aerials (where a surfer is able to use the energy of a wave to launch themselves free of it together with their surfboard, and to land back down onto the water and continue on) and 360's (the surfer and surfboard rotate on a wave 360 degrees before continuing on), which were previously only performed in the domain of free surfing (as opposed to competitively). He was also responsible for the invention of several surfing maneuvers such as the “rock-n-roll" (the same as performed on a skateboard). From his success as a world champion, he led the call for a new form of competitive surfing; a judging format based on "risky surfing" - i.e. higher scoring being given to bigger and more critical maneuvering - which eventually became an accepted standard on what is now known as the World Championship Tour (WCT).