Ricardo Christie
Ricardo Christie slips from first place to ninth, but the quiet Gisborne charger can still be found laying down those power carves.
Ric was New Zealand’s third ever male surfer to make the WSL Championship Tour (WCT), after Maz Quinn and Al Byrne, when he qualified for the 2015 tour. A tough 2015 WCT campaign saw him relegated back to the WQS grind for 2016 and 2017. That’s a hard slog in anyone’s books. He finished 57th in 2016 and then 31st in 2017. By his own admission 2018 was his last roll of the dice. Toward the end of the 2018 season, as he turned 30, Ricardo found the self-belief he needed.
At Haleiwa he found his rhythm and booked the last spot on the 2019 tour. It would be his 11th year chasing his tour dream.
His 2019 season seemed different – Ricardo seemed relaxed and accepted his fate. He won five heats, and only made it once into the Round of 16 – fittingly for the powerhouse surfer, that was at Pipe, the conclusion to the season. But he did it in style, eliminating title hopeful Filipe Toledo in his Round of 32 Pipe Masters match-up. Ricardo finished 33rd in the world. He was relegated once again.
It wasn’t immediately apparent if Ricardo would rejoin the QS in 2020 with Covid eventually forcing his hand. Instead he started a surf school and shared some of his gathered knowledge with a swarm of young surfers. Very soon he was drafted into real estate, his name opening the door to new listings and new customers for the real estate company that took a punt on him.
These days he wears a suit and dresses sharp – like he’s about to go meet some royalty. It’s incongruous to the style of character we got to know as he took on the surfing world for all of those years. But, if you’re up early and you know where to look, you’ll find Ric tearing the best bank in Wainui to shreds each morning. And if you do see that with your own eyes then you’ll know why he still has a spot in New Zealand’s Top 10 Best Surfers.
