“It was one of those years,” sighs Jackson Baker. The 26-year-old Novocastrian can claim to be the unluckiest surfer in the world in 2023.
After a strong start to the World Surf League, including a career-best quarterfinal at Bells Beach, Baker needed a decent result mid-season to stay on tour. In recent years the WSL has introduced the dreaded ‘cut’, where the field is reduced halfway through the campaign – with just 22 men and 10 women remaining.
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In air conditions at Margaret River, against fellow Australian Callum Robson, Baker needed to win until the round of 16 to secure his place on the tour. But he fell 1.5 points short against Robson and was unceremoniously cut off.
Baker then spent the rest of the year toiling in the second tier of the Challenger series, attempting to re-qualify for the WSL. He went into the final event of the season in Saquarema, Brazil, on the brink of qualifying. He needed to advance to the quarterfinals to secure a spot back on the tour, but fell to Hawaii’s Shion Crawford by 1.3 points. “Losing ‘f$cken sucks,’ Baker summarized afterwards on Instagram.
“With one place and one heat,” says Baker, a few weeks after the loss. “It definitely hurts, it sucks. I think if I was a little younger I would have taken it in a different way, but now that I’m a little older and more mature, I just try to take it in the most positive way.
“I definitely feel like luck hasn’t come my way,” Baker adds. “Now I have to create my own happiness and not leave it to chance.”
Baker was born and raised in Merewether, Newcastle. He is part of a crop of Newcastle surfers to have graced the WSL in recent years, along with Ryan Callinan, who finished runner-up to Bells this year, and Morgan Cibilic. It continues a proud surfing tradition for the region.
“We have a great community here,” Baker said. ‘You go back to [four-time world champion] Mark Richards, Matt Hoy, Luke Egan, Nicky Wood – we just have a rich history, and that’s why we get such good surfers from our area, because we have such great role models. Hopefully me and Morgan will now do the same for the younger generation.”
After a successful junior career, Baker rose through the qualifying ranks and was on the verge of making the WSL when the pandemic hit. It was a difficult time for many athletes, but especially for those who were on the cusp of making it.
“No one was really buying surf products at the time and everything stopped, so that became difficult,” he says. Baker started working as a bricklayer and delivery boy to finance his surfing; his local surf club has even crowdfunded to support Baker’s trips to qualifying events.
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The campaign was successful and Baker had a good rookie year in the WSL in 2022, surviving the cut and achieving solid results in Portugal, Brazil and El Salvador. Baker also earned himself a bit of a cult following for his blunt post-heat commentary. Along with his mustache and no-nonsense attitude, Baker has made Baker seem, in the words of surf magazine Tracks, “the kind of professional surfer reminiscent of [fans] from a buddy from the pub.”
“I’m going to name everything,” Baker laughs. The surfer says he has learned to embrace media opportunities as an opportunity to show fans his true self. “I don’t want to just stand there in my Ripcurl hat [his sponsor] and sound like a robot,” he says. “I want to show people who I am.”
So who is Jackson Baker? “I’m glad I’m lucky, a tough guy who likes to have a beer,” he offers. “I want people to know that. But at the same time, I’m still a professional athlete – it’s just a matter of balance. And I feel like since I’ve done the tour, people relate to me a lot more because I’m not afraid to show who I am.
“I’m not just trying to be a black and white professional athlete. I want to show that I also do other things – I’m not boring. I swear I’m not boring.”
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Baker’s surfing is not only striking because of the Australian’s big turns, but also because of the bright pink board under his feet. The color palette pays tribute to Baker’s mother, Tracy, who died of breast cancer in 2016. The tragedy has helped Baker keep the highs and lows of his surfing career in perspective. “I’m lucky to be able to do what I do: I get paid to surf and live my dream,” he says. “That year, losing my mother put a lot of things in life into perspective.”
Immediately after the devastating heat loss in Brazil, Baker met a Brazilian who had founded a breast cancer charity after losing his own mother to the disease. The surfer made a split-second decision to donate his surfboard to charity to raise money for breast cancer support in Brazil.
“It was like it had to happen at that moment,” he says. “I had just gone through one of the hardest things of my career where I didn’t make the tour again, but that just changed my way of thinking. Perspective is a big thing.”
Baker reserves the pink boards for when he competes in the WSL. In its first year on tour, the sign was wrapped entirely in pastel pink, while this year’s design featured fluorescent pink on the bottom of the sign. “I think I have a year to think about the 2025 design,” he says. “Everyone asks if I’m going to take them in the Challenger series, but I just want to keep it for the competition [WSL] – so it makes me want to come back.
Tracy Baker’s legacy lives on through her son. “I wouldn’t be here without her,” Baker says. “To lose her, it really motivated me to do the tour. I do it for myself, but in memory of her. Being at Bells Beach this year with my pink surfboards, on my own property, near family – that’s what I’ve been dreaming about for a long time. And to have her number on my back – 61, the year she was born – is just surreal.
“It’s nice to surf in any brash shirt. But with that number on my back I really feel at home. Then you are among the best 32, where I feel like I belong.”
After an unhappy 2023, Baker is optimistic that a better year ahead will see him book a spot in the WSL again in 2025. Indeed, it is not so much optimism as determination, an attitude of inevitability. Baker is confident he will regain his rightful place among the world’s best. “The first two years were a bit of a learning curve,” he admits. “Once I come back, in ’25, I’ll be a different person and a much better athlete.”
Before the Challenger series begins in May, Baker has his eye on a wildcard spot at Bells Beach. After achieving his best ever result at Bells this year, with the prospect of 61 on his back and a pink board under his arm, he is hoping to do even better.
“It would be good to come in as a wildcard and hopefully shake up the event,” he says. “Even winning as a wildcard and saying, ‘Hey guys, I’ll be back next year.’”