Surfer Callum Robson’s efforts to save flood-ravaged Woodburn from the world tour

He’s on a one-name basis. It’s a sign of greatness. Mick Fanning is great. He rose from personal tragedy to become the best surfer in the world. Punched a shark to save his own life at Jeffreys Bay in 2015.

Then, exactly a year later, went back to the same spot and won the event.

Growing up, Callum Robson watched all of Mick’s greatness.

A mere five years later, Robson is in J-Bay himself, on the big stage as a 21-year-old rookie doing one hell of an impersonation of Mick in his first year on the world championship tour.

“Mick’s a massive role model for me,” Robson tells CodeSports from South Africa.

A big, powerful surfer, Robson is using the methods of Mick (and a few other worthy techniques) to not only exist with the big boys on the world surfing tour, but beat them. Last month he took out Brazilian Gabriel Medina in front of the superstar’s thousands of acolytes in Rio.

And none of it fazes Robson. Close observers have noted a Zen calmness to his approach.

“Callum’s an old soul,” says leading surfing commentator Ronnie Blakey.

“He’s exceeded all expectations, it’s pretty cool. At the start of 2021 he wasn’t even in the picture really. One of 100 talented Aussie kids.

“But once you get to know him, you see a determination that’s greater than most.”

Despite his relative inexperience traversing the globe, competing against the elite, Robson is ultra clear on what he needs.

“This game is all about mindset, getting your mind to the place where you feel like you can perform every day,” Robson says.

“It creates this base of confidence and belief. Then whatever happens, happens. It’s easier to let go of the end result once you realise you’ve done everything you can.”

The approach is working and it’s not just confined to surfing.

Woodburn is one of many little towns dotted along the Richmond River on the New South Wales far north coast.

Robson grew up in the area. Fifteen minutes down the road is Evans Head where Robson developed his powerful method of shredding on and through waves.

In March this year, Robson was shredding a long way from home, in Portugal, when news came through of the disaster.

Months and months of rain in a few days had turned the Richmond River into a swollen rage of destruction. Lismore, up river, copped it, and towns downstream like Woodburn would suffer the same fate as the water rushed toward the ocean at nearby Ballina.

In and around Woodburn was inundated, including Robson’s parents’ sugar cane farm.

“Mum was freaking out, dad didn’t think it wasn’t that bad,” Robson says of when the river wouldn’t stop rising.

“They tried to get everything to higher ground but the home was submerged … a foot through the second floor.

“My cousin sent me a video, and the town was like Venice. Just crazy.”

The Robsons lost plenty, but the home survived. It could have been worse. A shipping container was floating about on their property, before Callum’s dad Michael managed to tie it to a telegraph pole for when the water eventually subsided.

The gravity of the situation didn’t hit Callum until he returned from Portugal two weeks later.

“When I got home, the army was cleaning stuff up with a bulldozer,” Robson says.

“Felt like a war zone. Army in town cleaning up, windows shattered, mud everywhere, and like a ghost town. Pretty surreal.”

Straight away, Robson knew he had to pitch in. He donated a portion (around $2000) of his prize money from Portugal, and then started a fundraising raffle online. Robson’s new world, surfing’s elite, all chipped in with prizes. He ended up raising $30,000, all of which will go directly to residents to buy household essentials like whitegoods as they rebuild their lives.

“It felt like a few areas were getting missed, government support wasn’t quick acting.

“I did the fundraiser, not just to raise funds but use the little platform I have to raise awareness.”

It’s still a mess in Woodburn.

An estimated 90 per cent of residents are still not back at home, four months on from the floods. Many live in caravans on their front lawn. The houses are wrecked, and getting tradesmen in to fix them is near-impossible. Few are available, and then there’s the issue of materials, which are in short supply. Local businesses are struggling to recover, and the supermarket hasn’t opened up yet.

Robson wants to do more later in the year to help out any way he can.

But as his home town navigates a long path to recovery, the world tour stops for no one.

Robson is back on his inaugural odyssey, each stop a first.

“I’m learning on the fly but it’s an opportunity to learn quickly. And I like that, you have to be adaptable and really observant.”

This week he’s seeing for the first time the place Mick conquered a year after a great white wanted him for lunch, the Jeffreys Bay Pro in South Africa.

It’s held at Supertubes, a utopian right-hand break which peels in from the Southern Ocean.

“This is a good wave for me, growing up on the north coast of NSW, I’m used to lots of right-hand waves. Can’t wait. There’s a good swell coming.”

Robson is on the cusp of cracking the top five, which would get him into the final event, September’s WSL Finals in California, where the five best surf in a single-day event to crown a world champion.

Currently ranked eighth, Robson needs a big result in Jeffreys Bay to stay in contention.

He’s doing every little bit he can to extract the most from what’s in his locker. He’ll read books, watch docos and pay close attention to other sports, like UFC, to find the right headspace.

“Those fighters have got to have bulletproof mindsets to do what they do,” he says.

“I want to think like them, fight or flight situation.”

Robson doesn’t compare his craft to mixed-martial arts, but there are similarities.

Serious consequences await UFC fighters who get it wrong, and so can a mistimed ride on a 10-foot moving mass of mayhem.

“Yeah, I guess. Some waves are more critical than others,” he laughs.

Old soul indeed. Determined to help others. Intent on helping himself, and who knows where it could lead.