Surfing for all the right reasons
Sun 12 November 2006
Nathan Price, Journalism
Coolum bodyboarder Michael Novy is chasing his dreams in a sport he loves, regardless of fame and money.
“Hawaii is a testing ground,” Michael Novy says of the surfer’s pilgrimage to the famous North Shore.
“It’s a place you travel to each year to test out your skill that you have gained from the previous year. Each season there are an amazing amount of new faces there. To get good waves in Hawaii you need to be extremely talented and have many years experience, otherwise you’re just another face in the crowd,” he says.
Novy, 21, grew up in Coolum Beach and has been bodyboarding since he was in grade six at Coolum Beach Primary School. He is a softly spoken young man, which is in direct contrast to his displays of bravado in the water. 
In the past couple of years his profile has risen considerably on the back of impressive performances at dangerous reef breaks.
Of his early beginnings, Novy tells a familiar tale.
“I started because all my friends at school were doing it. I didn’t take it seriously until about year eight or so when I started competing in local and state comps.”
Novy says his success in early competitions drove him to pursue the sport.
“In my third year of competition – 2001 – I won the first round of the Queensland Titles, which was a major confidence boost. Not long after that I picked up my first sponsorships too. I didn’t win the overall that year but from that moment I knew I needed to win one to be satisfied.”
He did not have to wait long, winning the Queensland Title in 2004.
In the same year he placed second at the Nationals and second in the Australian Pro Junior Series. These achievements cemented his reputation and set him on track to becoming a professional bodyboarder.
For the past couple of years Novy’s profile has risen on the back of his free-surfing achievements, gaining prolific exposure through videos and magazines surfing some of the heaviest and most dangerous breaks in the country.
“To me it felt like there was a huge gap between national and international competition and I didn’t feel like I was ready to make that jump. So instead of chasing the competition scene I felt like I was gaining more experience in different surf conditions (by travelling and free-surfing).”
“Next year though I plan to return to the competition scene,” Novy says, who lists an addiction to MySpace.com as one of his vices out of the water.
“Hopefully I will be able to financially, follow the World Tour. It has shown a lot of improvement in this last year, both in venues and prize money.”
For a bodyboarding professional, unlike the less fiscally challenged stand-up surfers, many opportunities come down to the support and sponsorship they are getting.
“The majority of younger bodyboarders don’t realise that there is only a small amount of the professionals actually making a living out of the sport,” Novy says.
The upside to this scenario is that the young guys out there chasing it are only in it for the love.
“I’ve enjoyed bodyboarding since the beginning and the longer I do it the more my hunger grows. I hope to continue travelling and finding new waves for years to come,” Novy says.
Image(s) designed by Nathan Price