The NSSA brought Nathaniel Curran up right. And with a treasure chest full of NSSA memories and a qualifying year on the ’QS that left him solidly at number one in the rankings, Nathaniel has achieved the goal that every amateur surfer has at least one time or another dreamed of achieving: A place on the Dream Tour. But for a kid that’s been battling it out for points his whole life, it was just another day at the office — just, you know, the bigger one with the view.
SURFING MAGAZINE:
TAKE US BACK TO YOUR VERY FIRST NSSA. NATHANIEL CURRAN: Wow, that’s tough. I started doing NSSA contests when I was five years old. Timmy and Josh (older brothers) had been doing them for a while so it was only natural for me to start doing them as soon as I could. I do remember that it was at Ventura Harbor and it seemed like it was 20 feet. We surfed the whitewash that day — it was a little overwhelming for a first contest experience. [Laughs]
WERE THERE ANY HISTORIC RIVALRIES IN YOUR YEARS IN THE NSSA? Geoff Brack was really gnarly to go up against — he was kind of like my nemesis for a while. That was at home, but down south Che Stang was one of my greatest rivals when I got a little older. I swear, in my last couple of years in the NSSA, he beat me in every contest.
DO YOU HAVE A “BEST WIN EVER”? Josh and I had a serious brother-to-brother competition with Ryan and Jeff Hurley. I was probably like thirteen and Josh eighteen and we ended up beating them. That was pretty sweet.
HOW DID YOU STAY SO MOTIVATED TO COMPETE THROUGH THE YEARS? My brothers were the major influence. Watching Timmy from a young age as he went from regular surf movies to Taylor Steele movies to the tour was just crazy. Also watching Josh ripping and getting in the magazines was a great motivator. Just that combo really fired me up to keep pushing.
AT WHAT POINT DID YOU DECIDE TO PURSUE A PROFESSIONAL CAREER? When I was seventeen, I got second to Adam Virs at a two-star PSTA in Ventura. I knew right then that I wanted to go full-bore with professional contests after that.
WAS IT A HARD TRANSITION, GOING FROM THE FAMILIAR WORLD OF THE NSSA TO THE PROS? Well, competitively, I was ready to go, but I got injured my first year and that set me back. But at the same time, the injury fired me up to continue to push for qualification when I was able to compete again.
NOW THAT YOU’VE JOINED THE TOUR, DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOUR YEARS IN THE NSSA PREPARED YOU FOR THE HIGHEST LEVEL? It definitely sets you up and points you in the right direction. Just the fact that [the NSSA] is always evolving with the sport and experimenting with new formats and the latest scoring technology is really important to the success of its surfers. That’s the key thing to properly gearing the kids up for the “real world” of professional surfing.
