{"id":88819,"date":"2025-10-19T22:06:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T22:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/88819\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T22:06:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T22:06:11","slug":"how-oscar-langburne-was-handed-the-keys-to-the-galaxy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/88819\/","title":{"rendered":"How Oscar Langburne Was Handed The Keys To The Galaxy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI was doing a piss at the urinal with Mike Tyson and I remember being like, \u2018Holy Fuck! This is pretty crazy,\u201d begins Oscar Langburne.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For a laconic teenager from a middle class family on the deeply unfashionable NSW Central Coast, rubbing shoulders with the former baddest man on the planet at a \u201chigh society\u201d Los Angeles eatery was a surreal experience. Oscar had come with his then-boss, RVCA founder and owner Pat Tenore. Oscar had spent three or so weeks holed up at Tenore\u2019s palatial, art-filled, biohacking mansion just outside of LA \u2014 a mindblower.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tenore, a cultural Goliath in his own right, had taken the Aussie grom under his wing and shown him the ropes of high society Beverly Hills, which tonight meant dining with the former Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World.<\/p>\n

The pair had piled into Tenore\u2019s space-age vehicle with in-built massage chairs and driven an hour or so to meet Tyson. While at dinner, Academy-Award winning actor Jamie Foxx stopped by to discuss his upcoming role as Mike Tyson in a soon-to-be-released limited series. Both of them regarded Oscar with kindness and curiosity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey must have been like, \u2018What the fuck are you doing here? Who\u2019s this hipster looking bloke?\u2019 I can\u2019t even articulate how crazy that experience was. It was a trip out,\u201d says Oscar.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tenore was yet another in a long line of influential mentors Oscar was fortunate enough to have. The first was Tom Carroll, the two-time world champion, Pipe Master, meditation guru, and former addict in recovery, who Oscar met as a 13-year-old. The pair have stayed close ever since.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean this in the best way possible: he\u2019s a fucking unit! He\u2019s so funny and so easy to get along with and talk to. When I was a kid I felt like I was connected to him because he is so light and bubbly. I felt like it was easy for him to get down to my level \u2018cos essentially he is still like a kid,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

More recently, the pair did a trip together to remote Indonesia where Oscar was able to add more relevant anecdotes and wisdom to his current age.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing a bit older and getting to talk to him about heavier stuff like his past was really interesting and insightful. There were some really cool stories, but also some really crazy ones,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At 14, Oscar ran into another of his heroes, Craig Anderson, while surfing Craig\u2019s hometown, Merewether. The pair exchanged pleasantries and when Oscar hit him up on Instagram to tell him how much of a buzz it was, he couldn\u2019t believe the reply.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"It\u2019s not quite a cheat code when your mentors know every reef in Indo, but it\u2019s close. Photo: Harry Dott<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was the guy for me. He came up and said hello and I lost it obviously. I flicked him a message on IG and said, \u2018You\u2019ve made my year man.\u2019 He replied and said, \u2018Come up again next weekend \u2014 let\u2019s go surf!\u2019 I started surfing with Craig and yeah, it\u2019s all due to him. Since then, I got so lucky,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was during Craig\u2019s transition from knock-kneed style master to mutant slab specialist. Oscar was thrown a Former sponsorship and given the opportunity to travel and surf with Craig whenever he wanted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was starting to chase slabs on the east coast and I wasn\u2019t, and still wouldn\u2019t, go near those waves,\u201d Oscar recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On one particular mission, Craig nearly died.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this wave where you have to get a ski out. I sat in the car park for a few hours while Craig went out with Tyge Landa. It\u2019s this ridiculous left, double-up mutant slab thing and I think he was trying to paddle it and he paddled for a wave, missed it, and the wave behind was huge and he just scraped under and as he was coming up he was dragged back down. The wave broke over a shallow slab of reef with a big drop off and he was super freaked out. He got the worst hold-down of his life,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oscar did glean a lot of technical tips and inspiration from Ando, however. Though he adds that whatever similarities have developed between him and his idol, were never conscious.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this guy I looked up to and liked the way he surfed but I never thought, \u2018I\u2019m gonna put my arms like this and do that.\u2019 It all came naturally,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Growing up in the competitive surfing heartland of Avoca Beach, on the NSW Central Coast, Oscar knew at a young age that grinding out contest results on a high-performance thruster was never going to be his thing.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe amount of competition kids at Avoca at the time trying to whack the lip and jam turns gave me the ick for approaching a wave like that. I didn\u2019t wanna be like that at all,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI was never really into that scene. I was just doing my own thing and surfing because I loved it. When I turned 15 I had a bit more of a unique (or different) approach to most kids at that time,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oscar has great respect for what it takes to succeed in that format and counts a few masters of contest surfing among his best mates and biggest influences, including Joel Vaughan<\/a> and Ace Buchan. But he was on a different trip, and the surf industry was digging it. Oscar\u2019s unique lines, alternative board choices, and purist, countercultural leaning soon had several big companies circling with cash-money contracts. This was right around the time his high school gave him an ultimatum: shit or get off the pot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Bit of Tom, bit of Ando, you reckon? Photo: Harry Dott<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told me, \u2018Your attendance is about 50%, and you need 90% to pass year 11. You\u2019ve gotta come to school everyday for the rest of the year or you\u2019re going to have to repeat,\u2019\u201d he recalls of a meeting with a senior teacher.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents were like, \u2018You need to be making money if you leave school.\u2019 After Craig\u2019s stamp, everyone wanted the next hot thing, and I had a few different companies chasing me at the time. It was shit, but I was 16 or 17 and needed to commit to school or surfing, and to commit to surfing I needed to be making money to support it,\u201d he says about his decision to leave Former and sign with RVCA. <\/p>\n

\u201cCraig was amazing about it. He said, \u2018You\u2019ve gotta do this, I\u2019d be doing it, you\u2019ve gotta do it.\u2019 There was no animosity or anything,\u201d says Oscar.<\/p>\n

Aged just 17, he became putty in the hands of RVCA part-owner, Nathan \u2018Nudes\u2019 Webster, the former WCT Surfer turned creative genius and confidante to the likes of Julian Schnabel. Between Nudes and Pat Tenore, the pair knew a thing or two about how to build a personal brand and run a pro surfing career.<\/p>\n

They encouraged Oscar to surf the way he wanted, the waves he wanted, and pursue personal and artistic growth in all its forms. Music and art had always been a big focus for Oscar. He\u2019s put his favourite musicians on his boards as art. When George Floyd was murdered by police in the United States, he printed a few hundred T-shirts inscribed with a lyric from The Specials (If you have a racist friend, now is the time for your friendship to end) and tried to get them into circulation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI started hitting up musicians that I really loved. I hit up Cat Power and she was into it and then we just kept talking over Instagram and remained friends,\u201d he recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Cat Power came to play in Australia, Oscar went and hung out with her. When Nick Cave dropped by to say hello and invited Oscar to dinner, he accepted that too, claiming it as the highlight of his surfing career.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI went and had dinner with him at this really nice restaurant and chatted for ages. That was a really big moment for me,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cave told him to stay sharp and keep reading. \u201cHe was very pushing of reading as much as you can and being as informed as you can,\u201d he says, adding, \u201cI think there was a story of Mark E. Smith and Shane McGowan in a restaurant once, and Mark E. Smith was throwing plates or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Mike Tyson to Tenore, Cat Power to Nick Cave, Oscar was struck by \u201cHow kind and open and genuine they actually are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just like surfers. The guys who are doing really well \u2014 the top guys \u2014 are always so nice and genuine, and don\u2019t give a shit about trying to catch every single wave. And it\u2019s the people who are not on that scale or fighting to have a career that end up being jaded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interpol\u2019s lead singer and guitarist, Paul Banks, was another he met through his art projects. The pair would converse online and in person, and Banks, a keen surfer, suggested Oscar head down to his mate\u2019s secluded surf camp on the border of Panama and Costa Rica. This began a wild four-month jaunt through the exotic jungles and cartel-ravaged lands of Central America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe jungle was absolutely crazy. We saw toucans and monkeys and sloths and all sorts of wild shit\u2026 Packets of cocaine would be washing up on the beach from the drug busts that happen out at sea, and the locals would go out at first light, and then go sell \u2018em.\u201d he recalls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Joining Rip Curl means swapping solo suffering for group expeditions with the likes of Mick Fanning, Steph Gilmore, Mason Ho, and Tom Curren. Misery loves company, especially when it\u2019s legendary. Photo: Harry Dott<\/p>\n

In El Salvador, a local surfer paddled out with a rock in his pants and threatened to beat the shit out of Oscar with it. In Costa Rica, he found a gentrified, Americanised let down. In Nicaragua and Panama he found pumping beach breaks, points, wedges, river mouths, and mysto offshore barreling reefs with no one out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When he signed with Rip Curl in January of this year, the plan was to get on The Search with Mick Fanning and Mason Ho, and continue its surreal history of characters and mental surfing adventures.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then Oscar tore his meniscus playing tennis, leading to four months of pain and instability followed by surgery.\u00a0 He arrived in Indo right as the season was kicking into gear, ready to rip with his Rip Curl heroes, only to come down with dengue, laying him out for a further month. By the time Oscar had the energy to surf, it had been close to six months out of the water and it had sent him for a bit of a loop, hence the name of his latest edit, Ever Changing Moods.<\/p>\n

\"\"Oscar\u2019s body language seemed to reveal a somewhat mellow mood. Photo: Jimmy \u2018Jazz\u2019 James<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty tough for sure. I\u2019ve always had my issues, which everyone does. Surfing has always been an outlet and a coping mechanism for me. It\u2019s also a social outlet for myself,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many factors to it; it\u2019s an exercise thing. When that was stripped away and I couldn\u2019t surf, it took away a lot of those things for me, which built up a fair bit of despair and depression, or, amplified feelings that were maybe already there,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When the chips were down, he took the advice of his mentors and put his energy into other parts of his life, including studying Sports Nutrition at TAFE. Looking back, he describes the whole ordeal as \u201ca blessing.\u201d He\u2019s also never appreciated surfing more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was ridiculous. The feeling was so euphoric. It was like a crazy high or something. I didn\u2019t realise how much I appreciated being able to surf and just be out in the water; just being out in the water with friends and being out in nature, and what surfing is pretty much about. It was a crazy feeling,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Nothing wrong with taking a few tried-and-tested lines either. Photo: Jimmy \u2018Jazz\u2019 James<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to keep evolving as a person and I want my surfing to keep evolving and maturing. What I want to watch in surfing is someone who draws unique lines or has an edge. Just something a bit different or left field,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people are going to love it and appreciate it, and some people aren\u2019t going to like it. Everyone has an opinion and everyone has favourite surfers. It\u2019s just subjective really. I don\u2019t have any secret. I\u2019ve just always surfed because I loved it, and it just happened to be something (of a career), and then I love showing outside interests and bringing them into it as well,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

At just 22-years-old, Oscar\u2019s relationship to surfing is as pure as it gets. He still sees it as a countercultural pursuit and an escape from a backwards system that rewards all the wrong things with even more bad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSurfing was a punk thing \u2014 it used to be frowned upon. It was a form of escaping from society and mundane life. I view surfing as really expressive and a punk thing, and obviously, a lot of that has been taken out of it with social media and stuff like that. But I think it\u2019s a really big element of surfing, whether it\u2019s the weekend warriors getting to surf every chance they get \u2018cos they love it so much, or guys like Torren and Craig and Creed or whoever going off and trying to create something different. Obviously they\u2019re getting paid, but they\u2019re trying to create something different to the standard idea of what surfing should be. That\u2019s what surfing is to me, and what it always should have been, and what I try to showcase when I make these videos,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI was doing a piss at the urinal with Mike Tyson and I remember being like, \u2018Holy Fuck!…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[85,156,111,139,69,67087,67088,67089],"class_list":{"0":"post-88819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz","13":"tag-oscar-langburne","14":"tag-rip-curl","15":"tag-the-search"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}