The Jackson drive: Baker cooking up a comeback story, starting at home

The Advertiser

2 days ago

When COVID stopped professional surfing, Jackson Baker worked as a courier to make ends meet.
The Merewether surfer had been inching towards the Championship Tour (CT) for several years, but when events were scrapped and travel was halted, so too was Baker's competitive progression.
The time spent on the road making deliveries was the reality check Baker needed to throw everything at chasing his surfing dream.
In early 2021, he made his CT debut as a one-off wildcard when Newcastle hosted the pandemic-impacted season, before landing a full-time spot for 2022 via his ranking in the second-tier Challenger Series (CS).
But several years on, Baker is again chasing a spot in surfing's top tier.
After falling off the CT in 2023, and failing to re-qualify via the Challenger Series in both that year and 2024, Baker approaches the opening contest of this year's CS, next week's Burton Automotive Newcastle Surfest, desperate to get back to where he feels he belongs.
So in added motivation, the 28-year-old recently spent some time on the tools.
He took a page out of the Melbourne Storm playbook, where new players at the NRL club spend a fortnight labouring full-time, around their training commitments, to get a better idea of what life is like without professional sport.
"I've helped a few mates out labouring and things like that to stay busy. Surfing doesn't pay like it once was," Baker said.
"So it's kind of been, not a fall from grace, but I've gone from the highs of the sport to the lows in a few years.
"But I was in this position a few years ago before I made the tour. So I know that my surfing is there, I know my belief is there. I know I made it there before, and I was probably half of the competitor that I am now, and the experience that I've had.
"Yeah it would have been lovely to stay on tour after those few years, but when I do get back at the end of this year, the highs and lows of life and competing that I've gone through this past year and a half, have been very character building.
"Probably before in my career I was a bit lackadaisical ... but I think now, it's a bit more hard work, that discipline ... and helping a few mates out labouring, and working, I definitely don't want to be doing that.
"That can be a later in life thing, I still have a lot to achieve in my career.
"I'm 28. You say in sports you're getting a little older, and I joke about it, but I'm still pretty youthful.
"I've got a lot of energy and I'm a pretty knockabout, happy bloke, which I think the tour is missing at the moment, so I'd love to get back there and fill that void."
In 2023, Baker fell off the CT after missing the mid-season cut and then narrowly missed re-qualifying for the following year, finishing 13th in CS. He lost a heat in the last round of the CS by a matter of points. Had he won, the door opened to a top-10 spot and CT return.
Last year, Baker was behind from the outset, missing the opening two rounds of CS due to a fractured foot. It was a frustrating period. When he returned, he struggled to make an impact, ultimately finishing 36th in the rankings, well outside the top-10 and zone required to earn a spot in the following year's CT.
But a semi-final and third-placed finish at the season-ending CS event in Brazil was a positive note to conclude the year on.
"I thought about pulling the pin," Baker admitted of last year's CS campaign.
"I was really battling mentally, just with the highs and the lows of surfing, of being a professional athlete.
"I had battled with falling off the [CT] the year before, and then just missing out on [re]-qualifying ... to come into last year and break my foot and have that disrupt the year, it was a struggle.
"But it's how you come back from them. I got third in Brazil, that was great. I had an extra motivator. I was surfing for a family friend here at home who was battling breast cancer. That was really special. I just needed to find an extra motivator to stick at it last year."
Baker, who lost his mum to breast cancer in 2016 and is regularly involved in awareness and fund-raising campaigns - often using pink surfboards - has watched from afar as fellow Novocastrian Ryan Callinan has continued on the CT over the past two years.
In recent months, he has also watched Merewether clubmate Morgan Cibilic enjoy time back on the CT, the 25-year-old reaching the semi-finals at Bells Beach as a wildcard and quarter-finals on the Gold Coast as a late replacement for Callinan, who skipped the event for the birth of his first child.
Adopted Novocastrian Julian Wilson, who is making a professional comeback after a few years away from surfing's top tier, also made the Gold Coast final as a wildcard.
"I'm all fired up," Baker, a former Surfest winner, said. "I've seen Julian and Morgan get opportunities that I would have got last year without my injury, which is really firing me up.
"I'm like, OK - I don't want to be back there part-time, I don't want a wildcard, I want to be back there full-time. I know I deserve to be there.
"It's been interesting to watch those events and not be a part of it, and not be there. People are like 'Why don't you go watch it?'. But I'm like, I don't really care. I'd rather be there [competing].
"I'm just focusing on here in Newcastle and the whole year. "
Callinan, who has been Newcastle's sole representative on the CT the past two years, missed last week's mid-season cut, where only the top-22 ranked surfers continue for the remainder of the CT season.
After missing two of the opening seven contests, he was ranked 34th. The 33-year-old will now join Baker, Cibilic and Wilson in the CS and at the opening event in Newcastle.
All four will vie for a spot in the top 10 at the end of the CS season, to earn a place in next year's CT.
There is a very real chance all four could re-qualify for the CT together.
It's a dream outcome which has Baker, who won Surfest's main event in 2022, excited ahead of next week's series opener.
"As much as it's an individual sport, to be able to be a little four-pack that does a lot of damage here at home and finishes the year strong, would be pretty cool," Baker said.
"We've had myself, Morgs and Ryan in a six-month period [on the CT], but that was after Julian went off [for a break].
"Hopefully that's the final four, the semis ... that'd be sick."
When COVID stopped professional surfing, Jackson Baker worked as a courier to make ends meet.
The Merewether surfer had been inching towards the Championship Tour (CT) for several years, but when events were scrapped and travel was halted, so too was Baker's competitive progression.
The time spent on the road making deliveries was the reality check Baker needed to throw everything at chasing his surfing dream.
In early 2021, he made his CT debut as a one-off wildcard when Newcastle hosted the pandemic-impacted season, before landing a full-time spot for 2022 via his ranking in the second-tier Challenger Series (CS).
But several years on, Baker is again chasing a spot in surfing's top tier.
After falling off the CT in 2023, and failing to re-qualify via the Challenger Series in both that year and 2024, Baker approaches the opening contest of this year's CS, next week's Burton Automotive Newcastle Surfest, desperate to get back to where he feels he belongs.
So in added motivation, the 28-year-old recently spent some time on the tools.
He took a page out of the Melbourne Storm playbook, where new players at the NRL club spend a fortnight labouring full-time, around their training commitments, to get a better idea of what life is like without professional sport.
"I've helped a few mates out labouring and things like that to stay busy. Surfing doesn't pay like it once was," Baker said.
"So it's kind of been, not a fall from grace, but I've gone from the highs of the sport to the lows in a few years.
"But I was in this position a few years ago before I made the tour. So I know that my surfing is there, I know my belief is there. I know I made it there before, and I was probably half of the competitor that I am now, and the experience that I've had.
"Yeah it would have been lovely to stay on tour after those few years, but when I do get back at the end of this year, the highs and lows of life and competing that I've gone through this past year and a half, have been very character building.
"Probably before in my career I was a bit lackadaisical ... but I think now, it's a bit more hard work, that discipline ... and helping a few mates out labouring, and working, I definitely don't want to be doing that.
"That can be a later in life thing, I still have a lot to achieve in my career.
"I'm 28. You say in sports you're getting a little older, and I joke about it, but I'm still pretty youthful.
"I've got a lot of energy and I'm a pretty knockabout, happy bloke, which I think the tour is missing at the moment, so I'd love to get back there and fill that void."
In 2023, Baker fell off the CT after missing the mid-season cut and then narrowly missed re-qualifying for the following year, finishing 13th in CS. He lost a heat in the last round of the CS by a matter of points. Had he won, the door opened to a top-10 spot and CT return.
Last year, Baker was behind from the outset, missing the opening two rounds of CS due to a fractured foot. It was a frustrating period. When he returned, he struggled to make an impact, ultimately finishing 36th in the rankings, well outside the top-10 and zone required to earn a spot in the following year's CT.
But a semi-final and third-placed finish at the season-ending CS event in Brazil was a positive note to conclude the year on.
"I thought about pulling the pin," Baker admitted of last year's CS campaign.
"I was really battling mentally, just with the highs and the lows of surfing, of being a professional athlete.
"I had battled with falling off the [CT] the year before, and then just missing out on [re]-qualifying ... to come into last year and break my foot and have that disrupt the year, it was a struggle.
"But it's how you come back from them. I got third in Brazil, that was great. I had an extra motivator. I was surfing for a family friend here at home who was battling breast cancer. That was really special. I just needed to find an extra motivator to stick at it last year."
Baker, who lost his mum to breast cancer in 2016 and is regularly involved in awareness and fund-raising campaigns - often using pink surfboards - has watched from afar as fellow Novocastrian Ryan Callinan has continued on the CT over the past two years.
In recent months, he has also watched Merewether clubmate Morgan Cibilic enjoy time back on the CT, the 25-year-old reaching the semi-finals at Bells Beach as a wildcard and quarter-finals on the Gold Coast as a late replacement for Callinan, who skipped the event for the birth of his first child.
Adopted Novocastrian Julian Wilson, who is making a professional comeback after a few years away from surfing's top tier, also made the Gold Coast final as a wildcard.
"I'm all fired up," Baker, a former Surfest winner, said. "I've seen Julian and Morgan get opportunities that I would have got last year without my injury, which is really firing me up.
"I'm like, OK - I don't want to be back there part-time, I don't want a wildcard, I want to be back there full-time. I know I deserve to be there.
"It's been interesting to watch those events and not be a part of it, and not be there. People are like 'Why don't you go watch it?'. But I'm like, I don't really care. I'd rather be there [competing].
"I'm just focusing on here in Newcastle and the whole year. "
Callinan, who has been Newcastle's sole representative on the CT the past two years, missed last week's mid-season cut, where only the top-22 ranked surfers continue for the remainder of the CT season.
After missing two of the opening seven contests, he was ranked 34th. The 33-year-old will now join Baker, Cibilic and Wilson in the CS and at the opening event in Newcastle.
All four will vie for a spot in the top 10 at the end of the CS season, to earn a place in next year's CT.
There is a very real chance all four could re-qualify for the CT together.
It's a dream outcome which has Baker, who won Surfest's main event in 2022, excited ahead of next week's series opener.
"As much as it's an individual sport, to be able to be a little four-pack that does a lot of damage here at home and finishes the year strong, would be pretty cool," Baker said.
"We've had myself, Morgs and Ryan in a six-month period [on the CT], but that was after Julian went off [for a break].
"Hopefully that's the final four, the semis ... that'd be sick."
When COVID stopped professional surfing, Jackson Baker worked as a courier to make ends meet.
The Merewether surfer had been inching towards the Championship Tour (CT) for several years, but when events were scrapped and travel was halted, so too was Baker's competitive progression.
The time spent on the road making deliveries was the reality check Baker needed to throw everything at chasing his surfing dream.
In early 2021, he made his CT debut as a one-off wildcard when Newcastle hosted the pandemic-impacted season, before landing a full-time spot for 2022 via his ranking in the second-tier Challenger Series (CS).
But several years on, Baker is again chasing a spot in surfing's top tier.
After falling off the CT in 2023, and failing to re-qualify via the Challenger Series in both that year and 2024, Baker approaches the opening contest of this year's CS, next week's Burton Automotive Newcastle Surfest, desperate to get back to where he feels he belongs.
So in added motivation, the 28-year-old recently spent some time on the tools.
He took a page out of the Melbourne Storm playbook, where new players at the NRL club spend a fortnight labouring full-time, around their training commitments, to get a better idea of what life is like without professional sport.
"I've helped a few mates out labouring and things like that to stay busy. Surfing doesn't pay like it once was," Baker said.
"So it's kind of been, not a fall from grace, but I've gone from the highs of the sport to the lows in a few years.
"But I was in this position a few years ago before I made the tour. So I know that my surfing is there, I know my belief is there. I know I made it there before, and I was probably half of the competitor that I am now, and the experience that I've had.
"Yeah it would have been lovely to stay on tour after those few years, but when I do get back at the end of this year, the highs and lows of life and competing that I've gone through this past year and a half, have been very character building.
"Probably before in my career I was a bit lackadaisical ... but I think now, it's a bit more hard work, that discipline ... and helping a few mates out labouring, and working, I definitely don't want to be doing that.
"That can be a later in life thing, I still have a lot to achieve in my career.
"I'm 28. You say in sports you're getting a little older, and I joke about it, but I'm still pretty youthful.
"I've got a lot of energy and I'm a pretty knockabout, happy bloke, which I think the tour is missing at the moment, so I'd love to get back there and fill that void."
In 2023, Baker fell off the CT after missing the mid-season cut and then narrowly missed re-qualifying for the following year, finishing 13th in CS. He lost a heat in the last round of the CS by a matter of points. Had he won, the door opened to a top-10 spot and CT return.
Last year, Baker was behind from the outset, missing the opening two rounds of CS due to a fractured foot. It was a frustrating period. When he returned, he struggled to make an impact, ultimately finishing 36th in the rankings, well outside the top-10 and zone required to earn a spot in the following year's CT.
But a semi-final and third-placed finish at the season-ending CS event in Brazil was a positive note to conclude the year on.
"I thought about pulling the pin," Baker admitted of last year's CS campaign.
"I was really battling mentally, just with the highs and the lows of surfing, of being a professional athlete.
"I had battled with falling off the [CT] the year before, and then just missing out on [re]-qualifying ... to come into last year and break my foot and have that disrupt the year, it was a struggle.
"But it's how you come back from them. I got third in Brazil, that was great. I had an extra motivator. I was surfing for a family friend here at home who was battling breast cancer. That was really special. I just needed to find an extra motivator to stick at it last year."
Baker, who lost his mum to breast cancer in 2016 and is regularly involved in awareness and fund-raising campaigns - often using pink surfboards - has watched from afar as fellow Novocastrian Ryan Callinan has continued on the CT over the past two years.
In recent months, he has also watched Merewether clubmate Morgan Cibilic enjoy time back on the CT, the 25-year-old reaching the semi-finals at Bells Beach as a wildcard and quarter-finals on the Gold Coast as a late replacement for Callinan, who skipped the event for the birth of his first child.
Adopted Novocastrian Julian Wilson, who is making a professional comeback after a few years away from surfing's top tier, also made the Gold Coast final as a wildcard.
"I'm all fired up," Baker, a former Surfest winner, said. "I've seen Julian and Morgan get opportunities that I would have got last year without my injury, which is really firing me up.
"I'm like, OK - I don't want to be back there part-time, I don't want a wildcard, I want to be back there full-time. I know I deserve to be there.
"It's been interesting to watch those events and not be a part of it, and not be there. People are like 'Why don't you go watch it?'. But I'm like, I don't really care. I'd rather be there [competing].
"I'm just focusing on here in Newcastle and the whole year. "
Callinan, who has been Newcastle's sole representative on the CT the past two years, missed last week's mid-season cut, where only the top-22 ranked surfers continue for the remainder of the CT season.
After missing two of the opening seven contests, he was ranked 34th. The 33-year-old will now join Baker, Cibilic and Wilson in the CS and at the opening event in Newcastle.
All four will vie for a spot in the top 10 at the end of the CS season, to earn a place in next year's CT.
There is a very real chance all four could re-qualify for the CT together.
It's a dream outcome which has Baker, who won Surfest's main event in 2022, excited ahead of next week's series opener.
"As much as it's an individual sport, to be able to be a little four-pack that does a lot of damage here at home and finishes the year strong, would be pretty cool," Baker said.
"We've had myself, Morgs and Ryan in a six-month period [on the CT], but that was after Julian went off [for a break].
"Hopefully that's the final four, the semis ... that'd be sick."
When COVID stopped professional surfing, Jackson Baker worked as a courier to make ends meet.
The Merewether surfer had been inching towards the Championship Tour (CT) for several years, but when events were scrapped and travel was halted, so too was Baker's competitive progression.
The time spent on the road making deliveries was the reality check Baker needed to throw everything at chasing his surfing dream.
In early 2021, he made his CT debut as a one-off wildcard when Newcastle hosted the pandemic-impacted season, before landing a full-time spot for 2022 via his ranking in the second-tier Challenger Series (CS).
But several years on, Baker is again chasing a spot in surfing's top tier.
After falling off the CT in 2023, and failing to re-qualify via the Challenger Series in both that year and 2024, Baker approaches the opening contest of this year's CS, next week's Burton Automotive Newcastle Surfest, desperate to get back to where he feels he belongs.
So in added motivation, the 28-year-old recently spent some time on the tools.
He took a page out of the Melbourne Storm playbook, where new players at the NRL club spend a fortnight labouring full-time, around their training commitments, to get a better idea of what life is like without professional sport.
"I've helped a few mates out labouring and things like that to stay busy. Surfing doesn't pay like it once was," Baker said.
"So it's kind of been, not a fall from grace, but I've gone from the highs of the sport to the lows in a few years.
"But I was in this position a few years ago before I made the tour. So I know that my surfing is there, I know my belief is there. I know I made it there before, and I was probably half of the competitor that I am now, and the experience that I've had.
"Yeah it would have been lovely to stay on tour after those few years, but when I do get back at the end of this year, the highs and lows of life and competing that I've gone through this past year and a half, have been very character building.
"Probably before in my career I was a bit lackadaisical ... but I think now, it's a bit more hard work, that discipline ... and helping a few mates out labouring, and working, I definitely don't want to be doing that.
"That can be a later in life thing, I still have a lot to achieve in my career.
"I'm 28. You say in sports you're getting a little older, and I joke about it, but I'm still pretty youthful.
"I've got a lot of energy and I'm a pretty knockabout, happy bloke, which I think the tour is missing at the moment, so I'd love to get back there and fill that void."
In 2023, Baker fell off the CT after missing the mid-season cut and then narrowly missed re-qualifying for the following year, finishing 13th in CS. He lost a heat in the last round of the CS by a matter of points. Had he won, the door opened to a top-10 spot and CT return.
Last year, Baker was behind from the outset, missing the opening two rounds of CS due to a fractured foot. It was a frustrating period. When he returned, he struggled to make an impact, ultimately finishing 36th in the rankings, well outside the top-10 and zone required to earn a spot in the following year's CT.
But a semi-final and third-placed finish at the season-ending CS event in Brazil was a positive note to conclude the year on.
"I thought about pulling the pin," Baker admitted of last year's CS campaign.
"I was really battling mentally, just with the highs and the lows of surfing, of being a professional athlete.
"I had battled with falling off the [CT] the year before, and then just missing out on [re]-qualifying ... to come into last year and break my foot and have that disrupt the year, it was a struggle.
"But it's how you come back from them. I got third in Brazil, that was great. I had an extra motivator. I was surfing for a family friend here at home who was battling breast cancer. That was really special. I just needed to find an extra motivator to stick at it last year."
Baker, who lost his mum to breast cancer in 2016 and is regularly involved in awareness and fund-raising campaigns - often using pink surfboards - has watched from afar as fellow Novocastrian Ryan Callinan has continued on the CT over the past two years.
In recent months, he has also watched Merewether clubmate Morgan Cibilic enjoy time back on the CT, the 25-year-old reaching the semi-finals at Bells Beach as a wildcard and quarter-finals on the Gold Coast as a late replacement for Callinan, who skipped the event for the birth of his first child.
Adopted Novocastrian Julian Wilson, who is making a professional comeback after a few years away from surfing's top tier, also made the Gold Coast final as a wildcard.
"I'm all fired up," Baker, a former Surfest winner, said. "I've seen Julian and Morgan get opportunities that I would have got last year without my injury, which is really firing me up.
"I'm like, OK - I don't want to be back there part-time, I don't want a wildcard, I want to be back there full-time. I know I deserve to be there.
"It's been interesting to watch those events and not be a part of it, and not be there. People are like 'Why don't you go watch it?'. But I'm like, I don't really care. I'd rather be there [competing].
"I'm just focusing on here in Newcastle and the whole year. "
Callinan, who has been Newcastle's sole representative on the CT the past two years, missed last week's mid-season cut, where only the top-22 ranked surfers continue for the remainder of the CT season.
After missing two of the opening seven contests, he was ranked 34th. The 33-year-old will now join Baker, Cibilic and Wilson in the CS and at the opening event in Newcastle.
All four will vie for a spot in the top 10 at the end of the CS season, to earn a place in next year's CT.
There is a very real chance all four could re-qualify for the CT together.
It's a dream outcome which has Baker, who won Surfest's main event in 2022, excited ahead of next week's series opener.
"As much as it's an individual sport, to be able to be a little four-pack that does a lot of damage here at home and finishes the year strong, would be pretty cool," Baker said.
"We've had myself, Morgs and Ryan in a six-month period [on the CT], but that was after Julian went off [for a break].
"Hopefully that's the final four, the semis ... that'd be sick."