For the last 15 years, CJ Hobgood has occupied a clear-cut niche in the surfing world. Competitive superhero. Convivial travel partner. Clean-living Christian. But after being cycled off the ASP World Tour in September, CJ finds himself without the crutch that’s been there since 1999. And while he finished the year in the 25th spot on the ASP’s World Rankings, with a guaranteed slot on the 2012 World Tour, CJ parried the questions we asked for this November issue interview with more questions of his own, shying away from any definite answers and exploring strains of self-doubt that we've never seen from the 2001 world champ.

But a few things about CJ Hobgood remain constant. He’s honest and forthright — about himself, about professional surfing, about the ASP, about Kelly Slater and Bobby Martinez and everybody in between. He’s also gracious, offering to carry ESM’s trash downstairs after our two-hour chat and writing inspirational notes to a struggling childhood acquaintance during an on-location photo shoot. Most importantly, CJ’s still the most passionate waveriding advocate we know, whether he’s inside the privileged bubble of World Tour life or on the outside looking in. No matter how many events he enters next year — and he promises to fill us in after the New Year — we know CJ Hobgood will be surfing, and talking about surfing, for the rest of his life. Our sport, our culture, and our coast will continue to be better for it.

Eastern Surf Magazine: Give us a little insight into the last few months of your competitive life, CJ.
CJ Hobgood: I‘ve been doing the tour for a long time, and I really thought in my head I could still do it this year and be semi-retired — not try that hard, just cruise. But those last couple of contests I realized, “Wow, I have to try now.” In Tahiti, I put my head down; in New York, I put my head down. Those were the first times I had put my head down to really achieve something and didn’t, as far as surfing goes. It was a tough pill to swallow. But a lot of things had to happen throughout the year to make it hard for me not to requalify: I hit my head in Brazil and missed those two Primes; I didn’t do the Margaret River Prime. But all along I thought I’d be fine, like, “I’ll get a result in Tahiti or New York.” And I got lit up.

ESM: It did seem like you had a schizophrenic year in 2011.
CJ: I don’t know if I’ve ever been that inconsistent in my life. How could I put up great scores in Brazil in Round 2 and the lowest scores of the event after that? In Tahiti, one day I put up high scores, the next day I could not put up a 1.0. I could not find consistency. For some reason, I could not put two heats together. I was worse than the stock market: up here, down there. And I don’t know why. It’s tough to be consistent with the ocean. You’re going to have some dips, and part of the game is constantly evaluating yourself and trying to put your finger on why that’s happening.

ESM: How does this year’s challenge rate in the overall trajectory of you career?
CJ: It was emotional, but I had to look at all those scenarios and realize, “This happened for a reason. I need to embrace that — things need to change.” I couldn’t just keep cruising. My brother told me I was probably going to get the slot for Trestles, and when I got the text from [ASP Tour Director] Renato Hickel I had already made up my mind. I couldn’t show up to Trestles and expect things to change in my life. I knew not too many people were going to understand that.

ESM: But then you go to the 6-Star Prime Billabong Azores Islands Pro and pull out a $40,000 victory. That must have confused a few people.
CJ: I knew going to the Azores that I was still doing a contest, but I was rationalizing it: “I’m going to a different place, hanging out with younger kids that I haven’t been around.” I was doing something different.

ESM: To borrow a phrase from Kelly’s career, did “letting go” like that help you win?
CJ: Really letting go goes against everything that makes you so competitive. So there has to be a balance, where you’re letting go of the result just because you want to surf well. In the Azores, I was bummed — I had a semifinal where I surfed like a dog, and for 30 minutes in the final I surfed like a dog. I was sitting out the back going, “You surf like a kook, and you’ve been doing it for an hour straight. What’s wrong with you?” At a certain point you’re not thinking about the result, but thinking, “I just want to surf good, right now, on this board, under these conditions.” Somehow I snapped out of it and was able to put something together in a few minutes, which was cool. It let me know that, hey, maybe there’s still something down there.

ESM: But then you withdrew from the O’Neill Coldwater Classic in Santa Cruz. Why?
CJ: Right after the Azores I went to France to start filming with Dion Agius, which I was pretty excited about. But on my first wave coming through a turn a little bit of backwash hit me and my knee just went “pop.” It’s been about a month now, and it’s getting stronger and better every day, but that wave at Steamer Lane, me surfing backside… I could just see coming off a floater and ending up right back in the same place.

ESM: Will you be going to Hawaii for the Triple Crown?
CJ: I didn’t enter Haleiwa; I’m just going to do Sunset. The deadline for Haleiwa was coming up, and I knew all I had to do was make a couple of heats and I’d probably be fine [for requalification]. But I’m not going to put myself in that position. I’m just going to Sunset to have fun. Until then I’m having a good time at home with my friends and family, the weather in Florida is perfect…

ESM: If you gain enough points, will you do the tour in 2012?
CJ: I don’t know what my answer will be. As of right now, I’m not mentally ready to, just because I know what it takes. I want to want to do the tour again, but right now I don’t want to, if that makes sense. I want to take a couple of years off. Unfortunately, I don’t have that much money, so I can’t take a few years off and have all my bills paid. I still have to go out and do a few contests to make ends meet and put food on the table, for lack of a better word. But I do want to leave the door open to come back. I know the naysayers will complain. Bottom line, I’m just living day-to-day.

ESM: After 12 years of competing, is that simpler life keeping you satisfied?
CJ: It was a tough choice, and not a simple one. It was hard for me to watch Peniche go crazy and Kelly clinch his 11th world title in San Francisco. But at the same time it was really good for me, because if I was sitting there not wanting to watch the webcast or not wanting anything to do with surfing, then I’d know inside myself that I was probably really done. But I’m still excited, which means there’s a chance I could still get that fire again.

ESM: Your personal life must have played a part in these decisions.
CJ: I need to do those things I haven’t done, like hang out with my daughter. And my fiancée and I are getting married in February. It’s all part of the things that needed to change to really make me appreciate how rad surfing is. For the first time in my life, I’m a true fan of surfing. But there’s always that question: if you wait too long, how much are you going to lose? Are you going to get too old? Those are in the back of my mind, but I really think that I have the work ethic to get back to a place where I could compete really well on tour. It just takes a lot, and I’m not willing to sacrifice that right now. Whether that’s selfish or blowing it, I try to be as honest as I can. But I can see how people could just be like, “I don’t understand, man? Retirement’s a long way off, he’s got all the tools…” I don’t feel like I’m wasting my talent — I feel like I could do the work down the road if it’s really in me to do it.

ESM: Are you also keeping up with the scenarios that could place you back on tour next year?
CJ: If someone comes out and says they think they have a good handle on what’s going on, they don’t. No one really knows about the ratings and the points; to come out and say, “This is verified”… Al Hunt wouldn’t do that. You can e-mail Al or Renato for an answer, but even they can’t give you one. Trying to tackle that beast is impressive. I can’t even remember my own numbers; it’s so dynamic, but it does get a little confusing. I think the ASP could find a way to simplify it for the fans.

ESM: Or for themselves, given Kelly’s title debacle. Do you think Brodie Carr’s resignation was an appropriate consequence?
CJ: Brodie’s tenure ran its course a long time ago; Kelly was the straw that broke the camel’s back. That situation can be related to any job: if you did something that drastically affects your product, you’re going to be fired. I take my hat off to Brodie, but change is good. We’ve had a lot of surfers as presidents on tour, and we need someone who loves to surf, but everyone realizes we also need someone whose gifts and talents lie in the business world. I think everything’s moving in the right direction.

ESM: Including the decision to implement drug testing in 2012?
CJ: I’m injured right now; everyone gets injured in surfing. Obviously there are products like steroids out there that help you heal faster. So if an athlete takes steroids to get back in the surf quicker, that’s cheating and needs to be dealt with. Everyone thinks that surfing’s so far behind other sports when it comes to drug testing, but look at football’s labor deal this summer, or baseball, which has had its share of scandals, or cycling, which has taken major hits to its integrity. It’s not so crazy that surfing is just bringing drug testing on board. As long as we implement it with the right intentions, it should bring a better product to the table.

ESM: Do you think the World Rankings and mid-season rotation are better for competitive surfing?
CJ: I always think change is good. I thought I’d have a handle on how it was going, but even after four or five contests I was still having trouble talking about it. I think now we’ve got a handle on what it’s looking like, and there’s a lot of good that’s coming from it. The surfing level in heats has been amazing, and putting pressure on people to compete — constantly challenging them in every contest — is such a good thing. The fan wins, and the surfing level goes up. There’s a great product on the screen when you turn on the webcast, so the question is can we make that product better and not alienate people?

ESM: Many people thought the beachbreak tour of 2011 would alienate fans, but the Quiksilver Pro New York proved that the right gamble could pay off.
CJ: As an East Coaster, I think I was in awe more than the person who didn’t grow up here, because I knew how lucky we were to walk into such a perfect storm. To get those conditions for those many days and pull off a contest of that caliber, it’s like, “Wow, will that ever happen again?” I don’t know if someone from Australia or South Africa or Brazil knew how lucky we were. But no risk no reward, right? Quiksilver pulled it off. There very easily could have been dribbles. We could have not finished the contest.

ESM: A lot of that is public perception, too — if three contests in a row are held in bad waves, the fans get up in arms. But then Tahiti goes Code Red and everyone is raving about the Tour again.
CJ: Watching any sport, you want to escape from your cubicle or your flat waves. If surfing’s one of your outlets, you don’t want to go, “Wow, the waves are bigger down at the end of my street.” In Tahiti, everyone knew we were getting good waves, and when that happens, it’s a product that can compete with any other sporting event. I truly believe that. My fiancée was on a plane with this pilot’s wife who’d never surfed before and hasn’t seen the ocean, but she’s hooked on the tour and the surfers. Sure, our guys aren’t ugly, but that shows it’s growing.

ESM: So can someone like you — or, in a more extreme example, Dane Reynolds — have a productive career outside of the World Tour structure?
CJ: The companies have set a precedent: every dollar they spend is on those contests. But Dane’s been able to… I don’t know if you want to use the words “trick” or “deceive,” but he’s been able to get paid a lot of money to be the anti-tour guy when all these other companies are spending all their money on contests.

ESM: You’ve dealt with your own sponsor issues, with Globe changing from a primary to secondary sponsor. How has that affected you?
CJ: I’ve ridden for Globe since I was 15 years old, and they’ve always been so supportive. But they wanted to make a movie, so we worked things out and spread my contract over a longer period of time, which was the best situation. However, the reality is that doing the tour takes a bit of money. What Bobby or Bede or Chris Davidson’s done, doing the tour without a major sponsor, is not easy. It freaks me out to even think I’ve been able to surf this year and not go into the negative. I’ve had some stuff stored away, but you can only do something for so long before the piggy bank starts drying up. So if I go and do the tour and cruise and don’t get results, that’s not going to work.

ESM: Have you entertained offers from other major sponsors?
CJ: Something will happen. I remember when Taylor Knox had a few years without a sponsor, and then Rip Curl gobbled him up and now they look like geniuses. As long as I do my thing and am comfortable in my own skin everything will work out. I just wake up and say, “Something will happen. Things always do.”

ESM: To Write Love On Her Arms is now your “main” sponsor. Everybody wants to know how a relationship with a depression, addiction, and suicide prevention non-profit came about.
CJ: [TWLOHA Founder] Jamie Tworkowski has had a major impact on my life, and we had always talked about me one day rocking his stuff and flying his flag. So when I do get an apparel sponsor, then it’ll be like, “Can I still do that?” I’ve been able to go to a few colleges to see what Jamie does so that I can understand what goes on. I answer that question — “What is To Write Love On Her Arms?” — a thousand times a day, especially when I’m on the road. People in other countries have no idea. But it’s been fun, and part of the relationship I have with Jamie: he’s challenged me in my life to see what he’s doing and how it affects people.

ESM: And you’re still riding for hometown shapers Quiet Flight, right?
CJ: Yep. I just dropped off 10 boards at Bruce Ragan’s, only because I needed a new airbrush. I didn’t want yellow rails any more. It was just part of things needing to change, down to the smallest little detail. I looked at my rack of boards and said, “I want these out of here — I don’t care how good they are, I don’t want to look at ‘em anymore.” It’s all part of me hopefully one day winning contests and going after titles and getting really serious again.

ESM: So you do want to get back on tour someday?
CJ: Right now is exciting for me — before I always knew what contest was coming, so I really have to embrace being excited about not having the answers every day. Being honest with yourself is hard, and that’s all I’m trying to do. I don’t know exactly what life looks like, but I’m going to enjoy the ride — just have fun and see what happens. Hopefully I’ll have another run; I’ve talked to people who say, “I was exactly your age, and I walked away too.” Luke Egan and Chris Gallagher and even Kelly walked away for three years.

ESM: Speaking of Kelly, after so many years of domination, what’s the atmosphere surrounding him on tour?
CJ: As far as the fans go, Kelly’s amazing. As far as competitors go, well, I’ve been on the receiving end — I was in the final with him twice in Tavarua where all I wanted to do was win and he shattered me both times. You have to face him like, “This guy sucks, and I know how I’m going to beat him.” Then when it gets towards the end of year and Kelly hits freak mode you just go, “If I can’t beat him, join him.” You become a fan; “I love you Kelly, I’m stoked you’re winning.” Like Taj has had to do so many times this year, you smile knowing you gave it your all. But you just give up trying to face that beast every time. At the end of the day, you were on tour with the best surfer in the world, something that will never happen again. Three different generations have had to deal with this guy and swallow that pill. The young guys are going to get a taste of it and hopefully he’ll be gone; then again, when I got on tour, I thought I’d deal with him for five years and then he’d be gone.

ESM: How about Bobby Martinez? Do we need someone with his passion on tour?
CJ: Let’s not forget that Bobby’s a Mexican-American who can culturally reach people that no one else can. So yeah, we constantly need people like that who come up fighting stereotypes and breaking boundaries in their own life. What people don’t understand is that, for guys like Bobby or Sunny Garcia, underneath everything they’re your best friends. The biggest teddy bears. That’s Bobby in my life. I’m not going to sit here and defend his decisions, but as far as him being a friend, I still talk to him every day. He’s never changed. He’s not lukewarm, he’s hot or cold, and either you like him or you hate him. That’s probably better than being someone like myself, where people are like, “Yeah, he’s cool.”

ESM: You mentioned Egan and Gallagher before. Do you see a place for yourself in the industry similar to what those guys have carved out?
CJ: I’d like to think so. I love surfing enough that I think I can help people achieve their goals like other people did for me. I have a lot of gifts and a lot of things to contribute. But we live in a world where you have to focus and do your best, so you can’t have it all. I don’t think I’m there yet.

ESM: Yet you’re giving back next summer with another Camp Hobgood on the Outer Banks. How did that come about?
CJ: When Damien and I were 18 we bought this lot in the Outer Banks. We were good friends with Billy Diggs, and when we were 21 we had him build us a house. For the last 12 years I’ve been on the World Tour making excuses about why I can’t go up there, and with me not doing the tour next year and the trials and challenges that Hatteras Island is enduring, it all made sense to go — no more excuses. Damien wants to be there, too, but his first priority is the tour, so I would never jeopardize that. We’ve done three or four different Camp Hobgoods, from intermediate surfers in Costa Rica to Owen Wright winning the last one in Micronesia, so we’ve had the whole spectrum. Hopefully this one will get back to that Costa Rica vibe with good up-and-comers.
[For more details, e-mail camphobgood2012@gmail.com.]

ESM: Maybe you can help a few East Coasters get on tour in the future. Why haven’t any young Rightsiders made a successful run at the tour in recent years?
CJ: I don’t know. At the end of the day it’s about who can sit in the water for 20 minutes and pull out an 8.0 when the pressure’s on. That’s what you have to do, and I don’t know how you can judge that. There’s no doubt in my mind that Evan Geiselman’s going to achieve big things, but he’s at such a crucial age where he has to get better everytime he surfs. I just don’t know how high he’s going to go and how quick it’s going to happen. Look at his brother, Eric — amazing surfer, great talent, but I have yet to see that guy need a score and not crumble like a deck of cards. I don’t know if he feels the weight on his shoulders, but somehow he needs to flip that script. It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, though. You’ve gotta have confidence. You have to believe that whatever you’re called to do, you can do it. There can be no wavering at all. Hopefully I’ll still have it if I want to try to get back on.

ESM: Gabe Kling told us, “If CJ wants to get back on, he can do it easily. We all know that. He’s already proven that he’s a world champ, so it just depends on what’s left to motivate him.” Sound pretty accurate?
CJ: I stayed with Gabe in the Azores when he was about to lose his major sponsor, so we had a lot of similar questions that we didn’t have answers for. But it was comforting to know that when you’re in a tough place, other people are right there with you. And we probably had the best time we’ve ever had, just because there was so much in common. Winning is really a belief, though. You have to beat people before you even paddle out in your heat. Like when you get into the final, you know how to say, “I made it to this point and now I can smoke these guys.” The only way you learn how to do that is by winning on the big stage.

ESM: Everyone sensed that with Owen Wright won in New York.
CJ: Owen’s very intellectual. You would think he was standing on the beach watching himself surf when he paddles out. That blows me away.

ESM: Do you think if you had drawn someone else besides him in that contest, you would have made that Round 3 heat to stay on tour?
CJ: In Owen’s first two heats he cruised and did OK, and I was like, “Alright, hopefully I get another cruisy Owen and he takes me lightly.” That wasn’t the case. I talked to him after our heat and he was like, “Dude, when I saw I had you, I couldn’t even sleep. I knew I had to go next level.” And I got smoked — absolutely comboed and humiliated. That was tough for me. But the only good thing I took from that was someone like Owen saying, “I respect you and your surfing. I knew I had to bring my best.” He brought it and I didn’t; hopefully I can get back there one day and bring my best more often.

ESM: You haven’t fallen that far off — your Azores win indicates that.
CJ: I know I can surf, I know I can get good scores, I know I can beat big people — why can’t I do it two heats in a row? What is going on here? How are you supposed to answer that question? When I said I didn’t want to do Trestles, Kelly texted me and said, “Just come out and do the event.” I said, “I appreciate it man, but I just can’t. Things have to change in my life.” He kept texting me, and finally I had to say, “I don’t know how you’re wired, and I don’t expect you to totally understand, but I’ll meet you in a heat another day at Trestles — it’s just not going to be next week.” I couldn’t go out there; it went against everything that had to happen in my life.

ESM: Have any of those things happened yet? Have you made peace with what’s in store for your future?
CJ: I wonder that myself. What does my story look like? How does it end? Where do I fit in? Tidy endings aren’t always perfect.