Mikey Wright: Surfing's "Wildcard" is back

Kai Neville used to walk around our old offices on sleepy days looking for the day’s wildcard. Someone who was going to break the cycle. Blow our mind. Catch us all off guard. We all caught on to it, and becoming a wildcard could be as simple as cracking an unexpected early beer to break the monotony to pitching an insane idea to pulling something new on our ramp out of nowhere or blowing off a meeting to go surf — which was never frowned upon if done in a wildcard manner. The hunt for the wildcard became a thing between us all, and whether they knew it or not, we were always looking for wildcards in our employees, interns, contributors, visitors, clients, friends and enemies — who was gonna be the wildcard? Who was gonna surprise us?

Mikey Wright is surfing’s perpetual wildcard.

I mean, doesn’t it feel like it’s been quiet? Aside from the griping and whining we’re all doing about closed beaches while the whole world suffers some sort of trauma caused by this quarantine, the vibe in competitive and creative surfing is…well, tame. Maybe not for long though, Mikey Wright is back in the water.

Everyone’s favorite Australian cowboy wildcard just put this piece out and it is merely a sample of what’s to come, and it can’t come soon enough.—Travis Ferré

Here’s the release from Quik about where Mikey’s been and what he’s been battling through:

In early 2018, Mikey Wright fell on a wave while competing at Pipeline. This lead to a herniated L4/L5 disc and spinal stenosis. The pain was so bad that he could hardly sleep. 

For the remainder of the year, Mikey competed in 8 events and finished 12th on the CT. He was mostly unable to free surf throughout this time. 

In 2019, he competed in the first three CT events before withdrawing to deal with his injury. After 10 months out of the water, this is where Mikey’s at now.

This edit features footage from Australia, Fiji, Hawaii and Texas from early 2020. Mikey’s back to chasing swells, going hard and getting clips — and there’s plenty more to come.

Credit: Wade Carroll c/o Quiksilver