Who the Fuck is Mitch Coleborn?
I don’t think Mitch is retiring or anything. Can you even retire from free-surfing? I don’t think it’s a thing. Anyway, I think what’s happening is that the relationship between Mitch and Volcom is no longer. So it reminded me of many fond memories during their 20+ years of Stoney Baloney. And there were some good ones.
It also provides a great excuse to post these spreads from 2009 SURFING Magazine days — a time when there were more A+ photos of Mitch floating around than we could possibly every know what do with in print. The dude was photogenic and everywhere, working (tons with Tom Carey) and getting it done. And Mitch being a relatively obscure Australian at the time and me being at a big American surf mag, I was tasked with figuring out a way to introduce him in the States so we could run some of these sick photos. And so we just asked the same thing everyone seemed to be asking at the time: Who the Fuck is Mitch Coleborn?
No one really knew in the mainstream surf world, but everyone who was switched on knew and Mitch was their favorite. His dueling with Dusty Payne on trips and bullet-proof sturdy goofyfoot approach made him a crowd favorite in the freesurf world. And he was in everything.
We got to run the piece but instead of only interviewing Mitch, we interviewed his peers and industry big dogs only and the praise rolled in — and aside from a few guys who were blinded by his lack of contest results, the jury was in: Mitch was sick. And while Mitch never qualified for the CT (although he did have a cooker of a heat in Fiji one year on the CT) his profile and surfing are undeniable. BS!, Modern Collective, Lost Atlas, Cluster, Dear Suburbia, etc. I’d honestly take that over a results sheet anyday. Love ya, Spawn. Your Inherent Bummer stickers are in the mail.—Travis
