Life with Newcastle surfer Rossy on the road to Paris Olympics

It was 2021 and the Hawaiian powerhouse was performing with the confidence and ease of someone who'd been surfing that wave their whole life; as if she had a secret weapon.

Among the crowd of thunderstruck Novocastrians and roaring surf fanatics was Moore's longtime coach and Merewether local Mitchel Ross. His insider knowledge of the break bolstered Moore's natural ability to attack the wave and pushed her to strive for what was previously unachievable.

It was an unforgettable moment in the world of surfing but especially for the modestly spoken Ross who, many years prior to his decorated partnership with Moore, developed a special connection to the waves around Newcastle.

"My earliest memories of surfing are with my dad when I was around eight years old," he says.

"I used to surf at Merewether and the Cowrie Hole. My father learned there, so he started taking me there when it was a really small, high tide, north-east swell. As a kid, it felt like I was at this big point break."

Looking up to local legends like Mark Richards, Matt Hoy, Nicky Wood and Luke Egan, Ross excelled on the board and was drawn into the competitive side of the sport, joining Merewether Boardriders. Later, he began competing in the Pro Junior Series before graduating to the World Qualifying Series in his early 20s.

Here, he got his first taste of what many young surfers would consider "the dream": living out of a suitcase and surfing the most exciting breaks on the planet. However the competitor inside of him was frustrated with his performances and, after a run of knee injuries, he threw in the towel.

"I did pretty good, but I sort of always had in my mind, if I wasn't competing at the top level, I'd clip it and I'd focus on something else in my life," Ross says.

"I was around 23 years old, so I probably didn't give myself as much time as I should have. But I had a pretty good run.

"I made a lot of friends through the surf industry, and ended up making a career out of it. It's been really good to me."

"Rossy", as he's known to his friends, is a people person, a shoot-from-the-hip conversationalist who likes to probe and absorb. Put him in a room with a stranger and they'll be chatting like old mates in five minutes.

These traits, combined with his knowledge of Newcastle's waves, made him the perfect candidate to partner up with surfcaster Terry McKenna and commentate Surfest in 2004.

"I did that, and then all of a sudden I was asked to get on the World Surf League (WSL) tour and commentate the webcast alongside Ronnie Blakey," he says.

It was too good of a gig to turn down, and again Ross found himself rubbing shoulders with surfing's finest, living out of a suitcase for weeks at a time, part of the roaming community of athletes, media and sponsors on the tour.

After a couple of seasons in the commentary box, opportunity came knocking again and he was offered the job of international team manager for US surf brand Hurley, working to sponsor surfers and coordinate their movements on the WSL tour.

It was here that he first began working closely with surfing heavyweights such as John John Florence, Kolohe Andino and Carissa Moore.

While life on the road with the Hurley team became somewhat routine for Ross, he could appreciate that it was a unique life to be living, maybe even one that people on the outside would like to see.

Teaming up with childhood friend Mitch Tomlinson, who was working in the snowboarding and skateboarding industries, they began what would become pop-culture website and creative agency Life Without Andy.

"We'd be at these surf and snow comps and there'd be 10 parties that were happening around them ... so we thought, 'Let's cover them for the people that weren't at the party'," Ross says.

Life Without Andy quickly built a reputation for capturing the wilder sides of these shindigs; when the drinks were flowing and people were breaking out of the working-week shackles. It was a time before camera phones and social media were commonplace and getting your picture on Life With Andy was a rite of passage for young people around the country.

"A company or promoter would offer us a couple of bucks to go and cover their party, which snowballed, then all of a sudden we had all these companies like Nike and Corona, these big brands, knocking at the door," Ross says.

"We thought 'What? These guys want to work with us?!' It was funny. It was just this website that we created to give us a little stream of income while we were away."

Life Without Andy continued to expand and now has an editorial team chronicling the latest in culture, a roster of photographers around Australia and the US, a head office in Sydney with another office and the recently opened Good Good photography studio in Newcastle.

Their creative agency wing has produced content and campaigns for the likes of Calvin Klein, Vans, Spotify, Splendour In The Grass and Hype DC. At the time of writing they have more than 190,000 followers on Instagram and 130,000 on Instagram.

Ross co-helmed Life Without Andy when he wasn't on tour. But after a decade as the international team manager with Hurley, and with Life Without Andy growing, the time away from his wife Mel and newborn daughter Rocky made him reconsider life on the road.

"About eight years ago I decided to cool things down with Hurley. I didn't want to travel quite as much," he says.

"That's when I got approached by Carissa [Moore] to start working with her directly as a coach. So just when I thought I'd be staying at home a lot, I decided to hit the road again with Riss."

His friendship with Moore and his years spent analysing waves around the world made the partnership feel natural. Only upon reflection Ross realises that it was a pivotal moment in his life.

"It's funny. When you're in that world and working with these big athletes, you don't see these kinds of things as big moments. Now, it sort of surprises me that she did ask me... so I probably took it for granted a little bit," he says.

"Looking back, it was really cool and surprising that someone at that level saw something in me, that I might be able to help them a little bit."

Although surfing had been moving more towards being a high-performance elite sport, the idea of having a coach on tour was new at the time.

"Surfers were always known for their partying. But over the last few years, it's really tightened up," Ross says.

"They get referred to as athletes now. If there's an extra per cent possible, they will do what they can to get it.

"Carissa was at the forefront. [Coaching] was something she and her father identified early, which could help. She and her father were a combo for many years, and then they outgrew each other a little bit, which is where I stepped in. He would stay at home a lot and I'd be on the road. So it was sort of a two-for-one deal."

Even in a "surf town" like Newcastle, surfing is often associated with laidback fun and lazy days on the beach, a kind of expressionistic connection between us and the water. At the pinnacle, competitive surfing is nothing like that.

"When we'd arrive at a comp, we'd work on technique, then it'd be tactics," Ross says.

"Every event around the world is set in different conditions. Hawaii is completely different to the point breaks of the Gold Coast. It's going to have different challenges, and we'd identify those challenges, and figure out ways to battle them.

"Then there is psychology. Even the world's best athletes doubt themselves. So it was very important that you help them achieve that strength of mind to operate at the premium level."

Though Moore was already a two-time world champion, it's hard to find a more fitting word to describe her run with Ross as anything but dominant. With him by her side or "in tow", as he reservedly put it, she would win another three world titles and gold at the 2020 Olympics.

The event win in 2021 at Merewether, the one where Moore seemingly advanced women's surfing in a single moment with that air-reverse, ranks right up there with Ross's most cherished memories in the sport.

Sure, the performance was special, but he'd been watching Moore turn heads ever since she was a grommet. This time it was in his home town on the wave where his love for surfing flourished.

"Riss was staying at my house for about six weeks because of travel restrictions during COVID. It was really cool just having her out there every day practising where I grew up, understanding the type of wave it is, and putting her reps in," Ross says.

"When she won it was so special because all my friends and family were there. My dad gets pretty proud of this sort of stuff.

"We've been connected for maybe 15 years so it feels like we're family. We've been through a lot together.

"She's won five world titles, she's won an Olympic gold medal, and I've been kind of by her side the whole of that journey, so it's been pretty incredible."

In January Moore announced she'd be taking a break from surfing on the tour, bar appearing at Pipeline and defending her gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics (the surfing competitions will be held at Teahupo'o in Tahiti).

Ross, who's evidently no stranger to a fateful job opportunity, was asked to coach the US surf team alongside former pro surfer Shane Dorian. Once again, just when things were winding down, he'll be hitting the road again.

"Shane's a legend and an amazing surfer, and the chance to work with him and coach once again, Carissa, and guys like Griffin Colapinto, John John Florence, Barron Mamiya, Caroline Marks and Caitlin Simmers ... I couldn't let it pass by," Ross says.

While he'll be spreading his mentoring evenly with the team, you can't help but feel like this last dance with Moore would be the perfect way to end their partnership, one that will undoubtedly go down in the history books.