Who Is Recent Gold Coast Pro Winner Mikey McDonagh?

At age 7, not long after recent Gold Coast Pro winner Mikey McDonagh had moved from the Northern Sydney beaches to Lennox Head, his surfboard shaper dad took him to watch the Quiksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks. McDonagh recalls being mesmerized by the likes of Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson and Kelly Slater. The trip became an annual pilgrimage and sparked his dream of becoming a pro surfer.

“That’s why to win at Snapper was so surreal,” the 22-year-old revealed in a recent Balls and All podcast. “I’d had that dream for so long and it suddenly just played out in real-time. I didn’t know if it was real.”

It was, definitely, real. McDonagh clinched the final of the first Challenger Series event of the 2024 season and set himself up for qualification on the CT. Since the CS started in 2021, no winner of a men’s event has failed to go on to make the elite grade the following year.

Since those days on the sand at Snapper as a kid, McDonagh had never entertained any other dream but being a professional surfer. He also had very little evidence to dissuade him that it wasn’t a good plan. By age 10, he was working with shaper Darren Handley. Not long after was signed by Rip Curl. The stickers and boards matched that of Mick Fanning, and through his teens, McDonagh's surfing at his famed homebreak of Lennox Head often attracted stylistic comparisons to that of his hero. His performances on Fanning's home patch last week showed why those links won't be going anywhere soon.

As a junior, McDonagh was always in Australia’s top echelons. During the latter part of his education, he was home-schooled to make sure he could commit fully to his surf career. Leaving the juniors, he stepped up to the Qualifying Series with relative ease, claiming four event wins, and qualifying for the Challenger Series. It was at this level that he came up against his first real stumbling block.

“I’d been so dominant in my junior career and so when I came out and [got] my arse handed to me for a few years it was difficult and a drastic change,” he said. “I had to wrap my head around that it was going to be a longer process and I had to work really hard on my surfing.”

In the Juniors his smooth, technical and powerful style meant decision-making and strategy weren’t big factors. On the Challenger Series, the talent level was far higher and only the most cutthroat and smart surfers progressed.

By his admission, he was prone to putting too much pressure on himself, and then losing confidence when he failed to hit the heights he’d set himself. In 2022, he failed to progress through the Round of 80 in the first two CS events in Australia. Last year, a better start nosedived with three consecutive early-round losses in Huntington, Portugal and Brazil to finish his run.

He was also growing through a growth spurt, which meant upsizing his board’s dimensions regularly. As an example, he rode a 5’11” in last year’s Snapper event. This year he won on a 6’1”. But McDonagh knuckled down as he came to grips with all facets of making it as an elite surfer. Through work with his shaper Darren Handley, mentorship by Owen Wright, and continued training with his long-term coach James Wood, McDonagh learned how to dial down his expectations, work on the small margins and relax more. He regained his confidence and started 2024 strongly. After a few close calls in the early rounds at Snapper, he put on the afterburners.

“I felt like once I got into those later rounds, I could actually unshackle the chains off me and actually show my surfing,” he told the WSL afterwards. “It’s a long year, but I’m super stoked to start this way, and I just want to keep it going and hopefully get to the end goal.”

Just how long a journey it will be was tested when, in the next event at Narrabeen, McDonagh was bundled out in his first heat. As ever, the Challenger Series doesn't care about your last result. And yet with the Snapper win, he proved just what a rare talent he is. The goal of the CT remains in his hands. The dream is increasingly looking like an eventual reality.