Jayke Sharp is a young bloke building the foundations of success. Hailing from the sleepy NSW hamlet of Sandy Beach, Sharpy is a former professional surfer who swapped his stickers for a carpenter’s tool belt.
WTW caught up with the Woolgoolga Seahorses (look ‘em up) tragic for a quick yarn before he headed of an Indonesian sojourn with good mate and men’s World Surf League competitor Julian Wilson.
How did you get into surfing?
‘My older brother got me into surfing when I was about nine-years-old, and I fell in love with straight away. I got my first sponsorship at the Rusty Gromfest – it’s an internationally respected event that’s held annually in Lennox Head on the NSW north coast. I remember coming in from my heat, and this guy from Rip Curl came up to me and told me he wanted to sponsor me… Then a guy from Billabong… Then some bloke from Volcom…
And when you eventually lost your sponsor?
‘It was tough, because I was actually travelling overseas and performing okay on the World Qualifying Series (in professional surfing, this is one rank underneath the World Surd League Championship)…
So you jumped straight into a carpentry apprenticeship?
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