Ben Wilkinson is a 28-year old surfer originally hailing from North Narrabeen, Australia. These days Wilkinson, a carpenter by trade, lives in Haliewa, Hawaii, and launches self-funded strike missions to wherever big waves are breaking. His exploits have got him noticed and he's recently scored invites to the Big Wave World Tour where he's coming second to big wave stalwart, Peter Mel.

On the cusp of the northern hemisphere winter I spoke to Ben about making it in the big wave game.

Swellnet: How long have you been living in Hawaii? Ben Wilkinson: On and off for the last five years. I've been travelling a lot in that time and Oahu has been a base for me. I've been here solidly for the last two years.

Was it the waves that first attracted you to Hawaii? Originally I did a world trip after my Dad passed away. I went to Tahiti first, then California where I met Kara, my wife. We then ended up coming to Hawaii and staying for the season. That was when I got my surfing feet back on after not surfing for a while - or at least not surfing big waves for a while. Arriving here I realised it was something I wanted to get into again. Then we went back to California and that's when I started going up to Mavs and really getting into that wave.

Would you have considered yourself a big wave surfer when you were living in Sydney? I always liked big waves. I always felt comfortable surfing them. But as you know Sydney doesn't have all that many big waves, although it looks like you guys have had a few good swells lately. But really, there's not too many big waves, you might get a few 10-12 foot Hawaiian days here and there. I'd always be out there on those big days. I enjoyed it.

It's a long way from Sydney to second place on the Big Wave World Tour, how are you feeling? Yeah, I'm so stoked. I've felt a lot of pressure being released. It's been a dream of mine for quite a long time just to get a chance at competing. Getting those results, it's a great feeling. A lot of friends and family support me and it's a really good feeling to get a good result, both for myself also for everyone else involved too.

Do you have any financial support? Any sponsors? I don't have any. But I've got a really good network of friends in California and Kara has been a huge support basically the whole time. Without all those people behind me I wouldn't be able to do it. You do some crazy stuff when you get called up last minute for a comp and you've got to rely on other people.

The first opportunity I got [to surf in a big wave competition] I was invited to Chile and I was working at a job that was far away from where I live. I got the call and they asked me if I wanted to come but I had to make my mind up then and there. I said yes and then I had to call people to book me tickets and organise my trip to Chile because I couldn't do it. I was driving home from work.

So I got a friend to drive me straight to the airport. I flew to California. My girl was in California, she brought my boards and my wetsuits to the airport. I saw her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek and then I was off to San Salvador and then Lima and then on to Santiago. Out of the plane at Santiago and straight to Punta de Lobos where the competition was. I don't even know how many hours it was in total, like two or three days

How did you go in the competition? I didn't get through my heat! I thought I should of.

If effort counts for anything you should of. Yeah, I thought I did enough. But after all that travelling I was rooted. I could barely see by the time I got down there.

That's the lot of the modern big wave surfer, isn't it? To fly at late notice. Have you got the travelling down pat now? I do OK. Like I said I've got a good group of friends and I call upon them.

The next trip will be to Nelscott Reef won't it?(the waiting period for the Nelscott Reef Big Wave Challenge begins October 1st) Yep, that's the next one. Normally conditions up there are good in the early season - October, November, December – so they've got a good window and a lot of opportunity. I heard that the contest organisers up there are pretty spot on with their weather predictions and swell so hopefully they make a good call. And hopefully I do well up there and keep on going the way I'm going.

What about training? You're going pretty hard in these big waves. What sort of training are you doing? I'm part of a canoe club over here. It's a local team in Haliewa. I've been doing a lot of canoe paddling as a team and a lot of single man paddling, and prone paddling too. Anything to get me in the water and give me a workout. There's not too many waves over here in the summertime so I don't get a lot of opportunity to surf like the other guys.

I didn't even surf between Chile and Peru. I didn't even have one surf. I broke my ribs in Chile and then I wanted to make sure they were healed before I went down to Peru. I didn't even surf before I went down there and surfed.

I also like to do a bit of swimming. I go down to Waimea Bay and have a swim and a run down there. It's really nice. The biggest thing is just to be mentally ready for big waves. I think that's the most important thing. If you're mentally ready then that's the main thing. Of course the physical part comes into it but the majority is mental preparation.

And how's your mental prep going? Yeah, yeah, I'm actually in a pretty good spot at the moment. I've been working out, I've lost a bit of weight, I feel good. You know, I've got extra confidence knowing how I have to surf in the heats. If I'm lucky enough for the ocean to give me a couple of waves in my heats then there's a real good chance that I'll get through them. That's all I've got to do, get through a heat or two and keep my confidence rolling. I'd love to be able to win one of these events, either Nelscott or Mavs. At this stage I don't even know if I'm in the Mavs comp but I've been spending a lot of time up there. I really love Mavs, it's just an insane, powerful, beautiful big wave. I'd love to be able to surf in that event up there, it'd be a dream come true.

All the best for the coming months, Ben. Thanks. 

Ben Wilkinson's Maverick's Wipeout of the Year entry. Ben having a more successful session at Maverick's.