Taj Burrow (born 2 June 1978) is an Australian retired professional surfer. Taj retired from the WSL World Tour in June 2016 where he left a legacy of power and impressive surfing.

Early life

Burrow was born in Yallingup,

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, Australia to American parents and began surfing at age 7.

Career

In 1998 he qualified for the ASP World Tour at the age of 18 years, becoming the youngest surfer to ever win a national title. Burrow had already earned a place on the world tour a year earlier, but he turned it down stating that, as a 17-year-old, he was "too young to do the tour full-on". After his first year on tour in 1998, Burrow claimed the ASP World Tour Rookie of the Year award after finishing 12th place in the rankings.Fuel TV Profile
In 2007 Burrow won the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, Victoria, Australia. He backed this up with a victory at the 2007 Billabong Pro in

Jeffrey's Bay Jeffreys Bay (, nicknamed J-bay) is a town of 27,107 inhabitants as of the 2011 census in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is the seat of the Kouga municipality and is famous amongst surfers as a surf capital due to the right-han ...

, South Africa, where he claimed the title over the then 8-time world champion,

Kelly Slater Robert Kelly Slater (born February 11, 1972) is an American professional surfer who has been crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. He is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time, and holds 56 Championship T ...

. This win helped to secure his 2nd-place ranking on the ASP Men's Tour, his second runner-up season placing. In 2009, Burrow defeated Slater in the final of the

Billabong Pipeline Masters The Pipe Pro is an event in surfing held annually at Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii. It was established in 1971 and has been sponsored by Yeti Coolers, who have a three year partnership in place, which began in 2023. The event attracts the top ...

at the

Banzai Pipeline The Banzai Pipeline, or simply Pipeline or Pipe, is a surf reef break located in Hawaii, off Ehukai Beach Park in Pupukea on O'ahu's North Shore. A reef break is an area in the ocean where waves start to break once they reach the shallows of ...

. In the same year he finished fourth place on the World Tour. Burrow won the 2013 Hurley Pro event in September 2013 for the first time, beating fellow Australian Julian Wilson.

ASP Tour wins

Other projects

In 2003 Burrow released a book entitled ''Taj Burrow's Book of Hot Surfing'',''Taj Burrow's Book of Hot Surfing''
/ref> and has also produced a series of his own surf videos: ''Sabotaj'' (2000),''Sabotaj''
/ref> ''Montaj'' (2002)''Montaj''
/ref> and ''Taj Burrow's Fair Bits'' (2005). In 2008–09

released a shoe line named after Burrow. Since 2005 Burrow has hosted the 'Taj Small Fries' junior surfing competition at Yallingup,

Personal life

Burrow married Rebecca Jobson in November 2018. The couple had an intimate ceremony so Jobson's sick mother was able to attend. They had a second wedding in February 2019. The couple have two daughters. Jobson was a contestant (and placed 6th) on cycle 4 of Australia's Next Top Model in 2008.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Burrow, Taj 1977 births Living people Australian people of American descent Australian surfers Sportspeople from Busselton World Surf League surfers