Jonathan Mincher
B
7 GROMS
8 YEARS
LATER
48
WBM august 2013
J
Jonathan Mincher
left Wrightsville
Beach in early July
to surf Costa Rica.
J M : Right now I’m just
working at Two Wheeler Dealer,
you know … stack up some cash
and go somewhere. I typically
like trying to do some sort of
summer trip. My job kinda
allows me to make money, and
then go spend it. I don’t go to
school right now. Really been
skating, skating a bunch. …
If I’m not skating, I’m not
happy. Skating keeps me happy,
if you’re not happy, you’re
blowing it.
WBM: What’s your relationship with surfing now?
J M : I was probably more into surfing competitively, and I just don’t care about that at all
anymore. I’m personally competitive and like freesurfing, you know, that’s what I like to do
—
just spend the money and go travel somewhere rad. I mean, I always want bigger and
better, but I’m not gonna spend my money to enter an event to try to make money out of
the event, it’s not really my drive.
WBM: Where was the last place you went?
J M : Hawaii, spent about three and a half months there this winter. I’ll typically go spend a
month or two in the wintertime. It gets slow here, work’s slow, I can get out. I go stay at the
Volcom house … on the north shore of Oahu, directly in front of Pipeline.
WBM: How would you say growing up in Wrightsville Beach affected your current life and
more specifically your future?
J M : It’s just a rad spot to grow up. It keeps you traveling too though, you know you can
surf here; but it keeps you traveling a lot, keeps you wanting other stuff, you know? Future?
I don’t really feel like moving anywhere, to call anywhere else home. I go to Hawaii but I’m
not moving there. That’s not my home; this is my home. So basically, my future right now
is just work and go surf when I can get the time off.
WBM: So you are literally working to surf?
JM: To do whatever! Go take a skate trip, or go backpacking somewhere, do something rad,
just travel in general. ... I gotta go out of my comfort zone, that’s where I learn, excel. Going
somewhere and have to figure something out on your own, be in a new place where you’re
not comfortable, figure it out. Go somewhere with a different language, different food. Using
your passport just teaches you. I’ll be locked down here soon enough, might as well just keep
moving for a little bit.
WBM: What do you want to say about growing up in WB?
J M : Knowing everybody just makes it a small community feel. I mean it’s pretty rad knowing
everybody up and down the street, but when you got in trouble everybody knows it, you
know what I mean? Definitely tight-knit. Being able to ride bikes everywhere is the raddest.
I bike to work every day. — Alex Constantinou
Some of the
groms chose to
focus on jobs,
school, music or
other sports.
Some still surf
and others have
since applied
their last bar
of wax. As they
branch out
into the world,
it is their
Wrightsville
Beach roots
that has each
admitting he’ll
forever be, at
heart, a grom.
— Matt Corpening