Billy Stairmand has ticked all the boxes.
For the best part of the past two decades, the 36-year-old from Raglan has been chasing the dream in the extremely competitive world of professional surfing.
Since making his debut on the World Surf League qualifying series (QS) in 2010, Stairmand has enjoyed big results, event wins, nine national championships and two Olympic Games appearances.
But there was one thing that had remained unticked on his list of career goals – until now.
Stairmand made his maiden appearance at the highest level of the sport on Friday, entering the WSL Championship Tour event at Manu Bay in Raglan as a wildcard.
It’s the first time New Zealand has hosted the top men’s tour and Stairmand was among the first athletes to paddle out, as he took on Australian Morgan Cibilic in the first round.
Stairmand surfed a good heat, with two scores in the six-point range for a respectable 12.97 heat total. That score would have won him two of the four first-round heats, but unfortunately for the hometown favourite, Cibilic was on a heater.
The Australian came out of the blocks firing, posting the highest single score of the heat in the opening minutes. His eventual heat total of 14.50 was his highest-scoring heat of the Championship Tour (CT) season.
“It’s pretty crazy up here, it’s a different beast at the top for sure,” he told the Herald prior to competing this week.
“It’s definitely motivated me to want to be here even more, but I’m coming towards the end of my career, I think. I’ve done everything I wanted to do and achieve in surfing.”
Stairmand was one of three Kiwi wildcards in the CT event, with Tom Butland also in the men’s field and Alani Morse in the women’s draw. All three were eliminated in round one.
When Stairmand made his WSL debut, the qualifying series was the pathway into the CT. However, an additional step was added in the qualification structure in 2021 called the Challenger Series.
The QS then became regional, with the top surfers in each regional series moving on to the challenger series for a shot at making the CT.
Stairmand earned a spot on the challenger series in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2025 but did not requalify for the 2026 series, which begins in July.
While he has ambitions to compete in a third-straight Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 2028, Stairmand said he was more interested in exploring other avenues than returning to the QS.
“I’m not sure if I’ll do the QS and challenger’s again, but I want to stay fit and healthy and try and qualify for the Olympics,” he said.
“It’s a bit of a process, but I’ll head to the worlds this year and try and get in that qualification process and put my best foot forward for that. I’d love to do another Olympics, so that’s definitely at the top of my goals.
“Then within that, I’d love to do a tour around New Zealand and do some school talks and surf camps and stuff like that, fun stuff in New Zealand for New Zealand and help the kids.”
Bowing out of the CT event at Raglan early, Stairmand was excited to turn his attention to his role in the corner of reigning world champion Molly Picklum as she tried to navigate Manu Bay.
It’s the sort of role Stairmand was looking forward to being able to doing more of, be it alongside top athletes or in the local community, as he looked to the next stages of his career.
“I’m pretty keen to get a move into a bit of a coaching role and help the next generation. I feel like I’ve done so much competing, I’ve got a lot of knowledge and a lot of time and energy for the kids now,” he said.
“The wave pool’s coming to Auckland in New Zealand, so I’m going to be a big part of that, which is exciting and, yeah, I’ve achieved everything I wanted to do, so I think it’s time for me to start giving back a little bit more and inspiring and motivating that next generation.”
Christopher Reive joined the Herald sports team in 2017, bringing the same versatility to his coverage as he does to his sports viewing habits.