Richie Vaculik: Surfer, Fighter, Larrikin

By Dan Hutton on August 29, 2016 in People

Where are you originally from?
I was born here in Sydney. First generation Aussie. Mum’s a pom from Manchester and Dad’s Czech. He made his way out here in the late 1960s as a political refugee and him and Mum met here in Sydney and that’s where it all began.

Where are you living these days?
I’m living down at Maroubra Junction in a little one-bedder there with the missus. It’s nice and central, and not too far from the beach, which is great.

And you’re a married man these days?
Yeah, a married man as of May last year. We’ve just cracked the one-year mark.

What do you love about the Eastern Suburbs?
It’s got everything. I love the ocean, whether it be surfing, diving, swimming or fishing. This is where I’ve grown up and everything that I love in life is here. Whatever it is you want, you’ll find it in Sydney. It’s just a mad melting pot of everything, which is awesome.

What gets your goat about the Eastern Suburbs?
To be honest, and I hate going on about it, but it’s just so busy at the moment – the traffic. I drive around all of Sydney for work and training, and it just takes so long to get from A to B these days.

Do you have any favourite local haunts?
Down at Maroubra Beach is where I spend most of my time, so whether it’s a beer in the pub or a coffee at any one of the cafes down here, they’re all great. We’re spoiled for choice down here, and I know how to pull a sneaky driveway park down in Maroubra so I always find myself down here.

What do you think has kept Maroubra a bit less ‘wanky’ than other parts of the Eastern Suburbs?
I’ve always thought that it’s had that little South Coast surf town feel. I guess it probably was the last of the beaches to have money injected into the area, so that’s why it felt that way, but obviously that’s changing now and anywhere in Sydney is getting pretty expensive to live. Maroubra is starting to change in that respect as well. It’s still got a little rough around the edges kind of feel though.

What was it like as a young bloke growing up around Maroubra?
Mate, it was unreal. I guess the difference between back then and now is that you felt like no one was paying attention, so you could get away with whatever you wanted. It was a ghost town in winter. It would get a little busier in summer, but really it was your playground – running around the alleyways here and down at South Maroubra through the old army tunnels, jumping off the cliffs. It was just the best.

How did you come to be a member of the Bra Boys?
My uncle introduced me to surfing. I did Nippers down here at Maroubra, but my mum was a bit scared of me riding my board down here, so I would always go to Avalon where my uncle and cousins were and surf there. When I was about ten, I started bringing my board back down here and surfing and mum was a bit nervous, so she came down to a milk bar that used to be here called Aurora Milk Bar and asked the guy working in the shop, Shaun Bellanto, if I could get involved in the boardriders club, so I could get to know the guys and maybe she could feel a bit safer leaving me in the water.

I went down to the surf shop, met Hair Bear (Maroubra surfer Paul Chandler) who was helping run the boardriders club at the time, and I joined Maroubra Boardriders Association. That’s basically where it all began. That’s where I met all the boys. Not long after that my dad moved down here to Hereward Street in a little unit, so I just started spending all my time down here.
I’ve been to a few radio interviews and they always ask about the gang and if it’s organised. Mate, we couldn’t organise a sausage sizzle. It’s just like other surf communities all over the world. We’ve just got a different name and we decided to tattoo it across us, and we probably got a little bit more media attention for doing that.

When did you get your tattoo?
I got my tattoo when I was in Year 11, so I was 16 or 17. I think it was something my mum always knew was coming. Mum was hoping for a small tattoo tucked away somewhere, so she wasn’t too impressed when I came home with it branded across my guts.

Has the fact that you’re known as a Bra Boy made your life easier or harder?
They’ve probably cancelled each other out in equal amounts. When I started surfing I was trying to get sponsors and get exposure in surf magazines, and I think being a Bra Boy and being under Koby Abberton’s wing helped me get that exposure, but also it came back to bite me with brands, some of which maybe didn’t want to be associated so much with the Bra Boys. It was the same kind of thing when I started fighting. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m still very proud to call myself a Bra Boy and live down here.

You’re known for your cage fighting (mixed martial arts) and your big wave surfing prowess; what scares you more?
When I sit back and think about it logically, walking into the Octagon with a professional fighter who has been spending months training to beat you up can be pretty scary, but there’s a ref in there, it’s in a controlled environment and you’ve got a doctor on standby. When you’re out in the ocean, you can’t just tap on the mat and it’s all over. Logically thinking, the ocean is scarier, but I’ve been around it more and built up a level of comfort, so they both kind of scare me equally, but differently.

When did you first get into fighting and, particularly, mixed martial arts?
I always loved training as a kid. Koby Abberton was big on training and staying fit for when the waves got big. In my early teens I was introduced to boxing. We had Ronny Reardon down here, a professional boxer who had fought for the Australian title, and a bunch of older guys who were always into their boxing and started to teach us. Then I was introduced to Brazilian jiu-jitsu by Bruno Panno and Alex Prates, which I quickly became hooked on.

I started competing in both jiu-jitsu and boxing, had a bit of success and thought, “I wouldn’t mind trying my hand at this cage fighting business”. I had no idea if I’d totally freeze once the bell went and get my head punched in. I got in, didn’t freeze and won my first couple fights. I was hooked from there and realised that I really enjoyed it.

You’ve been fighting on the UFC circuit since 2013; how did that come about?
If you want to fight the best in the world, the UFC is definitely the place to do it. When I first started fighting, it wasn’t even achievable to make it to the UFC. One, they didn’t have my weight classes. Two, down in old Australia, the arse end of the world, to make it to America with the UFC just seemed so out of this world.

Eventually I got to fight my way into the Ultimate Fighter house as a part of Team Australia to take on Team UK in a series they call ‘The Smashers’. I made it into the house as a lightweight. By that time they had introduced the weight classes that I competed in. I’ve fought from 57kg all the way up to 70kg and they had just opened up the below 70kg divisions, so the UFC was very much a realistic goal.

I didn’t get the results in the house I was after, but I continued to fight, got some good wins and eventually the UFC called. It was a dream come true.

You’ve since been released by the UFC; how does that happen?
Yeah, I had three losses. One in particular was probably the most fun fight I’ve had in my career. It was in my hometown against a tough fighter called Louis Smolka and I was feeling great in the fight. I’d won the first two rounds before I got caught by a head kick in the third and the fight was stopped. That’s why we love the sport, though. You never know what’s going to happen. After that I fought on the biggest UFC card to date, which was the show in Melbourne where Rhonda Rousey fought Holly Holm in front of 60,000 people. I lost to a decision on that card and having had back-to-back losses I was released from the UFC.

I was pretty gutted, but now I have the opportunity to fight for whoever I want. There are some good offers to fight at the moment, so I’m going to see what’s on the table and hopefully fight before the end of the year.

Is there good money to be made fighting in the UFC?
Not necessarily. If you make the top ten of your division you’re on some pretty good money, but when you start off it’s not a lot. I’m a carpet layer by trade and if I was to work five days a week I’d definitely be earning a lot more money than I would fighting, but you do it because you love it.

How hard do you train in the lead up to a fight?
In the lead up to a fight you’ve got to be pretty selfish. I try to get in anywhere between 12 and 14 sessions a week. You’ve got wrestling, jiu-jitsu, kickboxing and boxing. There are also those other traditional martial arts, like karate and taekwondo, if you want to incorporate tat into your training. And obviously you’re doing that training on top of strength and conditioning, on top of physio and on top of a bit of rest. I try to get into the ocean as well to have my little escape for the week and to just forget about fighting for an hour or two.

There’s been a bit of controversy lately in regard to drug use by UFC competitors; in such a high-risk sport, what sort of punishment do you think should be dished out to drug cheats?
It’s unfortunate that you get so many high profile fighters caught using drugs, but in the same regard it’s good that the sport is getting cleaned up and USADA are doing a good job of the testing and everything now. The sport’s wild enough and crazy enough as it is. We don’t need guys pumped full of ‘roids going in there. It’s a serious issue and I think guys should be banned. The ban should be really lengthy, and financially significant as well, because as long as it’s going on the sport’s losing credibility.

You recently competed in the Red Bull Cape Fear surfing event down at Cape Solander, dubbed by many as the best competitive surfing spectacle of all time; can you tell us a bit about that?
To get that swell – triple overhead and bigger – in those conditions to coincide with the event was just amazing. I’ve been surfing that wave down there for over 15 years now and never seen anything like that in the past. I’m stoked that my good mate Mark Mathews comes up with these crazy ideas and I’m just a knucklehead fighter that gets to tag along and be a part of these things. To see guys like Jughead (Justin Allport) and all these underground Aussie chargers going mad out there along with some of my best mates was amazing. We were just stoked that Red Bull backed us and let us run it in those conditions.

You suffered the wipe-out of the contest; what was it like getting thrown around out there?
It can go so many different ways. Sometimes you can fall on a wave out there and get spat out the back and you can come out scot-free just scratching your head. Then you can fall on a pretty unassuming wave and get picked up and slammed on the reef, pushed up against a cliff, held down, and come out of it bleeding and sore, not wanting to paddle back out to the line-up. When you fall there’s only so much you can do. I just try to tuck my limbs in and not get pulled apart too much, then just hope for the best.

You got into quite a bit of trouble when you were younger; do you regret some of the decisions you made back then? Do you have any advice for hot-headed young blokes to help them stay out of trouble?
I do regret it and I’m not proud of it all. I was up on the Gold Coast, Mick Fanning had won a world title and I was up there celebrating with all my mates. I was full of booze and ended up getting into a blue in the pub and had to get extradited back up to Queensland to face charges of grievous bodily harm. Looking back, it’s one of the darkest moments of my life, but also I think without that happening I wouldn’t have made the changes I needed to make to be successful in mixed martial arts and surfing in general.

It’s so hard at that age to try to make the right decisions, especially when you’re up to your eyelids full of drink. You’re always trying to prove yourself, which leads you into doing some stupid stuff.

Now I work with the Police Citizens Youth Club (PCYC) here at Daceyville as part of a program called ‘Back on Track’. We work with all the young fellas who are getting into a bit of trouble and we teach them some martial arts and get them to the gym twice a week. There’s an instructor, Luis Regis, and we all bow and shake hands and they get partnered up with adult men. It really opens their eyes. The idea that the only way to prove yourself is by getting into fights is something that I’d love to try to change with the young guys. If they want to fight, do it in the ring. Nothing good comes from fighting anywhere else.

Has your wife been a big part of keeping you on the straight and narrow?
Yeah, my wife’s been a huge influence in me turning things around. We met when we were teenagers and we dated for a few years, but at that time life was all about going mad with your mates. We broke up for a few years and we rekindled in our mid 20s. She set out the terms and conditions that if we were to get back together I had to keep my kit on and not run around nude and go mad like I’ve always done.

She’s quite conservative. She’s a Pilates instructor and she’s very health conscious so for me, when I started taking my fighting seriously, she was just a godsend.

You recently released a book called Bra Boy. Can you tell us a bit about it?
I was approached by the guys at Allen & Unwin about the idea. I was flattered, but a little uncomfortable about how to go about it. A good friend of mine, Sean Doherty, is a surf journalist and author, so I approached him to see if he could help me out with the book and he said yes. We started putting pen to paper at the start of the year. We threw out a pretty wide net and tried to cover everything and then break it up, and we had a bit of fun with it, putting it into chapters and giving the chapters themes.

It’s no holds barred. You only have one crack at an autobiography and I thought, “I’m going to be honest with it and put it all out there”. I’m pretty happy with the final result. It basically just talks about my life growing up here in Maroubra. Actually, it starts before then; it starts with how my parents moved to Australia and me being a first generation Aussie.

Was it a cathartic experience penning down your memoir?
I’m not sure what cathartic means, but it was therapeutic. It kind of answered a few questions for me. It made me start thinking about certain things and realising “maybe this is the reason I act this way”. Even going back through my parents’ stories and finding similarities between myself and my parents. All those personal things to me that I have always kept pretty close to my heart, it felt good getting it all out there. And I’m proud, too. I never would’ve imagined a kid who started off school at ESL (English as a Second Language) would end up writing a book.

Do you have any advice for young blokes looking to make a career out of big wave surfing or mixed martial arts fighting?
I think you just need to be honest. If it’s what you want to do and you love it and you’re passionate about it, go for it. If you’re doing it because you think it looks cool or you want to try to earn money or whatever, especially in mixed martial arts, then it’s not going to work.

Who are your role models/mentors?
My parents and all my family were huge role models of mine, but when it came to surfing, I was a huge Tommy Carroll fan, and when it comes to fighting, BJ Penn is a guy I still look up to and respect today in terms of how he carries himself in and out of the ring. There was no shortage of guys to look up to growing up down at Maroubra, too. There are hundreds of guys I’ve looked up to for all sorts of reasons.

In your ideal world, what does the future hold for Richie Vas?
Mate, I’d just like to be happy and healthy, to be honest. I’ve focused so much of my life on achieving goals inside the Octagon or surfing or whatever it may be, but I think that as you get older you realise that just being happy and healthy and being able to enjoy life is the best thing. I love having a family – me and my wife. All my friends are on their second and third kid and that’s something I’m looking forward to. If I’m happy and my loved ones are happy and healthy, I think that’s a pretty good outcome. I’ll be content with that.