Koby Abberton

Koby Abberton (born 2 June 1979 in Maroubra, New South Wales), an Australian former professional surfer, is a member of the Australian surf gang the Bra Boys.

In 2003, Abberton became entangled in a court case resulting from the death of a Sydney underworld figure, Anthony 'Tony' Hines.

His older brother, Jai, was charged with the 2003 murder of Hines and was acquitted 2005, claiming self-defence, even though he admitted to shooting Hines.

Appearing in court on 5 August 2003 on three counts of false statements to police, Abberton pleaded not guilty to being an accessory after the fact to murder but changed his plea to guilty on 21 March 2004.

In 2004, Abberton starred in a 40-minute short documentary film called Second Thoughts, released on video, that was directed and produced by Timmy Turner.

The film was shot on location in Indonesia and Abberton acted as himself.

The film had a surfing theme.

Despite his brother's acquittal of criminal charges, on 24 November 2004, NSW District Court Acting Judge Brian Boulten handed Koby Abberton a suspended nine-month jail sentence after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice in the same matter.

During the time of these criminal proceedings, Abberton lost a string of lucrative sponsorship deals he had contracted through his professional surfing career.

Despite surfing sponsor and surfwear giant Oakley initially sticking by Abberton, they later withdrew a $250,000 annual sponsorship.

The Abberton family were featured in a 2005 episode of ABC TV Australian Story where Abberton again performed as himself.

Abberton, together with his brothers, were featured in the autobiographical documentary entitled Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water, written and co-directed by Sunny Abberton and narrated by actor Russell Crowe.

The award-winning documentary detailed the lives of the Abberton family and the Bra Boys.

The Abberton brothers and numerous members of the Bra Boys received negative coverage in Australian media following the racially charged 2005 Sydney race riots originating between opposing ethnic mobs on Cronulla beach.

The negative media coverage motivated further rioting of the same racially charged nature on a string of other popular Sydney beaches, said to be an attempt to address the reported incidents of assaults and intimidatory behavior by groups of non-locals, some of whom were identified in earlier media reports as youths of Middle Eastern appearance from the suburbs of Western Sydney.

In the lead up to the riots, Abberton spoke to The Daily Telegraph about the assault of a lifeguard that sparked the incident, claiming:

"The reason why it's not happening at Maroubra is because of the Bra Boys. Girls go to Cronulla, Bondi, everywhere else in Sydney and get harassed, but they come to Maroubra and nothing happens to them. I read all this stuff about kids getting harassed because they want to have a surf and I say 'are you kidding?' The beach should be for Aussie kids. But if you want to go to beaches and act tough in groups you better be able to back it up. If these fellas come out to Maroubra and start something they know it's going to be on, so they stay away."

Following the riots, in which the Bra Boys did not claim any involvement, Maroubra was the target of retaliation by Middle Eastern gangs.

The Abberton brothers then held well-publicised meetings with other groups to help ease tensions.

He rose to local prominence in 2006, when he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice in an incident surrounding his brother Jai Abberton, who was charged but found not guilty of the 2003 murder of stand-over man Anthony 'Tony' Hines.

Together with his brothers, Abberton achieved national and international attention in 2007 with the release of a feature-length documentary entitled Bra Boys: Blood is Thicker than Water, written and directed by members of the Bra Boys.

In November 2008, Koby Abberton was jailed for three days by a US court after being found guilty of assaulting an off-duty police officer in a fight outside a nightclub in Honolulu, Hawaii.

In 2021, Koby appeared on the TV show SAS Australia.

Abberton was born in the south-eastern Sydney beach-side suburb of Maroubra to a heroin-addicted mother and a criminally inclined father (who was not his biological father but instead his mother's boyfriend), living in the "housing commission capital of Sydney".

Abberton states that his home birth was not a result of specified choice, but as a method of avoiding the hospital where he says his mother "knew she'd get in trouble for being on heroin".

Abberton is one of four children and brother to Jai, Sunny, and Dakota Abberton, all surfers.

Abberton describes the start of his career as the time when his "life got better."

a disagreement with Abberton's mother's boyfriend, who Koby said when he got home one afternoon, chased him out of the house with a baseball bat.

He then chose to re-locate to his older brother Sunny's house.

Of the argument Abberton says "I just started crying. He [Sunny Abberton] said "Don't worry, just try to forget about it and put everything you've got into your surfing.

That's our way out of this life," and that's when it all started."

Abberton pursued his surfing career, going on to achieve sponsorship and international recognition for his abilities and achievements.

In November 2010, Abberton was announced as one of 24 alternates to the 26th Annual The Eddie at Waimea Bay, Hawaii.

The event was to be held on one day, between 1 December 2010 and 28 February 2011, when waves exceed the 20-foot (6.1 metres) minimum threshold to contend for the US$98,000 prize purse.

The Bra Boys are held together by surfing as well as community ties.

The group is often linked with the Maroubra Surfers Association, with which a number of its members are associated.

In an interview on Triple J radio, Abberton pointed out the "Bra" is a reference to the gang's suburb, Maroubra, and partly after the street slang for brother.

Some members of the surf tribe tattoo "My Brother's Keeper" across the front of their chest.

A key motivation for Abberton to start the Bra Boys was his personal experience with heroin:

"When I was about 14, our crew started the Bra Boys, and basically started controlling the place. We said there's not going to be any heroin in Maroubra anymore, because we didn't want drugs in the place."