All photo’s by Chris O’Shea and Brenton Priestley.
Blue Moutons Sydney Australia
Byron bay NSW Australia
Port Hacking Sydney Australia. A beautiful place that OG wake legends like Reecs Jordan, Chief and their crew ride. Setting a legit style deep into the Australian wake culture from the 80’s.
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush
Every day life in Nimbin Australia.
Fats
The start to a strong future, Bringing wakeboaring to transition.
Analog living, in a digital world
THERE IS LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNEL THE MARK MCNAMARA STORY. Pic’s: Doug Tompson
Turtle and I kicked off the conversation like we always do with a ‘yewww what’s up bro’ and everything was rad like we were on a regular phone call. Then we were silent for a second and I started to talk about the interview and coming up with the way we wanted to do it, which was like this: I asked him a question or two and talked around some stuff, and this is how we got started. If you don’t know Turtle, (Mark McNamara) he was one of Australia’s best wakeboarder’s who travelled to the states in the mid to late 90’s, the same era as Watkins, Ike, Byerly, Parks, Shaprio, Necrasson, etc. It all starts from the ‘now’. Turtle started to tell me about life as it is now, and how he is stoked where everything is at and how he is on top of his OCD more then ever. Turtle has been living with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) along with anxiety and panic attacks his entire life. He has had to spend allot of his life finding ways to deal with it, stay sane, and keep about his day to day business and life. He is back on the board again though, riding down at Penrith Cable Park most days and is back in form, slaying rails and kickers, throwing down toe back 5’s and huge methods! Turtle is a full time graphic designer and continues to do that
everyday, keeping busy, and I definitely think that keeps his mind occupied and helps him deal with his OCD. He has got a little side project as well, a clothing company called Dublu, its a project he has always wanted to do and he begins to tell me that it all came from a dream. “One day I woke up next to my girlfriend at the time, and told her I had a dream about owning my own shop, with my own label and said to her ‘that would be rad I want to do that!” Dublu is only a small time thing, Turtle hand prints all his t-shirts with his style of art and makes the brand his own by being creative, putting his art on a canvas. “Dublu came to mind as a name because ‘W’ is the only letter in the alphabet that sound as it looks”. Meaning its two ‘U’s put together, two ‘U’s’or double ‘U’ (W). “When I was in a band, I use to write lyrics with crazy words, and flow words together that use to mess with peoples heads”. Go figure, for a year, until he told me, I couldn’t pronounce ‘Dublu’ the way he intended it to sound. Its simply pronounced as per the letter ‘W’.
Dublu’s mantra is “from the soul” and it really shows in his product, and the way he talks about wanting to push his brand. Turtle tells me “Its really important that doing what you love comes from the soul ,and you need to do it for the right reason, not just to get noticed or make money”. Turtle is all about from the soul, with life, wakeboarding, music and art. Thats the way I think we all see him. Turtle and I got into talking about when he was riding at his best in Australia, and when his name was just starting to get huge in the US. I had read an article a few weeks before our interview from back in the day. The way it was written, just seemed to me that Turtle made a huge impact over there, not only on all the US riders, but just the scene, riding wise, life style wise and partying! All the time going unnoticed that Turtle was struggling internally. Turtled said that he read the same article, “To read something now, that was written back then, has been a huge wake up to me, I realized that, yeah wow I really did make an impact, and at the time I was just doing what I did, and being me” It was crazy to hear him say that, he never saw himself in the same light as the riders he looked up to at the time, when I think about it, he was
right there with them. It even proves it this year, Turtle getting on the list in Australia with a legends award, up there with Watkins, Ike, Wolf, and all the old mad dawgs! Turtle had been going back and forth from the states for 3 years riding back here in Oz, sleeping in tents, behind bus shelters on the gold coast and all sorts! But we won’t get to into that. I asked turtle about when it all really started to go pear shaped for him. He referred back to the year he was back in Oz, he just signed a US contract with Liquid Force and everything was looking all up for him. He was resting a knee injury and getting himself fit for the US season ahead, as he was going over there to compete on the pro tour and had several trips planned to film shoot and make an even bigger impact on the US scene. He started to tell me that he didn’t really know what was going on with him, but had always known that when he was younger he had seen a doctor, and they had told him he was suffering from mild panic attacks, he says it was never explained to him what it was nor never thought much of it, but had always worried as kid, and over thought everything. Then as he grew up he sort of grew out of it. So he thought. Then years and years of behaviors, like washing your hands over and
over and just doing ridiculous things over and over again, now when he looks at it, its just pure OCD. Its crazy, we talked about how there’s so many stages to it and some people can suffer from it in a mild degree, and really just don't know that its OCD. We got talking about him getting on the plane going back to the states. He was with Josh Sanders, they were all pumped about the up coming year and everything was sweet, well for Josh anyway. On the other hand, Turtle wasn’t, he started to have a break down, not on the
outside, but on the inside, all in his own head. He told me that he remembered the night before, and was saying to his sister that shit just didn’t feel right. “I don't feel right, somethings not right, I don't want to go back!” He got up the morning of the flight, did the good-bye thing, everything was feeling fine, checked in, got on the plane. Then he explains to me that as soon as they shut up the plane, it hit him, it was all in his head, he was thinking “Fuck I don't want to be here”. Never saying anything to Josh next to him he just sat there going crazy about this flight.
I couldn’t think of anything worse! There are times where I have felt like that for sure, and I bet you have too, that point where you just want out, but can’t! Turtle explains from there, that the realization hit him that he was on an airplane for the next 14 hours! But he then he remembered that Pat O’Connol, the pro-surfer, sitting a couple rows behind him and then started to think, “fuck, if he knew what I was thinking he would be like, ‘fuck, snap out of it you pussy’”. He just kept thinking that over in his head to help him get through the flight, but it just didn’t help, it got worse and worse, and felt completely claustrophobic, and thought he was going to flip out on the plane with all these whack thoughts going through his head, and really, he just thought he was going fucking insane! If you haven’t flown from Australia then you don't know how long that trip is, especially with shit going on in your head! Turtle explains to me that when he got to the States, he was pretty much just fucked and he felt like everything was out of his own control. At the time, he saw himself in a straight jacket at a mental home! It’s crazy though, Turtle tells me that later, he found out that with panic attacks or OCD, when you have a thought, its really hard to scratch it, and it just will get worse and worse, then your body will react until really, it is almost like you have lost control. Its a viscous circle that will go on and on, and the fact he had no idea what was going on, made it all much worse.
Imagine been in another country feeling way out of place and uncomfortable, just imagine. He then goes on to say that he was really just fucked! Fucked mentally physically just so fucked, he couldn't get it back together. Matt Staker and Tina Bessinger had come to pick him up from the airport and straight away just knew something wasn’t right. Turtle had always been a party animal, and the life of every party, and now was just pretty much numb. Turtle had been in Orlando for about a week or two, he didn’t eat or do anything and everyone could tell something was up. He was at the Orlando tour stop, and his knee injury still was on the mend, so he was just hanging out at the event watching,and pretty much the whole event had everyone asking “Whats going on? Are you alright?”, which just didn’t help the situation at all, so he got to the point where he didn’t talk to anyone cause he thought he was just going crazy. He remembers leaving the tour stop and getting in the car with Tina to head home He says, “yeah, I left the tour stop with Tina and headed home, and on the car trip home just broke down into tears, and just thought man I cant take this anymore, this is it,
I’m calling it quits! I’m just going to go back to Oz, and end it all” He didn’t say that to Tina, but thats what was going through his head at this time, and thats what he did. They got back to the house after the break down in the car, Tina went inside and spoke with Greg, and at the time Turtle had no money to get a flight home or anything so he was pretty much stuck. Greg and Tina came out and said, “here’s some money, get a flight home, get back there and sort yourself out and we’ll worry about the money later” Turtle truly believes, “This is pretty much the reason I am still here today!” He felt a huge sense of relief but then quickly realized the next morning he had to get on those same flights and travel for another 25 hours! He stayed at Stakers house that night, and got dropped off at the airport the next morning. That was the last the US ever saw of Turtle. “I was a mess and didn’t leave the house for about two months! I never really told anyone besides my family, of course, and some close mates.”
He stopped wakeboarding and then went to work in a surf shop for about 5 years. In the mean time, he went and saw a few physiologist, but none of them really helped, and he never clicked with them nor could he open up to them. But he does remember one physiologist telling him he was one step away from been in a mental hospital. “That morning I had eaten coco pops, and had thrown them up, on the spot from hearing that, I just freaked out.” Turtle somehow convinced himself to really believe he had his shit sorted and didn’t go see another shrink again. “Then it all came back, I didn’t want to talk to anyone and I was back to square one” His dad took him to this lady, who was a fresh start for Turtle, and by the sounds of it, the Doctor that he needed. She got him back on track and he still sees her to this day. We changed the pace a bit and spoke about his music: “I’ve always played but had never been in a band, so I got together with a couple of mates and we started writing music, and getting comfortable on stage.” He left that first band and got together with a buddy of his and
started a funk/rock band and loved it! “It was fucking sick and I loved it. I played in a band for a good couple of years did some shows and lived the rockstar dream!” After a while, music became his life, but with his ups and downs mentally, he really wasn't handling been on stage, and it was all a little bit to hard. So pretty much the band just went their own way and that was the end of that. Turtle ended up turning into a hermit again, never really left the house for ages, and just played his guitar, smoked cigarettes and drank coffee. He would sleep in until 2 in the arvo and play his guitar till 3am, seeing only two or three friends a week. He would just pretty much play his guitar and that was it. We then went back to the drugs and booze. Turtle said “I had given up drinking from the day I had got back form the US, the doctor said with the medication, you could have a few but he just thought ‘why not just quit completely’”. There was also the weed, Turtle told me that he had smoked a lot of weed over the younger years, and right up till he had his freak out. “Its crazy, the doctor said the weed can pretty much be a gate way to OCD, panic attacks and other mental illness’s. It can unlock them, and bring them on harder than they already were, or just
pretty much create them. I smoked the lotus is the way of life, it enough to get a small country high for symbolism for how the lotus is so sure haha.” beautiful, but grows in swamps, which are horrible place’s. So they After that, I started to talk to Turtle use that to say ‘if such a beautiful about his whole Buddha thing, and flower can grow in such a horrible that if he had always been Buddhist. place, it means that you can live If you go into Turtle’s house, there happily and peacefully no matter what are little Buddha’s everywhere, and your surroundings are’. This really things hanging from the walls and makes a lot of sense to me, and it also him and his sister are pretty much you did to Turtle, and thats why he could say, Buddhist. He explains to became a Buddhist. At one stage, he me that he was brought up was thinking of becoming a monk, Christian in his family, but his mother but at the time he was a bit all over had given him a book called ‘Lessons the shop, and realized that he didn’t from the Lotus’ and that had really need to go that far to be Buddhist. opened his eyes up to Buddhism. I didn’t know this, but in Buddhism, We start talking more about his spiritual journey and he explains how he went to stay at a Yoga Ashram. An Ashram is where a yoga guru lives and teaches. Turtle says they would detox by drinking a litter of salt water everyday, and spewing it back up first thing in the morning. They participated in things like not talking at night time and other self discipline and mind clearing activities. “It was just really peaceful”. He also says it sounds really weird and cultish, but this practice had gone back 100’s of years and really helped Turtle in a way he cant really explain. Pretty much all he could say was “healthy body healthy mind”. Turtle is now back riding hard, and is killing it! I’m so stoked that I get to see Turtle ride again, and ride
with him, but sometimes you don’t get to always see him ride. I asked him why is that when I come to the cable and say “lets go shred” he will be like “yeah sweet see ya down the dock”. Then he never gets up, and hides in the corner a little. He said, “its really just more that I knows how my body/mind is feeling and I am aware of how hard I can push myself mentally, and also I’m not the biggest fan of riding, or being in front of a lot of people, and really don’t like too many people watching me do my thing, its just to over whelming”. We start to wrap it up by talking about how he used to be so scared to tell people about his problems, or to even talk about it at all. But over the years, he has opened up more, and all it has done is make it better. Interview aside, Turtle and I have spoken about this before, and he gets better and better about talking about it every time, so I mean its just an eye opener and a lesson to us all to not hold anything in, if you have a problem talk to someone about it. I think most people can relate to the way Turtle feels and has felt. All humans desire inner peace and clarity, some peoples journeys to that place are different than others. Turtles story is a huge inspiration to me, and there was so much to cram in to so little, but he really is an inspiration. Turtle, we are are stoked you are back riding, and involved in wakeboarding again! Mark McNamara you are a true legend in the sport of wakeboarding, thanks for being you! - Brenton Priestley.
James Tyrell going to clipsvil while BP boosts into the night. Location: Penrith Cable Park Australia! wakedition.com.au
RAIN OR SHINE. MITCH LANGFILD
Photo: Dimi Limnatitis
Mitch Langfield Under the needle Northshore Tattoo
Sitting in North Shore Tattoo with the drilling sound of the tattoo gun as Kano does a neo-traditional grandfather clock, crossed with a little bit of new school tripped out style. As Mitch screws his face up as the hot needle drags through the skin on his leg. I ask his tattoo artist (Kano) some dumb question. How long you been tattooing Mitch? Since we first opened which would be a little over a year now. So how did you get started tattooing? I was lucky enough to get an apprenticeship around 5 years ago and pretty much just went from there. Spent a lot of hours drawing and now this is where I am. I tried to get into tattooing when I was younger but it didn’t really happen for me. So when I did get a shot I grabbed it by the horns and went flat out. At the start where did you get your inspiration from and what got you pumped on tattooing? I was into skating when I was young and love all the skate board art that was around me and that inspired me to start drawing my own stuff. Then I got a bit older again and got into wakeboarding back in the day. From there I sort of got re-inspired by a lot of Byerly’s art work that was on a lot of his board that were done by Greg Morris. I love all his stuff and it motivated me to get my shit together so I could start making a career out of my art work. Seeing Byerly come from having no ink to where he is today really inspired me to make a push to get into doing tattoos with my art work. You Tattoo a lot of the Sunny Coast wake crew. What’s the most satisfying part of what you do? Mitch pipes up, cash money man and we all laugh. Besides the coin, it’s rad seeing my mates or a client leaving hand up on a original peace I have done for them. People trusting you and wanting to have something you have drawn up for them is rewarding. Tattoo’s are for life. What’s the most memorable tattoo you have done? I finally got to tattoo my brother and we have always been into low rat rode’s, hot rods, bikes and that sort of stuff. I did a rat rod for him on the inside of his arm. That was a pretty big highlight for me because I’ve always been close with my bro. Seeing him pretty pumped on a tattoo I did for him. It reminded us of something we have both always been into.
Have you always been a sunny coast boy? Nar I grew up in South Australia. Thing’s weren’t really happening for me down there so I moved up to Queensland after having a blue with my X misses. I left with $50 in my pocket and came to the Sunny Coast and started working at a kebab shop, put my head down and did what I had to do to get where I wanted to be. I’d been on holiday’s up here before and met Lukey Wolf and some of the other boys and loved the lifestyle they were living so that’s why I chose the Sunny Coast and I’ve been here ever since. Then we ramble on about how rad the Sunny Coast culture is for a bit. If your around the Sunny coast and your into tattoo’s be sure you check out these guys at North Shore. There a rad friendly bunch.
shida art
Shida art is produced by a young out going artist from the gold coast. With many world wide indevers ahead of him. Taking it as it comes one wall at a time. Shinda art is tuning heads world wide. With plains to travel the globe shearing his art with the world. There’s no doubt Shida is making his mark on the street art world. He answered some question for us while on his adventurous. Â
How did you get into doing street art? Started in 2004 after traveling around Europe with my family and being inspired by all the work present in the cities like Florence and Barcelona. How old are you? 22 Whats your favorite place you have taged? So many beautiful places to think of, some standouts would have to be: Teufelsberg (Devils Mounton) Berlin, Which is an abandoned US spy station built on an artifical mountian covering a Nazi school. The cement factory Kampot Cambodia which was a former khmer rouge slave factory and is now all but demolished and is looked over by a forests filled with howling monkeys. How would you describe your style? Flowing natural Arcs / Psychedelic / Fractaly. Have you ever done street art illegally? Most days. FTP. Why do you do street art? I love the sense of Omnipotence I get through street art. Everywhere I go I can take control and leave a bit of myself behind. Whats your travel plans for the rest of the year? Continuing on through Europe, coming home and then back again to Europe. I have been traveling for a while already and I’m really missing home but everyday something happens and I forget that I do. Follow Shida on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile. php?id=100000515873203
Korean BBQ escalates, Chilly eating contest
JOSH ROBINSON, MID SHOOT. BLESS YOOOO
Photo: Josh Robinson
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