Paper Sea Quarterly - Issue One by Tom Batrouney

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ISSN 1839-8618 01

H O N E S T S T O R I E S A N D C R I T I C A L P I C T U R E S A B O U T S U R F, T R AV E L A N D A R T F R O M A R O U N D T H E W O R L D

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Bindy back in the water after the birth of her son without missing a step. Byron Bay. Kuni TaKanami

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Torquay

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Burleigh

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Sydney

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Manly

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South Yarra

ABOUT US THE PAPER SEA THREE

Paper Sea Quarterly started as a simple recognition of the need for change.

Intelligent, creative women and men with an appreciation for hand-crafted quality will f ind honest stories and critical pictures on surf, art and travel from likeminded contributors from around the world. We saw the need for a creative alternative and so we present to you a quarterly book for people who share our aff inity for the ocean, creativity in its inf inite manifestations and the thrills and perils of traveling amongst far away cultures. Full-bleed photographs captured by the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s best photographers accompanied by their stories behind the shots are set alongside in-depth interviews and frank stories from our team of writing contributors. We are publishing f irst-hand experiences as we explore not just the beaches but the cultures and people of far away countries. We have fought hard to get this idea off the ground and it is with much pride and many thanks to innumerable people that we can present to you Paper Sea Quarterly, a publication for surfers, artists and travelers. The Paper Sea Three, Andy, Tom and Andrew, would like to thank you for your support in this collaboration. We need you to survive, so spread the good word, the Paper Sea word and ensure you buy a subscription.

ords can incite war, they express love, they can order you milk when you really want milk and we use them daily with irreverence and disinterest. Everybody has a story, every place has a history, every country has a culture and now you have a publication that shares your love of surf, travel and art and one that publishes these in broad light. Writing and stories make our culture tick and I look forward to bringing you honest stories from around the world every quarter from beautifully brilliant people. ANDY SUMMONS

ince I was young the only thing I ever wanted to do was take pictures of moments. I have put my whole self into photographing the ocean and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s people. Un-captured moments f licker through my eye and those that I captured fracture the experience, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m never satisf ied with one or the other. I have reached out to the best like-minded surf photographers in the world and together we are creating a publication for those people who live for the moments between moments. TOM BATROUNEY

hotography is my escape and my passion. It is the number one focus in my life. It offers me an outlet to scream my creativity. I believe creatives who use their hands and minds deserve to rule the world. Join me on a journey through my eyes to experience what I do with my art. My work is yours, think what you want love it, hate it, all I want is from you is to create.

ANDREW DIPROSE

CONTENTS ABOUT US

A n

i n t r o d u c t i o n

INTRODUCTION

W e l c o m i n g

DIAMOND IN THE RUBBLE THE WOLF A n

y o u

THE OLD SEA & THE MAN A

t o

t ra v e l

V o l u m e

p i e c e

o n

p h o t o g r a p h i c

S e a

O n e

Ha i t i e s s a y

I s s u e

b y

Ica h

b y

T h r e e

B e c

O n e

W i l m ot

H u d s o n

A t ra vel p i e ce o n T h e P h ill ip i n es by Ma ra C oso n

R AKE FOAM SHAPES

A conversation with Adrian Knott by Andy Summons

I AM NOT

C r e a t i v e

w r i t i n g

RETAINER

w i t h

c o n v e r s a t i o n

WELCOME TO THE SEA O

w r

F i v e

HANDSOME JAKE

b y

h i p - h o p

a r t i s t

m o m e n t s

i t i n g

s u r f e r s

A n d y

i n

a n d

To m

B a t r o u n e y

p h o t o g r a p h s

b y

i n

S u m m o n s

M a r a

p i c t u r e

b y

T B P

C o s o n

a n d

p e n c i l

A conversation with a tattoo Artist and Andy Summons

T a t t o o

p o r t r a i t u r e

AN ESSAY ON ANGER

A n

LUST’S DARK EMBR ACE

A n d r e w

r a

p h s

L s

. a

R e A t

D n

52 56 68 78 94 104 106 120 128 138

146 164

conversation with the leadsinger and Andy Summons

180

o g

N u d e s

b y

p h o t o g r a p h i c 11

A l

e x

A n d r e w

CON TEMPOR ARY SURFING PHOTOGR APHS PROGRESS BY THE SEA

b y

D i p r o s e

r e l

o t

THE PRETTY LITTLES A

b y

a s s i g n m e n t

WAYNE & JARR AH LYNCH MICHEL BOUREZ

c e a n i c

C r e a t i v e

MUTINY PLEASE

MARKED

P a p e r

article on a little known Brazilian by Michelangelo Magasik

PATUNGONG EDSA

PEEPING

T h e

R y a n

e s s a y

b y

D i p r o s e

200

H e y w o o d

206

M a t t

O ’ B r i e n

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Contact: Web Address: www.papersea.com.au Submissions: see www.papersea.com.au/contact for details. Distributed by Gordon and Gotch Locked Bag 527 French Forest NSW 2086 02 9972 8800 Printed by Print Graphics 14 Hardner Road Mount Waverley VIC 3149 03 9562 9600 Paper Sea Quarterly endeavours to print four issues a year but bad things happens to good people. All content is copyright Paper Sea Quarterly Pty Ltd unless otherwise indicated. PSQ loves you just donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t steal our shit. This publication is printed using vegetable based inks on process chlorine free 100% recycled paper which is FSC Chain of Custody certified and monitored from the paper mill to the end user. Printed by Printingraphics which is ISO14001 Environmental Management System Accredited

It’s too easy to fall into a job that crushes your spirit. Jobs steal

time and f ill up your bank. It’s good to earn money to pay for necessities and niceties - you should see our linen tea towels - but it forces a jumbling of priorities at the expense of spiritual fuel, whatever form that may take. Finding work is hard enough, a good job that can be enjoyed is scarcer still. Some lucky souls’ passion is their work - a rare and beautiful occurrence. Many more people are caught between the forces of responsibility and the visceral need for love-activities - a surf, a road-trip, an escape from a busy working life, an art exhibition, a Paper Sea change of pace. Jobs have a way of turning passions into hobbies. Plenty of people dedicate their weekends to indulging the heart, washing clean the grit of obligation, pleasing the soul and getting away from it all for a day. Weekend warriors are a beautifully tragic bunch. Volume One Issue One of Paper Sea Quarterly tells the stories of a tattooist, surfers and artists who pursue their passion for a living. This, An Issue Of Life And Style, explores the life styles of people fortunate and bold enough to shirk society’s pressure. Through the next two hundred and twenty-four pages your eyes will sigh and your mind will cry. Welcome to Paper Sea Quarterly, lets never work, have crybabies and live by the ocean.

CONTRIBUTORS O

Thanks

ne of the best in California and leader of the game long before his most hit their prime, a person who exists only by nature and can talk to the animals.

for getting back to my 3am e-mails, it blew my mind and kept me from wasting time sleeping. Your angles and the approach to your subjects sets you apart from so many others. Thanks for your work, it’s beautiful.

CHRIS BURK A R D

M ATT O’BRIEN

e appreciate having you onboard as a person who looks at the world in a different way through a different camera. You have developed a style that is unrivalled and multi-faceted. You are true to your work and your style and we are grateful to have you as a part of our team.

our support has been invaluable and you rule the world from the water. Your shots are timeless and a big inspiration.

RYA N HEY WOOD

ROD OWEN

Thousands

Thanks for all your effort and contagious

of photographers across the country grew up looking to you for inspiration and ways of seeing the ocean. A pioneer of some of the most unchartered places and a name and style that will never die. We are honored to have been able to work with you.

passion for photography. You are the best Victoria has produced and it is an honour to be able to work together.

DICK HOOLE

STEVE RYA N

ou have found a delicate and beautiful style. Your personality comes through as does your talent, it’s been great working with you.

mpty wave genius. Remember this name. We are humbled to be able to provide a platform for you to create and we can’t wait to see what you do in the future.

BEC HUDSON

mazing in the water and from land with so much experience in oceans all over the planet. Thanks for your advice and support I’m looking forward to working far into the future.

A LEX L AUREL

ED SLONE

Thanks for everything you’ve done for PSQ. Your writing as well as your work behind the pages has been incredible. What started out as a short thought has blown me away, thanks man. Your future is clear.

exceptional eye for framing with incredible style as well. Thanks for it all, I look forward to working with you further.

DJ STRUNTZ

L .ReA D

eaps of flair and a person who does it his way no matter the subject matter. Looking forward to seeing what you do in the future.

o great to have you on the team, your honesty and insight are beautiful. I’m excited to have such a strong carribean voice in our pages.

ROBBIE WA R DEN

ICA H WILMOT

The

most talented and prolific young writer to come out of Manila. You beat every deadline with ease. Thanks for getting on board, your work ethic and creativity are making a big impact. Maintain the exponential brilliance.

great artist across a multitude of mediums. Disciplined by freedom, you have more ability than you give yourself credit for. Thanks for your diligence and passion.

M A R A COSON

JONO GOOLEY

It’s been great working with you. Unleash

ou are supremely talented and your endless ideas send a tingle up our spine, welcome aboard. You’re style is totally weird and we dig it very much, your passion screams loud in every piece you create.

the beast and do us all a favour, keep writing. Your style’s getting stronger with every piece.

MICHEL A NGELO M AGASIK

K ASPER R AGLUS

DIAMOND IN THE RUBBLE BY ICAH WILMOT

It’s always refreshing traveling within the Caribbean, getting

hints of hope for swell, and we hurry off through the trees, down a track and to the beach to a perfect A-frame river mouth spitting sets of head-high peaks. The churning sand at the river mouth paints the water a pinch of maroon mixing varying shades with Caribbean blues stretching out to the horizon.

to experience the subtle nuances in cuisine, culture, nightlife, and especially the ocean. The past few years I have been scanning the turquoise coastlines of the Caribbean islands in search of dreamy runners peeling over shallow coral reefs. I hopped on a plane from Trinidad off on my second ever visit to my neglected neighbour, Haiti.

The local children are washing their laundry in the river and lay them to dry on the boulders in the riverbed. The culture here is so different from the capital, just a few hours away. The hustle and bustle of the city life, which has been made so much harder by the quake’s damage is starkly opposed by life on the coast. Here, people f ind joy in the simpler things in life and rely on the land for food, water, housing and a means of income. All around there are coconut trees, rivers trickling down from the mountains, birds f lying by, f ishermen casting nets and the silence in the air is just slightly disturbed by the low rumble of the white water rolling in to shore.

As we approach I notice the turmoil in the rubble of The Prince’s Port. The streets that were formally stacked with shops and buildings lining the rugged pathways in and out of town are now left with herds of tarps, hiding the vendors from the relentless sun, as they struggle to pull together the remains of their former lives. The earthquake was horrible, we are told. The earth shook so violently and everything was dancing and falling to the ground. There were practically no warnings as it claimed lives and set the country even further back with its struggle against poverty and homelessness.

It is slightly onshore all day and the waves are stellar. This is the precedent for all the sessions of our trip - beautiful waves, beautiful people, and amazing scenery. We quickly pick up the carefree mentality, just living to have fun and enjoy life as best we can, surf ing hours everyday and enjoying the mouthwatering cuisine. Everyday a new spot and each spot the same sweet perfection. The nights are another story altogether.

Driving through town we pass piles of bricks, cement and steel in the place of homes, shops and schools that kept the lives of many and one day stole the lives so many more as they crumbled to the ground. It takes hours to drive a few miles to get to one of the last standing hotels, atop a solid hill of f irm bedrock, unlike the largest hotel in the country which toppled to a mess a few hundred meters down the street. The hours pass and the heat and noise of the day turns into a still darkness. There is no electricity in most of the city and people retire early from productive days and a well-earned full night of rest.

As the day fades crowds gather at the same spots, men drinking and going on in native tongue but the nights are short due to the lack of electric streetlights. Although the stars are bright, the forest is dense and many creatures lurk in the wild. There are loads of wild and in some cases mythical creatures you may be warned to avoid but that’s not half as bizarre as the mythical currency and measurements they claim exist.

Our guide speaks of a couple that checked into the now-rubble hotel down the street. The husband, treating his new wife to a wonderful vacation, went out to purchase her a present just moments before the quake hit, destroying the hotel, and killing all inside. We look at each other and feel uneasy, this could easily happen again at any moment. The night lingers on and in the morning we start an early trek to the south.

Beware the Haitian Dollar it makes calculations impossible. After a series of transactions we soon established the relationship between various currencies in the country. The US dollar, the Gourde (the legal currency of Haiti at an exchange rate of about 40 Gourdes to US$1), and the Haitian Dollar, which is not a physical currency but has an exchange rate of 5 Haitian dollars to one US$1 (and 8 Gourdes to 1 Haitian dollar). The prices in all the stores, supermarkets and even the gas stations are stated in Haitian Dollars and upon going to purchase goods, the cashier whips out a calculator and establishes the corresponding amount of Gourdes to collect for the goods. As if that wasn’t confusing enough, apparently there is a whole other unit for measuring liquids.

We pass Shelter Box camps, hundreds of solid igloo-tents donated by relief organisations. These units provide oncetemporary and now semi-permanent housing for those affected by the quake. Water trucks distribute vital liquid and relief workers help families to shift rubble and gather up the remains of their lives. The road winds sharper and the terrain changes from the dry, dusty remains of the city into a green, cool forest. A few hours snaking through the forest and we are into the unscathed southern coastline, overlooking the sea.

On the way to the dock we f illed a four-gallon tank of gas and the attendant started to do some container to container measuring and mixing. At the end of a good f ifteen-minute run, he apparently managed to f it six gallons of gas into our

The south wasn’t affected by the quake and the def iant dense forestry is scattered with only a few houses. The ocean whispers 20

boat’s four-gallon tank. After some time of complaining and bargaining we f inally agreed on a price, after all he had the containers and witnesses to prove it. Of course, then he had to convert the Haitian dollars back to Gourdes so we paid for the six Haitian-Gallons of gas in Gourdes and set continued on our way. We zip across to the outer reefs and quays off the south coast and f ind small atolls with waves wrapping around the island, where you could go left and surf until it meets back with the right on the opposite side. It’s amazing how much fun you can have when you leave all the world behind and focus on the moment. Surf ing facilitates that; a natural healing that brings you back to the essence of nature. This country has so much love and beauty to offer. The calm scenic countryside contrasts so drastically with the mess of the city. Two extreme realities just a few hours drive apart. In the city people are living in the midst of death and destruction, battling to survive day to day, no shelter, no food, not even drinking water. In the villages life f lourishes and nature’s beauty is abundant in every aspect of the rural lifestyle. The astounding contrasts between traditional life on the coast and the annihilation of the razed city, that balance between life and death, forces us to see and realise the meaning of love. As we stretch open our arms to help our neighbours re-establish their lives we need to focus on the beauty of life. Look to the south and revert to a simpler way of being, where life is slow and material things don’t mean as much, after all they will just fall and shatter leaving nothing but struggle. Perhaps then, amid the darkest hour, that is when we’ll truly f ind paradise. 21

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have

inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what f ield they were called to labour in - Henry Thoreau, Walden. In these frames we see an air reverse in progress. Thiago Dias, a Brazilian, rails in hand, back foot to the beach, t-shirt billowing, spins wildly into the momentum of his descent. Head to papersea. com.au to see the clip and you will see Dias ride it out - an impressive move. One wonders, was it a f luke or might Dias be pulling these at his leisure? What an attractive thought that is, conf ident aerial surf ing. How alluring the seduction of surf ing modernism, so singularly embodied by high-risk aerial manoeuvres! In fact, the clip related to another matter altogether. Lusophones will note that it accompanies an article bidding farewell to its protagonist. Dias is a dead young man, felled by bullets approximate in number to his twenty-two years of age. The clip perhaps was chosen to represent what was most youthful about him, most bound to evoke his passion. Aerial surf ing is constantly progressing. On one hand it provides incomparable visual dynamite and on the other it’s many falls that seem, the longer they continue, to corrode something of the soul of surf ing. Think too of Dias, an unknown though obviously talented kid, and wonder why it appealed to him to try such things. The clip is a question: Is this good surf ing? Personal preference dictates more than anything the contentious def inition of good surf ing. Style, f low, turning and timing as well as the lines you draw are all classic aspects inherent in surf ing’s collaboration with unique moving liquid forms. In recent years a super-modern aesthetic of highly diff icult moves that incidentally rupture a wave’s continuity has thrust itself into vogue. This modern aesthetic reaps big rewards with attention grabbing impact that can be more easily appreciated by the non-surf ing spectator/ blogger/ punter. Interestingly, this modern movement is facilitated by waves easily considered substandard by some - smaller, wedgier, onshore forms. Love it or otherwise, this movement points at a gradient of progression increasingly similar to that of other board sports and a more nuanced appreciation of surf ing suited to different waves. To the ire of many purists, the Avant Guard riders of ‘performance surf ing’ (as def ined, choreographed and scored by surf industry bigwigs) are well attuned to the rhythm of the wave. Not only capable but highly prof icient at reading waves for turns, cutbacks and, when it presents itself, a big punt. While these surfers strut the tightrope by virtue of extraordinary talent, this style is bound to falter with the weekend warrior who tries to emulate their performance. How diff icult those high-f lying moves! Those moves that seem kind of approachable in glossy magazines and how distant the momentary semblance is from riding out of it and into the next section. How many sections wasted? How many squat, crabbish, skate inspired styles? How many waves raced right on through to their f inale in search of a ramp? Surf ing to the form of a wave is the most universal and timeless def inition of good style. Crumbly beach breaks love airs but dragging a Dumpster Diver down any wave just because they were the hottest thing on that blog you love is insipid. Thoreau

pitied those he saw slavishly following a status quo that would never reward their aspirations. Most surfers would be seeking their own inspiration rather than simply following what is put out there for them. To copy whatever is cool, mindlessly, is redolent of something surf ing strives to avoid – ugliness.

Good surf ing speaks of the incredible sense of freedom offered by being propelled along the face of a breaking wave. Good surf ing is endangered by anything illuminated or endorsed by the surf industry so as to make the activity more appealing or more intelligible to a mainstream audience. Airs, regardless of their relation to skating or snowboarding, are exciting and a legitimate part of our future. We frolic in a playground in which the consequences of a fall are nix so why not try as you like? Though at the same time the ramps we jump off are inherently f luid unlike the static ones of other board sports, good surf ing can never be about how adept somebody is at performing any particular trick. The f lair of surf ing is not in standardised routines but the unique f low of each individual wave and spontaneous radness.

Brazilians are often reviled as uncouth frothers and contest machines. Closer appraisal shows their surf ing to be specially human and personal with all manner of kinks, embellishments and obvious emotion that reveals a deep investment of self into each wave. They achieve results that belie the fact they are from the periphery, surf ing with an opportunistic animal-style that comes from life in the developing world, in which to follow is be swallowed up.

Dias’ air is sick because it speaks so exactly of who he is. The people who do this with their surf ing, radical or not, are its best practitioners. That punt on a beach in north eastern Brazil says many things; the cocky élan of feral youth in Dias’ opportunistic stab through the lip, unbridled rotation telling of the physical release so intrinsic to an environment where the material is trivial and transient, sticking it at crunch time with all the tenacity of the favelas.

A young man like Dias grew up in uncertainty. Yet visiting Brazil, it struck me that the grom in Brazil has a good life, without the new boards and shoes maybe, but as wild and simple as groms should have it. They cruise in packs on the beach, rambling the sumptuous promenades that a coastal and nature loving nation stretches along its beaches. They go weeks without putting on a shirt, eat acai, chatter incessantly in high pitched voices, hit up

“Crumbly beach breaks love airs but dragging a dumpster diver down any wave just because they were the hottest thing on that blog you love is stupid.” His attitude, throwing for the sky, leaning into his air and letting it all fade out behind him may be appreciated by most. He is buoyant in the turbulence of that tepid sea in messy, wind forced swells, piloting his board towards the shore bandy legged in the exhilaration of a diff icult move stuck. Surf ing towards the beachside corso and the crew that pour longnecks into glass tumblers and sip with their shirts off in the afternoon balm. Palm fronds rustling, radios roaring music along barefoot streets where children scurry in the warren of concrete-block buildings, some bringing yellowed boards, which so easily dwarf them, down to the beach to ride waves, to surf good.

tourists for paraf ina and surf with fervent dedication on beach breaks void of a rigid hierarchy where it is possible to get very good very quickly. Brazil is no place for modesty. They have an energy born from the natural hustle of a population that is hundreds of millions strong, passionate and completely unhesitant. In another clip Dias runs a bleached mohawk, tattoos and an earring; a board decorated with a weed leaf and his name scrawled across the deck. Dias’s look is indicative of the strength of personality required there. Competitiveness intrinsic to the sanguine Brazilian character born of abundant environment, African physicality and the dreams of wide eyed Portuguese navigators.

Dias leaves footprints as he walks up the exposed sand of low tide, the scene speaking of a salt-burnt existence, afternoon repose, and the grand welter of Brazil. Landing airs truly is good surf ing because Dias pours his whole reality into that move and deep down at the heart of our surf ing aesthetic that is good surf ing.

Brazilians love to surf because they are hyper-physical beings but for groms this enthusiasm is tempered very early by reality. The need to make a living strikes early, spoon feeding stops at one year of age in developing countries, after that you’re on your own. Dias sold drugs and this closed his story - the favela is real existence, a wolf indeed.

R.I.P THIAGO

I remember when I was a child I had to go through the immigration

I’ll always remember the time back when I was an alien university kid in Melbourne, and my American housemate came into my room with a Southeast Asia travel book whose spine had experienced a bit of yanking. She was going off to travel and had removed ‘the Philippines’ and another country from her thick book perhaps for the 20kg baggage limit, leaving with me a little bit of disappointment, a sleeping bag, and an alarm clock. I never saw her again.

of some country and it divided the lines between people who hold passports for the country and for aliens. And I wondered whether it meant that I was an alien. That in my OshKosh cold-weather sweater and with my little hands I could have been some sort of extraterrestrial. Although that was long clarified for me, I guess there are some places where this label, unfortunately, fits the description better than we’d like.

-if you are new to this and are white or half-white - maybe you’ll be a star, you’ll make it big with 45-second television primetime ad-space in between Korean telenovelas and noontime game shows where outside the studio you will find crowds waiting everyday to finally be chosen to play.

Street kids high from sniffing Rugby lie on the asphalt almost forgetting to move before the Tamaraw-FX cars run them over-pass and bridges painted hot pink matching the themed road and signs on the highway is the truth is the life with the attempt to promote calm down into the clogged gutters of August typhoons where people swim or move around with makeshift rafts on rat-piss floodwater all the way up into the eye shadow pollution line beating the sunrise.

We like to think that we created karaoke. With our colonial past still beating against the back of our necks, we assert ourselves and make ourselves submissive at the same time. It’s hard to say whether it’s true, but what is true is the karaoke-related deaths. There are, around six of them each year over the song I Did It My Way. The ‘My Way Killings’. Karaoke is our sport, the way we had been made fools of over fifty years ago with a puppet government and puppet money by those who also stake the claim to karaoke. But that’s all in the past.

The Philippines can be one of them for a first time visitor. Over two million visitors came through the Philippines between January to August this year, probably some reluctant, some over-eager, but most of them probably feeling the ground like people do after being at sea for a long time. Before you understand its greatness, you’ll have to first go through its airport, its smog and its traffic. You might not know where you are. In 2010, the advertising agency whose pitch was chosen for the new Philippine tourism campaign, ‘Filipinas Kay Ganda’ made it remarkably like Poland’s.

Playing cops and robbers on and around the government seat while many people in bus stops still wait in rain for buses to Guadalupe, Cubao, Recto, and salvation, with handkerchiefs over their mouths wiping their foreheads roll in four pm traffic officers dancing with their pot bellies while the other officers are parked waiting for cars to pay for their mid-afternoon McDo or Jollibee burger, wearing yellow and brown-

There is your naked eye through your camera peephole, taking in the sights of a floating juice pack and the smell of the sewage that goes through the Manila Bay, making you forget for a moment the other day you spent at the beach still within what they call ‘imagined borders’, and along with it the waves of La Union, the perfectly shaped cone of the Mayon Volcano, the native trees, and the eyes of the Tarsier that took a good look at you and couldn’t tell you from another human being.

If you can’t handle a place like The Philippines, then perhaps this is the place for you. Someone I sat next to at a café in Melbourne had a bag with the weave of a Philippine mountain tribe. She said that while everyone went to Thailand and Indonesia, she decided to go elsewhere. I nodded. Excellent. She said she would go back and I hoped she wasn’t just being polite. For some time she’ll have the bag over her shoulder to remember us by -perhaps more than the people who have complimented her bag will probably ever understand.

A few people raged at a travel blogger who wrote about the Philippines. He described himself as very well-travelled. A ‘flaneur’, he gloated. But it wasn’t just the excess of ellipses that revealed his lack of credibility. No hard feelings when he matched hospitality with complaining about the colour of our guest room curtains. Perhaps some of what he said were truths, the way we believe in certain things like not cutting your hair on a Wednesday, but I’m not sure if these truths were ugly - just swallowed in a perspective that is in itself quite ugly.

-yellow and brown mongrels with wounds and sagging nipples walk over the tired homeless sleeping in flattened boxes of the financial district authority is so easily sold to a five hundred peso bill if they stop your car with a reluctantly written ticket that urban poor old woman walks in the hard rain with an upturned umbrella and a man has his hand down the garbage bin so long a night the two taxis queue at a shopping mall right before closing time, with one taxi named At Your Service and the other, God Have Mercy.

There is more than enough space to grow poverty, line up all the tarp-built shacks where squatters squat all day in front of TVs with illegal cable connections unsafe as roadside fishballs-on-sticks dunked into saliva-filled sauce, taken into the guts of skyscrapers and jeepneys of neon paint and bible verses, mass hearses of knees and ringtones touching. Which is quite touching-

But this is my home, and is the home of ninety million other people, not one better than the other, less those who decide to go overseas, and less those who die from doing it their way. And I love this home, although in some respect you and I may always be seen as aliens.

A CONVERSATION WITH ADRIAN KNOTT BY ANDY SUMMONS PHOTOGRAPHS BY TBP

ver the last few years, surfers have rediscovered the benef its of experimenting with board design. Surfers and shapers alike are opening their minds to and searching for different craft to ride aside from tri-f in boards. Tweaking designs from the past and incorporating modern knowledge and expertise, from mini Simmons to f inless creations, surf board design is getting back to its experimental genesis. Bob Simmons’ surf board design was way ahead of its time. In the late 1940’s he was experimenting with styrofoam cores and f ibreglass and twin keels. He utilised hydrodynamic theories from Lindsay Lord’s book The Naval Architecture Of Planing Hulls, which explored the most eff icient shapes & contours to plane across water. As surf ing progressed many experimental principles and designs were lost to the evolution of more radical performance surf board designs. In 2006, the smaller, wider board concept was nurtured by Joe Bauguess and Richard Kenvin, who were asked to replicate one of Bob Simmons’ 10ft Balsa surf boards at half the length. Enter The Mini Simmons. Kenvin pushed Bauguess to shape a smaller Simmons and the resulting board employed a lot of the original bottom contours, outline and f in set up as Simmons’ original. The board turned out to be a revolution to ride. It showed amazing speed while offering a different sensation underfoot. The concept excited a few surfers and shapers across the globe and ignited a renaissance of board design & experimentation with an injection of modern design. The last few years I have seen more experimentation with guys like Ryan Burch shredding with ease crude, solid, un-glassed Styrofoam blocks with no f ins. Other guys like Chris del Moro, Tyler Warren and Dave Rastovich, amongst others, are spending time in the water on very short boards that resemble bathtubs & boogie boards and they’re surf ing them with style.

“...surfing is about riding whatever works for you. Riding waves is an individual pursuit, so why follow what everybody else does?” These boards are more focused on fun than pure performance surf ing. When the surf is smaller these designs offer the rider a different sensation and they making it easier to link sections & get more speed in slower, less-critical waves. Rake Foam Shapes makes an array of alternate shapes including single f ins and logs but the main board I’ve been focusing on for the last few years is the wider, thicker, shorter template of board. I mean short-short, like 4’4” -5’6”. I spent years collecting and riding as many ‘strange’ boards as I could get my hands on. I found a lot of the stubbier f ish boards and kneeboards were more suited to my surf ing. Once you get on the wider board and spend time on one for a while a regular thruster feels like a toothpick. As far as I’m concerned, surf ing is about riding whatever works for you. Riding waves is an individual pursuit, so why follow what everybody else does? Why not experiment and look for something that works for you and your style? Most of the board orders I do 57

now are boards under 5’6”. I love that because I spend most of my time surf ing & experimenting on sub 5 foot boards. These boards are super fast for their size due to the relaxed rocker and straighter rails. There are just so many variations possible with each change offering a totally different reaction in the board. When I f irst started making the Mini Simmons style boards in Australia there were only a few guys that had started to make them but most people would freak out at the design. In the past year people’s reactions have noticeably changed. Even a few groms have been commenting on how fun the boards look, there’s been a real shift in attitude towards alternate craft and surf board design and it’s a great thing. My f irst mini style boards were quite wide, around 22” and 2¾” thick with a twin keel setup. They go great but can get a little corky if the conditions aren’t right. I spent more time with different tails and f ins on the earlier models. Since then I’ve been pushing the design to get more out of them. Now I’m experimenting with narrower outlines, foil, rocker and various f in setups. They kinda sit between a Mini Simmons and a performance f ish. I want to see how short boards can go before they start losing drive. The 4’8” I make has a 19½ ” tail and I’ve cut down the f ins by an inch and I was blown away by how well it rode despite being so short. It still has amazing speed due to the planning surface in the tail and it had a little bit of slide with the shorter f ins. Part of the fun of the micro boards is mastering how to ride different shapes. I’d never really seen any stringerless straight poly-urethane boards so after doing a bit of research and speaking to Grant who runs The Alley Fish Fry, I was convinced that a stringerless board would offer some f lex and still be as strong if not stronger than a stringered blank. The boards are so short it isn’t really necessary to have stringer for strength, although it is harder to shape without that reference point. It takes some weight out of the board but I put it back in by with heavier 6 ounce glass on the bottom for the clear boards and the strength comes from the wider laps anyway. They work rad, look good and leave also makes it easier to achieve the super opaque look when using pigments. Sean Nettleton, a master in pigments and tints, has been a big part of Rake and his work is pure quality, it’s a beautiful collaboration. 60

“20,000 VOLTS WENT THROUGH ME. IT BLEW A HOLE IN THE BOTTOM OF MY RIGHT FOOT. IT BLEW MY TOES AND THE BACK OF MY HEAD OFF”.

L ate last year I did an album with Bail, so I spent a lot of time

a coma. I had sacrif iced a lot to get that tag piece up there. It took me four years to be able to properly function as a human again.

painting. He’s a prolif ic street artist and painter so I wanted to build up the amount of my artwork before I fronted on an album with him. I’m always doing a lot of painting but I’m really serious about my music because I’m twenty-f ive and its time to fucking do something that’s gunna impact on the world.

After all that time my plastic surgeon asked if there was anything he could do to improve my life. I didn’t have any movement in my left hand so I said I wanna use it, I wanna paint, I wanna draw this is who I am this is what I love. So he did a very delicate nerve transplant and he taxed some nerves from my Achilles tendon and my ankle and he slipped them into these little holes that he cut in my f inger and it let me paint again. I waited patiently, it was f ive years after that night that I was able to paint again and it was one of the best feelings I have ever had. In that time I discovered other passions like making songs and hip-hop. Still being a part of the outlaw artist lifestyle and a part of that community was important, but I had to f ind a different medium to express myself. So that’s how the whole music thing came about. I don’t reckon I would have even thought about getting into music unless I had that accident, so you could call it a blessing or you could call it for what it is, you know, a fucked up injury.

I went out a few years ago and met a mate, ‘Server’, in Richmond. We were at this party and went off to do our painting. We got to a big power substation and he wanted to do the spot down at ground level and I said well sweet you do that spot ill climb up and do the rooftop. I was really pissed, I was young and I climbed up through the little corner of the substation building where the bricks were crumbling. It was beaming all the electricity for the whole suburb. I scaled my way up two storeys. I was really close to the electrical wires. I woke up on the power substation platform. I must have touched the wires. Twenty thousand volts had gone through me. It blew a hole in the bottom of my right foot. It blew my toes and the back of my head off. I melted all the skin off my left arm where the entry wound was through the spray can and the whole neighbourhood smelled of burnt f lesh. I woke up and the police were there, the f ire brigade and ambulance crew were there. I remember running my f ingers through my hair and them slipping into a deep crack in my skull. I poked my brain and that was the most fucking disturbing thing ever. The rescue squad couldn’t get up to get me because the power lines were short-circuiting. They told me to jump off the building onto a sheet that four of them were stretching out. I went straight through it and broke my right foot. They scooped me up and put me in the ambulance, I was screaming to be knocked out coz I could see my own skin dripping off my bones. My only clear memory is them taking out scissors and methodically cutting my clothes off. I woke up a couple of weeks later in hospital. I had thirteen operations while I was in

If I make a rap song I know that its gunna live indef initely. A bus might hit me tomorrow but I’ve created something that’s gunna be here forever. If I paint a piece I’ve left something behind ya know? If I just go out and drink or try and get a chick then that’s only gunna be a distant memory. It’s not really leaving myself in the world. I wanna paint pieces you can see. I wanna sing songs you can hear. I wanna fucking do skate tricks that you can watch. I don’t just wanna be one of those cunts whose hobby is golf and after I die someone will say, ‘Oh well I remember one day Tains scored a par on hole three at some golf course’. I truly wanna be remembered. I want worldwide recognition. I have to make some major moves in order to fulf il my dream.

If I don’t achieve those goals and I feel it was because I was too lazy that’ll fucking kill me. I feel like it’s imperative that I make the most of my time and do all the ill shit that I feel is within me. You only live once so you may as well do big shit. I wanna impact on peoples thoughts like, ‘Have you heard his f irst album? Ohhh yeah but have you heard the album he did with Selzy? But what about the album with Bail? You know that shit lives forever, spreads like the plague.

I can open people’s awareness to show them just how fucked up the Internet can be. The fact that a seven-year-old kid has access to bestiality or the 10 cleanest ways to kill himself - I wanna fucking remind the world of that. I don’t want people to think the Internet is the best thing that ever happened ya know? Whoever created it is a genius but they have given the terrorists of the world a forum and a place to make brutalisers and murderisers.

I hope my raps open people’s eyes. I want people to actually realise what’s going on in the world. If there are lies around and they get on TV and there’s some guy from BP oil company saying, ‘Ohhh we’re so sorry we’ve done the biggest fucking recovery mission in the last ten years we’re so sorry’, I want people to think ‘No your not you’re a fucking liar’. If people can’t catch on by how fake that shit is then I’ll make a song

When I started doing music I just wanted to be hardcore and it was cool to be gangsta back then. So I approached rap like ‘Bang, I’m super man nothing can touch me’. That’s an immature perspective it’s a young persons perspective. That’s why the f irst album is like that. If I’m going to live on earth and do this I have to talk about issues that are important. No one will give a fuck if I’m like ‘Yeh I’m at the station me and

“I don’t want to make a reputation for myself as some dude that can get you dancing at a party. That’s fucking nothing.” about it. I wanna do my part so that when people talk about BP they think, ‘BP - Bathe in Petrol; those fucking dogs who spilled millions of litres of oil in to the Gulf of Mexico, those fucking rats’.

my mates drinking fucking beers don’t sit heeeeere’. People want to hear things that evoke their thoughts. The ocean is seen as a resource for us, I mean we live off it but you gotta realise that there are particular species in trouble. I have always had a love for the ocean but a contradiction I have is that I love to f ish. Fishing is one of my favourite things you know but at the same time I eat what I catch or I release it, I don’t over f ish ever. The maths tells you that too many creates are gonna be extinct if we keep slaughtering them, so we might just have to eat more muesli or something.

I wanna bring hip-hop back in Melbourne. Now Hip-Hop has become all fucking party tracks. Dudes coming out pretty much emulating the songs they hear being successful in America like, ‘Shake ya booty in the club’ or Soulja Boy, there are Australian equivalent acts these days. I don’t want to make a reputation for myself as some dude that can get you dancing at a party - that’s fucking nothing. You need something with lyrical content that proves a point or highlights something that most people might not think or know about. For example, if

Throwing sticks of dynamite into coral and exploding all the ocean rock and the ocean f loor just to f loat populations of 81

f ish to the top is obviously the most effective method to kill something. But is it right? Netting too, a lot of nets get snagged just like f ishing line and once they’re cut off and released, which the boat has to do, they become what’s called a ‘ghost net’. It never decomposes and forever roams the ocean catching and killing things. That’s what me and Bail have tried to sum up, that there are methods being used that are unsound. It’s something that I think is wrong so why not try and highlight that and talk about that rather than the aimless time I spent at a train station doing tags.

“If I make a rap song I know it’s gunna live indefinitely. A bus might hit me tomorrow but I’ve created something that’s gunna be here forever.” The f irst track that comes to mind off the new album is the song ‘In Debt’. It’s pretty much an attack on Soulja Boy coz he’s got this song called ‘Gucci Bandanna’ and its just real offensive to anyone who’s a fucking rapper coz he’s like, look how much money I can make from just saying ‘Gucci bandanna, Gucci Gucci bandanna’. The f irst verse goes like, ‘I need a dope Bentleigh with a big exhaust fuck it, eco-friendly that’s porin’ on the budget. I’m guzzling bubb, covered in bling, got my sunnies in the club can’t see a fucking thing, I’m bumpin into folks like I’m dealin and husslin, but I bum their drinks n’ smokes coz really I’m nuthin. I got fooow diamond watches on my wrist and I want moooow like I’m Oliver Twist. It’s all about my hair, it’s all about my shoes, all about what I wear not about what I do. We can’t all have rides and we’re not all equal that’s why we have bikes for less important people. I can’t get from A to B without a Mercedes AMG and a private chauffer my wife’s coat’s fur. From a slaughtered tiger I imported from China I bought it to remind her I’m an awesome fucking sniper of an unsuspecting animal at point blank, I hung its head in the mansion next to the Koi tank. I got gold f ish in a gold dish, gold kicks, gold on my wrist I need gold to exist hoeeee shit! It’s Gucci bandanna Gucci bandanna Gucci Gucci bandanna’. So I reckon that is the dopest dis on human nature and any human f laws to focus on material things. It’s sickening. 82

Society doesn’t see what I’m doing as real. I’ll paint some ill piece and writers will be like, ‘Man I can’t believe how clean you got the highlights I love this f ill, I love that fade of colours,’ and I get mad respect for it and it builds me up and it makes me feel good. Then I’ll go see my parents and they’ll be like, ‘Well did you get paid?’. That shit has a massive impact on my spirit. I feel like I’m worth something to point oh-one percent of the population but to everyone else I’m just a jobless loser. Most people see me as another dude who is on his way to Centrelink on a skateboard. But that’s just it, that’s what makes us unique that’s what makes us individuals. We’re not mannequins, we’re not robots we’re not in the 9-5 world, we’re not in the rat race. We’re not depicted in the John Brack painting ‘Collins St 5pm’, where everyone’s just the same fucking face in the same fucking trench coat. You can’t always feel good and you can’t always feel like your doing the right thing when you’re surrounded by mannequins that don’t recognise you for who you are, or what you do. Roger Federer just gets admiration off anyone that’s around him. He could get on a train and people will have respect for what he does, straight up. I’ll get on a train and everyone will think I don’t have a ticket and I’m trying to fare evade. When you’re fourteen, you don’t understand what graff iti is or what it can amount to you just do it coz you’re amongst it. In my experience graff iti grew to be something so much more than a way to be cool. When all my friends stopped and started going out partying I couldn’t go with them. I had to maintain my graff iti, I had to get better, I had to keep doing it, I had to go to school in Springvale and hang out with these little grimy writers that would actually be down for spending six hours in the frosty morning on a train line. I was striving to have people say, ‘Man I saw that piece you did that’s fucking ill’. Graff iti’s everything. It’s a way of expressing myself. When you’re doing graff iti all you need is you and your own motivation. 86

“Most people see me as another dude who is on his way to Centrelink on a skateboard. But that’s just it, that’s what makes us unique that’s what makes us individuals.”

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A CONVERSATION WITH

HANDSOME JAKE BY ANDY SUMMONS

When I was f ifteen, all the bands I listened to were covered

ended up working in L.A, Texas and also did a bit of work in New York.

in ink. I was into all the punk guys from Taylor Steel’s videos. I researched those bands and found these guys covered in tattoos and thought it was pretty cool but I had no idea why I liked it at the time. I wasn’t looking at why I liked the pictures on their arms and stuff; I just thought they had something weird going on with their body and it was cool.

Through Erica, my boss in L.A., I met a guy, Manu, who owns a tattoo studio in Tahiti and I ended up living there for a month researching and surf ing.Tahiti was a huge reality shock for me mainly because of the poverty, it’s easy just to see the glossy, pro surf ing, resort side but there’s so much more to it than that. It is an amazing place.

My mum was an art teacher and I remember trying to copy Garf ield comics as a kid. She always had me painting and drawing, doing anything creative.. When I was young I couldn’t even hold a pencil properly. Mum tried to teach me heaps but I just didn’t get it. Years later I was told I had to learn to hold a pencil in order to use a tattoo machine properly. My Mum had been trying to teach me how to hold a bloody pencil properly for years, then some guy came along, told me how to do it, and that was it. I don’t think she was super impressed with that. I was set on being a graphic designer for years but all that work was on computer and I prefer drawing. Just after I moved to Melbourne from the Mornington Peninsula I got my f irst tattoo. I met a few artist and they encouraged me to get involved. From there they apprenticed me and I sorta got lost in it.

I had it easy. I was staying with Manu and he lent me his unreliable truck. So not only was I rent-free, I could explore the island and drive to have a surf before work, it was great. There were a few times when I had to run into a resort for help. I’d run into a f ivestar resort just in boardies, cos it’s so damn hot, all covered in ink and the staff would freak. They put their hands up to stop me, kinda scared I think. I didn’t realise how bizarre I must’ve looked compared to their usual guests but when I told them I just needed the phone to get help with the truck they were great. Tattooing is in the Polynesian’s culture, it’s tradition to get tattooed. I got to learn quite a bit about traditional Tahitian

“I was traveling and tattooing the world and I didn’t have any legitimate visas. I needed a bogus alias in case customs googled me...” I don’t get too caught up in the permanence of tattoos, early on I was more interested in the artistic side of it and now all the tattoos I like to draw have more of a traditional style like those from the 1940s and ‘50s. I enjoy playing with the stripped back design of traditional tattoos. Every line and every bit of shading and placement become more critical and every little detail has meaning. Whether it is Japanese or American, which are the styles I love, I research traditional designs and that has developed my style a lot.

tattoos but artists like Manu spend their whole lives learning the intricacies. I barely pricked the surface. The Tahitians were into some oriental tattoos too, probably because some of the designs are water related, which is a huge aspect of their culture. Taking tattoo guns through customs is f ine, there’s nothing illegal about it. Visas though, visas suck. It’s actually the reason behind the whole Handsome Jake moniker. I was traveling and tattooing the world and I didn’t have any legitimate visas. I needed a bogus alias incase customs googled me and I popped up tattooing some guy. A mate in England came up with the handsome nickname. I use it humorously if at all these days, it’s a bit embarrassing but I guess it kinda stuck.

There is a guy in Denmark, Henning, who specialises in Japanese tattoos and he was all over the magazines I read when I was younger, he’s incredible, so talented. Some contacts I met on an extended trip to America arranged for me to go and work for him, which blew me away. My current boss in Melbourne, Trevor, and Henning were the two artists I idolised growing up.

Trouble is generally where you f ind it, but occasionally it just has a way of f inding you. After a big night out, on my travels in Spain, I caught the bus from San Sebastian and fell asleep on the window. I woke up to a pack of cops poking me with massive guns and screaming at me. I was horribly hung over and I couldn’t understand what they were saying. Some helpful local informed

I went to America purely to see the country and ended up meeting and working in LA. Later on some friends introduced me to their tattooist in Orange County and I worked there for a bit too. I 120

“If some guy has his neck tattooed and says ‘I’m looking for a job’ I just think good luck you’re probably going to be looking for a while.”

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me that they were after a bribe. I said I had no money so they asked for my passport and papers, which I had legit for this trip. They were staring at me going through my papers and I was sitting there trying to avoid any eye contact. After a while they threw my passport in my face and stormed off. I’ve had more trouble in Melbourne though; you can get into trouble anywhere. I went to the south of Sumatra last year. It was the f irst time I’d traveled without my equipment and it was brutally intense. The surf was the biggest I’ve surfed. We jumped from the plane straight into a car for eight hours. We went over the dodgiest mountains on shitty roads covered in pot-holes the size of whales and a driver speeding so fast around blind corners. I was convinced we were gonna die before we got there. When we f inally arrived the surf was triple overhead and pretty quickly it became apparent that I was def initely gonna die. We had to burn off the excess adrenalin from the car ride so we paddled out as soon as we could. I got a good one then paid the price by copping a rogue set on the head. That was the worst feeling of my life. The next day we surfed an awesome right and I scored some of the best waves of my life. I went from such a brutal low to complete ecstasy, I couldn’t stop frothing, people wanted me to shut up but I couldn’t stop smiling. I see surf ing as my escape as opposed to my inspiration. I tattoo all day and I draw all night, that’s pretty standard but for a couple of hours I get to go surf ing and just shut off. I don’t feel very attached to my drawings. It was different when I was younger but now I see it very much as a service. People pay for my service, I tattoo them and that’s it. Sometimes I’ll take a photo if I’m proud of a tattoo or if I wanna show people. I think it’s vital for artists to always be progressing. I don’t really want to be going back and doing the same old stuff I’ve been tattooing for years. It’s too easy to become complacent and bored and that’s not good for anyone. I still have photos from ages ago I pull out every blue moon and sometimes with fresh eyes I can see something that I’d do differently next time. I’m not one to dwell on my own work. It’s better to have other artists critique it because they’re a lot more honest. I get a kick out of looking at another tattooist’s work and checking out the differences and nuances of their style, I gain a lot of inspiration that way. A lot of people are ignorant about tattoo design; they just know what they want. Some people will disagree about a certain aspect of a design but I don’t get too jacked up about it. Some folk wander into the studio I work at, Dynamic, with no idea what they want. They come to us because of the reputation. I just check that they’re serious and they know the implications and drawn them up a design, it’s great having that freedom. I’ve found that people have a false sense of knowledge with tattoos. They want a huge input to the design and, increasingly, people question my knowledge and experience. Someone might want a name tattooed and they only want it a small size. When I explain to them that if I do it that small it will blur over time and look shit they argue the point and sometimes I just wonder; are you fucking listening to me? I wonder, would you ask a builder to build you a house then tell him how to do it? I’m all up for input but I go by the rule of three, if I have to draw something more than three times or if I simply don’t think a tattoo will look good I just won’t do it.

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There’s nowhere on the body now that’s weird or taboo to tattoo. I’ve tattooed just above a clitoris. A lot more people want their f ingers tattooed but I won’t do it. Mainly because often they’re young and they’re gonna screw their lives up. Some other idiot’s probably gonna do it but I’d rather not tattoo people’s necks or hands. Having those tattoos as a tattooist isn’t a big deal. If people ask what I do and I say I’m a tattooist they’re like cool. If some guy has his neck tattooed and he says, “I’m looking for a job” I just think good luck you’re probably going to be looking for a while. Before I open my mouth plenty of people write me off as a degenerate. My parents’ generations judge me poorly and so they should. Back in their day tattoos were for criminals and miscreants and I think it’s a shame that tattooing has lost that rebel stigma. It should be an alternative art form. In one sense it still is but there are a lot of people wanting tattoos for the wrong reasons. They just wanna look cool and that’s lead to tattoo laser removal booming. A lot of my body is covered but I’ve only ever covered up one tattoo and I want to keep it that way. My tattoos remind me of what I was doing at a stage in my life but I don’t regret a one of them. There are some I’d change the positioning of but I can’t and that’s cool. A bit over a year ago tattooing hit its peak in popularity and it’s already on the decline. It’ll probably ebb back to the true tattoo enthusiasts in no time at all. There will always be people who want to commemorate a loved one who has passed away but the trend of tattoos is starting to fade. Too many shops opened up with the boom and they’re hurting now. Actually, it’s great because they’re the people who got into it for the money or because it was cool. There are a lot of people doing a shit job and they’ll go under. As long as you do nice work you’re always gonna be busy. While I was still in the states, I shot Trevor, the boss at Dynamic, an email to ask if I could work with him for a bit while I was back home visiting family. He agreed and after my f irst week with him he gave me an ultimatum to either stay in the states and keep doing what I was doing or move back to Australia and work for him. It wasn’t the sort of opportunity I could say no to, he was one of my biggest heroes and every tattooist wants to work for him. So I left behind everything, my work, my girl, my home, my life in the states, absolutely everything and came back home. When I was faced with the decision of having my girl move away from her home and everything she knew just for me, pretty quickly it wasn’t working and so I pulled the pin on it. She hates me but it was in her best interests, what can you do? It was a bit daunting working with the Dynamic guys. They’re big names and I’d idolised them since I was a kid. It’s the best decision I’ve ever made. The philosophy at Dynamic is work hard and take pride in every tattoo you do. We all critique each other’s work quite harshly and it benef its everyone. It’s still intimidating being asked to critique Trevor’s work but it’s benef icial for both of us. I’ll see stuff he doesn’t and vice-versa. It keeps the standard right up at the level we’re known for. 126

“Back in their day tattoos were for criminals and miscreants and I think it’s a shame that tattooing has lost that rebel stigma.”

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A CONVERSATION WITH

WAYNE & JARRAH LYNCH BY ANDY SUMMONS

Wayne - Victoria was a surf ing wilderness. It wasn’t ever on

pretty quick. It was an odd contrast between developing your surf ing and adhering to the rigid criteria of competitions.

the map at all. The road past Lorne didn’t even exist. A lot of the people who have grown up here or spent a lot of time round Lorne have seen that change, whereas the Gold Coast has always been the Goldy. A lot of those other places haven’t had that extreme change like Victoria. I mean I could take you for a drive and say ‘well I know the f irst three guys to surf that spot or that spot’. Now there are 50 guys out there that will drop in on you and tell you to fuck off when you’ve been there for 40, 50 years.

Competitions weren’t the driving factor of our surf ing. Sometimes the criteria really worked against what I was doing with my surf ing, so it started to cause a split between me and the industry. I felt almost schizophrenic about my surf ing you couldn’t have this really creative and experimental way of surf ing, then suddenly try and conform to a rigid structure, it just became too hard.

There’s a really weird psychology in Victoria that has something to do with the drastic transition. No one really feels comfortable, even the locals, it’s all grab n go, fuck you mate, and paddle inside.

A decision had to be made eventually, you either went the competition way or the explorative way. There’s a fundamental difference in the psychology between competing and explorative surf ing. I was much more interested in that explorative level, including looking for new breaks and incorporating surf ing into my life in a fundamental way so that it became a way of life.

I think it’s fucked. I can hardly believe it. The relentless exploitation behind the surf industry blows me away. How much money is enough? How much do they need? What do they need it all for? Where are they going? I’m not anti-prof it, everybody has to live, I’m realistic about that. Just because I’ve never made a prof it doesn’t mean I disagree with it but I look at surf ing in those early years and we truly had something so special.

At the same time as this dichotomy split in surf ing, we had a government in Australia that were so sycophantic that Prime Minister Menzies pleaded with the Americans to let us get involved in the Vietnam War. People like myself, and there were many of us, took a stand and said no to the war.

We lived in such a unique time. We had everything we actually needed, then the surf companies started up and went and fucking sold it, just to end up like the society we originally walked away from. They sold the uniqueness of surf ing as a commodity to be traded just like any other item that can be bought off a shelf. Now, surf companies marginalise people or ideas that might be a bit political or challenge their hegemony.

At eighteen you could be drawn in the draft but we weren’t allowed to vote until we were twenty-one. I didn’t put my papers in but my birthday came up in the ballot and I was conscripted to war. I refused to go, and for that I was pursued as a criminal. We weren’t considered old enough to vote but we were considered old enough to kill or be killed for this country. It was a disgrace and we were treated like scum for protesting that.

Money didn’t come into surf ing till the 70s. In those early years we’d rock up to comps because we all had an interest in competing with one another but it was nothing like the events now. The world titles were only once a year then so we had a massive amount of time where the mindset was just about the experience of surf ing and how we could develop and push what was possible.

Society was polarised by the war and we were hunted. The people who supported the war were very active and vocal with their persecution of youth and surf ing. Surf ing was seen as subversive and we were looked at as somehow undermining the very structure of society. Although there were a lot of people who were supportive – they weren’t in power. I had to grow up fast because I suddenly realised that my own society was against me.

Surf ing was an explorative and creative process. If you had to compete and you were experimenting with something that wasn’t applicable to that contest criteria, it kinda rolled you 146

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suffering at some point. People like Rupert Murdoch have so much power and they wield it without any conscious. I’m sure to hear from one of Rupert’s people shortly for that rant.

I was well known in Victoria at that time and being a surfer made me a high prof ile symbolic target for the government. The factions of society that didn’t like surfers would say, ‘oh that Lynch mongrel’s dodging the draft”. I had to learn how to disappear. I had to learn how to be invisible.

Part of the difference between my generation and Jarrah’s is that they simply haven’t had something as signif icant and divisive as the war in Vietnam and conscription forced upon them. Younger generations haven’t had such an urgent call to jump to attention and sharpen their views.

It was a wilderness along the southern coast. As soon as you went the other side of Lorne the road became a narrow dirt track. If it rained heavy I couldn’t get along the road, the wheels would spin, I would have to turn round and come home. Down south there was no tourism, there were no police there was no one except farmers and people from Colac sometimes f ishing on the beach. The wilderness made it easy to disappear. I was only on the run from the government for two and a half years. My parents were very supportive.

There was another factor back in the golden era of surf ing that I haven’t heard mentioned much and that’s the economy. We could live so cheaply. High quality fruit and veggies were prolif ic, all the farmhouses and places in towns had veggie gardens and fruit trees and people swapped and traded bag of apples for a bag of apricots. That economic moment in Australian history was conducive for the surfer’s way of living. If you didn’t want much except your car, your wetty, a surf board and shelter, you could really live an incredible life. That chance meeting of social and economic factors is unlikely to occur ever again.

When I came home my Mum and Dad would hide the car in the garage. I’d spend a bit of time at home, maybe shape a board in the workshop I had under the house. I kept a little veggie garden next door, which I worked either early or late in the day. I’d rip out veggies and go back down the coast.

“I felt almost schizophrenic about my surfing - you couldn’t have this really creative and experimental way of surfing then suddenly try and conform to a rigid structure, it just became too hard.” The Labour Party was very supportive of me dodging the draft too. Jim Cairns (a Labor Politician) contacted my Mum and said if I needed money or needed to be hidden he could help. I was invited to go to rallies and talk but there was never any pressure to do that. It was Jim Cairns who really developed the anti-Vietnam, anti-conscription momentum. They had secret organisational networks that supported everyone. I knew guys that used to f loat all over Australia thanks to that support network.

So there was more to the so-called golden era of surf, than most people acknowledge. A lot of factors were at play, it wasn’t all about the shortboard revolution, we had the time, there weren’t the crowds of today and there was an enormous opportunity to create a life however you wanted it to be. I used to sit on the beach for hours and watch f lawless surf day after day and there was no need to be out there, it was just there to be appreciated. The mentality is different now, there’s a different relationship to it all. It’s more like ‘oh shit it’ll be crowded in half an hour, better get out there, shit its f ive o’clock here they come’.

Before the war, in Lorne, the cops used to come down and try to get me out of the water for other reasons. They just didn’t like surfers so they’d come down and harass us for no good reason. I was forever getting carted up to the cop shop. I’d sit there and go, ‘whaddya want?’. They’d just be arseholes and bully me a while then let me go.

The relationship between life and surf ing was really different. I can’t adjust to how it is now because the freedom of my youth is ingrained in me. I don’t surf that much anymore. I wait for a moment at a certain break at a certain time when I know it won’t be crowded. It means I don’t ride the best surf as often as I used to, but I’m happy to ride whatever without the hustle and bustle and competitiveness.

I used to wag school all the time too. One day the teachers actually came down with the cops and they were waving me in from the surf and I was sitting out there throwing them to bird shouting ‘go and get fucked!’. The next day Mum wrote a note saying “I’m sorry for Wayne’s absence from school, he was really sick in the morning” and they couldn’t do a thing about it.

For a few years I did a lot of sailing. Until the bank decided they wanted their money back - bastards. Sailing got me out and about and away from the crowds. Sailing offered me what surf ing did in those early years. Once I put the sails up I was gone, I left it all behind.

The relentless vilif ication of surfers made me mistrust the power structures of our politicians and government and the fabric of our society. I could never trust it again, ever. I look to youth to make changes. I’d love them to be able to go out and really start to think about issues and observe for themselves what’s really going on behind the news, not only in surf ing but society too. Things like nuclear power et cetera. If you can’t have a social conscience individually and collectively the shits gonna hit the fan and there’s gonna be an enormous amount of

Paddling out in a crowded situation is hopeless for me. I don’t get the waves, I become frustrated, I get disappointed with the whole situation. Everything must change, it’s inevitable and you’ve just gotta adapt, that’s common sense but surf ing is special, it’s different to everything else. To reduce it to a competitive grovel, trying to outwit people and getting caught up in the whole one-up-man-ship psychology – I just can’t 148

do that and surf at the same time. By the time I get a wave I’m scattered. For a lot of guys that’s all they’ve know, they function like that and they can deal with it. Jarrah struggles with it and he’s a young guy in a new world and a lot of young guys do struggle with it too. There’s a rhythm you can pick up with the ocean and if your concentration isn’t solely devoted to that rhythm the whole way you surf is really different. When you get older you learn to change and adapt and be more accepting. I’ve done a lot of surf ing, I’m nearly 60 and to go out and wanna keep surf ing and surf ing is self ish. I’ve had my time, I’m happy just pottering about. It’s the same in anything, it becomes greedy if you try to hold onto it too long. Life’s all about a balance and that balance shifts through the years. There are a lot of other things in life that are very important outside surf ing, like trying not to die too quick. A lifestyle based around happiness is everything. A larger percentage of our generation wanted to shape and learn to design their own boards because it offered such a different relationship to your surf ing, a much deeper one I think. When I was young, being a surfer-shaper more than wanting to be a world champion was more important. The surfer-shaper was the person who drove the whole evolution in terms of experience. It didn’t come from world champions it came from surfer-shapers. Like Simon Anderson putting another f in on the board. I think it’s good for kids to muck around with their boards, out in the garage, its super important to gain that experience and insight and that relationship to your surf ing. The shaping aspect of surf ing is missing in a lot of places. The pros now are on tour full on so they don’t have as much time to sit down and experiment and ride all sorts of obscure designs. They constantly need boards they’re comfortable with so that they can perform at exceptionally high standard at every contest. Unless young guys, who can really surf, take up shaping and experimenting, it’s not a good outlook.

“We weren’t considered old enough to vote but we were considered olf enough to kill or be killed for this country. It was a disgrace and we were treated like scum for protesting that.” Good surf ing is very subjective. For me it’s about really basic, powerful, traditional surf ing. That strong off-the-bottom carving up the face, arcing turns, using your rail as well as f ins through turns. That doesn’t exclude any of what the pros do now. Some of the aerials they do are great- I love it. I’m not anti those sorts of things. Some airs are ridiculous but some are sensational. At the moment the pros boards are very short. I think Kelly Slater’s boards are too short. His surf ing has changed since he got on those really short boards. He’s surf ing brilliantly of course, he’s adapting with the times but there’s an aesthetic that’s not there that was a while ago. Maybe it’ll change when they get on some bigger boards later, ya know? Good powersurf ing, is what we always called it, that’s good surf ing to me.

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â&#x20AC;&#x153;Creating the equipment for something you love doing is a valuable thing. It gives you more opportunities and freedom to develop your surfing...â&#x20AC;?

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Jarrah - Improving your surf ing comes from just being in the

ocean, it comes from that whole surf ing experience. It’s a great way to f ind piece of mind. Commercially surf ing is heading towards Target and Kmart but I imagine, and hope, that there will always be people more deeply involved in surf ing than that superf icial, commercial aspect. The ocean offers such a sense of freedom and pleasure – it’s fun. I love the feeling, I love being around it. Surf ing opens your eyes in quite a few different ways. It allows you to see the world from a different perspective, especially when you’re surf ing down south [in Victoria] and you look in and there’s a huge mountain range running down to the beach. Surf ing has given me a deep understanding of the ocean. I’ve learnt about weather patterns and maps, and that knowledge helps me f ind good waves. Surf ing has given me a way to be healthy, it’s given me great joy as an outlet for creativity, both surf ing and shaping, and a way to connect with my father and friends. It’s even given me a job. It can be hard being a surfer too, especially growing up with Wayne here. He grew up in an era where he could sit on the beach for hours with no one around and watch the surf. Whereas if I see waves I’m in my wetty in half a second and I hover down to the water, praying no one else has seen it. I’ll have my hour, have a ball and come in. Surf ing has become so popular it’s hard to have a surf alone or with just me and dad, away from muppets who have no idea about proper surf ing etiquette. I think Dad really had the best time period for surf ing. To be able to surf all day and come in late, have a f ire on the beach and sleep there that night is something we missed out on. I really like the fact that if you had the desire or need, you could disappear down the coast and surf on your own. I started out surf ing on a big thick foam thing from Coles or something. It went sick, a chunk of foam wrapped in plastic. The f irst real board I had dad shaped for me. It was a 6’8”, thick and big so I could stand up. Then Dad drowned me six times and I didn’t like surf ing any more. After a while, around year seven, my mates were starting to get into surf ing so I thought I’d give it another crack, away from Dad. He made me another board and the obsession grew from there. I was riding thrusters the whole time then I made my f irst board when I was sixteen. I had to f ind something else, Dad’s boards were that bad. Nah, it was actually for work experience. I ended up shaping, spraying and glassing a single f in, which I still have. I surfed it for ages because I’d shaped it, so I was frothing at the bit. I got back onto thrusters for a while. I shaped a little dumpster diver thing for a mate but I’ve stolen that back for smaller days. I f ind Alaias fascinating because

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that’s how surf ing began going back to when the Hawaiians were surf ing big planks go better and faster. I always have a 6’0” Alaia in the car, my normal 6’4” thruster and if it’s small I’ll throw my f ish in that Dave Palmer shaped. They’re the essential three, then it’s just layers upon that. Most people who think Alaias are a passing fad don’t understand them or probably can’t ride them. You need to be extraordinarily persistent with them. They’re just a piece of wood, a lot more goes into them than that but paddling them is a chore. You’re pretty much swimming but they catch waves quite easily even though the tail sinks so low. Riding Alaias is a bit similar to snowboarding in that you’re only going off your rail. Its great to ride different shapes and boards because you get into a comfortable feeling with having pretty much anything under your feet and that transfer makes your surf ing feel even better. You can go, ‘okay I’m going back to that board I know that I need to have my feet wider or move my feet up the board to f ind that sweet spot there’. I enjoy learning new things with surf ing. There’s no wave the same, no board the same even if you shape it with the same dimensions its going to come out differently. I try and shape as much as I can. The last board I shaped came from a blank I found that had been run over. I chopped the tail off, sanded it down and gave it to a mate, who glassed it and he got a board out of it. I still haven’t done the full start to f inish shaping and glassing properly. Creating the equipment for something you love doing is a valuable thing. It gives you more opportunities and freedom to develop your surf ing, which is basically what Dad did. Shaping gives you total creative freedom and enables you to be self-suff icient. It makes you truly think about how you surf the board on any wave and allows you to manipulate the board to suit. It’s good to be able to make something with your hands,

“Commercially surfing is heading towards Target and Kmart but I imagine, and hope, there will always be people more deeply involved in surfing than that superficial, commercial aspect.” whether its shaping or any other art form, it’s a positive thing. Big powerful surf ing’s probably my def inition of good surf ing, especially to watch. Bottom turns, especially around here, are non-existent. A lot of guys my age, doing local comps and stuff have no bottom turn. They do big turns at the top, they do sick turns but there’s nothing coming up to them, they’re just gutless. I really like that powerful, critical surf ing. Big turns right in the pocket and heaps of speed, with speed you can do anything. I guess the only thing I can’t really get used to, surf ing around Victoria, is the ever increasing number of surfers and the competitive attitude and hassle in the water. That’s not the way I grew up surf ing with my dad and friends and it’s upsetting that it has become the norm now. If you don’t mind a little drive there are quite a few diverse options available without the crowds and the attitude. If you let it, that competitive attitude can ruin a surf and it just doesn’t need to be that way.

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WWW.ZOEELIZABETH.COM.AU GEORGIE AND NATHALIE AT GIANT MANAGEMENT HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY KAT COLLINS STYLING BY FELICITY DONALDSON PAINT BY JONO GOOLEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY PAPER SEA QUARTERLY

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NATHALIE AT GIANT MANAGEMENT

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GEORGIE AT GIANT MANAGEMENT

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NATHALIE AT GIANT MANAGEMENT

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GEORGIE AT GIANT MANAGEMENT

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MICHEL BOUREZ BY ALEX LAUREL

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kinda met him in Hawaii. He was one of those Euros that was waking up super early when it was big, you know. Even if it was messy he was out there, it was clear he liked the big conditions so that was the f irst thing that appealed to me. When he got on Nike we did a trip together and the waves were kinda small so we were staying at his house in Tahiti. This was when we really started up as a team. Michel’s really amped to surf non-stop regardless of the conditions. When the surf is really good, like at Greenbush, he’s on the boat hitting the rain covers and sides of the boat - he couldn’t wait to get out there. That day was really exciting it was exactly why he was going to the mentawais. He loves Green Bush. He doesn’t mind the other spot there but Greenbush is something special. He spent all day in the water. He hit the reef and had a pretty gnarly wound on his back but he still surfed all day long. Michel has a lot of power so he does some of the best carves. He has the tube riding and the turns too and is pushing his airs a lot right now. It was so hard to get him to leave the hotel room in New York.

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You know, staying with Michel had the photographer in me thinking, ‘oh fuck, sick’ I was already thinking and picturing what kind of portraits I would do of him or even the city skyline and all this stuff and when we got there I realised pretty quick the guy doesn’t like cities at all. As soon as there are a lot of people around him, even at a concert, he sort of gets claustrophobic. So getting in the subway and walking through the crowds in New York, you can never walk a straight line or cruise. You’re always bouncing around people and that’s the kind of stuff he wasn’t really keen on. I remember when we went to Barbados and we were wallowing through a small pass in the bush to get to a spot to surf and he turned around spread his arms up in the air, looked up and you could feel like that was the space he lived for. He always wants to be around nature not surrounded by concrete and buildings. If he doesn’t like the city or crowded places then why would I be trying to make a portrait of him in those places? Maybe it would be interesting visually or whatever but it doesn’t really show the personality and the realness of him. That’s why I really like the shot of the hotel because all we were doing in New York was like ok check the surf - its not good, fucking go back to the room watch some tv, watch some computers, friends drop by, ok lets go play tennis go and eat some food and go back to the room stay in the room maybe go and look at the ocan again but you know its going to be fucked. And that’s what we did in new york - we just stayed in the room because Michel hated that scene and the waves sucked. The guy is travelling so much all around the world and his body clock is set to three different times. Sometimes I woke up and he was in the fridge eating pasta at three in the morning. That’s basically it for those guys on tour. I remember seeing Kieran Perrow and his wife and the baby in the elevator and they were all so tired. It’s def initely the down side of the lifestyle and the work. I don’t like going to places and waiting for the surf to come up for the contest. If you live shooting photos of contests it’s all good high performance surf ing – that’s good. But as a photographer it’s no good shooting the tour, in a way it’s not high performance at all you know. Michel asked me to do some of the tour with him and I was happy to do it but I cant do the full tour because of other stuff I have to do with Surf Europe and stuff. He was like if you want to come to NY I have a room there and you can stay. I’m not too much into the competition vibes though. I like watching it from the couch live but being there is just most of waiting for nothing. For the trip we did together just for photos or for his training to Tahiti and Barbados or whatever was great. Every moment was incredible. Surf ing good waves is what it’s all about. That Greenbush session was what he and I live for. He is super competitive and he gets more so everyday, he wants to be at the top of the world but what he loves and what he needs is surf ing good waves. Give him a good long tube, he’s not going to be like I’m going out for an hour for the photos, he goes surf ing and he does it till there’s no light left.

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COLOUR

F ACTORY GALLERY

Fine Art Photographic Gallery

Artist : Linsey Gosper

Alone in my room

The Colour Factory Gallery is a fine art exhibition space located in the arts precinct of Fitzroy, Melbourne. It hosts photographic exhibitions with an emphasis on contemporary photo based art on a monthly basis. The gallery represents a small but growing number of photographic artists. The mission of the Colour Factory Gallery is to support and promote photographic excellence. It seeks to exhibit works of technical and conceptual proficiency that celebrate both contemporary and traditional photographic methods.

If you would like to receive invitations to our exhibitions, updates and information on what we are up to please contact us to be included on our mailing list Colour Factory Melbourne - 409-429 Gore Street, Fitzroy,Victoria 3065. (+61) 03-9419-8756 www.colourfactory.com.au gallery@colourfactory.com.au 178

Fine Art & Exhibition Printing

Colour Factory was at the forefront of scanning and digital printing in the beginnings of the digital transformation and continues to expand and evolve in the constantly changing world of photography, assembling the finest in cutting edge technology to produce exhibition quality images for artists and professional photographers. The Colour Factory Studio offers quality custom darkroom and digital printing, colour and black and white film processing and high resolution scanning. Colour Factory also offers a comprehensive service to corporate companies, including exhibitions, corporate office branding and project management. Mention this ad and receive a 10% discount during April Colour Factory uses and recommends Kodak Premier Endura Paper ENDURA Paper is engineered to last more than 200 years! Colour Factory Melbourne - 409-429 Gore Street, Fitzroy,Victoria 3065. (+61) 03-9419-8756 www.colourfactory.com.au mail@colourfactory.com.au 179

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I tell people we’re a Vasco Era tribute band. Shit, we probably

sound nothing like them. I don’t know, I’ve never seen us. We started as a really bad folk band before Will the drummer and Jono the bassist joined us. We went from playing stupid folk songs to where we are now. It’s the best playing live, it doesn’t matter if you’re playing in the worst venue in the world, you’re playing Rock and Roll. I can’t draw, I need some kind of creative outlet and so I need to write. I started writing poems and I quickly worked out that if you’re wracked with self-doubt you start to over analyse things as soon as they get any size to them. If they’re small pieces, like songs and poems, I don’t get too attached so I can still pour my ideas out without fear of emotional connection and then it’s out of my head. If I write it, I don’t have to talk to somebody about it, that’s why I write songs. I prefer to deal with things internally and more than anything else writing allows me to do that. Writing is boring on its own unless there’s music that I can connect with it. I write heaps then trawl back through and see if I can f ind something that reignites whatever I was feeling when I wrote it. It becomes less about the words and more about the music you’re making, the guitar, chords and melodies – you create a whole new dimension. Sometimes I write something that disgusts me – it’s vapid trash but I’ll save it and I may go back and read it after three months, a year, whatever it takes and in a different state of mind I may see something that works. When the words are translated into lyrics, add choruses and verses and that’s when I start telling stories. I remember how I was feeling about a girl and with hindsight and perspective I can add the conclusion to the story and it become whole. Pretty Littles have a song at the moment with no words. We’ve f inished every gig over the last twelve months with this song and it has no lyrics. It’s becoming a problem but it’s just such a tasty melody. The great thing about playing in the venues that we play in is that no one can hear what I’m saying so I can just sing what I want. Girls are awesome, man. They’re so unknown. They’re like a video game you just can’t clock. They’re an impossibility but they’re like a drug, I can never get enough. I have a really good group of amigos but I think growing up with sisters has led me to seek constant reassurance not just from girls but all those people close in my life. I need to know that they’re my really close buddies and often it’s hard for guys to express sentiments of love unless they’re drunk. It’s better than nothing being wasted and saying ‘I love you man’, it’s honest but we should shout about love more often. I fell in love with a girl in my f inal year at school - she was in the year below. I was a lapdog, I followed her wherever she did go. Oh, she had a boyfriend too. It went on for a year, I took her to my formal and it obviously wasn’t working – I was a mess. I stopped talking to her for three weeks and, I dunno what happened but, after that I kissed her and started going out with her. I’d been obsessed with her for four years. We went out for four months and it was just the worst. I’d just f inished year twelve and she was just starting it. I took a year off before uni and so I didn’t have any responsibilities apart from my girl and the best thing in the world quickly turned into the worst

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thing ever. It’s scarred me ever since, I’ve been really afraid of commitment and I’ve just found myself in a position with a really lovely girl but if there’s any dependency on me I have to bail, I’m outta there. Commitment is a very dirty word for me at the moment. Everything we do is a story. I had a dream of a mate of mine, Billy. He had a car crash and lost an arm and leg, he was a total mess. He looked at me and said, “It’s all good. It sucks that I’m never going to see you again but I’m clearly going to die very shortly.” He was so okay about it. For days after that I had death on my mind. Everything’s a story. People who say, “Oh, I can’t write a story,” are talking shit. Just write ten sentences down and that’s it. You can’t be self-conscious while you create. Every song I write is about a mistake. I don’t think I’ve written a happy song and I sing them with a smile of my face because it’s the best fun in the world, seeing people having a boogie to your songs is awesome. 182

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LUST’S DARK EMBRACE BY ANDREW DIPROSE

y inspiration for shooting nudes has changed a lot from when I f irst begun. I met photographers in New York and Australia guys like Mark Seliger and Simon O’Dwyer and they took me down a different path and my technique evolved and my style began to mature and develop. Seliger is an idol and having the chance to work with him for four months, eighty hours a week for international publications was a once in a lifetime experience that showed me what the photography industry could be like at its peak. Simon O’Dwyer is an incredible mentor and great friend. He joined me on shoots and highlighted the technical side of nude portraiture. He taught me how to relate to individuals on each shoot. Not just see the model through the lens but connect with them on a personal level and create an environment that facilitates artistic collaboration. The inspiration for eroticism is a vital aspect of my nude portraiture but it isn’t always the driving force in my work. I try to balance my belief in the objectif ication aspects of eroticism and glorifying the human body with its beauty and sexuality. Depending on the shoot and the model I might focus on their individuality and personality and on others I will make it more about the human form not the individual, depersonalising and distilling the sexuality. These photographs represent a provocation of lust and intrigue and a glorif ication of sexuality. I shot these on f ilm, the colour shots are hand painted silver-gelatin prints. Some of these shots are from a broader series of dancers for an upcoming exhibition, others are women I met in New York and some are shot here in Melbourne.

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CONTEMPORARY

SURFING PHOTOGRAPHS BY RYAN HEYWOOD

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The closed mindedness of the surf industry has bugged me from

the start. Within the industry there is a serious lack of appreciation for different cultures and customs. I’m sick of seeing surfers and photographers being sent to interesting places and only caring about the waves, it’s so fucked. Then, when magazines run a story on a trip the only shots they run are whack lifestyles of pros handing out stickers to local children or some surfer walking up the beach with his board. It’s so lame. What’s the point of going to an interesting country if you’re not going to experience the culture? My parents have always been psyched on traveling and from a young age I’ve been experiencing different cultures and I’ll always prefer traveling through strange and exciting countries than chasing waves.

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M ark + Mary at Print Graphics, Steve at Gordon and

Gotch, Elana at The Digital Aviary, Annie (intern) at The Digital Aviary, Tim at Komb Athletic, Meagan Rogers, Phill + Shane at The Colour Factory, Matt + Stu at Trigger Bros, Shaun at World Surfaris, David at Klean Kanteen, Em at Patagonia, Mark + Ozzie at Vampirate Surf boards, Paul at Kodak, Alasdair at Orange Chair, Brad at Good Time Studio, Jimmy McIntosh, Ben, James and Daryl at Hall & Wilcox, Caroline at Broadsheet, Tina at Giant Management

ndy : Jessie, Tom, Katy, Charlie, Kate ,Will, Lisa, Debbie, Ivan, Tom McCredie, Campbell, The Blue Wren Boys, Megan Rogers, Elana Harari, Tim Krotiris, The Inklettes & Antoni Jach, Alasdair MacKinnon, Lazarus Gymnopolous, Lovers, dreamers, readers and writers.

Tom

: Dazza & Buddle, Spane & Will, Melanie, Hughesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, Elana, Tim, Meagan, Lachie, Jai, Steph, Jessi, Alex Laurel, Jason Apparicio, Tains, Jimmy, Lachie Mc, Vern, Russ, Ange, Gibbo, Man-Dingo, Laz, Anna, Cat, Mogli, James, Dylan, Diana Phoenix.

ndrew : Dad, Fraser, Richard, Luke, Scotty, Jack, Simon Oâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Dwyer, JoJo, Laz, Tess, New York, John Cyr, Seliger Studio Crew, the love of music, all the crazy people. For anyone we may have forgotten we apologise. PSQ would not have happened without all your suppourt.

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