VOL.
SELECTED SPREADS JULY AUG
’09
o tw
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an ogr t bVe es e at riP re rt eg e P th su s er ad re
k 20 •$
ch ea
t? ul es •r
SE N SE ON N N O E INS 8 TH EG e 4 B ag P
and what we think of surf stars,
sharks, sex, localism, nudity, webcasts, hitler, hassling, clubbies, the future and most of all each other
MORRISON MEDIA
special Photo EXTRAVAGANZA
issue 253 Aust: $8.95 INC GST NZ: $9.95 INC GST JApAN: 1,200 Y pp 435266/00005
three days at australia’s new PiPeline ISSN 1036-3491
9 771036 349005
10 BYRON BARTLETT SOUTH COAST, NSW PHOTO: TIM JONES/STRYKER
AsK the reADers: World Tour pros turn to you for advice the Asl reADer prO: Ratbags compete in shoddy surf comp GreAt MOMeNts iN reADer histOry: Browneye, anyone? reADers fAr AND WiDe: it takes all kinds to buy a mag Asl DAres: The terrible truth about the lives of the famous
university of the surfing life sToRY & phoTos // SHaNE tUEr & Mark JackSoN
surfinglife.com.au
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Shane and Jacko go on the Bogan Supertrip of a lifetime‌
DEPt#10// rEaDErS JOURNAL
what would you do with $20,000? Do what prospective employers demand, and get a degree in Bullshitology? Do what the banks want, and put a down payment on a house? Squirrel away your coins, keep shit tight and save it all for a rainy day? here are two proud asl readers who had other ideas.
your heroes‌ shane (left) and Jacko, don their Bogan superhero headBands, drink some of their superhero magic potion and prepare to steal into the depths of the Balinese night to pillage, plunder, and er, protect the people?
Feature #01 // pgs 058-091
[T.R.I.]
Reader Issue special feature
Research and compiling // Nick Carroll • All the rest by you guys
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Barrels ‌ they’re part of our lives. Sorta fucken incredible by itself, that one. Crew checking a good one, Sunshine Coast beachie. Photo: Trent Mitchell
Feature #01 // pgs 058-091
[T.R.I.]
Reader Issue special feature
Where do you start with a magazine? Like, where does the impetus come from? Why does it EXIST for chrissake? There’s only one answer. Every good mag in the world revolves around its readers … the crew who care enough about it to trudge down to the local newsagent every month hoping to see a new cover shot, or fork out their hard earnt every 12 months to get it in the mailbox, as long as the cheeky grom down the street doesn’t rip it off first. We here at ASL have spent numerous hours of our working lives interviewing famous professional surfers, which is great and everything … but we strongly felt it was time to interview the people who by their shared stoke and commitment to surfing actually cause the magazine to appear – and have done now for 253 issues. (Holy crap!) So we did. We sent Reader Interviews out to thousands of you, hoping to god you might actually
take us semi seriously and consent to the process. And damn it all, you DID. Interviews came flooding back, from Bega to Bunbury, from Huzzas to Haiti (yeah, Haiti!), from Snapper to South Oz. The next 30 pages of the mag, stories, info, photo selection, the lot, is drawn from what you told us through those Interviews. This truly IS your mag, and we hope it tells us something – more than something – about who we all are nearly a decade into this crazy century…
If you missed doing an Interview and want a crack at it, you’ll find it on the mag site, along with a pile of other Reader stuff, www.surfinglife.com.au Special note re the supergraphs: Some percentages on the graphs might add up to a bit more or less than 100% – that’s because sometimes you made extra responses and sometimes you passed up the questions. Don’t sweat it.
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Increasingly, along with the light sparkling off a clean midday four-footer and all that other good stuff, our collective surfing vision is being filled with humans taking flight. Damien Wills, down the coast and up in the air. Photo: Ray Collins
The BesT Thing SUrFiNG’S GiVeN yOu 11.3% Friends 7.5% Natural connection 7.5% Passion/stoke/happiness 4.7% confidence / self-worth 3.8% too many reasons 2.8% kept me off the drugs 1.9% Something to do 0.9% Got me a root once 1.9% Good times 0.9% Don’t know
New age practical man bit of both 22.6% outlook on life/reason to live 9.4% the feeling 11.3% Escape/release 8.5% Fitness so what Does it all Mean? if we ever needed another reason to make this magazine, the responses to this question supplied it. one thing stood out: almost nobody had just one thing to say, and almost everybody thought they were extremely lucky to have found the ocean. surfing, it seems, affects us in all sorts of way, and almost all of ‘em are good. “Got me away from the missus when we’ve blued.” – Dave gray, Vicco “It has given me a direction in life. Growing up in the country I always thought that you had to be loaded or just super lucky to live near the beach and it was really just a dream for me. But I put in the hard yards, chose a uni on the coast, chose a profession that lets me chose where i want to live and one that will always keep me employed, then got a dream job where I only have to work seven days a fortnight …. Looking back surfing has given me everything. It has given me a life that I fkn love living!!!” – angus thompson, nsw south coast “That bonding between people that is unexplainable. You can meet a complete stranger and then start talking about surfing and before you know it, it can be like you’ve known this person for your entire life and are now thinking about having him/her in your wedding party. Funny stuff this surfing. BUT WOULDN’T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY...” Jason brennan, south oz
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FEEDiNG Time Me and my mates had been surfing a good-sized swell with light nor-east winds at fingal back beach and got out of the water only due to the large number of bait fish in the water. So we travelled a bit further down the coast to a beachie peak with about 15 guys in the water and some nice waves coming through. After a half-hour, and seeing the occasional school of baitfish in the gutter between the shorey, I was looking at my feet in the clear green-blue water when a small bait school engulfed me. I casually paddled out of the bait school and watched it move slowly out to sea and towards another surfer. I was about to mention to him that it was probably a good idea to stay away from the bait when a large tiger shark cruised under me and my board, changed direction, accelerated and smashed the school of fish not five metres from my new mate. I could see the large square head of the shark, its tail whip twice with incredible power when it accelerated and the dusky spots that form the stripes of the tiger shark up close. I told my new mate (who hadn’t seen it hit the bait) that there was a big shark under him and he agreed that it “was a bloody big shark!” I do not know whether it was because I saw the shark swim off or that there was plenty of bait fish around, or whether pure adrenalin had affected my judgement, but for some reason I did not fear an attack and thought it was a cool experience. After warning the other surfers in the water, they all exited the water and I managed to get two waves to myself before paddling in. Andrew Prosser, Sunny Coast
FriNGE BeneFiTs it was pretty easy. Dad used to give me stuff, so I used to ask Mum all day can I go for a surf from when I was about five years old. Dad says it worked because now when he gets home from work, Mum says, “Take him for a surf will you”. He used to say Mum didn’t like him surfing all the time, but now she loves it. Ryan Slattery (age 11), nsW central coast
FINDING YOUR OWN WAVE My own story would be the best I know of. I lived in one of them small coastal towns where everybody knows everyone and you can’t escape other people’s problems let alone your own, so one day at the peak of a depression binge I hit the highway with $200 in my pocket and started hitch-hiking. I didn’t know were I was going or what I was doing, but I had a swag, surfboard, guitar (to busk) and a bag of clothes. I slept on beaches, in carparks, motel lobbies and resort roofs. Along the way I met so many people who gave me money, food, a bed and advice. I lived with hippies in the bush, stayed with millionaires on the Goldie and mowed motel lawns for a bed. Now after travelling up and down the coast surfing for six months, I’ve ended up with a house, a job and a relatively steady lifestyle away from the hassles back home and I can surf almost any time. All at the age of 18. I have learnt so much and feel so empowered and better for the experience. I’d like to take this opportunity to also thank everyone for helping me along the way. Jake Morante, Noosa via Hawks Nest
SPANKERS! Nothing pisses me off when I read about locals who think they have some right of way at their break. To my mind a local is any person in the water at the time and they all have the right to catch a wave whether it be me or Kelly. Those “locals” who think they own the water are spankers and they should all stick their heads up a dead bear’s arse. Big Gordon, Vicco
Feature #01 // pgs 058-091
[T.R.I.]
Reader Issue special feature
MAY I BE OF SERVICE, MA’AM? I saw a current Queensland Channel 7 weather girl/surf-report chick who may or may not be named Liz lose her bikini bottoms to below her knees after getting caught inside at a sizeable swell at Ti Tree Bay, Noosa a few years ago (before she was famous). She had copped a pounding and had to decide whether to duck dive and not lose position or salvage her strides and pride. She chose to duck dive a couple of set waves (legend!) as the bathers inched down, before jumping off her board and fetching her togs. Me and my mates would often see Liz and her friends surfing around Sunshine Beach and I thought this would be a perfect moment to introduce myself, so I paddled over and offered her a hand. I’m pretty sure the offer of assistance was laughed off and to her credit she paddled back out smiling! Andrew Prosser, Sunny coast
The best thing surfing’s given us is a reason to … well, to stop and look at this pic and think “Fuck! Where was I that day?” July east swell on the Caloundra bar. (Don’t worry – everyone missed it!) Photo: Trent Mitchell
riDers: Byron Bartlett, dean Bowen, tim and sam wrench,
on days like this you’ve got to charge. who cares how it ends? it’s only water. Byron Bartlett, stoked even to go down fighting.
[rule of three Feature #02 // pgs 094-103
[T.R.I.]
WoRds // NICK CARROLL • phoTos // JoNES/StrYkEr
surfinglife.com.au
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dylan longBottom, tim taplin, anD a bunch of local suPer groMs
it’s one of surfing’s bits of unwritten wisdom: three solid, back-to-back days is pretty much the limit. try it one time – hell, you probably have already. surf for less than that and you’re still not quite full up on surf stoke; try to surf for more and your body and mind will scream at you to stop before something snaps. recently a dead-keen crew on the nsw south coast put the rule of three to the test in a freak burst of winter swell – and as you’ll see in the next few pages, they pushed the rule all the way to the edge….
the greenissue blue is th e n e
252
TreeS are GreaT,
ISSN 1036-3491
9 771036 349005
the asl green Issue :: THe STaTe OF OUr OCeaNS // aUSTraLia’S mOST eNDaNGereD WaVeS // THe PrObLem WiTH SUrFbOarDS
MORRISON MEDIA issue 252 // sept ’09 Aust: $8.95 INC GST NZ: $9.95 INC GST JApAN: 1,200 Y pp 435266/00005
09 PAUL MORGAN SOUTH COAST, WA PHOTO: MICKEY SMITH
w
But hoW aBout We save the ocean?
Surfing’s dirty little secret
WHy OUr beST FrieNDS are the Planet’s Worst eneMIes
10 to Defend
our Most endangered Waves, aND WHaT yOU CaN DO FOr THem
unsung champs
OF surFIng’s envIronMent MoveMent
…& WHy THe beST THiNG We CaN DO FOr THe PLaNeT iS staY hoMe
What are the biggest threats to our oceans? Where have all the fish gone? When did things start going wrong? Why has no-one invented an ecofriendly surfboard? Who’s doing something about it? how can you help?
GREEN ISSUE
We were wary of doing this magazine. don’t get us wrong, we’re stoked to be involved with the growing tradition of green issues; but while making this one we realised how big our environmental problems are, and what it could take to fix them. We learnt that recycling won’t save the planet. Neither will refusing plastic bags at the supermarket, installing energy-efficient lightbulbs, or buying hemp t-shirts. We learnt that the average australian uses 30 times more of the earth’s resources than the average indonesian, and we need to get our energy use closer to their levels to make the real differences required. This means massive changes to how australia produces and uses energy, and massive changes to our lifestyles. really being green is about making environmental awareness a factor in everything that we do … but we also learned you’ve got to start somewhere. Little steps like recycling and buying environmentally friendly products help the big steps happen. For aSL, this meant sourcing a printer committed to the pursuit of the
best practices of environmental management, that has recycling programs for paper, inks, aluminium plates and solvents. From this issue onwards, aSL will be printed on 50 percent post-consumer recycled pulp.* if you want paper out of your life altogether, you can subscribe to the online version of aSL and get it print-free. The small steps won’t change the planet by themselves, but they might change how you care about it. There’s a sustainability teacher at an australian university who tells his students: “it’s not the wilderness out there that i’m interested in. it’s the wilderness in your head.” What he’s getting at is that it will take some wild and unpredictable thinking to save the planet. if anyone should be good at thinking unpredictably, it’s surfers. Let’s make it happen.
*see p.121 for more info on our print practices.
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words: tim fisher
{{Intro}}
The nose of a board the only evidence of a surfer in exactly the right place. photo: GRAMBEAU
windswell // contents // intro // travelog // letters // foX // FROTH // i shit you not // reader pics // HYBR // flash // MY beach // technique surfinglife.com.au // 87
Laurie Towner chose to off-set the carbon emissions from his June flights to Tahiti by paddling in, instead of towing. photo: GRAMBEAU
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{{contents}} Windswell
green issue the
State Of The Ocean She’s our playground and provider, but what are we doing to look after Mother Ocean? Saltwater wells in my eyes
Ten To Defend Our most endangered points, peaks, bays, breakwalls and beaches, and what you can do to fight for ’em. On the road again
Mind Your Step “Take only photos, leave only footprints” reads cute on postcards, but what damage are our travels really causing? Not another Indo trip
Pitching In ASL sends a crew to get their green on in Java. Tents keep ’em sheltered, perfect surf keeps them sane. We are one, but we are many
Doing Their Bit Meet seven magnificent surfers who care more than most about our coast. Smash the fibreglass ceiling
The Chink In Our Armour They’re our best friends, and the planet’s worst enemies, so where are the healthy surfboard options? Reduce, reuse, recycle
Standing Firm What the surfbrands are doing to keep the world clean and green.
outgoing 114 Stuff // You got the right stuff, baby 119 Reviews // Stuff made out of unusual stuff 121 Grass Roots // The Green Firemen top the ladder 122 Flick Off // Page turns over a new leaf 126 Next // It’s all about you! The Reader Issue takes off
surfinglife.com.au // 89
// flash // MY beach // technique
47 58 70 76 88 96 105
Darling, it’s better down where it’s wetter
windswell // contents // intro // travelog // letters // foX // FROTH // i shit you not // reader pics // HYBR
Features
And get yourself to www.surfinglife.com.au for more green goodness
14 Intro // Fish: brain food 19 Travelog // Alex’s Cook Islands adventures 21 Letters // Think, then write. In that order please 26 Fox // Is Donna, is good 31 I Shit You Not // Ben gets deep 33 Reader Photos // Provide art, win craft 34 Heard Ya Been Ripping // Owen Wright. Duh. 36 Flash // Man versus machine 40 My Beach // Yadin says “it’s a Gas” 42 Technique // Jordy ditches big
There are no magic solutions to the world’s problems. No green bullets to bring back extinct species or dissolve toxins in our oceans, and no scientists inventing machines that reverse climate change. Which just means we’ve got to get involved.
green issue the
Thinking it’s the government’s job to fix the environment is too easy. The people in power – politicians, big business – won’t do their bit unless we want them to, but we’ve got to walk it like we talk it, too. This magazine won’t save the planet, but hopefully, it will give you enough ideas to make your future in it a lot brighter.
GREEN ISSUE
GREEN ISSUE
by Tim Baker
How we’re killing the world’s oceans, and what we can do about it ...
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photo: MCKENNA
surfinglife.com.au // 93
GREEN ISSUE
desalination Like a junkie trying to find another intact vein to give themselves a shot, we continue to find new and inventive ways to damage the environment in the name of maintaining our current lifestyles rather than mending our ways. Desalination is the latest vein we ’ve f o u n d t o t a p, a n d t h u s accelerate a path to environmental oblivion. Maybe like a junkie, we need to hit rock bottom before we will change, to find there are simply no veins left to jab. Massively expensive and energy intensive desalination plants suck saltwater from the ocean, remove the salt to produce drinking water and discharge a highly concentrated salty brine back into the ocean. Never mind that this process produces tonnes more greenhouse gases contributing to the climate change than caused the water shortages in the first place. Or that increased salinity in sea water threatens the survival of many marine species. Or that we use this expensive and energy-intensive freshwater to flush our toilets. Former NSW Premier Bob Carr once dismissed desalination as “bottled electricity” because of its intensive energy use. So why the hell is there a desalination plant planned for Sydney? That plant will produce carbon emissions equivalent to putting 220,000 extra cars on the road. Desalination is quickly spreading throughout the world as a solution to freshwater shortages. It is seen as a quick fix for governments who have trouble selling the idea of drinking recycled sewage to a sceptical public. Those who stand by it claim the salty brine is quickly diluted by the vastness of the ocean, conveniently regarding the ocean as an infinite resource, despite the clear evidence to the contrary. Already, Australia’s first large-scale desalination plant in Perth, WA, has been forced to slash production because of a worrying decline in oxygen levels in Cockburn Sound, where the plant discharges.
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The local Water Corporation has asked that the need to monitor oxygen levels be removed from its licence conditions. It claims the falls in oxygen levels are due to natural variability and has nothing to do with the desalination plant. The Gold Coast recently opened its own desalination plant, with others to follow in Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, a n d a s e c o n d p l a n t i n Pe r t h . Desalination plants are also springing up around the world – in China, India, the US, Europe, Africa and the Middle East, as the world confronts a looming crisis in freshwater supplies. The World Wildlife Fund has expressed alarm at this widespread embrace of desalination as “the new dams” of the world, without proper consideration of their environmental impacts. Desal plants also divert money, research and resources from more sustainable options like improved water efficiency and rainwater harvesting. It is cheaper, technically easier, less energy intensive and more environmentally friendly to recycle and purify brownwaste sewage into drinking water than to desalinate seawater. There are also concerns that desalination will be used as an opportunity to spread unsustainable urban and agricultural development for short-term profit. A comprehensive repor t on desalination worldwide by the WWF concludes: “There is much that is not known on the cumulative environmental effects of large-scale desalination, with particular attention needed to the cumulative impacts of intake structures on aquatic or marine life, the behaviour and effects of concentrated brine discharges, and the disposal or discharge effects of a considerable list of potential other pollutants.” Even the normally conservative World Bank has sounded a warning about the spread of desalination around the globe. “Desalination should remain the last resort, and should only be applied after cheaper alternatives in terms of supply and demand management have carefully been considered.”
Kieren Perrow and a beautiful moment among the high-rises. photo: GLASER
plastic
In 1997, Califor nian captain Charles Moore crossed a section of the Nor th Pacific Ocean nor mally avoided by sailors because of its lack of wind. Returning to southern California from Hawaii after a yacht race in his boat Alguita, Captain Moore was shocked to discover an unending trail of plastic debris. “As I gazed from the deck at the surface of what ought to have been a pristine ocean, I was confronted, as far as the eye could see, with the sight of plastic,” he later wrote. “It seemed unbelievable, but I never found a clear spot. In the
week it took to cross the subtropical high. No matter what time of day I looked, plastic debris was floating everywhere: bottles, bottle caps, wrappers, fragments.” This vast floating island of plastic, trapped by swirling ocean currents known as the North Pacific Gyre, is thought to be twice the size of mainland USA. It has become known as the Great Garbage Patch, and it is where the world’s plastic waste accumulates. This plastic soup is breaking down into tiny pellets and entering the food chain, swallowed by marine creatures mistaking it
for plankton. “Transpor ted and concentrated by plastic pellets, some of the most toxic pollutants known are being released into the food web. Farmers can grow pesticide-free organic produce, but can nature still produce a pollutantfree organic fish? After what I have seen firsthand in the Pacific, I have my doubts,” writes Moore. Plastic constitutes 90 per cent of all litter floating in the world’s oceans. The United Nations Environment Program estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.
photo: SHIELD
“It is cheaper, technically easier, less energy intensive and more environmentally friendly to recycle and purify sewage into drinking water than to desalinate seawater.”
With coastal cities constantly growing and the country still in drought, state governments are finding desalination easier to sell the public than recycled water. This construction on the Gold Coast was a temporary test desalination plant. Unless we show politicians we want action on sustainable water solutions, we’ll have to get used to much worse on our horizons. photo: MITCHELL
surfinglife.com.au // 95
the
GREEN ISSUE
danger zone by aNDy mOrriS
aUSTraLia’S Most-threatened WaVeS
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Blake Ainsworth riding a rare beast: good Kirra. PHOTO: TED GRAMBEAU
surfinglife.com.au // 97
A lot of things can land a wave on the endangered list. Some threats affect the way the wave breaks, others might see you surfing it with 60 more faces than usual. Or having chronic sore throats and ear infections plaguing your every surf. Or scarring a natural landscape for ever with inappropriate development. Pulling this feature together, we’ve treated the idea of Endangered Waves as any spots where the quality of the surfing experience is under threat. Imagine waking up one morning to news that a sewage outfall will be discharging chemicals into your local lineup, or a multi-million-dollar housing development is planned for the hill overlooking your once quiet beachbreak, or a jetty will be built straight through your local point. Threats to our waves are coming from everywhere. Here are the waves at the tip of the (melting) iceberg.
QUEENSLAND // KIRRA POINT, KIRRA The Wave For the past decade Kirra has been the weak and inconsistent closeout end section of the Superbank, breaking wide on a thick outside bank. Occasionally epic in a solid swell, generally it’s not even a shadow of its former self. Why is it endangered? Despite government legislation specifically requiring the “recreational amenity” be protected, the Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing Project (TRESBP) has used a combination of dredging and sand pumping to widen the beaches and fill Kirra’s bay much quicker than Mother Nature could shift sand up the coast. Kirra now lies under thousands of cubic metres of sand. What might happen if nothing is done? Despite the most active swell season in a generation and some of the worst beach erosion in years along the Gold
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Coast, northern New South Wales and the Sunshine Coast, Kirra lost barely any sand. Over the past 10 years, surfers have mostly given up on Kirra, turning the once prosperous town quiet as they drive straight past the famous headland and continue on to the glory of the Superbank, which is now also under threat (see Superbank). Who's on to it? When a sand bypass system for the Tweed River was first raised by the State Government, a number of local surfers, including Rabbit Bartholomew, Wayne Deane and Bruce Lee, were consulted. They recommended pumping the sand further north of Kirra Point, but were ignored. Constant media attention and numerous public rallies organised by www.kirrapoint. org in conjunction with Kirra Surfriders’ Club and Surfrider Foundation have helped create social awareness of the issues facing Kirra. An alternative long-term solution has been decided
on, and involves, among other things, pumping sand further north! Short term, the Government has finally admitted there’s a problem and committed $1.5 million towards tasks such as bulldozing sand back into the dunal system, and trucking about 20,000 cubic metres of it from Kirra to rebuild Palm Beach, which was severely eroded in the huge swell event of May ’09. On June 16, ‘09, the New South Wales Government announced a further $5.5 million to be injected into the continuation of the Tweed River Entrance Sand Bypassing Project. Let’s hope they pump it where it’s required. How can you help? You can join the immense Bring Back Kirra Campaign by jumping online and signing the petition at www. kirrapoint.org. or writing a letter to a politician. If you have any specific questions, contact Neil Lazarow (n.lazarow@griffith.edu.au).
the
danger zone
QueeNSLAND // SUPERBANK,, RAINBOW BAY the Wave The longest and most consistent sandbar in the country and maybe the planet, the Superbank is currently r iddled with deep holes and unlinkable sections. There are still flickers of hollow glory behind the rock and around the Greenmount section, but often it’s a wave more suited to hanging five. WhY Is It endangered? Like Kirra to the north, sand dredging and pumping has caused the bay to fill up and the beach to widen, pushing out past the headlands at
Snapper and Greenmount, creating one super-long Superbank. Now that sand in the Tweed has been brought down to manageable levels, pumping has been scaled back dramatically, and recent heavy seas managed to rip sand off the beaches and significantly modified the banks. What MIght haPPen IF nothIng Is done? The creation of the Superbank was an incredible, temporary, fluke, but its death is inevitable. Despite the drop in levels, the TReSBP will continue to pump sand in order to maintain a safe
spewin’ sand. Photo: trent mitchell
entrance to the Tweed River and buffer beaches to the north. If managed correctly, we’ll still have insane waves at Snapper, Greenmount and Kirra, but it’s unlikely the Superbank will link up the points again. According to surfer and scientist Neil Lazarow from Griffith university, the breaks from Duranbah to Kirra may be worth up to $80 million per year to the local economy. If these waves disappear, then so could this money from local and travelling surfers. Who's on to It? Local surfers and surfing groups,
GREEN ISSUE
including Snapper Rocks Surfriders Club, Bring Back Kirra and the Surfrider Foundation, are campaigning for better management of the whole sand-bypassing system, which includes strategies to maintain wave quality at Snapper. hoW can You helP? Fo r m o re i n f o r m a t i o n o n t h e sand bypass project go to www. tweedsandbypass.nsw.gov.au. You can contact Neil Lazarow if you would like more information (n.lazarow@griffith.edu.au).
Better days at the superBank. Photo: gramBeau
the outside Bank at kirra may occasionally offer freight train kegs like this, But ask anyone, including groms who never surfed it, and they’d prefer old kirra. Photo: mitchell
surfinglife.com.au // 99
You might remember the promise of technological innovation. Beyond 2000, we’d be working less, playing more. We’d all have jet-powered rocket packs and be happy and contented, all while contributing to the health of the environment and a sustainable future. But in our goal to advance the human race we’ve gone a long way to kicking the shit out of the planet.
“We can help take the pressure off the planet by reducing our carbon footprint in any number of ways. But central to this is the need for everyone to be informed, rather than a consumerist sheep.”
GREEN ISSUE
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We’ve been bombarded with messages about how to reduce our impact on the environment. Turn things off at the plug; reduce, reuse and recycle; walk or cycle rather than drive; go vegetarian; use less; desire less ... Many surfers recognise the interconnectedness of life on the planet and have made changes to the way we live, but for the rest of us, what changes do we need to make? What does all this talk about carbon and carbon credits actually mean? And is simply being a surfer a step in the right direction, or are we creating more problems than the rest of the population? Climate Change: it’s not coming, it’s here If too much Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is present in the atmosphere, it becomes a pollutant. Key triggers for this are the loss of forests and ocean acidification (which you’ll have already read about this issue). Part of this chemical process produces carbonic acid, which makes it harder for organisms like krill and coral (and all other species that have some sort of shell) to produce calcium. Put simply: no calcium = no coral reefs. The United Nations estimates that by 2050, our demand on nature will be twice the planet’s ability to produce. At an estimated 28 tonnes per person, Australians currently lead the world as the worst per capita emitters of C02 – even worse than the USA. This is mainly because of our reliance on coal, a very dirty fuel, to generate electricity. Australia is blessed with significant natural energy sources (sun, waves and wind), but if we don’t let the Government know we
want to use these safer, cleaner and greener energy sources over fossil fuels, they’ll continue with business as usual. Most climate scientists believe that global temperatures have risen by about one degree Celsius over the past century. If current patterns continue, the impact on our ecosystems – and therefore not only our quality of life, but in some cases our ability to live in certain areas – will be huge. Humans might be able to adapt to temperature changes of a few degrees, but nature works to different time scales, and the impact on plant and animal species and ecosystems could be devastating. Experts say that climate change will also lead to droughts in many areas, and increased rainfall and flooding in others. This will have an impact on the productivity of land for forests and agriculture and also the amount of runoff and pollution going into the ocean. Because everything on earth is connected, what’s bad for the planet will ultimately be bad for the species known as homo sapiens. Measuring your footprint So you’ve heard you’ve got to reduce your carbon footprint, but where do you start? First, you’ve got to find out how to measure it. Carbon calculators are great tools to help you work out the level of your CO2 emissions each year. There are heaps online, and I like a couple. The WWF calculator lets you create an avatar, including one option with a Rob Machado afro – www.wwf. org.au/footprint/calculator. Carbon Neutral – www.carbonneutral.com. au – also has a calculator that allows you to punch in individual trips (e.g. Sydney to Indo) to see how much pollution you’re creating.
The Carbon Costs Car: 2.5 kg per 10 km Jetski: up to 150kg / hour Plane: 20 kg per passenger per 100km Boat: around 1kg per horsepower per hour
what is carbon? Carbon is a naturally occurring element and forms the basis of all living organisms. It is also present in fossil fuels (coal, fuel, natural gas, wood). It is released into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) when aerobic organisms like us breathe, when plants and animals die and when fossil fuels are burnt. CO2 is removed from the atmosphere through two major processes: photosynthesis (sucked up through plants and trees, which are anaerobic) and through ocean absorption. By reflecting the sun’s energy back to the earth in the form of heat, carbon (along with other naturally occurring greenhouse gases) plays a vital role in the atmosphere by keeping the earth warm enough for humans and all the other life forms on this planet. The more CO2 that is released, the more heat is trapped in the atmosphere.
carbon offsets anD carbon creDits One of the strategies being developed to help reduce our C02 emissions is a cap and trade system. The Federal Government will “cap” the amount of CO2 that high-level polluters can emit into the atmosphere. This is done by putting a cost on carbon pollution based on existing or projected emissions. Over time the limits will be reduced until the goals for pollution reduction are met. More efficient production processes, a switch to renewable energy and creating more energy-efficient products are just some of the ways that CO2 can be reduced. More efficient businesses can sell their pollution allowances, or “credits”, to those who are less efficient. These are called “offsets” (but have been referred to as “guilt mitigators” by Dr Tony Butt). A word on carbon offsetting though. First, it might not encourage us to actually reduce our emissions as many of the caps are fairly arbitrary. Individuals could also buy their way out rather than actually committing to improving the planet. A
good example of this is paying to offset a flight, rather than not getting on the plane. Second, not all C02 offsetting programs are equal – some large-scale tree farms can have significant environmental damage over the long-term. This is because only one species of tree is grown, rather than a more natural mix of species. But as these tree farms are cheaper to operate and can capture much more CO2 than mixedspecies plantations that actually deliver a higher level of environmental benefits, they’re more common.
why shoulD we care? Let’s start off by looking at this from a completely selfish perspective. The ability of coral reefs to protect islands might be compromised. The structure and integrity of reefs may also change and this could have a direct impact on surf quality in many tropical locations. Lowtide surfbreaks may also be lost. There is a chance that access to certain locations will be cut off, or the cost of getting to places will go up, as will the risk of illness. As surfers we are on the front line, where the consequences of global warming and any other form of environmental abuse feed back to us more quickly.
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to get to this wave from sydney, you’ll clock up nearly 3500 km in the air to perth, then Burn through another 1070km and 150 litres of diesel on the 12-hour 4wd trip to this carpark. that’s around three times your own Bodyweight in carBon emissons, Before you’ve even hit the surf ... and then you’ll do it again on the trip home. pro surfers take trips like this as part of their JoB – would you turn them down if you were in their position? Photo: Bauer
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GREEN ISSUE
by NeiL LaZarOW
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The MORNING OF THE EARTH LIFeSTYLe APPeALS TO A LOT OF uS, But do surFers actuallY lIve the sloW lIFe, take the long road and enJoY the JourneY?
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if fully inflated with air, this 7500 cubic-metre balloon would hold less than 50 grams of carbon dioxide. we’d need half-a-million balloons to capture the weight of all the c02 in an average australian’s yearly consumption of 28 tonnes (although the well-travelled author of this piece calculates his personal usage closer to 50 tonnes). the balloon’s burners guzzle nearly 180 litres of lpg during an hour-long flight, emitting a little over 300kg of carbon dioxide – roughly what one person would clock up on a one-way flight from the gold coast to melbourne. air travel is cheaper than ever and the lure of escaping overcrowded local lineups is a luxury hard to pass up, but the carbon-cost of our surfing lives plays an undeniable part in global warming. Photo: mitchell
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travel Is a core Part oF the surFIng exPerIence, AND INDONeSIA WILL ALWAYS Be OuR NuMBeR ONe DeSTINATION. but with the effects of global warming everywhere we look, how can we keep getting on aeroplanes with a clear conscience? aSL decided to pull an indo experience apart to see if we couldn’t put it together again with a few low-impact tweaks.
GREEN ISSUE
Words BY aNTHONy WaLSH Photos BY aNDreW SHieLD sIdeBars BY CHriS biNNS & NaTHaN myerS
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The little Mitsubishi that could overcomes the seemingly impossible, and drives away from great waves.
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chris garret with the old timBer pallets he’ll use for one new surfBoard. Photo: trent mitchell
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GREEN ISSUE
by Tim FiSHer
You don’t need asl to tell you how lucky you are: you’re a surfer in australia. We have experiences that most folks will never dream of … yet most of us don’t do much to make sure the things we love about surfing will be there for future generations. Getting involved doesn’t mean you have to grow dreadlocks and throw yourself at whaling boats in the antarctic. There are thousands of different ways to do your bit. as these surfers show, it’s about finding your favourite colour, and painting it green.
SeveN SuRFeRS coMMItted to change. The Realist :: ChRIS GARReTT
If he was into the idea, chris garrett could be a poster-boy for the sustainable surfing movement. a well-known shaper with decades of experience, Garrett turned his back on suburbia and moved his family into the bush to work on a vegie garden, live in a shed and make surfboards out of recycled wooden pallets. but although his website features his outdoor composting toilet, none of these moves are about making a statement. it’s just that living simply makes sense. a lot of sense. “Twenty-five years ago you could make better money than a tradesman doing handcrafted surfboards,” he says. “but as the industry changed, surfboard prices remained static while rents went up, and i was forced to either embrace technology or find ways to cut back.” One option was to shape at home and cut out the need to rent a factory; a great idea, but not really doable from his family’s Gold Coast home. He considered the South Coast, then, “while bumbling around”, he found a 30-acre block in a valley half an hour from the Goldy and 10 minutes from the beach, which suited him to the ground. Garrett’s into permaculture and wooden
boards, but is keen to point out that doesn’t make him a hippy; even if he does have that composting toilet. “i could have spent $8000 on a septic system, or do this, and spend $200,” he says, explaining the custom thunder-box. “and you get compost. it might be a little bit of work every couple of months, but if you’re out here on the land, you may as well. and just an hour a week in a vegie garden or working out different ways to plant things, you end up with beautiful organic food. you don’t have to do it on 30 acres, you could do it in your back yard,” Chris says. “i’m just being mindful, and i want to know that if the shit hits the fan i’ll be able to survive. There’s a certain challenge in living simply; that’s what it’s really about. it’s like going out in big waves undergunned and pulling it off.” as for his shaping, experimenting
with alternative materials and making the odd fish doesn’t mean having to abandon highperformance craft.“The whole idea of a shaper is to make someone surf beyond their natural ability, to make them step up and progress. That’s what i try to do with every board i make.i’m not interested in sacrificing anything for performance. i make a lot of retro boards – the timber ones seem to head that way because the people who want them are in that market, but 15 years ago they were the people who’d have bought mini-mals! and now they’re buying fishes, so that’s great. but everyone, whether they’re a pro or an average joe, wants to do the same thing, and that’s go fast and turn.” There’s another reason for having a serious crack at using wood in surfboards, and Chris explains it this way. “it’s about wanting what you have, not having what you want. Do you really need another surfboard because this one’s looking a bit brown? That view might keep the industry rolling, but i want to build a product that’s going to last. That’s why i did the timber board thing – to make something more durable for
not much extra cost. “People look at the timber pallet board i make and go ‘Wow, it’s so environmentally friendly!’ but it’s got twice the amount of glass and resin as a normal board ’cos you’ve got to glass the inside and the outside. although we’ve eliminated the blank and we’re milling a whole board out of three pieces of wood, it’s an inefficient use of petrochemicals, even if it is an efficient use of timber. i don’t claim an environmental advantage with these boards, they’re just slower to the rubbish dump … but if everyone took a bit more care in the first place, you could make boards that last. “We’re very pr ivileged as surfers in australia to be able to walk down to the beach and go surfing,” Chris continues. “We can fall out of our beds and land in the ocean, it’s relatively pollution free – that’s such a great thing.” So how do we keep it that way? “Don’t eat so much meat – which is one of the biggest things you can do for the environment – and don’t drive from burleigh to ballina looking for surf on a small day,” Chris answers. “Just be mindful. realise what you’re doing as you’re doing it.”
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For the past 50 years, benzene, methyl ethyl ketone like everyone else on the peroxide … a truly dazzling planet, the surfing world array of stuff, a fair bit of it has been busy making a poisonous, and produced in virtue of plastic. It’s not such quantities that if we laid too fine a point to say the product of the past halfwe’re addicted to it. century end-to-end, it’d circle the globe almost This year, like most of twice, or reach a fifth of the past 25, around the way to the Moon. a million surfboards GREEN ISSUE will be produced. But it doesn’t. Instead, by NiCk CarrOLL And whether they’re it sits in landfills, along hand-carved in an with its waste product, Aussie country town stubbornly resisting or pressure-bagged biodegradation…our in a Thailand factory, own little contribution they’ll have one thing to the world’s in common: they’ll ecological woes. be petrochemical derivatives. Question is: in all the years that surfing’s been underneath those silky sorta environmentally curves will be names aware, how come you’ve never heard: nobody’s been able toluene di-isocyanate, phtlalic to sell us a truly – or even acid, polyether polyol, vaguely – Green surfboard?
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Someone’ll shape ‘em, we’ll surf ‘em. But … then what? Polyurethane blanks awaiting shipment at South Coast Foam. Photo: TRENT MITCHELL
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the BIggest neWs In surFBoard MakIng In that Whole 25Years haPPened on deceMBer 5, 2005,When gordon clark sent a Fax to hIs custoMer Base. Clark Foam was the world’s biggest producer of polyurethane surfboard blanks. Clark’s customers were pretty much every surfboard maker in the uSA and europe, and the fax was a doozy. It explained that as a result of threats to his business from impending environmental laws, Clark was shutting down – immediately. No six-month tail-off period, no last orders, nothing. To Clark’s customers, this seemed a massive disaster. But to alternative, g reen-inspired boardmakers, it seemed like the chance of a lifetime. Companies as far apart as homeblown Blanks in Cornwall, england, and Ice-Nine Foam in California began working on sugarbased polyurethane blanks, replacing some of the chemical content with plant derivatives. Recyclable ePS foams, rapid-set epoxy resins and
plant-based fibre matting were all brought forth as possible solutions in a post-Clark world. Wood even made a comeback as a rail material for the otherwise high-tech Firewire project. The peak seemed to be reached two years ago when the eden Project, an experiment in sustainable living in St Austell, Cornwall, made a completely plant-based board: balsawood, hemp glass and resin distilled from an “oilproducing plant”.
Green claims continue to be made on behalf of new board technologies – Cream surfboards, a company based in Germany and aspiring to global reach (Rob Page is Cream’s man in Australia), runs a YouTube clip showing one of their boards being milled down to make kids’ toys. Yet none of these ideas have taken significant root. Or we, the boardbuying public, haven’t insisted on them. Yet.
“A lot of old-time craftsmen are still entrenched in the same things they’ve been doing for 30 years. But there’s so many new technologies to try. They won’t be able to stay fixed for ever.” MARK RILeY, BALSA ShAPeR.
here and far right: mark riley’s carpentry skills help him to run our only Balsa specialty Board shop. Photos: Jeremy greive.
pouring the pu foam mix is still done By hand at almost every foam-maker. south coast set-up. Photo: mitchell.
GREEN ISSUE
What Is a “green” surfboard anyway? What’s the logic behind making one? There are many issues facing the surfboard industry because of traditional boardmaking techniques. The really big one – total failure of supply through fossil-fuel exhaustion – is decades in the future. But that still leaves some big bombs waiting to go off. There’s human health issues, as a result of exposure to poisonous
materials. There’s evidence to suggest that one of the big reasons Gordon Clark shut down wasn’t environmental law so much as looming lawsuits from the relatives of dead employees. There’s biodegradability – that mountain of material reaching towards the Moon, and refusing to break down. Pu foam, which most
boards are still made from, will biodegrade in 100 years or so if left to itself and exposed to air. hardened polyester resin will give up a bit quicker, in about 50 years, if exposed to sunlight as well. Some epoxy resins will take centuries. Fibreglass – well you can forget about that going anywhere – it’s pretty much inert.
if you don’t mind not pulling reverses, wood’s aBout as green as it comes … for now. seQ: Bill morris
Mark Riley has been making boards on Sydney’s southside for 13 years. he’s a carpenter by trade. he’s also the only person in Australia who makes nothing but balsawood surfboards. Riley says he’s not actively involved in the environmental movement, but he’s always been interested in recycling and sustainability. “It might be because of being in the building trade,” he says. “They can recycle a lot of stuff from demolished buildings, but most of the time they just scrap it up and send it to a landfill. I’ve also got a couple of young kids … if we don’t take care of things now, their future could be grim.” he got the balsa bug during a surf trip to South America back in the early 1990s. “I got irritated when the decks on the Pu boards I’d taken for the trip started collapsing. The first place I went to was ecuador, where all the balsa grows.” In 1995 Mark
organised a container-load of wood to be delivered from South America; since then he’s had one delivered annually. Riley produces two types of board: a solid balsa model and an ePS foam-core version, with thin balsa sheets on deck and bottom and block balsa rails, both sealed with a single glass/polyester resin laminate. Both the foam offcut and the balsa sawdust is recycled, and Mark is working on a cleaner resin. he only gets through two boards a week on average, but one of his goals is to make a board that lasts – and that the owner will look after. “They’re buying something that has a re-sale value, and every board
is unique. Plus … they’re riding on something that was living. even if these do go to a landfill, they will break down.” Mark’s small production numbers mean he’s barely a drop in the bucket of Australia’s – much less the world’s – surfboard production. But he has noticed that a lot of the Year 12 students who buy his balsa kits for school projects have a strong commitment to green ideas – a commitment that might one day translate into demand. “A lot of oldtime craftsmen are still entrenched in the same things they’ve been doing for 30 years,” he says. “But there’s so many new technologies to try. They won’t be able to stay fixed for ever. “We’re not gonna stop production of Pu boards, but if we can change it a little bit…”
Then there’s sustainability – the idea that whatever we use to make boards should be easily and naturally replaced. Of this last one, the most obvious is the material surfers started out with hundreds of years ago: wood.
The Art of Ind
The surf world has been making the most of the Mentawais’ magical perfection for almost two decades, but this year, what went down in the islands surprised even the most hardened Indo vets. Next issue, we’re bringing it all to you in one mad flurry of brain-melting tubes and over-the-top performance surfing. Julian Wilson, Jordy Smith, Mick Fanning, Bede Durbidge and more push the limits of what’s possible in waves so perfect you’ll deadset want to cry. You’ve seen Jordy’s rodeo, but that’s far from the only good turn that went down in the islands this season. If you thought you’d seen everything from the Mentawais, we reckon it’s time for another look. And if you’ve never been, but need a reason to start saving, you’ll find plenty.
PLUS ++++
It’s not all Indo overload – the latest ASL DVD is a 100 per cent all-Australian affair featuring waves from all over Oz this winter, including the bonkers South Coast sessions and some mental West Oz gear.
It’s on sale September 23, but subscribers get the mag, the dvd, and all this synapse-snapping perfection, earlier. surfinglife.com.au
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“Not a drop of water out of place.” You’ve heard it said too many times, but have you ever seen a better example of that phrase than this wave? Rob Machado, Mentawais, ’09. photo: CHRIS STRALEY