Tracks Magazine Issue 584

KE L LY S L ATER - THE GREATEST OF AL L TI ME

NO.

584

ISSN 1032-3317

Matahi Drollet • Moana Jones Wong • Christian ‘Wispy’ Barker’s Beatnik Surfing Adventure • Our Perennial Fascination with Oahu’s North Shore Monty Webber’s Rites of Passage • Imogen Caldwell • Classic Goodvibes 9 771032 331035 >

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AU $19.95 INC.GST NZ $19.99 INC.GST

Continuous line, series of marks, left by person, animal or thing in passing along

MICK FANNING 3X WORLD SURFING CHAMPION

Proud to Be Neoprene-Free.

This is Kyle.

Once a bright-eyed, fluoro-hawk-haired boy, now a well-barreled man. He knew the dangers of limestone- and petroleum-based neoprene manufacturing and gave up traditional neoprene wetsuits a long time ago. Kyle’s joined the fight against the dirty neoprene peddler, opting for Yulex® natural rubber* wetsuits that leave a lighter impact on the natural world. Kyle made the right choice. Will you?

*85% Yulex natural rubber/15% synthetic rubber by polymer content. The natural rubber is from sources that are Forest Stewardship Council® certified by the Rainforest Alliance.

Kyle Thiermann was last seen doing the tube, wearing his Yulex® R1 somewhere in Mexico. Ryan Craig © 2022 Patagonia, Inc.

Made with Natural Bio-Resin

Learn More > surffcs.com

Made with Natural Materials

At FCS we’ve made it our mission to design products that use low impact, sustainable materials while still remaining focused on maintaining the highest quality and performance.

The new FCS NeoGlass Eco fin range is made with a 50% glass and Bio-Resin EcoBlend™, delivering the same quality and trusted feel you’ve come to expect.

Variations of EcoBlend™ materials form the basis of our Freedom Helix leash range as well as the Bio-Foam used in the new Eco Traction offering.

Low Impact Construction. High Impact Performance.

Crosby Colapinto

THE ULTIMATE SURF/DIVE WETSUIT

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Introduction

The Kingdom of Kelly WHY SLATER STILL REIGNS AT 50.

It was back in 2015 when I found myself standing on the shoreline alongside Kelly Slater at Ehukai Beach Park, a couple of 100 metres up from Pipe. After a long day covering the contest and traipsing after pro-surfers in hot sand, I was eager to snag a few waves of my own. Meanwhile, Kelly had swaggered down from his beachside pad for his usual late surf. He knew my face from the years I’d spent hustling him for quotes and stories and said hi. As we attached legropes, Kelly proposed a bet. “First one to bail their board has to pay the other guy 10 bucks,” he stated with a mischievous grin. I was immediately struck by his desire to give a casual afternoon session some kind of edge. This was someone who made it through life by turning every situation into a competitive scenario – that was his mechanism for making every moment more interesting.

As I looked out, the Beach Park was erupting with four to five-foot, chunky closeouts. In between the straight ones, there were occasional corners that offered a meaty turn section or a misshapen tube. You always hear it said, but Hawaii’s power is incomparable. Every duckdive that afternoon was a bone-jarring wrestle with violent forces, but I did my best not to let go.

The next day Kelly was standing on the podium after winning his heat in the Pipe Masters when he spotted me in the stands a few feet away.

Trapping me in the intense gaze of those lasergreen eyes, he said with a wry chuckle. “Hey, do you owe me any money from yesterday?” He was more than half serious.

Many of us have no doubt fantasised about being Kelly Slater at some point in our lives.

Accepting the fact that we could never match his preternatural surfing ability is one thing, but we are also acutely aware that being Kelly Slater means occupying a psychological realm that makes no allowance for coming second. He is ruthless with himself and even more merciless

with his foes, every moment of the day. That’s not an easy place to stay in.

Another personal Kelly encounter occurred after he’d won the contest at Trestles in 2011. Kelly was on a high; he’d just beaten Owen Wright in their third consecutive finals meeting. The Trestles win made it two from three for Kelly and set him up to claim his 11th World Title. Now, in a crowded, dimly-lit San Clemente bar, Kelly was having a couple of drinks and cutting loose – kinda.

After I stole the beer he didn’t want, we got talking, but we were soon interrupted by one of his old school pals. He politely addressed the girl who proceeded to tell us that Kelly was “never there” in high school on account of all his surfing. Instantly concerned that she may have cast a shadow over his academic performance, Kelly turned to me and said emphatically, “What she didn’t say was that I was fifth in all my classes.”

As he made the earnest statement, he held up five fingers to hammer home the point – the same gesture he uses when he wins another World Title.

Here was that same competitive streak rearing its head again, an unrestrained beast muscling in on the conversation. He had 10 World Titles to his name at that point but it was still of vital importance that the world knew he had a good report card at school.

It is his inexhaustible competitiveness that ensures Kelly still reigns supreme over this epoch of pro-surfing. If he isn’t a contender for the World Title then he contrives another means by which he comes out on top. The day after longtime rival Adriano de Souza won his 2015 World Title, Kelly released the first, jaw-dropping clip from his wave pool. This wasn’t limelight theft; it was grand larceny. Adriano’s stoic victory was instantly put in the shade by images of Kelly peeling with laughter as his tubing miracle coiled across screens around the world.

but Kelly still has eight Pipe titles to John John’s one. Italo and Filipe whirl through heats with winged heels, but only because Kelly legitimised airs in contests 30-years ago. Meanwhile, Gabriel Medina has taken a break after winning his third World Title. Kelly notched up six before he went looking for the bench. Along the way he had his fair share of highly publicised, girl-related drama too, but his competitive focus always overrode whatever was happening on the sidelines. Then he returned from his sabbatical and won five more titles, all that after he’d been put on the canvas by Andy Irons.

Right now, Kelly Slater is sitting at number two in the world at age 50 and is looking down the barrel of the WSL calendar visualising all the scenarios by which he might finish in the top five – ‘G-land, Big Margarets, Teahupoo, bring it on.’ Bells is his least favourite wave on tour, but he’s still won there four times. Then beyond the Tour he begins plotting how he might dismantle various opposition on finals day at Trestles; a wave that he has dominated since he won his first pro contest there in 1990, wearing the famous star trunks. Make no mistake, Kelly has already constructed a World Title win in his own mind. That’s what he thinks about when his head hits the pillow at 2.a.m, after he has finished trying to ‘win’ arguments with the flat-earthers and the vaccine evangelists on Instagram.

Beyond the unflinching belief in himself, Kelly most certainly believes in one other thing. If you want the glory and the kudos; the right to call yourself ‘The Greatest’ in a given era, then you have to come and wrench it all out of his hands.

The same way he did against Martin Potter and Gary Elkerton and Tom Carroll in the early 90s.

Until someone does that we will still be living in Kelly’s kingdom.

- Luke Kennedy

As for the other modern contenders. John John may lay claim to being the modern Mr Pipeline,

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Contents

Editor Luke Kennedy luke@tracksmedia.com.au Creative Director / Deputy Editor Ben Bugden ben@tracksmedia.com.au

General Manager / Director of Marketing & Advertising

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF COUNTRY

Damian Martin

Tracks Magazine and its staff acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which we operate our business, the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung Nation & the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We also extend our respect to all the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people across all of Country. Tracks celebrates the rich history of the world’s oldest living culture and their continuing connection to land, water and community.

+61 (0) 417 168 663

damian@tracksmedia.com.au

Social Media Manager Sam Morgan sam@tracksmedia.com.au

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Lightbox - The best images from the last couple of months.

Head Dips - An entrée sized serve of surf snippets.

Shape it till you Make it - mow your own foam.

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Fantasea - Artists deliver their illustrated surf nirvana.

Watercoloured Waves - Art and words by Dave Sparkes.

Classic Cover - The tales behind our best page ones.

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Goodvibes - Revisiting the best of the Pig of Steel.

Lineup - A serve of liquid delights for dessert.

Archivist Ray Henderson

Contributors - Anthony Pancia, John Respondek, Ted Grambeau, Alex Workman, Jamie Brisick, Melissa Connell, Ben Mondy, Alan van Gysen, Kirk Owers, Al Mackinnon, Jason Childs, Tom Pearsall, Nathan Oldfield, Dom Mosqueira, Joli, Swilly, Andrew Shields, Peter Boskovic, Greg Ewing, Phil Jarratt, Karen Hudson, Kate Allman, Trevor Moran, Bill Morris, Tom De Souza, Mark McInnis, Georgia Matts, Lucy

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Matahi Drollet is setting the benchmark at Teahupo’o.

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All hail the Queen of Pipeline Moana Jones Wong.

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Kelly Slater’s 50th birthday Tracks scrapbook.

Small, Noa Amos Eakin, Sean Davey, Pete Geall, Jed Cooney, Albe Falzon, Rusty Miller, Chris Duczynski, Ryan Craig, Mark Onorati, Steen Barnes, Tommy Pierucki, Ian Thurtell, Federico Vanno, Danny O’Brien, Dave Sparkes, Gareth Kolega, Mic Gruchy, Brad Sterling, Mike Ito, Holly Murphy

Subscriptions: subscribe.tracksmag.com.au

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Christian ‘Wispy’ Barker’s beatnik surfing adventure.

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A pictorial celebration of a Hawaiian winter that had it all.

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Email: subscribe@tracksmedia.com.au

A journey through surfing’s rites of passage in Bondi.

COO: Craig Treweek craig@tracksmedia.com.au CEO: Peter Strain peter@tracksmedia.com.au Co-owner: David Mulham

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Imogen Caldwell’s unique juggling act.

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A road trip where the only question is, where to next?

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Co-owner: Greg Cooper

A story of endings and connection with country.

Independently published by Tracks Media Pty Ltd

Tracks is published by Tracks Media Pty Ltd ACN: 646 929 053, SE1005 L10 97-99 Bathurst St SYDNEY NSW 2000 All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the prior permission of the publisher. Printed in Australia by IVE, distributed in Australia by Ovato Retail Distribution. ISSN 1032-3317. The publisher will not accept responsibility or any liability for the correctness of information or opinions expressed in the publication. All material submitted is at the owner’s risk and, while every care will be taken Tracks Media does not accept liability for loss or damage.

PRIVACY POLICY - We value the integrity of your personal information. If you provide personal information through your participation in any competitions, surveys or offers featured in this issue of Tracks Magazine, this will be used to provide the products or services that you have requested and to improve the content of our magazines. Your details may be provided to third parties who assist us in this purpose. In the event of organisations providing prizes or offers to our readers, we may pass your details on to them. From time to time, we may use the information you provide us to inform you of other products, services and events our company has to offer. We may also give your information to other organisations which may use it to inform you about their products, services and events, unless you tell us not to do so. You are welcome to access the information that we hold about you by getting in touch with our privacy officer, who can be contacted at Tracks Media, 23 Lamrock Ave, Bondi Beach, NSW, 2026

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The next best thing to toasting yourself. Tracks’ tribute to the GOAT begins on page 050. Photo: Smith

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SU RF E R: C RAIG AN DER S ON PHOTO : JO S H TABO N E

Perhaps Josh Tabone’s image grabbed our attention because it captures the intersection of entities with three distinctly different lifespans. To the left is an ancient headland; the kind where an astute geologist might find secrets to the planet carved into the jagged-edged face. At the base of the sloping point is the broken wave, which bends and curls and beguiles for a few precious seconds. Curiously, the wave’s tapered edge is doing its best to match the gradient of the formidable rock-form that flanks it. And, of course, there is Craig Anderson, who will be riding barrels at a 100 if he is lucky, but in this moment he is consumed with artfully manipulating his slinky frame like a Balinese shadow puppet, so that his timeless form delivers new meaning to the natural wonders that frame him.

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SU RF E R: JO S IE P RE N DERGAST PHOTO : B E RYDE R

Amidst the chaos of existence, it seems Josie Prendergast has been cast as a kind of ethereal being who reminds us that it is still possible to pass through time in a state of grace. As we trip, jerk and tumble towards an uncer tain future there’s Josey, in effortless trim, taking us along for the ride at The Pass. As photographer Beatriz Ryder observes, “It feels like she forgets the whole world and just focuses on that moment of her and the wave as one.” If you meditate on the photo just long enough you too might get a sense of that Zen-like space she occupies.

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SU RF E R: BARRO N MAMIYA PHOTO : RYAN C RAIG

Hawaii’s Barron Mamiya has always been touted as a surfing titan. By mid-teens the dynamic natural-footer was already a presence at Pipe, talked up by veterans like Mike Ho, and revered by his piers. Barron also boasted the kind of aerial act that sent grommets racing to the surf in fits of wing-heeled emulation. In 2018 a completed backflip earned Baron over 100 000 YouTube views – one of the modern measures of your worth to sponsors. Stylish, powerful, progressive and handsome to boot, Barron seemed to have it all, but despite coming close in 2019, official CT qualification has eluded him. This year when the WSL tossed him a couple of wildcards in Hawaii he made damn sure the world was paying attention. After Slater played Houdini at Pipe to edge him out, Barron muscled his way to a win at Sunset and finished the Hawaiian leg ranked a stunning Numero Uno. At the time of writing he is equal second on the rankings.

The casting couch at The WSL no doubt love the flying Barron and it seems likely they will keep throwing wildcards his way. Back-dooring the CT without getting grubby on the QS will be his major goal for the year and who knows, if he starts landing cloud-tickler punts like this one he just might wind up in the top five come Trestles.

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Lightbox

S URF ER: PETE DEVR I ES P HOTO : MARCUS PALAD I NO

Somehow, the heavy-duty attire and icy setting never stops Pete from racking up the frequent-flyer points. His steezey punts have been the subject of dizzying clips and classic photos for more than a decade. After soaring to fame in Taylor Steele’s Innersection clip This is Canadian aerial specialist, Pete battle, Pete went on a few trips to warmer Devries, schlepping across the Pacific Rim locales, but more often than not, the imagery Highway after a session at his local break, he features in showcases the frigid beauty of the Canadian wilderness.

Chesterman Beach in Tofino Canada.

If you are already fretting over the Autumn chill or beginning to dread the prospect of pulling on wet rubber in the depths of the Australian winter, then consider the following moment.

According to photographer, Marcus Paladino, it was somewhere between zero and three degrees when this shot was taken and Pete’s rubber armour consisted of a 6/5mm hooded suit, 5mm gloves and 7mm booties.

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Marcus recalls the surf conditions being particularly challenging on this day, but Pete still had one good moment to reflect on as he made his snow-kissed shuffle home. “The waves were crowded and mushy, Pete got one

sick ramp at the start but then the tide got a bit too high.”

So next time you hesitate to suit up on a winter’s day think, ‘What would Pete Devries do?’ Then paddle out and shoot for the sky.

Australia’s First Healthy Energy Drink

doctorv.com.au

Head Dips BEHIND THE COVER: KELLY SLATER BY PETER ‘JOLI’ WILSON We tossed and turned over this one like a serial drop-in offender whose surfing sins deprive them of genuine rest. How do you choose a photo that sums up the best surfer of all time at a single glance; right after he turned 50, and claimed the most celebrated contest in pro-surfing, for the eight time? We flirted with an image of Kelly roaring with glory atop a human throne, contemplated a timeless car ve from the year of his first World Title win and went all sentimental for a moment with a tear y Kelly, being embraced by fellow finalist, Seth Moniz. However, in the end we settled on a profile that showcases the gravitas of the unmistakeable head that hosts surfing’s most beautiful mind. And perhaps, in the searching look on Kelly’s face, the creased forehead and the incongruities of the dome there is a whisper of the warrior who has fought many hard battles to become the King.

FCS II PERFORMER

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surffcs.com.au

After fighting a bidding war in 1990 to secure Kelly’s signature (see more in the Kelly feature p. 50), Quiksilver were no doubt intent on getting the most out of their teenage surfing prodigy. This full page ad of Kelly slashing in the tube-suit with a burnt orange sash, ran in the Feb 1991 issue, a couple of months before Kelly came out to Australia for a formal announcement of his Quiksilver deal. While boardshorts were the pillar of Quiksilver’s fashion offering, by the early 90s they wanted a piece of the lucrative rubber pie. The ad’s branding was simple and bold with a fusion

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of colours and shapes that saw the 80s leaning into the 90s. Quiksilver didn’t just have a wetsuit they had ‘The Wetsuit’. Meanwhile, Kelly and Quiksilver enjoyed a happy and fruitful marriage for more than twenty years, until he ditched them to go rogue in 2014. However, before severing ties, Slater sold endless warehouses of product for Quik’. In fact, despite the divorce, their relationship is so synonymous he probably still moves gear for them. Did we just run another Kelly Slater Quiksilver ad?

And they won’t even advertise with us. Damn, we’re stupid.

Events

Phil Meatchem’s Morning of the Earth Art Exhibition Morning of the Earth is an Australian classic and its influence on surf culture, art and music is still felt half a century after it first made audiences wild with delight. Revered artist Phil Meatchem has painted 20 moments from MOTE in honour of the 50th Anniversary of the film. We will be exhibiting all 20 pieces of art at the Glenn McKimmin Gallery in Long Jetty. All one off pieces of artwork will be for sale. We will be running a screening of MOTE on the 27th May at Avoca theatre and the exhibition will open the following day on the 28th May. Morning of the Earth Screening: Avova Theatre, Friday, 27th May, 2022 Phil Meatchem Morning of the Earth Exhibition: Saturday 28th May - 10th June, 2022 Glenn McKimmin Gallery, Shop 1/421-423 The Entrance Road, Long Jetty, NSW, 2261

Head Dips

GOOD READ: THE ISLANDS - EMILY BRUGMAN When former Tracks columnists, Emily Brugman, left us to work on her first novel we were sad to see her go. Now we’re delighted to pick up a copy of ‘The Islands’. Loosely inspired by Emily’s own family’s relationship to the Abrolhos Islands, the novel follows the travails of a small group of 1950s, Finnish migrants who fall under the spell of the mythical and often perilous archipelago off Western Australia.

Earning their living from a fledgling crayfishing industry, the community must survive and make their fun in a place of harsh beauty and stifling heat, of treacherous reefs and sparse vegetation. It is a world away from their icy, Finnish origins, but they get by with a mixture of stoicism and good humour.

The Islands is the engaging tale of the Saari family who divide their lives between the austere but charmed islands and the dusty suburbia of mainland WA with all its quirks, collective anxieties and rituals. While full of intricate twists, at its core The Islands is about a family’s search for a sense of home and belonging, in a quintessentially Australian setting.

VERBATIM

TRACKS - MP, 1972 TEE

“We have an exclusive on Kelly Slater from head-to-toe, to what’s underneath his toes, to what’s underneath his fingernails.”

It is one of surfing’s most iconic images. Michael Peterson splitting atoms with his inside rail as he melts his wir y frame through ‘The Cutback’. Albe Falzon’s frame grab of MP from ‘Morning of the Earth’ ran on the Februar y 1972 cover of Tracks. Splashed on a white tee, the red-hued take on the image makes MP seem more immortal than ever.

One you must have.

– Quiksilver’s Danny Quock on the company’s freshly inked deal with a young Kelly Slater, from the pages of Tracks in 1990. Read more on Pg.050

tracksmag.com.au Price: $49.95

THE HUNGRY SURFER WITH JENNY BENNY: FARMHOUSE CORN FRITTERS 1/4 Red Onion finely chopped • 1 cup fresh or Canned Corn • 1/2 Cup grated Parmesan • 1 egg 3/4 cup Flour • 1 tsp Baking Powder • 1 pinch salt • Cracked Pepper to taste •Olive Oil and/or Butter for frying • Avocado mashed to serve • Small bunch rocket as garnish Peel and finely chop red onion. Open and drain can of corn. Coarsely grate Parmesan and add to a bowl with the corn, salt, pepper, flour and egg. Mix well. Warm a thin layer of olive oil in a medium fr y pan, use butter if preferred. Place spoonfuls of the mixture in the skillet and gently flatten with a spatula. Cook fritters for approx 2 minutes or until bottom starts to brown.

Flip and cook for a couple of minutes on other side. Remove from the pan and set aside while cooking another batch. Serve with avocado smash and a side of salad. Option to add a fried or poached egg.

@jennybennyfoodco

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Below: The ‘Shruder’ plastic-recycling machine designed

by Australian of the year, Louise Hardman.

The Whale Trust, and the Fantastic, Plastic Recycling Machine HOW SURF HARDWARE’S JOHN GOWING PLANS TO CREATE A CIRCULAR ECONOMY THAT SPITS OUT SURFBOARD FINS. As a passionate surfer and recreational fisherman, John Gowing has always felt an affinity for the ocean. Meanwhile, John’s role as the Brand Custodian for Gowings and Surf Hardware (FCS fins and Softech boards) means he has the capacity to channel his passion into initiatives that promote ocean awareness and positive change.

Inspired by his interaction with whales, where he lives on the NSW North Coast, John created the Whale Trust. The Trust is funded by 1% of all sales made through Surf Hardware.

The Whale Trust has its own line of merchandise (proceeds are channelled back into the Trust) and also shares a close relationship with the Sea Shepherd. According to the Trust’s coordinator, Zacharey Jane, one of the Trust’s first initiatives was to purchase what’s known as a Rib boat for the Sea Shepherd fleet. “The Rib boat is a chase boat and sits on board the Ocean Warrior, one of the big boats,” explains Jane. The Rib boats are typically used by the Sea Shepherd to conduct marine biological and ecological research and non-violent direct action against whaling, shark finning, and fishing vessels engaged in illegal bycatch practices.

One of the other exciting initiatives the Whale Trust has undertaken involves a kind of fantas-

tic, plastic recycler known as a Shruder. The Shruder was invented by Louise Hardman, who is an expert in grassroots community engagement, the chemistry of plastics and the circular economy. In 2021 Louise was named Australian of the Year for her work.

In a nutshell, the Shruder is designed to take fragments of plastic waste and transform them into commercially viable materials and products. Doing something about the proliferation of plastic waste in the ocean was one of the driving forces behind the purchase of the Shruder by the Whale Trust. However, according to Jane, the Trust’s big picture vision is to stimulate the formation of cyclical economies, which benefit communities along the way.

Therefore the Trust donated the Shruder to the Miimi Aboriginal Corporation who are based at Bowraville in Northern NSW. The Shruder recycling unit now sits inside a shipping container in Bowraville where the Miimi community rangers are currently being trained by Louise to use it effectively.

“They make the plastic, raw material and then they sell it back to FCS who then turn it into fins for surfboards… we’re also looking at wax combs and dog leashes.”

Beyond the Whale Trust’s circular economy agenda, Jane also hopes to grow a platform that provides information and education about whales and ocean protection. “Another thing we are looking at, is funding research projects,” explains Jane. “Specifically, we’ve just started talking about ocean toxicology and pollutants, post the flood events up here in northern New South Wales. That’s been a hot topic.”

Cultivating a culture of ocean and awareness and preservation means not just governments but business groups have to take bold initiatives. At present, the Whale Trust is striving for a better future.

To find out more about the Shruder and Whale Trust’s other ventures check out: coastbeat.com.au/loving-the-plastic-life/

While the operation isn’t yet fully up to speed, the objectives are clear. “We’re aiming at getting the right kind of plastic waste to the Miimi Aboriginal Corporation for them to recycle in their Shruder centre,” explains Jane.

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Opposite: The aptly named, Alex Workman, nervously takes a saw to his maiden shape, with a little help from Dave Verrall and the crew at S-Lab. Photo: Jarra Bitton

Shape it till you Make it SHAPING YOUR OWN BOARD MEANS BECOMING A BEGINNER ALL OVER AGAIN AND THAT’S PROBABLY WHY IT’S SO MUCH FUN. Written by Alex Workman

If you’ve ever harboured the romantic notion of shaping your own surfboard it usually ends with the realisation that you don’t know where to start. Aside from the confusing and complicated process of sourcing materials, there’s the apparent sense of inadequacy you experience when you start comparing yourself to world-renowned shapers who have decades of experience in fine-tuning their craft. Similarly, you fundamentally want your equipment to work and probably have precious little faith in your own ability to make something that will perform better than your trusty stick. But forget about all that for a moment and think about how much fun it would be to have a crack at shaping your own equipment.

Norrie. He tells me that the shaping experience packages they’re offering aren’t just for surfers. They’re also open and appealing to punters from all walks of life. “People who come to the Gold Coast know how huge surfing is to the area. They might be curious about how a surfboard is made or looking for a unique team bonding experience for corporate events or a perfect gift for someone who has always dreamed of shaping their own surfboard.”

Ryan then introduces me to shaper, Dave Verrall, from Diverse Surfboards who will be guiding me through the process of shaping my first surfboard. He provides a technical tour of the process beginning with an overview of the 3D designs of board files he has at his Enter the S-Lab shaping experience. An oppor- disposal. Dave details every step of a board’s tunity for surfers and non-surfers to step into journey before it glides into that first wave, the shaping bay and have a hands-on experi- before enthusiastically explaining the process ence designing and building a dream board, of tinkering with the file and how it can be under the tutelage of an experienced shaper. manipulated with the tap of a few keys.

bution to pro-surfing was recently re-visited by the award-winning documentary ‘Girls Can’t Surf ’. Then there’s 2 x WSL Longboard World Champion, Beau Young, who has always believed in riding a diverse range of craft. Son of surfing icon, Nat Young, Beau is passionate about surf history and relishes the chance to recreate many of the amazing shapes from various eras of design.

After a quick caffeine boost, it’s time to decide what kind of board I’ll be shaping. I must admit, it’s a little overwhelming as I paw over a rack of surfboards that reveals every flavour combination one’s heart could desire.

I settle on the idea of a twin fin, which has become de rigueur in recent years, in part thanks to the timeless lines drawn and tricks performed by the likes of Torren Martyn, Asher Pacey and Josh Kerr. I decide I want something that will connect Broken Point from way outside and traverse the flat spots before By utilising 3D software and providing access I’m awestruck when I’m introduced to the the wave steepens and slingshots into the to an expert shaper to bounce design ideas off, 1978 World Champ and former CEO of the hollow inside section that stretches out down S-Lab cultivates a supportive environment that ASP, Wayne Bartholomew, who is an ambas- the line. Given it’s a wave where I’m on my lets you play shaper. You might have a vague sador for S-Lab. As an additional option to backhand, my instinct tells me I want a longer idea for a board you always wanted to ride but enhance the whole S-Lab Experience, Rabbit plane shape for that easy paddling, glide, and have never seen it for sale anywhere or perhaps can be dialled in to help you select a board and addictive speed that has helped twinnys come you’re eager to try a twin fin or simply tweak tour the iconic breaks on the Gold Coast, or back into vogue. your favourite high-performance shortboard. simply talk story about his illustrious career.

When I arrive at the S-Lab factory I’m greeted by their International Sales Manager, Ryan

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Other ambassadors include 1993 ASP World Champion, Pauline Menczer whose contri-

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PR ES E NTS

ON THE BIG SCREEN CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE FILM THAT INSPIRED A GENERATION

H AY D E N O R P H E U M , S Y D N E Y T H U R S D AY, 7 T H A P R I L , 2 0 2 2 F L O T S A M F E S T I V A L , C O O L A N G AT TA S U N D AY, 1 S T M AY, 2 0 2 2 M A J E S T I C T H E AT R E , K E M P S E Y S AT U R D AY, 7 T H M AY, 2 0 2 2 T H E B Y R O N T H E AT R E , B Y R O N B AY S AT U R D AY, 1 4 T H M AY, 2 0 2 2 A V O C A T H E AT R E , A V O C A F R I D AY, 2 7 T H M AY, 2 0 2 2 S P EC IAL GU ESTS : AL BE FAL ZO N Q & A VIA ZO O M & STEPH EN C O O NEY IN P E R S O N ( SYD, BYRO N & AVO CA S CREENINGS O NLY )

METICULOUSLY RE-MASTERED IN 4K

“IT WAS LIKE LOOKING AT THE FILM FOR THE FIRST TIME FOR ME.” – ALBE FALZON

Opposite: Alex proudly wrapping his mittens around the rail of his new ‘big twinny’ ride. Photo: Jarra Bitton

“A 6’8” I reckon,” suggests Bugs, who sizes me up and recalls some of the magical sessions he has had over the years at the fabled North Coast point break. Dave pulls out a long fish and we briefly discuss its design principles. He schools me in bottom contours and how everything works to generate a desired effect. As I listen, I catch my mind skipping ahead, imagining a perfect day at Broken and me stroking into the wave of the day and riding it expertly to shore on my self-shaped craft.

Now it’s time for Dave to work his magic with the file on the 3D program. He plugs the dimensions in at 6’8” x 21” x 2’ 3/4”, which spits out the most volume I’ve ever seen on a surfboard.

Dave quickly gets to work, lowering the rails and sucking out some volume to ensure the board is sensitive enough to manoeuvre and an easy transition from the high-performance shortboards I generally ride day-to-day.

Once we’re satisfied, the file is saved to a USB stick, I meet Glen who loads it into a program that connects to the shaping machine that will cut the blank to size. He shows me the operation of the APS3000 CNC shaping machine, which interprets the files, which can be modified incrementally every step of the way.

Once the blank is positioned onto the rack, I get the honour of firing up the machine and watching the circular planer, which is wrapped in sandpaper, carve through the foam and start to reveal the outline of my board. It only takes a few minutes and Glen is back in there to flip the board over and re-apply the suction caps to hold it in place. He tosses me an offcut that I can take home to my grommet while Dave gives

me an insight into how blanks are made and I’m left with an elegant, beak-nosed 6’8” twin how each company has its own unique process, fin fish that features a vee entry to deep concave which is tightly guarded and kept under wraps. between the fins. As I pencil-in my signature on the stringer I’m drunk with a sense of accomAs the machine grinds to a halt, a freshly cut plishment and amazed by how the board has blank is revealed and I glove the rail, marvel- turned out. ling at the outline and the overall form. Dave scoops up the blank and ushers me into the The true test comes a couple of days after the shaping bay. Now it’s my turn to get my hands big twinny has been glassed, when the remnants dirty. I feel my heart beat a little faster as the of a south-east swell are bending around The anticipation of shaping my first board takes Pass, sending shoulder-high runners throttling hold. all the way to Clarkes Beach. I wax up and proudly stroll across the sand, eager to see how Dave marks a line below the swallow tail, with my creation will perform. a template he has had for years and points to where I can make my first cut. “Just cut Aided by the board’s V8 paddle-power I make below that line and keep the angle of the saw my way out to the lineup and almost immeupwards as you go,” he commands. Suppress- diately stroke into a set. I do a quick pump ing the fear I will botch it, I cut into the foam to keep a high line and the board takes off. It as per instruction and repeat the process on the feels sensitive and smooth as it rolls rail to other side before Dave cleans up the tail with a rail, connecting each section with ease as I Dremel multi-tool. begin to decipher the mystery of how it wants to perform. After an hour, several waves and Sanding down the deck proves to be quite multiple laps back to the top of the point, I am meditative. Using a sanding block to shave buzzing over how good it feels to be riding a down uneven sections like they are big blocks board I made – and it works. of parmesan cheese, Dave explains how to maintain even pressure and makes sure I keep Surfing a board you’ve made yourself is moving to guarantee an even finish. I admit to supremely satisfying. The interaction between feeling like I have no idea what I’m doing as I the surfer, the board and the wave is amplified make awkward passes back and forth across the and it connects you, in a small way, with the bottom and the deck, trying to transform the prior generations of surfers who saw building foam into something resembling a surfboard. their own craft as a rite of passage. Anyone with Dave is there every step of the way, putting me a vision can now participate and experience the at ease and helping me improve my technique art of constructing their very own custom surfwith priceless nuggets of feedback. Once the board. For that alone, the S-Lab experience rails are sanded and we make another pass of should be on every surfer’s bucket list. You’ll the board to clean it up, an actual surfboard never look at a surfboards quite the same again. has magically taken form before my eyes.

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Another throwback image depicting simpler times. The local boys have lobbed for the dawn patrol to greet the new south swell. There’s no wind and glassy lines are rolling into the point. Trev has his new pintail shooter under his wing and surveys the scene. The pace is easy going. No one’s in a scramble and the small crew are enjoying the new day and what it has in store.

ARTIST: P H IL MEATCH E M • TITLE : MOR NING G LASS

Fantasea

Opposite: Matahi is fluent in French, English and Tahitian, but his body language has primacy on the Teahupo’o stage.

Matahi Drollet: The One and Only Written by Ben Mondy • Photos by Dom Mosqueira

Matahi Drollet is a 24-year-old surfer born into Teahupo’o royalty. Son of an iconic boat driver and younger brother to the legendary Tahitian freesurfer, Manoa. Aged 16, he won the XXL Award for one of the biggest waves ridden at the infamous slab. Since then, he has risen to the apex of the pecking order, mentoring the next generation of Chopes chargers. Thoughtful, patient, but with a showman’s desire to perform, we dive deep into a man that could shape how surfing’s most famous wave is ridden over the next decade.

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Matahi Drollet: The One and Only Opposite Top: A nine-hour wait paid dividends when Matahi rode this beast back in August, 2021. Bottom: The boy in the bubble is now revered as one of the world’s best tube riders.

“I wanted to get a huge one, so I called my brother, Manoa, because I needed the best driver to put me on the best, biggest wave of the day,” Matahi Drollet told Tracks. The day was Friday, August 13, 2021. Two weeks prior, Matahi had dislocated his shoulder exiting an eight-foot barrel at Chopes…on a foil board.

We’ll come to that later.

surrounding reef breaks, including Teahupo’o.

A fair proportion of the iconic images of the wave you have seen over the last decades have been taken from his boat.

“I have two brothers and two sisters. Manoa is the eldest, and 20 years older than me,” explains Matahi. “I would go around to his house at Papara and see Kelly Slater, or Andy The swell was huge. As big, if not bigger, than and Bruce. I didn’t know they were superstars, the Code Red swell of 2011, the benchmark because Manoa never acted any differently for maxing Teahupo’o. On that swell, Matahi, around them.” then aged 13, had watched the carnage from his father’s famous yellow boat in the channel. In the 2000s Manoa was known universally as the best Teahupo’o surfer of all time. He’d won This day though he was the first one out, and the Trials of the Billabong Pro Teahupo’o in beelined it straight to the outside, without even 2005 and 2007 and finished runner up in the checking the waves from the channel. Shortly CT event in 2008. “Manoa was the best surfer after he saw the biggest wave of his life at his with the best style,” Michel Bourez told Tracks. local break rear up in the deep water. As the “From two-foot to 20 he was untouchable.” furthest ski inside, Manoa pressed the throttle knowing Matahi was ready. However, fellow During that time Manoa’s tow partner was young gun Kauli Vaast had Dylan Longbottom. Dylan had known Matahi the same idea and dropped in since he was in nappies and made his first surf“MANOA SAID, ‘OKAY, FORGET down the line. The Drollets, board. To this day he provides all his paddle and gracefully, pulled out and let tow boards.

THAT…LET’S JUST WAIT FOR him have it.

THE BIGGEST BOMB,’” RECALLS After ditching the lid, Matahi kept surfing and “Manoa said, ‘Okay, forget from a young age started to exhibit both the MATAHI. “KAULI’S WAVE CAME that…let’s just wait for the natural talent and fearlessness of his elder b i g g e s t b o m b ,’” r e c a l l s brother. “I was surfing the outer reef out the AT 9 AM. I WAITED NINE HOURS, Matahi. “Kauli’s wave came back of Papara, and it was solid,” recalls Bourez.

UNTIL WE SAW A WAVE THE at 9am. I waited nine hours, “Matahi was around 12 and out on this old until we saw a wave the same board with no leash, smiling as usual. A bigger SAME SIZE OR BIGGER, AND I size or bigger, and I knew it set came, and he looked at me, and the cheeky was my wave. So did Manoa.” bastard asked if I was going. It was probably the KNEW IT WAS MY WAVE.” first time I saw the potential he had.”

About 20 years before, Matahi was playing on the beach with his bodyboard, as he did almost In 2012, Bjarn moved the Drollets from every day. This time though his dad showed up Mataiea to Teahupo’o. Matahi’s grandmother with a surfboard. “I was bummed, but I had no already had a house up the reef from the break choice but to ride it,” he said. “I remember my that was accessible only by boat. The family brother came out and pushed me on a wave and would spend holidays and weekend breaks at it all started from there.” the waterfront house. As they were catching their own food and playing in the sheltered Matahi Drollet grew up at Mataiea, a tiny Tahi- lagoon, they could hear, and feel, surfing’s tian beach village just around the corner from most infamous break thundering in the distance. the surfing hub of Papara. His father, Bjarn, Apart from the heritage link, the move also who learned to surf in Hawaii after attending made sense for his sister Cindy, who after studyboarding school there, had moved his family of ing in France, had come back to run the family five children to Mataiea from capital Papeete boat business. With Teahupo’o now universally in the late 80s. known, it was a logical base.

Bjarn was the first Tahitian to recognise the surf tourism potential and started a boat business driving surfers and photographers to the

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After flirting with the Teahupo’o foamball for close to a decade, it’s safe to say Matahi and his smouldering mistress are now on intimate terms.

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Matahi Drollet: The One and Only Top: Matahi, in front of the vertiginous Tahitian backdrop which frames his favourite stage. Bottom: Bold, foiled assault on a wave that makes few allowances for mistakes.

Matahi boarded at his old school during the week and would come to the village at the end of the road for the weekend. An A-grade student he’d ensure that all his homework was done so the weekend was completely free to surf.

The shoot was for ‘Point Break 2’. Surfers like Laurie Towner, Dylan Longbottom, and Bruce Irons had been employed as stunt doubles and a full Hollywood production had arrived in time for the biggest and cleanest swell in years.

“He was a big joker at school, the real class clown,” said his sister Cindy. “He’s lucky he is really smart and able to learn anything by reading or listening just once. Plus, he had Papa on his case, who always made school a big priority.”

Lawrie Towner was hurt early in the morning and there was some pressure on the locals not to continue to surf. Yet the Drollets had other ideas. “Manoa said, ‘That’s not the way we do it round here.’ I sat way out outside with my brother, and we just stayed away from it all,” In those early years, Matahi’s father and brother says Matahi. “We surfed for seven hours and didn’t allow him to surf Teahupo’o. He would, scored some of the best waves of my life includhowever, stay in the boat and closely watch ing that huge one late in the day.” the professionals who had hired Bjarn as a driver. In a further Karate Kid style educa- “That huge one” was easily the biggest wave tion, Raimana Van Bastolaer was a close family caught during the biggest swell since the Code friend. Matahi would stay with him during each Red session in 2011. It would earn Matahi the school holiday and spend hours on the ski with XXL Biggest Wave Award, making him the him learning the art of driving. It was inevi- youngest ever winner. In terms of scene-stealing, table that Matahi would surf it’s up there with Christopher Walken’s ‘father’s the wave. Few surfers though gold watch’ performance effort in ‘Pulp Fiction’. have been better prepared for “WHAT MAKES MATAHI their first shot.

“I was just following my brother. In tow surfing DIFFERENT IS HIS CAPACITY the driver does 70 percent of the work,” says “I remember one of the first Matahi simply. “We’d only ever had three surfs TO LEARN QUICKLY AND TO times I shot Matahi when together. My first ever on a surfboard. Then, he first moved here,” says the first time I paddled Chopes, and that day.

STAY QUIET,” SAYS BOUREZ. photographer Ben Thouard. However, I’ve watched hours of his videos and “A LOT OF KIDS LIKE TO TALK, “His family let him drive a studied his approach. He’s an inspiration.” little dingy boat and he was BUT HE LIKES TO LISTEN. ” often surfing alone or with his The wave generated huge exposure, which mates. He would spend every helped him secure sponsor s. While he day out there, no matter what the conditions. harboured plans to study at University and be The knowledge he has already amassed at that either a chef or a pilot after he graduated, he wave is incredible.” soon realised he could make a life, and a living, by surfing the wave closest to his house.

“At 14 I had my first tow session at Chopes,” recalls Matahi. “It was only 10-12 feet, but I “What makes Matahi different is his capacity to scored a few big barrels, and I knew from then learn quickly and to stay quiet,” says Bourez. on I wasn’t going to miss a swell. I was going to “A lot of kids like to talk, but he likes to listen. dedicate my life to the wave.”

That Point Break wave proved that, and it was just the start.”

Fast forward two years later and Matahi was ready for anything that Chopes could throw at Drollet’s capacity to listen and learn is perhaps him. When a huge swell appeared on the charts, the key to him becoming the defining surfer, he called his brother to see if he would tow him, leading light, and mentor of his generation for their first time as a team. Manoa had done at Teahupo’o. Photographer Thouard recalls his time surfing the wave, but there was still no how they both started foilboarding together better driver. However, just a few days before and within weeks Drollet was supremely confithe swell’s arrival the pair heard the lineup was dent and already planning how to get tubed at to be closed for the film shoot.

Teahupo’o.

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Matahi Drollet: The One and Only Below: While many are riding waves of similar magnitude at Teahupo’o, Matahi understands that at some point insouciance becomes the ultimate measure of performance.

Within a few years, he would execute that plan, providing another Chopes first. While he dislocated his shoulder exiting the barrel at Mach speed, it showed where foilboarding is headed.

Like his studies, his surfing, or his guitar playing, everything seems to come effortlessly to the Tahitian.

developer physically and didn’t bulk up until later in his teens. The added size helped as he climbed up the pecking order.

returned to find his house flooded by the swell.

Sitting out the back the whole day he hadn’t registered the force or scale of the swell; the first to ever swamp his house.

“There’s plenty of room for progression at Chopes, especially paddling bigger waves,” he “It was devastating coming home to see my said. “I want to just keep having fun and aim to house destroyed,” he says. “But my family was get the biggest and best waves I can. Everything safe, my friends in the water were safe and that’s Looking to find a few chinks in his personal- in my life comes back to that.” all that matters,” before adding, almost as an ity armour, I went back to his sister Cindy. In afterthought, “and I rode the biggest barrel of my experience elder sisters tend to be razor- Matahi’s house is now the HQ for all the best my life.” sharp at highlighting any character flaws. “I’m big wave surfers in Tahiti. On every swell, the afraid I can’t help,” laughed Cindy. “In Tahitian, oceanside bungalow transforms into a de facto ‘Matahi’ means ‘the one and only’ and he truly clubhouse, Jet Ski maintenance centre, safe is. In our big family we love to say that Matahi harbour and doss house. All the best Tahitian is the best version of all of us and took only the surfers, and many of the planet’s most talented best part in each of us.” chargers, make a beeline for the waterfront pad when Teahupo’o turns on.

After that Point Break swell Matahi doubled down on his commitment to paddling On the Black Friday swell, having ridden his Teahupo’o. Always a skinny kid, he was a late one wave just 20 minutes before dark, Matahi

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ALL HAIL THE QUEEN OF PIPELINE

M OA N A J O N E S WO N G Written by Kate Allman

Moana Jones Wong is being carried up the beach at Pipeline, weighed down by multiple celebratory leis locals are draping over her head.

The grinning rookie, who is a mostly new face to international viewers of World Surf League (WSL) broadcasts, seems unable to decide on an emotion. One moment the vision captures her covering up tears with her hands, the next, launching both arms into the air in triumph as she sways through the crowd on her husband Tehotu Wong’s shoulders. It’s the same grinning, double-arm claim that has appeared time and again inside the pit of gaping barrels. Each time, Moana emerges Houdini-like from yet another of Pipeline’s treacherous offerings.

She has just torched five-time World Champion Carissa Moore by 14 points to claim victory at the Pipeline Pro final. Scoring two 6.67s and then a 7 in the dying seconds of the final to etch her name into surfing’s history books. She’s the first winner of a women’s Championship Tour (CT) event at the notoriously heavy break. It’s an impressive feat for any surfer to take down a defending World Champion but this win is made more impressive by a 22-year-old Hawaiian local who only narrowly scored a chance to compete as a wildcard rookie.

“Is it too soon to call her the Queen of Pipe?” WSL commentator Chris Cote asks guest commentator Kelly Slater, as the crowd throngs around their new female champion and momentary world number one.

“No. Done,” replies Kelly.

Opposite: Moana Jones Wong belongs to that exclusive club of surfers who make Pipeline look like a second home. Photo: Mike Ito

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Top: Fantasy becomes reality as Moana celebrates her triumph in the 2022, Billabong Pro Pipeline. Photo: WSL/ Bielmann • Bottom: A win for Hawaii on home shores is always a special occasion. Photo: WSL/Heff

If Moana Jones Wong was not a household name Tehotu Wong in 2020. The pair first locked eyes before the 2022 Pipeline Pro, she surely is now. in the lineup at V-land when Moana was a teenager, but it took Tehotu many more years to woo The Greatest of all Time (GOAT a.k.a. Kelly her. When they eventually married – she was 20, Slater) is not the only person dubbing her he was four years older – she added his surname ‘Queen’ of the break at which he has won eight while keeping her own.

CT events, including the 2022 final one day earlier (in the week of his 50th birthday, no less). The ‘Smiling Assassin’ is another popular referThe nickname has been floating around O’ahu ence, for the blinding white grin that identifies for months.

Moana in a barrel, even from far off.

It started when Moana pulled out a slew of impressive performances on Hawaii’s North Shore in December, including fourth overall in the 2021 Vans Triple Crown of Surfing. She firmly put to bed any claim to underground status when her all-female team scored the most points among the women in the Da Hui Backdoor Shootout in January. A vlog she posted in the days following the event showcased her unmistakeable, cool, goofy-footed glide down violently bending walls of water. Every drop is followed by a masterful navigation of a throaty tube and an almost nonchalant “EVEN IN THE FINAL THE exit from the monster’s jaws.

COMMENTATORS WERE LIKE, Social media became flooded with iconic photos of Moana’s ‘SHE’S JUST GOING TO SMILE beaming grin, pearly whites HER WAY RIGHT THROUGH THAT glowing like a lighthouse from the depths of tubular glory.

BARREL.’ IT SHOWS HOW HAPPY I AM EXPERIENCING THAT FEELING. I AM ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH IT.”

“We all got invited to the Backdoor Shootout and that’s when the girls really went off,” she tells Tracks.

“Everyone tells me, ‘you look so happy when you’re in the barrel – you look like you’re smiling’,” she laughs with a cheerfully infectious snicker.

“It’s true, if you zoom in on my face in a lot of photos, I’m smiling in the barrel. Even in the final the commentators were like, ‘She’s just going to smile her way right through that barrel.’

It shows how happy I am experiencing that feeling. I am absolutely in love with it.”

Growing up, Moana could only dream of the notoriety she has earned at the break she calls her, “Second home break” (she began surfing Sunset before Pipeline, she tells Tracks). North Shore born and raised, she comes from a long line of local surfers in her parents, grandparents, and Hawaiian ancestors. Her parents would take Moana and her sister island-hopping, snorkelling, sailing, and surfing across the Pacific.

The ocean was her home as much as solid land.

She reckons she stood on a surfboard before she got out of nappies. She even paid homage to the immense spirituality surfing holds for native Hawaiians in a thesis she published in 2021, during her senior year of studying a bachelor of applied science, majoring in Hawaiian and Indigenous health and healing at the University of Hawaii. The project was titled, ‘Surfing: More than a Sport’.

“The waves were firing out there, it was 10 feet, bombing Pipe, and Bethany Hamilton packed a sick closeout barrel. Keala Kennelly got some sick ones, Malia Manuel got some sick ones.

That was the first real opportunity that women had to show what they could do at legitimate Pipe. We really showed up and everyone went “Surfing basically connects native Hawaiians to for it out there. It was awesome.” our culture. It heals us, it helps us figure out who we are, it gives us a purpose, and it’s really The photos from the Backdoor Shootout lit up crucial to us as native Hawaiians,” she says. “I an Omicron-plagued world, frothing for travel feel so connected to my culture, my ancestors and surf content. In the aftermath, not only and the ocean when I am out there.” did the world know Moana’s name, but various iterations of nicknames began popping up like Moana paddled out at Pipe once or twice in her surfboards tombstoning across the North Shore. teens but began surfing it religiously after she The simple ‘MJW’ is now pretty common; it’s turned 18. Four years and innumerable beatthe three-letter acronym she became after downs later, it’s fair to say she has earned her marrying her Tahitian surf sweetheart-turned- stripes in the notoriously tricky lineup. coach, cheer squad, and number one hype-man

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Comfortably negotiating the offshore claws and the ribbed face, Moana plots her path through the impending hollow. Photo: Mike Ito

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Below: Moana enjoying big props from heavy wave trailblazer, Keala Kennelly. Photo: WSL/Heff

“How many times have I surfed Pipeline? I Sunset during the Vans Triple Crown of Surf- two weeks after Pipeline, she told Tracks afterdon’t know, it’s really hard to put that into a ing. Soon enough, posters, hats, T-shirts, all wards that she felt happy with her performance timeframe,” she says. “Because every time I go scrawled with Carissa’s signature, clad young and enjoyed tough heats. Perhaps the GOAT out there it’s usually at least a six-hour session. Moana’s bedroom walls. said it best while guest commentating her final It’s never just a one-hour session. It’s usually at Pipe: “Moana doesn’t seem like she has any three hours, six hours.

“Carissa has definitely been a huge inspiration sort of rigid game plan in this final, she is just and a hero to me my entire life,” Moana says. surfing and enjoying herself ”.

“The longest I’ve ever been out there was almost nine hours. Not even coming in, just out there Moana competed regularly as a teen and held “Pipeline and me click. I just feel really at home the whole time. I couldn’t really move for like a a six-year contract with Billabong from the out there,” she agrees. week after that. I had heat stroke, dehydration, age of 11. But at 17, she decided she had been it was bad. pushing too hard and took a break from contest “It’s like Pipeline has its people. I think the surfing. When she returned to competitions people that have a connection out there, we can “When you get stuck out there you have to wait almost six years later – in December 2021 – she really feel it. We feel like the wave is treating us a long time to catch waves. It’s so hard to be embraced a new attitude whereby competition a little differently than it’s treating everybody in the right place in the crowd because there results would not define her. Lo and behold, else because it’s familiar with us, we’re an old are so many people paddling around. It’s very she started surfing better than she ever had. friend or something.” easy to get out of position manoeuvring around everybody. It’s chaos.”

When Moana unwittingly conquered her hero Whether Moana will be awarded a wildcard at in February, another surprising fact dawned the next CT event in Portugal or falls off the Adding to the intimidation of the crowd and on the stunned WSL commentary team. The Tour when the WSL leaves Hawaii, will be a North Shore swells heaving over a shallow, last time a rookie won a women’s Champion- decision for competition officials. One thing’s crunchy reef at Pipeline is the fact Moana is ship Tour event was in 2010, when Australian for sure: the nickname appears likely to stick often the only woman paddling in. Big-wave Tyler Wright won at Sunset Beach in Hawaii. around. Footage of the trophy presentation at legend Keala Kennelly would occasionally Wright had gone on to become a two-time Pipeline offers insight there. keep her company, flying in from her home World Champion. island of Kauai. And while the WSL ladies When Moana finally arrives at the stage, show up in December through February for “I think I have the potential to become a World contest announcer Kaipo Guerrero asks a events during the winter swell season, Moana Champion,” says Moana. “I’m not going to say crowded Banzai beach: “Is it okay to start callsays she rarely has a female buddy to surf with that will happen, but I know that I have the ing her the Queen of Pipe?” through the rest of the year. potential and if I work hard and keep improving. I think that’s totally possible.”

The response is deafening.

She vividly recalls the excitement of witnessing the world’s best female surfers arriving in For now, Moana says her game plan is just to O’ahu for competitions when she was a child. keep enjoying surfing and competing – not to In fact, she was only six or seven when she let results define her. When she was eliminated first asked Carissa Moore for an autograph at in the opening round of heats at Sunset Beach

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IN

SCRAP THE

BY

BOOK

TRACKS

LUKE

• TIME

S E A R C HING M A C HINE

K E N NEDY

Below: With a star-spangled scarf and a tell-tale cap, Kelly rides the human chariot into history after claiming his 10th World Title, at The Rip Curl Search event in Puerto Rico.

WHILE CONTEST RESULTS EARN RESPECT IN PRO-SURFING IT HAS HISTORICALLY BEEN THE MAGAZINES THAT ARE THE REAL KINGMAKERS. The revealing stories, the interviews and the defining images are what build the mythology around a surfer. When Kelly Slater recently claimed the Billabong Pro, Pipeline a few days shy of his 50th birthday, we decided to plunder the Tracks archive in search of the most telling Kelly references over the last three decades. Using the direct copy from the pages of the magazine

we chart Kelly’s journey, from the bidding war to sponsor him, through his years of dominance in the mid-90s, all the way up to his miraculous comeback Titles in the early 2000s. Touching on the rivalries, the relationships, the ambition, and the controversy that made Kelly who he is, the time-stamped feature delivers a compelling insight into surfing’s most celebrated figure.

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Top: Kelly follows the yellow-skivvied road to Oz in 1991 where he formalises a million dollar deal with Quiksilver.

Bottom: First ASP win, the Rip Curl Pro Hossegor in 1992.

The tally now stands at 56. Photos: Joli

“WE

HAVE

KELLY TOE,

AN

SLATER TO

WHAT’S

EXCLUSIVE FROM

ON

HEAD-TO-

UNDERNEATH

HIS

TOES, TO WHAT’S UNDERNEATH HIS FINGERNAILS.”

Note: Dates in yellow refer to the issue of Tracks the Kelly Slater stories appeared in, as opposed to the time of the actual events.

October 1990: Tracks follows the money on the quest to ink a deal for a young Kelly Slater.

Bob Hurley, president of Billabong USA says no deal:

Martin Potter and Tom Curren have fulfilled that, and they’re the ones making the big bucks now. It may be like that if Slater wins the title, but who knows when that’s going to happen?

Those kinds of dollars may be realistic when he reaches that top spot, but he’s not there yet.”

June 1991: Nineteen-year-old Slater comes to Australia to sign a million-dollar deal with Quiksilver. Tracks discusses the details and the potential for jealousy amongst other surfers.

about how much money the other guy’s making, or what his contract’s worth, or what kind of hype he has; you go out there to win, and that’s the way I think that all the competitors are looking at it.”

He admitted, though, that there has been a bit of jealousy. “I guess just ‘cause people hear I make money and I’m doing well at a young age. But I just try to be friends with all the guys who surf, I mean all my competitors, and I try not to have any vibes with anyone and it seems to work out fine. I’ve gotten along fine so far.”

… When I think of large sums of money, I think of it in units of $1,500, because that’s how much it costs to go to Grajagan. We heard how much Slater’s management was asking, and I thought, … Earlier that afternoon, Quiksilver had held a ‘How many trips to G-Land would that buy?’ press conference for Slater at their Newport January 1992: Kelly surfs a giant swell at Figure Slater was worth $250,000 a year; that’s headquarters. It was packed with television, Miyazaki in Japan alongside Tom Carroll and almost 177 trips to Grajagan. We decided to radio and print journalists, plus a bevy of Tom Curren. The session helps Kelly change watch this ale from the sidelines.” photographers. He handled it well, obviously perceptions about his big-wave act. experienced in the process, and was articulate, Quiksilver signs but no details: friendly and relaxed. The Cocoa Beach, Florida, … Slater, with little previous reputation as a big surfer signed a three-and-a-half-year contract wave rider, appeared a tad hesitant, but was …Thursday, July 26, when Slater and Taylor with Quiksilver last August, reportedly worth quickly consumed with the idea of surfing decided to enter into a three-and-a-half- “close to $US1 million”, according to a press big waves alone with his two biggest surfing year sponsorship agreement with Quiksilver. report handed out at the gathering… Needless heroes. Within minutes, they were paddling Although financial and other details of the to say, Slater’s contract and hype, including his their way through the strong rip and reached the contract were not released to the public. Danny big-selling video, have uneased some of his outside lineup. Slater recalls, “I felt pretty small Kwock summed it up like this: “Our agreement competitors and sections of the surfing industry. and insignificant out there. Huge waves were with Kelly Slater is a ‘hundred-percent, hundred- They are worried he might get pushed by the breaking all around me. I had trouble enough percent’ contract. This includes clothes, judges, where close decisions could go his way. just trying to find the correct lineup and not get wetsuits, surfboards — everything. We have caught inside the impact zone. an exclusive on Kelly Slater from head-to- Asked if that might be the case, Slater replied: toe, to what’s underneath his toes, to what’s “Umm, I don’t know. I’ve had it called both ways underneath his fingernails.” on me in the past. I hope that doesn’t come into consideration in a close heat, you know. If I make When asked if Kelly Slater was now the highest it through a heat, I hope I win the heat on my paid professional surfer, Danny Kwock was own and don’t get pushed through. If I deserve emphatic: to lose, I should lose.” … “No. I can say for sure he’s not paid as much as Tom Carroll, and I wouldn’t think he’s paid more than Tom Curren. He’s not the highly-paid surfer everyone thinks. The ultimate fulfillment is to become World Champion; Tom Carroll,

05 2

But Slater will be going up against a lot of hungry surfers who don’t have his sort of financial security. Is he concerned? “Um ... yeah, but that doesn’t really come into consideration when you’re surfing. You don’t go out there thinking

053

05 4

Top Left: Where adolescent innocence collides with competitive zeal, all in the look of an eye. Photo: Tierney • Top Right: Hoisting the World Title trophy for the first time, in 1992. Bottom: Cheek-puffed rail commitment in the shot that ran as the Tracks cover to celebrate Kelly’s first title win. Photo: Bosko

“THAT HE DOESN’T HAVE TO RELY ON A FEW DRINKS TO LOOSEN UP SPEAKS VOLUMES, I GUESS, FOR HOW STRONG A CHARACTER HE IS. IN THAT WAY HE DOESN’T BEND TO PEER PRESSURE EASILY OR OFTEN.”

February 1993: Summary article on Kelly Slater’s Maiden World Title … Mr Slater is not one for excessive indulgence when it comes to introducing foreign substances to one’s body. He’s never touched drugs, and alcohol abuse is an extreme rarity. That’s not to deny him social butterfly status – you can regularly catch him out in the early hours of the morning with the boys going off, especially if there’s a pool table handy. He certainly appears to have as good a time as anyone. Perhaps he just laughs at the rest of us bent units. That he doesn’t have to rely on a few drinks to loosen up speaks volumes, I guess, for how strong a character he is. In that way he doesn’t bend to peer pressure easily or often.

Two young, sometimes raucous peers, sometimes dubbed the ‘Terror Twins’, got him off the wagon at the official rage after the Gunston 500 in Durban, South Africa. We didn’t see him the next day. The night of his first ASP Tour win, at Sanga’s memorial bash at the Rock Food at Hossegor, he seemed very footloose and fancyfree, but he maintained later he’d only had a bit of champers. … He began his acceptance speech at the ASP awards banquet in Hawaii by declaring that he was possibly the first sober World Champ to take· the rostrum. Personally, I thought that was a bit of a niggling and an unnecessary observation, but it stirred the Terror Twins back into action. The pair bolted to the bar and ordered two double bourbons and coke each.

They were headed for Slater under the spotlight up on stage, determined to make him scull the drinks before the assembled throng, when somebody diplomatically stopped them. Kelly

was unaware of their intentions, but when I told “Slater wrote a poem. We’re all urging him on him of their foiled plot he simply laughed and and he’s saying: ‘Hold ! Hold on!’ And it was a said: ‘’They could have tried but it wouldn’t have really good poem and he killed it, but it was a helped them!” … bit too rehearsed — ya know? So he loses. Todd Mitsui wins the shell contest and I got second, … Kelly likes nothing more – when there’s no swell and Brock got third. Slater comes up afterwards – than to putter out off Cocoa Beach at 5.30am and he checked the judges sheets! (Hysterical and go fishing. He mightn’t catch a thing, but the laughter) I promise! You fuckin’ weirdo! He goes silence of the situation outweighs catching an up to Todd and says: ‘That judge Bob, he gave 80-kilogram marlin – well almost, perhaps. He you a seven! You didn’t deserve a seven for that!’ doesn’t get much chance to escape. When he got back from Brazil, where he wrapped up the “He’s so competitive and so driven, he’s radical title in late October, he went hunting in Georgia and it’s obvious that’s why he’s such a great with a close mate. His best friend doesn’t even surfer. He’s one of those guys that comes along surf and he always enjoys spending time at his every now and then that can do anything.” mate’s campus upstate, miles from the coast where few people know him.

March 1993: The Aerial Evolution is debated, and Kelly is pegged as the game changer. … When he’s at home he regularly drops in to visit his old teachers at Cocoa Beach High. They call … Many surfers would look to a certain Mr. Slater him ‘Meal Ticket’, write him off and treat him like if they needed someone to ‘blame’ for the any ex-student and he loves it. proliferation of slide and aerial acrobatics. It was certainly Kelly who mixed so-called ‘circus tricks’ February 1993: Kelly’s early career, archrival, into functional competitive routines.

Shane Herring comments on Kelly’s maiden World Title win in 1992. … About the same time as Jake Spooner was stunning the crowed at the Corona Teams “He’s a very nice boy. He should have been on Challenge, three years ago, young Kelly Slater the Brady Bunch a few years back (laughs) I’m pulled off his first successful reverse 360. He’d spewing he won but it’s hot. It’s good for surfing. been trying to bag one for over a month and He deserves it fully. He surfed better than then finally one day at Trestles in California he anyone else the whole year.” did it. He returned to shore absolutely freaking but started freaking out a different way when he Barton Lynch on Kelly Slater... learned that his mate videoing on the beach had missed it. Spewin’.

“I’ve gotta tell this story! On Tavarua they have this shell contest where everyone has to find a shell and get up and talk about it. So, we’re all telling our story and I’m up there being rude, and having fun, and carrying on.

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Top: Over the years Kelly’s speeches and post-heat interviews have become as famous as his heat wins.

Photo: Joli • Bottom: Mid 90s fin-release with Kelly’s distinctive body-jive. Board features the famous drawing – A frog half-way down a bird’s mouth as it screams ‘never give up.’ Photo: Shorty

“I’D OR

LOVE BREAK

IT’S

NOT

NOW.

IT’S

TO

BE

MARK BEEN …

ABLE

TO

TIE

RICHARDS,

BUT

IN

FOUR

SIGHT

RIGHT

TITLES

IT’S

OUT OF HAND. THAT’S JUST WRONG YOU

KNOW

(LAUGHS)

IT’S

NEARLY

IMPOSSIBLE.”

November: 1994: Major Interview. Slater en route to his second title.

“I’d love to be able to tie or break Mark Richards, but it’s not been in sight right now. It’s … four titles it’s out of hand. That’s just wrong you know (laughs) it’s nearly impossible.”

“Well, see, I don’t mind hanging out with drunk people at all and being sober, but when I’m playing pool I just feel like it kind of settles my brain down a little because I tend to get pretty angry around drunk people. They just kind of bug me.”

They’ve been shooting video from the balcony.

Have you been watching that video at the end of each day? Have you guys been pretty critical of that?

“Yeah, I watch every one of my heats on video right after.”

stories about him being linked romantically slipped in a sly dig when somebody asked if with Playboy Playmate Pamela Anderson. He they’d be playing one of their epic ping pong just cracked up laughing before adding, “No games. comment.” After we told him that we’d believe him where thousands wouldn’t, he stopped “I don’t think he wants to get beat twice in one cackling and said: “No, what I will say is: Pamela day,” heckled Machado through his trophy.” and I are just good friends.” Alongside the bucks, he obviously picked up a good handle on when 1995: Kelly defeats Rob Machado in the semis to run out the media cliches during his time on of the Pipe Masters, knocking Machado out of Hollywood’s Baywatch! contention for the World Title. Kelly goes on to win the Pipe Masters, his third World Title August 1995: Slater wins the inaugural and the triple crown: Neil Ridgway asks Kelly Quiksilver Pro, G-Land, which Tracks labels about the infamous mid-heat high five with ‘The Greatest Surf Trip of All Time.’

Machado.

Although the contest is Slater’s first trip to the jungle-fringed reef he puts on a masterful display, defeating Jeff Booth in the final. After the contest, Pete Johnson (Jack’s brother), asks him if it’s the best surfing he’s ever done to which Kelly replies.

What about that high five with Rob, you must have been pretty stoked?

It was so exhilarating you know. It reminded me of a feeling I had in G-Land when I was surfing at Speedies with Jim Banks, and he got probably the most incredible tube I’ve ever seen. He came out and he was so startled that he made it I think that he couldn’t really function on what was happening afterwards.

“I don’t know, I guess this week has been. I feel like I can improve though. I feel like I improve every day and my strengths become a lot better.

“I’m only an alcoholic three times a year — My overall approach gets better.”

Lacanau, Hossegor, and Biarritz ” He was just going straight with this blank look Meanwhile Tracks Neil Ridgway writes: on his face. I stuck my hand out, but he didn’t November 1994: the truth about Kelly and Pam see it and I was like. C’mon. give me five!” Just as “I wish Slater would stop being so damned down- he went by he caught my hand and gave me five.

Kelly Slater rang the Tracks office from California home nice on the victory dais. I wish he’d walk It was sort of the same feeling you know. It was the other day. He was looking for some out and scream: “You must listen to me, I am The a different thing going on, but it gave me goose information on The Tom Parish Litmus Trip, a Greatest! I can’t be beat! I don’t have a reef scar bumps – it was really great... contest that’s running alongside the Rip Curl on me. I shook up the world. I shook up the world.

Pro at Bells next year. He had no idea about what I am the greatest.” the surf over in California was like at the time, mentioning that he hadn’t even looked at it since November 1995: Machado beats Slater at he arrived there. However, he did say that he Huntington and gets the edge in the title race. was going to get on it soon and psych for the upcoming World Championship Tour Alternativa “At the awards ceremony, Machado joked about Pro in Brazil. After a bit of a yarn we told him that buying dinner for Slater that night (Machado’s ‘girly fanzines’ all over the country were running winnings: $14,000, Slater: $7000)… He also “Go ahead, make me angry. I can get rich from it. “

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05 8

Opposite: Kelly gets the cover! Not surprisingly he’s had more Tracks page ones than any other surfer. Top: Impromptu practise swing on a surf trip to Morocco.

The golf course has been the place Kelly escapes to throughout his career. Photo: Testemale • Bottom: Kelly behind closed doors.

059

“HE (POTTZ) WAS ABOUT 10-DEEP

Opposite: n the midst of a fierce rivalry, Kelly and Pottz raise their fists at the conclusion of the 1994 Rip Curl Pro, Bells. Ultimately, Kelly rung his first Bell and went on to win the next five World Titles in a row. Photos: Joli

THAT

NIGHT

AND

HE

FINALLY

SAID SOMETHING TO ME LIKE, “YOU’RE ALRIGHT BECAUSE YOU HIT

LIPS

WHEN

THEY’RE

IN

YOUR WAY. “I LIKE YOU ‘CAUSE YOU’RE LIKE ME.”

March 1999: Kelly defeats Rob Machado in a heat at Pipe in a 1995 rematch to snatch the title from Danny Wills and Mick Campbell.

Announces he’s taking a break from competition.

you if they had given me that cheque, there would be no way they would have got it back. I would have spent it that night.”

December 2003: Kelly is listed as The Greatest Surfer of All Time in the Tracks Top 100 list.

He graces the cover in boardies. Derek Hynd sums up his unique success.

… It’s news to the ears of every World Title aspirant... Kelly Slater will not contest this year’s World Title! He’s taking the year off to cruise and spend some time with his two-year-old daughter, … Slater is as much the stark sporran of the hang out with girlfriend Pam Anderson, take Bronzed Aussies as the San Clemente style child some surf trips (without photographers tagging of Martin Potter and Matt Archbold despite his along), and play a shitload of golf. Good luck to Floridian roots. He’s an amalgam of everything him. The rest of the 44 should make the most of in pro-surfing from MP to Damien Hardman and it this year, because if Slater can still win the title the industry in between. His like won’t be seen when he’s tired and jaded like this year, what’s again, lest there’s systematic change where he bloody likely to bloody do when his batteries the gifted child is protected from plunderous are recharged! contracts and outrageous publicity. And a career cushion is dealt to around 10 deserved March: 2002: Kelly wins the Eddie after pros instead of a current backend crop of discovering a mistake in the judges’ score metaphorical trust-fund kids living the life of sheets. Tony Ray details having the $US50 000 Riley.

Eddie cheque ripped from his hands.

October 2004: Kelly sits down for an interview If it wasn’t for a quick scan of the wave scores at J-Bay with Taj Burrow, Shane Powell, and

by Kelly Slater five minutes before the Eddie Occy presentation, Tony Ray would have walked away with first prize. Ben Mondy caught up with T-Ray Kelly on Influences to find out just how close he came to the title.

My first hero was Buttons. I loved Buttons when “Yeah I was the winner of the Eddie for three I was eight years old he was my God! I saw him hours. For the two hours of the event and then in a film in 1980 or ’81 and he was doing stuff for an hour prior to the presentation, I was like… I don’t know. He was having so much fun being called as the winner.” And so Tony Ray on waves and he just seemed like a funny guy. I recounts his oh-so-close second placing in the remember watching this film of him and I swear Eddie. Even five minute before the presentation, he went upside down in the barrel. From then on T-Ray had his name on the $US50,000 first prize every wave I used to try and go upside down. I’d cheque (second place was worth $US10,000). just hit a wave and go upside down and fall every However when Slater had one last look at all the time. I’d come in and dad would go, “ What are wave scores he noticed that a 68, rather than the you doing? You’re falling on every wave. And I’d correct 71, had been recorded for his fourth and say, “Yeah, I’m going to make one of them one final scoring wave. He notified the scorers, who day.” After that, by the time I was 10 years old, I realised their mistake and that additional three met him and then I was all about Tom Curren. I points was enough to elevate Slater from third to use to do my hands like him look-backs off the first, and Tony from first to second. top like him… for no reason. I’m sure he had a reason for it but I didn’t. Shortly after that I Understandably Tony was spewing. “Oh mate, was really into Pottz. He got a cover-shot in the I was just totally gutted, I had three hours to States, and I didn’t really know who he was. He spend the money. It was fully allocated. I’ll tell was like 14 or 15 and got a cover shot – “Fly boy

06 0

Pottz!” – and then I was all into doing aerials like Pottz! After that it was Occy and Tom Carroll. I saw them surf in ’84 when I was about 12 years old. I used to especially love backhand surfing.

When I was young, Curren was my favourite. For backside surfing nobody came close to Curren and Occy. With Curren it was all about style and flow. I guess maybe because he grew up surfing Rincon he was so much better frontside. … Sooner or later you are going to be inspired by people around you.

From the same interview: Kelly reflects on the rivalries and relationships with the old guard when he arrived on tour.

When we came on tour there was a huge dividing line between the young and old guys…

There was such a different style of approaching the wave. There were the very vocal guys like Elko and Pottz to some extent. It was kind of like Elko was heading that up. I think he was seeing his demise in some way, and was not able… You know… I think his surfing wasn’t going to drastically change, to fit in with what was coming in. There was definitely a generation gap there that was more apparent than maybe ever.

It was maybe like the shortboard/longboard revolution/ the level of contrast.

He (Pottz) was about 10-deep that night and he finally said something to me like, “You’re alright because you hit lips when they’re in your way. “I like you ‘cause you’re like me.” He goes, “If you see a lip you want to hit it.” I was like, “Yeah, okay, I suppose he accepts me.”

061

Top: Kelly sneaking a ciggie as captured by Eddie Vedder.

Bottom: Beer-sculling exit from a Teahupo’o tube after claiming the 2005 event. Photo: Joli

December 2004: Bruce Irons destroys Kelly in the Quiksilver Pro France and goes on to meet his brother, Andy, in the final. Andy wins and is way ahead in the World Title race.

and shoots into the channel. He makes history.

It is the first time anyone has scored two perfect 10s under the new , two wave system…

He paddles over to Raimana Van Bostoloer’s boat and grabs a beer. He paddles out with it “Kelly compounded error after error, being between his teeth, takes off on a set, and gets hopelessly out of synch with the waves and, barrelled while skolling it, popping out the other catching rails, falling and generally stumbling. It end and throwing the empty tin triumphantly was almost painful to watch the six-times World to the heavens. The wave scores an 8.7. The Champion, eventually needing over 19 points as Aussie guys watching see the dream script young Bruce fired on all cylinders.” unfolding and in true Aussie fashion bring him back to earth. “It’s got cordial in it,” they scream, January 2005: Andy wins his third straight from the channel as he skols from the blue can.

World Title, trouncing Kelly in the process. Kelly later admits, “I thought my beer wave was Despite the much-hyped rivalry, Andy adopts actually better than my second 10.” a diplomatic tone in a World Champion interview.

October 2005: A Kelly shot makes the list of Tracks 35 best all-time photos. Below is the That was so cool. Kelly’s an awesome guy original description of the context in which it and someone I look up to. It was awesome to was taken. have a guy who’s won so many World Titles congratulate you right after. He’s in the event We went so close to putting this thing on the and all that but he was stoked for me. I’ve got a cover it wasn’t funny. Kelly had been escaping lot of respect for Kelly. humanity on King Island and he had Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder in tow. The world’s most famous Same issue: Kelly quizzed on his response surfer and the world’s most famous rock star on to Andy’s titles and the threat of someone a tiny island in the middle of nowhere. All-time. beating his record of six (at the time).

Eddie had handed Kelly his durry, grabbed Sean Davey’s camera, and fired off his classic frame.

Well, obviously that comes to mind. Anytime you set something, it’s there to be broken, but also January 2006: Kelly secures his famous, 2005 you don’t ever want it to be. There’s definitely comeback World Title against Andy Irons. He going to be talk of that. If I can win one more sits down with Wayne Dart and Tracks. title, it will make it that much harder for Andy to keep his motivation over a longer period of time. Kelly: The challenge that Andy put up is as hard My motivation isn’t to stop Andy, it’s to do good a challenge as I’ve faced in anything. Obviously myself. I can feel in my body when it’s just about what happened in 2003 (where Kelly lost to trying to outdo someone else. Andy’s jut hitting Andy at Pipe) was devastating to me, but it made his stride now, and I would expect he’s going to winning this title that much sweeter… If Andy be a World Title threat for at least the next five wasn’t on the Tour, I’m not sure how interested years.

I’d be. He makes it so much more appealing.

dozen pointless interviews a day, where you’ve constantly got an army of sycophantic strangers gravitating around you, where your little time spent with friends is squeezed between a list of daily commitments longer than the Koran. When so many people want a piece of you that your day is fragged up into five-minute intervals, few of which present anything meaningful to you. It’s the price of Kelly’s stratospheric fame, and as he says. “Achieving something no one’s achieved puts you in this place that’s kind of lonely.”

It concludes But as much as Kelly’s success might annoy the shit out of the guys he’s beating, ironically the last thing they want is for him to retire. You see, the only thing sweeter than winning a World Title for these guys would be beating the greatest surfer of their era to do so.”

Jamie Brisick interviews Kelly in the same issue and gets some deep insights into what makes him tick.

“I had his awakening about three years ago on tour where I was having such success at that period but at the same time it was taking such a toll on me spiritually. I find that all my friends are much more balanced than me day-to-day and much more stable in their lives, but they don’t have the highs that I have and probably don’t have the lows and it’s probably something to be aware of ‘cause it’s great to have those highs. Like last year I was doing really well and got on this high, like the highest high anyone can naturally have for months at a time, but I knew there would be a downside, that I’d have to fall.”

“I could see us having a tour in wave pools. You could say you’re surfing at 1:05 today and you’d be standing at exactly that time.”

August 2005: After a long hiatus from the January 2007: Kelly Slater wins his eighth podium, Kelly makes the final against Damien World Title. Sean Doherty ponders what it’s “I read a lot of magazines on planes. A lot of Hobgood at Teahupo’o. When Damien like to be Kelly.

‘Popular Science’ and ‘Popular Mechanics’ and dislocates a shoulder Kelly is left with the ‘Discovery’ and this magazine called ‘Nexus’, I lineup to himself. The win helps Kelly set up … Imagine for a moment being Kelly Slater. Okay, love that magazine. It’s alternative medicine his come-back, seventh World Title. fast forward past the bit where your twisted and science and conspiracies and UFOs and imagination has just had sex with several all sorts of fringe things. I end up linking myself “The decider is effectively finished but Kelly supermodels. (simultaneously), won a ninth into all sorts of health and dietary things through ain’t. With the stage set to himself and the world World Title, belted out a few tunes on stage with this, how things work naturally as opposed to watching, it is time to put on a show. Taking off Pearl Jam and then flown to Tavarua in a private medicinally.” on the biggest wave of the final he backdoors jet to catch a clean 10-foot swell… all in the one the first section, cannons into the west bowl day. Now get to the bit where you’re doing a

06 2

063

06 4

Top: As Gang Gajang goes off on stage, Kelly makes a dance-floor cameo at the Tracks party in 2010. Photo: Joli • Bottom: Kelly flings his ‘Wizard-Sleeve’ through a carving 360, while on a 2009 trip to P-Pass with Andy Irons. Photo: Swilly

April 2009: Kelly And Andy Irons travel to P-Pass in Micronesia together alongside a crew that includes, Ross Williams, Benji Weatherley. Evan Slater (no relation) tags along to write the story.

their photo taken with the band. Apparently Kelly had been digging on Gang Gajang and Madwax since he was an east coast USA grom.

would never help out. I mean do you think Pottz would ever hand out favours?

June 2011: The Ed’ interviews Kelly:

May 2011: Kelly dodging questions about retirement.

It seems like you still plan your life so that you … Right now his magic board is a self-shaped, can be in a position to chase any swell that disc-like 5’3 quad and he has all the intentions of “I’m a guy. Guys don’t commit.” pops up. Is that the case? pushing its limits on this trip… The disk initially generated snickers when he pulled it out of January 2011: Kelly wins his 10th World Title Oh yeah. That’s priority number one for me his board bag. “Wizard Sleeve!” Benji called it, in 2010, Ben Mondy Interviews Kelly after the really. All I do is look at maps and then look at referencing his favourite Kazakhastani journalist win my schedule between contests and then if I can because. “Because it’s like loose like sleeve of realistically do it, I go somewhere. wizard.”

Describe the difference between the feeling you have now compared to when you won your In the photos it seems like you are really …They might not know it but it’s as though Andy first world title? trying to push the boundaries of no rail-grab, and Kelly are still chained on opposite ends backhand barrel riding? of some invisible teeter-totter. One goes up Kelly: … This has been probably the most the other goes down. It doesn’t matter if it’s stressful title I’ve ever had because it’s sort of an Ideally, you only want to grab the rail if you’re on tour or in life, or some silly little freesurf unknown place and you know, at my age, people really deep or it’s really small and you’re trying session in Micronesia, complete happiness and say ‘you shouldn’t be doing this.’ to t your body in to it. Other than that, to make satisfaction seem to be rewarded at the other’s a backside barrel more challenging you want to expense…

What have you sacrificed to win 10 World let your hand off the rail and sort of contort your Titles? body in there a little bit.

May 2010: Kelly shows up on the dance floor at the Tracks 40th Anniversary Party as Gang I don’t see it as having made any sacrifices to So when you win now, are you able to immerse Gajang plays live at the The Coolangatta Hotel. get where I am, because I love what I do. A lot yourself more in the experience because Clashes with the editor, Luke Kennedy on the of people may think that not having a permanent there’s really no other agenda beyond that dance floor. home for all those years, or not raising family moment? is a sacrifice, but those type of things haven’t … Suddenly, as the Sounds of Then (aka This really been on my to do list. To achieve what I’ve Yeah, that’s really it. I’m just trying to have as Australia) is playing, Kelly Slater materialises on achieved means I’ve focused solely on surfing. much fun as I can. This isn’t something I’ll do the dance floor. For a moment he has his groove when I’m 50 or 80 years old… on. His bald head bobbing rhythmically and By winning a 10th World Title you have joined refracting a halo of stage light. But it doesn’t take a select group of, uhm, one. How do you Your popularity is probably at an all-time long for the camera-wielding fans to swamp him – respond when people compare you with the high now. Is it hard coping with the level of desperate to capture a shot of Kelly getting down greats of other sports? attention that you receive? amongst the regular folk. Meanwhile I’m still in the throes of Gang Gajang rapture, trying to You know that stuff comes up, but it’s a It is a bit challenging. I find it kind of weird to pretend I’m oblivious to his Lordship’s presence, conversation I prefer not to have. It’s like talk about. It’s a little tough. Like, a lot of places... when suddenly there’s a camera pointing at comparing apples and oranges. I’ve just here in WA or down the south coast. The sort me. I fail to comprehend why someone wants a dedicated myself to the sport I love and since a of places I don’t get to very often. It seems like photo of me pulling some unco dance move. In kid really have spent most of my energy trying there’s a kind of a fever around people. It’s like the band-induced delirium of the dance floor to improve the way I surf and the way I compete. they know who I am and they don’t see me very I’ve failed to realise I’ve drifted in front of Kelly. My success in my chosen sport is really down to often and it’s almost like there’s this frenetic When the camera flash goes off I rear back and that dedication and focus. energy. It’s a little bit of a tense frenzy. It is feel my cranium clash with someone else’s. hard to cope with because at the end of the day Turning around I see Kelly rubbing his forehead Do you ever get the urge with your experience you’re just a person who feels like anyone else. and it dawns on me that I’ve just head-butted to take those young guys aside and try and I understand it but it’s a little strange. On some the greatest surfer of all time – this is a career- help them with those types of mistakes? level I’m just like anyone else exactly. When you ending fuck up. Thankfully, Kelly in his infinite have people who treat you differently because wisdom, seems to grasp how the whole thing … My natural inclination is to try and help, but they know who you are it’s really hard to just feel has gone down and waves as if to say, ‘don’t then they are my competitors. And you know natural – to not be affected by it in a way that worry’. We dance on. Eventually his girlfriend what? No one ever helped me when I was changes how you’re feeling. shows up and they disappear backstage to get coming through. Like Tom Curren or Sunny, they

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Opposite: Kelly roars with elation after winning the 2022 Billabong Pro Pipeline, just a few days shy of his 50th birthday. Photo: WSL/Heff

January 2012: In an interview with Col … As the two, wetsuit clad surfers climb the Bernasconi, Slater talks candidly about social podium to celebrate the historic event, one of media.

New York locals can’t help himself. In earshot of thousands he shouts, “Hey Kelly is that a sock in Do you get frustrated being so open to the your suit or are you just happy to see us.” masses, while faceless critics are free to unload from behind masks?

August 2012: Slater reflects on significant moments in Australia over the years.

That’s funny you ask because I mentioned that yesterday on Twitter... I don’t have time to do My first day of surf in Australia was at Avalon two Twitters, my girlfriend’s mad at me enough in 1990... I was 18 and showed up on a perfect for having one. I mentioned it because my south swell with a perfect cornering sandbar daughter’s on there and she’s a very moral girl sticking out in the middle of the beach. There and I’m sure she wouldn’t like seeing her dad were some really good barrels and it was a cuss and stuff, and sometimes I just want to tell crisp winter morning. That pretty much set the people to “fuck off!” But that’s not necessarily stage for a place I wanted to spend a lot of time. the best thing for business. Sometimes yeah, I’ve I made a lot of friends in the area and bought thought it’d be great to be one of those guys out an apartment with one of them. I got to spend there where nobody knows who I am and I can a lot of time with Bruce Raymond who’s been talk all the shit I want in the world and not have a really positive mentor in my life. I’ve got so to back it up. I have to back up what I say. I have many memories of Avalon and it’s still probably to have the knowledge or a history of what it is my favourite town in the world. Nice waves, we’re talking about, I have to be able to factually skate park, good restaurants, out of the city. or truthfully lay out the things I say, so if I were Miss it. to put my neck on the line people know it’s me.

I’m not free to spout off about any- thing without Losing to Shane Herring in the Coke (1992) having to think about it, like a lot of people are.

It’s real easy to get into, and on Twitter I get ... I kinda feel bad about that. Seemed like a mostly really positive comments, but in a social turning point, where growing up and being commentary like that you’re always going to successful and making that money that day all get negativity, I’m not scared to address that at kind of just overwhelmed him. Seemed a lot of times, but at others, I just choose to ignore it. I people took advantage of his position and he just don’t feel like dealing with those people. didn’t know how to handle it with the support around him. I really had a great friendship with August 2012: Kelly defeats Taj in the semi Herro, and I was stoked for him. That loss kept of the Quiksilver Pro New York by pulling a me focused and hungry and I wanted to be massive frontside air rotation. He eventually ‘that guy’. I (unfortunately) feel like that was the goes down to Owen in the final. Tracks is on real beginning of the end for him. He was an the beach. amazing surfer.

“That was the best air of his life and he needed it and he did it against me. It’s awful” - Taj Burrow

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Hitting that kangaroo in Victoria on the ocean road...

Totalled my car. Couldn’t believe my car still ran.

Lost a heat to Occy [Mark Occhilupo] that day that the judges later told me (in Tahiti) I should have won. Had I won that heat I’m pretty sure I would’ve taken the title off of Andy [Irons] that year. Wasn’t my day.

Having a big night in the Sydney and then surfing 12-foot Deadmans but forgetting a side fin...

Oh, did we go out that night? I don’t remember. I do remember I was too excited to remember to screw my back fin in. It actually was far better than a thruster for the barrel. Everyone should try it once or more. Makes the board faster and when you don’t have to change directions quickly you’d be surprised how much more free it feels.

Tracks Website - 06/02/2022: Kelly wins the Billabong Pro Pipeline a few days shy of his 50th birthday.

The water commentary suggested Kelly had turned into a raging bull, snorting and stomping around the lineup, claiming his turf. History was in his sights, and he had both horns pointed at anyone who stood in his way.

However, Kelly is Kelly and there is a little part of his brain gnawing away going, ‘Just maybe, just maybe there’s a way, I can squeeze into that top five (even with Visa issues) and win the World Title’. And there’s certainly a part of us that would love to see him try.”

Big Gas is making a last stand right across Australia. As the world moves toward clean energy, fossil fuel giants are racing to develop new resources before their time runs out. There is a federal election this year, and the choice for Australian voters should be stark.

We should be able to choose between a fossil fuel past and a clean, affordable renewable future…but it won’t be quite that simple. Big Gas has deep pockets and connections to politics and they won’t go quietly. It’ll be up to us. At this election we need to vote gas out, and vote climate in.

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LEAVING AUSTRALIA My reason for leaving Australia put me on the path of an age-old quest, compelled by the same longings that have led many a man to make either the best or worst decision of their lives.

Worldwide travel restrictions saw me confined to Australia while my girlfriend was stuck in her motherland, Spain.

Being separated from my love as a virus wreaked havoc around the world, it felt like I was a character in some kind of old romantic novel. Two people on opposite sides of the world, no way to see each other, subjected to impossible circumstances and no sign of when they might reunite. This went on for months, with little hope of any kind of return to normality. As fate would have it, an opportunity arose through my employer, McTavish, “THE UNEASE LEFT ME, REPLACED to work abroad. It was my

BY THE REALISATION THAT THE ticket out, our chance to finally see each other again WO R L D WAS STI L L TH E R E TO and of course, chase some waves along the way!

EXPLORE, STILL FUNCTIONING,

OUTSIDE THE RESTRICTIONS AND BORDER PEOPLE,

I remember talking with Bob McTavish about my situCLOSURES. STILL FULL OF ation. He was on my side from the start, urging me ADVENTURE AND LIFE.” to get out of Oz and back to my girl. He confessed that losing me from the factory team indefinitely was going to be a tough pill to swallow, but the mere mention of an adventurous journey into the unknown seemed to stir something in the scallywag shaper. I half wondered if I’d triggered memories of his fabled 1964 escapades, when he stowed away to Hawaii on a ship.

Sydney airport was wild; the proverbial ghost town at 7:30pm, which would have been peak hour in normal times. Driving up to departures, the carparks were all empty while inside the doors, two check-in counters were open with a few passengers and some official looking airport staff milling around in some semi-organised fashion.

With travel documents in hand, all printed and neatly organised, I felt like a school kid handing in an assignment I’d been working on for months (I had been). I passed them over along with my passport to the airport staff. After a couple of stern questions and a shuffle through my documents, I was directed to a roped off zone alongside a few other confused passengers, all of us awaiting the call to Border Force in Canberra to approve our boarding passes.

Check in done, boarding pass and passport in hand I was hoping to grab the obligatory beer and snack. Instead, I was met with nothing but vacant restaurants and shops in between halls of empty boarding gates. Looking up at the huge screen that’s usually lined with flights, all I could see were the two flights leaving that night, a pair of lonely listings tucked into the corner of the screen.

Taking off triggered a strange feeling of unease, the likes of which I have never experienced before. All the pandemic hysteria from the past 12 months was rolling around in my mind, along with the statistics, stories, restrictions, news reports; the head-noise amplified by the uncertainty of not knowing when or how I would actually get back home. My stomach churned in a way I’ll never forget.

It wasn’t until my second leg of the flight to Europe that these feelings subsided. I noticed we were flying over Cairo, and with the sun fully up and not a cloud in the sky I thought, ‘maybe I’ll get lucky and catch a glimpse of the pyramids’. I moved back and forth from either side of the almost empty back end of the plane, looking out the windows scanning the ground for the ancient structures. Eventually I gave up, figuring they weren’t on the flight path, or we’d already gone past them. So, I sat back in my window seat and resumed my sideways glare back towards earth. Moments later, there they were! Standing tall just shy of the city, clear as the day itself! Right then, the unease left me, replaced by the realisation that the world was still there to explore, still functioning, outside the restrictions and border closures. Still full of people, adventure and life.

Touch down in Madrid quickly confirmed the contrast between Australia and Europe. Sleepily stumbling into the terminal, I realised that it was all systems go, queues, departure lounges, security checks, restaurants and bars all full.

There I was thinking Europe was struggling with extreme lockdowns and harsh rules only to find a very normal way of life unfolding.

Our loose itinerary was framed around Marina’s work while squeezing in my own overseas duties. A rough plan was made, flights were booked, and fingers were crossed as the volatilities of border closures, lockdowns and quarantine rules all threatened our movements.

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This page: Hunting empty, longboard-friendly peaks and a ledging, Canary Island right that called for a shortboard approach. Opposite: Dashing across a lunar landscape in the Canary Islands. Photos: Marina Alonso

“I TOOK A MERE SNIFF AT ONE OF THE BODYBOARDER’S SET WAVES (HE WAS WAY TOO DEEP). MY CURIOSITY WAS ENOUGH TO HAVE HIM BARKING AT ME ALL THE

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WAY BACK TO THE TOP OF THE PEAK.”

CANARY I S L AN D E RU P T I O N S Our first destination was the Canary Islands. All I had heard about the Spanish governed archipelago off the coast of northwest Africa were tales of crazy slabs over volcanic reefs, and fiery locals who were known to send you to the beach without even catching a wave.The COVID restrictions in the Canaries were Europe’s least stringent so it seemed like the obvious place to hang out through the end of spring until summer, when things were predicted to become normal again.

craters. The towering, perfectly cone-shaped mountains almost look hand crafted, standing like silent pillars during the day before being shrouded in an array of brilliant colours as they absorb the afternoon light. Ancient lava flows – transformed into the most jagged and brutal rocks you can imagine – lay at the foot of some of these towering volcanic formations, sometimes stretching for kilometres. They prompt the mind to imagine the events of violent eruption when trees, animals and just about all life was wiped off these islands.

I spent my time in the north on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura. The landscapes on those islands It was true that the locals borrowed their fiery are like something from another planet; dry, temperament from the explosive volcanoes that dusty, rocky and littered with volcanoes and once poured forth with fury. A few days into

the trip, on a smaller day at a little left ledge, I took a mere sniff at one of the bodyboarder’s set waves (he was way too deep). My curiosity was enough to have him barking at me all the way back to the top of the peak. I politely replied, “Sorry, I don’t speak Spanish,” in my broken Spanglish. I saw a few more veins pop from his forehead as he recited the whole spiel to me in English. I held my place in the lineup and managed to avoid another confrontation by flashing a few smiles and showing some common courtesy. From then on, I stuck to my longboard at an uncrowded point break I had spied not far from the airport. I decided I was better off exposing myself to these awkward moments when the waves were actually good.

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“THE ONLY ACCESS TO THE ROOM WAS VIA A LADDER. WHEN THE OFFICIALS CAME, THE HOMEOWNER EXPLAINED THE ARRANGEMENTS AND WHEN FACED WITH THE QUESTION, “HOW CAN WE ENSURE HE WON’T LEAVE THE ROOM,” THE OWNER REPLIED ASSUREDLY, “WE’LL JUST TAKE THE LADDER AWAY”

CROWDS AND QUARANTINE DODGERS IN THE MALDIVES We arrived in the Maldives a little early in the season, hoping to catch some of the rumoured ‘COVID-empty’ perfection, only to have that theory totally thrown out the window. Instead, border closures in various countries (mainly Indonesia) combined with recent border openings (Russia, Europe, Brazil, Israel ) had funneled everyone into the Maldives, which had been operating an open-border policy throughout the whole pandemic. Crowds were thick and hungry for their share. This meant a lot of hustling for waves with very little etiquette.

to saturation point at certain breaks. Anko suggested a few factors were behind the mass influx of COVID crowds. Tour operators were trying to make up for the previous year’s losses by finding new clientele from places like Russia and filling their boats to capacity. Normally, various crews would be roaming the Maldives’ endless atolls in search of waves but to save on fuel costs, they tended to cluster in the one place, close to the main island, Male.

tine requirements. Mapu showed up a few days later, climbed the ladder and there he stayed, drinking coffee and playing video games, slotting into a routine not too different from his usual holidays.

There was one curious incident involving a charter boat guide and PCR test ‘switcharoo’.

The day before the boats finish their charter, they have to take the clients to the hospital to get a PCR test, so they are able to board their Staying with Anko, we came across some inter- flights home. (I should mention at this point esting locals. At the time, Maldivian COVID that the doctors who do the PCR tests fudge the I was lucky enough to score a larger swell at 19 rules stipulated that if you moved between test dates to allow a negative result within the a beautiful left just across the channel from islands there was a mandatory 14 days’ home allowed time frame.) On this particular charwhere I was staying. Just as I suspected, the quarantine, in which officials would come to ter, two of the guests returned positive results. overhead-to-double-overhead conditions were your home to check-in. Mapu had just finished Within the timeframe there is allowance for a enough to deter the fresher faces from entering his work in Male and was coming back to the retest so when faced with a 14-day quarantine the lineup. island for his time off, so he was slated for two in the capital Male under jail-like conditions, weeks of solitude at the house we were staying the positive punters convinced the guide to We were staying with a local friend, Anko. Anko at. take their mates, who’d returned negative tests, typically spent his time working as a guide on back as stand-ins to do the retest. With their surf and dive charters. However, recently he’d His room was on the second story of the house friends’ passports in hand, off they went to found himself out of a job due to travel restric- that once had an external staircase leading up return a negative result so they could all board tions. He admitted to having mixed feelings to it. Unfortunately the stairs rotted out the their flight back to Europe the following day. It about recent events. He’d lost his income for previous year and were yet to be replaced, so the wasn’t until sitting on my flight to Madrid that the past year, but months of swell combined only access to the room was via a ladder. When the reality of an unwanted coincidence dawned with favourable winds had produced seemingly the officials came, the homeowner explained on me. The whole COVID-infected charter was endless waves for him and a few other island the arrangements and when faced with the on my plane! It took a few beers and a sleeper to locals to enjoy alone. question, “How can we ensure he won’t leave ease my anxiety and knock me out for the entire the room,” the owner replied assuredly, “We’ll overnight flight.

The recent surge had come as quite a shock just take the ladder away, then he’s not going to the system for these guys, spiking crowds anywhere.” This seemed to satisfy the quaran-

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Top: Dip a wing and put the crimson fish on rail in the Maldives.

Middle: Cloudbreak imitator, somewhere in the Maldives. Bottom: Wind-ripped palms cling to scarce land as Wispy one-arm strokes back to the lineup. Photos: Hupa Ibrahim • Opposite: Mapu, content with his coffee and computer games during quarantine.

This Page: A seductive Mexican point, a slash and a roadside crash.

Opposite: More horizontal action, at the airport. Photos: Marina Alonso/Wispy

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ON A FIN A N D A P R AY E R IN MEXICO I landed in Mexico early in August. My EU Visa had expired and my flight back to Australia had been cancelled, so I had to keep moving and there seemed like no better place to spend a few months. Marina had to stay in Europe for work, so I was there for a few weeks on my own.

to be taken lightly. The heavy tubes drain onto a shallow bank, spitting and gurgling sand, delivering moments of perfection and absolute horror in almost equal measure. The whole scene was amplified by the lockdown rules. The beach was open for exercise until 10am, which meant getting up in the dark to I had been to Nexpa before and had a ball, a nice get one good session in for the day. Throughspot to unpack, relax and focus on either surf- out the day, the beach was patrolled by police ing or swinging in a hammock with a cold can on 4 ATVS, enforcing the rules. As the 10am of Modello. When I arrived, I was greeted with curfew approached, the lineup would rapidly a decidedly poor version of the break. Recent empty, save a few brave souls who would push rains had broken the bank of the rivermouth the the limits, often narrowly avoiding the cops by wave is situated on. The place was a ghost town, sprinting up the beach and into their hotels, apparently everyone but me had heard the news knowing full well that the repercussions would about the river. I’d had a sinking feeling since be harsh if they were caught. flying into Zihuatanejo and seeing all the rivers swollen and poo brown. Now my fears had been I had always dreamed of the sandy point breaks confirmed, and I was kind of stranded with no of Oaxaca, so with a solid swell forecast, I real plan . There was no one around except for decided it was time to marry the fantasy with an older, God-bothering American guy who the reality. The question was how to get there?… took great pleasure in preaching the good word I was at my Puerto Rican friend, Babby’s ,hotel to me at every given opportunity. asking for some advice when we noticed a few Brazilian guys running around hastily, packing COVID was having a little flare up in Mexico boards and bags. It seemed the crew had the at the time, so it seemed like my options were same idea as me and within moments the deal a bit limited. I’d heard that Pascuales and the was done, I had my ride south. whole state of Oaxaca was in lockdown. That meant surfing was banned. With limited options Intros were made rapidly and suddenly I was I turned to Instagram and posted a random in on a surf trip with three new friends, Gabriel, beach pic of the sand-depleted Rio Nexpa. Not Gabriel and Luis. Their faces were familiar long after, I got a message from a Puerto Rican from the Zicatela lineup the days prior. As we friend I’d met in Java in 2016 weaved through the streets in our little sedan with boards loosely strapped on the roof and “Bro, you in Mexico?” our blazing joints huffing up the windows, I couldn’t help but think I’d made the right deciSoon after we were Facetiming. He informed sion. me that the rumours about Puerto Escondido and Oaxaca were just that. You could surf in We arrived at Barra, found ourselves a nice Zicatela until 10am and the points down south little homestay and made it to the point for were open! Everyone was staying quiet to hope- a quick session just before dark. The wind fully keep the crowds low. I was on a plane the was up so the session wasn’t amazing, but the next day. crowd was thin, and the waves were pulsing over the bank that’d only been improving since When I landed in Puerto an afternoon storm the contest had finished. raged and flashes of lightning lit up the airport, striking a little too close to the plane for my The forecast for the next day was looking good liking, It was a fitting welcome to an intimidat- so it was dinner, a few more doobies for the ing place. Zicatela beach break is not a wave lads then lights out. I remember thinking how

stoked I was that night to have made it all the way here and to have teed up a ride with this crew. The boys had good energy and I knew we were in for a good time.

The early, five minute drive from the village to the beach at Barra was full of anticipation.

Peeking out the window just as we hit the top of the famous hill that overlooks the point, we were greeted by head high peelers roping down the point. Tubes behind the rock led into clean walls down the line, inviting any turn you wanted to throw, before folding into a fast tubing inside section – as dreamy as it gets. The car was so full of stoke, smoke, hoots, high fives; laughs and smiles were just pouring out of us and continued all the way into the water. The next few days where a blur really, with the size ranging from overhead to shoulder high it was just perfection on repeat. We’d spend all day at the beach, setting up camp under one of the makeshift driftwood shelters and surf all day.

Our shade was provided by some of the WSL banners that still lingered on the beach, but our freewheeling group was a long way removed from anything resembling a contest scene.

By the end of the trip we realised we had created the kind of memories that gave meaning to a surfing life. Three Brazilians and a random Aussie had somehow ended up at this magic pointbreak, sharing waves that could only be measured in degrees of perfection and fun.

There is something special about solo travel.

From meeting Babby on a solo trip in Java to seeing him again in Puerto, to linking up with these three Brazilians for a trip down to Barra De La Cruz, it all becomes a serendipitous little sequence of events that may not have happened if you were not on a solo adventure.

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“WE ENDURED HOURS OF TORRENTIAL RAIN, 120KM WINDS AND FIERCE THUNDER AND LIGHTNING AS A TYPICALLY BUSTLING HOLIDAY TOWN WAS BROUGHT

This Page: Delicate nose-work by our beatnik surf adventurer. Photos: Alden Tatum • Opposite: Killing time in Sayulita. Photos: Marina Alonso/Wispy

TO A STANDSTILL BY MOTHER NATURE.”

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RIDERS ON THE S T O R M I N S AY U L I T A With Marina flying in from Europe it was time for a new adventure. The next stop was the colourful village of Sayulita in the Mexican state of Nayarit. From the first night we got a good taste of the Sayulita wet season with a huge thunderstorm as a welcoming party. That set the tone for soggy days with patches of sun in between. Little did we know that this was just the appetiser.

Not long after I came in, dark clouds built from the land and the wind stopped dead – perfectly still – the proverbial calm before the storm.

It didn’t last long as the clouds were sucked towards the incoming storm, followed by a howling offshore wind, even stronger than the onshore that brought in the lumpy swell. This was it. We endured hours of torrential rain, 120km winds and fierce thunder and lightning as a typically bustling holiday town was brought The main meal was served in the form of Hurri- to a standstill by Mother Nature. The bungacane Nora, whose path was tracking ominously low we were staying in was very exposed to the close to Sayulita. The worst of it was forecast elements but luckily, we were able to spend the to hit overnight, so that afternoon we got to night in a more weatherproof room. Our new witness the looming cloud formation bear digs leaked water through the night, but nothdown on us, moving northwestward searching ing like the room we’d left behind, which had for its preferred site to make land. It moved rapidly begun to fill with water and debris soon in fast with the ocean going from flat to head after our departure. high chop in the space of an hour. It was the biggest surf I had seen since we’d arrived, so I The next morning we woke to find the rain had decided to give it a go. It was a lackluster surf stopped and the wind had died down, leaving indeed, but it was nice to get out there in the behind a town with no power, no phone service warm water and experience the change from and a nice mess to clean up. We hit the streets a different viewpoint; along with a handful of mid-morning in search of some breakfast and to other desperadoes looking to make the most of survey the aftermath. Luckily the damage was the long-awaited bumps on the ocean. minimal, it seemed the storm tracked a little

further north and we had just caught the edge of Nora’s fury. The streets were quiet, the town seemed at a standstill, but some locals were out and about cleaning their shop-fronts and houses. We overheard a few conversations, families talking to each other, asking how they fared through the storm.

“Oh yes, we are all ok, just material things damaged, so life goes on.”

One phrase we overheard rang true.

“Si la vida te da limones, Pide sal y tequila!”

“If life gives you lemons, ask for salt and tequila!”

I took this onboard and made the most of the no power no phone situation over the next few days and immersed myself in the waves Nora gifted us…

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Top: High line tuck and trim on a marbled French wall. Photo: Remi Bedora • Middle: Wispy winds up as a dreamy peak begins to flex. Photo: Thomas Lodin • Bottom: Supple-limbed cut-back seeking the path to least resistance. Photo: Thomas Lodin Opposite: French connections. Photos: Marina Alonso/Wispy & Leone

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FLEETING PERFECTION IN SOUTH WEST FRANCE I was allowed back into the EU to start a new 90-day visa, just in time to catch some of the Autumn conditions SW France is famous for.

After several weeks of Tacos and tequila, I also relished the chance to re-acquaint myself with the amazing food, wine and culture that can be found on just about every corner. That first glass of Irouleguy (red wine) with a little Ossau cheese on the side was reason enough to cross the world during a global pandemic.

The Basque didn’t disappoint with days of swell and offshore winds producing those clean, cool water peaks the area is famous for. While the crowds were a factor I tried to choose wisely and search a little further for the quieter rip bowls or overlooked corners of the banks. This

stretch known as Les Landes is by no means a secret. This huge wave playground can be fi ckle but there are always fl eeting moments of perfection. The rapidly changing tides and shifting currents can have you chasing waves up and down the beach all day. There is a local saying that I soon came to subscribe to. “If it looks good when you check it, you’re too late”.

reminds you that the universe has bold forces at work when you take-off and go. This would have to be the wildest journey of my life and when I think about it, it all came down to a simple decision, a fork in the road, to jump, or not. With all the craziness that has gone on in the world the past few years, I feel like it made the choice easier. I mean, I could have played it safe, kept my job, run the same race and still be restricted For now the journey continues. As I write, or stuck in a crappy situation. We’ve done so Australia is still not issuing tourist visas so much and been to so many places I thought I it looks like we have to keep the ball rolling, would never venture to. We’ve also strengthened following waves and work until we can get back so many friendships and made amazing new to Aus’ together (no complaints here…). The ones. I truly feel like the luckiest person in the beatnik surf life so often leads to fun, unex- world. I’m so glad I jumped. pected adventures and good people, and then more auspicious encounters down the track. It

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Opposite: Even minus the season-closing status, Pipe still delivered a monumental moment in surfing history. Kelly Slater, drunk with victory before an adoring crowd.

Photo: Sean Davey

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Given the North Shore of Oahu has been a source of fascination for our surfing tribe for more than half a century, one might expect interest in the stretch to wane a little over time. But that’s never the way it plays out.

Each year they all return like a flock of migratory birds seeking fertile, winter shores. And so the North Shore residents must share their wave-blessed home with an itinerant collective of ambitious pros, lifelong devotees (lifers) big-wave dabblers and regular tourists. You can appreciate why the locals get a little testy, particularly when the window for good waves is six months at best. Like those havens for migratory birds, the whole North Shore scene can descend into squawking chaos, but on a good run of swell the ‘miracle’ stretch will feed all of its wave hungry occupants.

Meanwhile, those of us lacking the funds, the freedom or the gumption to test ourselves on ‘The Rock’ can’t help but live vicariously through the pilgrims who are bold enough to put themselves in the path of whatever the Pacific hurls their way in Hawaii.

Emerging from the cast iron grip of COVID, this season, the North Shore was blessed with a seemingly endless supply of west swells. That particular direction invites you to spy the majestic lines as they bend in from Kaena Point and trip on the outer reefs beneath rainbow-painted skies. Or, if you are sitting out at Pipe, wrestling with your fight Vs flight mechanism, it simply means you know that something wicked this way comes.

The following few pages feature an assembly of blue chip moments from the North Shore season that was. Take a little time to contemplate the powerful forces at work and remember, there’s no shame in imagining it’s you on one of those screamers.

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This page: Swaying palms and well-defined Pacific lines. Nature’s props for the annual North Shore show. photos: Gomes • Opposite Top: Somewhere in the twist of the torso and the transferral of weight to the rail Ethan Ewing conjures the most beguiling frontside carve in surfing. Photo: Miller Bottom: John John under attack from tossed spears as the roof caves in at Waimea. Photo: Sean Davey

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Benji Brand plays contortionist in order to optimise his line into a Pipe chamber. Photo: Mike Ito

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This page: Griffin Colapinto knows how to have a good time in Hawaii. Sequence: Moran Opposite: Pipe’s iconic fold, viewed from on high. Photo: Gomes • Bottom: Mason Ho dealing with the quirks of air pressure difference created by a Backdoor howler. Photo: Moran

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In between reporting from the channel at Pipe for the WSL, Laura Enever went toe-to-toe with Backdoor.

Photo: Moran

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Opposite: A grimacing Tosh Tudor is framed by Pipe’s violent beauty. Photo: Miller

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Top: Low cloud lends an air of mystique to the Waianae range, which provides the North Shore with a vertiginous perimeter. Photo: Gomes Bottom: Seth Moniz laments his own Pipe final loss while paying tribute to Kelly’s immortal victory. Photo: WSL/Bielmann

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HELPING CONSERVE OUR NATURAL PLAYGROUND 1% O F A L L F C S S A L E S A R E D O N ATE D T O O C E A N C O N S E R V ATI O N C H A R ITI E S & I N ITI ATI V E S TH E S E P R OJ E CTS F O C U S O N TH E P R E S E R V ATI O N A N D R E STO R ATI O N O F O U R N ATU R A L E N V I R O N M E NT

LEARN M O RE AT surffcs.com

FROM ZERO TO THE HILL

MO NTY

WE BBE R

R E F L ECTS

ON

HIS

JOURNEY

THROUGH

S URFING’S

RITES

OF

PASSAG E AMI D ST A FAMI LY OF FLED GLING S HAPERS AND A WILD, URBAN TRIBE. Written by Monty Webber

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Opposite: The Wonder Years. Bondi grommets in the early 70s, when towels had tassels and a heavy board rash was the price you paid for a few waves on your foamy.

ONE SUMMER DAY IN THE EARLY 70S, JOHN, GREG AND I ARRIVED HOME FROM ROSE BAY PUBLIC SCHOOL TO DISCOVER THREE BIG BROWN CARDBOARD BOXES ON THE FRONT VERANDAH. WE HAD NO IDEA WHAT COULD BE IN THEM AND MUM AND DAD PRETENDED NOT TO KNOW EITHER. THE EXCITEMENT WE EXPERIENCED WHEN WE DISCOVERED THREE BRAND NEW FIRESTONE COOLITE SURFBOARDS IS INDESCRIBABLE. This was the best gift a kid in the eastern suburbs could get back then. From memory they cost $6.50 each. The only down-side for me was that as the youngest I didn’t get to choose which one I wanted, as that privilege was bestowed upon the eldest. John picked the red, white and blue one, Greg chose the green and yellow one, and I was left with the yellow and brown one.

beach and saw a young surfer traversing the face of a left hander, John wondered aloud what it was called when you went across the face of the wave. I suggested creatively, “Scratching?” which was met with a positive response. But the next day John found out somehow that it was called ‘cutting’ and the first word of an entire new language entered our vernacular.

Soon friends were visiting us at home with their Our first surf on those boards that afternoon Coolites and getting my brothers to put fins in was disastrous. None of us knew that we needed them and even spray paint them the colour of wax and we slipped off every time we lay on their choice with dad’s compressor. I remember our boards. I watched dismayed as dad tried to coming home from the beach one day to find rough up the surface of the deck of my board John had just finished spraying Bobby Cadry’s with sand and only succeeded in scratching it Coolite canary yellow. I told Bobby it was my with his fingernails. Back at home, we ran down favourite colour but added that I thought it was the hill to the petrol station and bought a big too much for the whole surfboard. He told me block of super hard Ampol paraffin wax. This he wanted a board he could be recognised with. did even more damage than dad’s fingernails so “When I take off on a wave, I want everyone at we softened the edge with a candle and waxed the beach to go: Wow! Who’s that kid on the our surfboards successfully for the very first bright yellow surfboard? It’s Bobby Cadry!” time.

Visiting our grandparents on the Central Our next dilemma was horrendous stomach Coast one weekend we spotted a 12’ stringered rash, but this was solved by wearing tee shirts. ‘tank’ for sale for $5 in a secondhand store in After that, we realised we needed fins as our Erina. Dad purchased it and both John and boards were spinning sideways every time we Greg attempted to ride it at Wamberal without caught a wave. Fortunately, we had a big well- success, but I chickened out as it seemed far too equipped workshop at home and John and Greg big and dangerous. cut our first fins out of Masonite and fixed them into our Coolites’ with candle wax. Of After that first summer surfing our Coolites at course, these fins snapped at the base, and we North together, John decided to make the trandecided to make our next fins out of marine ply. sition to South, where the big boys surfed. I had, I watched as they designed and cut the fins and over the years at North, seen many surfers walk then foiled and sealed them in with araldite. At past us on the sand and promenade carrying last we were surfing!

Malibus on their heads and even modern shortboards under their arms. But to me South was We three surfed in the corner at North as often like a frightening no-man’s land, a wilderness as we could get down there; mostly by the 322 of hoods and hooligans who were supposedly bus from right outside our house, but also after mostly sex maniacs and drug addicts. I had no school in our VW Ute with dad. In no time we idea at the time that eventually we would fit in were able to stand up and surf all the way to there so well. shore in the whitewater. One day, as we left the

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Top: When all you needed was a crudely shaped board, a bag of hot chips and a bus ride home. Bottom: Bondi’s Ant Corrigan taking bottom-turn nonchalance to new levels.

Photo: Bruce Channon

It was 1973 when John and Greg decided to strip the fibreglass off the big four-stringered tank and cut it down and shape a modern shortboard. It was no easy task but they bought enough fiberglass and resin and succeeded in building what looked to me like a rocket ship.

When it came time to fibreglass a logo on the deck, they decided to call it the ‘Zero’, named after my favourite cartoon character, as I used to run around screaming “Zeerrrroooo!!!!” all the time.

one told me his board had cost $105. It was the first time I ever heard of a surfboard board costing over $100 and remember thinking, “That’s outrageous!”

John returned home regularly from South with amazing stories of high-performance surfing by guys whose names became legendary in our household. Steve Corrigan, Brad Mayes, Ron Ford and Col Sutherland. He also described how rough it was down there, both on the sand and in the water. He described one frightening While John was riding the Zero at South, Greg guy called Yobbo. I imagined a cartoon charand I kept riding our Coolites at North. Then acter like Bluto from Popeye ripping me limb one day Greg decided he was going to shape from limb. John told me that some people who our Coolites. I found it very hard to watch had been dropped in on out in the surf actuhim sawing into my beloved yellow and brown ally speared their surfboards at the guys who Firestone. He hacked out a nose and tail and dropped in on them, often injuring them badly. softened off the rails with a surform. He went I became fearful of transitioning to South. I a lot further with his board and refined it to loved my little group of happy friends and the the point that it looked like a fiberglass short- pleasant vibe in the water at North, but I knew board. He sprayed mine off- that soon I would have to bite the bullet and go white, and his greeny-blue. South, just like everyone else.

Down at Nor th we were “OTHER KIDS GOT GREG TO greeted by gasps of wonder Back out in the workshop, John and Greg SHAPE THEIR COOLITES FOR by our fr iends and were stripped another fibreglass surfboard to make stoked to find that these new a new shortboard. Only this time they accidenTHEM AND I EVEN REMEMBER designs were an improvement tally snapped the nose off and only had about on the previous shapes. four-and-a-half feet left to work with. Despite GREG GLUING TWO ‘BONZER’ this, they reshaped it and sprayed it green and KEEL FINS INTO ONE BOARD We sat on the sand at the first blue. They then made up the first ever ‘Webber’ ramp down at North and a logo with texta on greaseproof paper and it AND FINDING THAT IT TURNED little bunch of mates grew smudged terribly. John suggested we take the into our crew. Other kids got finished product down to Rob Conneeley’s BETTER THAN ANY OTHER Greg to shape their Coolites surf shop at South Bondi and ask if they would BOARD I’D EVER RIDDEN.” for them and I even remem- put it in there for sale. He wouldn’t come ber Greg gluing two ‘Bonzer’ down as I think he thought they might laugh at keel fins into one board and finding that it us, which they did. I remember Greg sitting on turned better than any other board I’d ever the bus back home with the rejected surfboard ridden. My hope was that I would be declared on his lap and him looking angry, like he would ‘King of the Coolites’ that year, but Marcus one day prove them wrong somehow.

Moase put paid to that. One day dad came down to watch us surfing and as we stood on That summer, Greg and I got our first fiberthe sand together, we saw Marcus do a full- glass surfboards and joined John down South. on bottom turn into a carving flick out on the My first ‘fibo’ was a 5’6” yellow Midget peak in the corner at North. Dad asked me Farrelly, stringerless ‘pop out’. I paddled out at who it was and I said “Marcus”. I think dad South and was overwhelmed by the amount of knew from my intonation that Marcus was my activity in the water. There were people everynemesis. where. They were climbing over each other to catch waves. As it was before the invention of One summer day down at first ramp at North, legropes, big heavy surfboards were rolling in I looked up and saw Ormie Garland walking to shore in the whitewater on most waves. I toward South with his brand new yellow Hot felt like I had strayed into a wild, brutal and Buttered. There was a group of kids scamper- hostile place. It was like a jungle full of ruthing around him like he was a rock-star. Some- less animals. I didn’t feel like I was ready for it.

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Top: These were different times in what is now the land of the rich and famous. Bottom: An era when a scene from ‘Puberty Blues’ played out on a daily basis, at most Australian beaches.

During my very first surf someone ran right over me and injured me as badly as I ever have been hurt in the surf. I sat on the sand and looked at my leg. The muscle had been severed and left a horrible gaping but bloodless wound. Miraculously, the skin hadn’t been split but there was a horrible trench hacked into my upper calf almost to my shin. By the time Greg found me on the sand the wound had changed shape and didn’t look nearly as bad. I struggled my way home and pined for the good old days at North.

bottomed board. I sold my Midget Farrelly for $20 and bought John Adair’s 5’4” McCoy three-tone twin fin for $24. It took a couple of days to get him down from $25. I bought a red and yellow nylon sleeveless singlet vest for $2.50 as I wanted to surf in the same colours as Steve Corrigan. I sat out the back in my new rig and thought to myself “We’re in.”

I couldn’t believe the world that opened up to me down at South. Suddenly I had a 100 new friends and became aware of many brilliant older surfers. Being a natural amphitheI persisted at South and soon became aware atre, every wave ridden was studied closely by that end of the beach was divided up into half hundreds of mad-keen grommets and older a dozen different little gangs, all hierarchically surfers as well. The pressure to surf well was positioned and named after their location. We immense and not just to prove yourself to sat at and were acknowledged as ‘The Tunnel’, your mates but to get enough respect to be almost as far north as you could sit and still be allowed to have waves all to yourself and not considered to be ‘at South’. I still felt like we be dropped in on. were outsiders down there. Further north was ‘Third Ramp’. Then there The older guys were ruthless, but there was a was ‘Second Ramp’ and the clear-cut set of laws in place and if you oper‘Rock Crew’. ‘The Hill’ was ated within them, you could eke yourself out a “THE MUSCLE HAD BEEN where the most respected little spot to practice on. I rarely left the little older surfers sat. I wondered left-hander in the corner that first summer SEVERED AND LEFT A HORRIBLE whether I would ever surf and worked hard to improve my surfing. I was GAPING BUT BLOODLESS well enough to be allowed to often awestruck by the intensity of the radisit there. cal power surfing I saw out there. My favouW O U N D . M I R A C U L O U S LY, rite surfer back then was ‘Zappa’, Dominic In early 1974, John led us, Wybrow; a flashy goofy-footer who was about THE SKIN HADN’T BEEN SPLIT Moses-like, up to sit at, and two years older than me.

BUT THERE WAS A HORRIBLE become acknowledged as the ‘Wall’.

The Wall was only 20 There were so many good surfers on the beach TRENCH HACKED INTO MY metres down from the ‘Hill back then and it would be impossible to name UPPER CALF ALMOST TO MY Crew’ and I thought it was them all. Steve Jones, Col Williamson, Bruce a bold but clever strategic Raymond, Gary Bostock and Brad Johnston SHIN.” move on John’s part to relo- were some of my favourites. It was as if surfcate us to such a prime location geopolitically. ing was the only thing to do in the Eastern I spied all the great surfers as they walked Suburbs and every one of us aspired to be down the hill to the surf from my spot on the as absolutely as good as we could. Toward Wall. I admired their ‘American’ wetsuits and the end of the Christmas holidays I became three-tone twin fin McCoys, which were the de fr iends with another young goofy-footer rigueur of the time. named Charlie O’Sullivan. We surfed wave for wave on the left in the corner and at the end Greg and I caught the ferry over to Manly and of the holiday I asked my brother Greg who ordered our custom-made American vests from was better. “He’s about two weeks better than Ron Harding for $8 each. I ordered mine with you.” Greg shattered me. purple gussets as I loved Ron Ford’s purple

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Clockwise from top left: John Webber proudly displays a freshie in Rose Bay. Coolites on Campbell Parade. Dan Webber (paddling) and Matt Elks. The author in the tube. Monty and his beloved yellow 5’6” Midget Farrelly. Diana Webber with her sons, John, Monty Greg and Dan. Right: 70s Bondi in full colour by Simon Letch.

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Top Left: Brad Mayes and a friend getting cosy on the concrete, at Bondi. Top Right: Local legend, Harry Nightingale. Bottom: Ben Webber hooking a turn on an Insight board, shaped by his brother, Greg.

One afternoon I fell in love with the surfing of Col Sutherland. From then on, I watched him closely. I literally studied him and tried to learn everything I could from how he surfed. He had a very clean, classical style, and in my opinion, did vertical forehand and backhand re-entries better than anyone. His roundhouse cutbacks were a master class in how to maintain speed all the way through the entirety of the long, arcing turn.

One wintry afternoon I was watching Col surf from where I was sitting alone on the Wall and saw him do something I have never seen anyone else ever do. Wave after wave he took off and stuck his hand in the face of the small lefts and dragged it behind him like he was stalling in the hope that the wave might tube. Perhaps I was just a star struck grommet with a vivid imagination, but it looked to me like he was “HOW I FOUND OUT ABOUT THE making the waves tube over him; not just with his drag‘HEAD’ WAS WHEN HE PUSHED ging hand, but like he was PAST ME WEARING ONLY AN willing them to barrel with his mind.

ARMY STYLE GREATCOAT AND KICKED MY SURFBOARD OUT OF HIS WAY SO HE COULD ENTER A BUILDING ON CAMPBELL PARADE.”

The older guys, it seemed to me, were divided into two main groups. Those who worshipped the reportedly hard drinking and womanising, Brad Mayes, and the more sensible young men who followed in the conservative footsteps of the religious Ford brothers. And then there was Harry Nightingale. He was kind of like our Dalai Lama. A reluctant guru who surfed with a stylish elegance absent in all others. But for the first six months I surfed at South we only heard mythical reports of the mysterious Harry, who was travelling in Indonesia, Europe and South Africa.

there. He kept his head down when he paddled, breathed like he was in a race, and talked to no-one. Gone were the friendly conversations we had down at North. This was kill or be killed.

Brad Mayes left for Angourie not long after we arrived down South but left behind a trail of outrageous friends and stories. The best of which was Ricky T and his cross Pacific drug run from Mexico to Hawaii with hundreds of pounds of weed. These were the kind of stories and misadventures we grew up aspiring to and ultimately emulating. We didn’t stand a chance.

But none of the Brad Mayes stories I heard were as outrageous as the legend of Kevin the ‘Head’’ Brennan.

How I found out about the ‘Head’ was when he pushed past me wearing only an army style greatcoat and kicked my surfboard out of his way so he could enter a building on Campbell Parade. Russell Hill saw my encounter with him from the hill and rushed up to me and asked me what he’d said. I told Russ what he’d said, “Fucken young surfers, always in the way.” And Russ told me that 10 years earlier, the Head had beaten everyone in Australia, including Midget and Nat, in the Aussie Titles. “He came first in both the juniors and seniors!”. When I saw him leave the building, looking like a confused and angry derelict. I thought to myself: “You legend!”

They say that when men choose to stop believing in God, they don’t thereafter believe in nothing, they become capable of believing in anything. These guys became more than just heroes to us. The saints and sinners down South were adored like archetypal characters in a Wild West Hollywood production. It was like living in a Sergio Leone film; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly meets Endless Summer. Once Upon a Time in Bondi. The Head was a fallen angel, Brad Mayes was referred to as ‘Lord’ and Ron My favourite natural-footer at Bondi in the Ford was admired as one of the best Austramid-70s was Ron Ford. No-one surfed more lian surfers to never win a professional surfing radically or with more speed and determination. competition. A photograph of Steve Corrigan He leant over so far when turning that from surfing in a contest appeared in Surfing World the water, all you could see sometimes was the magazine with the caption ‘Too radical for the bottom of his board. Ron, like many of the older system.’ I thought that summed up the Bondi guys, surfed every session like they were in the surfers perfectly. Diamonds in the rough, every final of a contest. It was that competitive down one of them.

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Top: Cheyne Horan was also on the Coca-Cola skate team.

Here he grips a Fanta (owned by Coca-Cola) as he jumps a stack to keep the sponsors and awed onlookers smiling.

Bottom: John Webber clutching a board shaped under the short-lived Horan/ Webber co-lab brand.

Surfing at Bondi was like a boys club back then and the only female surfer I remember from those days was this old woman called Marge.

Marge used to get around dressed like a man with a cigarette holder clamped in the back teeth. She was probably only in her 40s but she seemed really old to me and I was impressed to see the respect that she got from all of the boys and men down South.

In late 1974, my new girlfriend told me she was going to catch the 365 down to South after school and meet me at the Wall. I didn’t know what to say. I was afraid she would be stoned by marauding ratbags as she walked the dangerous territory between the bus terminus and the Wall.

South Bondi was just about a no-go zone for girls back then. The only girls I saw there were sitting with the Rock Crew, who by that stage were mostly just bronzing up in their sluggos. I told her it could get pretty rough down there and how misogynistic, racist and antisemitic most of the boys were, but she consoled me with stories of having seen, “Natives spear and axe each other to death in the Highlands”, where she grew up in Papua New Guinea. She made it to where I was sitting, unscathed. To me this appeared to be the beginning of many more girls finding “CHEYNE BECAME REALLY their way down to South.

Not long after, she actually GOOD FRIENDS WITH US, bought a surfboard, and we would go surfing together.

AND HE AND GREG STARTED

A SHORT-LIVED SURFBOARD BRAND CALLED, ‘HORAN AND WEBBER’, WHICH THEY BUILT IN OUR BACKYARD.”

The best surfer s of my generation in Bondi in the mid-70s were Dion Gatty, Richard Cram, Ant Corrigan and Joe Engle; until Cheyne Horan showed up. The older two tribes had united briefly and formed a surf team called Panache and decided to hold a surf comp for grommets with a view to starting a juniors club called Zephyr. I came third behind Cheyne (first) and Dion (second). This was the best placing I ever achieved in a surfing competition. Greg told me Steve Corro was scoring me well for my hang fives, so I went nuts hanging five on every wave I caught. I pretty much retired from surf comps after that as I felt I had already peaked. I was 13.

John and Greg began making surfboards for all of our friends and we also began making surfing movies of our trips away up the coast. We showed one surfing movie to a packed house at the Bondi Pavilion and charged $1 a head to get in. Cheyne became really good friends with us, and he and Greg started a short-lived surfboard brand called, ‘Horan and Webber’, which they built in our backyard. My first one of their shapes was a single fin rounded pin tail with a fireball sprayed on the deck and I remember arriving down at the Wall with it in late ‘76 and everybody checking it out and being very impressed.

When the surf got really big the place transformed completely. It was divided in two, between those who would paddle out and those who wouldn’t. The first couple of big swells, I just watched. Harry, Bruce Raymond and Steve Jones shined. John went out and not only got waves but secured a reputation as a big wave charger. I knew I had to do the same. During my first really big surf at Bondi, I pulled into a big closeout barrel and my future was set.

By 1977, most of the older guys had either moved away or got married and started working full time. Sitting on the Wall with John Adair one time, I asked him if he thought we were the older guys now. “Not yet.” he laughed. But I knew that we had not only succeeded in making the transition from North to South Bondi, we had established ourselves down there and it was only a matter of time until we were sitting up on the Hill.

When I got my driver’s license in 1978, I drove down to Bondi in our old 1961 EK Holden and parked on the hill. I got out and sat down on the grass and looked out at the surf. Colin Makepeace turned up and sat down next to me and we started talking. After I’d been sitting there for about 15 minutes it occurred to me that I’d finally made it. I was sitting on the Hill.

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Opposite: Whether on a model shoot or riding deep in the barrel, Imogen Caldwell knows how to get the shot.

Imogen Caldwell’s Unique Juggling Act THE GIRL FROM THE BLUFF ON MOTHERHOOD, MODELLING AND MEAN BARRELS. Written by Brad Sterling • Photos by Mike Riley

Despite our grommet-hood dreams, let’s face it, by the time most of us reach adulthood very few of us get to surf anywhere near as frequently as our younger selves may have imagined. Instead, most of us find ourselves embroiled in some sort of internal war between our daily responsibilities and the lure of the ocean. And we have all become quite accustomed to the juggling act - work, kids, domestic chores, financial responsibilities… Throw COVID into that mix, and most of us have been left feeling a bit like ‘Pinky, the Juggling Clown’.

Imogen Caldwell is no stranger to the juggle, but her act is a little different from most. But then, the 25-year-old West Aussie goofy-footer’s life has never really followed a conventional path. Born on the east coast in Newcastle, when Caldwell was just a few years old, her parents were overcome with a lust for adventure and headed west on what was supposed to be a round Australia road trip. But when her surfing father landed at WA’s notorious Red Bluff, the gravitational pull of the perfect, reeling left-hander (and other incredible waves in the vicinity) was too strong to ignore.

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The family laid roots at the ‘Bluff ’ where they became managers of the now famous campground. Those who have been there will know that besides perfect waves and stunning dessert landscapes, there isn’t a whole lot there. So, it is little wonder that Caldwell’s childhood was one spent largely in the brine. Growing up on a remote sheep station 12 hours from the nearest city (which, on its own happens to be the most isolated capital city in the world), Caldwell and her four siblings were home-schooled and spent their days running barefoot in the dessert sand and playing in the ocean.

But it wasn’t until the age of 13 that Caldwell started to follow in her father and older brother’s footsteps and began paddling out into the surf. She showed promise from an early age and soon began to appear comfortable in the waves around her home. And make no mistake about it, these are some of the gnarliest waves on the planet. Many an unsuspecting victim has left behind a little memento of their visit (in the form of skin, flesh, teeth) on the razor-sharp reef at the Bluff and its even angrier sister wave, the very appropriately named ‘Tombstones’.

That a teenage girl can feel at home in waves like this is nothing shor t of astounding.

‘Tombies’ and the Bluff have left men twice Caldwell’s age (size, girth, years of experience) quaking at the mere thought of paddling out at any size, let alone when the solid winter swells begin to march towards the rugged coast around the back end of May every year.

“It’s just what you get used to”, Caldwell says of her comfort in waves of consequence. “You can’t just go to a beachie. They’re all reef breaks.

You don’t really have a choice. You either go out or you don’t surf ”.

Not even witnessing a near-fatal shark attack at the age of 15 (in which legendary West Aussie big wave hell-man Geoff Goulden aka ‘Camel’ and former World Tour competitor Josh Palmateer rushed to the victim’s aid) could keep Caldwell out of the water.

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Top: Imogen playing the human subject in a photographer’s version of underwater art. Bottom: Total commitment to a gleaming tube, with no guarantee of an exit.

“CORTNEY’S JUST SO ENCOURAGING. I’LL BE ON THE BACK OF THE ROPE SHAKING, SO NERVOUS, JUST IN TEARS AND

HE’LL

JUST

ENCOURAGE

ME.

HE’S A FIRM BELIEVER THAT I CAN DO ANYTHING HE CAN DO. (BUT) I’M NOT AS PSYCHO AS THEM.”

There is a beauty to the waves in this region that is unparalleled. On paper they appear perfect, especially when ridden by the underground crew of West Aussie chargers who have the ability to make them appear tame. And the azure waters juxtaposed against the red of the arid coastline is a visual feast. But the beauty belies the true danger of just one drop a second too late, one stumble, one tiny bit of chop on the face from a cross-shore wind. And this intensity is amplified when set against the backdrop of the harshness of the dessert and the nagging realisation that proper medical care is many miles away.

up an impressive résumé of places visited (and surfed) including the Marshall Islands, Canada, Croatia, Iceland, and even the Eisbach River in Munich (home to one of Europe’s funnest novelty waves).

Caldwell acknowledges that, like so many disruptions to people’s lives the world over, the pandemic has definitely impacted her life and career. “With COVID I’ve been kind of grounded. COVID takes away the element of going on a trip. (I’ve been) mostly just doing Globetrotting aside, it was at home at the Bluff stuff remotely and trying to get clips and that Caldwell met the love of her life, Kalbarri- photos out”. born lobster fisherman and fearless big wave surfer Cortney Brown (brother to bona fide With potential border openings on the horizon, hell-man Kerby).

Caldwell is hoping for a return to her prior jetsetting lifestyle, this time with son, Rambo, in “They were always coming up for swells. We met tow. “The team at O’Neil is like a family. I’ll in the surf and then he started coming up when just harness one of them in to be a babysitter. there were no waves”, she laughs. “(It was) love I just want to take him to places and show him “I’ve actually never had stitches”, Caldwell at first sight for us”. what mum’s been getting up to”. claims. “I’m covered in scars that probably needed stitches but its just too far for mum The influence of two of the Midwest’s brav- It isn’t hard to imagine little Rambo growing and dad to take you to the hospital. ‘Superglue est sons had a significant impact on Caldwell’s up on the beaches of various exotic locales will do ya!’”, she laughs. surfing, upping her big wave game to a new around the globe, although no one would argue level. “I started getting into tow surfing. It that in 2022, the future is a difficult thing to Scars aside, Caldwell has successfully carved scared the s#*t out of me at first. It still does predict. Most of us have put away the crystal out a career for herself that is equal parts surf- but Cortney’s just so encouraging. I’ll be on ball and are happy to concede that only time ing and modelling, a career that (prior to the the back of the rope shaking, so nervous, just in will tell. In the meantime, one thing is for sure dreaded pandemic of course) has taken her all tears and he’ll just encourage me. He’s a firm – Caldwell will continue to keep the clubs in the over the globe. Growing up in a place with such believer that I can do anything he can do. (But) air, juggling motherhood, sponsorship commita high influx of travelling surfers, has afforded I’m not as psycho as them”, she quips. ments, and the lure of some of Western Austraher the opportunity to meet a myriad of surflia’s heaviest reef breaks. ers and surf industry insiders from around the Imogen and Cortney welcomed their first world with one chance encounter landing her a child into the world seven months ago with “Mum and dad are still up at the Bluff. I’m job on a charter boat in the Mentawai Islands. the birth of their son Rambo. The name seems excited for winter. Mum will serve you with a fitting. Given that his parents are something of baby on her hip at the window (of the campIt was here that Caldwell’s professional surf- a West Oz big-wave royal couple, it isn’t hard ground office). Cort and I are up here ready”. ing career began when a fortuitous session in to imagine that this Rambo might have been the presence of renowned photographer Ray blessed with similar valour to the fictional hero As the world crosses its collective fingers and Collins resulted in some impressive shots of the portrayed by Sylvester Stallone in the 1982 prays for a return to normalcy, West Aussies then 17-year-old charging at solid Green Bush. action thriller ‘First Blood’. seem to have accepted that a difficult winter The images found there way into several surflikely lies ahead. After a relatively flat summer ing publications and caught the attention of When it comes to juggling all of the chal- a solid season of swell would be a nice consolapotential sponsors, among them O’Neil, Otis, lenges and opportunities that life has thrown tion though and watching Imogen juggle her and Creatures of Leisure, to name but a few.

Caldwell’s way, she is typically upbeat. “Having life’s responsibilities, all the while contorting a child hasn’t stopped me, I’ve just got to find herself into, and out of, seemingly impossible, “It was after that, that everything picked up for a babysitter”, she laughs. “It definitely won’t grinding barrels in the northwest could provide me and I was on my first plane to Hawaii”, she stop me. The only thing that will stop me is a useful life lesson for us all. The only obstacles says. “Before COVID hit I was on a plane once COVID. I’m just waiting for Marky (West we face are those that we create for ourselves or twice a month. I was barely home”. As well Australian State Premier Mark McGowan) to in our own minds. Keep juggling. Keep surfing. as Hawaii and Indonesia, Caldwell has racked let me out”.

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Borderless

“IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING ANY ROAD WILL GET YOU THERE” – LEWIS CARROLL. Written by Holly Murphy

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Clockwise from top left: Camp Grayson. Photo: Jethro James Desert-fringed delight. Photo: Jethro James Heavy tow-in. Photo: Holly Murphy ‘Hold up your fish, Holly’! Photo: Jethro James

COVID19 and all its restrictions were like dust in our rear-view mirror. Yay freedom. The dream of a road trip across the country was just beginning. There were eight of us, spread across five vehicles heading west with no real plans other than finding good surf and seeing as much of Australia as we could. I was the only girl, and I was travelling with Grayson Hinrichs, the former World Under 16 Champion. We all finished high school six months earlier and were excited to blow-off more than a year of COVID lock downs, masks, QR codes and all the other blah blah that interrupted the sort of post school fun most teenagers take for granted.

We weren’t in a hurry, and even before we crossed our first border, Grayson was keen to explore the backroads. After going through a couple gates that were unsigned as private property, an enraged old farmer with a cattle dog aggressively pulled us over on his farm bike.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he asked. We went through his private property, and he wasn’t happy. He said we were trespassing and illegally crossing the border. The boys had a lengthy argument with him before he took photographs of our number plates and warned: “You’ll be meeting the police once you cross into South Australia.” As it turned out it was only a bluff, but we were petrified, trying to dodge his sheep as we left, worried that he might start shooting and that the cops would be waiting for us.

We camped that night on the banks of the Murray River at Berri. Next morning, we dumped all our vegetable matter and nervously went to the police station. The cop just laughed and told us not to worry. “You guys did nothing wrong. Have a nice trip,” he said. Grumpy locals and kindness would follow us across the country.

Travelling with advanced surfers like Grayson and Paddy Power, I was keen to film as muchsurfing as possible but with respect to the locals, not revealing any locations. To avoid confrontation we split up the convoy to go surfing. For most of the trip we hunted waves with just two cars at time and we would meet afterwards to avoid looking like dickheads.

“Kinda my whole mentality in South Australia was to avoid people, so we surfed a lot of waves being the only people out,” said Grayson. “I didn’t really have any issues with locals even in the infamous surf localism towns, minus a

couple of unfriendly pubs and a few old grumps.

We didn’t really interact with them or surf with them, I just surfed by myself.” His first impression of South Australia was of its rugged beauty.

“The rocks, environment, everything was really rough. You felt like you were in the elements there, lots of wind, sharp rocks, cold water, dark water, sharks.“

and found waves a couple of hours further west.

“It had free camping and really good waves as well. It’s normally a bodyboarders’ wave,” said Grayson. “We were the only surfers out the whole time, there were four other guys bodyboarding there.”

We made it into South Australia just before the border to NSW was shut tight because of My uncle, Wayne Murphy, lived and surfed in COVID, and luck was with us again when we the SA desert in the 1970s and 80s. In 1977 my crossed into WA. We needed a campsite for the dad, Sean, was visiting him and they witnessed a night after passing border control at Eucla and Great White attack. Wayne’s friend, Phil Horley, a friendly local told us about a 4WD track to survived being bitten with serious wounds to a beach with free camping. After two hours of his leg. Even without the family history to rugged driving on a steep rocky track we had haunt him, Grayson was pretty worried about our doubts. All the boys were complaining on sharks, especially at one outer reef with a noto- the UHF radios, but finally we got to the beach, rious reputation. With Paddy, and a couple of and it was a highlight of the trip. others they scored it at four to six-foot.

It was an untouched paradise, white sand hard “It was one of my first surfs in South Australia, enough to drive on without getting bogged and we paddled out at first light and it’s a really a crystal blue lake-like ocean. The only downlong paddle to the wave across this deep chan- side was the complete lack of waves. We drove nel. We were sitting out on the reef, and you along the sand for what seemed like hours on couldn’t really tell where the reef was. You’d see the long, remote beach with not a person in the seaweed flash under you, and I just started sight or traces of people ever being there. Grayhaving a full panic attack,” recalls Grayson. son was the first to notice something jump in There were seals next to us coming up on the the crystal-clear water, screaming with joy he reef.” To my embarrassment while they were grabbed his fishing rod and ran into the water dealing with shark paranoia, I accidentally set fully clothed after realising it was a school off the car alarm sending a local surfer into a of Aussie salmon right in front of us. All the panic. “This older local in the water started boys were frothing, hooking up on every cast. I freaking out yelling ‘shark alarm,’ and paddling caught my first ever fish that day plus another in,” explains Grayson. “I had to say; ‘it’s all 11. Grayson and Paddy caught about 30 each good Holly just set the car alarm off.’ It was or more. We released them all because they pretty hilarious. “ aren’t the best tasting fish, so in reality we left the place with no trace of ever being there.

At a beach nearby we had another close encounter with a cranky local. We were walking from Meanwhile, for our worried parents we had the carpark to the trail to check out a beach completely vanished without trace. We were off that wasn’t even a surf spot. This middle-aged grid unaware of our lucky timing entering WA. grumpy man with his dog yelled: “Oi don’t go The borders had shut to SA while we were on shit in the dunes.” We thought, ‘how random?’ that beach and our families didn’t know if we When we got back to our cars, Paddy stepped had made it in time. We were honestly so grateon a huge dog poop we were certain was placed ful that somehow the stars aligned and got us strategically by the hostile man. through in time. It was mid-winter in WA. and we drove into some big storms on the south Anyone who goes to the SA desert knows that coast. We decided the west coast could wait so localism has been a thing for a long time and at we bailed for the warmth of the northwest. “We one place in particular, it’s legendary. We spent basically punched it out, night driving through a night in Ceduna sheltering from a storm and storms, overtaking sketchy road-trains, terrible. caught up with some long-time locals from the It was the worst drive,” said Grayson. We stayed place with the scariest reputation. at Red Bluff, where the camping facilities were pretty rough. Twenty bucks a night got you a Smiley, Deb and their son Reef were some of bit of bare dirt and a case of dysentery from the friendliest people you could ever meet, but the compost dunnies, but we scored some good we decided to drive right past where they live waves.

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Clockwise from top left: Splendid isolation. Photo: Jethro James Green velvet playground. Photo: Jethro James A wander beneath the lip of Wave Rock, WA. Photo: Holly Murphy Coiling left in easy casting distance. Photo: Jethro James

“WORDS OF WISDOM TO ANYONE JUST FINISHING SCHOOL, SAVE SOME MONEY, GRAB YOUR MATES, JUMP IN THE CAR WITH SOME BOARDS AND DRIVE. YOU WON’T REGRET IT.”

Apart from really good surf, the ocean was alive with marine life, and we ate beautiful fresh fish most days caught by the boys spear fishing. We saw whales all day every day, but there came a point where everyone stopped pointing them out because they were so common. Star gazing for us city kids was an incredible experience.

Every night we would sit back or lay under the stars, just taking it all in. That’s one of the things we never took for granted. At home the stars… suck.

“I’ve surfed Hawaii and Indo, Tahiti, Maldives and all that, but hands down these were the most perfect barrels I’ve ever seen, “ said Grayson. “You pull into a perfect barrel, and it just gets wider, keeps getting shallower and widening and all of a sudden ‘doosh’ into a channel, it was amazing, and like with only one of my mates out there.” We stayed there for about three weeks. The waves were amazing, but the land seemed cursed. Even though we camped illegally for free we ended up paying. Our toll of bad luck included five broken boards, guitar There’s not a lot to do in the desert and one and solar panel run over, three awnings broken late afternoon to relieve the boredom we in a storm, a chair washed away on the tide and decided to build towers out of stones. The boys damage to a couple of our vehicles. were working on one for about half an hour when it collapsed onto Grayson’s hand, slicing With money running low we bailed for Margait open. This resulted in an emergency trip to ret River in search of work. We got jobs straight the Carnarvon hospital to get stitches and put away pruning in a vineyard near Dunsborhim out of the water for a week. Safe to say he ough. It was really hard work and after three wasn’t happy. weeks the boss replaced us with workers flown in from Vanuatu. Some locals saw our NSW The best breaks were super crowded, but number plates and called us Covid spreaders Grayson said the vibe was pretty friendly if but mostly they were warm and welcoming. you showed some respect. “Didn’t really have “Some of the people you see in the surf are just any issues with any locals. You just hang low so nice. We actually ended up getting a job by at the start, work your way up the lineup to meeting some dude in the surf, he was like the top, speak with people early in the surf and come in on Thursday and have an interview,” be friendly before you start getting waves and said Grayson. “It was at a local winery restauletting them get a few so they’re not on edge,” rant and they hired all of us together.” said Grayson.

We stayed in a youth hostel at Dunsborough, We made it as far as Exmouth and loved it. initially planning to stay a couple days while The Ningaloo reef, incredible marine life, and looking for a house. It turned into a couple of desert into the sea. We were looking for work months. We hung out with some of the kindest, but couldn’t find anywhere to stay. With WA nicest , most interesting people from all over locked down it seems everyone was heading the world. We were welcomed into their hostel north for winter. We stayed at an overflow family. It was home. area on the local footy field for $50 a night per car but they took photographs of our number We met a lot of really cool locals including Rob plates and warned us we had to move on after a and Di Conneeley who moved from Bondi to couple of nights. On the way south we stopped Margaret River in the 1960s. Like us they grew and camped for a couple of days in a riverbed up and went to school in Scum Valley. Rob near a fishing town. Unexpectedly, we scored owned the first ever surf shop in Bondi and like the best waves of the whole trip. Perfect, glassy Grayson he was a World Junior Champion. He six-foot barrels with no-one out. won his Title in 1964 and then was Champion

at the Bells Easter Classic in 1965 in some of the biggest ever waves.

We got to hear him ring his bell and tell some amazing stories about the early days of Margaret River’s surfing history. In a way we felt a bit like them 50 years later, exploring and finding waves.

“I was actually doing the old Google maps just checking at night on satellite going along the coast and pinning wherever I saw a little bit of reef then taking Google maps to get there,” said Grayson.

“We found waves, they were mostly just novelty and fun. We got a few good waves. We did a lot of searching, days of just driving down 4WD tracks, getting out looking along the cliffs, we came across some really good secret spots, surfed a couple, but unfortunately didn’t get swell.’

Overall, it was the adventure of our lives. We made lots of new friends and saw some amazing sights. Camping where the desert meets the sea was an unforgettable experience in two states.

We were away for six months and drove 25,000 kilometres on highways, dirt and gravel roads.

Now that we’re home again there are so many memories to treasure.

Words of wisdom to anyone just finishing school, save some money, grab your mates, jump in the car with some boards and drive.

You won’t regret it.

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Top: Far north, nose-ride at Agnes Water. Photo: Fenna De king • Bottom: A determined cyclone swell bends into Nielsen Park in Bundaberg. Photo: Mic Gruchy

One Last Cyclone Swell NORTH OF NOOSA, SURFERS STILL HAVE STORIES TO TELL. Written by Mic Gruchy

January 2, 2022. Cyclone Seth was beating its path down from the Coral Sea lighting up all the breaks on the Queensland coast. Even Bargara Beach at Bundaberg, my surf starved old hometown, birthplace, and until recently, home of my mum and dad.

lation changed so much. We had five beaches and only about 20 or 30 committed surfers in town through my high school years. In the 70s we lived in an era of Captain Goodvibes, bongs, rum, fistfights, and ratbag counter-culture surfie spirit. All punctured by the occasional swell, and then the annual cyclone season when I was there to see it, perhaps one very last we finally had a chance to test our skills on time, as I prepared my family home for sale. some decent sized swell. Ride the storm!

Dad passed earlier in 2021 and a few months later mum had fallen, leg badly broken she Once we could drive or bum along with big went south to aged care near my brother on brothers who had licenses and a cars, we surfed the Sunny Coast. Now the big family house on every break for a couple of hundred kilometres the river sat empty. Showing its age and quietly north and south. North to Agnes – when it was disintegrating in the tropical heat. two hours of dirt roads and only the Jefferey’s house there and a few stray cattle. We’d take The sense of time passing, generations slipping mushrooms and slide through silver swells that away forever, was strong as I cleared out my became indiscernible from the silver sky. South parent’s belongings. Much of it so precious, to camp in the carpark at Noosa National Park. more of it now unwanted, and all of it…just Surfing the points and sleeping in the laundrostuff. Without the people who chose it, kept it mat when the rain soaked our tents and sleepand loved it, everything, in the end, is just stuff. ing bags. A great warm jet of air from the dryers Emotional work sorting through it, time to hit kept us from shivering in the tropical winters. the beach.

I got my first proper fibreglass surfboard for Bundy is level with the northern tip of K’gari Christmas and my 13th birthday on the 27th of (Fraser Island) and sits at the bottom of a December in 1975. Here I was back in Bundy window to open swell, which finishes north of to turn 59 and say goodbye to the house I’d Agnes Waters and 1770, where Lady Musgrave known since I was eight years old. Say goodbye and Lady Elliot Islands mark the start of the to the ghost of my dad and all things past in Great Barrier Reef. K’gari blocks all but the Bundy. I pulled up to the point and thanked smallest southerly wind swell making surfing Huey and the cyclone for giving me one last in Bundaberg a long game of patience. Only cyclone swell before I left town, possibly for broken by cyclone season and the massive low- the last time. The point at Nielsen Park was pressure systems pushing swells before them as cracking off right-handers swept clean by a they charge down the coast. light morning offshore. How many hundreds of hours, of days in my teens had I sat wishing for Growing up on the Capricorn Coast in the waves like this? Countless hours wiling away 1960s and 70s meant you did everything it was the time with mates, bullshitting and dreaming. possible to do in the water. Swim, surf, sail, dive, fish. It was a pristine part of the natural After a magic session on a 6’3” fish I’d brought world, in a time before development and popu- to deal with the usually fat and underpowered

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conditions, I noticed, for the first time, a new seat on the point and a new plaque on that seat.

The plaque was there to remember my childhood friend Jeff. His family lived next door when we were children. They had four boys, we had three. We all grew up together in the water and out of it. Jeff, like us all, partied hard and was swept up in the drugs and rock ‘n’ roll of the times. Like so many, he never really made it out of the party. Though it took decades to play out, it got him in the end.

This new memorial sat with an earlier plaque in honour of Bundy’s best surfer in the 1970s, Cameron Darley. At 15 he was my absolute idol.

Older, tanned, fit with the perfect bleached blonde hair, he could rip like no one else in town. All us grommets wanted to surf like Cameron. He died young at Agnes Water. Hit his head on the rocks surfing the point and drowned. Joining all the others taken too soon by fate.

As I sat on the point in a silent reverie, pondering the passing of time, of friends and family, of the generations, I realised the only truly timeless element in my life is the ocean. The swells come and go. Only the people riding them change. The ocean accepts us all. Gives us that timeless pleasure, its energy, its push, just for those fleeting, magic moments on a wave. In that instant of realisation I felt much comforted. We come from country, and we return to country in the end. In that we can find peace.

“THE SENSE OF TIME PASSING, GENERATIONS SLIPPING AWAY FOREVER, WAS STRONG AS I CLEARED OUT MY PARENTS BELONGINGS. MUCH OF IT SO PRECIOUS, MORE OF IT NOW UNWANTED, AND ALL OF IT…JUST STUFF. WITHOUT THE PEOPLE WHO CHOSE IT, KEPT IT AND LOVED IT, EVERYTHING, IN THE END, IS JUST STUFF. ”

Water Coloured Waves: The Mexican Point THE DISTILLED SURFING MEMORIES OF DAVE SPARKES. Words and painting by Dave Sparkes I’ve had two trips to Mexico to hunt for waves, and both times the surf pumped. Yet I still haven’t ridden a single wave in Mexico.

Of course, both of those trips were for ‘work’, shooting photos and writing features for companies and magazines, but you’d think I’d be able to at least have a paddle, like I did on virtually every surf travel assignment I did in those days.

Sadly, it didn’t work out.

The first trip was in 2006, and I was sent by Tracks to cover the WCT Search event at that delectable southern Mexican right point. As I noted in the last Water Coloured Waves, I grew up at an unruly beachbreak and as a result I’m mesmerised at the sight of a point break. So normally I’d have been in feverish froth mode, but this was my first trip using the new digital cameras. I had no clue about that stuff. I didn’t even now what a jpeg was. I had a single, 4 gigabyte memory card, which cost me $700. I was travelling alone, wasn’t sure where I was staying, and didn’t yet have transport organised. I was so stressed out about not blowing it that I didn’t even think about taking a

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board. And the surf turned out to be so amazing, my heart broke every time another guy got a six-second tube. I considered it inappropriate to borrow a pro’s board at an event, not that I’d be able to paddle any of them apart from Pancho Sullivan’s. I pulled off the gig, but left totally gutted about not getting a single surf in.

The second trip was one of my last assignments for Rip Curl. I’d just come out of an ACL reconstruction, and definitely wouldn’t be surfing for several months at least. So, with my knee brace firmly attached, I cruised northern Baja with the team and had to endure a relentless string of righthand sand points, chosen specifically to crush my spirit and taunt me in the cruellest way possible.

Despite COVID stealing a couple of years from all of us, I haven’t given up hope of getting back there before I’m too old, but since I’ll be turning 60 this year, the clock is ticking. Those hands accelerate at an exponential rate too, a particularly spiteful application of the inviolable inverse square law. As we’re realising these days though, you never know what’s just around the corner. It could be nuclear war – or if I’m very lucky, it could be this lineup from somewhere I’d rather be.

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Classic Cover: January, 2011 THE DEATH OF ANDY IRONS & KELLY’S 10TH WORLD TITLE. Written by Luke Kennedy “It was the best of times it was the worst of times.”

The famous line by Charles Dickens never seemed truer than when the Tracks team was assembling the January 2011 issue. On the one hand Kelly Slater had just claimed his 10th World Title, at The Rip Curl Search event in Puerto Rico.

At 38 Slater had secured the title by trouncing old foe Adriano de Souza in the quarters with a dazzling performance and pair of nine plus rides. To sweeten the victory he went on to win the whole event; eventually the one they call the King was shouldered up the beach in a human throne, draped in a star-spangled banner, flanked by an adoring crowd. When it came to contests stats, Slater had long occupied a stratosphere beyond any other surfer but the perfect resonance of ‘10 titles’ vaulted him to an untouchable realm in the sporting pantheon.

However, despite the euphoria, the celebration was as much a wake as it was a victory parade.

Only days earlier, the surfing community had been shocked by the news that Andy Irons had died alone in a Dallas hotel room. Irons had earlier withdrawn from the same contest that would deliver Kelly his double-digit glory. Ultimately Kelly had dedicated his win to Andy, telling the press “I felt like Andy was with me today,” Kelly said. “And I dedicate this to him.”

been Kelly’s page one, however we knew that paying tribute to Andy was the only option.

Surfers (close friends and fans) were still anguished over the loss of one of their most adored figures. In the muddied aftermath of his passing the ed’ instead elected to run a cover photo that seemed to capture Andy as his ideal self – fit, slick and handsome; totally beguiling when at his best. The X was a Roman Numeral reference to Kelly’s 10th title win and seemed a far more dignified way to make the acknowledgement on a cover that was fundamentally a memorial.

In the intro to the issue, Luke Kennedy contrasted the two titans of surfing in the following way.

Both were champions but by very different means and everyone could find an element of either Kelly or Andy that they could relate to. Kelly has always seemed to possess technical brilliance, the strategic sense of a military commander and the adaptability of a chameleon. Andy’s surfing on the other hand was the manifestation of unleashed emotion. You sensed Andy felt things a little more intensely than the average human and when that sentiment was channelled in the right direction he was untouchable… Where Kelly seems to possess a Zen-like immunity to the daily psychological battles we all fight, Andy would externalise whatever was going on. If Kelly is surfing’s Mozart then Andy was a rock God…

Back in the Tracks office we had to make a call on the cover. In any other context it would have

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MAIN IMAGE: PASTA POINT @ CINNAMON DHONVELI PHOTO: DARA AHMED PHOTOGRAPHY

OUTER ATOLLS – GROUP OR INDIVIDUAL BOOKINGS

CENTRAL ATOLLS – GROUP CHARTERS

A T O L LT R A V E L . C O M

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Classic Goodvibes REVISITING THE BEST OF THE PIG OF STEEL - FEBRUARY 1976.

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Lineup

If crowds aren’t your thing, you’ve got a kink for rubber, and fancy your chances of scoring in this notoriously tricky part of the world, then may we suggest a trip to the Canadian Province of British Columbia. Here, Marcus Paladino captures Andy Jones enjoying some solitude on his log at a Vancouver Island river mouth.

PHOTO : MARC US PALAD INO

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