WWW.STONEANDWOOD.COM.AU

INTRODUCTION

A
DIFFERENT
SPIN
WHY SURFERS FEEL MORE CONNECTED TO THE FORCES OF CHANGE

Top: Grayson Hinrichs capitalising on an
ephemeral sand-bar in his Sydney backyard.
Bottom: This Bay (same location as above)
is usually a deep-water cove, but every
so often the sand fills in and the magic
happens. Photos: Bill Morris

It’s generally accepted that we have now
switched from a La Niña weather cycle to
an El Nino pattern. For Australia that typically means warmer, drier conditions, and
different swell patterns. However, according to scientists, El Niño also flips the spin
cycle of water on east facing beaches from
anti-clockwise to clockwise. One by-product of this reversed ocean rotation is a
massive build up of sand on certain east
coast stretches.
There is plenty of hard-packed evidence for
the phenomenon. Shortly before our print
deadline there were reports of dry sand
fringing the notoriously difficult-to-negotiate Lennox Head Rocks. The infamous
filmer behind schadenfreude-fuelled Instagram account, ‘Lennox Rocks’ must have
been distraught. No longer could he film
unschooled rock hoppers spilling blood
and snapping fins as they tumbled into the
Lennox lineup. Instead they had an inviting
stroll into the shallows of one of Australia’s
best waves. Alongside a photo of dry sand
hugging the Lennox boulders the filmer,
who finds pleasure in the misfortune of
others quipped, “Lennox Rocks is currently
on hold due to unfavourable conditions.”

0 10

On Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Narrabeen
received a serious visit from The Sandman. According to a story in the ‘Sydney
Morning Herald’ Narra’s beach had grown
60 metres in less than a year. Perhaps
a welcome supply of golden grains for
Narra’s fabled banks but that’s also a long,
foot-blistering dash to get from the car park
to the shoreline.
Across the bridge on Sydney’s Southside an
innocuous cove had been transformed into
a wedging wonderland thanks to a giant
slug of sand. This particular nook provides
a startling reminder that our coastlines can
undergo radical transformation. Most of
the time the bay is a dormant surf break,
too deep for gravity to bend a swell into
a breaking wave. However, every few years
the capricious Pacific decides to deposit
megatons of sand in its rocky crevasses and
create a beach where before there was only
six feet of salt water. Surfers revel in the
ephemeral slabbing left while the sunbaking masses frolic on the sand. The everpresent-threat that the whole enchanting
scene might be washed away the next day
seems to make the experience for both
parties all the more precious.

These new frontiers of sand create
impromptu stages for regular beach goers
to parade upon, but in truth it’s the surfers who are at the coalface of all this ebb
and flow. Beneath the surface, just beyond
the shoreline, the shallow fringes of the
continent are in a constant state of flux.
Most of it is invisible to the naked eye, but
when a swell grips the bottom and tosses
violently over a sand-packed bank it’s the
surfers who really have a visceral connection to the shifting bathymetry. To most
others all this talk of El Niño, clockwiserotating oceans and sand flow is just like a
chapter from a high school geography book,
but to surfers it’s a living reality, something
felt in every bottom turn as a wave hugs
a newly-formed bank. Maybe it’s a proud
boast but to me it’s further evidence that
surfers are more connected to the fluctuations of the earth, which also include wind,
swell and tide. That’s my spin on it anyway.
- Luke Kennedy

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY
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.

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

General Manager /

014

Lightbox

122

Watercoloured
Waves

020

Head Dips

124

Behind the
Shot

024

Ride
Everything

120

Unearthed

128

Line Up

Director of Marketing & Advertising
Damian Martin: damian@tracksmedia.com.au
+61 (0) 417 168 663

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

Archivist - Ray Henderson

026 CROSS ROADS

Contributors - John Respondek, Ted Grambeau, Alex Workman,

Rising junior, Oscar Salt, fades left and moves into wide-open space

Owers, Al Mackinnon, Jason Childs, Tom Pearsall, Nathan Oldfield,

034 LAURA ENEVER’S LUST FOR LIFE

Dom Mosqueira, Joli, Swilly, Andrew Shield, Peter Boskovic, Greg

There isn’t much Laura won’t take on

Trevor Moran, Bill Morris, Tom De Souza, Mark McInnis, Pete

044 THE INDO MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

Geall, Ryan Craig, Federico Vanno, Dave Sparkes, Brad Sterling,

On the job in Bali and dialling in a board with Jim Banks

Burcher, Mike Ito, Stephen Cooney, Hilton Alves, Steve Wilkings,

052 EASY SLIDER

Isis Flack, Paul Holmes, Brad Sterling, Josh Kirkman, Wilem Banks,

Blair Conklin is an ocean multi-instrumentalist, uniting all the surfing tribes

060 SURFABOUT ‘79

Jamie Brisick, Melissa Connell, Ben Mondy, Alan van Gysen, Kirk

Ewing, Phil Jarratt, Karen Hudson, Anthony Pancia, Kate Allman,

Be Ryder, Tim Swallow, Ryan Miller, Cait Miers, Nick Green, Brett
Jeff Divine, Rambo Estrada, Kirvan Baldassari, Marcus Paladino,
Tom Carroll, Tony Edwards, Lauren L. Hill, Peter Crawford, Paul
Holmes, Blake Thornton, Monty Webber, Spencer Hornby, Duncan
Macfarlane, Daniel Russo, Dean Wilmot, Anthony Fox

The greatest surf show ever staged

Subscriptions:

068 INFINITE WONDER

subscribe.tracksmag.com.au

Four decades on Dean Wilmot is still answering the call of Hawaii

Email: subscribe@tracksmedia.com.au

084 DARK LINEAGE

CEO

This issue: Shane Herring, Nicky Wood & Chris Davidson

Peter Strain - peter@tracksmedia.com.au

102 BONE DEEP AT SKELETON BAY

Brains Trust

Two mates from Oz give an honest account of a strike mission to Namibia’s miracle left

David Mulham
Greg Cooper

110 THE NEW WAVE OF INDIGENOUS TALENT
Surfing Australia’s First Nations Youth High Performance Program

Independently published by Tracks Media Pty Ltd

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Lamrock Ave, Bondi Beach, NSW, 2026

026
034
044
052
060
068

084

110

01

LIGHTBOX

SURFER: NOA DEANE
PHOTO: BEN JACKSON
The way it rolls off the tongue the term ‘Free
Surfer’ makes it sound like an easy gig. One
pictures a life bereft of accountability to a boss
or for that matter the rigid time-constraints of
a contest heat. Instead of a daily grind it’s all
about long sessions in the water and slow-drifting
through the moments in between, pausing briefly
to make travel plans for the next exotic location.
One can forget that in order to perpetuate their
bohemian, barrel-riding existence Free Surfers have to set a high bar. You must constantly
find new and innovative ways to impress a surfing public that is over-saturated with dazzling
imagery if you want to cultivate a following, and
convince sponsors of your worth. Over the last
decade Noa Deane (pictured) has proven himself
to be a master of the Free Surfing art.
If Noa is not hovering above the lip in a steezy
pose, he’s hurtling through cavernous, green-lit
pits like this one; showcasing a dynamic, highrisk act laced with a compelling mix of flair and
nonchalance. So what is a Free Surfer’s job?
Well, while we navigate the hectic and humdrum
elements of everyday life, Noa is out there on the
fringes, reminding us how high and how deep we
can go, if we really try.

0 14

01 5

0 16

02

LIGHTBOX

SURFER: JYOTI WALKER
PHOTO: SAHDI SURF PHOTOS
“When surfer s hear mention of Deser t
Point they typically picture a stretched
ribbon of swell that miraculously maintains
its hollowed-out symmetry for hundreds of
metres. In the right angle of swell the wave
moves at an optimal pace and proficient tube
riders can go behind the cur tain for well
beyond ten seconds; invariably it has often
been called the most perfect wave in the
world. However, just beyond the point where
the main wave finally tapers into a fragmented section of reef, is another take-off
section known affectionately as The Grower.
The Grower is a far more fickle beast chunkier with split-lips and serious close-out
potential. However, the wave tends to baseball bat, fanning the barrels bigger and wider
- thus ‘The Grower’. It’s sheer roundness and
technical barrel riding requirements means it
often attracts superior tube riders looking for
something more challenging than the main
wave’s hypnotic perfection. It’s also a place to
escape the soul-crushing crowds up the point.
“The Grower is a wave of consequence and
most people that surf it respect some kind
of priority system,” explains Jyoti Walker(
pictured). “I was last in line when a wide one
came through that no one wanted. The wave
was super-clean and rifling-off down the line.
I remember being totally mesmerised by the
celestial blue of that wave.” Jyoti’s craft of
choice for taking on the girth of The Grower
was a 5’2 Tropical Keel Fish shaped by Ross
Concept. “Plenty of entry rocker through the
nose and a fairly flat bottom into a double
concave,” he explains. Jyoti admits other surfers sometimes suggest he should be riding
longer, narrow, curvier equipment at a wave
like The Grower, but although the flat-Fish
gamble doesn’t always pay off, Jyoti insists
when he gets the line right the high-velocity
thrill is addictive. “The speed and connectivity you gain between the wave and what’s
under your feet is a feeling like none other.”

01 7

03

LIGHTBOX

SURFER: DAMIEN PEPPER
PHOTO: SPENCE HORNBY
“Saturday morning, shin-high surf and I had set
my camera up with a fisheye lens to swim out and
shoot some underwater photos of any sea life that
was hanging around and perhaps even a couple
of waves, should one care to break. It was smackbang in the middle of winter during a somewhat
flat-spell, accompanied by textbook, crystal-blue
conditions. I noticed a friend of mine Damien
Pepper – a local surfer/shaper – had strolled out
near where I was hanging. He was just down a
bit, right off the back of a razor sharp bank and
was probably testing out one of his boards. Out of
nowhere pops up what is probably the biggest and
only wave that broke that entire day with Damien
holding the winning ticket, flying past me through
the tube and into the sun. I remember being
underwater, watching it through my goggles
whilst firing off a burst of photos and thinking to
myself what a beautiful moment it was.”

0 18

01 9

HEAD DIPS

ON THE COVER: GRIFFIN COLAPINTO BY RYAN MILLER
This day was after a few massive perfect days out at Teahupoo. All the guys had gotten
their fill the days previous and then again this morning. It had gotten a little bit wonky and
most crew had gone in. Griffin was in a bad rhythm earlier in the day and hadn’t gotten a
good wave so he stayed out. When I say stayed out I mean he parked it there and never left.
I swam for at least six hours this session, no water, no food, just all adrenaline. Waves were
still pumping and not that many crew on it. Griff finally started to get into a rhythm later
in the session and was bagging great waves back to back to back. We were legit screaming
in the channel like children. On every kick out, heads were tossed back, mouths agape,
letting out the most primitive howls.

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02 0

HEAD DIPS

CLASSIC AD:
JULY, 1992
HERRO & INSIGHT
When nuggety, Dee Why natural-footer
Shane Herring (See story on page 84) blasted
into the spotlight by winning the Coke Classic final against Kelly Slater in 1992 he had
an accomplice. Greg Webber had engineered
Herring a quiver of narrow, low-volume,
low-railed, extreme-rockered boards. They
weren’t exactly easy to ride and all that
curve meant they needed to be constantly
turned and placed in the pocket, lest they
start pushing water. However, under the feet
of a gifted and precise surfer like Herring

they were lethal weapons. Re-watch some
of the footage of Herring on his Insights
and you will be blown away. (Check Out
his Mini Bio ‘Journey On’ on the Tracks
website). Inspired by Herring’s and Slater’s
(Merrick’s version) efforts on the ‘Banana
Boards’ legions of surfers followed them
down the ultra-bendy rabbit hole. Many of
us mere mortals struggled with all that curve
in sloppy beach breaks and more extreme
versions of the design struggled to maintain a slot on surf shop racks. Curiously, the

banana board movement was followed soon
after by the renaissance of The Fish – a much
more forgiving and user-friendly design. In
recent years The Banana has undergone
something of a renaissance of its own, most
notably when Kelly was inspired by old footage of Herring he’d been watching and got
back in touch with Greg Webber to order a
few boards.

02 1

HEAD DIPS

THE IMMORTALS OF AUSTRALIAN SURFING
BY PHIL JARRATT
“What exactly makes an Immortal? It varies from sport to sport, of course, and is an imprecise mix of fame,
prodigious talent, competitive success, remarkable achievement and magnetism…”
So writes Phil Jarratt in the introduction to his recent title ‘The Immortals of Australian Surfing’. Jarratt
admits he was vexed by the question of who to include in the book after the publishers insisted he narrow
it down to 12 names. Who made the cut? Well you’ll have to buy the book to find out. Jarratt calls on
personal experiences, in-depth research and anecdotes to produce an engaging and comprehensive
anthology. It helps that he knew many of his subjects well and there was certainly no author better placed
to write this book.
Gelding Street Press – available at Big W and all good bookstores.

VERBATIM

“Many, experienced:
absent fathers, childhood
trauma, escape from
violence into surfing, tribal
initiations, success on the
world circuit, inability
to handle money, media
fawning, mental illness,
drug and alcohol addiction,
incarceration and
internment, eventual selfdestruction, and only very
occasional redemption.”
– Monty Webber, ‘Dark Lineage’
page 084

CLASSIC LETTER: TRACKS, JANUARY 1976
THE SURFER AND HIS DOG
It’s nearly sunset,
He walks his dog his only pet.
Sitting there he watches,
The bluey green blotches.
The crystal-clear lip rolls in,
It’s like a hollow silver tin.
His dog sits watching him,
He moves away the light, still dim.
In he goes, paddles out,
Watching for a shark’s snout
Turning quickly, with fast moving arms,
Heading straight for those palms.
He flies through getting stoked,
His the only one out there soaked.
Just him and his dog,
Right away from the city and smog
Duckie Thacker

THE HUNGRY SURFER WITH JENNYBENNY:
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rosemary is a powerhouse of good stuff. So easy, so filling, and great for pre or post surf.
One large sweet potato peeled and cut in to 1cm rounds • Olive oil • 2/3 tablespoons fresh or dry rosemary
ground up with salt in mortar and pestle • 1 tsp salt (or to taste) • parmesan cheese finely grated
Set oven to 200 degrees Celsius. On a lined baking tray place the sweet potato rounds, drizzle generously
with olive oil and place in oven for 20 mins or until soft. Rub the rosemary salt in to each round and roast
another 5/10 minutes. Generously grate Parmesan cheese over the rounds and place back in oven until
golden brown and crusted. Smash!
@jennybennyfoodco • Photo by @kateellenturner

02 2

THE TRACKS PRINT STORE
Covers, Art & Photographic Prints

TRACKSMAG.COM.AU/STORE

02 3

COMPRESSION LINER BOARDSHORT

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FANNING

SCAN TO LEARN MORE

JACKSON BAKER

CROSSROADS
Rising junior, Oscar Salt, fades left and moves into wide-open space.
Written by Kirk Owers

It’s all about timing and decision
making this surfing game. Even
before you enter the water you’ve
got decisions to make: what board,
which fins, where to go, what to
tell your boss when you return
sun-fried and barrel-lit three hours
late. Timing must be spot on.
You’ve got to sync with tides, offshores,
banks, swell directions, moon phases and
absent crowds. On the wave itself, timing
and decision-making are everything. Get
them wrong and you might as well take up
knitting.

when they start out. That’s the dream life,”
reflects Oscar today. The polished naturalfooter finished high school last year and,
like all school leavers, has been weighing
up his future options.

Aspiring pros seem to absorb all this stuff
instinctively. But while they fine-tune
their wave riding skills they’ve got many
other career-altering decisions to make –
often on the fly. Boomerang Beach junior,
Oscar Salt, is accustomed to the ups and
downs of a surf career pursuit. He’s been
at it since he pulled on an oversize rashie
and started winning micro grom heats by
a lunar distance in the BBB boardriders.

There’s been plenty of surfing high points
along the way for the teenager. Stints in
Hawaii. Trips to Northern Indo. Countless missions interstate and up and down
the east coast. There’s been free boards,
mini-movies, sponsorship deals. On the
comp scene, he’s won multiple regional
and national Grom Comp Titles, been a
state and national finalist, and claimed a
Rip Curl GromSearch at pumping six-foot
Merewether.

Back then, he had a dream shared with
hundreds of groms around the country.
“Making the World Tour and winning a
World Title that’s what everyone aims for

But just as young Salty has started to gain
some down-the-line momentum there’s
been injuries and setbacks. His back has
been a recurring problem. He initially

0 26

injured it in a high-speed snowboarding
crash in New Zealand. Not long after
rehabbing and returning to surfing and
then comps, he reinjured it again. This
time he was diagnosed with a pars defect
(or spondylolysis) – which is an overuse
injury.
Basically, the surf was so good during
the COVID lockdowns that Oscar surfed
himself into a crook back. More time on
the bench and rehab work followed before
a third back problem that was eventually
diagnosed as a nerve issue, which took
months to properly heal. The timing
wasn’t great. The dodgy back meant he
just missed out on going to the World
Junior Titles in El Salvador, a devastating
career blow. Throw in a pandemic and two
years of travel bans and it seemed he was
landing on more snakes than ladders on
his career path.

CROSS
ROADS
Previous: Oscar Salt’s future is wide open.
Top: Oscar and Julian Wilson in transit in
Indo. Bottom: A lofty aerial act has helped
Oscar ditch the contest jersey and follow a
free-surfing path.

And that might have been it for Oscar. The
largesse which allowed surf companies to
support big teams of riders in the 90s has
long ago dried up. While it’s easy enough
to get small endorsements as a grommet,
when you start chasing WQS points, the
competition – both in heats and for sponsorship dollars – gets intense pretty quickly.
Large contracts are still awarded to a tiny
number of mega talents but most become
battlers who patch together smaller deals
or, like Callum Robson, work actual jobs
to pay their way.
Throughout much of his junior career,
Oscar has had the support of a major surf
brand and the hope/expectation that it
would turn into a major contract to support
a tour campaign. That didn’t happen. There
were no sour grapes on Oscar’s behalf but it
did leave him in a bit of a bind as to how to
progress his surfing.
Maybe it was time to put pro dreams aside,
buy that Ute, and start building holiday
homes? There are many thousands of things
worse than being a surfer/tradie in Pacific
Palms, but there was still some sponsor
coin in the bank – enough for maybe one
more throw of the dice.
“I had a comp coming up in Krui (Sumatra,
Indonesia). Last year the waves were sick
around the event but not so great for the
actual contest and I didn’t go that well. I
was entered and booked to go again this

0 28

“Word reached
Julian Wilson at
the headquarters
of his nascent
brand Rivvia, that
Oscar Salt was
soon to be riding
boards without
endorsement
stickers.”

year but I was also thinking about backing
myself to chase good, uncrowded waves,
showcase my freesurfing and look for a
brand that would support that direction.”

Getting expertly filmed while fizzing out
of perfect tubes at Rags Right and Green
Bush, “Turned out to be heaps more beneficial than doing another comp,” says Oscar.

Not that young Salty is done with competition just yet. He comes from a sporty family
of high achievers with western Sydney
roots and English blood (granddad played
for English Premier League Team, Southampton). He’s still very much into highperformance surfing and winning heats.
His favourite surfers include Ethan Ewing,
The Krui 5000 comp happened to coin- Griffin Colapinto, Noa Deane, Dane Reyncide with a Mentawai boat trip planned by olds and Mick Fanning. So we’re unlikely
a bunch of local Palms surfers. Weeks out, to see him combining mid-length arcs with
there was still a spot on the Mangalui and ground-breaking facial hair any time soon.
the boys were encouraging Oscar to ditch
the comp and join the boat. Simultane- “I’m still hungry, I still want to win,” says
ously, distant stars were aligning. Phone Oscar. “But after doing a few film trips
calls were being made by industry movers when I joined up with LSD Surfboards a
and shakers. Word reached Julian Wilson few years ago it opened my eyes that comps
at the headquarters of his nascent brand aren’t everything. Surfing the best waves of
Rivvia, that Oscar Salt was soon to be your life and putting together a good edit is
riding boards without endorsement stick- as good as winning a comp.”
ers.
That noted, putting together a good surf
A decision was quickly made. Days before edit is more difficult than you might
joining the boat trip Oscar received confir- imagine. There used to be more room
mation from Julian that he was on the team, for specialists in the freesurfing universe:
and a pack of Rivvia gear was expressed technical aerialists, big wave maniacs, leftto his house. Oscar quickly organised a field experimenters. But more recently the
filmer, Jez, from Ollie Pop Media, to join best freesurfers seem to do it all: charge
him on the boat and then he was off on his mega slabs, land crazy airs, discover new
first freesurfing trip which just happened waves, and ride everything while oozing
to look a lot like an awesome surf holiday. style and charisma.
To do the Krui comp would have been
expensive. “When you add up flights,
accommodation, entry fees, mandatory
WSL insurance, and everything else it
might end up costing you six grand. And
you could get knocked after one heat.
That’s the game I guess,” says Oscar.

CROSS
ROADS
Previous: A subtle body twist and perfect
balance underpin the stylish, hands-free
approach. Below: Simply getting tubed is
an important part of Oscar’s new brief.

“The first surf I
had with Noa, I
was out there for
four hours and
Noa surfed for
seven or eight
hours. Everyone
was asking him
to come in by the
end. But that’s
what you want
from a freesurfer.
You want
someone who’ll
surf all day.”

Oscar is keen for it all including a stab
at the mighty Shipstern’s Bluff. He got a
big lesson in freesurfing finesse when he
joined LSD stable-mate, Noa Deane, on
a film trip to the NSW north coast a few
years back. “All laughs aside, there’s definitely a serious side to it,” says Oscar. “It’s
your job. You’ve got to get clips to make
money. The first surf I had with Noa, I was
out there for four hours and Noa surfed
for seven or eight hours. Everyone was
asking him to come in by the end. But
that’s what you want from a freesurfer. You
want someone who’ll surf all day.”

he is humble which is simply superb as he
takes it all in his stride. He comes from a
great social and sporting family, which is
very relevant. To me, he fits in somewhere,
historically and finesse-wise, between
Simon Anderson and Michael Ho.”

When Tracks caught up with Oscar the
deal with Rivvia was newly settled and talk
of trips and adventures was on the cards.
Julian Wilson welcomed him onto the new
team with an enthusiastic endorsement:
“Oscar is so solid in all kinds of waves
and has a crazy artillery of turns and airs.
Follow Oscar if you’re a fan of good, stylIn the competitive, small pond lineups ish creative surfing.”
around Pacific Palms Oscar’s grown into
a sizey pelagic without getting a big head. It’s still unclear exactly what the future
Not a small achievement. Local legend, holds but Oscar seems to have landed in
big-wave surfer and snake charmer, Gary a pretty sweet spot. He did really well on
Hughes, is a big fan. “Oscar is as good as that boat trip. Scored great waves. Banked

0 32

sick footage. Currently, he’s working for
a local carpenter who has a relaxed attitude to punctuality if the surf ’s cranking.
There’s a family trip to Europe coming
up in September-October, and definitely,
a bunch of Rivvia team trips and some
comps in-between.
“Chase some waves, get barrelled, hang out
with the boys, go on a few surf trips,” is
how Oscar sees the year unfolding.
Sounds like a plan.

.

Photo: Jesse Little

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LAURA
ENEVER:
LUST
FOR
LIFE
There isn’t much Laura won’t take on.
Written by Luke Kennedy

It’s a Tuesday morning in Sydney when
Laura Enever floats through the front
door of the Tracks office; spring-heeled
in platform sneakers, a whip of blonde
hair trailing a genuine smile.
the couch, where Laura folds comfortably “Chris could have trained to be on one of
the Olympic squads. He was a gun. He
into a seated Lotus.
would win all the State Titles and everyLaura explains that by the time she was thing and come home with like 10 medals.”
eight, her and older brother, Chris, were
immersed in gymnastics; 30 hours a week of Despite their gymnastics prowess, the call
somersaults, backflips and vaults, travelling of the nearby North Narrabeen lineup
Laura is catching up for our Tracks podcast to tournaments and smashing through the became too strong and both Laura and
but has the fleeting air of one in a constant challenging grading system. When Laura Chris eventually quit the mats to make way
state of motion. Tonight she’s heading struggled to show the perfect, parallel-leg for more water time. However, the goodto Sydney’s Enmore Theatre for a film form required by the gymnastics judges natured rivalry with Chris helped accelerpremiere. A girl’s night out in a part of town she’d spend her nights on the couch, rest- ate Laura’s learning curve in the surf. “We
that heaves with urban energy. Tomorrow ing telephone books on her lap to straighten both started surfing together. We just surfed
she will be on a plane to Tahiti for commen- out her legs. Meanwhile, the last thing she every morning and afternoon and got very
tary duties; centre-stage against a backdrop saw before falling asleep were the gymnas- competitive with each other,” explains
of tropical mountains and hissing barrels as tics posters plastered on her wall. “I feel Laura. “We did so many of the same sports.
she probes competitors for insights on their like it gave me a sort of fearlessness,” she I basically wanted to do everything that he
winning performances. Self-assured and insists. “By the time I was like eight we were did. I did touch football as well and wanted
charismatic, Laura seems to have no diffi- doing, you know, massive somersaults and to play rugby, but dad was like, ‘No, you’re
going dancing’.”
culty living large and transitioning between tumbling…”
all these different worlds.
While Laura was good she’s quick to point
So where did all that bulletproof confidence out she wasn’t a shade on older brother
come from I can’t help but wonder as we hit Chris (who later become her surfing coach)

As Laura slips into easy banter about
her day, it’s hard to imagine the effervescent figure skipping down the hallway
is the same person who earlier this year
hauled herself over the ledge on a genuine
25-footer at a Hawaiian Outer Reef.

0 34

LAURA
ENEVER:
LUST FOR LIFE
Previous: The ethereal presence belies
a surfer who is hard-wired for big-wave
challenges. Photo: Be Ryder • Top: Young
Laura goes beyond deep as she ducks and
weaves a toothy-looking, Micronesian lip.
Photo: Swilly • Bottom: Laura locked in at
P-Pass as a roaring foam ball tries to run her
down. Photo: Swilly

As far as Laura’s predilection for heavy
waves goes, Chris suggests the signs were
there from an early age when they would
compete in big surf at Surf Life Saving
events. “She’s always had the full adrenaline junkie vibe. She was just a real go
getter.”

“That’s when I
thought this girl’s
wasted on tour. No
one on the women’s
tour charges like
this.” – Swilly

if she was ready to become a full-time
professional. “I remember sort of feeling
like I don’t even really know, I had a good
group of friends and maybe I just want to
be a normal 18-year-old.”

Whatever reservations Laura may have
had, the winning streak continued into her
When Laura and Chris started taking part first CT event at Snapper Rocks, where
in the ultra-competitive North Narra- she scythed past Steph Gilmore en route
been Boardriders Club she signed up for to a semi-finals finish. Without breaking
the boys division. According to Chris her a sweat, 18-year-old Laura Enever was
obvious talent wasn’t always well received. number three in the world. Then things
“She stopped doing them because she got a little tougher. “I couldn’t make a heat
started beating a bunch of the boys and for the next six comps after that,” she says
they would all just storm off the beach, matter of factly. “Then the pressure just
started tumbling down. I was like, ‘Okay,
saying this is ridiculous.”
this is what it feels like to be stressed’.”
Despite years of working on good form in
gymnastics, Laura wasn’t exactly enam- Laura held her spot on tour for the next
oured by her style on a board. “I wasn’t seven years, but by her own admission it
actually one of the very best surfers when was never an easy ride. “I finished 10th
I was younger, I was a bit awkward,” she on tour I think six times out of my seven
states honestly. “I was kind of like a little years on tour. And so I was very consistent
grasshopper.” However, by the time Laura at coming number 10 which is also the cut
turned 16 she’d smoothed out the kinks off for the bubble, so you can imagine how
in her act; setting up one of those bliss- stressful that was every year.” Looking
ful runs of competitive success that every back, Laura admits that she loved being
sports person spends their career trying to in an environment that pushed her surfrecreate. Victory in the ISA World Juniors ing but perhaps lacked the ruthless streak
was followed by an ASP World Junior title required to be a genuine title contender. “I
in front of a roaring home crowd at Narra- just didn’t feel like I was ever as competibeen and by the time she was celebrat- tive as the other girls were. And I just, yeah,
ing her 18th birthday Laura had, in her probably got a bit distracted along the way,
own words, ‘accidentally qualified for the but just didn’t really ever feel like I ever
wanted to truly be World Champion.”
World Tour.’
Success had come easily, without Laura
compromising her happy-go-lucky nature
or experiencing the kind of intense pressure often associated with young athletes.
Still, when she qualified, Laura wondered

0 36

While Laura’s competitive interest waned
she found herself increasingly focused on
riding waves of consequence. In 2016 she
chased the purple, forecast blobs to Fiji
and P-Pass between events. Stranded for

a day on a layover en route to P-Pass she
wrangled a sky-diving jump to kill the
time and whet the adrenal glands. When
she arrived the swell was eight-to-12 feet
and a heavy-duty cast had assembled to
have their piece of the cross-chopped
double-ups imploding over nasty coral
heads. Asher Pacey, Alex Gray, Jay Davies,
Davey Cathels and Mikey Wright were
all on hand as Laura paddled out as the
lone girl in the lineup. Simon Williams
was behind the camera and recalls being
blown away by her approach. “That’s
when I thought this girl’s wasted on tour.
No one on the women’s tour charges like
this.”
Laura’s bold escapades didn’t go unnoticed and as the CT year was winding up
big wave commissioner Pete Mel tapped
Laura on the shoulder and invited her to
compete in the inaugural woman’s Pe’ahi
Challenge at Jaws. The way Laura remembers it Pete assured her the girls would
be surfing 15-foot, whistle-clean Jaws. “I
typed into YouTube 15-foot glassy Jaws,
and then I watched a few waves, and I was
like, you know what I could do that.” The
waiting period stretched for months but
three weeks after receiving the invitation
Laura was on a plane to Maui as a giant,
early season swell aimed at the Hawaiian
Islands and the event was given the green
light. She had no boards (they’d been
ordered but hadn’t been made in time)
and only a few weeks of breath training
under her belt. “I wished it was three
months,” recalls Laura. “But I mean, in
three weeks, I got my breath hold up to
about three and a half minutes and did all
these really cool, sort of underwater activities where you just simulate a wipeout.”

LAURA
ENEVER:
LUST FOR LIFE

“The amount of
floggings she’s had
it’d be enough to
make any normal
sane person hang
up the boots. But,
you know, she kept
persevering.”

Opposite: Big waves may be her main
agenda but Laura always has a twinny in the
boot for the fun days. Photo: Be Ryder

Scan and listen
to Laura on the
Tracks podcast

Luckily Greg Long leant her a board
(about three feet longer and much girthier
than anything she’d ridden before) and
Billabong supplied an infl ation vest, but
no amount of equipment could stop the
self-doubting dialogue in her brain. “I had
the biggest sense of impostor syndrome
when I went to the fi rst safety meeting.
Because yeah, I mean, a few days before, I
was literally like changing my mind every
hour. I was like, ‘okay, I’m gonna go’ then
I was like, ‘No, you’re not going’. Ultimately, Laura told herself this was her best
chance of getting a wave at Jaws because
her confidence would be bolstered by the
team of safety people on hand.
When the day of the contest rolled around
the girls were sent out in a rising 20-footplus swell with vicious winds clawing at
the lips and chattering the giant faces. It
was certainly not the 15-feet dreamscape
Pete Mel had promised. On Laura’s first
wave she was fully committed, taking
off under the lip on a pitching giant that
offered almost no entry point. She got
to her feet but was caught in the violent
updraft and hovered like a fluttering leaf
for a few frightening seconds before being
sucked through the back. Brother Chris,
was in the channel watching and despite
his unrelenting confi dence in his sister’s
ability, he couldn’t help but be concerned.
“There’s defi nitely times where you close
your eyes a bit. That first wave at Jaws was
one of the biggest waves paddled all day by
a man or a woman and I was sitting next
to Kerrzy and JJ and said, ’Did she just go
over the falls on a 30-footer?’ I was shaking
my head going, ‘What the f*%k?’ Then the

0 39

act. “She’s made of titanium or something,” insists Chris. “The amount of
floggings she’s had it’d be enough to make
any normal sane person hang up the boots.
On wave number two, Laura stuck a free- But, you know, she kept persevering.”
fall drop only to see good friend, Flick
Parmateer roaring down the face a few feet In addition to showcasing Laura’s surfing
inside her. Laura hit the eject button, got ‘Undone’ deals honestly with the inherent
collected by the lip and then rolled by the challenges of being a big-wave surfer. “All
next set. “The set on the head just ripped these things, you know that could happen
my MCL (medial cruciate ligament) in will happen,” chuckles Laura. “You could
half,” she refl ects. “Detonated my knee be in the middle of the desert. And one
just from the sheer power of it rag doll- of the tyres goes up in fl ames and then
you have to get the Jet Ski towed for
ing me.”
like $3,000 for hundreds of kilometres.”
Still flush with adrenaline Laura had every When this happens, we see how Laura’s
intention of surfing the final but as she sat impromptu flair for the camera helps turn
on the boat, the pain kicked in and the a soul-crushing mishap into a moment of
severity of her injury became apparent. humorous relief.
“The longer I sat in the boat, the more my
knees started, like just blowing up. And I ‘Undone’ culminates with a return to Jaws,
was like, okay, okay, I think you’ve actually where Laura successfully paddles into and
rides a couple of bombs; the perfect elixir
done something really bad now.”
for the bad memories associated with her
It was perhaps an unceremonious begin- ill-fated contest appearance at the same
ning to a competitive big-wave career but, wave. “I think that’s where I felt the most
while the injury hampered Laura’s CT act, empowered,” explains Laura. “When I
it only reaffirmed her desire to ride bigger finally got that wave at Jaws again. And I
waves. By the end of the following year she realised that I paddled into this wave, and
had told her major sponsors, Billabong no one even called me to go, I just identishe was ditching competition and chas- fi ed the wave got myself in the spot and
ing swells. When they approved, Laura then got myself down the face. And like
threw herself at the challenge with trade- those feelings of being able to do that is,
mark verve. Sessions at Shipsterns, The yeah, where I definitely felt like the most
Right and various South Coast bommies proud of myself.”
soon followed and the upshot was Laura’s
highly entertaining film ‘Undone’. The Quizzed further about the appeal of riding
film doesn’t hide from the fact that Laura big waves, Laura insists that she’s hooked
took more than her fair share of licks in on the state of mind she fi nds herself in
her quest to become a bona fide big-wave when surrounded by all that ocean energy.
next one she got rag-dolled for like 400
metres and I was worried, but then she
came back out with a smile on her face.”

LAURA
ENEVER:
LUST FOR LIFE

“Laura was
convinced no one
had seen the wave
and didn’t want
to overplay it but
answered honestly.
“I got the biggest
wave I’ve ever
caught in my life,
but I really don’t
know how big it
was.”

Opposite: Laura takes a drop to infinity on
the giant, Outer-Reef wave some are calling
the biggest swell ever paddled into by a
woman. Photo: Russo

“When I was in a heat it was so hard for me
to stay extremely focused for a whole 30
minutes. But when I go out when it’s really
big, it’s like you’re on that whole time…
It’s like the most like calm and focused
version of myself that I’ve ever been able
to know, which is the attraction, right?
You literally don’t think about anything
else in the world. You’re so present in the
moment… it’s like, I just love it so much…
even if you just get a wipeout in one of
the sessions, it’s like the adrenaline rush is
insane. You know, like feeling that power
of the ocean. And then obviously getting a
wave is just like an even better adrenaline
rush.”
As Chris explains, the carefree, fun-loving
Laura you see on land becomes a different person in big seas. “When you actually kind of really see her in that element,
she’s completely different. You know, she’s
so focused, she’s got her eye in, and she
understands the ocean really well… she’s
just willing to put herself in positions that
most normal people don’t want to, and
you only really see that when you’re in the
lineup with her.”
While Laura does a good job of articulating the endorphin-popping, psychological appeal of riding big waves, sometimes
people just want to know you rode the
biggest wave. That chance arrived in the
form of a cloud-tickling North Shore outer
reef session on the same day The Eddie
Aikau Invitational ran in January 2023.
After scouting a few spots that morning
Laura and Flick Parmateer were tipped off
about a formidable wave that was working.
When they arrived the distant lineup was

0 40

shrouded in mist and six boards – most
of them broken – washed up as the two
friends stood on shore contemplating a go
out. Then a shell-shocked surfer stumbled
in, talking with wide-eyed fright about the
biggest wave he’d ever seen in his life landing on his head.

grabbing my rail and taking the drop, and
the drop just felt like forever.”

Laura knifed a rail long enough to make
it to the wave’s base and initiate a bottom
turn before the cascading lip proved too
fierce an obstacle to drift around. The
ensuing wipeout sent her deep and tossed
When they reached the lineup, Laura her up close to shore, where she watched
recalls big-wave aficionado Jojo Roper, the rest of the pack get washed in by the
who was on a ski in the channel, offered 30-foot set that had broken behind the
some sage advice. “He said ‘If you keep wave she rode. Privately content with her
watching it, you just won’t want to go out’. one massive wave, she came in. Walking up
And he’s like, just go over there and just the beach a few of the surfers heading out
asked her if she got any waves. Laura was
see how you go.”
convinced no one had seen the wave and
The first thing Laura recalls seeing was didn’t want to overplay it but answered
someone jump from the lip of a top-to- honestly. “I got the biggest wave I’ve ever
bottom 25-footer. The waves were not just caught in my life, but I really don’t know
huge, but the gradient looked as steep as how big it was.”
giant Pipe. “I was like well, okay, it’s like
also a barrelling slab,” explains Laura. It wasn’t ‘til a week and a half later that
“And it looks like you have to do like the documentation emerged. “Dan Russo sent
most technical drop in the world to like, me a photo. And then I found a video of
it,” recalls Laura. The wave soon became
get in there.”
the talking point of the surfing world.
Eventually, Laura identified that some of Suddenly people were tapping her on the
the sets swinging wider offered a slightly shoulder and sending messages, while
easier entry point, so she took her position social media went into algorithmic fits.
in the lineup and waited. Sure enough the Until then it was just a vivid memory in
Pacific sent a test her way. “There was no Laura’s mind and a story to tell without
one telling me to go no one was like really anything to back it up – the proverbial
saying anything,” recalls Laura. I just tree falling in the forest. However, almost
don’t know what came over me, but when immediately it was being discussed as
it came I was like, “I’m just gonna put possibly the biggest wave ever paddled by
my head down and paddle. I remember a woman. Asked for his view on the ride,
paddling my heart out. I just felt it picked brother Chris suggests that while Laura is
me up and then I knew it was big and I fully prepared and committed she never
took off and looked down. I was like ‘wow’, would have paddled out thinking specifithis is the biggest wave you’ve ever been cally about catching a record-setting wave.
on like this is this is wild. And I started like “It’s classic Laura out in the surf, you know,

LAURA
ENEVER:
LUST FOR LIFE
Below: Laura, and a straight-up charge at
big OTW. Photo: Moran

“It’s apparent Laura
regularly puts
herself out there;
blasts through
the comfort zones
and embraces
the vulnerability
and growth that
comes from new
experiences and
situations.”

in her bouncy stride, resonating confidence
when offering opinions on former peers or
fronting the camera for WSL spin-offs like
her tour Vlog. “I have to really concentrate
on not swearing on the webcast, like not
Meanwhile, Laura is quick to play down the saying f$%k,” she says with a chuckle. “But
conquest. “Anyway, it’s like a total accident. I love telling the women’s stories on tour.”
And if it did so happen to be that I caught
the biggest paddle-wave by a woman it’d Like all sponsored surfers Laura is under
be very cool, but yeah, it feels pretty weird a certain amount of pressure to maintain
a visible presence. It’s a competitive landactually.”
scape, but one that offers scope for creativBeyond conquering outer-reefs in Hawaii ity. Laura hints that in her next career
and chasing swells around the globe, Laura phase she would like to join the likes of
has also carved out a post-CT career as a Jamie O’Brien and Nathan Florence and
WSL commentator. It’s a role that in many get her own YouTube series rolling. “I
ways carries more pressure than being a think the cool thing about life is that you
competitor. Keyboard slappers and fans are can constantly evolve and recreate youroften quick to pass judgement on the voices self,” she offers philosophically. It’s worth
of pro-surfing, and it would be easy to feel mentioning that Laura killed the boredom
your performance is being scrutinised as in COVID by teaching herself a few tunes
closely as the surfers on tour. However, the on the trumpet. “I can play Uptown Funk,”
perpetually plucky Laura seems to take it all she assures me. There was also a surprising
just having a crack and having a dig. And
then next thing you know, she ends up
standing up on one of the biggest waves
ever paddled by a woman.”

0 42

fringe benefit to her bugle playing. “I actually noticed when I did my trumpet lessons
and I’d go and do underwater breath holds
it was so much better.”
In an era where many feel ruled by fear of
failure or the whims of social media metrics,
it seems Laura Enever gives us license to
take a few risks. “The only thing we can
do is just give it a try and do what feels
right and trust your instincts. Really trust
your gut,” she offers sagely. Whether hurling herself over the ledge on 30-foot waves
or throwing herself unscripted in front of
a camera, it’s apparent Laura regularly
puts herself out there; blasts through the
comfort zones and embraces the vulnerability and growth that comes from new
experiences and situations. As a writhing
Iggy Pop once roared she’s got ‘a lust for
life’.

.

Find out more today

REIZIGER.COM

SCAN CODE
TO PERFECT
YOUR CRAFT

THE INDO
MOTORCYCLE
DIARIES:
CHAPTER II
On the job in Bali and dialling in a board with Jim Banks.
Written & photographed by Tom de Souza

I arrive at the Indonesian bengkel, or
mechanic workshop, with a long list of
repairs.
“Why do you have to put that aside when “Salah ini, bos ku!” yells Agung.
you’re at work”
Wrong part, boss.
Agung is originally from Lombok, he says,
and has been in Bali for the past seven years. Things are usually pretty easy in IndoneHe moved here for work and new experi- sia. Hungry at 3am? It’s almost guaranteed
ence, an Indonesian concept known as there will be a warung open within 100
merantau, or to wander. He sends much of metres of you. Run out of fuel? Last time
his salary back to his wife and kids back I did, two Indonesians stopped and were
The mechanic, Agung, wrestles it inside home in Praya, Lombok, and returns back with a plastic bottle of petrol before
the small workshop up the top of the usually once per year for family events or I had the chance to finish a cigarette. They
even refused payment for it.
Bingin hill. He jacks it up on a stand, his religious holidays.
friend, Putu, watching and squatting and
“As an Indonesian it is difficult for us to Only, when things aren’t easy, they’re
smoking in the back of the workshop.
visit foreign countries, and the salary and usually very, very difficult. And right now,
Putu doesn’t work here. It’s his day off, he opportunities in the village is very small. I have this sinking inhibition that this is
says, and he’s just come to hang out at his So we move around within our own coun- going to be one of those occasions.
friend’s workshop. For Putu and Agung, try.”
Agung squats down the back with Putu and
like many Indonesian people, there is
no real demarcation between work and Agung removes a split-pin and unbolts the calls two parts’ shops. An hour later, we’re
two axle nuts. Putu belts the axle out with still squatting, waiting on a response from
leisure.
a wrench, and the sprocket with all its worn them. Jam karet, says Agung. Rubber time,
“It’s important to be happy and enjoy every teeth clatters down onto the floor. Agung measured not in minutes or hours but cigarettes and cups of coffee.
holds up the new sprocket to the old one.
moment,” says Putu.
Brighter front lights, new chain and front
and rear sprockets. Plugging the oil leak
where the tacho cable has snapped off.
Tightening the idle screw so it doesn’t
stall in traffic. Muffling that roaring lookat-me exhaust. A lot to prepare before this
four-month solo motorbike trip across the
entire eastern Indonesian archipelago.

0 44

THE INDO
MOTORCYCLE
DIARIES:
CHAPTER II
Previous: Master craftsman, Jim Banks,
eyeing the rail of a board taking form in his
Bali workshop. Top: A cresting Uluwatu
line carries a rider on a blissful trajectory
down the Bukit peninsular.
Bottom: Local wisdom.

“Today, says Aris, it is the
third week of the month
and things are getting tight.
Most of his monthly threemillion rupiah ($300AUD)
salary has already gone
into paying rent for the
boarding-house room he
shares with his wife and a
25kg bag of rice.”

You must accept that this is how things
work in Indonesia. Ever ything takes
time. The moment you hurry and try to
force things you’re swimming against
tide, battling the natural order of flow,
and everything that can go wrong will go
wrong.

a penjor, a big looping bamboo pole
adorned with yellow and white cloth and
coconut and sugarcane leaves. It’s Hari
Raya Galungan today, a Balinese Hindu
celebration. Each one of these penjor
stand as a monument to the victory of
truth in its ongoing battle against evil.

While we wait, an Australian customer
drops off a leaf blower. Agung examines
the machine. He removes the spark plug
and checks the coil, and when he sees
there is spark he starts stripping it down,
unbolting the carburettor and fuel pump.
Agung can’t quite understand what the
machine is for. Blowing leaves? He is
shocked. Why doesn’t he just use a broom?
And where the hell is he going to buy a
replacement for the busted fuel pump?

At the temple Pura Desa, the penjor
stand seven metres tall. Pecalang, traditional village police, stand at the car park
entrance in their udeng headwear and
black vests and chequered black and
white sarongs, two-way radios and keris
daggers tied to their waists. Balinese men
and women and children in traditional
dress amble up and down the temple steps,
some of the women carrying cane baskets
on their heads, filled with offerings and
incense.

Right here, in this broken leaf blower, a
collision of two worlds: Australia with its
pride in machinery and individual ownership, Indonesia, with its beautiful way of
making do with what you’ve got and enjoying the process along the way.

Keep riding, down to the bottom of the
hill, and a different kind of ceremony is
taking place. Bali, a festival of hedonism
with all these young and honey-skinned
international people, eating, drinking,
surfing, cavorting.

After two hours, or two cups of coffee and
five cigarettes, Agung calls his boss, who
says he can get the part.
Why the hell didn’t we try that first?

Out the front of one of these cafes, Aris,
the Sumban parking attendant, is shuffling
motorbikes around the car park. Today,
says Aris, it is the third week of the month
and things are getting tight. Most of his
monthly three-million rupiah ($300AUD)
salary has already gone into paying rent for
the boarding-house room he shares with his
wife and a 25kg bag of rice, and the money
he sends back to Sumba helps his parents
look after his son and improve their home.
Now, there’s just a little left for food and
petrol. And of course, cigarettes; an Indo
man will go without food before he goes
without smokes.

Aris knows the humility of the struggle
and he’s happy to be here. After all, it
could always be better, it could always be
worse. Like that first job on a construction
site, mixing cement and carting materials,
Bali is a place where people come to breaking his body for 30K rupiah ($3AUD)
distract themselves, or so says the sticker per day. Like the floor of the room in that
on the rear windscreen of the Toyota first boarding house he shared with four
Kijang: I DON’T NEED THERAPY, I friends, sleeping and cooking together to
JUST NEED TO GO TO BALI. Some stretch out his monthly 300K ($30AUD)
of them never leave, choosing to drift salary with a cleaning service in Denpasar.
through the good life in their own kind of
version of Peter Pan’s Neverland.

He tells me to transfer him the money and
an extra fee for delivery and that he’ll be
there soon. With a little bit of patience, a
smile, and some cash in your wallet there You can usually pick the ones who have
is no problem too intractable in Indonesia. been here a while. The post-COVID ex-pat
is no longer that leathery old cynic in a
Riding down the hill, and on the streets Bintang singlet, but the gorgeous yoga
outside ever y Balinese home stands teacher in activewear. The spiritual healer

0 46

in a long flowy dress carrying a street dog
with a collar slapped on it in the footwell of
her N-Max scooter. The fit young bloke in
designer sunglasses and a linen shirt and
leather sandals, working from his laptop in
the cafe.

“Jim agrees to shape
me augly
board
for
“the
concrete
the trip. I cascading
ask for
buildings
a 6’1 twin have
fin, just
favela-like
a little all-rounder
become
an eyesore,
to
complement
rendering it into
the 6’9 Phil Myers
‘Nightmare-Land’.”
10-channel single
fin tube-shooter.
Jim decides to
shape me a 6’5 twin
keel.”

THE INDO
MOTORCYCLE
DIARIES:
CHAPTER II
Top: Banksy chasing glory at giant Padang
in his Indo pioneering days.
Bottom: A refined, local matriarch reflects
on a life given meaning by Hindu ritual,
family and a love of Bali.

Scan to watch
Tom’s clip from
this trip.

“That job was actually good though,” he
says. “We were working in a hotel, and in
the kitchen they couldn’t keep the bread
for longer than a day. After 11 at night, we
could go and take a bag. I used to load up
a huge sack and bring it home and share it
with all my friends. That one was a good job.
Never went hungry at that one,” he smiles.
Then there was the squidding boat he
worked for a year in the waters off Maluku,
fishing at night, eating only instant noodles
and fish, showering with shampoo and
seawater. Still, the salary was alright, says
Aris; 600k per month, and it helped him
save some money to buy a motorbike, find
a wife, and put himself through the monthlong security course to get this job here as
security.
He chose this area because this is a tourist
area and sometimes here you just get lucky.
Usually, it happens on the 7pm-7am night
shift. Last month, one Friday at 4am
a drunken tourist stumbled out from a
nearby club and vomited all over the car
park he was guarding. Aris went to help him
and grabbed a hose to start cleaning up the
mess.
“Sorry! Sorry!” said the tourist, opening up
his wallet and gifting Aris a 100k rupiah
note.
“100k!” says Aris. “I couldn’t believe it.
Do it again, I thought. Drink more water.
Again!”
I tell Aris about my upcoming journey to
eastern Indonesia and ask him what it’s like
back at home there in Sumba.

0 48

“It’s primitive. There isn’t a lot of education there. In my village, we don’t have
power or lights. If you camp in the village
you need to bring everything yourself. A
tent or hammock. Water, rice, tinned food.
You cook outside on the open fire. The
people will welcome you, but you have to
be prepared.”

“the emptiness of winning”, instead spending the next four decades exploring the
archipelago and getting tubed, often on his
own.

“Looking back, it was probably the most
committed surf exploration ever undertaken by an individual. I dedicated myself
to mapping out the whole coast, really
Keep riding, across the Padang Padang exploring it from top to bottom,” he says.
bridge and into the disappearing jungle
of Uluwatu, nail guns and angle grinders “I just wanted to get barrelled. Everything
drowning out the gamelan and gongs. The revolved around getting barrelled. And the
road lined with cafes and restaurants and more remote the wave, the more barrels I
villas and wellness centres, nary a local got, the more focused I could be. Surfing
warung in sight. Walking into Uluwatu car alone is completely pure. There is absolute
park, there goes another sunburned Euro- and total focus on the surf. No distractions.
pean with booties and rash guard and mini- Back then, Indonesia was a pretty good
Mal tucked clumsily under arm. Another place for that.”
surfer, stretching, wearing a Gath helmet
and flotation vest and eight-foot gun under I show Jim the freshly cleaned and serviced
his arm, never mind that the waves are only bike, ask him for a few cryptic hints, pointers in the right direction. He’s taciturn, more
a touch over head-high.
in a humble way than cynical, tight-lipped.
On the really big days, when the Uluwatu
Bombie breaks way outside, Jim Banks can “There are still quality uncrowded waves out
see the lineup littered with some of these there under the radar. Some of them are
surfers from the back veranda of his house. pretty fickle. But there’s still some if you
In the past 15 years he’s watched quietly really want them. You know, you can still go
as its grown more chaotic and competi- somewhere and surf by yourself if you really
tive. He’s seen much of that change spread want to,” he says.
across the archipelago and its world-class
waves, some of which he played a role in Jim agrees to shape me a board for the
trip. I ask for a 6’1 twin fin, just a little allpioneering.
rounder to complement the 6’9 Phil Myers
2023 is Jim’s 46th season in Indonesia. He 10-channel single fin tube-shooter. Jim
first arrived in 1977 as naïve youth rising decides to shape me a 6’5 twin keel. I watch
the ranks of a nascent professional surfing as he shapes the board from his factory in
circuit. Four years later, he won the Bali Kerobokan, running a piece of fi ne wireOm Pro at Uluwatu. He took his trophy mesh screening over the beaked nose, the
and turned his back on competition and rails and the pintail.

THE INDO
MOTORCYCLE
DIARIES:
CHAPTER II
Below: Banksy has been shaping for over
50 years and is still absorbed by the idea of
building a better surfboard.

“When I married
the Vee with the
concave, I found
I had such a huge
bandwidth of
options in what
turn I wanted to do
off the top.”

“I actually don’t like twin fins,” he says. “I “You could look at this and say, ‘well that’s
find they lack drive and control, and a lot of a concave vee. People were making them
people put channels in the bottom of them back in the 70s. Which is a valid argument.
to try and compensate for that. One thing Call it a concave vee, but it doesn’t surf like
a lot of people don’t understand is that the one. There is something going on here that
twin keel is an entirely different board to a is a bit more profound,” he says.
twin fin. The thing with the keel is that all
the driving stability comes from the length “We’ve all been surfing concave boards for
of the fin base. These have a 13-inch fin so long. As I started developing this bottom
base, and actually give you more fin base contour, one of the things I realised is
that concaves are actually very unfriendly.
than a standard thruster.”
They’re sticky, slower, tend to sit flat and
He flips the board over in the stand, hold- lock you into a particular arc.
ing it up for a moment to squint down the
strangle line and examining the curves in “When I married the Vee with the concave,
I found I had such a huge bandwidth of
its deep double concave vee bottom.

0 50

options in what turn I wanted to do off
the top. This all goes against conventional
wisdom, but as far as I’m concerned this
bottom contour coupled with the twin-keel
is the biggest breakthrough in my boards
for the past 25 years.”
Jim messages me a week later to tell me the
board is ready. There it is, on the day bed
on his wooden veranda, wrapped in bubblewrap, sprayed purple with white pinstripes
running down the sides. He watches as I
strap it to the surf rack on the side of my
bike and wishes me a good trip.

.

EASY
SLIDER
Blair Conklin is an ocean multi-instrumentalist, playing a rare tune
that has united all the surfing tribes.
Written by Ben Mondy

You’ve probably never heard of
Combesgate Beach in North Devon.
After all, the golden sand and shingle
shoreline nestled in the crook of the
Morthoe Headland, disappears every
high tide.
However, in 2022, as the 24-feet bulge of
high tide drained off the shingles, Blair
Conklin stood on the sand, surrounded
by a gaggle of first-time skimboarding
kids, starstruck UK surfers, and a clutch
of new mates. It was a trick, if you could
call it that, that he would repeat in stops
in Portugal, Madrid, San Sebastian, and
Hossegor as he screened ‘Easy Slider’, the
first skim movie to come out in nearly a
decade.

floats, Blair’s going to rip it. His alchemy of
skimboarding, surfing, wake and skate has
netted him over 300K Instagram followers and more than 2.2 million subscribers to his YouTube channel Skid Kids. As
a comparison, Jamie O’Brien hasn’t even
cracked a paltry one mill. When Blair
Conklin stands up, and on whatever he
stands up on, people want to watch. The
questions are how, and why?

watermen. Conklin’s mum had been a
keen waterskier, and had competed near
her home of Lake Washington, “Doing
big roosters and going really fast on single
skies,” said Conklin, a trait she has passed
on to her son.

Like most Californians, the beach was
a massive part of the family’s lifestyle.
However, while Laguna is only 15 kilometres from Trestles and less than five kiloConklin grew up a short walk from Laguna metres from iconic surf spot Salt Creek,
At each stop, the blonde-haired 28-year- Beach, in Orange County, California, it lies in the swell shadow of the Channel
old spread the gospel of the new age, located halfway between Los Angeles and Islands. The hilly topography, bluffs, coves,
multi-rider – from skim, boog, to standup San Diego. His dad didn’t surf, but his two and steep beaches that drop off into deep
boog, soft top, thruster, you name it; if it uncles were good surfers and all-round waters, mean decent surf is rare.

0 52

EASY
SLIDER
Previous top: Skim King Blair Conklin takes
shelter beneath the minimalist craft he has
used to launch a brilliant career.
Previous bottom: Friction-free rail grab
beneath the arch of a ‘Newport Wedge’
doing its famous, near-shore slab act.
Top: Blair dramatically framed by the greenlit flare of a hollow sidewinder.
Bottom: Every shorey is a high-altitude
opportunity. Photo: Tyler Brooks

“It’s a whole
subculture that
most Australians
seem to have
missed. And yet
the allure is all too
apparent.”

“I’d always drag my parents down to the
beach and we’d watch the skimboarders,”
Conklin told Tracks. “I’d watch professionals like Bill Bryan slide out to waves and
do these gravity-defying manoeuvres and
as a five-year-old, it was so intriguing, so
I convinced my parents to get me a skimboard.”

steepness of beach, and ideally a wedging
shorebreak, it’s a high-octane sport that
involves athleticism and mixes elements
of surfing, with a bolt of skate and wake
tricks. Boards are relatively cheap, and with
all the action happening a few metres from
the shore, it’s a great spectator sport, and
tailor-made for a beachside peanut gallery.

Now in Australia, skimboarding exists in
isolated pockets, mainly centred on the
Mornington Peninsula and Perth. With no
professional events and few pro athletes, it
is largely seen as a kid’s sport, or holiday
plaything with little or no cultural credibility.

Given a skimboard by his uncles aged
five, Conklin quickly adapted to the sport
and had a real talent for it. Bill ‘Beaker’
Bryan, the skimboarder he watched as a
gobsmacked kid, was pivotal over the next
10 years as Blair developed into the world’s
best.

“In Laguna though, it is at the beating heart
of the community,” explains Conklin. “It
was where skimboarding started in the
1930s when lifeguards used skimboards to
get from tower to tower as a form of transportation. That developed into wave riding,
and then specialist shapers. The first skimboard manufacturer started here in the late
1970s and is still in existence today. The
VIC, known as the World Championship of
the sport, has been held here at Aliso Beach
for more than 40 years.”

Bryan was well ahead of his time. In 2001,
I remember walking from the then Tracks
office in Haymarket to the Sydney Showgrounds to see the first FlowRider in
Australia. As a bunch of invited, pro-surfers
went over the falls, Bryan was getting tubed
for 60 seconds, before launching into a
series of aerials and rotations that I’d never
seen performed on a body of water.

and I think it made him one of the best
boardriders of all time. I remember watching footage of him surfing the Zambesi
River wave almost 20 years ago. It was
revolutionary, no one had done it and he
was doing flips. He’s been a massive influence.”
By the time Conklin was 15, he too was
getting paid to skimboard, displaying the
kind of virtuosity that marked him as a
once-in-a-generation talent. And he may
have carved out a career as a pro- skimboarder, with little cross-over appeal, if
he hadn’t joined the local high school
surf team, primarily as a way to get out of
doing gym, or PE, at school.
“It forced me to paddle,” laughs Blair, “but
also opened up my world and got me into
surfing. I was inspired by guys like John
John Florence, and I wanted to bring that
style to riding waves when I was skimboarding.”

After high school, he moved to San Francisco to complete an Environmental
“Bill was the only one getting good money Science Degree at Berkeley University,
at that time. He was an incredible skim- which provided further ‘straight’ surfboarder and a great surfer who charged big ing experience. He lived at Ocean Beach,
It’s a whole subculture that most Austra- waves. He also shredded on a snowboard where the huge shifting peaks have been a
lians seem to have missed. And yet the and was ambidextrous,” says Conklin. “He proving ground for generations of North
allure is all too apparent. Needing a certain could go from one stance to another easily Californian surfers.

0 54

EASY
SLIDER
Top: Peaking over a body-bending ledge.
Middle: Blair conceding defeat to the
backwash. Photo: Tyler Brooks
Bottom: Young Blair rigs a sled and gets a
whip-in from a couple of keen canines.

“An appearance in
the Stab High event
in 2018 further
amplified his reach,
as his aerial surfing
was on par with
some of the most
progressive surfers
on the planet.”

However, Blair still regularly returned
home to Laguna Beach, not least to
capture three successive World Skimboarding Titles in 2016, 2017, and 2018.
By this stage, the art of skimboarding was
beginning to generate some outside interest from surfers.

His talent neutralised the usual discriminatory instincts of the various surfing
tribes. Hardcore surfers, newbie lid riders,
river hangers and staunch skimboarders
all fell under his spell.

Since then, social media has fur ther
elevated his influence. His performances
“I think the main reason I fell in love with at the Wedge have been a mainstay (some
the ocean from the beginning was because fully clothed and staying dry), but Surf
I loved experimenting with different board Ranch cameos, cross-lake skimming, Cabo
sports. I was just always trying to improve rock acid drops, Waco whips, and ripping
in whatever the heck it was I set my mind ferry waves have made him compulsive
on, be it surfing, bodyboarding, or skim- viewing. It was why kids were lining up for
boarding,” said Conklin, when trying to him to autograph skimboards in Barcelona and Bristol.
assess his crossover appeal.

Serial trickster, Brad Domke was crucial
to skim boarding’s improved street cred
amongst the surfing community. When the
Floridian skimboarded massive waves at
Puerto Escondido in 2014, it was initially
treated by the wider surf public as a novelty
dalliance. It was perhaps more brave than
stupid, but not by much, however over An appearance in the Stab High event
time his surfing skill and courage gained in 2018 further amplified his reach, as
a grudging respect from surfers. 10 years his aerial surfing was on par with some
on, it’s still worth revisiting that landmark of the most progressive surfers on the
Puerto session on YouTube. One wave in planet. While the rest of the high-profile
flyers, like Noa Deane and Chippa Wilson,
particular was fucking huge.
showed up with conventional thrustConklin, however, had a far more natu- ers, Blair arrived at the BSR Surf Resort
ral style. His time at Ocean Beach meant clutching a tiny case carrying a miniature
surfing had bled into his skimboarding. slice of foam. He then proceeded to blow
He kept dropping clips at the Newport up and further carve a space for himself in
Wedge, and his ability to thread barrels, the world of surf.
do kickflips and massive rotations, often
on the same wave and all with an incred- In 2020, he went to back Waco with Mason
ible steeze, made him incredibly watch- Ho and the pair tested four new air settings.
able. The blonde locks, positive vibes and One particular alley-oop, done on a finless
effortless Californian cool image didn’t board, had a legitimate claim to being one
of the biggest, cleanest ever done in a tub.
hurt either.

0 56

“Blair is a straight-up wizard,” said Ho at
the time. “He’s come from nowhere and
blown my tiny mind.”

Blair’s utilisation of self-driving motorised
winches, which are anchored to the shore,
have also been another catalyst for innovation. He has towed a snowboard through
a creek into an ocean and onto a wave,
“Which works surprisingly well; those sharp
rails really dig into the water”, tackled the
North Shore’s infamous Keiki shorebreak
on his skimboard with Koa Smith. “What
Koa called three-to-four-foot Hawaiian,
but what I’d call six-to-eight-feet Conklin,” and was the first to use it at Kalani
Robb’s wave pool in Palm Springs. “It’s
eye-popping what you can do when you hit
an air section at 30 mph in a controlled
environment”. He says the winch allows
him to ride smaller skimboards on bigger
waves, making for more powerful turns.

EASY
SLIDER
Below: While most surfers pin their hopes
on distant lineups, Blair Conklin finds rich
pickings a few feet from the beach. Photo:
Tyler Brooks

And yet if 2022 was evangelical, then
in 2023 he has been preaching to the
converted. A 10-day trip to Alaska with Ben
Gravy, took him out of his comfort zone,
and into the weird wave world, which Gravy
has mined more successfully than any other.

“As surfing has
become less insular,
and more open to
different crafts and
approaches, Blair
has become the
perfect ambassador
for a new, inclusive,
and damn
entertaining way to
ride the ocean.”

and detonating on the shore. Surfingesque
turns and barrels are possible along the
200-metre-long waves, as well as all the
ollies, pop-shuvits, jumps and spins that
skimboarders have in their arsenal.

As surfing has become less insular, and more
open to different crafts and approaches,
“The Brazilians I’d say are producing some Blair has become the perfect ambassador
of the best skimboarders in the world right for a new, inclusive, and damn entertaining
now, said Conklin. “It was so good to soak way to ride the ocean. The future, it seems,
up the energy and see where this sport is is anywhere he wants to take it.
headed.”

He’s also spent time down in Brazil at the
beach of Sununga, which is the Southern
Hemisphere’s version of Laguna. It was
here Brazilians first skimmed on homemade circular disks in the 1950s but have
since adopted the orthodox wave-riding Elsewhere he has been surfing river waves,
models. The swells ricochet off a rocky where he believes finless boards haven’t
headland wall, starting tiny before morph- been used hardly anywhere near enough.
ing through three different wedge sections, He’s also been testing new modules on a
0 58

variety of other wave pools and insists it is
this tech where the most advances will be
made in future years.

.

SURFABOUT ‘79 —
THE GREATEST
SURF SHOW
EVER STAGED
In 1979 Paul Holmes was both Tracks Editor and Contest Director for the 2SM/Coca-Cola Surfabout.
Below he reflects on his fabled call to take the event mobile by plane.
Written by Paul Holmes • Photography by Peter Crawford

Unlike today’s CT events,
rooted to fixed locations by
behemoth infrastructures, the
Sydney-based 2SM/CocaCola was designed to be
nimble; a mobile pro contest
that reflected the way surfers
actually surf – going to the
spot where the best waves are
found on any given day.
On finals day in 1979 that spot just
happened to be hundreds of miles away and
I was the nerve-wracked contest director
under pressure from radio stations and TV
networks to make a call… but more about
that saga in a bit.

legendary surfboard builder and outsized
personality Shane Stedman, who also served
as the Surfabout’s on-site commentator.

Each morning surfers, judges and support
crew would gather early at the North Narrabeen car park for the call. Often it was the
Founded in 1974, two years before the inau- always reliable North Narra that had the
gural World Pro Tour, the Surfabout was best waves on offer and the call would be
the genius idea of newspaperman Graham stay and go. But if Shane’s network of surf
Cassidy. The event married solid sponsor- report spotters up and down the Sydney
ship from Coca-Cola with the media reach coast suggested better waves elsewhere, it
of popular radio station 2SM. Its airwaves was rally time. The whole contingent would
were also host to the daily surf report from pile into cars and vans for a mad dash while

0 60

2SM announced the call on the air ensuring
that a sizeable mob of spectators would be
on hand to watch the action wherever the
show took place.
Over the years Surfabout was held at
beaches as far afield as Avalon, Warriewood
and Manly, and the pointbreaks at Dee
Why and Cronulla. It even ventured south
to Sandon Point. On at least two occasions
it was held way down south at Bendalong
when that was just a stretch of sand at the
end of a dirt road winding between the gums
to the dunes.

THE GREATEST
SURF SHOW
EVER STAGED
Previous top: Still on a high from their
final in the ‘79 Surfabout, Cheyne Horan
and Larry Blair played backgammon on
the chartered plane ride home. Previous
bottom: Groomed, Southern Ocean lines
greeted competitors when the contest
was relocated. Top: In the boldest move
in surf contest history, a squadron of six,
twin-engine Piper Navajo Chieftain aircraft,
was commandeered overnight to fly
competitors and contest staff from Sydney
to Bells. Bottom: A colourful, cliff-top
gallery takes in the spectacle as the amped
competitors wax up.

When the first World Tour got underway
in 1976, Surfabout’s $12,000 prize purse
was the richest on offer. Bells, by contrast,
put up only half that, and Hawaii’s Pipeline Masters a paltry three grand. Surfabout would lead the world in prize
money for almost 10 years. It was also the
only event to maintain a mobile format.
In the early 70s I was an itinerant Pommie
surfer working as a shaper in Brookvale.
Introduced by my friend, Geoff Luton, to
Cassidy, and thus to Rip Curl co-founder,
Doug ‘Claw’ Warbrick, I was hired on as
a judging scribe (recording wave scores)
and then as an actual judge at Bells and
Surfabout – I think because I added a
veneer of internationalism to pro-surfing’s embryonic image. For me it was
pretty amazing to be hanging out with
already legendary surfers and surf industry moguls whose names and pictures
I’d previously only seen in the surf mags.
Not surprisingly, I never returned to Old
Blighty.
By 1977, Burleigh-based The Stubbies
joined Bells and Surfabout as the big
three of the Aussie leg of the World Pro
Tour – and Peter Drouyn’s one-on-one
heat format became the model for events
everywhere but Hawaii. Stubbies had
brought more to pro-surfing than just an

0 62

“Greenough also
came up with the
answer to sound
bites from the
sea. Easy, he said,
in typical GG
fashion, just put
the microphone
in a condom. That
worked. Of course
it did!”

Something else of magnitude was taking
shape too: TCN 9 television wanted to
cover the contest for a six-part sports
documentary series with accomplished
producer, David Hill, at the helm. His
experienced sports camera crew could
easily adapt to shooting surfing from
Towards the end of the year, Graham the beach, gathering interviews, and so
Cassidy was posted to his newspaper’s on. But he wanted the best in action and
London bureau, and he asked me to take interviews from the water too. To that end
over as Surfabout’s contest director. For he hired surf filmmaker, Greg Huglin,
the ’78 event my first objective was to and the already legendary George Greeelevate Surfabout’s on-site presentation. nough for the amphibious camera work.
Being nimble was fine but seeing a row Greenough also came up with the answer
of judges with clipboards squatting on to sound bites from the sea. Easy, he said,
the sand in beach chairs, and a tattered in typical GG fashion, just put the micropop-up tent doubling as shelter for the phone in a condom. That worked. Of
beach marshal and Shane’s rudimentary course it did!
PA system, really didn’t pass muster any
more. I sat down with Coca-Cola’s man- All was shaping up nicely for my debut as
on-the-beach, Peter Wright, to up the ante. a contest director, even to the dramatic
final showdown between two goofy-foots:
The result was a two-storey judging and surf hero Wayne Lynch (a previous Surfcompetitors’ area with massive wrap- about winner) and rookie pro Larry Blair,
around banners sporting a new Surfabout a minor star of an Aussie TV series, The
logo, all erected with clip-together light- Young Doctors. Manly’s North Steyne
weight aluminum scaffolding that could could hardly have provided better surf
be put up in about 40 minutes by our for the best of three heats final—roping
logistics crew headed by George Reid and six- to eight-foot glassy lefthand barrels.
the stalwart lads of the North Narrabeen Lynch won the first. Blair the second. It
Surf Club. Now it looked like something was late in the afternoon and the enormajor was happening when crowds were mous crowd assembled for the decider
were frothing.
summoned by 2SM’s live radio promos.
innovative contest format, it had elevated
the sport to a new level of glitz and glamour, treating contestants and officials to
lavish banquets and staging an amazing event at the natural amphitheatre of
Burleigh Heads.

THE GREATEST
SURF SHOW
EVER STAGED
Top: A suited up Buzzy Kerrbox, and Dane
Kealoha look like excited school-kids as
they pull-up to Bells in the bus.
Bottom: Competitors joust on Rincon
zippers, but the Bowl was where the main
action went down.

“I got on the phone
to see if there were
any options up or
down the coast.
Central Coast? Flat.
Gold Coast? Flat.
South Coast. Flat.
Bells Beach? Ten
feet, offshore and
cranking!”

Suddenly, I noticed David Hill striding
towards me with a very serious expression
on his face: “We can’t shoot this now,” he
said, “We’re losing the light. Can you call it
off until the morning?” I was gob smacked.
An epic final. Glorious, perhaps unprecedented waves, and I was being asked to
call it off for the day? Almost choking, I
took the mic from an equally incredulous
Shane Stedman and said, “That’s all for
today ladies and gentleman please come
back tomorrow to see our surfers battle it
out for the title of 1978 Coca-Cola/2SM
Surfabout champion …” I got out of there,
fast, before I could be lynched, no pun
intended.
I swear I hardly slept a wink that night,
thinking about what the waves would be
like the next day. Would the swell hold?
The wind? The sandbank? I could hardly
believe my luck early the following morning. It was as if nothing had changed overnight. The surf was still reeling. And the
crowd had come back. True, a few people
were skeptical that a young actor from
Maroubra could beat surf icon Wayne

Lynch, but that did not last long. Blair
narrowly bested Lynch to decide the
outcome in a barrel-for-barrel slugfest.

he going to deliver the highly anticipated
follow-up to last year’s award-winning TV
series?

A few months later David Hill and TCN9
won a Logie award for ‘Best Sports Documentary’ of the year. And Blair’s Surfabout victory earned him an invite to the
Pipe Masters in Hawaii which he went on
to win – twice!

I got on the phone to see if there were any
options up or down the coast. Central
Coast? Flat. Gold Coast? Flat. South
Coast. Flat. Bells Beach? Ten feet, offshore
and cranking!

On to 1979. How was I going to top that?
I had no clue what was coming …
We were at Narrabeen for the early rounds
and everything ran according to the playbook in good head-high waves. Then the
surf began to decline in size and power.
Anzac Day fell on a Wednesday that week,
so to satisfy the after-march holiday crowd
we staged an impromptu international
teams event at Bondi, the waves not being
up to snuff for the contest proper. But
time was running out. And so was the surf.
At the crucial quarter-final stage the ocean
went… flat. And I mean flat. Like a lake.
David Hill looked really worried. How was

Ironically, the Bells contest, held a couple
of weeks earlier, had endured horrible
small surf. Now things were very different.
My main man Peter Wright and I huddled
to figure out a plan. Everyone had always
assumed that Peter was just the Coca-Cola
truck driver, but I had come to realise he
had enormous clout at the company –
perhaps a low-key executive in shorts
and a tee-shirt? “We could fly everyone to
Bells,” I suggested, almost laughing at my
own audacity given the cost that would be
involved. “Yep, maybe we could,” he said,
“Let’s call Col Gelling …” And the head of
Sydney Coca-Cola Bottlers did not even
hesitate: “Go for it!”

06 5

THE GREATEST
SURF SHOW
EVER STAGED
Top: A delighted Cheyne Horan clasps
an over-sized Coke can and accepts the
winner’s trophy as Shane Stedman laughs
on, in the background. Bottom: Cheyne
Horan scooping through the Bells Bowl in
his cherry-red, Rip Curl wetsuit. Below: The
June 1979 cover of Tracks celebrates the
groundbreaking contest.

“Contests around
the world will
have to come
a long way to
catch up with
the standard set
by Surfabout. It
will be a hard act
to follow. Fortyfour years later, it
could be argued
that’s still the
case.”
It was a long day, and much of the night,
to make the logistical arrangements. But
at dawn the next day, 54 essential personnel – quarter-finalists, judges, announcer,
media crew including the Channel 9 team
plus surf journos and photogs, all gathered at Sydney airport’s Flight Services to
take a squadron of six twin-engine Piper
Navajo Chieftain aircraft, one just packed
chocka with surfboards, cameras, banners,
PA system and other gear, headed south
for the three-hour flight to Grovedale
airstrip where we had buses on hand to
ferry us the final few miles to Bells. I was
on the plane with, among others, Peter
Crawford, who was giggling like a schoolgirl almost all the way there.
The surf was indeed epic at Bells. In the
quarters, Bruce Raymond (who’d arrived
0 66

too late for our dawn departure and had
to get a commercial jet to Geelong where
his sponsor, Quikky, had laid on a limo
to whisk him to the waves) defeated Dane
Kealoha; next defending champ Larry
Blair put away Peter Townend; Simon
Anderson defeated Michael Tomson; and
Cheyne Horan won against his World Title
nemesis Mark Richards. In the semis, Blair
beat Raymond and Horan beat Anderson.
And then history repeated itself. “We’re
losing the light,” David Hill told me, again!
“Can we stay over and finish tomorrow?” I
could hardly frikken even believe it.
We scrambled to find beds for everyone
that night in Torquay, and the next day
Bells once again offered great waves for
Cheyne Horan to take down Larry Blair

and earn $10,000 ($42K in today’s cash)
for the win.
Peter Townend, writing for Surfing magazine, summed it up: “Contests around
the world will have to come a long way to
catch up with the standard set by Surfabout. It will be a hard act to follow.”

.

Forty-four years later, it could be argued
that’s still the case.

DEAN
WILMOT:
INFINITE
WONDER
Why Dean Wilmot is still answering the call of Hawaii.
Written by Luke Kennedy • Photography by Dean Wilmot

Sydney photographer, Dean Wilmot,
fell hard and young for Hawaii. In the
80s his Mum worked for Pan – Am
and United Airlines, which meant she
could treat her son to long weekends in
The Islands.
shifted his focus. “I distinctly remember I
turned the lens down towards Pipe and I
saw this really nice wave and thought, Pipe
looks alright,” recalls Dean. “So I packed
up and went down there. Glen Winton was
out and like this was when Glenn was in
the top 10. I don’t know why but there
was no one else around. It wasn’t big Pipe,
but it was solid – a good eight-foot. It was
sunny and with that first role of film, I got
At high school, on Sydney’s Northern
a cover.” Securing the cover shot provided
Beaches, Wilmot developed a keen interest
Dean with immediate vindication for his
in photography and the regular Hawaiian
decision to make water photography his
sojourns gave him ample opportunity to
reason for being. Enchanted by the whole
cultivate his style. While other teenagers
Hawaiian experience he would return for
were back in Oz tossing popcorn at the
local movie cinema, Dean was at Waimea After a couple of test runs with the hous- the next 14 seasons straight, applying a
dialling in his camera and absorbing the ing at Warriewood (around the corner from simple but effective philosophy towards his
Narrabeen) 18-year-old Dean arrived on subjects. “It was great because you would
patterns of Hawaiian swells.
the North Shore and tossed himself straight just do your own thing. You wouldn’t have
Adolescent distractions did nothing to into Rocky Point’s raging current. A side- to answer to anyone and just shoot whoever
temper Dean’s obsession with The Islands long glance towards Pipeline, up the beach was pulling in really.”
and by the time he turned 18 he’d bought a few hundred metres to the west, quickly

“I have those real fond memories even
before photography started, surfing in
Hawaii and the environment and the smell
of it…” recalls Dean over the phone. “I
remember surfing Haleiwa when I was
15 and it was beautiful… and really good
Honolua Bay. I was just being a grommet
just surfing and just loving it.”

0 68

his first Dave Kelly camera housing and
committed to his first North Shore winter
as a water photographer. “It just felt very
natural for me,” explains Dean. “I love the
water and love being immersed in the water,
that liquid feeling.” Heading to Hawaii,
Dean had good reason to feel confident
in his abilities. A few months earlier he’d
nailed a shot from land of prime-era,
Martin Potter, blasting an audacious backside air at Sydney’s Whale Beach. Tracks
ran the photo as the December 1987 cover
and with a little help from Pottz, Deano was
literally off to a flying start.

DEAN
WILMOT
INFINITE
WONDER
Previous: Over 20 years after this wave was
ridden, Takayuki Waikita is still feeling the
after-glow of Pipe’s electric-green gleam.
Top: Tom Carroll kick-stalls into the big blue
with supreme confidence. Bottom: X-man,
Nathan Webster scarring the face of a North
Shore wall. Inset: Dean about to swim out
with his pioneering, double-housing set-up.

“If you’re out there
swimming around
and copping it… It
was like going to
war. If you didn’t
keep your head
about you, you were
in a shitload of
trouble.”

The hallowed stretch between Pipe and ship between surfers and photogs was often
Off the Wall was already well-confirmed defined by a heady mix of mutual respect
as surfing’s preeminent stage by the time and endorphin overdose. “You’d be highDeano showed up, but in the 90s he was fiving guys if you connected,” recalls Dean
right up-close for some quantum leaps in with a nostalgic chuckle. “I think the surfperformance. While travelling pros were ers probably had a little bit more appreciaenjoying the perks of a blossoming surf tion for the water guys and the commitment
industry, an expanding crop of savvy locals it would take to try and get those shots.”
also wanted their piece of the pie. Surf
magazines around the world were in full Dean suggests a similar sense of camarastride and when the daily duels went down derie existed between the photographers.
at Pipe every surfer was aware that a single “Guys like Don King, Hank, Larry Haynes,
shot could change the course of a surfing Chris Van Lennep and Brian Bielmann and
career if it ran as a cover, or major spread. some of the younger Hawaiians. Everyone
just respected each other. If you’re out
In Hawaiian lineups thick with talent there there swimming around and copping it…
wasn’t any real need to coordinate sessions It was like going to war. If you didn’t keep
with surfers. “It was just whoever was out your head about you, you were in a shitload
there. I never had preferences,” recalls of trouble.”
Dean. “I would just try to be there first
thing in the morning because technically Amidst all the hollow-framed memories
one session at Backdoor with Brock Little
that was the best light.”
FURTHER
stands out. “Brock was in his prime and
FROM
he was the only guy at Back Door, and I
Dean
mentions
Tom
Carroll,
Johnny
Boy
THE SUN
Gomes, Ronnie Burns, Takayuki Wakita, was the only photographer in the water. It
Kelly Slater, The McNamara brothers, was macking, like it was dodgy as, getting
and Andy
Irons
major players
oninvolving
the pushed into the impact zone at Pipe.”
Rasta
engaged
in as
a triumvirate
trance
Pipeperfect
stage intersection
throughout of
the
90s and
early
the
velocity,
weight
2000s.
As arching,
Pipe barrels While most photographers relied on shortdistribution
and tubegreen-lit
nous.
inspiredNathan
both terror
and awe, the relation- tipped fins to kick around the lineup, Dean
Photo:
Oldfield

0 70

preferred the added thrust of scuba-diving
flippers to escape Backdoor’s sledgehammer lips. He was also a diligent student of
the reef ’s topography. “I tried to be smart
about the way I worked in that environment like I would place myself over the top
of trenches in the reef… so when you got
caught inside, which often happens on big
sets, I’d get pushed into the trench and not
into the reef.
Like surfers, photographers will look for
something to give them an edge in the
lineup. Remember this was the pre-digital
90s, so the chief limitation on your ability to shoot multiple photos was the fact a
film-roll capped out at 36. Determined to
double his chances, Dean would strap two,
film-loaded camera housings to his waist
in a scuba belt. Hauling through the Pipe
lineup with two rigs was a little harder but
the effort paid dividends. “You could shoot
a roll and swim into the channel and within
a minute or something you’re back into the
lineup,” he explains. “Rather than having
to go all the way back in, change film and
swim all the way back out. It was a fantastic system and it really helped me get my
quota up.”

Andy Irons swings through a timeless
bottom turn at snarling Pipe.

07 5

DEAN
WILMOT
INFINITE
WONDER

“The bottom floor
(more a storage
room as Rob
recalls) of the threefloor rental was
rapidly converted
into a pop-up
photo-lab. They
would shoot all day
and then process
the photos on the
spot that night.”

Clockwise Previous: Brock Little and Ross
Clarke-Jones leaving twin trails at Waimea
Bay. Mick Campbell spearing sun-rays.
Johnny-Boy Gomes refuses a rail grab as
Pipe roars. Brendan Margieson throwing
colour at the lip. Top: Derek Ho drifts
delicately beneath Pipe’s gape. Bottom:
Kelly, euphoric on a day when he came
from behind to claim the Pipe Masters and
the 1988 World Title.

While he thrived in the water and could
handle it bigger than most, there were still
days when the housing stayed dry. January 28 1988 has been mythologised in surf
history as ‘ The Biggest Wednesday’. As
the swell crashed into homes and turned
parts of the Kam’ Highway into an asphaltfloored shore dump, authorities issued
a Code Black, preventing anyone from
entering the water. When Dean pulled up
at Waimea, he remembers seeing stretched
lines closing out The Bay well beyond the
regular take-off zone. He watched a 40-foot
wave break left from the other side of The
Bay as the inside section became a sheet of
white foam. Bizarrely, a crazed bodysurfer
known as, ‘Red Wings’, had thrown himself
into the writhing sea and Dean remembers the lifeguards were doing their best to
goad him back to shore. “They were on the
beach with a megaphone saying, ‘We’re not
coming in to get you Red Wings, you’re on
your own.’ He got halfway out and then
somehow got washed in without getting
killed. And then two weeks later, he blew
his head off with a shotgun.”
Later Dean and filmer, Tim Bonython,
talked their way into a place adjacent to
Elvis’s old mansion up at Pupukea Heights.
By now they were wise to the fact that a
crew including Ross Clarke-Jones, Tony
Ray, Ken Bradshaw and Noah Johnson
were towing colossal peaks at outside Log
Cabins. The mountain-high roost afforded

0 76

them a panoramic perspective of the whole
North Shore, but as Dean set up his gear
all he could think about was the guy with a
camera out in the water. “Hank was on the
ski, and I was so jealous… but fortunately
we got a couple of shots.”
Through the mid 90s Dean was taking on
more commercial photography projects
between surf gigs. The fast-paced scene
exposed him to contemporary techniques in
photo processing and planted the seed for
a radical plan. When the Hawaiian season
rolled around, Dean arrived with a small
processor and a young assistant photographer named Rob Palmer. They posted up in
a Velzyland rental leased out by Garret and
Liam McNamara’s mum and worked their
plan to get the jump on the competition.
The bottom floor (more a storage room as
Rob recalls) of the three-floor rental was
rapidly converted into a pop-up photo-lab.
They would shoot all day and then process
the photos on the spot that night. Surf
magazines were flourishing in the USA,
Australia, Japan, Brazil and Europe while
the surf companies paid a high premium
for shots if they wanted a buy-out for ads.
The D.I.Y processing system ensured Dean
and Rob could show various mag editors
and industry figures, many of whom were
camped on the North Shore, their shots
while the rest of the photographers waited
for their film to get developed in Honolulu.
“I’d be seeing film within an hour of shoot-

ing it sometimes,” recalls Dean. “And there
was no one was doing that at all.”
Eventually, Dean started emailing low res’
scans of shots to magazines around the
world. Forward thinking photo editors
could lock in spreads or even covers long
before they had the actual film roll in their
hands. The way Dean’s assistant, Rob
Palmer remembers it, the ad-hoc photo lab
with the low roof was far from comfortable
and the dirt floor became slipperier than
ice if it rained, but the plan worked. Dean
was well connected and had the contacts
for every surf mag in the world and each
morning they were able to send a copy of
low-res scans to everyone on the list. A
good session at Pipe could be in front of
photo editors the following day. It seems
fairly standard practise now, but it was a
quantum leap at the time. The rest of the
surf lensmen still had to wait for their film
to be processed and then sent by mail from
Hawaii back to the surf mag offices around
the world. By the time it arrived some of
the editors had already locked in shots
from the advance selections sent through
by the crafty duo from Oz. Rob remembers
not everyone went for it. “Some editors just
couldn’t cope with it, and it fucked with
their heads too much. They wanted to see
the transparency in their hands otherwise
they didn’t believe you actually had the
material.”

A chopper drifts below the lip line as surfers
tow-in at giant Outside Log Cabins on ‘The
Biggest Wednesday’, January 1998.

Beau Emerton and the art of the Pipe
bottom turn.

DEAN
WILMOT
INFINITE
WONDER
Below: Dean Wilmot taking us close
enough to Pipe’s inner-most limits to see
Rob Machado’s fro skim the roof.

“These days
Deano saves lives
for a living as a
paramedic on
Sydney’s Northern
Beaches. He
maintains that
swimming out in
heavy situations
at places like Pipe
made him better
prepared for the
volatilities of his
current role.”
The processing days in the bunker earned
Dean a few good paydays and put him
ahead of the technical curve before digital cameras totally changed the game, but
a dramatic incident at Pipe had a lasting
impact and paved the way for his current
career as a paramedic.
Dean had just returned to the beach on
a good day at Pipe and was removing his
famously over-sized scuba flippers when he
saw a board tomb-stoning at Backdoor. A
body emerged and he immediately knew it
was a touch and go situation. Dean ditched
his camera, threw his fins on and powered
out to the lineup where he found prosurfer, Courtney Gray’s limp body floating
on the surface. “He was fucked, like real
bad,” recalls Dean. “As an Ambo’ now I
know he was completely blue, like he was
hypoxic, so I grabbed his leash and scull
dragged him into Gums (section between
Backdoor and Off the Wall).” Eventually it
was too shallow for Dean to walk in his big
flippers, so he waved for help and received

0 82

assistance from a crew that included Tom
Carroll and the on-duty Lifeguard. “They
grabbed him and took him the rest of the
way and started working on him. “Fortunately, he’s got no deficiencies at all. It was
a miracle because he was tapping out. He
wouldn’t have lasted more than maybe
another 30 seconds.”

first time in 20 years. “I’ve been dreaming
about Hawaii actually, like, seriously, like,
proper dreaming about it for quite a while,”
claims Dean with trademark goofy enthusiasm. “And just all of a sudden, I thought
I’ve gotta go. It was almost like a split decision that something’s calling me back. And
it’s extremely exciting.”

The kid who grew up taking long weekend
trips to Hawaii with his airhostess mum is
headed back to the place that he says still
feels like a second home. Dean is now 54,
but his brain is hard-wired to the rise and
fall of Hawaiian swells and he’s determined
to get back in the water with a housing in
hand. To the current generation of Pipe
aficionados he’ll be just another head
bobbing in the channel, but the wave hasn’t
When he’s not working a shift you’ll typi- changed and the wily lensman knows his
cally find Dean out at Narrabeen, riding way around the lineup. Once again, Dean
his quiver of treasured, Terry Fitzger- Wilmot will be out there on the edge, where
ald designs. However, recently he’s been long-period swells toss violently over volcaback behind the lens on his days off and nic reef, doing his best to take us closer to
is returning to Hawaii this season for the the infinite wonder of Hawaii’s waves.
These days Deano saves lives for a living
as a paramedic on Sydney’s Northern
Beaches. He maintains that swimming
out in heavy situations at places like Pipe
made him better prepared for the volatilities of his current role. “It’s really helped
me now for my career as an ambo… You
just learn that the calmer you are the better
the outcome.”

.

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DARK
LINEAGE
Legends, Heroes, Gods or Monsters?
The Bad-Boys of Australian Surfing and Why they Self-Destruct.
This issue: Shane Herring, Nicky Wood & Chris Davidson
Written by Monty Webber

Australian surfers love an out-ofcontrol rebel. Particularly if they surf
exceedingly well. We admire their free
spirited, devil-may-care approach to
life; both in the water and on the land.
They do things in their own way, on
their own time, and by their own rules,
and are often motivated by a raging fire
that burns deep within their damaged
psyche. Initially, they’re driven to prove
themselves, but ultimately, they’re driven
to destroy themselves. It’s not pretty, but
we can’t look away.
It’s a rare and fascinating flame that draws
them in. Predictably, there’s a never-ending
supply of sycophantic acolytes who willingly
keep that fire well stoked. I should know, I’m
their biggest fan. I’ve known only a few of
them, but those few I’ve known well. It’s
from these close friendships that I’ve formed
the ‘Dark Lineage’ theory and provide firsthand accounts of what I witnessed.
This is the final chapter in the Dark Lineage
series, which also features Bobby Brown, Kevin
Brennan, Keith Paull, Michael Peterson and
Joe Engel. To read the earlier chapters head to
Tracks Premium at Tracksmag.com
Shane Herring
I spent more time with Shane Herring,
during his rapid ascendance and descendance, than any other member of this brilliant, but cursed, club of surfers. In late ‘91,
my brother, Greg, asked me to video one of

08 4

his new Insight team riders surfing at Dee
Why. To say I was blown away by Shane’s
surfing would be an understatement. He
was the most intense, precise, and muscular
Australian power surfer I’d seen since Tom
Carroll or Occy. He was super fit, flexible,
and focused. Every time he got to his feet on
his surfboard he looked like he was shaping
up in a UFC match. Every turn he did was a
fierce slice or searing gouge. He surfed that
day, and every day for the next 12 months,
like he was in the final of a pro event. When
he actually made it into the final of a pro
event, the Coke Classic, he won it.
Shane Herring was born in 1971, in Manly,
NSW. His dad was a lifeguard and his mum,
a barmaid. His parents broke up when he
was very young and he moved with his
mother, Sandy, and brother, Brett, to Dee
Why. It was there that they started surfing. By the time I began videoing Shane
he was a fully formed and polished profes-

sional; despite the fact that he had almost no
competitive experience.
Shane was also the most willing and helpful
surfer I ever filmed; and I’ve filmed many.
No other surfer ever asked me before a surf,
where I would like them to surf, or after
a surf, if there was anything else that they
could do for me. “Have you got enough footage? Or would you like me to go back out
there and get a few more?” In short, Shane
was not only the best surfer I’d ever filmed,
he was also the most considerate. But I saw
something in him that concerned me. In my
regular interactions with him and others, I
noticed that Shane lacked the ability to say
“No.” Whatever was asked of him he would
give. Even when he knew he shouldn’t. I
wondered how this might play out when
he started collecting the accolades, and the
acolytes that come with them.

DARK
LINEAGE
Previous: Twenty-year-old Shane Herring
hoists an oversized cheque after defeating
Kelly Slater in the final of the 1992 Coke
Classic. It wasn’t long before the burden of
fame became too much. Top: Herro’s raw, on
rail flair gave his surfing a timeless quality
and earned him a cult following. Photo: Joli
Bottom: Shane always found a way to draw
different lines. Photo: Childs

“The story of him
being a drugaddicted-alcoholicpro-surfer had
travelled like a
bushfire and many
wanted to bathe in
the reflected glory
by feeding the
beast.”

I wondered what it was he was trying to
prove. I couldn’t help but think he was
trying to kill the monster he’d become. But
I imagined it was more likely that he was
trying to prove to his friends that he was
one of them. He told me that he believed
The next day he was different. I inter- his friends were the most important thing
viewed him on camera in the loungeroom in his life and that they would be there for
of the flat he lived in with his mum and him forever. I didn’t realise that he was
brother. It was a strange experience. He going to test that theory to the breaking
was not the same Shane that I had spent point.
the last six months with. He was suddenly
very self-conscious and kept pulling his Everywhere we went together people were
long blonde fringe down in front of his giving him drugs. The story of him being
eyes like he was modelling. His girlfriend a drug-addicted-alcoholic-pro-surfer had
at the time was standing behind me and travelled like a bushfire and many wanted
kept asking him what he was doing. “Stop to bathe in the reflected glory by feeding
acting so weird, just answer the questions the beast. When we were checking the surf
and stop posing.” But Shane had earned at Mona Vale one afternoon a bloke handed
his moment in the limelight and wasn’t him a half smoked joint. Not long after,
going to trade it in for anyone. The inter- we were parked in Dee Why carpark one
All was well, until Shane won the Coke, at view was unusable for my purposes at morning and a guy he didn’t know handed
North Narrabeen. It was also Kelly Slater’s the time. But it did capture a fascinating him a bag of pot. Peter Crawford saw us
first pro event, and the two met in the final. transformation, from a freckle-faced keen stuck in traffic one morning in Collaroy
It was a classic showdown between the two to please grommet, into someone so self- and handed Shane two big white pills:
“It’s a new designer drug called DMD.”
young surfers from the USA and Australia. conscious.
We took them there and then and I spun
Much was made of it in the media.
Over the next few months, Shane’s mates out while shooting Shane surf big North
At the presentation night after Shane at Dee Why almost killed him with their Avalon. Inside one tube he started gyrating
won the contest, I found him alone in the demented love of him. Every night was like he was playing Twister. When we met
bathroom of the Dee Why Hotel looking like New Year’s Eve and Shane footed the up again on shore, I asked him what he
at himself in the mirror. It wasn’t a quick bill. I saw him consume so much alcohol was doing in that barrel: “I thought I was
glance to see if his hair was alright though, and smoke so much weed one night that inside a nightclub, so I started dancing.”
After shooting Shane surfing for two
months, another Greg, Greg Day, asked me
to make a surfing movie for his company,
O’Neill. It was to be a low-budget affair,
but we were blessed by pumping swell on
the Northern Beaches of Sydney for the
next six months. Shane surfed for O’Neill,
and I captured remarkable sessions of him
surfing with his fellow Insight/O’Neill
team riders, predominantly Richie Lovett
and Michael Rommelse. They blew the
backs out of waves from Whale Beach to
Curl Curl, and everywhere in between.
We would drive together to any one of
the Northern Beaches, get out and set up,
and locals would sometimes get out of the
water to watch. I know this because these
surfers would often stand alongside me
and ask lots of questions about who I was
filming.

0 86

he was really looking at himself for a long
time. I was at the urinal and called back to
him: “What are you thinking about?” He
answered instantly: “I don’t feel any different than yesterday.”

DARK
LINEAGE
Top: Despite his preternatural talent,
Herring struggled with life in the
limelight. Pictured here with Shane
Powell on the right.
Bottom: A radical but composed lip
attack that still sets a high bar thirtyodd years later. Photos: Joli

We went on surfing trips together to the
Great Barrier Reef, Lord Howe Island
and Hawaii. At the GBR, we shared a full
bottle of Jack Daniels one night and he
confided in me that he thought he might
have a drinking problem. In LHI, I saw
him sneaking swigs of a bottle of Jim
Beam before a surf; a surf in which he
schooled the other Hot Tuna team riders
on how to perform a round-house-cutback.
In Hawaii, we sniffed enough cocaine
together to hamper our chances of doing
what we were sent there and paid to do.
We went to Indonesia twice together. On
the first occasion, on June 4, ‘94, we, along
with everyone else in G-Land at the time,
were hit by a tsunami at 2.10am. No-one
died at the surf camp, but over threehundred villagers were killed in towns
across the bay. An hour after half of us
were washed into the jungle under a wave
of rushing water, Shane tapped a keg of
beer. It was 3am. The wounded were still
being stitched up and bandaged. A few
hours later we went surfing. A year later
to the day, Shane, Rob Bain, Simon Law,
and I, who were there for the first Quiksilver Pro, stayed up till 2.30 in the morning,
celebrating the anniversary by drinking
barrels of beer.

myth-making power journalists possess
which they have to be careful with. It does
no-one any good to immortalise them. But
Shane didn’t need me to become a mythological figure in surfing. He did that all by
himself, by surfing so well. I was just one
of many who gave him a leg-up, or down,
as the case may be. I was also one of his
many drinking and drugging buddies. But
while he was the only one I was drinking
and smoking to excess with, there were
dozens of others, just like me, he felt
obliged to party with too. At the premiere
of the film I made for O’Neill called
Liquid Planet, Shane was surrounded by
a mob of adoring fans, almost all of whom
he shouted drinks. When I saw him giving
them money to go to the bar, it occurred
to me that he was celebrating their friendship, something he imagined might outlast
his popularity.

Johnson, in Big Wednesday (1978), who
famously said “I don’t wanna be a star.”
In 2013, I made a short documentary
about Shane called Journey On. I used lots
of the footage I’d shot 20 years earlier and
interviewed Shane, Sandy, Brett, and my
brother Greg. Sandy told me: “He wanted
to be the best, he wanted to be a World
Champ. He said that at 14, ‘I’m gonna be
a World Champ one day’.”
Brett continued: “He had the ability, I
seen him do manoeuvres in ‘89, guys still
haven’t done now. But a few guys made
fun of him when he first got sponsored,
and he went within himself, which was a
very weird thing to do.”

Sandy: “The Coke win was good; it was
what came after the Coke win that he
didn’t handle. He didn’t have the psyche
Ten years after the G-Land tsunami, I to handle it, he needed a Kelly Slater
worked on a short documentary about it. psyche. That’s what he needed to handle
I organised to meet Shane, through his the media and everything after that.”
mother, Sandy, in the park at Dee Why.
When I saw him meandering toward me, Brett: “The first time I met Kelly Slater,
wearing a long trench coat, and swig- he told me, ‘Your brother’s an alcoholic’.”
ging from a bottle in a brown paper bag,
I thought he looked like Kevin Brennan, Greg: “I think there’s a definite link
back in 1974. The image I had of Kevin between the eccentricity, slash, insanity,
I realised that I was a part of Shane’s Brennan in my memory bank, from 40 and the approach to the wave.”
problem. I was not only making surfing years earlier, had re-materialised right
videos that he starred in; I also wrote in front of me. By then, the fallen-hero- Brett: “What do they say? ‘The brightest
articles about him. One even started by Herro, a legend in his hometown, spent his flame burns the quickest…and that intenme admitting: “I feel like I’m interview- days wandering the streets of Dee Why like sity, to get that good, that’s very hard to
ing Jim Morrison!” To which he replied: a drunken character from a Hollywood sustain.”
“You are man, you are!” There’s a terrible movie. It was like he was playing Matt

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DARK
LINEAGE
Opposite: The freckle-faced kid from Dee
Why with the whip of fringe has grown
some whiskers, but it’s still the same,
good-natured, Herro smile underneath.
Photo: Joli

Scan to watch
Monty Webber’s
mini-doco on
Shane Herring

I asked Shane: “What were the main things
that stopped you from continuing on the
trajectory you were on?”
Shane answered: “Maybe lack of selfconfidence, maybe drinking too much,
partying too much, having too much fun.
Just having too much fun and too much
money. That’s all you can put it down too.”
Sandy: “Too much money and wanting to
be nice to his friends. He would go out and
spend money on his friends, and then it
just became a vicious cycle.”

“Every time I was
on a wave I could
hear a judge
who wasn’t there,
describing the turns
I was doing over a
loudspeaker that
wasn’t there, to an
audience on the
beach that also
wasn’t there.”

friends wanted to party with him around
the clock. He didn’t stop buying them
beers until he ran out of money. The surfboard designs he was riding became ultraexperimental. He liked the Banana Boards,
but they didn’t go well in all conditions.
But perhaps worst of all, coming forth in
the world and not feeling as good as he
hoped he might, sucked the life out of him.
He lost the drive to chase his dream.

the turns I was doing over a loudspeaker
that wasn’t there, to an audience on the
beach that also wasn’t there.”
I couldn’t help but think how much better
things might have turned out had Shane
had just stayed in the Christian Boardriders and never won the Coke contest in
‘92. It was the kiss of death. But maybe his
brother was right: “No matter what he was
doing in life, I think he was going to head
the way he headed…. Shane was gonna
do what Shane was gonna do, to this day
no-one can point him in a different direction.”

He went from a fresh-faced, happy little
kid to a jaded derelict in his own home, in
a few short years. He clearly didn’t have
the skill set to process all of the changes
I asked Greg if he saw a change in Shane in his life when he became famous and
after he won the Coke. “[Eventually] it was became allergic to ever yone around Kelly Slater told my brother Greg recently:
like everyone became fuckwits and annoy- him. The way ever yone acted toward “I was blown away by Herro’s low centre of
ances to him, another person wanting to him changed so dramatically that he lost gravity and ability to carve on the curve
take something. His sensitive foundation respect for them; and then himself. As we perfectly. I think what he gave up on …
was a driving force and also his undoing.” watched him destroy himself, I felt like speed/drive (due to constant rocker) he
he was stuck in a modern Shakespearian more than made up for in creative lines. At
Shane: “It took three years, three years to tragedy. He had got what he wanted, and the time he was intimidating to surf with
‘coz he really was that good. But he was
get to the top, and three years to get to the it ruined everything.
burning bright and not for the long haul.
bottom. (Laughs heartily).”
A few years ago, I asked him what his It was a great time in our lives to be surfIt was hard watching Shane crash and burn. favourite memories were: “Competing in ing together and pushing and challenging
It all happened so quickly. After his Coke the Christian Boardriders Club Contests each other.”
win, almost everything was messing with down at Dee Why when I was a kid.” I
his head. The media all wanted a piece of followed up by asking him what the worst
him and put him on too high a pedestal. time was: “Having to give up freesurfing
Being compared to Michael Peterson on because every time I was on a wave I could
the cover of a magazine didn’t help. His hear a judge who wasn’t there, describing

09 1

DARK
LINEAGE
Top: Nicky Wood’s long, supple limbs gave
his surfing a unique malleable feel, but his
rapid growth spurts ultimately put more
pressure on his joints. Bottom: Nicky got
an early taste of glory when he won Bells at
age 16. Photos: Joli

“Nick’s supersensitivity became
obvious to me
early, when I read
how badly affected
he was by the
confrontational
nature of life in an
article by Derek
Hynd.”

Nick ‘The Phantom’ Wood

an hour there was only one other guy out.
It was low tide, dredging, just like Kirra.
Some people are too sensitive for this This guy was way behind the rock, taking
world. It only takes a couple of really off really fast, then fading into a doublebad things to happen in a row and they up every time, with a super long section
become discouraged. Injury, expectations, already folding. I was trying to catch those
bad luck. They visualise, all too clearly, waves, but every time there’d be this highthe dreaded pattern ahead, and follow it pitched whistle that’d go on forever, and
obediently, in a downward spiral. Some- it’d be this guy, so deep in the tube…it
times they become melancholic, other just kept going till he was way past me. I
times they become addicts. Nick Wood paddled for those waves, four or five times,
and he whistled every time. He never fell
became both.
off. My Uncle Peter Cornish was on the
Nick was born in 1970 and raised in beach and when I came in he told me that
Newcastle. He was a child prodigy, born I’d been surfing with Michael Peterson…
into surfing royalty. His Godfather and I’ll never forget that whistle.”
personal shaper was four time World
Champ, Mark Richards. His uncle was For a while Nick won almost everything
Peter Cornish. Nat Young was a family he went in. Too many club contests to
friend. He started surfing at the age of six. mention. He was two times winner of the
A year later he was surfing Snapper with Cadets in the Australian National Titles.
He dropped out of school at 15 and was
Michael Peterson.
runner up in the Australian Professional
Nick told Tracks; “That whole trip, Snap- Surfing Association. That year, 1987, he
per was better than I’ve ever seen it. It also won the first pro event he ever went
was six o’clock one morning and there in, Bells. He remains the youngest male to
was this beautiful sunrise. I was in board- ever to win a world circuit event, and the
shorts, and the water was really warm. For only one to win in his debut effort.

0 92

Not long after his Bells win, I filmed a
session of Nick surfing at Bondi Beach. It
was the ‘87 Surf League Club Challenge.
The surf was pretty good for Bondi, about
four feet, with some nice glassy walls and
floater sections. Even though the surf was
crowded with some of the best boardriders in Australia, it was obvious at that time
that Nick was the best surfer there. The
footage I got of Nick drew hoots from the
audience when I showed it at the local
RSL a few weeks later.
Nick’s super-sensitivity became obvious to
me early, when I read how badly affected
he was by the confrontational nature of life
in an article by Derek Hynd. Nick was at
the McCoy factory and talking to Cheyne
Horan: “I was there getting a board
shaped, and I was talking to Cheyne. He
asked me how MR was going, and I said,
‘Oh, he just bombed out in a Merewether
club contest.’ I went back and told my old
man what I said, and he got so angry at
me, he made me ring MR and tell him
what I’d done and tell him I was sorry.”
I wondered if Nick’s father might be his
Henry IV.

DARK
LINEAGE
Below: Nicky bringing the emotional content
to a vertical backside snap that earned him
the cover of Tracks, December 1990 issue.

“I grew too fast…I
first felt my knees
go when I was 15 they’d start to crackle.
Then when I was 17,
after I came home
from Japan, I was
surfing in Ballina. I
was doing lots of pigdogs [backhand tube
riding], and when I
came in my leg was
all puffed up.”
Derek went on to explain: “If the…seed
was already sown and dormant in Wood’s
mind … the lessons of fame soon followed.
‘I went to see Free Ride when I was 11,
with Mark and it was just about the
biggest thing that ever happened to me.
We went in with the lights on and everyone was there. The film started, and MR
came on the screen in a barrel at Off the
Wall. A few smart-arses started booing.
It was so heavy. The heaviest thing I can
remember. Mark got up and left.’ Wood
still had trouble talking about it.” Derek
continued: “It was as if Nicki Wood was
preordained to draw experience from
the best, and his lessons came with great
synchronicity. The next occurred when
he was 12, and the teacher was that
most Hawaiian of them all. The subject:
etiquette. ‘I was staying at the Burleigh
Towers watching the Stubbies. Me and
Scotty Bell were throwing water bombs
off the balcony and watching them land
outside the lobby. Then Dane Kealoha

0 94

and Martin Potter walked outside and got
splashed. We ducked inside the room, but
Dane saw us and made us come downstairs. When we got there he made us
kneel before him and apologise.’”
Wood joined the ASP World Tour full
time. In Niijima, Japan, he was burnt in
the quarterfinals by his nemesis, Damian
Hardman. “That destroyed my confidence. I went straight up to Fatty Al,
[Hunt - Tour boss], and told him I felt
like quitting already. Then I lost eight
straight trials. The only reason I finished
38th that year was because of a third in
October, back in Japan, in the AA, the
biggest event. Hardman beat me there as
well. The guy’s hard to beat.”

knees go when I was 15 - they’d start to
crackle. Then when I was 17, after I came
home from Japan, I was surfing in Ballina.
I was doing lots of pig-dogs [backhand
tube riding], and when I came in my
leg was all puffed up. I went straight to
Sydney for arthroscopic surgery. The next
day I tried to walk but collapsed.”

Derek concluded: “Despite his crippling
handicap, Wood was rated 13th before
Hawaii…Wood’s effort, from 38th the
13th - while suffering semi-debilitating
knee problems - was the most awe-inspiring rise in the history of pro-surfing; an
incredible athletic achievement. Wood
subsequently plummeted to 25th after
missing three events in Hawaii, and spent
the following two months, bouncing
Then came the most ironic twist to the between training endeavours - packing
downward swirling whirlpool. Little Nick, muscle around his knee by day, and packwho prayed he would grow bigger, had his ing muscle on his pisser’s arm by night at
prayers answered. He grew seven inches The Crazy Horse Tavern.”
in a year. “I grew too fast…I first felt my

DARK
LINEAGE
Top: Occy with Nicky Wood when Nicky
made an unheralded, cameo-comeback for
a QS event at Burleigh in 2010.
Bottom: Mid-heat, frontside rail grab adding
a little more mystique to Nicky Wood’s aura.
Photos: Joli

“Wood drank a river
of beer and smoked
a crippling amount
of weed. ‘Pot makes
you do nothin’,” as
Wood put it in ‘95,
just after missing
the WTC cut forcibly retired at
the age of 25. “It
becomes one big
fucken’ headspin.”

There were lots of visits to muscle therapists. Then Nick got himself a girlfriend,
Natalie Ayoub, and bounced back, coming
5th in the O’Neill Coldwater Classic and
3rd at Bells. He had some other good
results and even better performances all
over the world. But the condition of his
knees depressed him: “I know whenever I
have a couple of surfs they’re going to be
sore that night. It’s upsetting to know that
the other guys can surf all they want.”

of the creaky knees - Wood drank a river
of beer and smoked a crippling amount
of weed. ‘Pot makes you do nothin’,” as
Wood put it in ‘95, just after missing the
WTC cut - forcibly retired at the age of
25. “It becomes one big fucken’ headspin.”

the public eye. Nicky Wood became The
Phantom as an act of self-preservation, is
my guess.”

Nick Wood’s decline over the past 20
years into drug addiction and alcoholism
only got worse. His story unravelled like
Carroll surmised: “...the growth spurt - a Greek tragedy; incomprehensibly sad,
when it came - was just this side of a considering his potential. He made a rare
medieval torture act. The knees went: the public appearance in 2010, when he was
expectations remained. Wood, not surpris- inducted into the Merewether Surfer’s
ingly faltered. Career wise, Bells became Hall of Fame. Never before in Australian
A story by Nick Carroll in Tracks reported: not a starting point, but the high point. surfing history had so much been expected
“As a person though, Wood was a mystery. He never made the top 10. He went from and so little delivered; other than perhaps,
Quiet. Detached. Cool, for sure, but a a happy kid to a vaguely morose young the next casualty of the dark lineage.
little strange. I think it was Derek Hynd adult - not all the time, but often. Mostly,
that named him “The Phantom”, and us even while still on tour, Wood just wasn’t
World Tour punters, of the 80s and early around. Shy, prideful, penitent, who
90s, in a pre-social-media-age, were left knows? My guess is that in part, Wood
to wonder, is Nicky shy? Simple? Mute? didn’t want anything to do with the lowThe next Michael Peterson? …Along with level vibe of pity or sympathy or compasthe creaky knees - maybe in part because sion we aimed his way any time he was in

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DARK
LINEAGE
Top: Chris Davidson could be volatile in
and out of the water, but his raw talent
was never in dispute. Photo: Ithaka Darin
Pappas • Bottom: Like his life, Davo’s
surfing was often totally on edge.

“I don’t want
anything to do with
this bad-boy image.
I just want to be
known as Davo, a
good surfer and
nice guy.”

Chris ‘Davo’ Davidson
By the late 90s, the bad seed planted 40
years earlier had grown into a tree and had
lots of bad fruit sprouting on its branches.
Such is the nature of ancestry. Fantastic Australian surfers who took a wrong
turn along the way and were doomed to
follow in the footsteps of their misguided
mentors.
Many ended up in jail or rehab, and still
more were reported on in sensational
stories in the surf media and mainstream
news. They evolved from alcoholics to ice
addicts, went from madcap misadventures
to criminal offences. There were robberies,
assaults, stabbings, shootings, rape, and
murder. The parasitic mass-formation
infected so many surfers. I wondered how
bad it might get before something changed.

beat Kelly Slater in pro events on more
than one occasion. He was that good.
One day, while I was videoing pumping surf
at North Narrabeen, a fight broke out in
the lineup. By the time the tangle had made
its way onto the sand, I realised that it was
Davo and Brett Bannister. As I kept shooting, Banno forced Davo to the ground and
drilled a few punches into his face. Davo
got to his feet and yelled at Banno for a few
seconds and then it was over. They both
paddled out and kept surfing.

Later that afternoon, I decided to check
with both the surfers before I used the
punch-up in Sarge’s next video. Banno was
stoked because he came out looking like an
enforcer. Davo was stoked because he got
an accidental hit in. Everyone was happy all
round. I used the fight scene in a segment
cut to a song by the New York Punk outfit,
In the early 90s I was working for Paul Biohazard; Tales from the Dark Side. It
Sargeant who was based in North Narra- described the gritty, hardcore side of
been. It was my job to shoot and edit Sydney surfing and everybody loved it.
his surf-video magazine Sarge’s Surfing
Scrapbook. I shot sessions of the new Davo never achieved the success that was
‘blond bombshell’, Chris Davidson, at expected of him on the pro tour. The best
Little Narrabeen and the Alley. He was he did was a ninth at Bells and a couple of
such a great surfer that he was recognised 15ths at Teahupoo and in Portugal. Even
as a potential World Champion. He even though he often displayed flashes of bril-

0 98

liance in competition, he proved to be his
own worst enemy. When I gave his dad a
lift from Mona Vale to Avalon one morning, he confided in me: “If he’s gonna get
anywhere in life he’s gonna have to give up
the bamboo schooner.”
Twenty years later the headlines of the
Daily Mail shouted: “INSIDE THE DARK
PAST OF A STAR SURFER WHO DIED
FROM AN ALLEGED ONE PUNCH
ATTACK - INCLUDING HIS BATTLES
WITH ALCOHOL AND DRUGS.”
The tabloid concluded with a quote from
Davo: “I don’t want anything to do with
this bad-boy image. I just want to be
known as Davo, a good surfer and nice
guy.” Perhaps the next quote summed it up
best: “He was a wild child, with a heart of
gold. He was a good kid. A life…cut needlessly short.”
I’m not sure if there is any relationship between the the eight surfers I have
described in this series. It’s really just a
theory. But they sure used up all of their
nine lives: individually and as a group.
These were men who lived life to the max,
burned the candle at both ends, and then
poked their own eyes out with them.

DARK
LINEAGE
Below: Davo savaging a section while in
contest mode. Sadly, we won’t get to see him
pulling turns like this anymore.

“The period just
past seemed to have
been born out of a
post-war Australian
larrikinism that
morphed into
full-tilt-loony-bin
lunacy.”

It feels like we are in a different time now.
The period just past seemed to have been
born out of a post-war Australian larrikinism that morphed into full-tilt-loony-bin
lunacy. As I wrote this article, I noticed
patterns emerge. Not all, but many, experienced: absent fathers, childhood trauma,
escape from violence into surfing, tribal
initiations, success on the world circuit,
inability to handle money, media fawning,
mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction,
incarceration and internment, eventual
self-destruction, and only very occasional
redemption. Most of them tired quickly
whilst on the pro tour, like bored performing
seals in a travelling circus. All of them were
hailed as Gods and suffered accordingly.

1 00

As I was finishing writing this story, I
mentioned my theory to a friend. He told
me that while he thought it was a particularly male phenomenon: “They weren’t bad
boys…they were just lost boys, who lived life
at full throttle.”

psychologists that travel with them. Or will
it be like at the end of a horror movie, when
just before the credits roll, a new monster
reappears – full frame?

.

Thank you: Matt Warsaw at the Encyclopedia of Surfing, Nick Carroll, Derek Hynd,
There’d be some consolation if the book- and everyone else who I quoted from previends of Bobby Brown and Chris Davidson, ous articles.
both being attacked and killed in pubs, was
the end of it though. Ironically, the last time
I heard of Davo; he was in trouble for glassing a girl at the Narrabeen Antler Hotel.
I don’t hear much about bad boys in professional surfing these days. Perhaps they
have become more discreet or have sports

BONE
DEEP AT
SKELETON
BAY
Two mates from Oz give an honest account of a strike mission to Namibia’s miracle left.
Written by Blake Thornton

Like many I was captivated by
those first visuals of the endless
left funnelling down a sandbottom point ‘somewhere in
Africa’ years ago.
I immediately said to myself, “I’m going
to go there one day”. Fast forward several
years and I still hadn’t taken the leap of
faith to visit that mesmerising wave and
to be honest it all seemed too hard. Too
far away from the east coast of Australia
and too much of a gamble given the fickle
nature of the wave and the costs associated with getting there.
The hypnotic Namibian left is by no
means a secret anymore; its whereabouts
have been widely broadcast since it was
first unveiled to the world by Californian Software developer, Brian Gable,
15 years ago. Gable’s computer-aided
discovery came about through Surfing
magazine’s enterprising ‘Google Earth
Challenge’. Since Corey Lopez sent us
crazy with tube envy on that first trip,
we’ve all mind-surfed hundreds of Skeleton Bay lefts.

1 02

Just when I thought I’d stubbornly turned
my back on the wave they often call The
Donkey, a swell event earlier this year
lit up surf platforms and social media
accounts and reignited my interest. Soon,
I was glued to the forecasts, looking for
the right combination of variables. Sure
enough an opportunity to launch a strike
mission presented itself , testing my
resolve to travel over twelve-thousand
kilometres in pursuit of the best backhand pit of my life.

‘Chase That Feeling’, documenting exactly
these kinds of trips. We’d already ridden
frigid walls in Iceland and Alaska, but the
mission to the sandy expanse of the Namib
desert yes that’s how you spell it (no ‘a’)
was a far more elaborate and expensive
proposition; comprising of more moving
parts than anything we’d ever experienced.
If you wanted one of those minute-long
mind-bending barrels you’d have to pay
the band.
A Fickle Field of Dreams

With certain major competitive events
running and solid swells hitting other
parts of the globe, I figured this was the
best chance I’d ever get to score it with
a manageable crew, so I pulled the trigger and convinced my lifelong friend Matt
Gilsenan to join me. Now, far-flung adventures to tricky locations are not exactly
foreign to us given we made a feature film,

Now if you’ve come here hoping for a stepby-step guide on what to look for, how to
get there, etc. this is not the article for you.
The reality is there’s a heap of study and
planning required to score here and that’s
as big a challenge as the wave itself. Spelling it out will just spoil the sense of satisfaction you get if you do pull it off.

BONE
DEEP AT
SKELETON
BAY
Previous top: Skeleton’ Bay’s grinding,
below-sea-level drainers offer no easy
points of entrance. Photo: Van Gysen
Previous bottom: A decomposing seal
contributing to the wave’s namesake.
Photo: Van Gysen
Top: (L to R) Blake Thornton, David the
local, Leroy Bellantos and Matt Gilsenan.
Bottom: Along an isthmus of sand, on the
edge of the Namibian desert a surfer finds
bliss. Photo: Van Gysen

thought process seemed to induce anxiety,
resulting in sleepless nights and a vicious
cycle of ruminations – ‘ What would it be
like? Would I get ‘that’ wave’? ‘I better
get that wave after what I’ve sacrificed
and hopefully it’s not crowded’. I guess
these are typical concerns for any genuine surf frother who is about to embark
on a surf trip. The thoughts stuck with
me throughout the trip and are perhaps a
If it wasn’t for a certain forecasting plat- reminder to all about what happens when
form blowing this swell up to its large you stop fantasising over a wave and actuaudience, the crowd factor most likely ally commit to going; the mental process
would have been much smaller than it was quickly shifts from contemplating the
and if conditions didn’t pan out, there possibilities to facing the reality.
would have been a heap of disappointed
surfers standing on a lonely isthmus of Africa is obviously not close to Australia, so
desert sand as the resident jackals laughed at the best of times it’s going to take major
travel hours and a wedge of dough to get
at them.
you there. For us it was 35-plus hours of
travel with the connections. Airfares alone
Great Expectations
(given the last-minute nature) were north
After tracking the long-range swell and of AUS $5000. Car hire, accommodation,
confirming the models were holding, we excess baggage fees and living expenses
decided to pull the trigger five days out will have you forking out a pretty penny to
from the pulse’s scheduled arrival. Once make a trip like this happen. As suggested,
the call was made and we got the all-clear forecasts are not foolproof and conditions
from work and the missus’ and scrapped can change faster than a wild, African
any other commitments, the expectations animal turns on its heels and runs. Getting
really started to soar. That’s when the real skunked is always a possibility so you gotta
planning began. Like everyone else, I’d calibrate expectations, take a risk and be
ogled at clips of people threading multiple equipped to deal with the sense of defeat if
long barrels on kilometre-long waves, and you don’t score – not to mention forfeiting
that’s what I was expecting. However, this that amount of cash.
On this this stretch of Atlantic Ocean the
conditions are as volatile as the shifting
sands of the desert, and you can’t really
pull the trigger until five-seven days out
max – even within that window you can
get skunked. Plenty of crews have made
the long journey only to be confronted
by naught but wind-blown sand and halfburied bones.

1 04

“You can’t really
pull the trigger until
five-seven days out
max – even within
that window you
can get skunked.
Plenty of crews
have made the long
journey only to
be confronted by
naught but windblown sand and
half-buried bones.”

Where are my Boards?
As mentioned, once the forecast dropped,
a scattering of surfers from various
continents were trying to cram onto a
restricted number of small connecting
flights. The equipment needs of surfers
are not always the first priority of these
small carriers and invariably a tonne of
boards did not show up. If you were lucky
enough to have a friend whose gear did
arrive, like a colleague and good mate of
mine did (Leroy Bellanto to the rescue),
then you could possibly borrow gear. You
can’t blame guys for not wanting to part
with their own equipment, particularly
given this wave has a reputation for eating
surfboards. Many were stuck high and
dry, reduced to the role of envious spectator for the first couple of days. Imagine
going all this way, only to find your boards
hadn’t turned up. It’s all too common
unfortunately. The other issue is 4WD
hire as it’s a mecca for travelling and touring 4WD enthusiasts, so the off-road vehicles get snapped up quickly irrespective of
surf conditions. You have to be crafty to
arrange alternative transport to the wave
because a VW polo or 2WD ain’t going to
get you there. Luckily we had a trick up
our sleeve.

BONE
DEEP AT
SKELETON
BAY
Top: The surfboard supply line to Skeleton
Bay is not always reliable. Middle: Google
mapping the miracle. Bottom: Desert lines.
Photos: Van Gysen

“I watched a bunch
of the biggest
names in surfing
grow increasingly
frustrated when
they just couldn’t
snavel the wave
that they wanted or
had imagined they
might get.”

Scan to watch a
clip from this trip

Surfing’s Ultimate Drive-In
Leading into our departure the biggest
and best day seemed a foregone conclusion on all the forecasting sites, however,
that prediction quickly got turned on its
head when an onshore wafted in like an
unwelcome guest at a big wedding and
laid waste to surfing dreams. Luckily there
were waves prior to the swell’s peak, and
we still scored.
“There was an A+ assembly of surfers there
for the swell including Slater, Jamie O,
Nathan Florence, Koa Smith, Craig Ando.”
Even though this was my first visit to
Skeleton Bay, I’m pretty confident this is
the most crowded it has ever been; likely
a result of the spotlight recently cast on
the wave. That being said there was still a
tonne of opportunity for the surfers who
had the ability to ride these waves. There
was an A-plus assembly on hand for the
swell including Slater, Jamie O, Nathan
Florence, Koa Smith, Craig Ando and a
shit tonne more pro/semi pro-surfers. On
top of that you had the core surfers from
all corners of the globe, the bodyboard
tribe and I even saw a kneeboarder in the
mix. When it comes to catching waves here
though, it’s a real level playing fi eld, as
everyone jumps off at the same spot and
drifts down the line at the same speed.
Riding the wave is a diff erent story. The
goofy-footers have a distinct advantage

and unless you’re a really capable backside tube rider you’re going to struggle.
I watched a bunch of the biggest names
in surfing grow increasingly frustrated
when they just couldn’t snavel the wave
that they wanted or had imagined they
might get. I was told a certain someone
was even disappointed I didn’t fall inside
a tube. This apex surfing predator was
down the line and looking to swoop and
go ‘haha’. Instead he had to watch me fly
past and splashed the water in apparent
disappointment. However, the overall vibe,
compared to other long lefts in the world,
is good. You’ll fi nd yourself chatting to
random crew in the lineup and on your
walk up the point. Meanwhile, the row of
cars parked along the sand transforms a
desert strip into the ultimate surfing drivein. Plenty of banter gets exchanged on
the beach as the peanut gallery evaluates
the lineup and judges the best rides. As
everyone is unified by the struggle to get
here and simultaneously overwhelmed by
the mesmerising throttle of endless lines,
the wave does create a kind of collective
consciousness. There’s a genuine sense
you are participating in something unique
and special.
Documenting your Barrel of a Lifetime
Unlike the big names who travel with a
small production team, we had set out
to do some filming ourselves. We were
equipped with a GoPro, a 4k Handycam,
tripod and a drone. However, the real-

ity was once we arrived and processed
what it had taken for us to get there, filming took a bit of a back seat as it was a
clear distraction from actually riding the
wave. Myself and Matt only did a couple
of laps each with the GoPro. We set the
camera and tripod up for about half an
hour and the drone got flown a couple of
times, and that’s the extent of our imagery.
This lottery we’d won with the conditions
aligning felt it needed to be crystallised in
our memories, not squandered by scratching around to capture film. Based on our
brief attempts at fi lming, we have to say
it’s a tough wave to capture and unless you
have a cameraman who can handle watching reeling perfection from the sand, your
waves will likely go undocumented.
The Hard Reality
Skeleton Bay is a beast. It’s the fastest,
thickest and most hollow wave I have ever
seen at that size. It’s super heavy and a real
test for even the most accomplished surfer.
The take-off is generally quick, technical and sucky, and if you can’t pump in a
barrel you’re probably going to have difficulty making a good one. As mentioned, I
watched some of the best guys in the world
struggle at times and I think that makes
scoring a bomb even more rewarding.
Despite what the footage may suggest, not
every wave is perfect and the current after
a set pushes through is insane. Luckily for
us, we managed to log a few keepers in

10 7

BONE
DEEP AT
SKELETON
BAY
Below: Koa Smith searching for
the Goldilocks zone between an
imploding lip and a muscular curl.
Photo: Van Gysen

“Despite the cost,
the effort, the
logistics, the
fatigue and the
hurdles, we
returned with a
genuine sense of
conquest, and the
sort of foldinglip memories
that will provide
comfort in quiet
moments for the
rest our lives.”

the memory banks that won’t be forgotten
anytime soon. It’s not uncommon to do a
full lap down the 2km point without catching a wave. I spoke to guys who had done
six laps in a day without catching a wave.
If you’re not fit, this place will destroy you.
I consider myself to be in reasonably good
shape but by the afternoon of day one, the
long walks up the point combined with
the pig-dog body contortions, had given
me hamstring cramps that made it feel
like my legs were about to explode. Your
shoulders will burn in ways you’ve never
felt, from fighting the current. Plenty of
waves look perfect but run away from
you, or they don’t fully barrel on the bank
properly. You’ll eat shit on take-offs, you’ll
miss waves from fatigue, you’ll get proper

1 08

floggings onto rock hard sand and when
it’s got some size it packs some serious
punch; you’ll do dry runs without catching a wave. The waters are dark and chilly
and it’s super sharky thanks to the resident seal colony in the bay. The presence
of half-eaten corpses along the shoreline
only adds to the sense of discomfort. All
the stuff you don’t think about before you
go.
So, was it worth it for us? Yes it was,
despite the cost, the effort, the logistics,
the fatigue and the hurdles, we returned
with a genuine sense of conquest, and
the sort of folding-lip memories that will
provide comfort in quiet moments for the
rest our lives.

However, while it did all work out for us,
others weren’t so lucky. If you are contemplating a Skeleton Bay expedition, I think
there needs to be an honest assessment
of all the variables referenced above. Your
decision should be made in full awareness
of the fact that, at the end of a long journey, you might be greeted with naught but
wind-blown sand and half-buried bones.

.

STOKING THE
NEW WAVE OF
INDIGENOUS
TALENT
How Surfing Australia is cultivating Indigenous talent with its First Nations
Youth High Performance Program.
Written by Kate Allman

“You can’t be what you can’t see” is a
phrase applied to many pursuits and
professions.
“I’ve always been a believer in it”, says Rory
Togo, former Open World Indigenous surf
title holder and committee member for
Surfing Australia’s First Nations HighPerformance Camps.
“If you haven’t grown up with a great role
model or even somebody of your own
background having followed or paved the
way for you, it’s hard to be a trailblazer.”
Togo is currently blazing a trail alongside
a committee of Indigenous surfers and
leaders to run the new First Nations Youth
High-Performance Program through Surfing Australia. The inaugural program
kicked off for the first time in 2023 as 16
surfers were selected to compete, receive
coaching and ongoing mentorship from
Indigenous surf legends like Soli Bailey
and Otis Carey.

“I’d love nothing more than to see some of
these kids end up on the World Tour.”

Togo knows how big that dream is – he was
one of very few First Nations Australians “Through my junior surf days, I was one of
paddling out in a competitive Gold Coast a very small handful of Indigenous surfers.
surf scene in the 1990s. He’d go to sleep When I say minority, I mean very small
staring at wall posters of his Indigenous minority,” Togo says.
surf heroes at the time – Kenny Dann and
Victorian surfer-turned-shaper Maurice “In those early days, Indigenous surf
Cole. He was a Junior Oceania Surfing comps had a lot of purpose because it was
Cup Champion in 2002, and later won the an opportunity to connect with people on
the same wavelength as me.”
Open World Indigenous surf title.

With the silky lines of Kirra and Snapper
on his doorstep, the Bandjalung man was
never short of talented buddies to learn
from. He traded waves with the likes of
Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson and is
still good mates with the former World
Champions. Among this prodigious Coolangatta crew, famously known as the
“One of the things I say to the kids is ‘a ‘Coolie Kids’ was Dean ‘Dingo’ Morrison,
dream too big is just the right size,’” says the first Indigenous Australian to qualify
for the World Championship Tour in 2001.
Togo.

1 10

But Togo admits First Nations surfers
were – and still are – always underrepresented in the water.

Today, Togo runs an Indigenous consultancy based on the Gold Coast to help
businesses consider their cultural impact
and operate in sensitive ways. Helping
to pioneer the First Nations Youth HighPerformance Program has been a highlight
of his work.
Participants competed for selection at
the end of 2022, then were placed in the
program from January to December 2023.

STOKING THE
NEW WAVE OF
INDIGENOUS
TALENT
Previous: Biripi surfer, Bodhi Simon,
combining ancient and modern aesthetics
to embrace her Aboriginal culture. Photo:
Macfarlane • Top: Bodhi bringing the
self-expression to a frontside carve. Photo:
Macfarlane • Bottom: Taj Simon throwing a
deadly lay-back snap.

“If I had something
like this when I was
younger, I feel like
I would’ve excelled
in my personal life
and in my surfing
life. It’s just a great
way for Indigenous
kids to connect with
other Indigenous
surfers.”

They attend three high-performance Charitable Foundation and major partner
camps at different locations throughout Billabong, plus Mark Richards Surfboards,
the year – the first was held at Melbourne’s FCS and Surfboard Empire. It might be
URBNsurf wave pool and Phillip Island in icky to acknowledge, but Togo says it’s
February, and the second at Lennox Head an important aspect. Funding support is
in July. A third is yet to come. The surfers essential to break down barriers for Indigalso receive and follow individual training enous kids to get into surfing.
plans that prioritise wellbeing and cultural
identity, in addition to technical aspects “One of the biggest barriers is that surfing
like strength and conditioning, sports is not a cheap sport. It’s not like soccer
psychology, life skills, trick acquisition where you can go and buy a $10 ball and
become an expert. It’s an expensive sport
and goal setting.
to get into, and it’s expensive when you
Gumbaynggirr-Bundjalung man, surfer start competing because then there’s
and artist Otis Carey attended the first travel involved,” he says.
camp in Victoria and is an ongoing mentor
“There are a million heroes out there for
to the young surfers.
the average surfer. But when we talk about
“Growing up there was nothing really like the small amount of Indigenous kids who
are surfing…it’s really important to have
this,” offers Carey.
role models and mentors who offer those
“I only knew about three other Indigenous kids the opportunity to see what’s possisurfers. I never had many other Indig- ble.”
enous role models to look up to. If I had
something like this when I was younger, I Meet the deadly Simon siblings
feel like I would’ve excelled in my personal
life and in my surfing life. It’s just a great A dark shape appearing below your
way for Indigenous kids to connect with dangling feet in a lonely lineup is most
other Indigenous surfers. It’s great there’s surfers’ definition of terror. For the
a cultural aspect to the program as well.” Simons, it’s a symbol of protection and
hope.
All the camps, travel, training and mentoring are paid for through Surfing Austra- Sharks are a totem of the Biripi people
lia with sponsorship from Norm J Innis of the mid-north NSW coast and Biripi

1 12

siblings Bodhi Simon (16) and her older
brother Taj Simon (19) feel a unique affinity for the ocean predator.
“One of our totems is a shark. I’ll be out
in the surf and there will be a baby shark,
and everyone will be freaking out around
me. But I just think it’s one of our uncles
or aunties passing by,” says Bodhi.
“I had this moment one time, a day before
my birthday, and I was surfing late out at
Snapper. This shark swum under me, and
I was like ooh – I had a little bit of a scare
because it was dark. But then I got home
and told my dad and he said, ‘That was
probably just poppy Joe passing by, saying
hello and happy birthday.’”
Bodhi and Taj are two participants in
the inaugural First Nations Youth HighPerformance Program above. With zero
fear and plenty of competitive rivalry
between them, the pair are pushing hard
to be among the next generation of Indigenous Australians competing on the World
Tour.
“Becoming a World Champion is something I definitely would love to make
happen,” says Bodhi. “Even if I don’t get
that chance, I’d love to see one of our
Indigenous surfers claiming a World Title,
for sure.”

STOKING THE
NEW WAVE OF
INDIGENOUS
TALENT
Top: Traditional rituals bring meaning and
pride and maintain the lineage in the oldest
continuous living culture in the world.
Middle: Otis Carey has carved a path as a
highly successful, Indigenous surfer and
artist. Bottom: Dancing to the beat of the
Bilma sticks. Photos: Macfarlane

“I really hope it
inspires other
Indigenous girls
to want to get out
there and surf more,
to just enjoy it, have
fun and not stop
surfing.”

Taj says he wouldn’t even mind travelling
with his little sister if it means they can
both reach their goals.
“I like competing, to make the CT would
be pretty good and to be able to travel the
world and surf would be pretty cool. It
would be really sick if both of us got to do
it together. Me and Bodhi get along pretty
well, we’re pretty close as siblings, I think
it would be better travelling with her than
other people,” Taj says.
While they now live on Bundjalung lands
of the Gold Coast, the Simon siblings
grew up near the notoriously shark-happy
waters of Port Kembla. It was there that
the oldest of the Simon kids, Summer, first
took to surfing and was closely followed
by Taj and then Bodhi. The family affair
has come full circle, as Summer was asked
to be a coordinator on the First Nations
High-Performance Program that Taj and
Bodhi qualified for. The fourth and youngest sibling, Malia, is also a rising talent
who just claimed the under 12s title in
the Snapper Rocks Surfriders Club 2023
series in September.

ocean and to the salt water. It brings me designed for Billabong was profound for
closer to my ancestors, my people, every- Bodhi. After meeting Carey on her first
High- Performance Camp in February, he
thing about my culture,” she explains.
became mentor to the young surfer. Carey
A lot of things need to go right for any offered Bodhi an opportunity to be part of
surfer to become a world champion and a photoshoot for his range and, as a result,
there are costs most of us take for granted Bodhi Simon’s name and image appears
before we can even try. Not only buying all over the Billabong website and social
surfboards, but living within close access media.
to a beach, and the ability to travel for
waves tend to be blessings of the wealthy. “It was such a good opportunity to be part
of his shoot for the Billabong range. I had
“Money is the biggest barrier [to higher so much fun, and I gained a lot of exposure. In that way it really helped,” she says.
Indigenous participation],” says Taj.
“I haven’t done a lot of competitions just “I really hope it inspires other Indigenous
because it’s so pricey. There are a lot of girls to want to get out there and surf more,
comps overseas now and it’s a lot of money to just enjoy it, have fun and not stop surfto be able to get to them. If you don’t have ing.
any support it can be hard.”
“It’s so good for our people to just show
Fortunately, Taj has a Rip Curl sponsor- that we can do it too. And for girls, young
ship and Billabong has supported Bodhi girls, for them to grow up and want to do
for the past four years. However, the better.”
additional financial benefits of the HighPerformance Program can’t be ignored,
including an arguably priceless element
of ongoing coaching and mentorship from
former pros.

Despite neither of their parents surfing,
Bodhi says she was always drawn to the The less-obvious barrier to participation is
the challenge of gaining media and adverwater.
tising exposure. It’s why an opportunity
“With my Indigenous heritage, I feel like to collaborate with renowned artist and
I have such a strong connection to the surfer Otis Carey on an Indigenous range

1 14

.

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UNEARTHED:
PHOTOS FROM
THE ARCHIVE
OF STEPHEN
COONEY
Simon Anderson, 1976

During the 70s, the Northern Beaches of
Sydney, Australia was a melting pot for
surfboard experimentation, development
and execution. The heavyweights of the
industry gravitated to Brookvale, which
had a rightful claim to being the epicentre
of ‘Shortboard Revolution’ in the 60s. As
the euphoria around the ‘Fantastic Plastic
Machines’ (7’6” wide bodied V-bottoms)
subsided, there was a hunger among a
younger generation to go further. Shorter,
narrower, lower volume craft with different
rail and bottom configurations came into
focus. The younger Australians were now
exerting their performance-focused prowess in Hawaii, the home of surfing. Sure,
there was some conflict but the underlying love of surfing and the mutual desire to
evolve the design of what was under their
feet in the water prevailed.
Fortunately, I grew up surfing North
Narrabeen. The most consistent quality
break in Sydney, it played host to a number
of surfer/shapers committed to rethinking
and testing new surfboard innovations.
Terry Fitzgerald, Col Smith, Butch Cooney
(my brother), Geoff McCoy, Frank Latta…
the list goes on. I remember Simon Anderson as one of the younger, North Narrabeen based surfer/shapers, who was learning the craft of surfboard design from his
peers.
In the 70s Simon Anderson was one of the
Australian invaders who took his North
Narrabeen-honed, trademark backhand
attack to the Hawaiian holy grail of Pipeline. At Pipe he pulled the same backhand disappearing act I had watched him
complete so many times at ‘Northy’. The

1 20

pliable backhand attack, which featured a
classic big-man’s layback, eventually won
him the Pipeline Masters in 1981.

stuff for myself. I found the Stinger to give
you a nice pivot point in backfoot turns
enabling you to carve tight in the pocket.”

While Simon was a standout in Hawaii he
was also an astute observer of surf craft
who quietly studied, and adopted, some
of the design evolutions making an impact
on the North Shore. I took this photo in
Brookvale during the mid-70s, outside the
factory housing the beginnings of Morning Star, a label founded by Col Smith and
Wayne Warner, the father of Brett Warner
who has carried on the family tradition
under the well-respected, North Narrabeen label, Warner Surfboards label. As I
recall, Simon became part of the Morning
Star team after cutting his shaping teeth at
Shane Surfboards just a few blocks away.
Without any practical experience regarding
the shape Simon is holding, I reached out
to him for some insights.

Gratefully, to help me justify my own
lack of detail regarding this photo from
many years ago, Simon offered, “I have no
specific memories of the shape I’m holding, but I believe it would have been for me
and looks to be 7’0, which was the length I
was generally using. Judging by the Shane
t-shirt I think it was most likely shaped in
1975/76 after Ben introduced the Stinger/
Sting to the world. I thought the shape
looked fast and ultra-modern.”

Simon recalls, “Obviously inspired by the
Ben Aipa ‘Sting’, or ‘Stinger’, this shape
would have been done shortly after Ben
introduced it. MR was surfing a Ben Aipa
Sting during the ‘77 Stubbies against
Michael Peterson, which MP won.
So, MR was surfing one. Mike Ho, Buttons
and Mark Liddel were impressive surfing
this innovation on the North Shore, not
to mention Ben himself, and they looked
good.”
Reminding me of our long mutual surfing
history Simon added, “Growing up in the
era we did, the Short Board Revolution,
I was always highly influenced by other
shapers’ work and wanted to try out new

To state the bleeding obvious, Simon not
only achieved great competitive success
surfing his self-shaped single fins but hit
another level when he won the Easter event
at Bells Beach, Victoria in 1981 in a perfect
8-10’ Southern Ocean onslaught on his
three fin ‘Thruster’ innovation, which
changed the face of surfboard design
forever.
NB. “Attached is a photo of me (Simon)
surfing Dee Why Point by Peter Crawford,
I believe to be a Stinger 7’0.”

WATER
COLOURED
WAVES:
PADANG
PADANG
THE DISTILLED SURFING MEMORIES OF DAVE SPARKES.
Words & painting by Dave Sparkes

DESPITE HAVING MADE SCORES OF TRIPS
TO INDONESIA, AND DOZENS TO BALI, I’VE
NEVER SURFED PADANG PADANG. BEFORE
YOU SNICKER, LET ME EXPLAIN.
So in the early 80s, despite Padang still
being uncrowded, as a natural footer it
just didn’t seem worth the effort. You can
surf it out on the face and all, and avoid
the pit, but when the alternative was surfing 8-10ft Outside Corner Ulu (one of my
favourite waves anywhere) I’d rather that
than trying to shirk 4-6ft tubes at Padang.
Consequently it was simply off my radar,
I’ve since developed a reasonable pig dog and if I wasn’t surfing Ulu (please don’t call
method, but it has always been pretty it “Ulu’s”. That hideous S is like nails down
erratic, and prone to fail under pressure, the blackboard to my delicate ear) I’d be
which is quite shithouse since that’s exactly hunting on the other side of the Bukit for
what you’re under when you attempt to righthanders, like any self respecting natupull in backhand. It’s understandable, since ral footer of the day.
I learned to surf in the pre-pig dog era, and
my ancient paradigm held pretty fast when Fine, so why haven’t I surfed it yet? I missed
it came to old dogs, new tricks. Of course, that boat. By the time I felt like I could get
nearly every grommet today does it easily, pitted out there without face planting into
riding on the coat tails of those pioneers the reef, the crowds had moved in. And in
who struggled for decades to crack the code. particular, the locals. For a long time, locals

My first trip to Bali happened in 1982,
when I was 20. In those distant days, even
the best surfers – world champs, the lot –
struggled to ride the tube backhand. Most
of them failed utterly. Pig dogging was a
nascent skill, Michael Ho’s Pipe victory
that same year being one of the first times
most of us had seen it done.

1 22

who surfed weren’t a crowd factor in Indonesia. They were too busy trying to survive,
and the affluence that allows westerners the
luxury of surf leisure was rarely attainable
for them.
Times have changed, and now good days
at Padang are a full house, and then some.
Also, the place needs a huge south swell to
stir, and only turns on for a handful of days
each year. When it does, the local lads rule
it, and any crumbs go to hot expats, and
the dregs to hot tourists. If you’re simply a
really good surfer, you’ll get nothing.
Destiny just didn’t want me to surf Padang,
and who am I to argue with that?

STORIES FROM THE TRACKS PRINT STORE

SOLITUDE
AT SEA
Photo by John Barton

A solitary palm tree at the edge
of the reef rises above the sea level
as the ocean laps up against the
camera’s lens port. Perhaps you will
seek a profound metaphor in John
Barton’s image – the singular palm
that defiantly resists the elements to
rise proudly skyward might serve as
an inspiration for your own life, or
perhaps, as the title suggests, the
image will bring a welcome sense of
solitude and harmony to an otherwise
hectic life. Or maybe it’s just a good

1 24

way to get a tree in the loungeroom.
Whichever way you choose to view
the frame it will certainly look good
on the wall.
This shot is available for purchase
in the Tracks Print Store, where
you will find an eclectic mix of the
abstract, the adrenaline-fuelled,
and everything else in between.
Scan the QR code to see our full
array of good stuff to hang on
your wall.

12 5

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GRANT ‘TWIGGY’ BAKER ENVELOPED IN A LUMINESCENT, DESERT OASIS.
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