Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 563 i Tracks

First impressions tend to resonate; particularly when you have the benefit of other encounters to furnish those initial perceptions with more meaning. As time goes by the things hinted at all those years not only become clearer, but also take on new layers. When I first met Mark Mathews he was a skinny schoolboy, scrambling around the bank at the northern corner of Maroubra they still call the Dunny Bowl, with Koby Abberton. Mark was private schooled, bright – the son of a surgeon. However, despite having the potential to choose whichever path he desired, he’d already apprenticed himself to Koby; hitched his ride to a hellman who could lead him down all kinds of paths in and out of the water. It was a bold choice of mentor but…

1. Equipment choice for G-Land can be determined largely by how big the surf is going to be. If you have the luxury of being able to pack your boards a few days before a trip then you’re well-placed to get it right. If you are looking at a forecast of 4-6 feet and not too much bigger then you can pack your normal shortboard and spare, along with at least one or two step-up boards, 2-4 inches bigger than your normal boards. When the forecast is looking more wholesome in the range of 8-10ft you want to have your mid-range guns ready to blaze! Of course you will still need a shortboard and your step-ups, but now it’s time to consider a 6’8 to 7’2 range board. How far…

The robots are coming. By 2025 up to 40% of Aussie jobs could be performed by machines, drones or fiendishly clever Apps, according to a recent, eye-popping statistic. Machines, of course, have been replacing surfboard industry jobs for some time and while they look certain to dominate there has been some pushback. The endangered hand-shaper continues to service a dedicated niche who prefer their surf craft custom designed and man-made. And in an increasingly automated world, products that are organic, authentic and handmade should only gain in value. South Coast shaper, Jed Done, is banking on hand-shapes holding value and appeal. This summer he and his wife Patricia plan to open a surfboard store at Pambula on the NSW far south coast and stock it exclusively with boutique hand-shapes. There’ll…

With his quads still burning from runs at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch, Wilko spoke openly about the wave pool experience and suggested that a complete restructure of the WSL will be fully implemented in 2019. See the second break-out for Wilko’s insights on the wave-pool. Note: This interview was conducted before any formal statement about changes to the tour had been made by the WSL. What about the changes to the tour that everyone is talking about – The shorter tour season, the Indo play-offs series, the season starting in Hawaii? It’s pretty much happening I think … It won’t come into effect next year but the year after, 2019. What are your thoughts on it? It sounds pretty exciting I reckon. Obviously at the moment, the current system is…

First released in 1966, the Bruce Brown, travel epic, The Endless Summer, still resonates with viewers today. While the footage may be more than 50 years old, when you watch Californians Robert August and Mike Hynson head to the airport in fitted suits, with boards under one arm and suitcases in the other, the world seems full of surfing possibilities. With Bruce Brown frantically winding his Bolex camera to capture the action, Mike and Robert trim across hypnotic lines at Cape St Francis, get mobbed by local kids in Ghana, drop in on the nascent Australian scene, sample Hawaiian juice and ride waves back out to sea in Tahiti. For many surfers The Endless Summer was the catalyst for a lifetime of surf travel. While Hynson and August were the…

With a coastline of more than 720 amazing beaches, an abundance of world-class waves is never far away in NSW. And surfers know they’ll find a treasure trove of glorious point breaks, sand-bottom A-frames and a myriad of enticing reef set-ups up and down the coast. But how many of these hallowed NSW breaks have you sampled? With top locations such as Avoca, Cabarita, Culburra, Boomerang and Maroubra on the NSW Summer of Surfing calendar, it’s time to pack your board and hit the road. Along the way you’ll discover the cool vibe of small coastal towns and the energy of big city beaches. Just pull on a rashie and join in the fun of a pro competition, witness world-class surfing up close and embrace the festive vibe that always…

//_MIKEY_WRIGHT_BOSKO_15R9693.JPG You might remember all the way back in October the WSL held a surfing competition in France. You know, the one Gabriel Medina won, just before he backed it up with another in Portugal and cast an intimidating shadow over what is now John John’s Hawaiian world title campaign? Remember? Good. Well, while the world title contenders shuffled to and from the water in coloured singlets at La Gravière, a few hundred metres down the beach Mikey Wright, in town to film for Quiksilver and to support his siblings in their respective events, shuffled his own way to the water’s edge, mullet blowing resplendent in the breeze. He then paddled out and proceeded to deliver the first in a series of balls-to-the-wall freesurfs that would soon leave jaws on…

‘The man with many boards is never bored.’ Or so begins the gospel according to Eddie Wearne—husband, father, and multiboarder from Rye, Victoria. But what is multiboarding, exactly? Is it the latest term for craft-swapping in a sport that loves to reinvent its jargon? Or is it a full-blown discipline, one founded on the idea of riding waves in as many different ways as possible? The word’s yet to find a place in any official dictionary, but to hear Eddie’s account of it, it certainly sounds like the latter. You see, Eddie’s a man who loves his boards, and as the owner of the Shed Nine core store in Rye, he’s been fortunate enough to have a few come across his counter over the past decade. ‘If a board comes…

 He looks like a younger, less intense Jordy Smith. A tall, dark, strapping lad with the finesse of a dancer and the smile of a lottery winner. Born and bred in Cronulla to an Aussie dad and a Japanese mum, Connor O’Leary is emerging from the shadows and making his way. Currently he sits inside the top 10 after a string of good results including a podium finish in Fiji. He’s surged past a pack of more fancied rookies and put a succession of surf royalty to the sword. Julian, Jordy, Kelly, Owen, Parko – that’s quite a collection of scalps to bring back to your campfire at night. And O’Leary is just getting started. The journey to the top of any professional sport is notoriously difficult but few sports…

What was the wave pool experience like? It was so sick … the only thing was you pretty much couldn’t get a big score unless you got to the end … The wave is so long that you take off, do three sick turns, get a long sick barrel ... if you get caught on a turn then they can’t give you any more than a five. If they had three or four opportunities and one counted that would be pretty nuts. What was the delay time between waves when you were surfing the event in the pool? I think they were running every four minutes, but on the practice days we were doing every three minutes. That’s three minutes from the start of your wave and your wave goes…

Spencer Frost is a 23-year-old filmmaker who grew up in Avalon on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Frost’s film ‘Home’ recently took out the Fisherflicks short-film competition and rapidly gained status as the Vimeo equivalent of a cult classic. ‘Home’ combines a narrative approach with sophisticated cinematography to tell the engaging story of Bob, a devoted surfer who has spent much of his life living out of his van. Below, Spencer discusses the critical choices he made when creating the film, including using a soundtrack composed by his dad. To see ‘Home’ search ‘Fisherflicks’ on Tracksmag.com . Did you study film? I actually never got around to it. At the same time as all my friends started studying, I started getting paid gigs to film for clients. So I…

From The Vault. Johnny Boy Gomes – Photo: Lance Slabbert Just when you thought Johnny Boy had disappeared from the surf scene, there he was caddying for Makua Rothman in the Pe’ahi Challenge. This shot from an ere when Johnny Boy ruled backdoor with an iron-fist. Follow. Check da cool sprays and diverse designs. @pccboards Listen - ‘The Dusky Lanes’ by The Dusky Lanes A regular live act around Newcastle this super-tight act features well-crafted songs, resonating vocals and slick guitar work. Well worth checking out. https://soundcloud.com/theduskylanes Behind The Cover. By Bosko The shot was taken at Gas Chambers in Hawaii. I was with Connor on the beach and pointed out to the lefts coming off Gas Chambers and going into Rocky Point rights. There were some big ramps and…

While watching a surfing competition on the internet recently I started thinking about what it takes for a professional surfer to break through and become a winner of competitions rather than just a high place getter. I also thought about the mindset it must take for a young surfer to surf against their heroes and what it must take to beat them. Later that day I happened to see Cheyne Horan getting out of the surf and after a quick catch-up chat, remembered that he had become famous as a grommet for being a “giant slayer”, so I asked him what it took, as well as when he realised he had really “made it” as a professional surfer and he told me a story he had never told me before.…

Surfing has entered a new age. Wave system technology has thrust our modus vivendi beyond the ocean, and into the backyards of landlocked masses and the hands of billion dollar investors. In years to come, the artificial proliferation of surfing is set to stretch across the globe. The wave pool revolution poses exciting questions and unforeseen consequences. It will drastically alter the professional sphere of surfing, and spell subtle changes in the landscape of the everyday surfer. Fast forward 20 years, and what will a surf trip look like? Will the surf trip still even exist? Or will surfing be so accessible that we needn’t venture within a 5km radius of our home? Speculations aside, there are some parts of the world impenetrable to forms of new technology. Up in…

The initial success of Tracks from when it was launched in October 1970, not only helped to fund the 1972 landmark film Morning Of The Earth, but indirectly it provided a nurturing environment for a whole emerging generation of surf film-makers. This wasn’t the first time that a surf magazine had played a pivotal role in surf film – for a decade before this Bob Evans had used Surfing World to help fund and promote his annual contributions to the genre, and before him, John Severson had created a magazine, The Surfer, specifically to promote his first films – but Tracks in those days still had a hippy ethos, a sharing, caring side that meant it was happy to promote not only the films of its publisher and co-founder, Albert…

There is a famous quote by novelist Jeffery Eugenides about the inadequacy of language to capture emotions. It goes like this: “Emotions, in my experience, aren’t covered by single words. I don’t believe in “sadness,” “joy,” or “regret.”… I’d like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, “the happiness that attends disaster.” The happiness that attends disaster… This particular hybrid emotion comes to mind when I think about the recent surf trip I took to Mexico. However, it wasn’t quite as simple as that. ‘The happiness that attends disaster’ was one complicated hybrid emotion amongst many. Others included ‘the guilt of good fortune’, or ‘the frustration of a ruined party’, and of course, ‘the fear of missing out’. But I’m getting ahead of myself.…