Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 557 i Tracks

It’s no secret that most surfcraft are made from a whole lot of nasty. The toxic materials that underpin our dreamy lifestyle are bad for the planet and much worse for the lungs of industry workers. One industry-quaking example occurred when America’s biggest blank manufacturer, Clark Foam, was forced to close because of issues with environmental regulations. And then there’s the carbon footprint associated with importing/exporting and the fact that boards have an annoying tendency to break in two and end up on waste dumps like so many other short-use petrochemical detritus. Over the decades a bunch of innovative shapers have beaten a fresh left field path attempting to improve the situation. We’ve seen boards made from bamboo, hemp and balsa glassed with stronger and less toxic alternatives. In some…

I’m sitting beside a campfire with my mate Benno. On the table, an open map is sprawled between breakfast bowls and empty beer bottles. We’re poring the pages with grubby fingers, scanning a few thousand k’s of coastline that is, even now in this age of satellites and Google Maps, relatively unknown and unsurfed. South Australia is one of the final frontiers of surf travel; it’s a long trip from West Oz, but exploring this area is going to involve a few weeks sleeping rough, getting on each other’s nerves, lots of beer and tinned food, and truth be told, inhaling each other’s farts. Along the way, there’s a good chance we’ll encounter world-class waves with nobody out but a couple of white pointers. Benno glances up from his beer…

“FOR THE LIFE OF ME I CANNOT FIGURE OUT WHO THE GUY IS GETTING BARRELLED HERE. SOMETIMES IT’S BETTER TO NOT KNOW, AND JUST HAVE IT BE ANYONE, EVERYONE AND NO ONE – JUST A GUY STANDING TALL IN HIS 'ONE MORE BEFORE DARK' MOMENT. EVEN WHEN THE SUN SNEAKS BEHIND THE HORIZON IN HAWAII THERE’S OFTEN SOME REALLY BEAUTIFUL TWILIGHTS. I LIKE TO THINK OF THESE SUPER LOW SHUTTER SPEED BLURS AS BEING SIMILAR TO OIL PAINTINGS. YOU DON’T HAVE TO SEE EVERY LAST CRISP DETAIL TO APPRECIATE THE OVERALL IMAGE. ALLOW YOUR EYES RELAX A BIT AND LET YOUR IMAGINATION TAKE OVER.” TREVOR MORAN “IT WAS HUGE EVERYWHERE THIS DAY. BUT IT WAS A WEIRD HUGE. NOT QUITE BIG ENOUGH TO FIRE UP THE OUTER REEFS, BUT SUNSET…

It was almost a full lap of the sun ago, on the 25th of February 2016, when John Florence emerged from the shorebreak at Waimea Bay as the winner of the 2016 Eddie Aikau Invitational. It was the dream start to what would be a dream year for the then 23-year-old Hawaiian, one that would culminate with John becoming the 2016 World Champion of Surfing. December rolled around and John was back on Hawaiian soil, World Title trophy tucked safely under arm. With all the hard work done the intention must have been to enjoy a pressure free victory lap at home, perhaps by bookending his year with a Triple Crown victory. Who knows, maybe John could even lay his hands on the Pipe Masters trophy, a victory he must…

For the past few years images of Scott ‘Whippy’ Dennis have bombarded the Tracks office in various guises – Whippy’s ropey frame standing tall through a contorted slab, Whippy casually slaloming down a toppling, offshore bombie while wearing a broad smile, or Whippy as the faceless man behind Leroy Bellet’s other-worldly tow-behind shots. Plenty of big wave surfers are paid bigger sums than Whippy and many have received more accolades, but few go harder than the roaming South Coast charger who has been known to redline it for 2000km to chase a swell that’s colliding with a button of submerged rock on the other side of Australia. Although restlessly focussed on putting himself in the way of every major swell that hits his targeted waves, Whippy is also that classic…

I love the fact that the mid-north coast of New South Wales is populated by so many little groups of female retro 70s cool-cat surfers. They look like they’re imitating women from another era, while roaming the region, harmlessly, blissfully, and thankfully, not competitively. It’s so nice to see these chilled-out chicks having so much fun while so scantily clad. They wile away the hours, often posturing in their dishevelled VW Kombi vans, like languishing highly paid felines, inhabiting their gap-year German time machines. Most will return to a more conventional life once this bucket list box has been ticked. Jack Kerouac’s On The Road will be replaced by university text and all that will remain of this magical time will be their memories … oh, and all the GoPro…

It’s the question you get asked every year. ‘What would you like for Christmas?’ How about one of the best waves in recorded Pipeline history? That’s exactly what Mason Ho got on December 25 of 2016 when he glided into a Pipe chamber that engulfed his jockey-sized frame. Wearing his trademark short-john, Mason stayed tight in the saddle as he grab-railed into a chasm that made him look like a mouse running the gauntlet through a wombat burrow. John John, Kelly and Jamie O’ were all part of the Pipe Christmas party, but none of them bettered Mason’s yuletide screamer. While many modern Pipe specialists like to ride shorter boards and knife straight into the inside reef, Mason often prefers a more classical Pipe approach. He will ride a longer…

WindanSea Surf Club was established in San Diego in 1963 by first President Chuck Hasley. It was the first, truly global invitational club with branches in Mexico, Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. Built on prestige and invitational only entry, the fiercely competitive nature of the club burned an indelible mark across the Australian surfing landscape. In an era predating an organised world circuit, signing on with WindanSea was a bona fide indication that you were part of surfing’s elite. The original Bondi club was established in late 1964 when three Bondi surfers, Max Bowman, Dennis Lindsay and David Spencer travelled to California and Mexico to go surfing. The Aussie trio were persuaded by American WindanSea members such as Butch Van Artsdalen and others to form an Australian…

As three of the highest profile free surfers in the world they all have access to the kind of good life that surfing fame can bring – pimped out boat trips and jet skis, New York sojourns and Hollywood hook ups; decked out pads and high-end hotels, designer labels and backing to start labels of their own. All three also have enough sway with the right people to make a call and mobilise a mission to just about any wave in the world. Yet despite having so many desirous destinations to choose from they elect to drive thousands of kilometres to an inhospitable stretch of Australian coast where the desert sun can fry your eyeballs and fear is inspired in equal measures by the finned creatures swimming below the surface…

“ HE SOMEHOW SEES SOMETHING ATTRACTIVE AND PEACEFUL WHEN LOOKING AT WAVES THAT ARE UNDENIABLY UGLY AND ANGRY. ” "I guess the thing that stands out to me is just his unconditional froth for getting barrelled. Not just your standard, dreamy barrel either – preferably big, round ones with next to no water on them and very little chance of actually riding out successfully. He is completely dedicated to chasing swells wherever they dare to appear, even if it means 48 hours of straight driving while carting our stinky carcasses across the country in his beloved Hilux. If he had dedicated as much time to competitive surfing as he did to chasing slabs, he would be world champ. Whenever a swell shows up at home, whatever plan you have mustered…

I grew up on the south coast of NSW in a small town called Broulee. My local break was a quick 10-minute pushy ride away from our house, and like most young surfers in this close-knit beachside community, I was free to make my own way to the surf and back again. This was a blessed upbringing, and one I always took for granted. Young surfers living on the NSW north coast, where I now live, have been coming to terms with a different kind of reality. One in which the idea of sharks – the fear of being attacked, the media stirrups, and the complicated and often heated environmental and political discussions surrounding them – is part and parcel of their surfing lives. With a spate of attacks occurring…