Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 559 i Tracks

Like treasure hunters, surfers are prepared to go to almost any lengths to find a trove of gems with the right shape, size and colour; even if they leave us clutching at nothing but the memories of the rides we’ve had. However, like the treasure seeker who is consumed by his lust for riches, there is a risk that the focus of our search becomes too single-dimensional. Sure, we all want to get mindlessly barrelled on every trip, but our zeal for waves shouldn’t entirely blind us to the other joys of travel. Surf expeditions don’t only reveal a range of new set ups, they also introduce us to a myriad of cultures and people. If we choose diverse paths and approach our encounters with open minds then the journey…

Ten years ago Shaun Cansdell seemed destined for a long and fruitful career on the World Championship Tour. He'd just come off a promising rookie season, a season highlighted by a runner-up finish at pumping Cloudbreak in just his fourth event, and despite missing out on Rookie of the Year honours, all signs pointed to the explosive goofy-footer going from strength to strength in his sophomore year. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out that way. Following a less than stellar run of results that saw him rarely make it past the dreaded second round, at the end of 2007 the kid they called Cans found himself being bounced back to the WQS. What followed was not the swift resurrection to the big leagues that both his fans and peers expected, but…

“No poison, right?” It was surprisingly heavy, Louie thought, as the snake wrapped its thick, sluggish body around his neck, draping itself along his arms and weaving around his back. The man looked up at Louie from his position on the floor, cross-legged on a woven mat, a cobra at his feet. He sized him up, taking in the curly blonde locks, the vaguely sunburnt face, the seemingly relaxed posture. A smirk spread across his face. “Just little poison. Only kidney failure.” Two weeks ago, Luke Hynd was lounging on his balcony on the Gold Coast quite literally twiddling his thumbs. His feet rested on the salt-rusted railing, his eyes shut. The northerlies were blowing, the swell was pushing straight past the points, the bluebottles were invading and going for…

A ribbon of gold, curled just so by the reef at HT’s to make it look like a gift-wrapped present from some divine being to surfers. There are other subtler elements that contribute to the magic of this Indo moment – the halo of spray caressing the lip, the hint of electric green in the tube; the dramatic, giant cotton balls of cumulus cloud in the background and the light ripples on the oily surface. Not a single surfer is riding the gold-brushed coil so the photo becomes more universal – much easier to imagine that it could be you on that wave. However, the presence of a few surfers in the lineup adds the necessary human element – reassures you that it’s not just an illusion, it’s something very…

Released in 2004 Young Guns 2 took surfing to a new place in more ways than one. Quiksilver was still awash with money and boasted a marketing budget that would make modern employees weep. The following year they paid half a billion dollars for ski-wear company Rosignol; a decision that would ultimately sink the company, but when the Young Guns sequel was being made it was still raining cash on the Good Ship Quiksilver. The Good Ship Quiksliver was actually the Indes Trader IV. Skipper Martin Daly had already been working on The Quiksilver Crossing concept when he came across a 115-foot charter (called True North) in Northern Queensland that he simply had to have. After convincing Quiky co-founder, Alan Green, to go halves with him, Daly transformed the boat…

It's easy to sink back in your hoodie and become cynical about almost anything these days. Even world travel, once agreed to be totally awesome, hasn't escaped the jaded mindset. Former surfing paradises are either crowded, polluted or plain done, people will tell you. Nowhere is truly wild or pristine anymore they'll insist. Older surfers tend to envy the lives of intrepid explorers like Peter Troy, Lance Knight and William Finnegan who saw the world before Google mapped it. We moan about the accelerated pace by which new waves are exposed, promoted and then swamped by Russians. But we're bum tripping. How else do you explain the number of thoroughly amazing waves discovered this century? World class set ups like P-Pass in the Caroline Islands, Skeleton Bay in Namibia, and…

It was on Valentines Day this year that Rip Curl gifted us with their game-changing Ain’t No Wave Pool clip, and in doing so rekindled surfing’s romance with travel and the notion of the exotic secret spot. Whether this was an intentional gesture on their behalf or not isn’t clear, what is clear however, is that it came at just the right time. It’s long been argued that the undiscovered secret spots of such magnificence simply didn’t exist anymore. That Skeleton Bay was the last of them. That Earth is far too observed, accessible and documented now – to the ridiculous point where its 510.1 million square kilometre surface area has begun to seem almost claustrophobic. However, the shocking vision of a solo Mick Fanning racing those endless, roping iridescent…

Imagine deciding that you were going to take your three-year-old son and three-month-old daughter on a global surfing adventure that spanned six continents, 15 countries and 40 cities. Intrepid, surfing-super-couple, Aamion and Daize Goodwin, not only embarked on the ultimate family adventure, they filmed the whole experience with good friend, Jess Bianchi. Aamion is best known as the tall, string-limbed goofy footer who climbed the North Shore ranks to become a modern Pipeline specialist, while Daize is a former two-time world long-boarding champion. Given, directed by Jessi Bianchi, is a global adventure that immerses you in the Goodwin's quest to embrace the richness and diversity of the planet's natural and human wonders. Told through the eyes of their six-year-old son (whose name is Given), the film is a travel epic…

It's May 1994 and the enigmatic Tom Curren has turned his back on contests to become surfing's ultimate guru figure. If Tom has emerged as a kind of surfing Dalai Lama then The Rip Curl Search is his pilgrimage. The Search, a bold and brilliant marketing concept for its time, gives Curren and his nomadic cohorts the freedom to chase the best waves on the globe. It pays off when Curren's early Search exploits in J-bay and other parts of Africa blow minds, but what happens next will become perhaps his defining Search moment. Fresh off a four-hour night surf at Nias (lit up by dinghies in the channel), the Search team, which includes Frankie Olberhozer, Byron Howarth and Chris Davidson, chase the same swell to Bawa, the next morning.…

“This is the best wave I have ever surfed in my life.” That’s the cover line that ran above the shot of a lanky Dave Rastovich soul-arching beneath a 10ft bend in the Indian Ocean. Truth be told Tracks ran four different covers (Rasta, Ando, Craikey and Dingo) of the November 2011 issue. The virgin wave we’d found while travelling aboard the Mangalui was so good we couldn’t decide who most deserved page one, so we ran four. It had begun as a regulation Indo boat trip with a high calibre crew that included the four surfers above, along with Ben Godwin, Ozzie Wright and Chris del Moro. Eager to make a radical departure from the standard Mentawai milk run, Mangalui captain, Matt Cruden, coerced the crew into hunting a…

S RESORTS BALI, INDONESIA w. www.theperfectwave.com.au e. info@theperfectwave.com.au THE REGION The Bukit Peninsula lies at the southern end of the island of Bali. It is one of the most consistent destinations in the world because it picks up all available Indian Ocean swell and the tradewinds blow offshore for nearly 8 months of the year from March through October. There are six world class reefbreaks within 10 minutes drive from S – Resorts that deliver waves for all levels. You can get pitted at Padang, Bingin and Racetracks at Ulu’s, cruise on a gun at Outside Corner, or go ballistic on your fun board at Dreamland or Impossibles. THE RESORT Nestled into an idyllic location on the Bukit peninsula, S Resorts Hidden Valley is the perfect choice in Bali for people…

Sometimes it feels like there are no new waves left to discover. Perhaps this is true for certain regions where surfing has been going on a long time. But in truth, there are other, less obvious places to look for new waves, if you harbour that kind of curiosity. One such place is the icey, brutal, seething Baltic Sea, that skirts the nordic coastlines of Scandinavia. In comparison to exploring more tropical locales, the drawbacks are many – ice cream headaches, numb extremities, shit waves – to name a few. But there are rewards, says Australian-born Swedish resident and surfer, Joel Den-Besten. And the difference is that in Sweden, the leg-work hasn’t been done for you. There’s no Stormrider’s Guide to the Swedish coast which stretches for more than 3200km,…

This side-sling wedge hugging the wilderness backdrop combines with this guy’s groovy pig-dog stance to create a super-cute surfing moment. While Photographer, Marcus Paladino, didn’t disclose the exact whereabouts of this enticing little right corner, he did give us the low-down on the general vibe of Canadian surfing. Apparently the west coast of Canada has a wide variety of accessible beach breaks, along with a few selective point breaks, while the entire coastline of Vancouver Island is riddled with world class waves (mostly rights) that are only accessible by boat. Apparently the locals are generally friendly and happy to make chattering-teeth small talk in the lineup – particularly on the east coast, which is way colder than the west. If you wanna surf the mainland points you will need a…

If you tuned in closely to this year’s Newcastle Surfest you would have seen Reunion Island’s Jorgann Couzinet pulling off some of the wildest punts of the event. Despite surfing with a broken wrist, the string-limbed goofy footer with the lick of punk-blonde hair, made the quarters by landing the kind of technical airs that inspire jump aficionados to give standing ovations in front of their screens. However, Jorgann’s excitement over his best result in a contest was stifled by the knowledge that only a few days earlier he had lost another good friend to a shark attack on Reunion Island. Below, the gently spoken Jorgann, whose first language is French, discusses losing another friend to sharks and surfing Reunion with an armed security team. How long did you spend…

An ancient ceiling fan creaks slowly overhead, chopping into the thick air with monotonous futility. Sweat is beading down my face, carving long rivers down the back of my drenched shirt, yet the man behind the counter looks impeccable. Dark hair neatly combed, a striped tie knotted elegantly around his collar. His white long-sleeve shirt remains immaculate despite the humidity that feels like you could wring it, wet and dripping, from the air. “Not possible,” he says, unblinking. “We’ll pay extra,” we plead desperately. “We’ll stand.” “Not possible,” he replies blankly. “Maybe Sunday.” Sunday. Three days from now. A swell is marching across the ocean towards a tiny speck of jungle that lies 12 hours away. We have already traversed thousands upon thousands of kilometres, days melting into departure lounges…

At some point we all fell under Indo's spell. It might have been a magazine image that served as a portal to the new world, a section of hypnotic footage that was watched on loop, or even the wide-eyed ramblings of an Indo journeyman, told to you between sets at your local beachie. Whatever the catalyst may have been you knew at that point you had to go and experience the archipelago for yourself – to discover if those stories were true and if the perfection that seduced you from the pages of magazines or the screen were real or just an illusion. The following feature is a celebration of some of those historical episodes in Indonesian surfing that placed us in a state of rapture. No doubt you will…

The rumors started in the grunge years. They spoke of a surfing paradise strewn with perfect waves somewhere in remote Indonesia. An exploratory Indies Trader trip with Tom Carroll and Martin Potter flew under the radar in 1992 but set tongues wagging when grainy photos of big perfect surf surfaced to back up the wild stories. Magazine and movie trips followed in quick succession and the secret spilled over like a dam in flood. Films like Surfers of Fortuneand Feral Kingdom feed the flames with high octane sequences. Pretty soon a fledgling surf charter industry was up and running from Padang, Sumatra and growing substantially every season. The Mentawai was so flush with incredible surf it worked as an ultra-reliable industry studio and a dream holiday destination for pros and…

Up until this point the pro tour had been firmly anchored in what might be called the sand ages, where bums on beaches were considered way more important than contest surfers getting barrels over reefs. However, Quiksilver sensed the growing disenchantment with the beachbreak tour, and the need for an event that could radically change the perception of pro surfing. It was the purple years of the surf industry and company profits for Quiksilver were soaring. So in 1995, under the guidance of marketing maverick, Bruce Raymond, the company that gave surfing "If You Can't Rock 'n' Roll Don't Fuckin Come" decided to bankroll an event at the fabled Grajagan. Suddenly the city beach, sandbank tour was throwing a jungle party on the eastern tip of Java. G-land was a…

Dubbed the ‘Century Swell’ it was the day the Indian Ocean dropped massive, electric blue bombs on the provocatively named “No” Kanduis. As the deceptively pretty coils of 8 to 15ft swell roared and munched down the left hand reef, a bunch of Indo journeyman and a few on-hand pros took a Can-dui approach to the intense, scream in blue conditions. The standouts included Dean Morrison, Koa Rothman, Parker Coffin, Craig Anderson, Tom Dosland, Billy Kemper, Eli Olson, Nate Behl and Paulo Mora. Re-watch the footage from June 2015 and you’ll see giant, guillotine-lipped shelves of ocean drop over the gauntlet runners. Kandui had never been surfed like this before. At least not with this kind of crew and a bunch of filmers and photographers on hand to document the…