Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2015 i Tracks

Dear Patagonia, It is with mixed emotions that I return these boardies to you after 15 years of outstanding service. I purchased them from your retail store in Ventura and since then they have had a busy and productive life. They paddled rivers throughout Canada, Chile, Sri Lanka and the States. Surf trips to India Sri Lanka, Indo, Aussie, Peru, Ecuador all over Mexico and have spent way in excess of 60 months accumulated in Southern Baja, where we live 1/2 time. It took years before they required any maintenance, well and as you can see they have a new ass end. A recycled beach umbrella has done the job well. Also the material flap that was hanging off for ages has now been sewn into the butt end of…

Kalani Ball is a spring-loaded teen from Stanwell Park just south of Sydney. With his greyhound frame and dynamic air-game, Ball is fast developing a reputation as a beyond the lip specialist with a solid landing gear. Photographer, Duncan Macfarlane, had nothing but praise for his subject, “He lands everything. He is such a lanky, tall kid, yet when he is on a board he looks light as hell and so freaking fast. He is precise and sharp with plenty of flare to throw around these types of airs.” While Kalani may posses the aerial chops to make it as a free surfer he’s determined to succeed in a singlet. Matt Griggs, who serves as corner-man for Owen Wright and has worked closely with Kalani, has gone so far as…

Style became a verb in the 60s. It wasn’t just something you had it was something you did. For surfers that meant gliding on water. The moves of the day were more about positioning and stance. Good surfers moved up and down their boards like dancers - nimble footed and graceful. A notable ride might feature a combination of cross steps, nose rides, switch stances and head dips. Like today it was how well you stitched everything together and married moves to the breaking wave that marked a stylish surfer. In Australia, pre-shortboard revolution, Midget Farrelly was the man to emulate. Up on the nose, hanging five, then ten, cross-step to tail, wheel that baby around, parallel stance past the next section... Midget did it all with what was memorably…

Progressive “New School” surfing isn’t new at all. It’s been bubbling away in Hawaii since the early 70s. Town surfers Larry Bertlemann, Mark Liddle and Buttons Kaluhiokalani were the first to slide tail, throwing spinners and getting rad on single fin stingers and later twinnies. Their loose and rubbery style borrowed new moves from the nascent skate scene (Bertlemann was one of the first surfers to try airs). Skate style airs and tricks didn’t have a big impact until Christian Fletcher exploded onto the scene in the 80s and showed they could be functional. With his wide stance, punk attitude, tatts, piercings and rebellious mouth, Fletcher introduced a loud, new surf style which proved divisive. For some his surfing was ugly and unpractical and bound for the scrap heap. They…

It's not easy to put a finger on exactly what good style is, but there seems to be universal agreement that Steph Gilmore has it. Perhaps it has something to do with her ability to express a range of emotive messages while skimming across the surface of the ocean. For Steph there is pure grace in the high line glide, harnessed power in the buried rail and a warrior’s clarity of intent as she attacks the lip – yin and yang synchronised on a surfboard. Put more simply, when Steph Gilmore threads silky lines down a sand-bottom point it’s easy to watch on transfixed and think, ‘Ah yes, that’s how surfing is suppose to look.’ Somehow Steph Gilmore’s sense of style seems to permeate far beyond the saltwater stage where…

Perhaps more than any other surfer, Craig Anderson has mastered the art of looking good while taking flight. However, his rep as an aerial impresario has only come about through spending long hours at the launch site and a willingness to act as his own, harsh style critic. When we selected a shot to run in conjunction with this interview we fired it off to Craig to gauge his thoughts on it. Immediately we received word that he was far from happy with the way he looked in the image and that he would much prefer it if we went with something else. Fortunately we had time to take his advice. In the following pages Craig discusses his flight manual, what he thinks of airs on the pro tour and…

Surfing is all about style. Mostly. Everyone has their own – in and out of the water. Orson Wells once said. “Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn.” Of course good style is hard to wrestle to the ground. It is a Tom Curren cutback, a Matt Archbold swig of whisky, a Rasta layback. Bad style though is a much more easy target. It stands out like a cock on a clock. It is everywhere, all around us. The first step is to identify it, then rectify it. Which is why we have the Tracks Bad Style Guide To Surfing. LEGROPES ON LAND Like deep sea Isopods and Gabriel Medina, some things only work in the water. Legropes are one such…

When I was growing up there was one local surfer who set the benchmark for style. Mikey Beame was a short, dark-skinned natural footer of Sth Indian descent who always had a big smile on his face and a friendly word to say (and still does). When Beamy, as he was known to most of us, went into a turn his limbs and torso would become malleable putty, which he somehow moulded into exactly the right shape every time. Other locals may have ultimately done a better job of busting into the pro scene, but Beamy still set the benchmark for surfing aesthetics. (And to this day, to watch him surf even the junkiest wave is to be given a lesson in seamless transition and surfing poise.) When Cheyne Horan…

When it comes to style, there’s no act in surfing that has undergone the ugly duckling to graceful swan transition quite like backhand tube riding. A fistful of decades ago it was nothing more than a crude methodology employed to survive should you accidentally find yourself inside the curl on your backhand. This early form of the act was termed “pig-dogging” and featured a grotesque forward hunch, fibreglass crushing grip and cowboy survival stance. Style was not a consideration here. It was pure function alone. Despite this, there were early pioneers who helped push backhand tube riding to new levels. Hawaiians Johnny Boy Gomes and Dane Kealoha were two notable exponents, their success born out of necessity from surfing Pipe. Australian Chappy Jennings is another who was among the first…

Other sports like diving and gymnastics place a higher emphasis on style and form in their judging criteria. Do you ever wish it was a bigger factor for judges in surfing? I think the ASP judges already hold good style as an important factor when scoring a ride, but it's all very subjective anyway. Do you think there are styles that are distinctively masculine or feminine? Usually there are distinct differences in female and male surfing styles; some believe men are better but I think my favourite men's styles are the ones where, between the aggression and strength, lies a touch of grace and fluidity, which to me are feminine qualities of movement. Do you try and surf like the guys or aspire towards a feminine ideal of surfing? I…

MICK FANNING BY SPENCER HORNBY My image comes from behind the rock at Snapper. Given the talent and the waves this place has produced it wasn't all that difficult to achieve in the first place. If your gear is setup, you can deal with the rip and the boys are out there in good waves, then you’re a good chance to nail a shot. On this particular day it was low tide and flaring from the backwash. Mick was just cruising and picking off the ones he deemed worthy of going. He paddled into this one, dealt with some backwash whilst bottom turning and just cruised with it. This frame shows Mick toward the end of the dance, but for some reason it works the best. I love the assassin…

The wave you see on this page is Greenbush, one of the most beautiful waves to grace the planet’s oceans. It is also one of the most brutal and unforgiving. To surf it when it’s solid requires large stones, total commitment and a willingness to be vaporized in a foot of water over very sharp coral. The end section is deadly and unpredictable. One wave will roll through perfectly, the next might bottom out in a horrific dry mess, and upon taking off there’s no real way of telling which one you’re destined for. Greenbush only offers one set of odds – 50/50. It’s a wave for those willing to roll the dice for a chance at the tube of their lifetime. In short it’s a wave built for charging.…

Philosophers, thinkers, artists and surfers alike have all expended extensive intellectual energy discussing style. However, among the esoteric mumblings there does seem to be a common acceptance that style has something to do with an outward expression of the inner self. This shot of Craig Anderson slipping into a South Coast chamber seems to support the fore-mentioned notion. Having hauled himself over the ledge, made it to the bottom and felt that sweet sense of relief when the inside rail bites the wall, Craig finds himself with enough time to celebrate the moment. The shoulders are slung low like a sharp-shooter looking for his pistols, while the arms swing a little wider of the body until he’s a kind of scarecrow in the tube – somehow it’s just the right…

If you had to sum up style in just four words they would be: Gerry Lopez at Pipeline. That's the raw bones right there but it's the details that nail it down. Lopez standing tall on a self-shaped bolt of lightning looking impossibly cool – front zippered vest, bowl cut, Zorro moustache, hands just so, knees slightly bent – in the trench of a 12ft Banzai Pipeline cavern. "It's a cakewalk when you know how", Lopez told us, adding to the mystique already swirling around this yoga-practicing wave poet. Surf movies of the 70s gunned toward a climax of Lopez arrowing through heaving Pipeline cathedrals – the epitome of grace under pressure. While there is no right way to ride a wave there are plenty of wrong ways. Stiff-legs, the…

It's a stinkin' hot afternoon in Coolangatta when I sit-down with Wayne Deane and his son, Noa, to discuss the evolution of style in surfing. Wayne's been helping his mate build a roof all day and looks visibly drained. After a Bavarian beer mug full of Schweppes Cola he whirs to life, recalling for myself and Noa's benefit his early days competing in Hawaii during the 1970s, when competitors slept under the contest scaffolding on Sunset Beach, and personal style was everything. "When you try and do your surfing on a low budget you just do whatever you gotta do to get to where you get to. Most of the places we went to do events we never had any financial help," he starts, before Noa's mum chips in -…

When we decided to undertake a style issue Joel Parkinson immediately leapt to mind as the aesthetic doyen of the pro tour. Parko’s precise, graceful lines have always been akin to a kind of saltwater figure skating – an approach to the wave that’s smoother than dripping caramel and bereft of all those gawky chinks so many of us wish we never had. When Joel claimed the world title in 2012 it was not only a deserved victory for one of the best surfers ever, but a tacit acknowledgement by the ASP judges that style still matters when you pull a on a singlet. In the following interview Joel discusses his views on style, how he changed his own approach to win a world title and who he looks to…

The Public Order and Riot Squad look agitated. They burn past on jet skis and power boats yelling at protestors to move back. A flotilla of around 100 small boats, kayaks, canoes, surfboards and at least swimmer have converged in the middle of Newcastle Harbour in an attempt to block the world’s busiest coal port. Word has spread that a bulk carrier is attempting to leave and so we press forward. Some protestors aim to stop the rust-smeared behemoth and are more than willing to be arrested. Complicating matters a tail wind is gusting everyone towards the shipping lane, the black-clad cops and a date with pepper spray. We’re here to support the Pacific Climate Warriors, a group representing 13, far flung islander nations including Samoa, Tonga, The Solomons, Micronesia,…

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT With their sun-bleached mops, black-souled feet and board-short dress code the Florences were always the quintessential surf groms. Sure their talent was already well known when this shot was taken but pre-adolescent stardom is often more synonymous with tragic demise than resounding success. The Florences would have to hold the line. The photo was taken a decade ago on the North Shore when John John (far left of the shot) was only twelve, Ivan (middle) was eight and Nathan (far right) was ten. At the time their equally famous single Mum, Alex, was completing a college degree and churning out prose for a couple of lifestyle mags, while supporting her prodigious brood. John John was already a Pipe regular and O’neill were helping to the pay…