Tracks January 2016

After an Australian odyssey that has weaved its way around the Pandanus-tree points of the North East Coast, via pubs on the Pacific highway then across the forbidden frontiers of the deep south and finally into the scorched Martian landscape of NW Terra Australis we find ourselves at Bondi for the premiere of Wanderlust. Perhaps in honour of the epic journey that has been undertaken even Australia’s most maligned of beaches has a few waves. While I-phone clutching models strut along the promenade and resident families chase down the remainders of the day, a scattering of surfers plunder random four-foot peaks that billow and barrel in a stiff Northerly. Meanwhile, at the Bucket List, the glasshouse chalet on the beach that has been chosen as the venue for this salty…

Pete Tomlinson is desert through and through. He’s also the man you’ll see below, sitting pretty inside one of the most visually spectacular spots you’ll find anywhere on the Australian coastline. Pete grew up in the unforgiving heart of the country that surrounds this wave, and still lives in the area with his wife and two kids. With employment opportunities outside of fishing, shark tours and abalone diving few and far between, Pete earns his crust as a fly-in-fly-out worker in mining, where he aims to make a positive difference in a much maligned industry by working with Australia’s traditional owners to ensure their Indigenous heritage is protected. “I work for a company called CHS - Cultural Heritage Services who contract us out to bigger mining companies like Santos," explains…

"The Search" – two words which provocatively illuminate the essence of the surfing experience. Whether it be the perfect wave, the magic board, the dreamiest lineup or even the tastiest post surf meal, surfers are always searching for something to transport their surfing lives into a zone that makes them feel like the luckiest souls on earth. For Rip Curl, The Search has never been just an idea; it's an action, which involves dispatching their gifted surfing disciples to hallowed and often uncharted wave zones around the world. These distant wonderlands are defined by the faces encountered on the road, the landscape traversed to reach them and of course the intricate way the ocean sculpts swells along their shores. No places are named, no coordinates given, no signposts filmed, so…

SHIFTINGSANDS Was just reading the Taj feature in issue 543. While doing so it struck me that over the next few years surfing as I know and love it will change forever. Taj will no doubt retire at the end of 2016. How much longer will Parko, Otts, Fanning, Ace, Bede Melling and co. keep going? That just leaves Owen, Kerrsy and Julian flying the flag for Australia in the top half of the draw. Not to mention Slater looks destined to go soon. Surfing is about to change dramatically. The last of the true stylish surfers that still know how to do a turn will be gone. Hopefully some new Australian blood can start doing some damage because I have no desire to watch an air-reverse tour with people…

What do you call a ginger kid eating a carrot? Cannibalism. What do you call a redheaded ninja? A ginga. Weird way to intro this yarn, but I figured it would be best to get all my redhead taunts out of the way before introducing Sandon Whittaker – a 15-year old, ginger (and recently unsponsored) goofy-footer from Avoca on the NSW Central Coast. For those uninitiated with grassroots junior surfing, San-don is kinda the kid to beat in a lot of events - fast, powerful, stocky enough to throw spray to the heavens and a style not too dissimilar to Occy as a grommet. Hence, the reason Tracks picked up the blower to interview Sandon. Skate to Fly I first hit a ramp when I was two at Kincumber skate-park.…

This is the story of the first warung in Nusa Lembongan. Or perhaps it wasn’t the first. But true to the nature of such stories, its charm renders us believers, and no one much cares to refute the claim. It is 1975 – or there abouts – and a nameless, sun-blanched young man hops a Jakung at Sanur, intent on crossing the deep, swirling eddies of the Badung Strait. A jakung is a traditional Indonesian outrigger canoe with a small outboard motor used by Balinese fisherman. He hopes it will carry him safely across the blue abyss, to Bali’s silhouetted sister island, Nusa Lembongan. She has been beckoning from across the sea, bathed in a low-lying mist, keeping her wave-secrets to herself. Yet to be ornamented with hotels and villas,…