Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2016 i Tracks

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…

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…

It still gives the guy goose bumps, but when you consider how many plus-sized barrels Jay Davies has been spat out of over the years, this one shouldn’t have even registered. But this one, at Margaret River Mainbreak of all places, this one was different. Maybe it was the crowd, a couple thousand of them cheering for the local kid with the looks and physique of a Greek god who’d won through to the main event and crushed two world champions in the process. With each win, the story of the unlikely local hero beating the world’s best began to gather steam and the cameras and reporters clamoured to get a piece of the action at every post heat interview. So when Davies emerged from a deep clean barrel in…

It isn’t enough for renewable energy to be cleaner than fossil fuels. It has to be cheaper. Five years ago that didn’t look possible but today it genuinely does. The pace of change within the green energy sector is truly astounding. According to Scientific American the price of solar took two decades to fall from $10 to $3 but only six years to hit 50c. Analysts now say that building a new solar power plant in sunny countries costs less than a coal or gas equivalent – even without government subsidies. And we may only be scratching the surface. “The sun radiates more energy to the Earth in a few hours than the entire human population consumes in a year,” according to Solarcity’s Elon Musk. Wind power is undergoing a…

I first became aware of Daniel Ryan when I was shooting water footage one day about 15 years ago at big, really clean Spookies. The line up was full of locals who were all getting pitted beyond belief, but no-one was letting Dan get a wave. I suppose this is because he was a body boarder. Some of the more ruthless locals even dropped in on him, fading him mercilessly into catastrophic wipeouts as he struggled to navigate deep, heaving tubes. He got smashed, even washed onto the rocks, time after time. Then a majestic set came in from the north and I saw he was in pole position … and I was way out of position. Dan being the furthest guy out the back meant nothing to the guy…

This was shot back in 1990 long before the pro tour was split into WCT and WQS. There was a Top 16, which all these five guys were probably part of but they also toured the world with 200 to 250 of their best mates and it was heady times. The contest romp through Europe at this time was legendary, more for the parties and crazy antics than the surf. The contests in France and especially around Hossegor were high on this list but I don't think there was anything quite like the family-surf-shop-run Pukas Pro at Zarautz in the Basque Country of Northern Spain, where this image was taken. Imagine a summer surf contest run around the Basque/Spanish lifestyle: late morning starts, stops for siestas, sunsets around 9 pm,…

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…

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.…

She’s capable of 28 knots making it the fastest charter boat up there, the food is top knotch - calamari, steak, burrito’s, sashimi, sushi, fresh fish, bacon and eggs, nasi goreng.. the food is epic! There’s even a massage chair in her large air conditioned saloon which has a large flatscreen, a quality sound system and an open plan kitchen. Then there’s a fast tender, sky lounge, all the wave knowledge you would expect with over twenty years of combined experience in the area, all the safety equipment needed, on board photographer Geni documenting the best waves of your life & last but not least access to the best waves on the planet... The M.V Addiction traditionally sleeps 10 surfers but can push it up to 12 pax comfortably if…

Something you probably already knew but did you know that.. There’s a place where time forgot. Where the crowds haven’t yet reached, where the guidebooks haven’t ruined, where local children splash and play in a pristine lagoon lapping on golden sands just inside of an empty, funneling righthander. Where a road leads to a lost corner of the earth called Aganoa. Here, at Aganoa, lies a surfer’s — and non-surfer’s — paradise. A consistent, world-class reefbreak peels into a channel just 50 yards in front of a restaurant perched at the sea. A gentle, idyllic lagoon lined with a picture-perfect beach where nice new self-contained fales (bungalows) doze near the sea. Aganoa only takes 8 surfers at a time so if you like uncrowded waves and you’re looking for a…

"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…

Dave Klaiber is sitting in his Sydney film studio grinning like someone who has discovered new secrets to the universe and can't wait to reveal them to everyone else. "Basically, I get to travel the world and do the coolest things you can think of," he offers excitedly. "VR lets us try things no one's done before." Klaiber and his partner at Rapid VR, Susannah Dilallo, are the team behind the WSL's recently released Virtual Reality launch. The VR promo clip, which was directed by Taylor Steele, is accessible on YouTube and Facebook but if you want the full-blown, life-changing glimpse at the future we suggest you get your hands on a Samsung Virtual Reality headset and go pull in to the biggest barrel of your life. As I discover…

When I first came to Bali more than 40 years ago, we surfers padding around the dusty laneways of Kuta looking for chicks and drugs, and catching bemos out to the deserted Bukit, were blissed out by the Balinese, believing them to be the friendliest, most affectionate and peaceable people we had ever encountered. They had nothing, but they were content. They were what we aspired to. We had no idea that a handful of years earlier death squads had roamed from village to village slaughtering people with guns and machetes, or marching them to cliffs and ravines and beheading them before pushing the bodies over. The blood in the squares of Denpasar, Tabanan and Klungkung had barely dried when we got there, but we never knew. The bloodbath that…