Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2016 i Tracks

Reinvention – is there any concept more relevant to popular culture in the 21st century? Music acts depend on reinvention to keep their fans loyal and their sound relevant, actors thrive on it every time they land a new role and of course Kelly Slater is a master of it. In publishing, reinvention is paramount if you want to be a meaningful voice through the ages. Tracks for example has evolved from a black and white, counter culture broadsheet to a glossy chronicle of an increasingly diverse surfing universe. Along the way The Surfers’ Bible has always strived to capture surfing’s inherently rebellious spirit. In its material form Tracks has been used for everything from dunny paper to placemats, dope chopping boards and bedroom wallpaper. Meanwhile some of the Bible’s…

West Australian photographer Russell Ord, 41, is world renowned for his images of The Right. His good mate Darren McCagh, 34, is a cinematographer and part owner of production company Farmhouse Films. The pair have been working on ‘One Shot’ – a documentary tracing Ord’s quest to capture “one shot” that defines who he is. Darren McCagh: It’s a funny feeling when you drop him in the zone. Part of me is pumped to see what he’s gonna come up with during the session and the other part is fearful of the possibility that something may go wrong. I’ve never felt like telling him not to jump off because I know he can handle himself, he’s trained hard for it, he knows what’s at stake, he knows when he’s in…

I was around 10 when I spied my non-smoking mother have a drag of a cigarette at a party. I was livid. I stood in a dark corner giving her greasies until a party pie passed under my nose and all was forgotten. At the time, I took her drug use extremely seriously – Happy Harold the friendly giraffe had stopped by my school recently to educate us kids on the dangers of such behaviour. Five years on, and I see Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction – that now infamous cover shot of Mia Wallace seductively lying on a bed holding a cigarette, sporting a killer bob, a book and a gun strewn on the ruffled sheets. Is that not the epitome of cool? At 14, with a bit of…

In 1792 four French explorers landed on the southernmost point of unknown southern lands that would become known as Australia. During their 26 days ashore they collected many samples of flora including the blue gum. Prolific in that area of the world, those same trees are still the most prominent species in the landscape’s composition. At the time of landing the explorers wrote of a place that seemed just as hostile and impervious as it was alluring and beautiful: "It will be difficult to describe my feelings at the sight of this solitary land situated at the extremities of the globe, so secluded that one feels separated from the rest of the universe. Everything is influenced by the wilderness of the rugged landscape. With each step, one encounters the beauties…

Just tracing a finger down a map of the Caribbean can lower your heart rate to somnolent levels. Your neck muscles unspool, your busy mind glides down the gears and you begin to hear calypso drums echoing faintly in the distance. The place names are exotic but familiar at the same time and trip off the tongue ripe with ready-made imagery: Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Cuba, St Lucia, the Caymans. The Caribbean Islands are famous for many things: reggae, cricket, tax havens, socialism, dread-locked Rastafarians, rum cocktails, and spliffs the size of baby’s arms. Lately it’s gained a reputation for world class surf thanks in large part to the magical island of Barbados. Barbados is tiny – just 34 kilometres long and 23 kilometres wide – but perfectly positioned.…

“Filming came pretty naturally to me. Bob Evans gave me a crash course and I shot some footage for him and earned enough to buy my own 16mm camera. I started filming Morning of the Earth without a plan - it just unfolded naturally. The next project was a film on George Greenough with David Elfick. It was meant to go for 10 minutes but with George a conversation can go for days. I ended up staying with him for a year in Santa Barbara and helped build his boat Morning Light while we made Crystal Voyager. After that I kind of fell off the perch - sold Tracks, got a little bit of money and went walkabout. I travelled through Asia and made a series of documentaries on festivals…

When Jack Freestone soared to victory in the world Pro Junior as an 18-year-old back in 2010, most of us expected him to waltz onto the world tour. His surfing already had the strength and power of a rugby centre (a career alternative he had in fact turned his back on) and the pop of a slam-dunking NBA player. Freestone also seemed like the natural heir to that long lineage of Coolangatta surfers who have claimed frontline roles in pro surfing, from MP all the way through to Mick Fanning. Jack, by his own admission, also expected the graduation from dominant junior to world title contender to be a relatively straightforward progression. However, history had a plan to humble the golden boy, who was perhaps a shade too handsome and…

This small bay in Java has one of the most beautiful beaches you will ever see. There’s a perfect right and left either side. When it’s small, it’s a fun park that most surfers can enjoy, when it gets to 4ft, you could get the best barrel of your life and when it gets to 8ft plus, the left is a heaving world class beast for the experienced only. Right in-front of the beach is Rod’s place, Istana Ombak, a beachfront eco resort where you can see perfect waves break all day from the pool. Thatched bungalows, incredible food and a service you wouldn’t expect from a surf camp making it a great destination to bring your girl, the whole family or for that boys trip away. Rod caters to…

I remember shooting it – late afternoon, low tide G-land with Tom in funky little blue reef boots investigating the low tide rock pools – a quiet reflective moment after a day of pumping surf. Well that’s what the image conveys, but there’s a hectic back-story that flashes into my head. It was shot during the making of Paul Witzig’s seminal Quiksilver film All Down The Line. The trip had been months and months in the planning. I was Executive Director of the film plus the Advertising and Marketing guy at Quiksilver at the time, and along with Bruce Raymond I’d spent so much time pulling this whole trip together. There were Quiksilver surfers from at least three different countries with our group numbering around 20. Guys like American, Jeff…

BY DAVID COHEN. When I was a teenager in the 80s, many, if not all, professional surfers were named Wayne: Wayne Lynch, Wayne Jaggard, Wayne ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew, et al. It may have been that there were more people named Wayne in general back then, and the world of professional surfing merely reflected the community at large. I haven’t really looked into it that deeply. I wasn’t named Wayne, and perhaps that’s why I never succeeded as a surfer. The other, perhaps more compelling reason is that I never actually surfed. And I remain firmly committed to not surfing. I like to watch surfing, read about surfing, think about surfing, listen to surf music; but when it comes to doing surfing, a catalogue of private terrors—drowning, jagged reefs, mockery—keeps me away…