Innehållsförteckning för #339 SURFERS från Surfing Life

It’s a funny gig being a magazine editor in the modern world of digital. The digital world moves quickly. Emails, texts, social media messages, DM’s ... exchanging photos and words on an electric screen wearing only your underpants (or is that just me?). There’s an uncivilised element to it all, which I just detest. This issue, I was hellbent on reinventing the lost art of faceto- face conversation. And I’m glad I did. Not only did I learn a lot about myself putting this issue together, but I hope you all find these interviews intimate and sharing. This magazine isn’t a collection of Instagram posts stitched together by the time continuum we know as the internet. I spent a day with Keely Andrew and her mum, Narelle. Picking the surfing…

“This was the third or fourth day after it started rumbling and shaking,” says Mikala Jones, of this incredible POV shot taken recently on Bali’s east coast. Not just incredible due to the stunning morning light or Mikala’s obvious clear path to glory, but incredible because front and centre sits Bali’s highest peak, Mount Agung. “This was basically the last day you could see Agung before it went cloudy for two weeks, and reports started that it might erupt.” In case you’ve been lost at sea, Mount Agung threw Australian school holiday plans into disarray in September and October when a string of 1000-tremor days prompted fears that the 3031m behemoth could blow its stack for the first time since 1963, causing authorities to immediately classify the situation as critical.…

To describe Craig Anderson as a quietly spoken 29-year-old freesurfing phenom from Dixon Park with the valium stance and the effortless style, would be to severely undersell Craig, the person. There’s so much more going on with Craig than what you see in Vimeo clips of his exquisite surfing. We’re sitting on milk crates in a photo studio outside Newcastle a day before Craig leaves for a European stint. His girlfriend is spending a year studying in Spain, and Craig is checking out Indonesia, Dubai, London, Iceland and, of course, Spain in his impending travels. I asked Ando if he minds me calling him Ando, and he says quickly he much prefers Craig. “It’s a bit of a weird name, but I like it.” I gave a knowing smile, as…

Surfing is a raw experience that offers incredibly unique sensations that add fresh understandings to some of the great philosophical accounts of the human condition. One such example that I’m particularly interested in is existentialist philosophy. Existentialism has a certain intuitive appeal. Basically, existentialists suggest that individuals are free to create their own meaning in their life. That means that life itself has no intrinsic meaning or purpose, only what we give it. This freedom is a great weight which we can’t ignore, as in this uncaring universe even a life which tries to ignore freedom ultimately does nothing other than affirm the meaninglessness of that life. For an existentialist, our freedom is an important burden to face up to, and a lot of existentialist thought is concerned with doing…

Keely has the blood of a dragon running through her competitive bones, Laura has the heart of a lion with the way she throws herself into life – in and out of the water. And Josie has the virtues of a saint, as her ultimate goal is to one day help and educate disadvantaged children through starting her own Charity company. All these girls surf with style and grace and power in the water, but on land all of them have bigger fish to fry.…

Josie doesn’t really surf. She dances. She seems to have all the time in the world on a wave, and her movements are graceful and mesmerising all at once. Her board moves through the water in one direction, while her body gracefully slides in the opposite. An economy on movement masks the subtle complexities required to make longboarding look so easy. She has a legion of women, young and old, who she inspires to not only surf, but to be just like her. Josie has an older and younger brother, and of her family only her mum doesn’t surf. Her mum was raised on Siargao Island in the Philippines, and that’s where Josie grew up until she was four. Her dad met her mum while he was in the Philippines…

Hearing two-time Rip Curl Cup Padang winner Mega Semadhi talk about his childhood on Bali’s Bukit peninsula (aka Uluwatu) it’s hard to believe he’s just 28. It sounds like a different age. “There was a lot of bush down there; there was no bike, no car, no tarmac, just dirt roads, so you walk around bare feet and go camping and have barbecue in the middle of nowhere and walk to the beach. It was really country,” he recalls of the Bukit during the ’90s. The pace of change since has been something to behold. In the words of fellow Balinese surfing legend Rizal Tanjung, “Nowhere changes as fast as Bali. Maybe Las Vegas.” Ordained from birth to become a Hindu priest, cultural protector and leader of the Bukit surfing…

On a cold, grey winter’s day on Australia’s east coast, while his only son was on the other side of the continent duelling Kelly Slater at a deadly desert slab, Kirk Bierke paddled out at a local big-wave spot, severely under-gunned on a self-made 9’1, and dropped into a 15-footer. He was 51 years old. The wave obliterated him moments after the take-off, but was still enough to earn a nomination in that year’s Oakley Big Wave Awards, where he eventually lost out to competitors half his age. “I wish I had a bigger board,” he laughs today. “It made a good picture, but I didn’t get far,” he says. Today, aged 57, Kirk is based out of the south coast of NSW, home to a plethora of waves to…

The people we spoke to this issue are not only the kinds of surfers to aspire to surf like, they’re also the kinds of humans who make the world a better place. Helping others, starting charity organisations, reducing their waste impact on the world, cleaning the environment etc etc ... even dreaming of becoming scientists! So be like them! In and out of the water. However you identify yourself as a surfer, we hope we inspired you with this issue. We hope you push your limits and find your own personal Waimea next time the swell jacks and you question whether to paddle out or not. We hope you explore a whole wide world of opportunity in and out of the water. But it doesn’t end there, folks. Next issue,…

“I’d say I surf pretty differently, but it’s not always because I’m going for broke or going as big as possible when I’m freesurfing. It might be different because I’m just cruising and going fast and straight, or just working on one particular turn or body position. Obviously when freesurfing you don’t have the constraints of a clock and judges, so you’re freed up. But to be honest, I don’t get the same drive or excitement to pull off something sick, as I do when I have a contest jersey on.” – Julian Wilson…

Let’s go surf under the big sand squirter boat, they said. It’ll be fun, they said. Mitch Parkinson has a head full of ideas. Some are great, and some are not so great. Where his latest idea ranks, we’ll leave that up to you, our beloved viewing audience! The back-story here is Tom Tate, the little sausage-fingered Mayor of the Gold Coast who nearly always puts the almighty dollar ahead of people and the environment, is getting a little fidgety about the upcoming Commonwealth Games. To keep our beaches wide and magnificent, Tom stumped up $13.9 million and paid a Danish shipping company to dredge offshore sand, and pump it back into the inshore. Local surfers affectionately refer to the Danish vessel as the HMAS Sand Squirter. Tom is worried…

This trip started the same as any other – I got a call from good friend and one of Bali’s resident videographers Jimmy ‘Jaz’ James. He said Creed McTaggart and Sean Manners were coming to town filming for Epokhe’s latest feature film, and they wanted a photographer to tag along. Creed was quick to count Bali out for this trip. The constant allure of the nightlife and endless fun has thwarted even the best intentioned pro-surfer’s hopes of bagging clips and getting shit done. With Bali outta the picture, we quickly checked forecasts and flights for the rest of Indonesia. The boys were here on a mission to do airs, and with the imminent threat of the volcano eruption looming, flights weren’t connecting and were majorly overpriced. So, the obvious…

With surf forecasting and navigation apps at our fingertips, the internet has created a simple platform for even the greenest of surfers to know when a spot is going to be on. Consequently, many excellent surf breaks around the world have become crowded with surfers and media to the point of saturation. I was in Byron Bay when I passed up the opportunity to head to Indo for the swell of the season. The relentless crowds, the over-eager photogs, and the fact that every man and his dog will be trying to sell and offload photos of the exact same swell, got me thinking... There has to be something better out there. With surf forecasting and navigation apps at our fingertips, the internet has created a simple platform for even…

When Keely was about five years old, her older brother pelted her with a tennis ball. And it hurt. With tears and anger rising, her brother calmly gave her two options. Run and cry to Mum. Or pick up the ball and throw it back at him. She picked up the ball and nailed him with it. And that sums up Keely Andrew way better than any words I can write on a page. When asked to fight or flight, Keely will always throw hands. As a raw 16-year-old she burst onto the surfing scene at the national titles at Phillip Island. Keely turned up and literally no one knew who she was. She ended up making the final of the under 18’s, with just one local, a certain Nikki…

Surfing has evolved, devolved, reinvented itself, found itself and morphed over the years ... From longboarders, shortboarders, retro hippies, lawyers, dentists and tree huggers, purists and ferals. No longer can we be defined and categorised as long-haired bums on the dole, living out of the back of a station-wagon, killing time until the wind swings. Here’s five surfing characters who from the moment they picked up their first piece of foam and waded out past the shorebreak, were sentenced to a life of not just surfing, but also shaping it and making a difference.…

Back in the ’90s, many pro surfers believed they were guaranteed jobs in the surf industry as reps or team coaches after their careers finished. They believed, whether delusional or not, that they were so good for a brand and that they were so popular, that these brands would clamour to keep them in the company and under their roofs. Then, when they were released from their contracts and no positions were available to them, they would blink wildly into the sun, and suddenly realise that all they have ever done is work on cutbacks and tube rides, and pulling chicks. None of which really equates to the real-world business of supporting one’s self or family. It actually took a pretty long time, and a serious recalibration within the surf…

THE DISCOVERY I went around to my neighbour’s house and walked in on them watching footage of Shippies. They said, “Keep it hush and we’ll take you down there next time.” That was [photographer] Andy Chisholm, James Polanowski and Andy Campbell. We went around there in a little tinny and it was really big – pushing tow size. Campbo paddled out by himself and I just paddled over to the shoulder to have a look. He went down second wave and fucked his back, and that was it. It was pretty crazy. I just remember sitting on the shoulder and wanting to feel the spit of one of the barrels hit me in the face, so I sat as close as I could and I remember copping a couple of…

Surfing is in the Olympics, finally. Yay! Gold medals, kids with dreams, massive credibility, huge sponsorships, government investment, worldwide coverage, global respect, a key to unlock (finally) the massive global uptake of surfing. The last vestiges of surfing’s counter-cultural past (those dole-bludging, drug-taking surfie scum!) washed away in the flood of team uniforms, podiums, teary athletes festooned with medals. The next surf boom unleashed, not just in coastal nations but landlocked ones as well, now that wavepools have become a reality. Does this prospect thrill, or chill you to the bone? Depends which side of the fence you are looking at it from, I suppose. Me? Apart from the tingly ecstasy of seeing Kelly on the podium in between Bulgarian weightlifters, I feel like I’m hog-tied and naked in the…

“WHEN WORDS BECOME UNCLEAR, I SHALL FOCUS WITH PHOTOGRAPHS. WHEN IMAGES BECOME INADEQUATE, I SHALL BE CONTENT WITH SILENCE.”- ANSEL ADAMS, THE GODFATHER OF PHOTOGRAPHY. Photography is so much more than pointing at a subject and clicking. Taking an image and freezing a moment in time reveals how bravura a good photographer’s job really is. As we catapult into the short-term lifespans of the digital era, the power and timelessness of a printed photograph has never been as irrepressible as it is right now. John Respondek was first published in Surfing Life in 1998. Since then he’s been a regular contributor to not just Surfing Life, but every surfing publication around the globe. His photos have become sought-after mainstays in every surf publishing house there is or ever has been.…

FIRST HIT When I was learning, my mum would say, “If you go out the back and catch one wave it would be better than 20 whitewashes,” and the first time I did I remember catching this big green-face wave and being like, Wow, she was right. I was in a different place. I was sort of addicted after that to catching bigger and bigger waves. I liked the adrenaline feeling. I was always scared, but I kept going back and doing it, and when I went back I’d be like, Why am I doing this? I’d be shit scared; I’d be screaming, but I used to fight my emotions. You couldn’t get big clean surf very often around here, which is what I liked the most, so I’ve found…

THE WAVE That wave, I’d never surfed it before; I don’t think many surfers have surfed it other than Dean Bowen and Owen Wright. It’s a booger wave. Since I moved to the south coast I’ve been hanging with all the boogers and I’ve pretty much been surfing booger waves, which completely changed the way I surf or even how I look at forecasts. It’s been super cool learning how to surf slabs. Growing up on the Sunny Coast I’d never surfed a slab in my life. That wave was pretty insane; a really steep, short, intense left pit that kinda sticks out in the middle from a river mouth. Super sharky, sharp reef, not a friendly wave at all, but that day the swell direction and period was really…

Surf art has developed a history and character over a relatively short time span – by art history standards – and is fast becoming a genre in its own right, attracting global collectors and rising prices. Posca pens have been the go-to product for generations of surfboard artists. Their vibrant range of colours and nib sizes are perfect for the task, no matter what your skill level. But fin art is a more precise beast, a limited surface area offering no symmetry to make design-life easy. It’s way harder than what it looks, and these designs are off the charts. Go to our website (click on the How-To in the menu) to find out more about the characters, their other submissions, and a step-by-step catalogue of their creative process –…

PART TWO (The Reveal) In the last issue of Surfing Life, the noted shapers Jon Pyzel (world champ John John) and Matt Biolos (world champs Tyler and Carissa, as well as Mason Ho and Kolohe Andino) threw a digital surfboard file back and forth via email until they’d arrived at a mutually pleasing highperformance design. Pyzel’s outline meets Mayhem’s rocker and deck-line profile. “It sure has the Mayhem nose,” said Pyzel, “That extra curve in the last few inches up there. I have a nose fetish when it comes to surfboards.” Did it work? Pyzel, whose factory is in the little North Shore town of Waialua, cooked and baked a fiveten version that he figured would work for him. “It looked good – not what I am used to my…