Innehållsförteckning för Issue 34 från White Horses

issue thirty-four She surfs for the calm… …and the storm… …for fun, (obviously)… …for freedom and release… …for solidarity and stoke… …and intimate connection.…

My hands shook at the breakfast table the morning before I flew to Africa for the first time. “What the heck am I doing?” I remember asking myself over and over. I’d been to remote Indonesia and all over Australia and New Zealand, but Africa? I had just turned 21 and my best friend and I had quit university and booked flights with plans to spend four months wandering around the southern African coastline. Our travel agent, Christine, had said: “Africa gets under your skin,” and I’d wondered what she’d meant. We landed in Zimbabwe in a tiny plane. The red dirt that hemmed the runway was adrift in the damp air and as we shuttled into the town of Victoria Falls, baboons crossed the road in front of us…

I remember waking up in our old wooden shack by the beach in Margaret River to the sound of my dad’s footsteps, and then him telling me to go and have a surf. I was only a little girl but I remember it like it was yesterday. That feeling of wonder and awe for what the ocean might hold that day. There are whispers of that feeling in my paintings. That’s when I know if I have gotten one just right. When Dad wasn’t encouraging me to get in the water he’d encourage me to paint. I drew on everything I could. I poured over sketchbooks. I was always making something. My parents had just parted ways and it was a rocky transition. I could hide under the waves, or…

Somewhere up there, in those lush rolling hills above the Great Ocean Road, a mustard coloured school bus rests underneath the gum trees. A stack of hand shaped single-fins and twinnies lies just outside the door, next to a botanical explosion of mint and silverbeet, sage and bok choy. Inside the bus it’s all sweet yellow sunlight and smiles. Books share shelf space with tiny sculptures and hand-made cups, full of shells and feathers. Living green strings of pearl sway gently in the morning breeze. Chopped wood is stacked up next to a faded blue potbelly stove. There’s a beautiful herringbone floor, all intricate geometry and weathered wood. It smells like freshly ground coffee and early spring blossoms, like delicious things cooking. It smells like home. It’s the kind of…

I thought I was going to have a slow, steady introduction to big wave surfing. Antman, however, had other ideas. That’s how I found myself holding onto the end of a towrope amongst 30-foot waves miles out to sea, asking myself what, exactly, was I was doing there? I’d never considered myself a “big wave surfer” but coming from WA, I’ve always enjoyed the bigger stuff. Dad taught me to surf and even from a young age, he was always pushing and encouraging me to overcome my fears. Quite often, I’d be the only female out in the lineup amongst a sea of hardened Aussie men. I’ve loved the thrill you get from catching a bigger wave ever since then. I also started competing when I was young and had…

The groms in our village call her the lady wave. She calls out each morning; smashing into the reef, blue exploding into white, displaying her magic and power. Her mood changes day to day, fluctuating with the seasons. Some days she is playful, fun, gentle. Other days her ferocity comes out in full force, and you must watch out lest she toss you onto the coral floor beneath. Leimalo is a lady wave but not long ago in Pango Village, all the surfers were boys. In Vanuatu culture it is the role of the girl to stay home, cook, wash and clean. Only when all these tasks are done can she head down to the solwota, to enjoy the crunch of the sanbis, the saltwater fresh on her skin. Many…

With so many different opinions, expectations, ideas and perspectives to consider, this issue was always going to be a tough one to navigate, especially for this first timer. The storytelling and imagery needed to be an authentic reflection of women’s surfing; it needed to touch on topics that are often and wrongly ignored; it needed to be consistent with the ethos of our brand; and somehow, we’d need to sell the bloody thing too! We followed our gut feeling most of the time and also relied on some key figures in female surfing to guide us in the right direction. We managed to pull it off in the end despite the pandemic and a world still in disarray, and for that we owe a huge thank you to our advertising…

Monday 14th Somewhere over the Indian Ocean I’m still flying. After 24-hours in the air and transit, I’m no longer sure if it’s midnight or midday, or somewhere in-between. The miles count down as the jet reverses time between Melbourne and my final destination, Scotland. Unable to find sleep, I bury my head and hack into the plane’s tortoise-speed internet, where a message from photographer Al Mackinnon pops up: “Report is looking good. Hope you packed your sleeping bag and an extra jacket or two.” My unrelated response: “I hope you don’t expect me to charge those gnarly slabs I keep finding photos of?” I haven’t met Al before, but we have many mutual friends and colleagues. It’s always a gamble planning a journey with someone you don’t know, but…

We got the call from our friends who run a small resort in the Mentawai Islands. They had a group coming for an eight-day stay but had room for two more – would we be keen to join them? That was all we needed to hear My best friend Sarah Lee and I packed our backpacks and board bags immediately and did something that seems unimaginable these days – we jumped on a flight and within 24 hours, we were on the beach in paradise. Usually a surf trip makes a good story when things go wrong, or you’re dealing with elements like the freezing cold and fickle waves, as most of my suffer-fests to foreign shores will attest to. This trip was a welcome departure from all that. The…

I’ve always loved building things and had an interest in shaping since I was a teenager. In the early 2000’s I moved from Sydney to Lennox Head to study environmental science and law, and got a part time job doing ding repairs across the road from Gunther Rohn’s factory in Ballina. I started spending more and more time at Gunther’s and pretty soon, the guys were showing me the ropes and I learnt to shape on the fly. The boys have been very generous with their time and knowledge and have always been keen to teach me what they know. Looking back on the first board I made, I can’t help but cringe a little. I thought it was the best thing ever at the time. The feeling of accomplishment,…

IMOGEN CALDWELL THE FLIP OF A COIN BEING NIQUE ULA MAJEWSKI FELICITY PALMATEER CHANGING COURSE AMY KOTCH LIFE WITH CURREN HUNGER GAMES MATT GEORGE ARLENE BAX THE LADY WAVE THE FLIP OF A COIN IMOGEN CALDWELL ON BEING A PRODUCT OF HER ENVIRONMENT The board was a bright green 5’8. It was lying on the point where its owner had ditched it, badly creased through the middle, and was no longer of any use to him. I scrambled over the rocks to claim it before one of the other groms could get their hands on it. Dad later helped me repair it and despite it being a good few feet bigger than me, it became my one-board quiver that I’d use no matter what the conditions. I loved and cherished…

I guess it’s important to point out that at 42, I’m not a ‘young mum’, but being an older mum has played a big role in how I’ve managed raising a baby on a small island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. I’ve felt more confident in my decisions, trusted my intuition more and, having lived on the island already for eight years, was able to realise how little is actually necessary in raising a child without all the perceived comforts and safety of being a mother in Western societies. Curren was born in New Zealand in January – our off-season here in the Maldives. We came back to Lohis, where my husband Richard and I manage the surf operations at Hudhuranfushi Resort, when Curren was just a few…

WITH ACCOMPANYING DOUBLE EXPOSURES {from the photographer} The following images were all shot at Queens in Waikiki, on the South Shore of Oahu, with a Nikonos III camera from the 1970's. Using in-camera techniques, I exposed 35mm film two or three times to different scenes, both on land and in the water. The idea was to have images of surfers layered over textures of the foliage found throughout Oahu, brining together visions of the land and the sea – two powerful forces that combine to create an ideal backdrop for women surfing. The photographs are a celebration of the simplistic beauty of wave riding, especially when executed with a feminine touch of style and power RISK AVERSE BY LAUREN HILL There are guys on either side of me, scrambling to…

I kick steadily on my back, my body beneath my board. Arms working to try steady the small fibreglass craft beneath our two passengers. We traverse the chop in a manner defying every intended design function of the 6’2” thruster. The deep blue fades into black beneath us. In my mind I picture our lost bags sinking into the abyss and with them, my greatest fear… the taxman. My recently completed yet unsubmitted tax files are drowning with my laptop somewhere in this expanse of Pacific blue. Damn you, ATO. It started in the west of the country, an area strung together by island-flecked lagoons and white sandy beaches, the ocean dense with fish and well-toothed creatures of both finned and reptilian nature. Remnants from the war lie scattered amongst…

PACHA | CRAFT #1 Firewire x Machado {5’2” X 20” X 2⅛”} GoFish Twin-fin This beautiful twin-fin has been my trusty sidekick all around the world since it’s come into my life. Riding it is guaranteed joy. Made out of sustainably sourced sheep wool and eco resin, this board is light, compact and robust - perfect for travelling. I’ve ridden it from Nias, to Snapper, to J-Bay, and every wave you catch, it lets you tap into speed and flow, and insists you stay on the rail. The most memorable surf I’ve had on this board though was in Hawaii, at Velzyland, during the same time as the Pipeline contest. The lineup was super crowded with the best in the world on the highest of performance boards, but somehow everything…

I live in Peniche, a small fishing town in Portugal, where I moved 14 years ago to surf and study. Painting and drawing was always one of my favourite things to do when I was growing up, but I somehow grew apart from this as I got older. Peniche inspired me to draw again, and it was only natural to draw what inspired me the most. I started doing illustrations of the ocean, waves and ocean-related characters, like sea captains and surfers. Then, in the middle of my masters degree in Environmental Tourism, I realised that I could perhaps make a career out of illustrating, and the real journey began. I have always been curious about our past and my work constantly draws from the representations of ancient civilizations. That…

Nique Miller is one of the finest wave dancers on the planet. She’s a trailblazer, a dreamer and a powerful advocate for change. Her smile is absolute sunshine. Every morning, Nique picks up one of her dreamboat boards and walks down to the ocean in the pale dawn light. The perfect sliders of Queens, Waikiki’s answer to longboard heaven, roll onto the sand at the bottom of her street. She breathes in, listens to the sweet sounds of palm leaves slow-dancing with the breeze, and paddles on out into all that blue. “The ocean makes me feel free. It’s something I’m very grateful for, because it’s opened up so many doors in my life,” she says. “I have been able to travel around the world, making awesome new friends, and…

You can see it in their eyes. The hunger games the female surfers must play here on Bali. They know they are considered just prey species to the boys. And even though they surf better than most of them, they still must fight for their own self-esteem and cultural standing, one wave at a time. The leading crew can be counted on one hand. Kailani and Pua Johnson, Diah Rahayu Dewi, Dhea Nastasya, and Taina Izquierdo. They all face the overwhelming challenge of going against the religious Hindu and Islamic cultural grain, and all have their own unique crosses to bear. For Dhea Nastasya, it is walking the tightrope between the religious beliefs of her community and her own brand of sun worship. Like a stage player changing costumes, she…

WITH ACCOMPANYING PHOTOS PART I FEAR & FACTS This year, like so many people, I‘ve had sharks on my mind. Amongst the bushfires, floods and pandemic lockdowns, fatal shark attacks have loomed with seeming regularity in the news. By early August, five people had died as a result of unprovoked shark bites, with six others surviving their encounters. Three of the five fatalities were in the southeast Queensland and northeast New South Wales regions where I live and surf and swim. My home stretch had suddenly become one of the most high profile areas for shark encounters and fatalities in the world. Again. So, sharks have been on my mind. The public fear and flurry of media attention that accompanied each encounter and attack led to the installation of nets…