Making Friends With The Neighbours

I didn't grow up in a family of surfers. My dad surfed when he was a teenager. Apparently he surfed quite well, but he gave it up. Now I think about it, I've never asked him why he gave it up, so that should be a conversation I aim to have in the near future. My mum spent loads of time on the beach throughout her life, but never really took to the waves.  My sisters and I grew up next to the beach but none of us took it up when we were young either. My youngest sister did for a while, but she never really committed. And this was despite spending hours of our lives out at the Maddog surf factory, where my mum worked in the office! We were around the beach and surfing all my childhood, but for some reason, it never caught any of us in its grasp. Too much ballet I suppose. It took me until my mid-20s before I felt any interest in taking to the waves, which I then did with enthusiastic gusto! But surfing has remained my own, and it has never been an experience I've sha...

This summer I have surfed more than I have surfed in a really long time. And I've basically only surfed one break! Seriously, I haven't even checked anywhere else the entire time. Isn't that terrible? Well, it would be except the waves have been so incredible that it's hard to feel bad about it. The sand and swell and winds have been lining up to create long, clean, clear waves that break from the point all the way into the beach. And for some reason, things have been lining up for me, so that I catch a wave, paddle back out and then catch another and another and another. It feels as though something has lifted - a weight, a fog, a sadness, a darkness - that has opened me back up to this place and to surfing in a way that I have not felt for longer than I wish to admit. It has allowed things to come together in ways that I can't really explain here. I wish I had the words and the courage to explain it - maybe I'll try to find them sometime soon. But for now, w...

One of the things that frustrates me about a number of the women on the World Championship Tour is that they promote themselves as female surfers without engaging in the politics of their choices beyond things like, 'We're beautiful women and we should be able to celebrate that' or 'We're promoting the sport and it's good for women's surfing'. What I mean is that while the women are happy to defend their choice to pose in a bikini, and to speak up about what they should be able to do, what they should be able to expect, and how we should celebrate their beauty, they avoid talking about the implication of their decisions for the image of women's surfing, as well as for other women who surf. Of course, there are some women on the Tour and in the qualifying series that speak about this stuff, and do so regularly. One excellent example is when 'Curl' magazine ran a great feature in 2012 called, 'Over Exposed' , where they asked a number ...

These two women crack me up! Here in Byron, going surfing no matter what is made simple by the warm water, soft waves, and easy access. However, for Dannie MacClainne and Hannah Bristow , following the advice of Kelly Slater who says you should surf no matter what is made a bit more difficult when the setting is snowy, wintry, freezing cold Scotland. Their attitude that 'it's never too shite to paddle out!' is admirable and committed and fun to watch.

Yesterday was one of those memorable surfs. One that you know will stick in your mind, etched in your memory, warming your heart. The kind of surf that you feel coming, in the unexpected swell you find blown out by an on-shore wind in the morning, but which you know will be great if the speculated wind change actually happens. The kind of surf preceded by a flurry of texts between friends with the same sense of anticipation. And so I spent the day with my fingers crossed, periodically driving the trip into town to see if I could catch that window before everyone else figured it out too. In the end it came late in the afternoon. I got a message: RDK says it’s pumping off the point! I jumped in the car and straight into town. As I sped along, the flags along the ridge showed that the wind had swung, and as I drove around the hill and down to the break, I could see how the waves had cleaned up – it really was pumping. I waited for Izzy and Brodi...

I walked right by them, but Izzy spotted these signs on the toilet doors at the Evans Head surf lifesaving club when I was there recently. Aren't they awesome! Seriously (and unexpectedly) epic work disrupting the representation and performance of gender norms, Evans Head SLSC.

I came across this little clip of Swedish surfer, Vera Nording, yesterday. By now I've seen lots of stories of surfing in Scandinavia so the knowledge that there is a thriving surf scene in that part of the world is not new. But until this clip I had not seen any footage of logging. VERA NORDING from NORDICSURFERSMAG.SE on Vimeo . This clip is lovely and I was stoked to find it. So much about it is so familiar - the shape of the board, the aesthetic of the design and the way the film is shot, the evoking of Southern California with the soft sunlight light, the happy, cute, girl-next-door surfer, the tattoos - but the overall feeling of steely cold is something unfamiliar too. For me, anyway. Maybe it's just one of those moments when you realise the pervasiveness of certain aesthetics or ideas across this kind of longboarding. I'm not saying that's a terrible thing - my surfing life is recognisable in this way too - I'm just saying that if I hadn't been ...

Look what I got just in time for summer... 9'6", roll bottom, half-inch cedar stringer, hatchet fin, joy! Thanks, Tony. Thanks, Woosley !

I spent a couple of days with my 4 1/2 year old niece, Mame Diarra, this week. I've talked about her on this blog a bit before - mostly about how much she loves the ocean , and how unspeakably happy that makes me. Mame Diarra loves being in water. She can't swim yet, but she has no fear whatsoever so when you take her in the ocean or a pool, you have to watch/hold onto her her really carefully. The other day, we were in Brisbane, so I took her and she was in heaven. She was straight in there and jumping off the starting blocks and insisting that even though she can't swim, I let go of her so she could try. When I let her go she kicks and thrashes her arms and juts her chin out and smiles as wide as you can imagine. Oh man, I love her. After our swim we went to the park where she climbed high on all the equipment and made me climb up there with her. I gave up after a while and sat on the swing, so she started pushing me higher and higher. Then she got my phone and took p...

There have been some really wonderful surfing publications come out in the last 5 years or so. Kurungabaa: a journal of literature, history and ideas from the sea is obviously the one most close to my own heart, but White Horses and Wax Magazine  are other stand outs for me. As these publications have appeared, I've been really stoked watching the surf magazine scene diversify both in form, content and contributors. The key is that they are not surf magazines in the sense that surfing is the key focus. Rather, they are focused on thing oceanic whether they be surfing, sailing, swimming, diving, art, music, science, scholarship, history, the environment, sex, culture, politics or any other manifestation of that theme. Surfing in and of itself is actually pretty boring really (Oh come on. It is!), so by broadening out the focus these publications have revived this part of culture of surfing. So I have been excitedly awaiting the appearance of a new kid on the block, Great Ocean ,...

So, Roxy finally made a public statement in response to the bad press they received about a promotional clip they made for the Roxy Pro in Biarritz earlier this year. While I am always hesitant to link to these sites, you can read Roxy's statement  over on their blog.  But here it is for your reading pleasure; More than 20 years ago, we set out to create a brand dedicated to supporting women and girls in their love of surfing and beyond. Since that time, we have worked to build on this heritage by developing great products, creating new competitive opportunities for female athletes, and establishing and growing the Roxy surf and snowboarding teams. We continue to work to do more to achieve this mission.  As fans and supporters of female athletes, we are disappointed by recent mischaracterizations of the Roxy brand and wanted to take this opportunity to share with our fans the true vision and voice of Roxy.  First and foremost, Roxy is and always has been a...

You know pisses me off? Well, aside from the many things I've posted about on here, this ad pisses me off; Look, I know this ad is old now (it was released in July), but as you may have noticed I've been wholly without words lately, so allow me this indulgence it talking about what a disgrace this advertisement is. Also, I saw a full-page ad for this product in a magazine today. Basically, what I want to say is fuck you marketing. Fuck you marketing for saying that while it's good to be active and sweaty, you should only sweat in apparently invisible ways. That you should only sweat in certain places. That you should only sweat if it doesn't draw attention to your body. Especially to your lady parts! This stupid ad hits me on a personal level, because for a long time, I felt this way. I mean, I would totally have bought into this ad. For most of my childhood and adolescence I did ballet. I did ballet for 14 years from when I was about 3. I'm absolutely ter...

It's official. I'm mental. I'm that crazy person who talks to and terrifies strangers on the street. So tonight I was walking home from my fitness class (yeah, yeah, yeah). I was wearing tights and a t-shirt, and I was sweaty and stringy-haired and most likely red-faced. You know, like what people look like right when they stop exercising. Anyway, as I was walking up the hill past a bus-stop I saw a guy waiting there who looked as though he'd been at a gym or something as well. He was leaning up against a pole, listening to tunes on his head-phones and reading a book. It was the book that caught my eye. I'd nearly passed him when I realised the cover of the book looked as though it had a surfer getting barreled on it. Without thinking, I stopped and stepped backwards and stuck my head down to look at the cover of the book and asked 'Is that a surfer on the cover?' He looked at me and slowly took out his headphones as I repeated my question. I think i...

It's important to call out bullshit when you see it, and that is what plenty of people did when Roxy released their now infamous Roxy Pro campaign back in July . But it is equally as important to point out change for the better when you see it too. And the latest clip for the Roxy Pro is most definitively, change for the better; I want to make it clear that I'm not promoting Roxy here. Not at all. For a whole heap of reasons, I don't buy their products or support their company with my dollars (nor those of other mainstream surf companies either). But I also understand that in professional and competitive surfing, they have an important role to play in funding, facilitating and promoting the sport and the athletes. And so, in this case I say well done Roxy, keep up the improved work. And fingers crossed the competitors get good waves and barrels galore!

So, I've been thinking a lot about that clip of part of Anastasia Ashley's pre-comp warm-up. I'm sure by now you have seen it. It contains footage of her sort of dancing on the beach as she warms up. The moves she does involve lots of hip rotations and the person who put it together has set it to a song called 'Bubble Butt' (at least, based on the lyrics, that's what I assume it's called). This clip has been widely circulated on surf websites, blogs and social media, but I've decided that I won't post it up here because I think it's really creepy. If you haven't seen it, I'm sure you can find it if you really want to. The thing is, Anastasia Ashley can do whatever the hell she wants. I'm not saying her moves in this clip are my thing or that I think it does women's surfing many favours, but if she wants to do those moves on the beach to warm up, then that's up to her. She's doing a dance move and it's provocative. So...

Dear Sylvia, love Steph. from Morgan Maassen on Vimeo .

Neil Griffith (over at Modyssey)  took this image of a woman (Tiffany?) playing around on the Sunshine Coast.  Thanks, Neil.