Table of contents for Spring 2015 in White Horses

A hallmark of modern life seems to be the haste and fervour with which we take sides, our readiness to harden into a stance – You’re With Us Or Against Us; Whose Side Are You On? etc. It’s as if middle ground is no man’s land. No room, seemingly, for nuance, uncertainty, or willingless to mute our immediate belief in order to imagine what it’s like on the other side of the fence. A telling example of this was the trial, conviction and execution of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, along with six other prisoners, in Indonesia on April 29th 2015 (an eternity ago in these times). Polarised opinons flew all over the place, and surfers who regularly travel to Bali and Indo seemed to feel uniquely qualified to weigh…

Beneath the surface, on the deepest edge of the sunlit zone, I imagine her moving. With a casual sweep of her grey, lightly striped tail I see her gliding through the liquid world. Looking. Wandering. She’d be 11 feet long, maybe bigger. Eight or nine years old, grown into her strength and comfortable with her standing in the order of all things that live below. In her maturity she’ll be broad from her blunt snout through to her first dorsal fin, a point where her body will noticeably narrow so that she’s almost half-half in her thickslenderness, loaded at the front end with strength, at the back with speed and manoeuvrability, allowing her to accelerate rapidly for short periods in pursuit of prey. The morning is overcast. Cloudy and unsettled.…

8’8” x 21” x 3½” This is the same hull platform as the 7’3” I shared in issue five’s 4 x 4. The 7’3” was right there when I shaped the 8’8”. The rocker is slightly different as this is a surfboard not a windsurfer. It’s glassed with triple 6’s top and bottom, with a large deck patch. Seeing as the details and rationale for these boards is covered in the “Muscle Boards” article up front of this issue, I’ll let my friends do most of the talking. My mate Al McDiarmid rode the 8’8” and had this feedback. “Having windsurfed and surfed with George for over 25 years, I found it interesting to surf these boards. I had three sessions on the 8’8” – the largest surf was about…

I’m off the coast of Sulawesi Tengarra, Indonesia. The ocean is a few hundred different shades of turquoise and under the slow chug-a-lug of the ferry, you can hear the swoosh of saltwater colliding gently with hull. Slow-dancing with the reef that knocked Cousteau for a six, back in the day. Coral gardens stretch out under the boat in a gorgeous fluorescent arc and the air starts doing that shimmery bendy heat thing that you see only in the tropics or the gunslinger scenes of old spaghetti westerns. It’s so hot that you can sit in the shade without moving a muscle and watch the sweat beads pop up like mushrooms on your skin. Out on the horizon, a thin black line morphs into another lurid green island and after…

With a range of 3000 miles, a 48-passenger capacity, and the ability to land on water, the PBM-5 was perfectly suited to the Pacific Theater. But as WWII came to an end, the navy’s fleet of seaplanes was put to more peaceful uses. Occupied by the Japanese throughout the war, the Micronesian island of Kusaie was to be relinquished to the US shortly after VJ Day, and a delegation of diplomats flew in on September 12 for the official surrender. A few hours later, with treaties signed and surrenders negotiated, the crew of one particular PBM-5 was readying itself for a return to familiar waters. After months of deprivation from the comforts of home — warm showers, cold beer and the like — this was a group of men very…

It’s funny how “bad” things turn into “good” things. The session these photos were taken at only happened because I got knocked out of a comp. It happened taken last year when I was eight. We were down at Lennox Heads for a big grom comp. After I got knocked out photographer Chris Peel asked if my older brother Jye and I wanted to go to Red Rock for a surf, and he’d take some photos of us. It was just the best day ever. Crystal clear, dolphins everywhere and we had it all to ourselves. We hadn’t surfed there before so it was a bit of a mission getting out over the rocks because the waves were breaking really close to shore, but it was worth it. I’ve been…

The day before I’m due to fly to Hawaii for the Molokai race, I get a call from my brother, whose plane is about two hours from takeoff. Oh shit, I think, what’s happened. “We forgot Muzz!” he wails. What? “Where IS he?” “He’s on the kitchen counter.” God damn it. So early next morning, between packing, I go around to Tom’s house, sneak in so as not to wake the house minder, and pick him up. Muzz, or more precisely about a third of the mortal remains of our old mate Murray Close, is encased in a plastic brick, which is tucked into an elegant thick paper carry bag, a bit like the ones you get when you buy expensive clothing. He’d left a request that his ashes be…

If I was 23, not 73, what would I build myself to ride big paddle-in surf? Nothing’s better than holding the real thing under your arm, so I built some boards to find out. I built an 8’8” and a 6’3” during the 2013/14 Christmas holidays, then a 5’9” and a 6’8” during the 2014/15 Christmas break. The design concept is similar across all four boards: the hull platform reduces the amount of wetted surface and drag, resulting in higher topend speed. The hull shape is complex. As you’ll see in the “4x4” images later in this issue, three different rockers are used in each board: centre line; side of the centre plane; and offset concave. There are two different outlines as well: the centre plane outline and the outside…

Although the closure of the Ocean Dome marked the end of the highest-quality, humangenerated waves on the planet, there was already a raft of new technologies in development. Four strong players have emerged since 2007 that are shaping the future of wave pools. The first-to-market of the new generation is The Wavegarden. The concept dates back to 2005 when engineer Josema Odriozola and sports economist Karin Frisch combined their expertise in creating sport facilities – particularly skate parks – with their passion for surfing. Rather than utilising the tried, tested – and perhaps tiresome – water-drop methodology, they instead designed a hydrodynamic wavefoil and a new wave lagoon design. In lay terms; the dragging of a foiled beam underneath the water’s surface generates a wave that follows it down the…

LIS/MILOVICH CONCEPT BOARD. STAGE ONE. 6’0” x 201/2” x 21/2” – PU/Polyester. This is the first of a series of boards I was trying to get a snowsurf feel from. It features a thin modernish foil throughout and has thin, semi-blocky rails. I put a light vee throughout and wiped a light double concave though the centre to the back of the keels. As it’s only a small thinnish stick I put large, thin, flexy glass keels on it, which gave just the drive needed. This was a special board to me, as it surfed well in medium to large surf, with the drive and whip to draw long, smooth turns, as most fish boards do. My brother-in-law really liked this board and surfed really nice on it. The deep…

SPACE MACHINE – 6’5” x 20⅝” EPS SANDWICH COMPOSITE – BALSA RAILS. The earliest Firewire labelled boards ever built were all handmade by me. Totally R&D and all personal rides. I still have five of them. The first two boards here are out of that five. These were experiments, pushing the composite build concepts to extremes. I had a virtually free run with loads of interesting materials, and a little warm-water sand-dredging wave at the end of my street to test them on. It was a dream job for a little while. Some of the tricks became production, but these boards contain stuff that I kept to myself. This first one weighs under two kilograms, so quick and responsive, always on the edge of control with just two big twin-fins.…

The island had a presence in our lives before we knew it even existed. The ominous hum of the huge, flying boats – which took off for the island from the bay where we lived – soundtracked our childhoods. That hum would build to a shattering roar as they passed low overhead. I remember one coming so close to our house that I told mum it had ruffled up my hair, because I was climbing the fence to the neighbors’ place. In 1970, Mum and Dad and a few others climbed into a small boat and ventured out into the expanse of dark blue water, and into the belly of one of those monumental Sandringham flying boats. Moments later it sped across the water and off into the air, flying…

The sun was shining on the water as Lehua Kamalu climbed onto the SUP. She balanced carefully for a second, then she took a few strokes and put the board in motion. She picked up a pole with a fine meshed net attached to one end, dipped it in the water, dragged it for a second and took a sample of whatever was living in the water. She gathered it and passed it up to a strong young man who lifted it carefully onto the wooden deck of a boat. This was my first sight of Hokule’a anchored in Haleiwa Harbor. There were several other young people moving around on her deck, busily preparing for the arrival of student visitors from nearby schools. They would teach four different grades about…

“Before in Lembongan karma was number one,” says Wayan ruefully. “Now money number one, karma number two.” Turtle Island is Bali’s timewarp alter ego. A week here and my mind meanders to considerations of nature, simplicity and balance. The invisible thread between karma and aloha, twin ethos of generosity similarly pushed aside by reactive protectionism when the spirit is misunderstood and repeatedly and rapaciously unreciprocated. I meet Michael by accident. The boat Wayan is driving runs Michael over while he’s snorkelling. The idling speedboat struck the diver on his lower back, tipping his feet up into the propellor. When Michael removes his right fin most of his heel came off with it. Wayan had been heading to the mangroves to take me and my daughters diving. I was at the…

“Why do you surf?” It’s a question I’ve never been asked. I’ve been asked if, how long, where and what kind of board I surf. But why? Never. Not once. I recently asked this seemingly simple question of just about every surfer I know. The answers ranged, predictably, from the sublime to the ridiculous, from heartfelt, poetic ruminations to flippant piss-takes. Regardless of the level of self-reflection, there was one response that was glaring in its omission. No-one said they surfed because it made them happy. This confused me a bit. I thought it would be one of the first things people would bring up, alongside the predictable (if worthy) declarations of freedom, self-expression and communion with nature. Maybe it goes without saying. Perhaps it’s just too obvious to think…

“It’s an epic night for some Lunar Lines.” The text came through from Riffo early on Wednesday evening. I’d surfed that afternoon, glassy peelers on a dropping swell. Two-footers, three if I’m generous. It had been a full moon on the Sunday, the night would be clear, and the tide would be full an hour or so before midnight. We’d been talking about a nocturnal mission for ages, and this night, it seemed, conditions were perfect. I had the tummyflutters all evening. I tried to drown them with a massive bowl of Vietnamese pho soup, garlicky and well-chillied to clear the sinuses and warm the cockles. It helped, a bit. Half an hour before Riffo was due to pick me up, my wife started having reservations. “Won’t you be freezing?”…

In the 1830s, Charles Darwin theorised that coral atolls were the tops of submerged volcanoes – that the coral encircling an island maintained vertical growth, close as possible to sunlight, eventually becoming an atoll as the volcano sank. Not everyone agreed with him. Flak spawned between Darwinists and those who supported oceanographer John Murray, a Scot who thought atolls grew from shallow sandbanks on the ocean floor. Among his acolytes was a Swissborn American scientist/copper baron named Alexander Agassiz, who funded expeditions to study coral reefs globally to support Murray’s theory and to denounce Darwin. In an 1881 letter to Agassiz, Darwin claimed the dispute could be solved by drilling 150 to 180 metres into an atoll. If volcanic rock and traces of shallow-water organisms were found beneath the atoll,…

DEBUT – 5’11” x 19¼” x 2¼” TWIN FIN This was the first board I’ve shaped and glassed. Back in late 2013. This was on the family farm out at Nymboida. I had my best mate Ryan Burch with me kind of guiding me along. The board actually goes insane. It was kind of a fluke for a first board – I definitely came back to earth on my next effort! Back when I was a grom, me and Dad (Nat Young, for those of you who’ve just joined us – Ed) shaped a single-fin together, using a twisted blank, and ever since, shaping’s always kinda been under my skin. I’d been thinking about shaping a board for ages. The shaping bay out at the farm hadn’t been functioning for…

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always wanted to know what’s around the corner. If I was born 200 years ago I reckon I’d have been an explorer. When my mate John Jacoby called and asked me to come on this paddling trip around South Georgia Island. I did a bit of research – for about five seconds – and told him yep. I’m in. Andrew [Maffett] and Jim [Bucirde] also said yes. The four of us have an average age of 52. South Georgia is in the South Atlantic – it’s sub Antarctic and one of the most remote places in the wolrd. I’d read lots about Ernest Shackleton and his adventures 99 years ago. Having this odd sense of being out of my time, and wanting to be…

Two years ago I flew out of Sydney, bound for Florida, to put into action something I’ve dreamt about since childhood. The dream came to life as I hunted, found and bought the yacht Kuhela, and began getting to know her. After many trials and a steep learning curve I finally threw off the lines and sailed down through Central America on my way to Panama. Along the way I met a diverse collection of amazing people, dived and surfed remote areas, explored magnificent reefs and beaches, sailed up winding rivers, experienced different cultures and anchored off offshore coral atolls. It was a truly amazing trip, especially for a rookie, and it reinforced who I am and what’s important to me. It was an initiation into self-reliance. It also simplified…

FROM HIS ‘SEA LEVEL ’ SERIES BELLS BY GRA MURDOCH If you’re a shameless surf-comp webcast addict like me, you’ll no doubt be familiar with professional surf stars walking up the Bells stairs at Eastertime, grinning conspiratorially with the post-heat interviewer, and after rolling out the ol’ natural amphitheatre chestnut, saying how Bells is a “tricky wave” – polite shorthand for, well, not that good really. But for me, Bells is Valhalla. It’s the place I first saw real surfing, like, you know, going along the green face of a wave – as opposed to heading shoreward on a closeout – so how can the joint be anything other than magic in my mind? So yeah, we’d drive past the Bells turn-off every Friday night en route to family weekends…

When I was a teenager in the ’70s, you never saw anyone much over 30 in the line-up. Now, on the wrong side of 50, I reckon I’m about the median age of surfers on my stretch of the coast, so it seems to me there are are a lot of surfers grappling these days with the challenges presented by growing older. As the opportunities to surf grow less frequent, through family and work commitments and the sundry other vicissitudes life throws up, your ability to actually take it on when the surf is happening inevitably comes into question. At some point, it all gets too hard and you start to lose your nerve. For most, the problem is solved by simply buying a longboard - it keeps you in…