TracksJuly - August 2021的目錄

SURFER: ELISE TRIGGER PHOTO: BE RYDER Surfing The Pass at Byron typically requires a particular mindset. With its enchanting surrounds and roping lines, the fabled sand-bottom point has become a kind of hallowed meeting hall for the ‘Ride Everything’ crowd – loggers trim while twin fin devotees seek terminal velocity; asym’ converts play with the heel side and toe side response of their incongruous rails, and those unhinged finless crew might be having the most fun of all. Get too wound up about your own surfing agenda and you’ll implode at The Pass. If you want to have fun out here you have to be patient and enjoy the exploits of your fellow surfers as they whiz by. And then when fate bends a wave your way, swoop like a…

JASON BUTTONSHAW - KIRRA - TC BETSY Growing up in Victoria mainly, surfing the reef breaks around the Torquay area, you heard or read in the Surf Mags months later about Tropical Cyclones (TC) in Queensland and how the sand bottom points of Burleigh and Kirra would pump with the swells generated by the cyclones. My first road trip to Queensland was in the early 80s when I started working at Quiksilver. I had a company car and was told to head north to cover the Australian Titles. I got to surf and shoot some of the sand bottom points around South East Queensland and Northern NSW and chase a couple of cyclone swells from down south but also had to contend with driving rain, road closures due to flooding…

“Uh oh…” We’re rounding the last corner in Tijuana before joining the long sweep of road that funnels all north-bound traffic to Mexico’s Baja border with the United States. Greg has seen vehicles are at a standstill in front of us.We come to an abrupt stop. “The things I do for you, Al.” Greg’s only half joking. Ordinarily, his ‘Sentri’ (regular, trusted U.S. traveller) pass affords him smooth passage, half hour waits at most. Unfortunately, with this gringo on board he’s forced to join the main line for full passport check. After several decades’ experience of Baja border crossings, seeing the multi lane traffic backed this far up, he knows we’re in for a four hour wait. Minimum. After an hour or two we can see the heavily fortified structures…

Courtney Conlogue is rock-climbing the door and window frames of her quarantine hotel room in Sydney. Elsewhere in the building, Italo Ferreira films a bodyweight workout for his Instagram page, featuring explosive push-ups, backflips, and those trademark washboard abs. Jack Robinson shaves his head and Griffin Colapinto spruiks Vegemite in a wacky Californian drawl. Welcome to the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour in 2021. Or, as Head of Competition and Senior Vice President of Tours Jessi Miley-Dyer more accurately describes it, ‘the travelling circus’. “Everyone calls it the travelling circus,” she laughs. “It’s a bit like being on summer camp or something.” First, she convinced the steely Australian Government to prise open its borders for 54 international surfers, plus at least the same number of administration staff and supporters.…

SURFER: CREED MCTAGGART PHOTO: TOM PEARSALL As Creed McTaggart waxes up with wild-eyed anticipation we get a glimpse at what’s got him so excited. Beyond the mud-splattered whip,The Box is snarling – throwing down the gauntlet to any would-be takers. “He’d just arrived and was super-keen despite the fact it was huge, south and ugly… nearly everything you don’t want,” explains Tom Pearsall, who remembers being resigned to the fact that Creed’s manic enthusiasm meant he would have to swim out and shoot. “Creed persuaded the boys (Beau Cram and Kael Walsh) it was surfable and the session was on. It was by far the gnarliest I’ve swam out there.With such a powerful swell some sets were just mutating, and they had so much water they drained the reef. Huge…

I consider surf photography to be a stand-alone artform. The art of capturing a single and fleeting moment in the endlessly changing ocean. I always look to capture something interesting and hope to give a different perspective into surfing and surf photography. I look for different angles and shooting techniques, especially when shooting up close and personal in the water. Over recent years I’ve experimented with long zoom lenses in the water, while still shooting at close range to the action. I always hope to come up with weird and wacky moments that might otherwise go unnoticed. Some of my favourite images feature the strange things that happen when using slow shutter or when water spray and in-camera lens flares do wild things. Static. by Respondek was created in these…

SURFER: RYAN WATTS PHOTO: TOM PEARSALL Surfing still has its coastal equivalent of the high-plains drifter – the wandering soul intent on leading a life dictated by the direction of the swell and the whim of the wind. They might post-up and familiarise themselves with the variables of a particular region for a while, but once one zone’s pitching delights have been fully devoured they’ll be looking for the next challenge. Ryan Watts fits the brief. The underground Kiwi charger has spent a few years in Ireland chasing emerald-hued slabs and hangin’ with his fiancé, Aisling. More recently Ryan has been roaming South Oz, living in his Ford Transit van, and foraging for swell on the desert fringes. This particular shot was taken further north, after COVID blockades were relaxed…

BEHIND THE COVER: DAYDREAMING BY JEREMY JONES LIGHTFOOT It was on Instagram that Tracks Art Director, Ben Bugden, somewhat serendipitously spotted the work of Jeremy Jones Lightfoot. He reached out and asked if Jeremy would be interested in doing a piece for the magazine, to which Jeremy enthusiastically agreed, telling us that his grandmother was actually a good friend of Captain Goodvibes creator Tony Edwards. Small world! Originally slotted for a double page, we were so stoked with what Jeremy delivered, we had to put it on page one.You can check out his work at @j.jones.lightfoot MAKE A WAVE SURF EVERY DAY FOR SURFAID Perhaps your nickname is ‘gills’ and you have to be in the water no matter what the conditions or maybe you need a little motivation to…

I grew up on Rottnest Island. My Irish parents managed the pub there. One day after school my father and I were standing out front watching a cruise ship in the distance leaving Fremantle, destination unknown. Maybe it was North Atlantic bound? My brother Sean and I had been to Ireland on passenger ships with our parents a few years previous.They were thinking of moving back home. But when winter came that year, it was a severe one. I still have memories of dangerous icy roads and snow ball fights with my cousins. John and Nora Murphy decided Australia’s hot weather was more tolerable and returned to Rottnest where work was plentiful. I was glad living on Wadjemup with the quokkas, running wild on barefoot adventures alongside other independent kids…

There are these three kids.They’re fanging across the tide flat at Porky’s Beach in an old red farm buggy. Eldest is three weeks off his Ls so he knows how to drive – fast as possible. Co-pilot relays the speedo count in a shrill crescendo. Engine buzzing like a caffeinated bee, sun baking down, tall blue skies. Round the boulder, over a slurp of bull kelp, final straight ahead. Accelerator to the floor. Fifty-five! Everyone leaning forward. Fifty-six! Sudden divot and 3mm of the cleanest air in the world. Fifty-seven! “I’m never living in a city,” declares my eldest, winding it back and skwarking a lazy arc to a stop in front of the little right.We’re all feeling it. King Island has much to offer but at this point in…