Tabla de contenidos para Issue 595 en Tracks

Matt Chojnacki grew up surfing in the storied lineups of Sydney’s Northern Beaches, in the 90s and early 2000s. They were heady times, when a clutch of northside surfers were still a force on the World Tour, Layne Beachley was winning World Titles, Ozzie Wright, was launching in multiple creative directions and the echoes of past legends and pioneers could still be heard. Like his mates and contemporaries Matt rode shortboards and drunk in the cocktail of surrounding surfing influences. However, from an early age he developed an interest in the rich surfing history of the Northern Beaches. Soon he was experimenting with different craft, honing a distinctive style and driving up and down the coast to longboard contests with his dad in their fully restored orange Combi. All this…

“What exactly makes an Immortal? It varies from sport to sport, of course, and is an imprecise mix of fame, prodigious talent, competitive success, remarkable achievement and magnetism…” So writes Phil Jarratt in the introduction to his recent title ‘The Immortals of Australian Surfing’. Jarratt admits he was vexed by the question of who to include in the book after the publishers insisted he narrow it down to 12 names, but ultimately he went with the following luminaries: Midget Farrelly, Nat Young, Wayne Lynch, Michael Peterson, Simon Anderson, Mark Richards, Tom Carroll, Mick Fanning, Pam Burridge, Layne Beachley, Steph Gilmore, and Tyler Wright. Jarratt calls on personal experiences, in-depth research and anecdotes to produce an engaging and comprehensive anthology. It helps that he knew many of his subjects well and…

What if surf reefs and beaches could be granted the same kind of protective status as many of the planet’s land-based natural wonders? Your favourite left-hander in Indo officially shielded from any kind of man-made threat; treated like hallowed ground in the same way Niagara Falls or the Grand Canyon is. Every effort made to give the natural environment primacy, whilst cultivating a cohesive relationship with social and economic forces. Scott Atkinson, the senior director of Surf Conservation at Conservation International (one of the world’s largest conservation organisations) has spent the past five years trying to achieve the vision outlined above. “So, our mission really is to protect worldclass waves and vital marine ecosystem surrounding them.” Scott is talking to me via Zoom from his home in Hawaii, but much…

For the third time in as many minutes, Ned Hart is having a little trouble stringing a sentence together. “I went up north, then home, then chased a swell down south, then south again, wait…that doesn’t make sense. North, then south, then I went home… then south? Wait, what?” It was an amusing, and it must be said, charming, slip in syntax trigged by the 17-year-old attempting to recount where’d he been over the past two months while chasing waves. Perhaps compounding the confusion is that Ned had also not long returned home from a stint in Sumatra only to learn his presence was required the following month in Portugal for the inaugural New Big Wave Award ceremony as a finalist in Ride of the Year category. Of course, all…

Did your parents detonate your childhood dreams? Or just adult all over them? Seven-year-old Christa Funk returned home from the aquarium with tales of blue ringed octopus and dancing dolphins. Despite growing up more than 1,000 km from the nearest ocean – a hair West of the American mid-West, in Grand Junction, Colorado –, she knew then that the ocean was the place for her. Like most of us, she resolved to be a marine biologist. Later that week, her dad, pharmacist Bob Funk, thought he was dropping a truth bomb by sharing the projected salary for his youngest daughter’s prospective field of study. 1998 Salary Projections: Marine Biologist (with PhD): $40,000 McDonald’s Store Manager: $55,000 In fact, seven-year-old Christa Funk was not perturbed by these statistics. It sounded like…

While the nascent phase of Pro Surfing, in the early 70s, was not always glamorous, it was a time when unique characters with equally distinct surfing styles learned to love the bumpy road to surfing success. It’s difficult to remember exactly when I first met Wayne Bartholomew. Only a year apart in age, we were both chasing the surfing dream and happy to travel in search of exactly whatever it was we were seeking – it seems like forever ago. Catching up with Rabbit briefly at a recent Sydney screening of the classic late 70s movie ‘Free Ride’, he reminded me of our times together as grommets on the Gold Coast. I’d travel up from Sydney with an older crew from North Narrabeen and stay for weeks, surfing, hanging out,…

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ON THE COVER: RYDER GUEST BY CHRISTA FUNK Last winter didn’t have many Pipe days and only one of those dreamy, west swell photographer-channel days. On this day there was sand in the reef, it was dangerous, and the crowd was ridiculous. I shot in the water all day. There were windows where the conditions would line-up, one was in the morning but the best one came mid-day. Ryder took off deep and pulled in, it was insanely beautiful. He almost made it out but got munched at the exit. Even though, it was glorious. REIZIGER COCO FOOD A & B Reiziger Coco Food A&B is formulated from 40 years of expertise. It’s the craftsman’s choice for coco coir pith cultivation. Revered by elite Dutch growers, this iconic two-part nutrient…

There is a wave about a five-minute drive from where I live – a slabby, terrifying reef break that comes alive once a year on massive winter swells, producing barrels so big and hollow you could drive a Land Cruiser through them. Every year I flock to the cliff face looking over it to watch local chargers tame the beast. I think to myself maybe one day I will paddle out. Surfers have an uncanny ability to imagine and project a fantasy before it is carried out – huge, graceful carves consistently run through our mindscapes when we are seated in the lineup. But if the fantasy is never attempted, or the frustration never faced, could it live on like a haunting? I think I am haunted by this wave…