Table of contents for No. 570 in Tracks

New York, 2011 and the pro surfing world is in a tizz because the most fabulous city in the world is playing host to one of its singlet and siren soirees. In the lead up to the Quiksilver Pro New York, which is being held at Long Beach on the fringes of the Big Apple, Quik organises a series of sideshows closer to town. On the day of my arrival I find myself standing in a crowd on the edge of the Hudson River, the Manhattan Skyline soaring like an impossible dream behind me, while Tony Hawk and his skate posse put their own spin on gravity-defying physics, while riding a custom-made ramp. As I marvel at the skating hi-jinx and get a little overwhelmed by the scale of the…

When Grayson Hinrichs answers the call from Tracks he’s lying in bed trying to gather himself for another excruciatingly mundane day at school. His last-minute victory in the final of the ISA World Junior Championships held in Huntington Beach, California, recently couldn’t seem further away. “We were paddling out for the finals and the heat before was the U/16 Girls final. When the chick won she just threw her arms in the air and was screaming, about to cry. I got all these hairs standing up all over me. I was like, ‘Imagine that, that would be the best thing ever!” he recalls. In conditions that bore an uncanny resemblance to the hometown rip bowls of his native Bondi, Grayson pulled off one of the most dramatic wins in recent…

WORDS: GREG LONG After a forceful pull on the straps synching the boards snugly to the roof of the car, my gaze shifts to the inside of our tiny 4x4 to make a final bag count and ensure that no gear has been left behind. The luminescent orange clock on the dashboard catches my attention… 11:55 pm. That can’t possibly be the right time I think to myself. Or is it? In the last few weeks we have crossed time zones, driven miles and changed seasons more than I care to recall. Sleep, although coveted has long been dismissed as a priority. I take a step back, and look up to a moon that is a mere day shy of full, acknowledging the distance before it would peak overhead. Clock…

ONE: MAKING BLOW BOARDS Around 2 am, Jorge left his mum’s apartment and drove across to the lake area for an intense night of making magic in a surfboard factory. As he walked through the metal gate, the place was still and quiet, the secretaries and shapers and lingering surfer clients long gone home. Only Jorge’s good friend, the boss, Igor, was here, waiting for him. Tonight, they were going to turn blow invisible. Jorge loved this place. Shiny, colourful boards lined the walls and equipment like saws, sanders, scissors and foam blanks was scattered everywhere. The distinct, intense aroma of fiberglass and resin hung in the still air. It was a surfer’s heaven. Jorge saw the newly shaped bare foam board on the table. This would shroud his blow.…

Balaram Stack - Pipeline There’s no doubt that Pipe sits comfortably at the top of the global, surf spot pecking order. It has done since Phil Edwards paddled out for the first documented session at the wave in 1961 for Bruce Brown’s ‘Surfing Hollow Days’. The footage changed surfing forever, and Pipeline became the benchmark against which all aspiring surfers are measured, a tradition that continues to this day. New York native, Balaram Stack, has slowly but surely been climbing the ladder at Pipe over the last few years. Sure, the Volcom sticker adorning the nose of his boards affords him a crucial leg-up – room and board mere metres from the wave, and the quiet backing of some of the more formidable faces in the Pipe lineup. An advantage,…

Becoming the custodian of a powerhouse surfboard label is no easy task. Especially one with the legacy of Aloha Surfboards. Founded in 1978 by Greg Clough, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, Aloha was Australian made, channelled Hawaiian spirit and featured a curled edge logo that brought to mind the magic of Aladdin’s lamp. Back then Sydney’s Northern Beaches were rapidly becoming the epicentre of world surfing with more world champions and pro surfers based and living on the wave-rich, 25km stretch of coast than anywhere else in Australia (and probably the world). The refined shapes of Clough became synonymous with elite surfing in the 80s and 90s as Barton Lynch, Damian Hardman and Pam Burridge all claimed world titles with Aloha shapes beneath their feet. After more than three decades at…

Forget the 12 career CT wins. Ignore the two World Junior titles. Shut out the 13 top ten finishes in a 19-year career and the World Title in 2012. Pay no heed to the ever-present grin, the mischief in the eyes and the laugh always lurking around the corner of the next sentence. No, what we’ll remember, and what will be missed, when Parko stops competing, is the style. Few, if any, have surfed with more. It is his legacy. It his gift. “Genetics is so important and probably the biggest influence on my style,” Parko says, modestly when we start on dismantling his technique. “My uncle Daryl was great to watch. He surfed with a low, graceful, down-the-line style. And my dad was a great surfer, although he surfed…

The surfboard is and always has been a multi-faceted instrument of pleasure, both aesthetic and utilitarian. From the very beginning, when the ancient Polynesians speared fish from their olos as they paddled in over the fringing reef, framed by a setting sun, the surfboard has offered opportunities way beyond its principal function. I first became aware of this on my first trip to Bali in 1974. On my third day in Kuta someone advised me to cycle across the cow paddocks to a place called Arena Bungalows to see a surf photographer we’ll just call Dick. (I’ve named and nailed him often enough with this story, but we’re both old now and he deserves a break.) Dick, I was told, could organise a fake student pass with which I could…

From The Vault. Lisa Anderson, In Australia – 1992. Photo: Tony Nolan This is Lisa Anderson in the ascension, literally and metaphorically. At the time this shot was taken Lisa was 23 and lighting up lineups around the globe with a brand of surfing that combined cheek-puffed power (see above) with sophisticated lines. Two years later she would harness all the raw energy for a world title winning streak that lasted four straight years (1994-1997). Follow. @deepsleepcreeps - Pass out at your own peril! Read –The Land Before Avocado By Richard Glover. A hilarious, alternative history of Australian culture in the 70s. In his engaging style Glover delivers insight into the quirky and harsh realities of oft-romanticised era. Behind The Cover. Photo: Bosko The obvious thing to do would have…

In November of 2018 Stephanie Gilmore stood on the cliff at Honolua Bay, watching in disbelief as her main rival, Lakey Peterson, was eliminated from the title race. At long last, she’d bagged the elusive number seven. The scene was eerily similar to a moment eleven years earlier, when Steph had stood on that same cliff on a similar November day, watching wide-eyed as Rosy Hodge knocked Silvana Lima from contention, and in so doing garnered Steph her first ever world title. Despite the similarities, the woman that gingerly threw her arms in the air this year was not the same willful girl who celebrated in that very spot in 2007. Steph has changed much in the intervening years—she’s grown up, to be sure, and in so doing she’s learnt…

“They called us drug-fucked-loser-degenerates. And you know what? We fucken beat ‘em. And you know what? We fucken were, ‘cos that’s what surfing was,” fumes Matt Ellks, the eccentric, world-weary godfather of inner-city Sydney surfing. We’re in his Balinese lair on the island’s forgotten north coast as he tells the story. He’s on his feet, shirtless in a pair of green cargo shots, with his trusty vaporiser (full of a mysterious local serum) in one hand and the other extended threateningly at his would-be antagonist, former Channel Nine CEO and Bondi surfer, David Gyngell. “He had all the names - fucken (Richard) Crammy, Bill Powers, all the money and the sponsors. And we were the mongrels, the punks, the fucken roots of the suburb,” he continues. The story regards the…