Surfing World Magazine December 2016

The other day I was sitting around a table with my two boys and their three cousins, and I asked each of them what they would like to be when they grow up. Milo, 12, says he is going to be a screenwriter and director of films that change the world. “Horror movies, Dad, but horror movies that help people,” he said. Cool. Iggy, ten, reckons he will grow up to be an actor or a novelist. “Like Dr. Suess. You think his stories are ridiculous, but really they’re about everything.” He actually said that. Mad pride! Eddie, 11, is going to be a pro skater, and start his own skate label called Queztion. Radness. Then I asked the two little ones. Mickey, five, wants to be a fart when…

TALKING WITH TYLER WRIGHT HAS ALWAYS ENTERTAINED ON ANY NUMBER OF LEVELS. The inner monologues that accidentally become conversation. The gloriously unfiltered assessments of her own surfing. The south coast twang. The wonderfully comic observations, where everyday moments become funnier than a dog riding a skateboard. The off-topic thought bubbles. The “mad props” to her friends. The truth bombs with just a hint of inappropriateness. The moment when she forgets you’re even there. The prospect that at any given second she might just get up and start dancing for no apparent reason. Only that this year Tyler has remained quiet. Back home, as she puts it, she’s had “a bit on.” She ain’t kidding. Her big bro, Owen is on the mend after a serious brain injury suffered at Pipeline…

There’s no bigger cliché in Aussie surfing than flying north for winter, even if only to dodge the cold for a couple of weeks. Things might be a little played out in Bali, Desert Point might rival Snapper for crowds, and the Mentawai Islands are packed with more boats than Sydney Harbour on New Year’s Day, but there’s a reason Indonesia is still on constant rotation for even the most adventurous of travellers. Our near northern neighbour just keeps on delivering, no matter your poison. 2016 has been a particularly good one in the archipelago, with a steady run of swell and dreamy conditions mixed in amongst a flood of unseasonal downpours. Veteran lensman Andrew Shield, always a sucker for bunched isobars, recently saw a spinning low he liked the…

I CAN'T WORK OUT IF THIS IS THE GOLDEN AGE OF SURF WRITING OR IT'S DYING DAYS. At a time when writers are being hunted to extinction and the Surf Writer’s Union can hold their annual general meeting in a phone box, a book about surfing just won the Pulitzer Fucking Prize. In the midst of this confused Dali landscape stands Jamie Brisick; a man of some refinement despite being born a surfer, a man who wrote poetically about the savagery of professional surfing, a man who left surfing to live in New York and explore the mythical, purported world outside. He ventured boldly out into this civilised land, out onto the very fringes of himself, but now finds himself back in the badlands of surfing. He’s been drawn back…

AS IN MOST PROFESSIONAL SPORT, EGO IS NEVER ON SHORT OFFER IN THE SURFING WORLD. SO, HOW DO YOU GRACEFULLY BOW OUT FROM THE HIGH OF THE LIMELIGHT WHEN YOUR TIME IS UP? After achieving his ultimate dream of getting on tour, former WCT power surfer Dan Ross was faced with the stress that comes with not only achieving your dreams, but sustaining them. After seven years, he'd had enough. With humility, grace and an exceptional talent for listening, Dan alchemized the unique tools and skills he'd absorbed from tour life. He forged a career in mentoring young athletes to overcome many of the challenges he'd already wrestled in the face of competitive pressures and health complications, including a diagnosis of mercury poisoning. As coach and mentor, Dan works with…

ARI BROWNE ANSWERS THE PHONE IN THE NUDE. THANKFULLY IT'S ONLY A VOICE CALL. “Yeah, I just got out of the shower and I’m sitting here nude. In the sun. It’s quite pleasant really. What are you up to?” After informing him my clothed body is planning a full day of clothed activities, I discuss the idea of catching up later to interview him for Surfing World . “Great,” replies Nude Ari. The man who threatens to turn finless surfing into something truly revolutionary – revolutionary in terms beyond simply spinning wildly on a wave – turns up to the interview fully clothed. Minus shoes of course. One of his fellow art students had used flour as snow as part of her installation earlier in the day, and as…