Surfing World Magazine

Surfing World is the oldest, deepest and most respected surfing magazine in the world. Founded in 1962, it's become a cornerstone of surfing culture both in Australia and right around the globe. It's a premium, high concept magazine, showcasing the best surf writing and photography. It's both classic and contemporary, reflecting the kaleidoscopic surfing culture of today.

THIS IS US. THIS IS OUR SPOT. WHY WOULDN’T WE WANT TO SURF IT! – Memories of Wreck Bay, Pipe, Shelley Point, Black Rock • Raymond Fredrick ‘Gus’ Ardler is a Dharawal and Wodi Wodi man who grew up in the village at Wreck Bay. As a kid he’d look across Summercloud and watch the first guys from Nowra and Wollongong who’d driven down to surf the peak off Shelley Point. It was secret treasure, it’s location closely guarded. For Ray and his Koori mates, it was something far deeper. Ray led the first mob of local surfers, their connection to the land extending out to the waves of what would soon be known as Black Rock. One of the first areas on the Australian coast recognised officially as Indigenous land, has, in time, also become the spiritual home of Aboriginal surfing in Australia. Ray shared his memories of those early days with Dean Dampney.

Surfing World Magazine

THE LUCKY COUNTRY… RUNNING OUT OF LUCK • When Donald Horne wrote The Lucky Country in 1963, Australians picked up the book as an affirmation of their ridiculous good fortune. They only got a few pages in however before realising it was anything but. One critic described the book as, “a bucket of cold saltwater emptied onto the belly of a dreaming sunbather.” The book came as a rude shock to sun-drunk Australians.

Antediluvian Before the flood

DIESEL AND DUST — A pilgrimage. • Last shift at The Elliston, never a final goodbye. From the Eyre, take the Birdseye Highway and you’ll pass much of the same. Backroads, the Darke Peak pub, dodge the left turn for Uluru, pass the Big Prawn, right at the Big Pineapple… and you’re still nowhere near it. Directions to Midnight Oil’s Diesel and Dust house aren’t hard to find, neighbouring a town rich in mining history. If you want to find it, you’ll find it.

“There’s lines of swell round Byron Pass, mate”* — the Peter Garrett interview

THE TIME HAS COME

WHATEVER YOU WANT, YOUR WAY – Life with Noa Deane • Life as Sonic Youth daydream with slabs and ramps and beers and guitars and mates. Life as surf nerd devouring detail about the act and its stories. Life as tins at the skatepark and schooners at the Middle Pub. Life as long drives and unfamiliar zones. Life as ageing soundbites and potty-mouthed philosophy. Life as big, straight airs. Life as bailing the rat race for quieter and quieter zones. Life as a flat tyre in Kings Cross on a Friday night without a spare. Life as the quest for the biggest section you can find. Life as the fuzz of feedback and the deafening drumbeat of rain. Life as the obsession with the minutiae of engaging rail. Life as standing in your house as waters rage around it and valleys tumble by. Life as a closet boogieboarder. Life as sponsor darling. Life as toil and cursing the water and endless tons of flood debris. Noa Deane’s been pretty busy living.

“YOU DON’T ACTUALLY KNOW ANYTHING TILL YOU KNOW ALL OF IT” – Russ drives the bus • You might not have heard of the late, great Russell Graham, but, as one Torquay local put it, “Russ has left fingerprints on every single surfboard in this town.” Russ, who got his shaping start with Midget Farrelly in the ‘60s, famously came to Torquay in a school bus he’d converted into a mobile shaping factory. In the 50-odd years since, he’s quietly worked behind the scenes on thousands of boards; an old school craftsman, true to detail, but free to design. Russ slipped away last week. He spent his final days talking with son Corey, who followed him into the shaping game...