Surfpolitik

Unveiled to the public today Wavegarden is the first wavepool that, if I were looking for a distinguishing criteria, I'd expect surfers would pay money to ride. The complex is on a property near San Sebastian and provides simultaneous waves that peel down either side of the lagoon offering rides approximately 18-seconds long.

Craig Griffin is a Melbourne-based film director. His latest work, which he finished mere hours before this interview took place, is a documentary on Wayne Lynch. Uncharted Waters: A Personal History of Wayne Lynch is a study of the enigmatic Victorian, once the greatest surfer of his generation and a person whose politics and opinions thrust him into the spotlight as Australia underwent sweeping social changes. 

Nothing has done more for crowd control on South Australia's desert coast than the cold threat of violence. There's seemingly no way to escape it. In the water it's Great Whites and South Australia's reputation for breeding sharks as big as buses. While on land it's overly protective locals operating in a wild frontier environment.

In the end though the questions have to be asked. Why then? What is it about that period of surfing history that draws so much attention? Why all this romanticisation of what, these days, is a far from novel experience? Surfing is too trivial a subject of itself, to support serious artistic intent, but it is a potentially rich setting that no-one yet has fully exploited.

Surfing alone is probably not what most would prefer as an everyday experience. We are social, surfing with others is part of the experience. It soothes our anxieties and amuses us between waves.  We may be distant from the insects but our species still swarms and clusters, we live in agglomerations that make solitude an ever rarer experience. So we surf in crowds, of varying density and intensity, and learn to cope.