For surfers, the promises of social media are finally coming true; it's democratising the game and bypassing the old gatekeepers of information. It's also presenting a dramatic new challenge: never mind us crusty old surfing editors looking to increase our readerships, the responsibility to protect secret spots now rests with everybody.
The following article was written by blindboy.
Surfing has experienced a 30 year long financial bonanza during which its main corporate sponsors managed, with a head start from Coca Cola, to convince a sizeable market that not only was surfing cool, but that board shorts and a t-shirt were a fashion statement. So miracles happen, but not often, and not forever. The writing is on the wall, as well as in the financial pages, that those days are over.
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.
The Big Wave World Tour has its own unique set of challenges. For one, how do organisers appease sponsors who stump up money for a contest that doesn't run. Also, how viable is a circuit where interested parties can wait six months between contests only to have it called off.
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.
Perhaps it was the big wave paddle revolution? Or perhaps it was the internet revolution and the promulgation of images and video that followed? Whatever it was it's kinda bizarre to look back at Cloudbreak's rise to prominence as a legitimate big wave spot.
At last year's Volcom Fiji Pro a huge, clean swell hit Cloudbreak on Day 6 of the waiting period. Sets were breaking in the 20 foot range under light offshores creating mindlessly perfect conditions - everyone has seen the photos and videos! The contest got canned so the Top 34 stepped aside allowing the spotlight to fall on the world's best big wave surfers.
Three years ago Andrew James of Freshwater on Sydney's northern beaches made the surf travel film 30,000. With his brother Richard for company the two drove from Casablanca to Cape Town traversing the entire western side of the African continent. Since then Richard has travelled to Afghanistan to make a frontier snowboarding film while Andrew has immersed himself in another project, one that's all-consuming but far removed from the entertainment industry.
What place is there for ethics in the modern business landscape? How many businessman would forego dollars and ignore the bottom line to do 'the right thing'?
Strange questions indeed. Even stranger when you consider I was sitting at a surfing press conference when I flashed upon them.
Russell Ord is a surf photgrapher from Cowaramup, Western Australia. He's a photographer that specialises in heavy water and his photos of heaving local reefs are seen around the world. Russ recently worked on Drift, the new film set in Margaret River during the early ‘70s that tells the story of two brothers at the genesis of the modern surf industry.
