From the red dirt of Gnaraloo the Catweazle of surf journalism Steve Shearer introduces Hynd’s Reef Residency vagabonds.

Dane Beevor is a commited waterman that never fails to impress.

Dane Beevor’s what happens when you get spat out the other side of the surf industry sausage factory. You don’t stop ripping, you don’t stop being an interesting human. You start a landscaping business and find solace in Indonesia racking up shack-time through the southern hemisphere winter.

Immersion is a prerequiste when camping in the desert, and Av Cat, Carl Attkins, took it literally in the waves too.

Dane’s here to provide the contrapuntal note to the finless escapade with some old school finned power surfing.
Ryan Burch is at the polar opposite of the spectrum, paid the coin by Volcom to peruse the globe for waves and ride them however the hell he feels like. And that “feels like” includes classic fish, asymmetrical finless sleds and square blocks of foam like your old mans esky lid.

Ryan Burch had the desert in mind back when he was having his fish stick embossed in an orange hue.

This is in the desert, where a bunch of classical music long hairs, John Frank and Mick Sowry are creating music and film to be shown at the opera house. The desert budgies are still there but the dust is washed down with cold beers and the food is prepared by a French Chef who worked for Jacques Cousteau. You’ve heard of Jack Cousteau, right? He’s an inspiration to John Frank but Burchy’s never heard of him. Burchy can’t drive a stick or change a tyre either but don’t hold that against him.
If you could see what this loose limbed evil genius from Encinitas can do on this tiny slab of foam on some solid desert waves you’d forgive any spoiled surf industry peccadillos.

Ship (and trip) captain Derek Hynd awaits cast off as Burch looks for Dane the wrong way.

Beevor is here with a crew of Av cats, not a latte sipping bunch of bike riding effeminates but a feral assemblage of bearded road warriors. To the scientific eye one assumes in the desert it is obvious that the Av Cats have become physiologically adapted to desert life. The kidney’s have become super attuned to absorbing the needed H2O from Emu Export, alleviating the need for water like a feral goat absorbing moisture from a scraggly saltbush.
In a perfect world the Av Cats could establish a commune here, a kind of utopia for ex pros and loose cannons to play music and find peace in the desert, whilst indulging in some high octane shredding and tube-riding during the swells.

Classic hits AM 666 out of Carnarvon is on the dial, the only station available and Roberta Flack is crooning Tonight I Celebrate my Love for you as Frankie suits up and Beevor and Av Cats are slicing and dicing a punchy right hander in front of some glowing white dunes. Beev surfs with decisive precision, all coiled up power and speed.
Down on the next desert left Burchy is gliding and flowing on a classic fish. He’s switched between this board and a white chunk of foam for most of the trip, with the occasional forays onto some of Hynd’s finless creations. I know bodyboarders have been surfing finless at Pipeline for years, sometimes even standing up on the things, but Burchy has been taking this small white spaceship into some bizarre positions on solid, hollow surf. It’s next level shit.

Burch speed blur – just add music, motion and imagination.

John Frank, the taciturn and stately photographer from Cronulla, the man whose water shots elevated Litmus to a masterpiece, has been filming all this on high speed RED Cameras and at 300 frames a second the subtleties of Ryan Burch and Derek Hynds finless stylings will be apparent to to the most subtle degree.
Beevor can carve and snap on the engagement of fins. Hynd and Burch must glide, finding the trim line and engaging the rail edge from the git-go. There’s no recovery from a loss of control, especially at high speed on a desert left.

By Sunset the crew are surfing back-lit runners on the main reef. 55 is the new 22 according to Hynd. Tognetti the violin playing head of the ACO is out there gliding finless through the shapely runners. A pair of manta rays circle and dance in the shallow lagoon. A cold Emu Bitter washes the dust down the throat and the musicians crank up the cello and didge around the camp-fire.

– Steve Shearer

NOTE: WHAT IS THE REEF RESIDENCY?

The Reef Residency features surfing legends Derek Hynd and Tom Carroll, surf cinematographer, Jon Frank, film director, Mick Sowry. creating a major new music/film production in collaboration with Richard Tognetti, Artistic Director and Lead Violinist of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Following the collaboration in 2009 to create the program The Glide and the documentary Musica Surfica. Hynd, Frank, Sowry and Tognetti team up again using the Gnaraloo breaks as the raw material for a major new music/film production.

For two weeks in May Gnaraloo will be their home. They will be joined by composer Iain Grandage and Indigenous artists, Mark Atkins and Steve Pigram as well as Australian Chamber Orchestra performers Erkki Veltheim (Viola), Satu Vänskä (Violin) and Julian Thompson (Cello).

Throughout the Residency, Gnaraloo will be the base for the creation of the new work destined to be performed in major concert halls around the world. It will be a thriving scene as composers, performers, filmmakers and surfers explore and are inspired by the amazing coastline – on and off the water.

Former pro surfer turned journalist Derek Hynd is one of surfing’s most enigmatic characters. Hynd’s crusade against friction allows him to attain unnatural velocities. Hynd and Caroll will be joined by Dane Beevor, Ryan Burch and Ari Browne all discarding fins for pure surfing.

“I truly believe surfing is the perfect intersection of mind and physical culture and art.” Richard Tognetti

A Residency concert is to be presented at Gnaraloo Shearing Shed with excerpts of the new work alongside performances by the various artists. The full work will be presented as part of The Reef Tour which travels from Darwin to Perth and on to the Sydney Opera House in July.

Gnaraloo Concert: Thursday May 24, 6.30pm at 
the Shearing Shed, Gnaraloo Station.
Tickets: $45 Standard $35 Concession/Children under 16 Price includes dinner
Bookings essential via www.reeftour.tura.com.au/residency or 08 9228 3711