Surfing The Pass at Byron typically requires a particular mindset. With its enchanting surrounds and roping lines, the fabled sand-bottom point has become a kind of hallowed meeting hall for the ‘Ride Everything’ crowd – loggers trim while twin fin devotees seek terminal velocity; asym’ converts play with the heel side and toe side response of their incongruous rails, and those unhinged finless crew might be having the most fun of all. Get too wound up about your own surfing agenda and you’ll implode at The Pass. If you want to have fun out here you have to be patient and enjoy the exploits of your fellow surfers as they whiz by. And then when fate bends a wave your way, swoop like a sea-eagle on a surface fish and dig your talons deep into the wax. However, if you don’t insist on having your waves dappled in sunlight then you can still be lucky and jag The Pass with only a few out. Like this moment featuring Elise Trigger in a brightly arched forward trim beneath a quilt of grey. “There was no one in the water, maybe five people at The Pass which is not common, so we decided to go for a shoot,” explains photographer, Beatriz Ryder. “It started raining and it was beautiful! Elise scored the best waves that day… Lots of swimming but totally worth it!”
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A series of podcasts that go behind the curtain of special surfing locations around the world.