Surfing has always moved in cycles, but right now it feels like the dial has spun all the way back.
The late ’90s and early 2000s are no longer just archived in grainy surf films and scratched DVDs, they’re alive again. Boards have narrowed out and stretched longer, noses pulled in and rockers refined. Boardshorts sit well below the knee. That raw, unfiltered style that has a real edge to it is once again seeping through every element of surf culture.
That resurgence is exactly what the ALTO Pro-Am taps into as the surf contest, founded in Portugal a couple of years ago, heads to Sydney’s Northern Beaches this Anzac weekend. Founded by two surfers from New Zealand, Rory and Cam, their formula for the event is simple – throw a surf comp with friends, ride boards from the era that shaped them and finish the day with a party.
However, what began as a single day has turned into a full week of events – film nights, music, art shows, rooftop parties and a surf exhibition built around a core quiver of boards from the late 90s and early 2000s. The gathering brings together a mix of people and usually includes some big names in surfing, as well as a number of us average joes.
“We didn’t grow up in that era,” said Cam. “But we grew up watching it. The films, the surfers and the boards. The whole culture around surfing just felt more authentic and relatable.”
That’s the vibe the pair aim to bring with the ALTO Pro-Am.
Ditching rigid heats, surfers rotate through sessions at Bungan Beach on the Saturday, stacking their best waves onto a live beachside leaderboard, judged through the ALTO lens — speed, power and flow with style weighted highest. The top six men and women move into Sunday’s finals but even that breaks format with heats filmed and replayed later at 7th Day Brewery where both surfers and the crowd decide the winners.
From there, the weekend spills across the Northern Beaches with a live podcast at Onboard Surf Store, bands and heat draws at the brewery, an ANZAC-style 2UP session and a slip-and-slide post-surf. Less tour stop, more cultural gathering.
“Innovation is great,” said Rory. “But back then style felt more present than it does today. That’s the scene we want to recreate.”
More information on the event schedule is set to drop in the coming weeks.
