The release of issue #600 makes Tracks the most prolifically published surf magazine in the world. Others have been around for longer, but no surf title has sent more issues to the printer than Tracks. Reaching 600 is a milestone worth commemorating and we’ve compiled an eclectic mix of classic and contemporary material to make this one a collectable tome. A sample of content below.
IN PRAISE OF THE SURF PHOTO
Why the printed image will always matter in surfing.
By Craig Sims
“… The act of surfing on a wave is therefore an ephemeral event. It is an activity bound by space and time and leaves no trace of its existence. If the surfer never quite gets the chance to register a single distinctive moment in the blurred memory of an all-consuming ride, a photo can do it for them.”
STEPH GILMORE: SURFER OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
How a smiling kid from Kingscliff owned the last two decades in surfing.
by Luke Kennedy
“I was hyper-aware of everything around me and what was on the line, but I was completely in control of my energy and totally in love with the challenge and the showmanship needed to go the whole way. It’s an incredible feeling. Very connected but also floating.” – Steph Gilmore
THE CAT WITH THE CREAM
The nine lives of Robbie Page – the OG Houso, Pipe Master, Indigenous surfing champion, surf wax entrepreneur, maniac – and how he always lands on his feet.
by Tim Baker
“Pagey spent 88 days in solitary confinement in a Tokyo jail, occupying the same cell that former Beatle, Paul McCartney, briefly found himself in after a minor drug bust.”
“He eventually opened a surf shop of his own on the road into Crescent, a form of hilarious, grunge surf commerce, equal parts business and theatre.”
WHEREVER WE MAY ROAM
Tahlija Redgard is a freesurfer in the truest sense.
By Luke Kennedy
“I just fell in love with the simplicity of living in the car and how cheap you can live and how free you are.” – Tahlija Redgard
GABRIEL MEDINA AND THE ARC OF REDEMPTION
Why Gabby is back in the good books.
By Ben Mondy
“Because I gave up a normal life. I stopped living like a normal child. Competition was a place that gave me tranquillity, and where I could express myself.” – Gabriel Medina
“I had depression, I started treating myself with a psychologist. I never imagined being in this situation. It’s scary, things stop making sense for you.” – Gabriel Medina
STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS
An alternative take on Australian Surfing History. Part II: 1964 – 1974
By Monty Webber
“In 1970, a frizzy-haired young Australian surfer named Terry Fitzgerald did the impossible. While surfing at Rocky Point Rights on the North Shore of Oahu, he blew away the legendary surfboard shaper Dick Brewer. Brewer recalled. ‘He was different, and he still had to prove himself, but I recognised him as the best surfer in the world. The best I’d ever seen in fact, because of his speed lines.”
JACK & OCCY
Two of surfing’s greatest showmen go back on the road together, a quarter of a century after the release of ‘The Occumentary’.
By Sean Murphy
“I love Jack, he’s such a good mate. We actually hit it off. We used to make each other laugh a lot, still do. He’s more like a big brother really.” – Mark Occhilupo
JOHN WITZIG & THE GOLDEN AGE
The renaissance man who captured the zeitgeist of early Australian surf culture.
Written by Alex Workman • Photography by John Witzig
“There were a lot of dirt tracks between say, Sydney and the Queensland border. I took my mother’s Beetle down so many of them, and few would provide gold, but it was an adventure, it was great fun, and we were the naïve ‘explorers’ of the Australian coast.” – John Witzig
NOT THE OLD ‘BALI REACHES CRITICAL MASS’ STORY
From Albe to Anushka on the Island of the Gods.
Written by Phil Jarratt
“We knew we’d got the waves and we knew that finding the spot was significant, but we could never have imagined what it would symbolise in the future.” – Albe Falzon
THE FINAL FRONTIER FOR WOMEN’S SURFING
Through the decades and 600 issues of Tracks, plenty has changed for women in surfing – and yet plenty remains the same. How far off equality are we? Kate Allman talks to legends from the past and present to unpack what’s holding women back.
Written by Kate Allman
“Us younger girls just want to surf as hard as we can. We want to surf like the boys, and I think we can be as good as them – or better.” – Erin Brooks
FOLLOWING THE WHITE RABBIT
Stories from in and out of Jeffreys Bay.
By Tay Kitts
“I looked out at the aloe-lined stretch of coast and felt a tingle of warmth; I was high as a kite on that sweet white-noise candy of free-dom. I had made it to the land of perfect right-hand points at peak swell season, with no one to answer to but the Indian Ocean.”
CLASSIC LINES
A selection of quotes from 600 issues of Tracks.
Compiled by Luke Kennedy
In just a few words, a quote can capture the essence of an era, sum-up an icon, or say something universal about surfing, which still resonates with truth half a century after the words were first uttered.
“Go ahead, make me angry. I can get rich from it.” – 1991: Kelly Slater
I surf because I don’t think I could handle working at Taco Bell or K-mart… It’s the best feeling being able to ride the ocean. Do you think Michael Jordan could relate? – 1992: Lisa Andersen
SEA THE SWELLS – WATCH THE SUN
For a revered musician and songwriter who found inspiration and purpose in surfing, psychedelia and nature, it took a darkened cinema, the teenage camaraderie of fellow surfers and musos, the first viewing of a classic surf movie and the sweet melodies of their cool jazz soundtracks to inspire one of his greatest works.
Written By Hugh Liney
“As acid-rock, psychedelia and peace, love and weed engulfed our once culturally limited shorelines, Lindsay Bjerre and his surf/muso clique fully immersed themselves in the new experiences that life offered, now aiming for much higher planes of creativity and new dimensions of musical vision.”
