Issue 606 is mostly travel themed. Some locations will be familiar, others might soon be your next dot on the map, and there is one or two you will probably never get to…
Non-specific South Pacific
Soli Bailey and Sheldon Simkus on the hunt for unmarked treasure.
By Luke Kennedy
By now you’ve probably realised we have been a little circumspect about the whereabouts of the wave. Soli wrangled with the question of divulging details that might giveaway the location but ultimately decided that making specific references didn’t sit well with him. I guess you could say he still appreciates the role mystique can play in surfing, the notion that the reward will be far greater if you find a wave for yourself.
48 Hours in Wonderland
Soli Bailey, Dakoda Walters, Harley Walters & Zac Skyring chase hollow dreams.
Written by Shane Fletcher
The waves were delivering, but about 30 minutes into our first session we sighted a massive Great White. Soli’s no stranger to marine life, so when he says it’s “huge!” you know the fish has got some girth. We came in and watched it cruise the lineup for awhile. Seeing empty A-frames spitting was a little torturous, but better than being a tooth stain on old-whitey.
Tya Zebrowski – Wunderkind
The youngest surfer to ever qualify for the CT says she owes a lot to her parents and a divergent upbringing.
By Rebecca Parsons
“Beyond [Tya’s] work ethic and determination, there has always been something special in her surfing, something innate,” says Gary. “A natural reading of the wave, a sense of timing, a fluidity that can’t really be taught.”
A Rainy Day in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica.
A jungle spa for the terminally unhurried, where humility is a currency, and arrogance is an expensive mistake.
By Max Hollingsworth
Nestled on the sun-kissed western tip of the Nicoya Peninsula, Santa Teresa sits at the end of a long, bone-rattling dirt road – the kind that feels like it’s shaking loose everything you thought you knew about pace and purpose. Then, there it is: a ribbon of gold pressed against the Pacific, where jungle fingers reach down to meet the tide. The hills behind shimmer in green heat, tangled with vines, mango trees, and the slow-moving shadows of spider monkeys…
Bittersweet El Salvador
A travelling Australian finds reeling points and moral conundrums in Central America
By Tom Clelland
The spectacle of forced labour being used to build a place where the world’s elite surfers will come to compete makes me uneasy, as does my participation in the whole social construct. I eat in the local restaurants, drink in the local bars, and surf my brains out. Wealthy Salvadorans pay Western prices for cocktails in beach Tiki bars, the perimeters patrolled by men with rifles. The poor are beyond the perimeters of Surf City, beyond the lights. At times I swallow my misgivings and drink those cocktails too. It’s a strange, beautiful, unsettling place, with some of the best waves I’ve ever had.
Beyond Borders
Searching for virgin line-ups in Patagonia.
By Jake Stolte
“It felt like something out of Jurassic Park. There is nothing I could compare the place to; everything made me feel so small and I realised just how little control we had being amongst the elements in that zone. It was so sick to finally score what we came for, we were losing our minds.”
Figs for the Taliban
Sydney surfer, Andrew Quilty, went to war-torn Afghanistan to photograph a cricket team. Eight years later he was still there.
By Luke Kennedy
Between 2013 and 2021, Australian lensman, Andrew Quilty, lived in Afghanistan, covering the war as a freelance photographer. During that time, the young surfer from Sydney’s Northern Beaches dodged bullets, pulled bodies from bombsites, rubbed shoulders with cigar-puffing generals, and was briefly held by the Taliban.
Andrew admits he found himself irreversibly drawn to the adrenalised atmosphere of a conflict zone; wrangling with a compulsion that often drove him to be as near to the action as possible without getting killed.
Small miracle in the yoga pagoda
I planned a surf trip to Sri Lanka to bond with my teenage son. I didn’t expect it to happen in a yoga class
By Tim Baker
I get it. Young men in their late teens tend not to listen to their fathers. It’s evolutionary – the need to distance, step into independence, become their own men. Still, we fathers worry about our young men and the challenging world they are growing up in – the scourge of social media, appalling self-appointed ‘alpha male’ influencers, pervasive messaging that masculinity is inherently ‘toxic’.
Two-wheeled Odyssey
An 8,000km bike ride through Europe and Africa with surfboards in tow.
Text and Photos by Laura Wilson & Ben Herrgott
As we made our way south into the Sahara, the real adventure started. We tried to use some heavy-duty umbrellas to pull us along in 60km/h winds and some days we covered more than 170km. We were literally flying from one surf spot to another. It was what we’d dreamed of, and better.
Saltwater Fatherhood
A daughter pays homage to the dad who always took her surfing.
By Alana Rhodes
I grew up in a sandy shack overlooking the beach, where the town dropped off boards for Dad to fix. Plastered with old surf mags, it reflected his life as a well-known NZ champion – but to me, he was just Dad. He became a surf star naturally, without force, much like the essence he carried in life. My dad had role models but never tried to be like anyone else. He just showed up as himself – steady, genuine, calm, unwavering. We learned as we went. He always put us first, shaping our life and memories.
Hot Memories
High times and hedonism at Hot Tuna in the 90s and early 2000’s – The surf company that took risks and always made a creative statement.
By Stuart Clarke
… Alongside the surfers, models and photographers would fly in from everywhere and Mr X would unveil his latest wild idea for a theme or campaign. In those days, the world was not so serious about itself, and Mr X delighted in testing the boundaries of what he could send to print. Most of the content was being pushed to surfers so it was unusual to attract the ire of the more conservative set, who were unlikely to open a surfing magazine or pour through the contents of the latest product range catalogue. who were unlikely to open a surfing magazine or pour through the contents of the latest product range catalogue.
Perfection is not Enough
John Callahan’s life has been about exactly what the title of his new book – ‘surfExplore’ – suggests. As he travelled intrepid routes his beguiling lineup shots have made us fall in love with surfing again and again.
By Phil Jarratt
Since last October, when photographer and surf explorer, John Seaton Callahan, published his mammoth account of searching for waves in some of the most remote places in the world over the past 25 years, there have been almost as many different opinions voiced about the man as there are surf gems that he has documented (28 in the coffee table book published in Australia, 47 in the original draft).
