Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast
Roxy Pro Gold Coast
ASP Men's WCT Event #1
ASP Women's WCT Event #1
Coolangatta, Qld Australia
23 February - 5 March 2008
Live Coverage | Results/Photos/Videos etc
Lay Day for Quiksilver and Roxy Pro presented by LG
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 25 February, 2008 : - - Event organizers for the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro presented by LG have called for a lay day today due to small surf on offer at the main site at Snapper Rocks and nearby Duranbah Beach.
"While there are a few small waves on offer at Snapper and D'Bah this morning, we've decided to call a lay day for both the Quiksilver and Roxy Pro today," Brooke Farris, ASP Women's World Tour Manager, said. "We've just completed two full days of action for the men and the women, and with the swell looking like it will stay consistent throughout the week before filling in on the weekend, we'll wait until better conditions present themselves before we restart competition."
Saturday's action saw the ASP Top 45 take on Round 1 of the Quiksilver Pro presented by LG in punchy waves at nearby DuranbahBeach. Highlights included the domination of Coolangatta kids Mick Fanning (AUS), Joel Parkinson (AUS), Dean Morrison (AUS), Bede Durbidge (AUS) and Luke Munro (AUS). Munro in particular surfed brilliantly to hold off highly-touted rookie Dane Reynolds (USA) in their Round 1 clash.
Yesterday saw the girls take on clean three-foot (1 metre) waves at Duranbah for the opening two rounds of the Roxy Pro presented by LG, and reigning ASP Women's World Champion Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) took top honors for the day with Hawaiians Melanie Bartels and Megan Abubo also impressing the hundreds on the beach.
When Quiksilver Pro competition resumes, former three-time ASP World Champion Andy Irons (HAW) will be up against lethal Komunity Project Trials Winner Tamaroa McComb (PYF) in the opening heat of the elimination Round 2 competition.
Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast pres. by LG Round 2 Match-Ups:
Heat 1: Andy Irons (HAW) vs. Tamaroa McComb (PYF)
Heat 2: Pancho Sullivan (HAW) vs. Julian Wilson (AUS)
Heat 3: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Michel Bourez (PYF)
Heat 4: C.J. Hobgood (USA) vs. Nic Muscroft (AUS)
Heat 5: Tom Whitaker (AUS) vs. Daniel Ross (AUS)
Heat 6: Damien Hobgood (USA) vs. Roy Powers (HAW)
Heat 7: Michael Campbell (AUS) vs. Kieren Perrow (AUS)
Heat 8: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Jihad Khodr (BRA)
Heat 9: Rodrigo Dornelles (BRA) vs. Ben Bourgeois (USA)
Heat 10: Neco Padaratz (BRA) vs. Aritz Aranburu (EUK)
Heat 11: Leonardo Neves (BRA) vs. Tiago Pires (PRT)
Heat 12: Fredrick Patacchia (HAW) vs. Jay Thompson (AUS)
Heat 13: Ricky Basnett (ZAF) vs. Dane Reynolds (USA)
Heat 14: Daniel Wills (AUS) vs. Jordy Smith (ZAF)
Heat 15: Royden Bryson (ZAF) vs. Tim Reyes (USA)
Heat 16: Travis Logie (ZAF) vs. Ben Dunn (AUS)
When Roxy Pro competition resumes, Australians Samantha Cornish and Nicola Atherton will compete in the opening heat of Round 3.
Roxy Pro Gold Coast pres. by LG Round 3 Match-Ups
Heat 1: Samantha Cornish (AUS) vs. Nicola Atherton (AUS)
Heat 2: Layne Beachley (AUS) vs. Serena Brooke (AUS)
Heat 3: Melanie Bartels (HAW) vs. Megan Abubo (HAW)
Heat 4: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) vs. Carissa Moore (HAW)
Heat 5: Sofia Mulanovich (PER) vs. Claire Bevilacqua (AUS)
Heat 6: Rebecca Woods (AUS) vs. Rosanne Hodge (ZAF
Heat 7: Amee Donohoe (AUS) vs. Jacqueline Silva (BRA)
Heat 8: Silvana Lima (BRA) vs. Julia De La Rosa Toro (PER)
Websites
Global Surf News
Quiksilver Pro
Media Man Australia Profiles
Surfing
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Surfing websites coming off the Gold Coast campaign
Media Man Australia Coolangatta Diary
We have just returned from a succesful campaign in the Gold Coast, Tweed and Coolangatta region.
The Quiksilver Pro is currently on. Sunny Abberton pointed out the Rip Curl shop out and we bought some cool gear.
There was a great cafe which is also a surf photography gallery - Slide Cafe - Coolangatta Gallery - Ocean Art Photography
Picked up a copy of radical surfing / surfling lifestyle magazine, Gold Coast Surf
Checked out the view at the Coolangatta Surf Club and Greenmount Beach Club
Breakfast at Outback Jacks Bar & Grill
Taxi back to Gold Coast Airport and flights with Virgin Blue
Home to North Bondi, Sydney
Media Man Australia Profiles
Surfing
We have just returned from a succesful campaign in the Gold Coast, Tweed and Coolangatta region.
The Quiksilver Pro is currently on. Sunny Abberton pointed out the Rip Curl shop out and we bought some cool gear.
There was a great cafe which is also a surf photography gallery - Slide Cafe - Coolangatta Gallery - Ocean Art Photography
Picked up a copy of radical surfing / surfling lifestyle magazine, Gold Coast Surf
Checked out the view at the Coolangatta Surf Club and Greenmount Beach Club
Breakfast at Outback Jacks Bar & Grill
Taxi back to Gold Coast Airport and flights with Virgin Blue
Home to North Bondi, Sydney
Media Man Australia Profiles
Surfing
Public thank you to Sunny Abberton and Neal Cameron
Public thank you to Sunny Abberton and Neal Cameron for their assistance in helping make the grand opening of the Universal Peace Centre Retreat so successful and enjoyable.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Monster ride to surfing stardom - The West Australian - 17th February 2008
WA big wave surfer Alex “Alfy” Carter has ridden away with the top prize in the Oakley Surfing Life biggest wave award after an electrifying trip on a 14m-plus wave during an extreme surfing session in the South-West.
The $20,000 prize was presented to Carter at the Bondi Pavilion in Sydney on Thursday night after judges deemed his monster wave was bigger than those ridden by Queenslander Mark Visser and Hawaiians Ian Walsh and Jamie Sterling. It was a sweet victory for Carter who was runner-up last year.
His monster moment was in September at Cow Bombie, a break 6km offshore at Margaret River.
Carter said the win was a major relief.
“Now I can pay the taxman all the money I’ve owed him for the past few years,” he said.
The award opens doors for Carter to compete in other big wave events around the globe that don’t often attract the major money and sponsorship of the regular world surfing tour.
Carter said the award might change some things for him but it would not change the way he surfed.
He also received a new jetski which should come in handy after the same break that won him the award also claimed his old one.
“The ski conked out about 3m from the worst possible spot,” Carter said.
“We got three waves on the head and that was it for the ski.”
Media Man Australia Profiles
Surfing
The $20,000 prize was presented to Carter at the Bondi Pavilion in Sydney on Thursday night after judges deemed his monster wave was bigger than those ridden by Queenslander Mark Visser and Hawaiians Ian Walsh and Jamie Sterling. It was a sweet victory for Carter who was runner-up last year.
His monster moment was in September at Cow Bombie, a break 6km offshore at Margaret River.
Carter said the win was a major relief.
“Now I can pay the taxman all the money I’ve owed him for the past few years,” he said.
The award opens doors for Carter to compete in other big wave events around the globe that don’t often attract the major money and sponsorship of the regular world surfing tour.
Carter said the award might change some things for him but it would not change the way he surfed.
He also received a new jetski which should come in handy after the same break that won him the award also claimed his old one.
“The ski conked out about 3m from the worst possible spot,” Carter said.
“We got three waves on the head and that was it for the ski.”
Media Man Australia Profiles
Surfing
WA's Cater wins big wave award - The Age - 13th Feb 2008
The argument is finally settled, West Australian Alex Cater rode the biggest wave during the remarkable surfing session off the WA coast late last year.
But not only can Cater brag to his peers that he caught the wave of the day, his 14m plus ride won the $20,000 Oakley Surfing Life biggest wave award at a presentation in Sydney.
Cater's monster wave was one of several nominations from the extreme surfing session held by some of the world's best big wave junkies at `Cow Bombie', a break 6km off the south coast of WA, in September last year.
Judges, however, decided Cater's bomb was bigger than entries from Queenslander Mark Visser and world-renowned Hawaiian chargers Ian Walsh and Jamie Sterling.
For his effort Cater received a hefty cheque, international recognition and a new jet ski - a timely gift considering the dangerous offshore break recently killed his previous tow-in machine.
"The ski conked out about three metres from the worst possible spot," Cater recalled.
"We got three waves on the head and that was it for the ski."
Cater, who'd been runner-up to Damon Eastaugh last year, said he would shout the other finalists drinks then put the leftover prizemoney to good use.
"Now I can pay the taxman all the money I've owed him for the past few years," he said.
"In a way this award might change some things for me but it won't change why I go surfing."
Tasmanian Marti Paradisis may not have claimed the biggest wave, but he at least took consolation in receiving the best overall performance for his insane surfing session at the Apple Isle's remote Shipstern Bluff.
But not only can Cater brag to his peers that he caught the wave of the day, his 14m plus ride won the $20,000 Oakley Surfing Life biggest wave award at a presentation in Sydney.
Cater's monster wave was one of several nominations from the extreme surfing session held by some of the world's best big wave junkies at `Cow Bombie', a break 6km off the south coast of WA, in September last year.
Judges, however, decided Cater's bomb was bigger than entries from Queenslander Mark Visser and world-renowned Hawaiian chargers Ian Walsh and Jamie Sterling.
For his effort Cater received a hefty cheque, international recognition and a new jet ski - a timely gift considering the dangerous offshore break recently killed his previous tow-in machine.
"The ski conked out about three metres from the worst possible spot," Cater recalled.
"We got three waves on the head and that was it for the ski."
Cater, who'd been runner-up to Damon Eastaugh last year, said he would shout the other finalists drinks then put the leftover prizemoney to good use.
"Now I can pay the taxman all the money I've owed him for the past few years," he said.
"In a way this award might change some things for me but it won't change why I go surfing."
Tasmanian Marti Paradisis may not have claimed the biggest wave, but he at least took consolation in receiving the best overall performance for his insane surfing session at the Apple Isle's remote Shipstern Bluff.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Monster ride to surfing stardom, by Michael Bennett - The West Australian - 17th February 2008
WA big wave surfer Alex “Alfy” Carter has ridden away with the top prize in the Oakley Surfing Life biggest wave award after an electrifying trip on a 14m-plus wave during an extreme surfing session in the South-West.
The $20,000 prize was presented to Carter at the Bondi Pavilion in Sydney on Thursday night after judges deemed his monster wave was bigger than those ridden by Queenslander Mark Visser and Hawaiians Ian Walsh and Jamie Sterling. It was a sweet victory for Carter who was runner-up last year.
His monster moment was in September at Cow Bombie, a break 6km offshore at Margaret River.
Carter said the win was a major relief.
“Now I can pay the taxman all the money I’ve owed him for the past few years,” he said.
The award opens doors for Carter to compete in other big wave events around the globe that don’t often attract the major money and sponsorship of the regular world surfing tour.
Carter said the award might change some things for him but it would not change the way he surfed.
He also received a new jetski which should come in handy after the same break that won him the award also claimed his old one.
“The ski conked out about 3m from the worst possible spot,” Carter said.
“We got three waves on the head and that was it for the ski.”
Media Man Australia Profiles
Surfing
Bondi Beach
The $20,000 prize was presented to Carter at the Bondi Pavilion in Sydney on Thursday night after judges deemed his monster wave was bigger than those ridden by Queenslander Mark Visser and Hawaiians Ian Walsh and Jamie Sterling. It was a sweet victory for Carter who was runner-up last year.
His monster moment was in September at Cow Bombie, a break 6km offshore at Margaret River.
Carter said the win was a major relief.
“Now I can pay the taxman all the money I’ve owed him for the past few years,” he said.
The award opens doors for Carter to compete in other big wave events around the globe that don’t often attract the major money and sponsorship of the regular world surfing tour.
Carter said the award might change some things for him but it would not change the way he surfed.
He also received a new jetski which should come in handy after the same break that won him the award also claimed his old one.
“The ski conked out about 3m from the worst possible spot,” Carter said.
“We got three waves on the head and that was it for the ski.”
Media Man Australia Profiles
Surfing
Bondi Beach
Friday, February 15, 2008
WA surfer wins Biggest Wave Award - The Sunday Times - February 14, 2008
WEST Australian surfer Alex "Alfy" Cater not only survived riding a terrifying 14m wave but beat some of the nation's best surfers while he was doing it.
Carter rode into first place at the Oakley Surfing Life Biggest Wave Awards, held in Sydney this year, by surfing a 14m high wave at 'Cow Bombie’ near Margaret River.
He edged out three other rides, recorded on the same day by Queenslander Mark Visser and Hawaiians Jamie Sterling and Ian Walsh, who travelled halfway round the globe to meet the swell at Cow Bombie last September.
“It was a pretty big day,” says Alfy. “Right after a storm. The wind backed off and we thought, let’s do it.”
Cater just missed out on the big prize last year after placing runner-up to Damon Eastaugh.
This year there was no second best for Carter who took home $20,000 and a new jet ski with his first prize win.
Alfy’s reaction? “A sigh of relief really mate,” he says. “Now I can pay the taxman all the money I’ve owed him for the past few years.”
The award will open doors for him in the growing global big-wave competition field, he says.
Alongside this award, big surf competitions are now held in South Africa, Hawaii and California.
“It’s something I really want to pursue if I can … I’ve been to Hawaii and California and met a lot of the guys who ride their big spots and I’d love to challenge them.”
The jet ski will come in handy too . Not long ago, Alfy and his tow partner Ian “Wooly” McPherson had to abandon their ski under a massive set of 10m waves waves at Cow Bombie.
“The ski conked out about three metres from the worst possible spot . We got three waves on the head and that was it for the ski.”
The fact that they were six kilometres from land at the time barely raises Alfy’s eyebrow – which is a little clue as to the sort of person who takes on surf in this range.
Since being inaugurated five years ago, the Oakley Surfing Life Big Wave Awards have revealed a side of surfing long hidden behind the glittering world pro tour arena – a group of surfers who’ve used their home-grown skills and experience to push the sport’s natural limits, often without much publicity or attention outside their peers and slightly horrified onlookers.
“We’re all pretty rough and ready I suppose but we’re doing this because we love it,” he says. “In a way this award might change some things for me but it won’t change why I go surfing.”
As for Wooly, who towed him into the Award-winner: “He owns a surf shop and he’s one of my sponsors, so he won’t be seeing the colour of my money!” Alfy laughs.
Best Overall Performance Award for the season went to Tasmania’s Marti Paradisis, who said he was “over the moon” after his series of amazing tube rides at the Apple Isle’s remote Shipstern Bluff reef break swept the judging panel’s vote.
“It’s on behalf of all the guys I surf with at ‘Shippies’ and who I know could win this Award too …we’re stoked to have waves in our backyard that are as good as anywhere in the world ..” he says.
The Shooter Award for photography went to Jamie Scott for his image of Cater’s winning ride.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Surfing
Carter rode into first place at the Oakley Surfing Life Biggest Wave Awards, held in Sydney this year, by surfing a 14m high wave at 'Cow Bombie’ near Margaret River.
He edged out three other rides, recorded on the same day by Queenslander Mark Visser and Hawaiians Jamie Sterling and Ian Walsh, who travelled halfway round the globe to meet the swell at Cow Bombie last September.
“It was a pretty big day,” says Alfy. “Right after a storm. The wind backed off and we thought, let’s do it.”
Cater just missed out on the big prize last year after placing runner-up to Damon Eastaugh.
This year there was no second best for Carter who took home $20,000 and a new jet ski with his first prize win.
Alfy’s reaction? “A sigh of relief really mate,” he says. “Now I can pay the taxman all the money I’ve owed him for the past few years.”
The award will open doors for him in the growing global big-wave competition field, he says.
Alongside this award, big surf competitions are now held in South Africa, Hawaii and California.
“It’s something I really want to pursue if I can … I’ve been to Hawaii and California and met a lot of the guys who ride their big spots and I’d love to challenge them.”
The jet ski will come in handy too . Not long ago, Alfy and his tow partner Ian “Wooly” McPherson had to abandon their ski under a massive set of 10m waves waves at Cow Bombie.
“The ski conked out about three metres from the worst possible spot . We got three waves on the head and that was it for the ski.”
The fact that they were six kilometres from land at the time barely raises Alfy’s eyebrow – which is a little clue as to the sort of person who takes on surf in this range.
Since being inaugurated five years ago, the Oakley Surfing Life Big Wave Awards have revealed a side of surfing long hidden behind the glittering world pro tour arena – a group of surfers who’ve used their home-grown skills and experience to push the sport’s natural limits, often without much publicity or attention outside their peers and slightly horrified onlookers.
“We’re all pretty rough and ready I suppose but we’re doing this because we love it,” he says. “In a way this award might change some things for me but it won’t change why I go surfing.”
As for Wooly, who towed him into the Award-winner: “He owns a surf shop and he’s one of my sponsors, so he won’t be seeing the colour of my money!” Alfy laughs.
Best Overall Performance Award for the season went to Tasmania’s Marti Paradisis, who said he was “over the moon” after his series of amazing tube rides at the Apple Isle’s remote Shipstern Bluff reef break swept the judging panel’s vote.
“It’s on behalf of all the guys I surf with at ‘Shippies’ and who I know could win this Award too …we’re stoked to have waves in our backyard that are as good as anywhere in the world ..” he says.
The Shooter Award for photography went to Jamie Scott for his image of Cater’s winning ride.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Surfing
Thursday, January 31, 2008
PRIVATE SYDNEY Andrew Hornery - The Sydney Morning Herald - 31st January 2008
THE rehabilitation of Sydney's Bra Boys from would-be notorious gangstas to lightweight celebrities appears complete, with the media in the United States falling head over heels for the Abberton brothers.
However a few minor details appear to be missing from the coverage being generated by Koby Abberton , such as the nine-month suspended sentence for perverting the course of justice, relating to a shooting over which his brother Jai was acquitted of murder in 2005.
But with friends such as Russell Crowe about to direct your life story on the big screen, why bother with semantics?
On Tuesday the New York Daily News, which caught up with the Abbertons as they swanned around Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival promoting their documentary, Bra Boys, with the likes of good mate Paris Hilton, described Abberton simply as a "pro-surfer-turned-filmmaker".
The newspaper reported a mildly amusing tale about how the Abbertons and Crowe first got to know one another, describing the association as "a beautiful friendship".
On Monday Abberton's Bra Boys won best documentary at the 2008 X-Dance Film Festival in Salt Lake City, a spin-off from the Sundance festival. The director, Sunny Abberton, and his crew accepted the award, telling the crowd "this film is proof of what brotherhood really means".
Media Man Australia Profiles
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Surfers bustin' down the door of film festival, by David Knox - The Sun-Herald - 13th January 2008
Australian surfing greats will join Hollywood superstar Cate Blanchett as guests of the prestige Santa Barbara International Film Festival this month.
Former world champions Mark Richards and Wayne Bartholomew have been invited to a civic reception hosted by Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum on January 26, the day Blanchett will be presented with the festival's Modern Master award.
Richards, 50, and Bartholomew, 53, are among Australian, South African and American surfers featured in a documentary Bustin' Down The Door, which will have its world premiere at the festival in the Californian city on January 27.
The film's title is the same as a controversial article written by Bartholomew for US magazine Surfer in January 1977.
The article dealt with the emergence of Australian and South African surfers on the Hawaiian contest scene.
The story and the brashness of some of the visiting surfers triggered a violent reaction from local surfers.
Emerging from a brokered peace was the fledgling world professional circuit, won in its first seven years by Australian Peter Townend, Shaun Tomson, Bartholomew and Richards (four times).
Top-paid surfers on the circuit now earn tens of thousands of dollars in prizemoney and millions in sponsorship from surf industry giants such as Quiksilver, Billabong, Rip Curl, Rusty and Volcom.
Director Jeremy Gosch's film includes footage of the surfers in Hawaii in the 1970s and interviews with them 30 years later.
The film, narrated by twice Oscar-nominated actor Edward Norton, is the brainchild of Tomson.
"Shaun felt the exploits of the surfers from that era had been overlooked," Richards said yesterday.
"What we did then was create the blueprint for professional surfing. Surfers now are reaping the rewards."
Former surf magazine editor Bill Sharp wrote: "It should be made into law that every spoiled-brat pro surfer being paid a single dollar in sponsorship should be duct-taped to a chair and forced to watch this film until he fully understands the debt he owes these pioneers who busted down the door on behalf of a future generation."
Film festival director Roger Durling said: "I am super stoked to have Bustin' Down the Door."
Blanchett is also in a festival entry, the documentary In The Company Of Actors, whose cast includes her husband, Andrew Upton, and Hugo Weaving.
Other stars to be honoured at the festival include Julie Christie, Ryan Gosling, Angelina Jolie, Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem.
Richards will take Ms Blum a letter of greeting from Newcastle Mayor John Tate and Bartholomew will do the same with a message from Gold Coast Mayor and former champion long distance runner Ron Clarke.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Monday, January 07, 2008
Surfing Sally's on top of the world - The Sydney Morning Herald - 7th January 2008
New South Wales surfer Sally Fitzgibbons won the junior women's world championship at North Narrabeen beach today, thrashing Kiwi Paige Hareb in the final.
The 17-year-old from Gerroa, just south of Wollongong, had a two-wave score of 16.77 points to Hareb's 7.84.
The multiple Australian champion had the final in the bag with eight minutes to go when she completed a near perfect 9.27 ride to leave her opponent requiring a combination of scores to win.
Fitzgibbons had a nine-point ride in each of her four rounds and a perfect ten in her semi-final win over Narrabeen surfer Laura Enever in the one-metre swell.
"I had a tough semi against Laura, she put me in a pretty good situation and I needed a good score," Fitzgibbons said.
"I thought if the wave comes, it comes but if not, she deserves a good win and I was just stoked to get through that one and was on a high for the final."
It was the third straight junior women's title for Australia following the victories of current WCT competitor Jessi Miley-Dyer and Nicola Atherton of Bronte.
A budding WCT surfer, Fitzgibbons will be crowned alongside Australia's 2007 elite tour champions Stephanie Gilmore and Mick Fanning in an award ceremony on the Gold Coast in March.
Hareb, the 17-year-old event wildcard from Taranaki, ended as the best ever New Zealand performer - man or woman - at the professional level.
Yesterday, Brazilian Pablo Paulino captured his second junior men's championship.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Industry rides a wave of change, by Tim Elliot - Fairfax - 12th December 2007
Everyone, it seems, wants to be a surfer - or, at least, to look like one. This is good news for the surf industry, which racked up $11 billion in retail sales last year. Yet for an industry whose identity is so intimately linked to the oceans, surfing has remained curiously aloof from environmental issues.
Surfing's base components - fibreglass boards, rubber wetsuits and mass-produced clothes and accessories - are inherently unsustainable, and yet the industry has offered little beyond bamboo boards and organic cotton T-shirts.
"The surfing fraternity is great when it comes to grassroots campaigns to protect beaches and coastal communities, but the industry as a whole hasn't reflected that concern, because, like other industries, it's profit-driven," says Ian Cohen, a Greens MP and co-founder of the Cleans Seas Coalition. Cohen, a surfer, once rammed an eight-metre poo through the doors of Ballina Shire Council chambers to protest against a proposed sewage outfall at Lennox Head, on the state's North Coast.
The Surfrider Foundation Australia, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the protection and preservation of the world's oceans and beaches, has been similarly critical. "On the whole, the industry is still dragging its feet," says Stuart Ball, Surfrider's general manager.
Now, however, there are signs of change. In the US, an increasing number of surf brands have started offering environmentally sound products, including organically sourced T-shirts, hats, shoes and sandals. "And many companies, such as Reef, Sole Tech, Volcom and Sector 9, have altered their business operations to reduce their carbon footprint, from using wind credits for power, to new packaging methods and significant waste reduction," says Sean Smith, executive director of the US-based Surf Industry Manufacturers Association.
In August the Surfrider Foundation launched Project Blue, a campaign by some of Australia's biggest surf companies to donate part of their sales to environmental issues. One of the initiative's big sponsors is Billabong, whose products include boardshorts that are made from 100 per cent recycled PET bottles.
Like most big surf companies, the bulk of Billabong's $1.2 billion annual turnover comes from clothes (surfboards represent only a fraction of the industry). This is a problem, says a recent report in the magazine Australian Surf Business, because clothing and textile production "is only narrowly behind oil and mining as one of the most polluting industries on the planet".
Clothing production generates large volumes of waste and consumes huge amounts of energy and water, taking up to 200 litres of water and thousands of chemicals to produce, dye and finish one kilogram of fabric. Billabong's clothes are mostly manufactured in Asia, a practice that has drawn criticism for the surf industry, over its outsourcing of environmental responsibility to developing nations. A spokesman for Billabong, John Mossop, says he is "aware of that issue", and that each of the company's off-shore suppliers "must demonstrate they are working to local environmental laws".
An industry leader, Quiksilver, whose global turnover reached $2.73 billion last year, has developed a range of bags and backpacks using Q-Tec, an environmentally friendly alternative to PVC.
"Q-Tec contains no dioxins, no heavy metals and is more durable than traditional PVCs," says Chloe Messner, the manager of the Quiksilver Foundation. "We've also halved the amount of plastic packaging we use in the warehouse, and we are a certified Wastewise organisation, meaning we reduce and recycle as much as possible."
Rip Curl, meanwhile, has employed a purchasing manager to secure certified ecological products (like hemp, ramie and bamboo), and is developing ways to recycle its petroleum-based neoprene wetsuits (they are torn up and made into beanbag filler).
Overseas, alternatives to the notoriously toxic process of manufacturing surfboards are emerging, with the US-based company Homeblown developing the industry's first plant-based polyurethane blank.
Homeblown says that its Biofoam, made from plant oils, not only has a finer and more uniform cell structure than foams made with petroleum-based materials but results in a 23 per cent reduction in total energy demand.
"It is time for the surfing community to walk the walk of environmentalism it often talks about," the company says on its website.
But some industry figures are sceptical. "If you look closely, most of the initiatives are more marketing exercises than anything else," says Sean Doherty, the editor of the magazine Tracks. "Overall, the industry is still pretty poisonous."
The Surfrider Foundation's Stuart Ball says surf companies must take the opportunity to lead. "They have to see that going green is the way of the future, and that young consumers will increasingly demand that companies operate in an environmentally responsible manner."
Bridging the gap
Helping hand for the residents on shore
IN 1999 Dave Jenkins, a New Zealand doctor, went for a surfing holiday to the Mentawai Islands, an archipelago 150 kilometres off the coast of Sumatra. He found surf, but he also found villages ravaged by malaria, malnourishment, chronic diarrhoea and chest infections. "The incongruity between the tropical surf paradise and the suffering of the local people really affected me," Jenkins says. "So I decided to do so something about."
In 2000 Jenkins founded SurfAid International, a non-profit humanitarian organisation that has become one of the most innovative and effective in the world, recently winning the World Association of Non-Governmental Organisations 2007 Humanitarian Award in Toronto, Canada.
SurfAid has long relied on the surf industry for funding, with one of the biggest donors being Quiksilver. In 2003 it "adopted" Katiet, a tiny village that fronts on to the surf break Lance's Rights, on the island of Sipora. The company has since given $340,000 to SurfAid's Mentawai programs (with a further $100,000 committed over the next two years), culminating with the launch in Katiet last month of the Quiksilver-SurfAid Community Health Training Centre.
The centre operates with a staff of seven in a converted copra trading post and focuses on improving the health of the people through behavioural change. "There are no turn-key solutions," Jenkins says. "Disease prevention is about long-term cultural shifts."
A big part of the centre's work is in land and resource management. "Many of the health problems here stem from poor nutrition," says a SurfAid program director, Brendan Hoare, an agriculturalist and specialist in rural development. "The main diet is taro and banana, which doesn't provide enough micronutrients, meaning that many of the kids you see are physically and mentally stunted. So we're trying to get them to grow a wider variety of food."
The community centre features a model fruit and vegetable garden, where Hoare holds demonstrations and grows seedlings to give away. He is encouraging more composting - important in the predominantly sandy soil - and the greater use of natural fertilisers such as chicken and pig manure. "Many of these ideas were practised here in the past but have been lost to the culture, just as they have been largely lost from Western culture, too," Hoare says.
The water table is prone to pollution from leaking cesspits. "So we're putting a rainwater tank in every house, which should cut down on water-borne contamination."
Hoare, a surfer, is in two minds about the impact of surfing on the local people. "The introduction of a cash culture has in some instances resulted in the loss of more sustainable practices."
Others are more optimistic. "It's easy to be cynical about the effect that surfing has had on the islands," says Bruce Raymond, a former pro-surfer and Quiksilver brand ambassador. "But surfing brought attention to the area. It shone a spotlight on the place, on the good things and the bad things and their needs. It shows that with the right leadership surfers can make a difference."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Surfing
Surfing's base components - fibreglass boards, rubber wetsuits and mass-produced clothes and accessories - are inherently unsustainable, and yet the industry has offered little beyond bamboo boards and organic cotton T-shirts.
"The surfing fraternity is great when it comes to grassroots campaigns to protect beaches and coastal communities, but the industry as a whole hasn't reflected that concern, because, like other industries, it's profit-driven," says Ian Cohen, a Greens MP and co-founder of the Cleans Seas Coalition. Cohen, a surfer, once rammed an eight-metre poo through the doors of Ballina Shire Council chambers to protest against a proposed sewage outfall at Lennox Head, on the state's North Coast.
The Surfrider Foundation Australia, a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to the protection and preservation of the world's oceans and beaches, has been similarly critical. "On the whole, the industry is still dragging its feet," says Stuart Ball, Surfrider's general manager.
Now, however, there are signs of change. In the US, an increasing number of surf brands have started offering environmentally sound products, including organically sourced T-shirts, hats, shoes and sandals. "And many companies, such as Reef, Sole Tech, Volcom and Sector 9, have altered their business operations to reduce their carbon footprint, from using wind credits for power, to new packaging methods and significant waste reduction," says Sean Smith, executive director of the US-based Surf Industry Manufacturers Association.
In August the Surfrider Foundation launched Project Blue, a campaign by some of Australia's biggest surf companies to donate part of their sales to environmental issues. One of the initiative's big sponsors is Billabong, whose products include boardshorts that are made from 100 per cent recycled PET bottles.
Like most big surf companies, the bulk of Billabong's $1.2 billion annual turnover comes from clothes (surfboards represent only a fraction of the industry). This is a problem, says a recent report in the magazine Australian Surf Business, because clothing and textile production "is only narrowly behind oil and mining as one of the most polluting industries on the planet".
Clothing production generates large volumes of waste and consumes huge amounts of energy and water, taking up to 200 litres of water and thousands of chemicals to produce, dye and finish one kilogram of fabric. Billabong's clothes are mostly manufactured in Asia, a practice that has drawn criticism for the surf industry, over its outsourcing of environmental responsibility to developing nations. A spokesman for Billabong, John Mossop, says he is "aware of that issue", and that each of the company's off-shore suppliers "must demonstrate they are working to local environmental laws".
An industry leader, Quiksilver, whose global turnover reached $2.73 billion last year, has developed a range of bags and backpacks using Q-Tec, an environmentally friendly alternative to PVC.
"Q-Tec contains no dioxins, no heavy metals and is more durable than traditional PVCs," says Chloe Messner, the manager of the Quiksilver Foundation. "We've also halved the amount of plastic packaging we use in the warehouse, and we are a certified Wastewise organisation, meaning we reduce and recycle as much as possible."
Rip Curl, meanwhile, has employed a purchasing manager to secure certified ecological products (like hemp, ramie and bamboo), and is developing ways to recycle its petroleum-based neoprene wetsuits (they are torn up and made into beanbag filler).
Overseas, alternatives to the notoriously toxic process of manufacturing surfboards are emerging, with the US-based company Homeblown developing the industry's first plant-based polyurethane blank.
Homeblown says that its Biofoam, made from plant oils, not only has a finer and more uniform cell structure than foams made with petroleum-based materials but results in a 23 per cent reduction in total energy demand.
"It is time for the surfing community to walk the walk of environmentalism it often talks about," the company says on its website.
But some industry figures are sceptical. "If you look closely, most of the initiatives are more marketing exercises than anything else," says Sean Doherty, the editor of the magazine Tracks. "Overall, the industry is still pretty poisonous."
The Surfrider Foundation's Stuart Ball says surf companies must take the opportunity to lead. "They have to see that going green is the way of the future, and that young consumers will increasingly demand that companies operate in an environmentally responsible manner."
Bridging the gap
Helping hand for the residents on shore
IN 1999 Dave Jenkins, a New Zealand doctor, went for a surfing holiday to the Mentawai Islands, an archipelago 150 kilometres off the coast of Sumatra. He found surf, but he also found villages ravaged by malaria, malnourishment, chronic diarrhoea and chest infections. "The incongruity between the tropical surf paradise and the suffering of the local people really affected me," Jenkins says. "So I decided to do so something about."
In 2000 Jenkins founded SurfAid International, a non-profit humanitarian organisation that has become one of the most innovative and effective in the world, recently winning the World Association of Non-Governmental Organisations 2007 Humanitarian Award in Toronto, Canada.
SurfAid has long relied on the surf industry for funding, with one of the biggest donors being Quiksilver. In 2003 it "adopted" Katiet, a tiny village that fronts on to the surf break Lance's Rights, on the island of Sipora. The company has since given $340,000 to SurfAid's Mentawai programs (with a further $100,000 committed over the next two years), culminating with the launch in Katiet last month of the Quiksilver-SurfAid Community Health Training Centre.
The centre operates with a staff of seven in a converted copra trading post and focuses on improving the health of the people through behavioural change. "There are no turn-key solutions," Jenkins says. "Disease prevention is about long-term cultural shifts."
A big part of the centre's work is in land and resource management. "Many of the health problems here stem from poor nutrition," says a SurfAid program director, Brendan Hoare, an agriculturalist and specialist in rural development. "The main diet is taro and banana, which doesn't provide enough micronutrients, meaning that many of the kids you see are physically and mentally stunted. So we're trying to get them to grow a wider variety of food."
The community centre features a model fruit and vegetable garden, where Hoare holds demonstrations and grows seedlings to give away. He is encouraging more composting - important in the predominantly sandy soil - and the greater use of natural fertilisers such as chicken and pig manure. "Many of these ideas were practised here in the past but have been lost to the culture, just as they have been largely lost from Western culture, too," Hoare says.
The water table is prone to pollution from leaking cesspits. "So we're putting a rainwater tank in every house, which should cut down on water-borne contamination."
Hoare, a surfer, is in two minds about the impact of surfing on the local people. "The introduction of a cash culture has in some instances resulted in the loss of more sustainable practices."
Others are more optimistic. "It's easy to be cynical about the effect that surfing has had on the islands," says Bruce Raymond, a former pro-surfer and Quiksilver brand ambassador. "But surfing brought attention to the area. It shone a spotlight on the place, on the good things and the bad things and their needs. It shows that with the right leadership surfers can make a difference."
Media Man Australia Profiles
Surfing
Creating waves, by Larissa Dubecki - 6th October 2007 - The Age
Not one to follow the pack, this classical musician puts his $10m violin aside for an instrument of a different kind - a surfboard, but not just any surfboard.
IT WAS his first session in the water on the surfing trip of a lifetime, but it could have been his last. Richard Tognetti, Australian Chamber Orchestra artistic director, classical music poster boy and pioneer of new-wave surfing, stood on his board in the unforgiving swell of Bass Strait pounding onto the sparse, windswept King Island and planted himself face-first into the sand.
Friends on the beach felt sick when they saw the angle at which he fell, doubly so when he came up clutching his neck, but reports that the ACO would be needing a new lead violin turned out to be premature.
"I landed on my forehead," Tognetti says laughing. "It was nothing — only a graze, but it must have looked pretty bad."
There was no lasting damage done, save for the large red mark on his forehead that is immortalised in Musica Surfica, the documentary commemorating the event of the same name. The King Island trip, which took place during a week in May, had Tognetti, 42, and some big names in surfing such as two-time world champion Tom Carroll, wooden board specialist Tom Wegener and Australia's No. 2-ranked junior surfer, Heath Joske, take part in a radical experiment. The call to join them on the island, a well-regarded if not overly visited surfing spot, had gone out from Derek Hynd, one of Tognetti's closest friends and a former champion pro-surfer referred to by figures in the industry as a "genius" and a "surfing provocateur". The only stipulation was that the boards had to be finless.
A surfboard without fins, which aid balance and movement, is to most modern surfers like a car with no steering wheel. A finless board is in many ways a paradox, requiring fresh thinking or the use of ancient methods pioneered more than 1000 years ago in the Hawaiian islands and largely forgotten in the 20th century with the domination of the quick manoeuvring, foam and fibreglass three-finned board known as the Thruster.
"We had an interesting surf pack down there," says Tognetti. "It was absolutely radical watching the likes of Tom Carroll trying to surf these boards and master them. We had the ancient Hawaiian boards like the olo, koko'o and alaia, and then these radical new devices — these spinning boards, as we called them."
The footage is remarkable, especially to anyone familiar only with competition-driven surfing from the likes of the Bells Beach event. Wegener stands like a captain on a ship on a massive olo, ploughing majestically through the water. Carroll wipes out again and again, reduced to amateur status despite his mastery of the finned board. The nimble Hynd zips through, crouched low on a board that looks no bigger than an Eski lid, and pulls off six quick spins in a row. And Tognetti, in scenes that might have the ACO management committee reaching for the smelling salts, performs a series of perfect 360-degree turns on what looks like a conventional surfboard sawn in half.
It's unusual for a highly trained musician to put his metacarpals — not to mention his head — on the line in the pursuit of sport, but the saltwater running through Tognetti's veins is the legacy of his Wollongong childhood, which was spent following his older brother into the surf at Puckey's, to the north of the city. Things took an unconventional turn when he moved to Sydney at the age of 11 to study violin at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, the start of a six-year surf hiatus broken when the lure of Bondi grew too insistent. As artistic director of the ACO since the age of 24, his rigorous touring schedule means he often hits the waves on borrowed boards.
Tognetti is rare among musicians of the classical ilk in attracting mainstream attention. His permanent bed-hair and pierced ear would be recognisable to many people less conversant with composers such as Sibelius and Paganini. The glamour that surrounds him is compounded by his $10 million Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu violin, built in 1743 and one of only 100 in the world, which made headlines when it was permanently loaned by an anonymous benefactor at the start of the year. He calls actor Russell Crowe a friend after tutoring him for his violin-playing role in Master and Commander. His marriage break-up last year, and repartnering with ACO assistant lead violinist Satu Vanska, was reported breathlessly in the gossip column of Sydney's Sunday Telegraph.
An exponent of Socrates' aphorism that the unexamined life is not worth living, Tognetti's philosophy of the surf is Catholic enough to encompass late-19th century composer Eric Satie and 1960s counter-culture icon Timothy Leary. He quotes Leary on surfers, while apologising for the loftiness: "They aren't the black sheep of humanity, but the futurists and they are leading the way to where man ultimately wants to be."
Friction-free surfing, as the finless experience has been dubbed, is rule-breaking, he says, in a similar way to paddling a pink surfboard out at Sydney's Maroubra beach while wearing a yellow wetsuit (he adds that he wouldn't encourage anyone to do that as they would get "the shit beaten out of them"). It's about abandoning the "slash and burn" mentality of modern surfing and opening the mind to the myriad possibilities of movement through the waves. It's about embracing the flow of creativity in any aspect of life.
"People following the pack is the worst thing you can do to the imagination," Tognetti says. "And to be creative is the greatest gift we have. It's what separates us from the animals. If you move around in a pack you just rot. Whereas if you use the creative part of your mind you come alive. I would rate our trip as a success from the first day simply by the number of whoops I heard in the water."
Musica Surfica was not simply a meeting of saltwater intellectuals. The three surfing members of the ACO — along with Tognetti there was Vanska and cellist Julian Thompson — were joined by esteemed folk musicians Mike Keran and Danny Spooner for a series of concerts performed for King Island locals. One of the delights of the documentary is seeing some of the surfers, after their first-ever classical music concert, grasping for words to describe their emotions at the playing of Irish traditionals, Paganini and Bach.
The film's director, Melbourne-based advertising art director and surf nut Mick Sowry, was invited along after he contacted Tognetti about scoring music for a separate surf film project. "I see surfing as a modern dance form, and I love classical music, and musically, I just wanted something different from the normal kind of music you get on surf films," says Sowry. "Our initial plan was to film Musica Surfica so they could have a visual background to their concerts later in the year, but it became obvious there was a bigger story. My job was to try and tease that story out of a bunch of guys who were falling off surfboards all day."
Last Monday's ACO concert at Melbourne's Hamer Hall was far removed from the derelict King Island dairy, but the bill shared the Tognetti risk-taking signature, with the lilting arrangement of Copland's Appalachian Spring: Suite followed by Anthony Pateras' exploratory Autophagy, a ragged and discordant contemporary work involving piano, strings and computer that received rousing cheers and giggling bemusement in equal measure.
The bill concluded with Sonic, a spoken-word collaboration with cartoonist and writer Michael Leunig (who, along with Tognetti, has been anointed a National Living Treasure by the National Trust) based on Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals but transposed to human personality types.
Tognetti's favourite lines, naturally, are about the eccentric ("Yet, of all the creatures, the true non-conformist/Is often the brightest, the boldest and warmest"). It sums up Musica Surfica's exploration of parallels between surfing, music and art; not to mention the sometimes hilarious images of the surfers falling off what must be the strangest collection of surfboards ever assembled.
"To stand still and imagine that you're correct and the assumption that you've found the way in art is for me an acknowledgment that you're stagnating. Art isn't about winning. You can't quantify it. It's hard to qualify. The judging criteria on art is very subjective and very different to something with sport," Tognetti says in the film. "You need to accept failure. Look at all the composers, most of them weren't successful, in a conventional sense, in their lifetimes."
His 17-year tenure at the helm of the ACO has been marked by a singular vision not always popular with purists. He has previously collaborated with artists as diverse as rock musicians Peter Garrett and Neil Finn, and photographer Bill Henson. The ACO program for 2008 features popular singer Katie Noonan appearing in a program of works by British composers and children's choir Gondwana Voices performing The Red Tree against images from Shaun Tan's book of the same name.
Musica Surfica is set to continue with the ACO's second orchestra — the emerging artists program — on its tour of the NSW and Queensland coasts this month. Footage from King Island will be the backdrop to a Tognetti arrangement of Pink Floyd's Shine On You Crazy Diamond and Paganini. Tim Freedman from the Whitlams and an Egyptian wood player are expected to join the tour, as is Hynd and possibly Carroll, the carefully chosen music and presentation of new-wave surfing opening children's minds, Tognetti hopes, to different ways of thinking.
"Think of the surfers back in the '70s," he says. "The surfing lifestyle wasn't mainstream; surfers had reputations as left-of-field thinkers, ratbags and outcasts, total eccentrics. What a weird thing to do, to travel by boat to remote Indonesian islands in search of the perfect wave. Now you've got these big multinational companies and everyone's riding exactly the same boards and wearing the same clothes and listening to the same music and talking the same language, from California to the west coast of Australia. We're just trying to reclaim a bit of the soul — as lofty as that may sound."
There are some unexpected problems combining surfing with music. Surfer's nose — an unexpected saline nasal drip that can gush from the nose hours after leaving the water — can be a problem when you're holding a $10 million violin, he told surfing journalist Tim Baker in his recent book High Surf. Playing standards can suffer after fingers have been immersed in cold water all day. But more often the intersection of surfing and music is, for Tognetti, a thrilling example of creative possibility.
"You've got to be a futurist in surfing because you're doing an astonishing thing on a wave. It's between performance and sport. Like playing the violin, if ever I feel insouciant, if ever I take it for granted I slap myself as hard as I can because it's an amazing gift to have."
Musica Surfica will screen on Foxtel in December.
Larissa Dubecki is a staff writer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmLOJ0aDJeo)
Profiles
MUSICA SURFICA Australia Day World Premiere
MUSICA SURFICA
Saturday, January 26 at
FOXTEL PRESENTS THIS INSPIRING DOCUMENTARY
FEATURING RICHARD TOGNETTI and DEREK HYND
World-renowned violinist Richard Tognetti teams up with surfing supremo Derek Hynd in the inspiring documentary MUSICA SURFICA which will make its Australia Day World Television Premiere on Saturday, January 26 at
MUSICA SURFICA is a documentary that follows one man’s creative journey. Richard Tognetti, leading violinist and artistic Director of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, as he searches for new inspiration and explores new boundaries in classical music and experimental surfing.
Richard Tognetti, an incredibly gifted and brilliant violinist is also a life-long surfer. Richard, who has a love for the ocean, teams up with Derek Hynd, one of the world’s most influential surfers … a thinker, a man with a twinkle in his cultural eye. Both are virtuosos, but with their major talents in different worlds.
In this stunning documentary Richard and Derek bring together a unique gathering of classical musicians and top surfers on remote
During their
At the same time,
Highlights of the documentary include:
- Richard Tognetti, performs with a Guarneri del Gesu “Carrodus” Violin, an extraordinary instrument crafted in 1743 and conservatively valued at $A 10 million.
- The violin was donated to him by an anonymous benefactor earlier this year.
- This is one of the first “finless” surfing events since the days of the ancient Hawaiians.
- Unique footage of surfers riding radically designed, unfinned surfboards AND surfboards based on 300 year old Hawaiian designs.
- A rare combination of surfing and outstanding performances and classical music soundtracks by the Australian Chamber Orchestra.
MUSICA SURFICA was produced by Us Phoques Pty Ltd, Writer & Director Mick Sowry, Producers Simon Whitney and Richard Keddie. MUSICA SURFICA was financed by the Australian Film Commission and FOXTEL.
MUSICA SURFICA
World Television Premiere
Saturday January 26,
at
Media Man Australia Profiles
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Swell could be seven feet on weekend, by Mark Furler - Sunshine Coast Daily - 1st January 2008
The intense low pressure system that has hovered off Fraser Island since last Friday may have wreaked havoc with plans of holiday suntans but for surfers chasing power and size it has broken a long drought.
Noosa’s points have been pumping since Saturday while Mooloolaba has come into its own.
Normally a safe family beach Mooloolaba has delivered enough grunt to attract the likes of professional big wave rider Mark Visser and pro surf Leigh Sedley.
Ti-Tree and Boiling Pot have produced the pick of the waves at Noosa National Park, but the crowds in the water and the packed carparks have seen many surfers decide to sit out the wild conditions.
But with big seas predicted to continue well into January the opportunity for less crowded conditions may develop as surfers become exhausted by the constant battle with dumping waves and powerful sweeps.
The low pressure system that has brought the weather and waves of the past week is starting to drift slowly north but forecasters predict that while the swell will ease to 5.9 feet by Thursday afternoon it will be back over seven feet by late Saturday.
Experts advise caution in surf, by Sam Benger - Sunshine Coast Daily - 31st December 2007
Surfing experts have been left dismayed by the number of inexperienced surfers who literally got in over their heads at beaches across the Sunshine Coast yesterday.
Despite some great sets, there were too many people in the water who should not have been there, said Sunshine Coast Daily surfing correspondent Robbie Sherwell.
“There are a lot of what I would call ‘weekend surfers’ in the water, and they can be a danger to themselves and other people,” he said.
Some people even swam in the rough conditions and a few even let their children get in the water.
He described their actions as “naive and arrogant”.
“They’ve seen the warnings on TV and they know only to swim between the flags, and they’ve also got the lifesavers warning them on the beach and over the PA system but they’re still going in.
“It’s a mixture of naivety and arrogance – they have no idea how powerful the ocean can be.
“There were a lot of broken boards today and no doubt some people were hurt.”
Big wave surfer Mark Visser agreed that surfers who didn’t know what they were doing should stay out of the water.
“It’s pretty sweepy out there and unless you’re really confident you should stick to the smaller conditions and work your way up,” he said after tackling the swell.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Carroll plans to wave fear goodbye, by Will Swanton - The Age - 30th December 2007
AUSTRALIA'S former world champion Tom Carroll is 46 going on 16, with the wisdom and fearlessness you get from simultaneously being at both ends of the spectrum.
He's old enough to know the legendary Big Wave Invitational In Memory of Eddie Aikau is seriously dangerous, but still bristles with enough attitude to pack his bags, grit his teeth and go.
The most famous big-wave contest was created in 1985 to honour Hawaiian waterman Eddie Aikau. Twenty-eight of the world's most accomplished paddle-in big-wave riders are on alert, waiting for the call that could come day or night — to grab their bags and converge on the legendary surfing ground of Waimea Bay, on the north shore of Oahu, for the most jaw-dropping contest of all.
The 28 are spread around the globe with their hearts in their mouths while they wait for the beast to start stirring. The holding period is from December 1 to February 29, and heats do not begin until the faces of the waves reach a thunderous nine metres.
A man of Carroll's age and past glories as a double world champion should feel no obligation to keep testing himself in such a frightening cauldron, but as soon as the call comes that the waves have maximised, he will be on the first plane.
"There's plenty of storm activity up there — it's just a matter of time," Carroll said yesterday. "It's the ocean; she's just got a mind of her own. When the time comes, you've just got to get yourself together because you're moving towards an animal, you know. You want the fear to be there. It has to be.
"If there's no fear, there's something wrong with you. There's the anticipation and then you're out there and the ocean is pouring in at you. It's a humbling experience. You sense that you're insignificant, really, but that can be inspiring."
Given the strict wave-height requirement, The Eddie has only been held seven times in 21 years. The winner receives around $100,000 — and unbridled respect.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Places to surf before you die: the Superbank, by Sean Doherty - 17th December 2007 - news.com.au
IT'S one of the great wonders of the surfing world, but Mother Nature can only take half the credit for Queensland's Superbank.
While man has utterly extinguished the natural beauty of the Gold Coast, it is the ultimate irony that he's been able to create a thing of true beauty - even if it was by mistake. It seems that in the home of the cheeseball tourist theme park, they've even made one for surfers.
In 2001, the Gold Coast council fired up the pumps to start dredging the mouth of the Tweed River, making it safer for fishing boats to put to sea. The sand was to be pumped to the northern side of the river mouth, behind Snapper Rocks, whence it would continue its natural drift north up the Queensland coast.
When the dredge contractor pushed the button on that morning, he had no idea he would soon become a cult hero for surfers around the world.
Within weeks the local surfers began to notice the change.
The adjacent (yet independent) point breaks of Snapper Rocks and Greenmount were being cemented together by a blanket of sand. A few months later the magic dust had spread out into the bay, the high-tide line was 150 metres further out, and the new wave was even linking up with Kirra, two kilometres away.
It was Frankenstein's monster, only much, much prettier - it was the Superbank coming to life.
Gold Coast surfers couldn't believe what they were seeing. Guys were scoring the waves of their lives.
Twenty-second tubes were clocked; one local surfer, Damon Harvey, rode a wave from Snapper Rocks all the way through to Little Groyne at Kirra. And it wasn't just that the wave was long - it barrelled, walled, spat and slithered all the way. The thing was damn-near flawless, whichever way you looked at it.
The wave begins behind the rock at Snapper - Satan's washing machine. The heaviest section of the whole wave, it's the backwash off Snapper's rocks that makes the take-off here so sketchy, and it's here that the local guys rule.
If you survive this below-sea-level barrel section - which the locals have an uncanny knack of doing - the next kilometre or two is all yours (or, more to the point, theirs).
Beyond this, the nature of the wave itself fluctuates according to the state of the sand.
As a rule, the wave barrels through Little Marley, backs off slightly heading into Greenmount, then goes to the races through Coolangatta into Kirra. But don't worry so much about what the wave's going to do, just worry about getting one.
Cue the circus music, because the best sandbank in the world was never going to remain a secret for very long. Flawless would soon become lawless.
The perfect nature of the wave means that it rarely sections off, so, in theory, a five-wave set can be ridden by five guys for as long as they want. With another 500 guys in the water waiting their turn ... well, you crunch the numbers.
The only way to get a wave is to either take off behind the rock, hope the guy on the wave chokes and falls, or simply burn him.
Sadly, the latter scenario is all too common out here, and the place occasionally degenerates into a post-apocalyptic war zone. From 70-year-olds to seven-year-olds, from Brazilians to the British, from weekend warriors to world champs, they're all thrown together out there, battling each other for their little slice of the legend.
But what man can build, nature can wipe away in a heartbeat, and you always get the feeling there's something impermanent about the Superbank. It will only exist as long as the pumps keep pumping. The bank's short existence has coincided with one of the quietest meteorological periods in modern history, and the place hasn't yet experienced a direct hit from an overdue tropical cyclone.
Maybe Huey, seeing that the place is conjuring up the dark side of the surfing spirit, will do a Sodom and Gomorrah on the Superbank and wash away all trace of it.
The Pilgrimage: 50 places to surf before you die, edited by Sean Doherty, is published by Penguin Books on the Viking Imprint and is available in all good bookshops for $49.95.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Fanning in world-title heaven - Imbituba, Brazil - The Age - 8th November 2007
NEW world champion Mick Fanning's thoughts were of his late brother as a dolphin swam nearby while he clinched the crown at Imbituba in Brazil.
Fanning ended seven years of American dominance, giving Australia its first men's world title since Mark Occhilupo in 1999.
The 26-year-old Gold Coaster clinched the title when he outlasted remaining rivals Taj Burrow and Kelly Slater in the penultimate event of the season, the Santa Catarina Pro.
Fanning was in the water waiting for his semi-final against childhood friend Joel Parkinson when Burrow was eliminated by fellow Australian Tom Whitaker and his dream was realised.
"I woke up this morning and I just had a good feeling that it was going to happen today," Fanning said. "It was so amazing to be out there with Joel.
"When I realised I'd won, I went, 'What do we do, Joel?' and he was like, 'I don't know'."
Not done, workaholic Fanning went on to beat Parkinson then claim his ninth world tour event win by beating Australian rookie Kai Otton in the final.
"To take the reins over from Oc (Occhilupo) is incredible," Fanning said.
"He is pretty much the legend of the sport. He's such a character and such a cool guy."
Fanning has been a model of consistency in his climb to world champion but it has not come easily.
Raised by a single mother who now manages his career, Fanning lost his older brother Sean, also a gifted surfer, in a car accident as a teenager.
The two were very close and Fanning wondered at the presence of a dolphin in the water yesterday.
"It was so cool with Joel out there in the semi-final and there was a dolphin out there, I'm not sure if it was my brother or what," Fanning said.
"Every heat I've had today there has been a dolphin right there in the line-up, just chilling."
Born in Penrith, NSW, Fanning, his four siblings and mother moved to Coolangatta on Queensland's Gold Coast when he was a toddler and he grew up surfing with Parkinson and Dean Morrison, known collectively as the Cooly Kids.
"Joel and Dean are the reason that I train so hard," Fanning said.
"When I was a kid, those guys used to smoke me all the time. I was always trying to be better than those guys."
Making his debut on the world tour in 2002 after finishing No. 1 in the world qualifying series, Fanning was fifth in his rookie year and moved up to No. 4 in 2003 before finishing No. 3 in 2005 and 2006.
His lowest year-end rating of No. 7 came in 2004 after he tore his hamstring from the bone in a freesurfing incident midway through the season.
"Even though I was injured, it was probably the best six months of my life. I didn't have to worry about surfing.
"I had fun with my friends and, at the end of it, I found the girl that I love and want to marry.
"So even though it was bad for my body, it was a million more times better for my mind and my heart."
Fanning is engaged to be married in February to his long-time girlfriend, Gold Coast model Karissa Dalton.
Since winning the Billabong Pro in South Africa in 2006, Fanning has featured in seven finals.
He has also finished as a semi-finalist three times and a quarter-finalist twice from the past 15 events.
This year he had already won the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast and the Quiksilver Pro France.
Parkinson was thrilled for Fanning after their semi-final.
"It was pretty cool, we were speechless," Parkinson said.
Occhilupo was quick to congratulate Fanning.
"I get goose bumps just thinking about it," Occhilupo said.
"It's been eight years and we've got it back to Australia.
Fanning is now Australia's ninth men's world champion after "Midget" Farrelly (1964), "Nat" Young (1966 and 1970), Paul Neilsen (1972), Ian Cairns (1973), Mark Richards (1975 and 1978-82), Peter Townend (1976), Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew (1978), Tom Carroll (1983-84), Damien Hardman (1987 and 1991), Barton Lynch (1988) and Occhilupo in 1999.
AAP
Fanning ended seven years of American dominance, giving Australia its first men's world title since Mark Occhilupo in 1999.
The 26-year-old Gold Coaster clinched the title when he outlasted remaining rivals Taj Burrow and Kelly Slater in the penultimate event of the season, the Santa Catarina Pro.
Fanning was in the water waiting for his semi-final against childhood friend Joel Parkinson when Burrow was eliminated by fellow Australian Tom Whitaker and his dream was realised.
"I woke up this morning and I just had a good feeling that it was going to happen today," Fanning said. "It was so amazing to be out there with Joel.
"When I realised I'd won, I went, 'What do we do, Joel?' and he was like, 'I don't know'."
Not done, workaholic Fanning went on to beat Parkinson then claim his ninth world tour event win by beating Australian rookie Kai Otton in the final.
"To take the reins over from Oc (Occhilupo) is incredible," Fanning said.
"He is pretty much the legend of the sport. He's such a character and such a cool guy."
Fanning has been a model of consistency in his climb to world champion but it has not come easily.
Raised by a single mother who now manages his career, Fanning lost his older brother Sean, also a gifted surfer, in a car accident as a teenager.
The two were very close and Fanning wondered at the presence of a dolphin in the water yesterday.
"It was so cool with Joel out there in the semi-final and there was a dolphin out there, I'm not sure if it was my brother or what," Fanning said.
"Every heat I've had today there has been a dolphin right there in the line-up, just chilling."
Born in Penrith, NSW, Fanning, his four siblings and mother moved to Coolangatta on Queensland's Gold Coast when he was a toddler and he grew up surfing with Parkinson and Dean Morrison, known collectively as the Cooly Kids.
"Joel and Dean are the reason that I train so hard," Fanning said.
"When I was a kid, those guys used to smoke me all the time. I was always trying to be better than those guys."
Making his debut on the world tour in 2002 after finishing No. 1 in the world qualifying series, Fanning was fifth in his rookie year and moved up to No. 4 in 2003 before finishing No. 3 in 2005 and 2006.
His lowest year-end rating of No. 7 came in 2004 after he tore his hamstring from the bone in a freesurfing incident midway through the season.
"Even though I was injured, it was probably the best six months of my life. I didn't have to worry about surfing.
"I had fun with my friends and, at the end of it, I found the girl that I love and want to marry.
"So even though it was bad for my body, it was a million more times better for my mind and my heart."
Fanning is engaged to be married in February to his long-time girlfriend, Gold Coast model Karissa Dalton.
Since winning the Billabong Pro in South Africa in 2006, Fanning has featured in seven finals.
He has also finished as a semi-finalist three times and a quarter-finalist twice from the past 15 events.
This year he had already won the Quiksilver Pro Gold Coast and the Quiksilver Pro France.
Parkinson was thrilled for Fanning after their semi-final.
"It was pretty cool, we were speechless," Parkinson said.
Occhilupo was quick to congratulate Fanning.
"I get goose bumps just thinking about it," Occhilupo said.
"It's been eight years and we've got it back to Australia.
Fanning is now Australia's ninth men's world champion after "Midget" Farrelly (1964), "Nat" Young (1966 and 1970), Paul Neilsen (1972), Ian Cairns (1973), Mark Richards (1975 and 1978-82), Peter Townend (1976), Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew (1978), Tom Carroll (1983-84), Damien Hardman (1987 and 1991), Barton Lynch (1988) and Occhilupo in 1999.
AAP
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Aussie Fanning wins surfing world title - NineMSN - 7th November 2007
Mick Fanning has become the first Australian to win the men's surfing world title in eight years at the Santa Catarina Pro in Brazil on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old secured the world crown following the elimination of rivals Kelly Slater and Taj Burrow in the fourth round and quarter-finals respectively at the tour event in South America.
Having picked up the nation's first men's title since Mark Occhilupo in 1999, Fanning went on to claim the event by edging out countryman Kai Otton in the final.
The Gold Coaster has been ultra-consistent this year, reaching the semi-final in eight of the nine rounds.
He has finished third behind eight-time champion Slater in the title race for the past two seasons before finally trumping the American master this time around.
Fanning has been at the front of the pack since his rookie year in 2002, only missing a top-five finish on one occasion.
That was in 2004 when he missed most of the year due to severe hamstring injury from a freak wipeout in Indonesia that almost brought a premature end to his career.
He completely tore the hamstring and tendons from his bone and was left with a softball sized lump of muscle below his backside.
He endured an eight-hour boat trip and three-day journey without painkillers - and even had to bribe Indonesian immigration - just to get home.
The final event on the world tour is the Pipeline Masters in Hawaii from December 8-20.
Media Man Australia Profile
Surfing
The 26-year-old secured the world crown following the elimination of rivals Kelly Slater and Taj Burrow in the fourth round and quarter-finals respectively at the tour event in South America.
Having picked up the nation's first men's title since Mark Occhilupo in 1999, Fanning went on to claim the event by edging out countryman Kai Otton in the final.
The Gold Coaster has been ultra-consistent this year, reaching the semi-final in eight of the nine rounds.
He has finished third behind eight-time champion Slater in the title race for the past two seasons before finally trumping the American master this time around.
Fanning has been at the front of the pack since his rookie year in 2002, only missing a top-five finish on one occasion.
That was in 2004 when he missed most of the year due to severe hamstring injury from a freak wipeout in Indonesia that almost brought a premature end to his career.
He completely tore the hamstring and tendons from his bone and was left with a softball sized lump of muscle below his backside.
He endured an eight-hour boat trip and three-day journey without painkillers - and even had to bribe Indonesian immigration - just to get home.
The final event on the world tour is the Pipeline Masters in Hawaii from December 8-20.
Media Man Australia Profile
Surfing
Sunday, November 04, 2007
Surfing Poseidon's Peaks, By Kati Turcu - The Epoch Times
Surfing Poseidon't Peaks (Credit: The Epoch Times)
Describing a good wave or the feeling of surfing it isn't easy. Not before long one finds oneself in superlative wipeout, much like the surfers who attempt it only to fail.
Luckily surfing is not about words. There are those who do and those who watch.
Though the thrill of riding a wave can hardly be described, at least it can be documented in film.
To this end, the Australian Surf Movie Festival (ASMF) is in its sixth year and presents the best opportunity for fans to see spectacular footage from around the world.
Film and Event Director Tim Bonython has been shooting surfing footage since 1978 and understands what makes a good surfing film.
He explains: "It's easy to shoot good surfing as long as you got a good surfer in good waves, but what we'd like to have in relation to the festival is a good story. We transport people to amazing locations and, in most cases the location is scarier than just guys having fun in waves."
One of the features of the festival called Down the Barrel documents the lives of four talented surfers: Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Kalani Robb and Australia's Joel Parkinson. It won The Best Cinematography in this year's Surfer Poll and Video Awards in the US run last month for its underwater barrel shots and masterful jet-ski angles from exotic destinations such as Teahupo'o in Tahiti.
Mr Bonython explains further: "In a festival we want to chop and change and keep people totally entertained from the start to the end. So we start with something exciting and then we pull it back and go on a bit of a profile of a person's career and then we come back and do something exciting.
Then there's the kind of excitement that is best left for viewing."
Filmmaker Brook Sylvester, captures Mark Mathews catching the heaviest wave ever surfed in Australia at the most feared break nicknamed Cyclops. "Surfing this wave is really dicing with death," says Mr Bonython "It's very very thick and it contorts; a beautiful wave but it's deadly."
Sydney's fearless big wave surfer Mark Mathews, whose objective is to surf the biggest and heaviest waves on the planet is also in Three Days at OURS.Shot at Sydney's Cape Solander outside Botany Bay in April 2007, Mathews and the "Bra Boy crew" – Ritchie Vaculik, Evan Faulks, Koby Abberton – and Bronte surfers Kobi Graham and John Dwyer tackle some of the most spectacular barrels ever surfed in Sydney or anywhere else on the planet.
Mr Bonython says: "I promise you that when viewing this footage, which is our finale you will be blown away by the intensity of the action. This is one serious wave, where really only the gutsiest surfers on the planet could take it on."
But Mr Bonython's excitement also masks considerable frustration at seeing Australian filmmakers battling it out financially while surf magazines have been giving away mediocre free DVDs as part of their marketing strategy. The situation makes it difficult for independent producers to make something out of genuinely good films.
He tells The Epoch Times: "there haven't been any good surf-DVD's release in this country for a while now."
The films in the festival are shown exclusively and will only be released next year with tracks as a DVD package.
Alhough the ASMF documents the near impossible feats of the big names in surfing, not all of the films shown focus on the stars. "It's good to have a film where it's not just full of surf stars. It's actually just got your Jo normals out there having a good fun time and in that film it's not life threatening waves, just beautiful endless perfection. When a wave is that good, really the wave is the star," Mr Bonython says.
Sounds like the audience will definitely be stoked.
The Australian Surf Movie Festival premieres at the North Bondi RSL on October 31, 2007 at 8pm and will tour nationally for three weeks, travelling to 22 venues until November 25.
See www.asmf.net.au for a list of venues, dates and ticket purchase information.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Australian Surf Movie Festival
Surfing
Describing a good wave or the feeling of surfing it isn't easy. Not before long one finds oneself in superlative wipeout, much like the surfers who attempt it only to fail.
Luckily surfing is not about words. There are those who do and those who watch.
Though the thrill of riding a wave can hardly be described, at least it can be documented in film.
To this end, the Australian Surf Movie Festival (ASMF) is in its sixth year and presents the best opportunity for fans to see spectacular footage from around the world.
Film and Event Director Tim Bonython has been shooting surfing footage since 1978 and understands what makes a good surfing film.
He explains: "It's easy to shoot good surfing as long as you got a good surfer in good waves, but what we'd like to have in relation to the festival is a good story. We transport people to amazing locations and, in most cases the location is scarier than just guys having fun in waves."
One of the features of the festival called Down the Barrel documents the lives of four talented surfers: Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Kalani Robb and Australia's Joel Parkinson. It won The Best Cinematography in this year's Surfer Poll and Video Awards in the US run last month for its underwater barrel shots and masterful jet-ski angles from exotic destinations such as Teahupo'o in Tahiti.
Mr Bonython explains further: "In a festival we want to chop and change and keep people totally entertained from the start to the end. So we start with something exciting and then we pull it back and go on a bit of a profile of a person's career and then we come back and do something exciting.
Then there's the kind of excitement that is best left for viewing."
Filmmaker Brook Sylvester, captures Mark Mathews catching the heaviest wave ever surfed in Australia at the most feared break nicknamed Cyclops. "Surfing this wave is really dicing with death," says Mr Bonython "It's very very thick and it contorts; a beautiful wave but it's deadly."
Sydney's fearless big wave surfer Mark Mathews, whose objective is to surf the biggest and heaviest waves on the planet is also in Three Days at OURS.Shot at Sydney's Cape Solander outside Botany Bay in April 2007, Mathews and the "Bra Boy crew" – Ritchie Vaculik, Evan Faulks, Koby Abberton – and Bronte surfers Kobi Graham and John Dwyer tackle some of the most spectacular barrels ever surfed in Sydney or anywhere else on the planet.
Mr Bonython says: "I promise you that when viewing this footage, which is our finale you will be blown away by the intensity of the action. This is one serious wave, where really only the gutsiest surfers on the planet could take it on."
But Mr Bonython's excitement also masks considerable frustration at seeing Australian filmmakers battling it out financially while surf magazines have been giving away mediocre free DVDs as part of their marketing strategy. The situation makes it difficult for independent producers to make something out of genuinely good films.
He tells The Epoch Times: "there haven't been any good surf-DVD's release in this country for a while now."
The films in the festival are shown exclusively and will only be released next year with tracks as a DVD package.
Alhough the ASMF documents the near impossible feats of the big names in surfing, not all of the films shown focus on the stars. "It's good to have a film where it's not just full of surf stars. It's actually just got your Jo normals out there having a good fun time and in that film it's not life threatening waves, just beautiful endless perfection. When a wave is that good, really the wave is the star," Mr Bonython says.
Sounds like the audience will definitely be stoked.
The Australian Surf Movie Festival premieres at the North Bondi RSL on October 31, 2007 at 8pm and will tour nationally for three weeks, travelling to 22 venues until November 25.
See www.asmf.net.au for a list of venues, dates and ticket purchase information.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Australian Surf Movie Festival
Surfing
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Australian Surf Movie Festival Premiers Tonight at North Bondi RSL
Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry
The Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry premieres at the North Bondi RSL on October 31, 2007 at 8pm and will tour nationally for three weeks, traveling to 22 venues until November 25.
Film and Event Director Tim Bonython says, “the number one objective of the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival is to have surf movies on the big screen come seriously alive! There’s no better place than sitting with friends in an auditorium hooting surfers riding giant waves and being part of the surf stoke that surf flicks on a big screen create.”
NEWS AT 26th OCTOBER 2007
The Fructis Style Australian Surf Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry has now secured access to the most incredible action from Tasmania's hell wave, Shipsterns Bluff. On 22 October 2007, Shipsterns Bluff erupted with some of the nastiest waves ever surfed there, around 15 to 20 feet, with offshore winds and clear sunny skies.
“The surfing that went down on this day was mind numbing. One mistake and death was a real possibility,” says event director Tim Bonython.
“To add this footage to the festival is the absolute icing on the cake,” says Bonython. With Brook Sylvester's Cyclop's film, 'The One Eyed Monster' and Tim Bonython’s 'Three Days at OURS', the action will be pretty crazy when watching it all on the big screen.
In its sixth year, the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival has an impressive line-up of surf movies, music and $15,000 in prizes.
THE FILMS:
WILD AUSTRALIA by Tim Bonython
Wild Australia, produced by Tim Bonython takes the viewer on a 30 year journey of surfing including the legendary Bells 81 big waves right through to the most perfect waves ever surfed this year on the Gold Coast’s Superbank at Coolangatta.
Bonthyon says “I have shot thousands of hours of surfing over the last 30 years and Wild Australia is my pick of the best surfing I have seen in this time”. To bring back the 80’s vibe, Tim is planning to narrate Wild Australia live as he did back in the day when he toured pubs and clubs showing the latest footage with his Super 8 – keeping the punters up to date before the video era.
THREE DAYS at OURS by Tim Bonython
Sydney’s fearless big wave surfer Mark Mathews is the star of this year’s Australian Surf Movie Festival. Mark’s objective is to surf the biggest and heaviest waves on the planet. OURS, located at Sydney’s Cape Solander (outside Botany Bay) in April 2007 was surfed as big and mean as it gets.
Surfing Ours with Mark Mathews includes the Bra Boy crew of Ritchie Vaculk, Evan Faulks, Koby Abberton and Bronte surfers Kobi Graham and John Dwyer. These fearless surfers tackle some of the nastiest barrels ever surfed in Sydney and for that matter Australia or anywhere else on the planet.
Bonython says “I promise you that when viewing this footage which is our finale you will be blown away by the intensity of the action. This is one serious wave, where really only the gustiest surfers on the planet could take it on. ”
DOWN THE BARREL by Steve Lawrence
Down the Barrel won The Best Cinematography in this years Surfer Poll and Video Awards in the US run last month. This feature film documents the lives of four unique and talented surfers: Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Kalani Robb and Australia’s Joel Parkinson.
Lawrence and world renowned surf water cameraman Mike Prickett capture surfing from so many unique angles. The entire project is filmed in 16 mm, super 16 mm, and high definition. Amazing underwater barrel shots and masterful jet-ski angles from exotic surf destinations such as Teahupo’o, Tahiti make this movie stand out from the crowd. Bonython enthuses, ‘this film is a really cool flick and fits perfectly to what our film festival represents’.
CYCLOPS, WA 2007 By Brook Sylvester
Mark Mathews catches the heaviest wave ever surfed in Australia at the most feared break, Cyclops.“Surfing this wave is really is dicing with death,” says Bonython. Watching this wave on tape will make you squirm, Bonython believes.
BANKRUPT - THE SUPERBANKBy Tim Bonython
April 07 – Probably the most perfect wave on the planet – In this short this man made wave is the star – Never ever has the Superbank looked so flawless. No surfing super stars – just endless perfection.
HURLEY PRESENTS SOUND & VISION – Yadin Nicol profile.
This is the real deal, Australia, Bali, Africa and more! The sights and sounds of remote locations and near death experiences. The movie features Yadin blowing up waves all over the world while his closest peers lend insight into what makes this million dollar maniac tick. From the water to the local watering hole, Yadin is loud and impossible to ignore.
SHORT STORIES – TIM CURRAN profileBy Jason Haynes
Short Stories profiles Californian Pro surfer and musician Timmy Curren. Timmy Curren was the world’s first surfer to pull a full back flip on a surfboard, has competed at the highest level on the WCT and when he is not surfing for the latest Talyor Steele film or competing in an Airshow he is playing music. In a very short time Tim has gone from playing music in his bathroom to playing with the Foo Fighters at the Sydney Opera house. How did this happen? Find out in Short Stories.
LIVE MUSIC:
Sydney band, Tokenview will perform live acoustic tunes in the intermission at most shows. Tokenview is a chilled out pop/rock band with a great vibe. Check the web site for details of venues Tokenview will be playing. Have a listen - www.myspace.com/tokenview
Slide Show Intermission – Photography montage by Tracks photographers showcasing some of the world’s best still surfing images.
Win a Surf Trip of a lifetime!
The Surf Travel Company are giving one lucky surfer the opportunity to win a surf trip of a lifetime to the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia aboard Arimbi valued at $5,000. The prize includes flights to Padang, return airport/hotel/boat transfers, 11 nights of luxury on Arimbi with all meals and drinks provided and use of all fishing and snorkeling gear. Plus you will receive one naturalfooted medical kit and 2 weeks insurance with Suresave Global Travel Insurance.
Win Surfboards 1 of 10 surfboards!
Firewire Surfboards in conjuction with Fructis Style Surf Hair, we will be giving away 4 Firewire Surfboards.
Tooheys Extra Dry will be giving away 5 MR Surfboards.
STC in conjunction with Simon Anderson will be giving away a custom surfboard with a AUD $100 international gift voucher for use on an international holiday.
Win Sanyo Video Waterproof and dust proof video camera valued at $799.
SAMPLE BAGS:
Everyone who attends the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry will be given a sample bag loaded with samples and goodies from our sponsors.
SPONSORS
FRUCTIS STYLE SURF HAIRTOOHEY’S EXTRA DRY
BLINDE SDS JETTY SURFHURLEYSANYOTHE SURF TRAVEL COMPANY
MEDIA PARTNERS
TRACKS MAGTRIPLE J FUEL TVREALSURFSWELLNETPODSURF TVSURF DECALS
ASSOCIATION PARTNERS
SURFRIDER FOUNDATIONSURF AID INTERNATIONALSURFDECALS.COM
::TOUR SCHEDULE::
SYDNEY
• PREMIERE Wed 31 Oct Nth Bondi RSL Nth Bondi 8pm• Thurs 1 Nov Paddington RSL Paddington 8.15pm• Fri 2 Nov Randwick Ritz Randwick 6.45 pm• Sat 3 Nov Cronulla Dunningham Park Live music from 7.30pm- films from 8pm• Mon 5 Nov Manning Bar Sydney Uni Sydney 8pm• Wed 7 Nov Nth Bondi RSL Nth Bondi 8pm• Thurs 8 Nov Dee Why RSL Dee Why 8pm• Fri 9 Nov Collaroy Cinema Collaroy 7pm• Sat 10 Nov Avalon Cinema Avalon 4pm• Sat 10 Nov Palm Beach RSL Palm Beach 8pm• Sun 11 Nov Towradgi Beach Hotel Wollongong 7pm ( over 18’s yrs)
VICTORIA
• Tues 13 Nov The Astor Melbourne 7.30pm• Thurs 15 Nov The Esplanade Hotel 8pm ( over 18’s yrs)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA• Sat 17 Nov Mercury Cinema Adelaide 5pm• Sat 17 Nov Mercury Cinema Adelaide 8pm
QUEENSLAND
• Tues 20 Nov Noosa Bowling Club Noosa 8pm
NSW COAST• Sun 4 Nov Avoca Beach Picture Theatre Avoca Beach 5pm• Wed 21 Nov Byron Bay Community Centre Byron Bay 8.15pm• Thurs 22 Nov Twin Towns Star Room Twin Towns 8pm• Fri 23 Nov First Avenue Cinema Sawtell /Coffs Harbour 8 pm• Sat 24 Nov Tuncurry Memorial Hall Tuncurry /Forster 8pm• Sun 25 Nov Newcastle Showcase City Cinema Newcastle 6pm
TICKETING:
Adult: $17.50 Pre-booked $20.00 at the door
Children (under 12) $ 12.50 pre-booked $15.00 at the door
Group tickets ( 5 adults) : $75.00 pre-booked only
Family pass ( 2 children + 2 parents) = total of 4 people = $50.00
TICKETS ON SALE NOW - www.asmf.net.au
Contacts• Film Director: Tim Bonython call 0412500050 or office 02 9973 3842 tbproductions@volatile.com.au
• Event and Ticketing Director: Sandrine Bonython office 02 9918 5300 sandrine@volatile.com.au
• Sales and pr: Phil Osborn 0403091515 posborn@tpg.com.au
• Media & Press Relations: Suzy Anderson 0402 734 173 media@volatile.com.au
_______
Photo Press:
Photo : Bill Morris Surfer: Koby Abberton Location: Ours To download click here.
Photo: Shorty Surfer: Mark Matthews Location: Ours To download click here.
Photo: Nathan Smith Location: Kirra To download click here.
The Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry premieres at the North Bondi RSL on October 31, 2007 at 8pm and will tour nationally for three weeks, traveling to 22 venues until November 25.
Film and Event Director Tim Bonython says, “the number one objective of the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival is to have surf movies on the big screen come seriously alive! There’s no better place than sitting with friends in an auditorium hooting surfers riding giant waves and being part of the surf stoke that surf flicks on a big screen create.”
NEWS AT 26th OCTOBER 2007
The Fructis Style Australian Surf Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry has now secured access to the most incredible action from Tasmania's hell wave, Shipsterns Bluff. On 22 October 2007, Shipsterns Bluff erupted with some of the nastiest waves ever surfed there, around 15 to 20 feet, with offshore winds and clear sunny skies.
“The surfing that went down on this day was mind numbing. One mistake and death was a real possibility,” says event director Tim Bonython.
“To add this footage to the festival is the absolute icing on the cake,” says Bonython. With Brook Sylvester's Cyclop's film, 'The One Eyed Monster' and Tim Bonython’s 'Three Days at OURS', the action will be pretty crazy when watching it all on the big screen.
In its sixth year, the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival has an impressive line-up of surf movies, music and $15,000 in prizes.
THE FILMS:
WILD AUSTRALIA by Tim Bonython
Wild Australia, produced by Tim Bonython takes the viewer on a 30 year journey of surfing including the legendary Bells 81 big waves right through to the most perfect waves ever surfed this year on the Gold Coast’s Superbank at Coolangatta.
Bonthyon says “I have shot thousands of hours of surfing over the last 30 years and Wild Australia is my pick of the best surfing I have seen in this time”. To bring back the 80’s vibe, Tim is planning to narrate Wild Australia live as he did back in the day when he toured pubs and clubs showing the latest footage with his Super 8 – keeping the punters up to date before the video era.
THREE DAYS at OURS by Tim Bonython
Sydney’s fearless big wave surfer Mark Mathews is the star of this year’s Australian Surf Movie Festival. Mark’s objective is to surf the biggest and heaviest waves on the planet. OURS, located at Sydney’s Cape Solander (outside Botany Bay) in April 2007 was surfed as big and mean as it gets.
Surfing Ours with Mark Mathews includes the Bra Boy crew of Ritchie Vaculk, Evan Faulks, Koby Abberton and Bronte surfers Kobi Graham and John Dwyer. These fearless surfers tackle some of the nastiest barrels ever surfed in Sydney and for that matter Australia or anywhere else on the planet.
Bonython says “I promise you that when viewing this footage which is our finale you will be blown away by the intensity of the action. This is one serious wave, where really only the gustiest surfers on the planet could take it on. ”
DOWN THE BARREL by Steve Lawrence
Down the Barrel won The Best Cinematography in this years Surfer Poll and Video Awards in the US run last month. This feature film documents the lives of four unique and talented surfers: Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Kalani Robb and Australia’s Joel Parkinson.
Lawrence and world renowned surf water cameraman Mike Prickett capture surfing from so many unique angles. The entire project is filmed in 16 mm, super 16 mm, and high definition. Amazing underwater barrel shots and masterful jet-ski angles from exotic surf destinations such as Teahupo’o, Tahiti make this movie stand out from the crowd. Bonython enthuses, ‘this film is a really cool flick and fits perfectly to what our film festival represents’.
CYCLOPS, WA 2007 By Brook Sylvester
Mark Mathews catches the heaviest wave ever surfed in Australia at the most feared break, Cyclops.“Surfing this wave is really is dicing with death,” says Bonython. Watching this wave on tape will make you squirm, Bonython believes.
BANKRUPT - THE SUPERBANKBy Tim Bonython
April 07 – Probably the most perfect wave on the planet – In this short this man made wave is the star – Never ever has the Superbank looked so flawless. No surfing super stars – just endless perfection.
HURLEY PRESENTS SOUND & VISION – Yadin Nicol profile.
This is the real deal, Australia, Bali, Africa and more! The sights and sounds of remote locations and near death experiences. The movie features Yadin blowing up waves all over the world while his closest peers lend insight into what makes this million dollar maniac tick. From the water to the local watering hole, Yadin is loud and impossible to ignore.
SHORT STORIES – TIM CURRAN profileBy Jason Haynes
Short Stories profiles Californian Pro surfer and musician Timmy Curren. Timmy Curren was the world’s first surfer to pull a full back flip on a surfboard, has competed at the highest level on the WCT and when he is not surfing for the latest Talyor Steele film or competing in an Airshow he is playing music. In a very short time Tim has gone from playing music in his bathroom to playing with the Foo Fighters at the Sydney Opera house. How did this happen? Find out in Short Stories.
LIVE MUSIC:
Sydney band, Tokenview will perform live acoustic tunes in the intermission at most shows. Tokenview is a chilled out pop/rock band with a great vibe. Check the web site for details of venues Tokenview will be playing. Have a listen - www.myspace.com/tokenview
Slide Show Intermission – Photography montage by Tracks photographers showcasing some of the world’s best still surfing images.
Win a Surf Trip of a lifetime!
The Surf Travel Company are giving one lucky surfer the opportunity to win a surf trip of a lifetime to the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia aboard Arimbi valued at $5,000. The prize includes flights to Padang, return airport/hotel/boat transfers, 11 nights of luxury on Arimbi with all meals and drinks provided and use of all fishing and snorkeling gear. Plus you will receive one naturalfooted medical kit and 2 weeks insurance with Suresave Global Travel Insurance.
Win Surfboards 1 of 10 surfboards!
Firewire Surfboards in conjuction with Fructis Style Surf Hair, we will be giving away 4 Firewire Surfboards.
Tooheys Extra Dry will be giving away 5 MR Surfboards.
STC in conjunction with Simon Anderson will be giving away a custom surfboard with a AUD $100 international gift voucher for use on an international holiday.
Win Sanyo Video Waterproof and dust proof video camera valued at $799.
SAMPLE BAGS:
Everyone who attends the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry will be given a sample bag loaded with samples and goodies from our sponsors.
SPONSORS
FRUCTIS STYLE SURF HAIRTOOHEY’S EXTRA DRY
BLINDE SDS JETTY SURFHURLEYSANYOTHE SURF TRAVEL COMPANY
MEDIA PARTNERS
TRACKS MAGTRIPLE J FUEL TVREALSURFSWELLNETPODSURF TVSURF DECALS
ASSOCIATION PARTNERS
SURFRIDER FOUNDATIONSURF AID INTERNATIONALSURFDECALS.COM
::TOUR SCHEDULE::
SYDNEY
• PREMIERE Wed 31 Oct Nth Bondi RSL Nth Bondi 8pm• Thurs 1 Nov Paddington RSL Paddington 8.15pm• Fri 2 Nov Randwick Ritz Randwick 6.45 pm• Sat 3 Nov Cronulla Dunningham Park Live music from 7.30pm- films from 8pm• Mon 5 Nov Manning Bar Sydney Uni Sydney 8pm• Wed 7 Nov Nth Bondi RSL Nth Bondi 8pm• Thurs 8 Nov Dee Why RSL Dee Why 8pm• Fri 9 Nov Collaroy Cinema Collaroy 7pm• Sat 10 Nov Avalon Cinema Avalon 4pm• Sat 10 Nov Palm Beach RSL Palm Beach 8pm• Sun 11 Nov Towradgi Beach Hotel Wollongong 7pm ( over 18’s yrs)
VICTORIA
• Tues 13 Nov The Astor Melbourne 7.30pm• Thurs 15 Nov The Esplanade Hotel 8pm ( over 18’s yrs)
SOUTH AUSTRALIA• Sat 17 Nov Mercury Cinema Adelaide 5pm• Sat 17 Nov Mercury Cinema Adelaide 8pm
QUEENSLAND
• Tues 20 Nov Noosa Bowling Club Noosa 8pm
NSW COAST• Sun 4 Nov Avoca Beach Picture Theatre Avoca Beach 5pm• Wed 21 Nov Byron Bay Community Centre Byron Bay 8.15pm• Thurs 22 Nov Twin Towns Star Room Twin Towns 8pm• Fri 23 Nov First Avenue Cinema Sawtell /Coffs Harbour 8 pm• Sat 24 Nov Tuncurry Memorial Hall Tuncurry /Forster 8pm• Sun 25 Nov Newcastle Showcase City Cinema Newcastle 6pm
TICKETING:
Adult: $17.50 Pre-booked $20.00 at the door
Children (under 12) $ 12.50 pre-booked $15.00 at the door
Group tickets ( 5 adults) : $75.00 pre-booked only
Family pass ( 2 children + 2 parents) = total of 4 people = $50.00
TICKETS ON SALE NOW - www.asmf.net.au
Contacts• Film Director: Tim Bonython call 0412500050 or office 02 9973 3842 tbproductions@volatile.com.au
• Event and Ticketing Director: Sandrine Bonython office 02 9918 5300 sandrine@volatile.com.au
• Sales and pr: Phil Osborn 0403091515 posborn@tpg.com.au
• Media & Press Relations: Suzy Anderson 0402 734 173 media@volatile.com.au
_______
Photo Press:
Photo : Bill Morris Surfer: Koby Abberton Location: Ours To download click here.
Photo: Shorty Surfer: Mark Matthews Location: Ours To download click here.
Photo: Nathan Smith Location: Kirra To download click here.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Tweed surfer nabs Deadly award - Gold Coast Bulletin - 1st October 2007
01Oct07
TWEED Heads surfer Dale Richards has nabbed Most Promising New Talent at the Deadly Awards.
The awards, held at the Sydney Opera House last week, honour indigenous and Torres Strait Islander music, sport, entertainment, the arts and community achievements.
Earlier this year Richards was selected to compete in the trials for the Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast the opening event on the 2007 ASP Men's World Tour.
He went on to beat 15 more experienced surfers to earn himself a wild card entry into the main event. In doing so, Richards became the first-ever indigenous surfer to advance to the main round of the elite world tour event.
Joining the world's top 45 professional surfers in the tournament, Richards drew three time world champions Andy Irons (Haw) in his first heat and, after beating him, squared off against one of his idols eight time world champion Kelly Slater in the next.
While he didn't progress beyond the second round with Slater, the tournament still marked an unbelievable achievement for the 18-year-old.
``It is an honour to be nominated and to win is special there aren't a lot of indigenous surfers out there," said Richards, who received a huge round of applause from the thousands of invited guests as he accepted his award.
Growing up 10 minutes from the beach at Tweed Heads, it wasn't long before Richards began surfing.
After taking up the sport at age 11, Richards was soon entering and winning a swathe of local junior surfing competitions, squeezing in training and practice in the surf at every opportunity between school.
By the age of 16 Richards boasted a bevy of sponsors, including surfwear label Quiksilver.
After establishing himself as one of the stars of the pro-juniors and being widely recognised as one of the top young surfing talents in the country, Richards had been building towards a breakthrough performance for some time and it was his 2007 performance against the world's surfing elite that saw him honoured at the 12th annual Deadlys.
TWEED Heads surfer Dale Richards has nabbed Most Promising New Talent at the Deadly Awards.
The awards, held at the Sydney Opera House last week, honour indigenous and Torres Strait Islander music, sport, entertainment, the arts and community achievements.
Earlier this year Richards was selected to compete in the trials for the Quiksilver Pro on the Gold Coast the opening event on the 2007 ASP Men's World Tour.
He went on to beat 15 more experienced surfers to earn himself a wild card entry into the main event. In doing so, Richards became the first-ever indigenous surfer to advance to the main round of the elite world tour event.
Joining the world's top 45 professional surfers in the tournament, Richards drew three time world champions Andy Irons (Haw) in his first heat and, after beating him, squared off against one of his idols eight time world champion Kelly Slater in the next.
While he didn't progress beyond the second round with Slater, the tournament still marked an unbelievable achievement for the 18-year-old.
``It is an honour to be nominated and to win is special there aren't a lot of indigenous surfers out there," said Richards, who received a huge round of applause from the thousands of invited guests as he accepted his award.
Growing up 10 minutes from the beach at Tweed Heads, it wasn't long before Richards began surfing.
After taking up the sport at age 11, Richards was soon entering and winning a swathe of local junior surfing competitions, squeezing in training and practice in the surf at every opportunity between school.
By the age of 16 Richards boasted a bevy of sponsors, including surfwear label Quiksilver.
After establishing himself as one of the stars of the pro-juniors and being widely recognised as one of the top young surfing talents in the country, Richards had been building towards a breakthrough performance for some time and it was his 2007 performance against the world's surfing elite that saw him honoured at the 12th annual Deadlys.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Eagle beats McNaught to TV gig - The Daily Telegraph - 25th October 2007
When they raced each other for the affections of surf god Kelly Slater at this year's Australian Grand Prix, Erin McNaught beat her then roommate Lauryn Eagle to his heart.
But in the latest wave of rivalry between the local beauties, Eagle has landed a prize TV hosting role ahead of McNaught.
While the former Miss Universe Australia got the guy that weekend back in March, Eagle has pipped her to the post for the gig presenting Foxtel's popular surf show, Ra5.
While McNaught was chatting up Slater during the celebrity race, Eagle, an Australian water-skiing champion and part-time model, told Confidential her big break on the new show came through meetings with his Aussie surfing mates.
"I thought he was absolutely gorgeous. I told Erin about him and she was right onto it. I wasn't bothered though,'' Eagle added, ``I met Stuart (Bedford Brown), one of the show's producers and he suggested I try out.''
After impressing during a screen test mid-year for the program's presenter, Eagle got revenge on her racing buddy and romantic rival, who was also considered for the role.
While filming on the fifth series starts next week, the 19-year-old water babe will also take on McNaught's beauty queen territory when she competes in the Miss Tourism pageant in Malaysia next month - more competition for McNaught.
But in the latest wave of rivalry between the local beauties, Eagle has landed a prize TV hosting role ahead of McNaught.
While the former Miss Universe Australia got the guy that weekend back in March, Eagle has pipped her to the post for the gig presenting Foxtel's popular surf show, Ra5.
While McNaught was chatting up Slater during the celebrity race, Eagle, an Australian water-skiing champion and part-time model, told Confidential her big break on the new show came through meetings with his Aussie surfing mates.
"I thought he was absolutely gorgeous. I told Erin about him and she was right onto it. I wasn't bothered though,'' Eagle added, ``I met Stuart (Bedford Brown), one of the show's producers and he suggested I try out.''
After impressing during a screen test mid-year for the program's presenter, Eagle got revenge on her racing buddy and romantic rival, who was also considered for the role.
While filming on the fifth series starts next week, the 19-year-old water babe will also take on McNaught's beauty queen territory when she competes in the Miss Tourism pageant in Malaysia next month - more competition for McNaught.
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Press Release: Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry
Press Release: Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival (Credit: ASMF)
Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry
The Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry premieres at the North Bondi RSL on October 31, 2007 at 8pm and will tour nationally for three weeks, traveling to 22 venues until November 25.
Film and Event Director Tim Bonython says, “the number one objective of the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival is to have surf movies on the big screen come seriously alive! There’s no better place than sitting with friends in an auditorium hooting surfers riding giant waves and being part of the surf stoke that surf flicks on a big screen create.”
In its sixth year, the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival has an impressive line-up of surf movies, music and $15,000 in prizes.
The movies include:
Wild Australiaby Tim Bonython
Wild Australia, produced by Tim Bonython takes the viewer on a 30 year journey of surfing including the legendary Bells 81 big waves right through to the most perfect waves ever surfed this year on the Gold Coast’s Superbank at Coolangatta.
Bonthyon says “I have shot thousands of hours of surfing over the last 30 years and Wild Australia is my pick of the best surfing I have seen in this time”. To bring back the 80’s vibe, Tim is planning to narrate Wild Australia live as he did back in the day when he toured pubs and clubs showing the latest footage with his Super 8 – keeping the punters up to date before the video era.
Three Days at OURS by Tim Bonython
Sydney’s fearless big wave surfer Mark Mathews is the star of this year’s Australian Surf Movie Festival. Mark’s objective is to surf the biggest and heaviest waves on the planet. OURS, located at Sydney’s Cape Solander (outside Botany Bay) in April 2007 was surfed as big and mean as it gets.
Surfing Ours with Mark Mathews includes the Bra Boy crew of Ritchie Vaculk, Evan Faulks, Koby Abberton and Bronte surfers Kobi Graham and John Dwyer. These fearless surfers tackle some of the nastiest barrels ever surfed in Sydney and for that matter Australia or anywhere else on the planet.
Bonython says “I promise you that when viewing this footage which is our finale you will be blown away by the intensity of the action. This is one serious wave, where really only the gustiest surfers on the planet could take it on. ”
Down the Barrelby Steve Lawrence
Down the Barrel won The Best Cinematography in this years Surfer Poll and Video Awards in the US run last month. This feature film documents the lives of four unique and talented surfers: Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Kalani Robb and Australia’s Joel Parkinson.
Lawrence and world renowned surf water cameraman Mike Prickett capture surfing from so many unique angles. The entire project is filmed in 16 mm, super 16 mm, and high definition. Amazing underwater barrel shots and masterful jet-ski angles from exotic surf destinations such as Teahupo’o, Tahiti make this movie stand out from the crowd. Bonython enthuses, ‘this film is a really cool flick and fits perfectly to what our film festival represents’.
Cyclops, WA 2007By Brook Silvester
Mark Mathews catches the heaviest wave ever surfed in Australia at the most feared break, Cyclops.“Surfing this wave is really is dicing with death,” says Bonython. Watching this wave on tape will make you squirm, Bonython believes.
Bankrupt - The Superbank By Tim Bonython
April 07 – Probably the most perfect wave on the planet – In this short this man made wave is the star – Never ever has the Superbank looked so flawless. No surfing super stars – just endless perfection.
Hurley presents Sound and Vision – Yadin Nicol profile.
This is the real deal, Australia, Bali, Africa and more! The sights and sounds of remote locations and near death experiences. The movie features Yadin blowing up waves all over the world while his closest peers lend insight into what makes this million dollar maniac tick. From the water to the local watering hole, Yadin is loud and impossible to ignore.
Short stories…Tim Curran profileBy Jason Haynes
Short Stories profiles Californian Pro surfer and musician Timmy Curren. Timmy Curren was the world’s first surfer to pull a full back flip on a surfboard, has competed at the highest level on the WCT and when he is not surfing for the latest Talyor Steele film or competing in an Airshow he is playing music. In a very short time Tim has gone from playing music in his bathroom to playing with the Foo Fighters at the Sydney Opera house. How did this happen? Find out in Short Stories.
Live Music:
Sydney band, Tokenview will perform live acoustic tunes in the intermission at most shows. Tokenview is a chilled out pop/rock band with a great vibe. Check the web site for details of venues Tokenview will be playing.Have a listen - www.myspace.com/tokenview
Slide Show Intermission – Photography montage by Tracks photographers showcasing some of the world’s best still surfing images.
Win a Surf Trip of a lifetime!
The Surf Travel Company are giving one lucky surfer the opportunity to win a surf trip of a lifetime to the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia aboard Arimbi valued at $5,000. The prize includes flights to Padang, return airport/hotel/boat transfers, 11 nights of luxury on Arimbi with all meals and drinks provided and use of all fishing and snorkeling gear. Plus you will receive one naturalfooted medical kit and 2 weeks insurance with Suresave Global Travel Insurance.
Win Surfboards 1 of 10 surfboards!
Get your Surf Style!The Garnier Fructis Style team will be coming along to some screenings to help everybody wipe out flat hair for good! Look out for the Fructis Style Styling Tent, come down, get styled, and maybe even get your hands on some great freebies!
Firewire Surfboards in conjuction with Fructis Style Surf Hair, we will be giving away 4 Firewire Surfboards.
Tooheys Extra Dry will be giving away 5 MR Surfboards.
STC in conjunction with Simon Anderson will be giving away a custom surfboard with a AUD $100 international gift voucher for use on an international holiday.
Win Sanyo Video Waterproof and dust proof video camera valued at $799.
Sample Bags:Everyone who attends the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry will be given a sample bag loaded with samples and goodies from our sponsors.
Sponsors:
Fructis Style Surf Hair, Tooheys Extra Dry, Blinde Eyewear, SDS & Jetty Surf, Hurley, Sanyo. The Surf Travel Company
Media Sponsors: Tracks, TripleJ, Fuel TV, RealSurf, Swellnet, Podsurf TV, Surfdecals.com
Partners: Surfrider Foundation, Surf Aid International
List of Venues and Dates:
Cinema locations and dates 2007: ALL 8 PM except for the ones noted.
SYDNEY• PREMIERE Wed 31 Oct Nth Bondi RSL Nth Bondi 8pm• Thurs 1 Nov Paddington RSL Paddington 8.15pm• Fri 2 Nov Randwick Ritz Randwick 6.45 pm• Sat 3 Nov Cronulla Dunningham Park Live music from 7.30pm- films from 8pm• Mon 5 Nov Manning Bar Sydney Uni Sydney 8pm• Wed 7 Nov Nth Bondi RSL Nth Bondi 8pm• Thurs 8 Nov Dee Why RSL Dee Why 8pm• Fri 9 Nov Collaroy Cinema Collaroy 8.30pm• Sat 10 Nov Avalon Cinema Avalon 4.30pm• Sat 10 Nov Palm Beach RSL Palm Beach 8pm• Sun 11 Nov Waves Nightclub Wollongong 7pm ( over 18’s yrs)• Fri 16 Nov Gala Cinema Wollongon 8.15pmVIC• Tues 13 Nov The Astor Melbourne 7.30pm• Thurs 15 Nov The Esplanade Hotel 8pm ( over 18’s yrs)SA• Sat 17 Nov Mercury Cinema Adelaide 5pm• Sat 17 Nov Mercury Cinema Adelaide 8pmQLD• Tues 20 Nov Noosa Bowling Club Noosa 8pmNth NSW• Sun 4 Nov Avoca Beach Picture Theatre Avoca Beach 5pm• Wed 21 Nov Byron Bay Community Centre Byron Bay 8.15pm• Thurs 22 Nov Twin Towns Star Room Twin Towns 8pm• Fri 23 Nov First Avenue Cinema Sawtell /Coffs Harbour 8 pm• Sat 24 Nov Tuncurry Memorial Hall Tuncurry /Forster 8pm• Sun 25 Nov Newcastle Showcase City Cinema Newcastle 6pm
Ticket Information:
Adult: $17.50 Pre-booked $20.00 at the door
Children (under 12) $ 12.50 pre-booked $15.00 at the door
Group tickets ( 5 adults) : $75.00 pre-booked only
Family pass ( 2 children + 2 parents) = total of 4 people = $50.00
Tickets sold on www.asmf.net.au
Contacts• Film Director: Tim Bonython call 0412500050 or office 02 9973 3842 tbproductions@volatile.com.au • Event and Ticketing Director: Sandrine Bonython office 02 9918 5300 sandrine@volatile.com.au• Sales and PR: Phil Osborn 0403091515 posborn@tpg.com.au
_______
Photo Press:
Photo : Bill Morris Surfer: Koby Abberton Location: Ours To download click here.
Photo: Shorty Surfer: Mark Matthews Location: Ours To download click here.
Photo: Nathan Smith Location: Kirra To download click here.
Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry
The Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry premieres at the North Bondi RSL on October 31, 2007 at 8pm and will tour nationally for three weeks, traveling to 22 venues until November 25.
Film and Event Director Tim Bonython says, “the number one objective of the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival is to have surf movies on the big screen come seriously alive! There’s no better place than sitting with friends in an auditorium hooting surfers riding giant waves and being part of the surf stoke that surf flicks on a big screen create.”
In its sixth year, the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival has an impressive line-up of surf movies, music and $15,000 in prizes.
The movies include:
Wild Australiaby Tim Bonython
Wild Australia, produced by Tim Bonython takes the viewer on a 30 year journey of surfing including the legendary Bells 81 big waves right through to the most perfect waves ever surfed this year on the Gold Coast’s Superbank at Coolangatta.
Bonthyon says “I have shot thousands of hours of surfing over the last 30 years and Wild Australia is my pick of the best surfing I have seen in this time”. To bring back the 80’s vibe, Tim is planning to narrate Wild Australia live as he did back in the day when he toured pubs and clubs showing the latest footage with his Super 8 – keeping the punters up to date before the video era.
Three Days at OURS by Tim Bonython
Sydney’s fearless big wave surfer Mark Mathews is the star of this year’s Australian Surf Movie Festival. Mark’s objective is to surf the biggest and heaviest waves on the planet. OURS, located at Sydney’s Cape Solander (outside Botany Bay) in April 2007 was surfed as big and mean as it gets.
Surfing Ours with Mark Mathews includes the Bra Boy crew of Ritchie Vaculk, Evan Faulks, Koby Abberton and Bronte surfers Kobi Graham and John Dwyer. These fearless surfers tackle some of the nastiest barrels ever surfed in Sydney and for that matter Australia or anywhere else on the planet.
Bonython says “I promise you that when viewing this footage which is our finale you will be blown away by the intensity of the action. This is one serious wave, where really only the gustiest surfers on the planet could take it on. ”
Down the Barrelby Steve Lawrence
Down the Barrel won The Best Cinematography in this years Surfer Poll and Video Awards in the US run last month. This feature film documents the lives of four unique and talented surfers: Kelly Slater, Rob Machado, Kalani Robb and Australia’s Joel Parkinson.
Lawrence and world renowned surf water cameraman Mike Prickett capture surfing from so many unique angles. The entire project is filmed in 16 mm, super 16 mm, and high definition. Amazing underwater barrel shots and masterful jet-ski angles from exotic surf destinations such as Teahupo’o, Tahiti make this movie stand out from the crowd. Bonython enthuses, ‘this film is a really cool flick and fits perfectly to what our film festival represents’.
Cyclops, WA 2007By Brook Silvester
Mark Mathews catches the heaviest wave ever surfed in Australia at the most feared break, Cyclops.“Surfing this wave is really is dicing with death,” says Bonython. Watching this wave on tape will make you squirm, Bonython believes.
Bankrupt - The Superbank By Tim Bonython
April 07 – Probably the most perfect wave on the planet – In this short this man made wave is the star – Never ever has the Superbank looked so flawless. No surfing super stars – just endless perfection.
Hurley presents Sound and Vision – Yadin Nicol profile.
This is the real deal, Australia, Bali, Africa and more! The sights and sounds of remote locations and near death experiences. The movie features Yadin blowing up waves all over the world while his closest peers lend insight into what makes this million dollar maniac tick. From the water to the local watering hole, Yadin is loud and impossible to ignore.
Short stories…Tim Curran profileBy Jason Haynes
Short Stories profiles Californian Pro surfer and musician Timmy Curren. Timmy Curren was the world’s first surfer to pull a full back flip on a surfboard, has competed at the highest level on the WCT and when he is not surfing for the latest Talyor Steele film or competing in an Airshow he is playing music. In a very short time Tim has gone from playing music in his bathroom to playing with the Foo Fighters at the Sydney Opera house. How did this happen? Find out in Short Stories.
Live Music:
Sydney band, Tokenview will perform live acoustic tunes in the intermission at most shows. Tokenview is a chilled out pop/rock band with a great vibe. Check the web site for details of venues Tokenview will be playing.Have a listen - www.myspace.com/tokenview
Slide Show Intermission – Photography montage by Tracks photographers showcasing some of the world’s best still surfing images.
Win a Surf Trip of a lifetime!
The Surf Travel Company are giving one lucky surfer the opportunity to win a surf trip of a lifetime to the Mentawai Islands, Indonesia aboard Arimbi valued at $5,000. The prize includes flights to Padang, return airport/hotel/boat transfers, 11 nights of luxury on Arimbi with all meals and drinks provided and use of all fishing and snorkeling gear. Plus you will receive one naturalfooted medical kit and 2 weeks insurance with Suresave Global Travel Insurance.
Win Surfboards 1 of 10 surfboards!
Get your Surf Style!The Garnier Fructis Style team will be coming along to some screenings to help everybody wipe out flat hair for good! Look out for the Fructis Style Styling Tent, come down, get styled, and maybe even get your hands on some great freebies!
Firewire Surfboards in conjuction with Fructis Style Surf Hair, we will be giving away 4 Firewire Surfboards.
Tooheys Extra Dry will be giving away 5 MR Surfboards.
STC in conjunction with Simon Anderson will be giving away a custom surfboard with a AUD $100 international gift voucher for use on an international holiday.
Win Sanyo Video Waterproof and dust proof video camera valued at $799.
Sample Bags:Everyone who attends the Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Movie Festival presented by Tooheys Extra Dry will be given a sample bag loaded with samples and goodies from our sponsors.
Sponsors:
Fructis Style Surf Hair, Tooheys Extra Dry, Blinde Eyewear, SDS & Jetty Surf, Hurley, Sanyo. The Surf Travel Company
Media Sponsors: Tracks, TripleJ, Fuel TV, RealSurf, Swellnet, Podsurf TV, Surfdecals.com
Partners: Surfrider Foundation, Surf Aid International
List of Venues and Dates:
Cinema locations and dates 2007: ALL 8 PM except for the ones noted.
SYDNEY• PREMIERE Wed 31 Oct Nth Bondi RSL Nth Bondi 8pm• Thurs 1 Nov Paddington RSL Paddington 8.15pm• Fri 2 Nov Randwick Ritz Randwick 6.45 pm• Sat 3 Nov Cronulla Dunningham Park Live music from 7.30pm- films from 8pm• Mon 5 Nov Manning Bar Sydney Uni Sydney 8pm• Wed 7 Nov Nth Bondi RSL Nth Bondi 8pm• Thurs 8 Nov Dee Why RSL Dee Why 8pm• Fri 9 Nov Collaroy Cinema Collaroy 8.30pm• Sat 10 Nov Avalon Cinema Avalon 4.30pm• Sat 10 Nov Palm Beach RSL Palm Beach 8pm• Sun 11 Nov Waves Nightclub Wollongong 7pm ( over 18’s yrs)• Fri 16 Nov Gala Cinema Wollongon 8.15pmVIC• Tues 13 Nov The Astor Melbourne 7.30pm• Thurs 15 Nov The Esplanade Hotel 8pm ( over 18’s yrs)SA• Sat 17 Nov Mercury Cinema Adelaide 5pm• Sat 17 Nov Mercury Cinema Adelaide 8pmQLD• Tues 20 Nov Noosa Bowling Club Noosa 8pmNth NSW• Sun 4 Nov Avoca Beach Picture Theatre Avoca Beach 5pm• Wed 21 Nov Byron Bay Community Centre Byron Bay 8.15pm• Thurs 22 Nov Twin Towns Star Room Twin Towns 8pm• Fri 23 Nov First Avenue Cinema Sawtell /Coffs Harbour 8 pm• Sat 24 Nov Tuncurry Memorial Hall Tuncurry /Forster 8pm• Sun 25 Nov Newcastle Showcase City Cinema Newcastle 6pm
Ticket Information:
Adult: $17.50 Pre-booked $20.00 at the door
Children (under 12) $ 12.50 pre-booked $15.00 at the door
Group tickets ( 5 adults) : $75.00 pre-booked only
Family pass ( 2 children + 2 parents) = total of 4 people = $50.00
Tickets sold on www.asmf.net.au
Contacts• Film Director: Tim Bonython call 0412500050 or office 02 9973 3842 tbproductions@volatile.com.au • Event and Ticketing Director: Sandrine Bonython office 02 9918 5300 sandrine@volatile.com.au• Sales and PR: Phil Osborn 0403091515 posborn@tpg.com.au
_______
Photo Press:
Photo : Bill Morris Surfer: Koby Abberton Location: Ours To download click here.
Photo: Shorty Surfer: Mark Matthews Location: Ours To download click here.
Photo: Nathan Smith Location: Kirra To download click here.
The Bra break is OURS - Telegraph TV - The Daily Telegraph
Bra Boys take on killer waves (Credit: The Daily Telegraph)
THEY are the biggest, meanest waves ever surfed in Sydney.
Now check the amazing video of 'Bra Boy Mark Matthews and his mates taking on Botany Bay's notorious Ours reef break.
Shot by award-winning film maker Tim Bonython in April this year, the footage, from the movie Three Days at OURS, is a feature at this year's Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival.
The festival features six surf films, short story profiles and live music.
It premiers at the North Bondi RSL on October 31 at 8pm and will tour nationally for three weeks, traveling to 22 venues until November 25.
For tickets and festival dates go to http://www.asmf.net.au
THEY are the biggest, meanest waves ever surfed in Sydney.
Now check the amazing video of 'Bra Boy Mark Matthews and his mates taking on Botany Bay's notorious Ours reef break.
Shot by award-winning film maker Tim Bonython in April this year, the footage, from the movie Three Days at OURS, is a feature at this year's Fructis Style Surf Hair Australian Surf Movie Festival.
The festival features six surf films, short story profiles and live music.
It premiers at the North Bondi RSL on October 31 at 8pm and will tour nationally for three weeks, traveling to 22 venues until November 25.
For tickets and festival dates go to http://www.asmf.net.au
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Mark Visser eyes 18m swell at Cow Bombie, By Lou Robson - The Sunday Mail - 2nd September 2007
*Four-storey waves not enough for big-wave surfer
*WA's Cow Bombie may reach record 18m today
*Aussie Visser part of 30-man elite team
BIG-wave hunter Mark Visser is ready to tame Australia's most terrifying surf spot today.The 25-year-old from Buderim on the Sunshine Coast has just conquered New Zealand's meanest wave.
He fought off a viral infection and braved 8C water temperatures to ride 13m walls of water - the equivalent of four-storey buildings. But apparently the waves, which broke at Papatowai on New Zealand's South Island, just weren't big enough.
Today the former World Qualifying Series surfer is set for the ride of his life at a little-known West Australian reef break called Cow Bombie.
"If the conditions are right, it could be up to 60ft (18m)," Visser said. "It's a massive wave which rarely breaks and it's the biggest wave in the country."
The fearsome break drew international attention when top pro Jake Patterson surfed it at between 10m and 13m in June last year.
Big wave riders from Hawaii were shocked by the size of the swell, never before seen in Australian waters.
It was believed the wave could reach a record 18m today.
"It's a big wave all right," Visser said. "My Hawaiian tow partner Jamie Sterling and I are heading over to check it out and if the conditions are right we'll be out there."
A low off Margaret River, south of Perth, could generate enough swell to form huge waves offshore.The deep water reef lies 2km off the coastal community of Gracetown, 280km south of Perth.
"The conditions look promising. I'm pretty excited," Visser said.
The Victorian-born surfer, who used to compete against stars such as Kelly Slater and Mark Occhilupo, left the WQS last year to travel the world as part of a 30-strong team of elite big-wave surfers.
In November, Visser was one of six international surfers picked to surf Mavericks off the coast of California. Waves at the notorious spot, which boasts rocks, white pointers, black water and heavy fog, were between 12m and 18m high.
"That was heavy, but nowhere near as cold as New Zealand."
Papatowai has a bad reputation. The big wave spot is an isolated and cold break - home to Antarctic swell, dangerous rips and big sharks.
Due to the cold conditions, Visser sported a vest, wetsuit, gloves, booties and hood.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Mark Visser
Surfing
Big Wave Surfing
Google News search for "surfing"
*WA's Cow Bombie may reach record 18m today
*Aussie Visser part of 30-man elite team
BIG-wave hunter Mark Visser is ready to tame Australia's most terrifying surf spot today.The 25-year-old from Buderim on the Sunshine Coast has just conquered New Zealand's meanest wave.
He fought off a viral infection and braved 8C water temperatures to ride 13m walls of water - the equivalent of four-storey buildings. But apparently the waves, which broke at Papatowai on New Zealand's South Island, just weren't big enough.
Today the former World Qualifying Series surfer is set for the ride of his life at a little-known West Australian reef break called Cow Bombie.
"If the conditions are right, it could be up to 60ft (18m)," Visser said. "It's a massive wave which rarely breaks and it's the biggest wave in the country."
The fearsome break drew international attention when top pro Jake Patterson surfed it at between 10m and 13m in June last year.
Big wave riders from Hawaii were shocked by the size of the swell, never before seen in Australian waters.
It was believed the wave could reach a record 18m today.
"It's a big wave all right," Visser said. "My Hawaiian tow partner Jamie Sterling and I are heading over to check it out and if the conditions are right we'll be out there."
A low off Margaret River, south of Perth, could generate enough swell to form huge waves offshore.The deep water reef lies 2km off the coastal community of Gracetown, 280km south of Perth.
"The conditions look promising. I'm pretty excited," Visser said.
The Victorian-born surfer, who used to compete against stars such as Kelly Slater and Mark Occhilupo, left the WQS last year to travel the world as part of a 30-strong team of elite big-wave surfers.
In November, Visser was one of six international surfers picked to surf Mavericks off the coast of California. Waves at the notorious spot, which boasts rocks, white pointers, black water and heavy fog, were between 12m and 18m high.
"That was heavy, but nowhere near as cold as New Zealand."
Papatowai has a bad reputation. The big wave spot is an isolated and cold break - home to Antarctic swell, dangerous rips and big sharks.
Due to the cold conditions, Visser sported a vest, wetsuit, gloves, booties and hood.
Media Man Australia Profiles
Mark Visser
Surfing
Big Wave Surfing
Google News search for "surfing"
Sunday, July 08, 2007
Articles
Down to Earth at Arms - The Manly Daily - 6th July 2007
Surfer Tom Carroll in private clinic - Sun Herald - 16th June 2007
Buderim's Mark Visser joins surfing's big boys - 8th June 2007 - Global Surf News - internet
Google News Australia search for "surfing"
Google News Australia search for "Koby Abberton"
Down to Earth at Arms - The Manly Daily - 6th July 2007
Surfer Tom Carroll in private clinic - Sun Herald - 16th June 2007
Buderim's Mark Visser joins surfing's big boys - 8th June 2007 - Global Surf News - internet
Google News Australia search for "surfing"
Google News Australia search for "Koby Abberton"
Monday, March 05, 2007
Bra Boys Profile Updated
The Media Man Australia Bra Boys profile has been updated. Check out their official website.
Best Regards
Greg Tingle
Director
Media Man Australia
Best Regards
Greg Tingle
Director
Media Man Australia
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