Sydney is the best city in the world to slay buffalo on the career front yet still maintain a fulfilling surfing life. the population comes out to pay their respects. I’m told
one of his trademark gouges as if he’s in the bloody
the RSLs give out free beer from something like 6am to
1990 Pipeline Masters. The crowd gathered in the car
8am, thus the streets are wobbly by noon.
park, which seems to include half the town of Avalon,
We check out Barrenjoey, which is triple overhead
erupts into hoots and hollers.
and messy, and where I hear a story about a kid in
I’m filled with both nostalgia and a renewed love
Avalon who’s working on a series of ‘penis paintings’ in
of these fabulous Northern Beaches. Why? Because
which he dips his willy into the paint jar then smears it
surfing is so massively respected here that, in ensuing
over the canvas. What I find interesting, having lived
days, Tom will be showered in compliments for this
here two decades ago, is how there’s been a dramatic
single ride from the butcher, the bank manager, the
liberation of this wave-rich suburbia-by-the-seashore.
mechanic, the maître d' at his favourite restaurant,
In the late-eighties, the general vibe of the Northern
and various sapphire-eyed café waitresses. Because
Beaches was very blue-collar and no-nonsense.
there’s something truly heartwarming about seeing
Flamboyance, gender-bending and Warhol-esque
surfers over the age of forty whipping and weaving and
experimentation would inevitably ruffle feathers.
pulling into stand-up barrels with beatific, Peter Pan-
Then came Ozzie Wright, the now-legendary clothing
ish smiles on their faces. Which leads to my theory...
label Tsubi (or Ksubi), a flurry of experimental bands and a veritable epidemic of dishevelled, paint-
Sydney is the best city in the world
splattered kids hell-bent on shaking up the status quo.
to slay buffalo on the career front yet still maintain
What Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious did to rock ‘n’
a fulfilling surfing life. Sure, there are G-Lands and
roll in the seventies, these people/movements would
J-Bays and Teahupoos and North Shores, but world-
do to ‘old guard’ Sydney in the nineties.
class waves come with a severe sacrifice: you generally
There’s also the technology boom. Fifteen years ago
give up a professional life. On the flipside is Los
Australia was off the pop culture radar. Bands, books,
Angeles, New York City, Tokyo, London, Paris, Sao
movies, magazines, fashion, ephemera – by the time
Paulo, Hong Kong, etc., where opportunity abounds
they arrived in Sydney they were passé across the water.
but surf is either meagre or non-existent.
In fact, I moved back to Los Angeles in ’92 primarily
Sydney is a thriving, metropolitan city where
because I felt as if the world was passing me by. The
you can do virtually anything career-wise, yet it sits
Internet, FedEx, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace,
close enough to a reef-, point-, rivermouth-, bounce-,
etc. have changed this dramatically. Australia may be
and sandbank-studded coastline that, while not
geographically isolated, but Sydney and Melbourne are
quite A-grade, is pretty damn good and consistent.
as current and on-the-pulse as Williamsburg.
This contrasts heavily with my Southern California
But in the water the song remains largely the
surfing life, which is more often than not despicable
same. At triple-overhead North Avalon, the heavy-
and unsustainable. Had I never travelled abroad
hitters are not some new crop of teenage punks with
I might be able to find fulfillment in waist-high,
batwings, but rather the same guys who dominated
onshore, closed-out Zuma Beach.
fifteen years ago. A reeling, Mundaka-like left is
My Sydney brethren, meanwhile, ride fun, overhead
ridden superbly by once top five-ranked Rob Bain.
waves fairly regularly. This is evident in their surfing
Former Triple Crown winner Mike Rommelse bangs
standard, physical fitness, bounce in their step, and
a heaving, aquamarine lip. Late-eighties top-sixteener
cheery glint in their eye. It’s celebrated in post-session
Ces Wilson pigdogs through a long barrel.
gatherings at seaside pubs, restaurants, RSLs, and wine
In the late afternoon, Tom Carroll sprints goblin-
bars, where a strong sense of community abounds. As I
like up the point and on his first wave drops down the
said to my mate Jay on the final night of my two-week
face, swoops off the bottom, stalls with a casualness
visit, “Sydney is the perfect place to either stretch out
and familiarity that suggests parking one’s car in one’s
or kill off a mid-life crisis.” Only later did I realise that
garage, gets severely tubed, comes out, then lays into
they’re essentially one and the same
70 HUCK