Surftime Magazine

Photography by WHSUP!! Bobby’s G-Land camp set the stage for a very unique happening recently. Chelsea Hedges, a top coach with Surfing Australia, led a team of rising amateur female surfers to our premiere wave in order to help hone their skills. It’s all part of Surfing Australia’s serious and enviable national coaching program to develop young hopeful surfers as they move into a professional career. And if not that, then at least to help them reach their full potential in surfing. Surftime met with Chelsea about this extraordinary opportunity and here is what she had to say: Chelsea Hedges : This was one of Surfing Australia’s latest strike missions for coaching. The concept is to identify waves that are either world tour locations or locations that are similar to CT contest locations. This is so we can take our athletes there for exposure and experience in those types of wave profiles. Like if it’s not a world tour location like cloudbreak, we try to go to a place like G-Land ...

As discussed with Matt Biolos By Matt George In this conversation, maestro shaper Matt Biolos opens up about his singular relationship with team member and young Mentawai Phenom Dylan Wilcoxen. And why he feels that surfers like Dylan provide essential meaning to our sport. Matt Biolos : I first saw Dylan surf in the Mentawai in the Fall of 2020. He was probably eleven years old. And what immediately struck me was, regardless of his provenance, you know, that he grew up at the Kandui Resort in front of flawless waves, was that Dylan seemed to be touched by that rare, innate, raw natural talent that is hard to find in any sport. That un-planned, un-coached, natural ability, free from thought or pre-meditation. Which I don’t see often in my world today, not with all the parents involved and the intense coaching and training that is going on. But I have seen Dylan’s kind of talent before. Like I once saw it in Chris Ward and Curren and guys like Bruce Irons and Dane Reynolds. I me...

Photography by Dylan Lucas Gordon • Words by Jared Mell Cuban cigars, checkers and chess. Her laughter, a melody against the back drop of Havana’s crumbling facades, echoed in my mind. The sea’s salt mingled with diesel fumes from vintage cars. Sweat trickled down my neck as I sipped a cold beer waiting for the others to arrive. Cuba, “Patria o Muerte, Venceremos”. Homeland or death, we will win. The locals watched with curious eyes, their faces etched with stories of revolution and resilience. Old men played dominoes under the shade of ceiba trees, their cigars casting spirals of smoke into the humid air. Children laughed, splashing in the shallows, their joy untainted by the island’s scars. We loaded up the old Chevy bus. No expectations, most of us had never met each other before. The driver looked like had been left behind from the Soviet Union. With the potential of surf with over 3,000 miles of coastline we headed off. The surf was fickle, waves rising and falling with...

"The most fundamental kind of love, which underlies all types of love, is brotherly love. The sense of responsibility, care and respect, for the life of that other human being who is part you, and the wish, no matter the strife, to further his life." —Erich Fromm, German social psychologist and psychoanalyst, 1900-1980 There are many reckoned forces in this world. Many things we do not understand. There are many things we take for granted. One such thing is brotherly love, a love that helps to keep our lives intact. There isn’t anything stronger than love in this world. But brotherly love stands as a whole different type of love. Through the ages, mystics, sages, singers and poets have all expressed the ballad and call to love. As humans, we have searched endlessly for the experience of love through the outer senses. Great nations have come and gone under the guise of love for their people. Religions have flourished and perished while claiming the true path to lo...

Because at sunset, after that first cold gulp after a long day of surfing with friends, the history of beer feels as important to surfing as the waves themselves. Ok, maybe not that important, but it’s undeniable that the stuff is entwined with the history of surfing. And human civilization when you really think about it. Some anthropologists believe that man moved away from a hunter–gatherer existence to a settled agriculture-based existence largely to grow enough grain to brew large amounts of beer. This appears to be unproven to non-drinkers, but the thought that beer would have been a powerful motivation to Neolithic humans would be no surprise. Virtually the entire animal kingdom, from insects to elephants, from fruit bats to monkeys, shows a clear predilection for the consumption of booze. It is reasonable to believe that we and other animals evolved according to advantages alcoholic beverages can confer. Fruit, when ripe, gives off an alluring scent that tells animals and hum...

Despite Bronson Meydi having just won his historic World Junior Title, he has been carrying around the label of Indonesia’s “next big thing” or “the future of ” for years now. Growing up with front row access to Sumbawa’s world-class waves combined with unique talent and athleticism certainly helps, but it is no guarantee. It takes a life changing event to make it to the goal line. Enter Rizal Tandjung, who, taking a pre-teen Bronson under his wing provided just that. “Aside from being a great surfer, Bronson has always been considered a member of our family,” Says Rizal. The Tandjung clan had adopted Meydi in 2008 and brought him to Bali. “My oldest son Varun and Bronson always try to push each other in and out of the water and I love to film the boys surfing these days as it is like a mini pro junior contest whenever they surf together. But they are also best friends and are like brothers. I think this family stability creates opportunity for all progressive young surfers” ...

As we end the year 2024 and look back at the number of events around the archipelago, from tiny local boardriders comps at far-flung breaks on remote islands to international WSL events at world renown destinations such as Krui and Nias, to niche events like Earth Island Surf Fest, Twinny Finny and Twinkle Toes in Bali, it’s amazing what has been accomplished during the last 12 months in Indonesia. Back in December of 2019 when we were blissfully unaware of the world wide pandemic catastrophe that was about to befall us; we were full of optimism that 2020 was going to be the best year yet for Indonesia’s surfing scene, as we looked at an exciting schedule of events headlined by the World Championship Tour coming back to G-Land after a two decade absence. Hopes were soon dashed unfortunately as the world shut down, which began a very dark time for us in the surfing contest world, not knowing when or if ever we’d be able to work and travel again. The surfing light however refused ...

“One year we went off on this great adventure,” Surfer Pioneer Dave Andrews shares of his many 70’s Indonesian exploits. “We had no idea what we were getting into; there were ten surfers, five crewmen and my wife, and we all got onto this forty-foot turtle boat, sailed out of Benoa Harbour at midnight and saw Mount Agung as the sun rose. We turned across the Lombok Strait and one of the crewmen started tying everything down. I had no idea we were going to be going out into these radical ocean currents, with whirlpools and raging rivers in the middle of the ocean like you could never imagine. We had everything on that trip; there were three fires on that boat, we had a mutiny, a mattress caught fire and they couldn’t put it out so they just threw the whole thing over the side. But that’s when we discovered Desert Point. Bangko Bangko, it looked a lot like a desert to us and it had a perfect point wave, so we named it Desert Point.” Like some blissful, beneficial parasite, the memo...

Sunset Beach, O’ahu, Hawaii, 2024 As he gazes out to the northwest, the tradewinds sweeping down from the heights and out over the ocean tug at Matt Kester’s hair and whisper into his ears. Drops of water hang on his eyelashes and as he blinks they fall and make their way to his upper lip. He tastes the salt of them on the tip of his tongue. Upright, his left hand on his thigh and rotating his legs he holds his position on his surfboard. He is far out to sea and with his right hand he picks at the wax of his surfboard’s deck and he waits, confident and spirited. A horse ready to run. The towering humps of the northwest swell have been hammering through the west bowl here at Sunset Beach since dawn and he has timed his noon go out for the best conditions of the day. The massive reef spread out below him seems as eager as he to receive the big waves. It is a reef he knows well. A passion decades long. He is in his fifties now, rangy, still muscled tight and he has been tuned into the...

1. Act your age not your shoe size. Establish goals and develop a code of honorable conduct. 2. Learn at least one thing per day about the surfing industry, surfboard building and design and how sponsorship works. 3. Honor your shaper. Loyalty pays off huge. 4. Show up and perform in the best sessions with the best surfers, even if it means missing a small contest. 5. Train hard, study technique of your favorite surfers, emulate. (Look it up). 6. Stay in school, learn English 7. Win contests. Lots of them. 8. Work with a filmer, even if it’s your Mom, but analyze with a good surfer, find out who you are. 9. Ask not what a sponsor can do for you but what you can do for your sponsor. 10. Prepare to be a global citizen. If you want to go beyond daydreaming, get some scissors and cut out these reminders above and stick it in your backpack and read them every time you have lunch. Here are some more hard facts of pro life: Win contests. And not second place either. Win them. ...

Photography by Damea Dorsey Surftime recently sat down for a conversation with global ace photographer Damea Dorsey to discuss what it’s like to work with elite surfers in the new age of digital consciousness. In this case it was his latest adventure with Kai Lenny to the southeast of our archipelago. Surftime: What do you look for in a surfer when you are working with them? Damea Dorsey: Well you sure hope whoever it is that you are working with is a real pro. Guys like Kai Lenny. Kai understands that we need much more than just action shots and he has the patience and the skills to help a photographer score them. In order fill all the demands of sponsors and social media and everything else, we need the lifestyle photos and the right lighting and the right times of day and the best conditions on land or in the water. All that stuff. All these photos and video’s don’t appear like magic. It’s real work. And it takes two, a partnership, no matter how temporary. And what is...

In the early hours of June 3rd 1994, a 7.2 richter scale earthquake occurred deep underwater in the Java Trench. Some 40 minutes later, a powerful tsunami charged its way at approx 300 kilometres an hour towards the Indonesian coast. It hit with extreme force, in the dead of night, while no one was expecting it. At this moment, Rob Bain, Simon law and fellow surfers were at G-Land were fast asleep. What unfolded at G-Land, became a fight for survival and one that has left an impact on all those that were there. This year marked the 30th anniversary of the Grajagan tsunami and a number of the surfing survivors came back to attend a special ceremony held at Bobbys G-Land Surf camp. To not only honor those Indonesians that did not survive, but to share the experience with their son’s and the give thanks for their own survival on that horrific night so long ago. Notes on the G-land tsunami of June 3, 1994 Java is situated in a tectonic subduction zone, where the Indo-A...

Top flight Surf Photographer Jason Childs spent most of his career living and raising a family on the island of Bali, the most exotic surfing crossroads on the globe. Not only capturing the iconic images of an extraordinary place, but learning about what it means to make a surfing life in a foreign land. Here are his reflections and a few of his photographic gems. Connections is what it’s all about with the Bali surfers. That is why I am so grateful for how lucky I was when I first came here. Because I was automatically invited into a tight community. We all seemed to have time for each other. And we were hungry for it. I was so lucky to be welcomed into that world when surfing felt so new here. There were no color issues, no distance, no wallet envy, it was a surf society and I was so lucky to contribute to it. By documenting the revolution and giving the locals the top priority instead of the visiting surfers. There was a strong sense of pride in what I was doing and the...