PACIFIC LONGBOARDER MAGAZINE ISSUE 120

FEATURES

ON TOUR WITH TOMMY

Tommy Pierucki’s homebreak is Queens at Waikiki, but we’re really not sure how much time he actually gets to spend there. In recent years he’s done a ton of travelling to exotic spots around the world to shoot surf festivals, free-surf tours, lifestyle projects for various brands, run photographic workshops, and work as an official photographer for the WSL World Longboard Tour. He’s also scored five of our covers since we first hooked up with him five years ago, and this issue we’ve (finally) assembled a collection of favourites for a 16-page portfolio. We could have filled a book.

REMEMBERING BOB EVANS

Back in the 1960s, Bob Evans was THE prime mover in creating a public sense of the emerging surf culture in Australia. Yet the man everyone called “Evo” has been largely overlooked in the subsequent telling of our surf history - not so much forgotten as a complete unknown to the last couple of generations of surfers. One of many to run the coast as part of Evo’s movie roadshow crew, Mal Sutherland has rounded up the recollections of the people who knew him best, complete with previously unpublished photos, to revisit the legacy of Bob Evans.

 PRE BELLS

Penny Andrews is the president of Victoria’s Surf Coast Longboarders, and for the past 29 years the club has hosted their annual Winter Classic just a short drive up the road from Bells Beach. This year their date coincided with the WSL World Longboard Tour stop at Bells, and figuring they’d been gifted a chance to share their waves and good times with some top-ranked international surfers, they moved their date back a week and got to work sending invites via DMs to the WSL crew. A bunch jumped at the chance to join in, the surf pumped at Possos, the visitors and locals had a ball, Penny wrote us a wrap, and Nick Didge and Claudia Tivendale got the shots.

POST BELLS

Bells Beach was small and side-shore through the early rounds of the WSL Longboard leg, but then cleaned up to chest-high glass for the finals day to finish the week on a high note - and everybody headed off home happy-as. And then the swell kicked in! The locals had their break back, it was well-overhead and clean, and ace Victorian photographer Katey Shearer was on hand to catch the action.

POSTCARD FROM NORWAY

“I love cold water and I love everything that comes with it - the empty line-ups, the fires on the beach, thick wetsuits, harsh offshores . . . you feel something like it's just you and the ocean,” states our writer Jake Killen - which is great, except maybe that he happens to live on Queensland’s subtropical Sunshine Coast. Anyway, to get his fix, Jake and his partner Bayley Reader head off to Norway for a few weeks to go surfing and check out the local surf culture. Jake tells the story, Bayley rounds it out with some beautiful scenery and logging shots.

CAPE ST. FRANCIS – THE POETRY OF AN ENDLESS SUMMER

Most surfers probably haven’t heard much at all about Cape St. Francis since Bruce Brown tripped us all out on it in The Endless Summer, but third generation local Crystal Hulett brings us up to date - and shares some previously unpublished family photos from back in the day. Crystal’s aunties surfed in the South African Championships in the ’60s, and the right point inside Bruce’s Beauties is actually named “Huletts”. Crystal recently won the 2024 SA Open Womens title right there at Cape St. Francis, and we’ve also got some cracking surf shots of Crystal and her boyfriend (and WSL star) Stevie Sawyer. Says Crystal: “Sure, Bruce may have taken some poetic licence, but that’s part of the charm. The poetry stuck.”

THE ISLE OF WIGHT

Local Joe Caudwell takes us off to the English Channel to catch up with his friends - the hardy longboarders of this small and raw island separated from the UK by a five-mile stretch of chilly water known as The Solent. A fine writer, Joe touches on the island’s colourful history, its unique landscape and ever-changing coastline, and “this rogue’s gallery of stoked individuals who call it home”.
 

>> DEPARTMENTSTHE BUZZ

An inspiring 16-year-old female surfer named Mili who’s challenging norms in Sri Lanka. Judges and their dodgy scoring, second heat of the day with the sun in their eyes. The Layback Longboarders out of Wollongong surf the supermoon. The Old Mal Show & Shine at Crescent.

UPFRONT

Once a shortboard charger, a publican, and a GM at an exclusive sailing club on Sydney Harbour, these days Luke Redmond’s loving his longboards, travelling and competing in comps, and never been happier with his place in the ocean.

GREY GURU

The GG scores a gig as Gidget’s double in the 1961 schlocker Gidget Goes Hawaiian and hangs out with James “Moondoggie” Darren, Miki and Munoz . . . and who knows, it might even be true.

OUT THE BACK

Jared Mell every which way in the Mentawai.

THE 105th BOARD GIVEAWAY

A Palehorse Surfboards 9’4” Mustang made start to finish by renowned Victorian charger Matt Shay at his factory in Ocean Grove. Giddyup!