"The ultimate ‘F You’ to mainstream Australia."
If there is one thing surfers like most, when surfing, it is not many/any other surfers. Lineups around the world are incredibly crowded in these the post-Covid days of our lives. Stressed to the breaking point with all manner of new comer, old head, spicy grommet, perpetually immature Gen Zers and worse.
It is with much chagrin in Australia, then, that iconic surf magazine Tracks has partnered with Wanderlust in order to send two 18 – 25 year-olds off on a converted bus in order to promote the country as a “tourist surfing Mecca” for a new reality show.
They will be paid $50,000 Australian dollars each for selling their friends and neighbors out.
“We’ll foot the bill for pretty much everything as you travel up and down the coast attending major surfing events and music festivals, eat and drink at the best pubs and great local restaurants and capture everything in between,” Tracks editor-in-chief Luke Kennedy told the legendary onetime surf journalist Fred Pawle.
“Questioning societal norms is as relevant today for Gen Z youth as it was for surfers living on the fringes of society back in October 1970 when Tracks first appeared in newsagents,” the magazine’s publisher Peter Strain declared, adding, “That’s our magazine’s DNA. The Vietnam War polarised society and dropping out of society and surfing was seen as the ultimate ‘F You’ to mainstream Australia.”
Waving a middle finger in the air, forming mouth into snarl, Bondi surfer/musician Ethan Eshuys has already tossed his wide-brimmed hat into the ring, sharing, “Surfing by day and playing gigs at local pubs by night is a killer combo. This job would let me connect with fellow surfers, enjoy the best waves, and further my music career by hitting up new venues. Plus, promoting Australia as a top surfing destination on a reality TV show is an awesome bonus!”
Rock and roll will never die.
Oh wait…
they didn’t include the small print in the contract that reads: “you must paddle out and surf at Balina for three hours per day [ from 6:30 – 9:30 am] daily for the period of seven days, with raw bloody meat duct taped to your ankles…and must film WHATEVER happens on a GoPro, the surfers camera
Sadly I think tracks is just about kaput. Walk through any newsagent or airport store and you’ll see the magazine rack has been decimated. It’s sad but true.
Even mags like nat geo survive only by publishing “special editions” on the pyramids or machu piccu.
Tracks has actually changed direction and it’s effectively Australian surfers journal. Nice paper, nice articles and photos. But probably small readership. I subscribed.
Looks like they are trying to use the branding to branch into anything they can.
Funnily enough, books are booming.
Tbh if I were traveling in Australia and saw a good break that wasn’t packed, I would assume it’s infested with sharks and crocs.
Tracks was fucked from the moment Nick Carroll took over as editor and this sell out was done long ago with the Nat Young / Brad Farmer surfing and sailboard guide to Australia , proudly sponsored by Ampol.
So once again tracks leaning on the past because it has no relevance now or in the future , and word of advice to the younger generation with a hankering for all things 1970s , it wasnt all cool vibes if you were gay , aboriginal , female, or any other minority you care to name except white anglo saxon , and if you camped at the beach in most small towns , the local fisherman and farmers would get pissed then come down and smash your teeth in at midnight and smash up your car /camp , and you would be lucky to get a beer without running fowl of the local bikies toasted on speed wanting to pull a train on your girlfriends in the pub carpark, not to mention the average board looked and felt like it was shaped with an axe and glassed with enough resign to re gelcoat the queen mary.
Comment of the biennial
Ahhhh, the good old days…
Way to go tracks… why not go to any beach carpark in Australia and interview the instagram van scabs living there already
Talk about reinventing the wheel
Trustafari Grandpah bless
I’m still waiting for somebody to talk about Tracksmag’s investment opportunity into its new media house it is offering
Yep, Christ they must be desperate.
Rabbit is into it.
The video they released is a sort of unintentional autopsy of why the ethos of the original Tracks is dead and they are now catering for old monied people and their need to be told what to consume.
All the imagery they exploit is from the first 5 years , the 70s.
Morning of the Earth’s general tenor and the appeal of a non consumerist life , having the freedom to surf are lauded but you cannot find places like that anymore on the Australian east coast.
If you haven’t seen the video they outline a plan to curate experiences via realestate selections and events promotions.
Your local comp becomes an exotic trip for those seeking authenticity, witnessing a performance of the 60 year olds in the local band a cultural excursion.
Just watch out for the Banditoes, the ice heads and the general gangster mentality.
That’s discrimination. I identify as a 23yo. How dare they. Just because a piece of paper created by the patriarchy says that I’m 39… aaaaaaaaand, if you squint hard enough, from far enough away, my wife would easily pass for the 18-24yo bracket, so, yeah. Not sure the $50k would cover the mortgage, utilities, childcare and groceries for the kids while we’re gone, but that’ll be the in-laws problem. This is still discrimination and how very dare they!
What was that thing the chick wrote the other day in the thing? You know the thing? Something something creepy old surf industry dude trying to finger bang 18-24yo wannabe surfer model chick? Apply here!
These days could fuck em on discrimination am sure!!!
50 thinks 20 – needs a job?
The nostalgia for the dark time is telling.
We only looked forward in that day, today the focus is on recreating past even when the phone society resists history before the device.
Pretend it’s 1970 again = fucktarded
Being sent back in time to 1970 = sign this fucktard up!(!)
Wide brimmed hat, likes jamming at night, surfs, likes connecting with other surfers…Guy sounds like the Australian Conner Coffin minus the secret turn. Next thing you know he will have a podcast.
Conner Coffin without the secret turn is just Conner Coffin
Truer words have never been spoken
It is a good turn
https://youtu.be/l3BXpfStPl…
Accurate.
https://i.redd.it/q1qwu7pms…
It’s so fucken weird. Van life is just aquatic yoga.
BL letting it go!
First stop, Esperance.
Then on to cactus.
Salt Bush, my man.
“tourist surfing Mecca”?
thoughts and 5 floor headbutting prayers per day