“His surfing is as timeless a piece of surf film art as there ever could be."

Time don’t slow for no man and, for some among us, the revelation that Thomas Roland Curren, the three-time world surfing champion, who was unbeatable for most of his carer and who popularised the modern Fish, is a stately sixty-one years old might come as, well, an existential shock. 

And yet here we are, Occ about to hit sixty, Tom Carroll, 64, Kelly Slater, 63 almost 64, Pottz, 60, Nick Carroll, 71, even little John John Florence, a tween for so long, is a thirty-three-year-old daddy and so on. 

Too old to surf?

But, lest you think the end is nigh, Tom Curren is here to remind you that although there does come a time when you must close the book or else look like a clownish old jack-in-the-box deserved of all the scorn shovelled upon him, her, by the junior surfers with their unfrozen hips and scar-tissue free shoulder girdles, it doesn’t mean you can’t postpone the inevitable. 

You might remember, last year, when eight-time champ Stephanie Gilmore commemorated Tom Curren’s sixtieth by replicating the still-lauded beauty of Curren’s second wave at J-Bay.

She commissioned the same purple and black suit from Rip Curl and a replica 6’6″x18 1/4 x 2 5/16  thruster, complete with its sexy little bonzer channels, from Australian shaper Mark Rabbidge, who made Curren his J-Bay quiver.

“I recently rewatched Searching for Tom Curren and it was more profound this time around than ever before,” writes Stephanie Gilmore. “His surfing, brought to the screen by Sonny Miller, is as timeless a piece of surf film art as there ever could be.”

In this very short clip, below, Tom Curren reminds us of of this individualism, variety and dissent.

Graves, who at forty-two, might have gained a bit of the dreaded matronly demeanor that comes with maturity, is, in my opinion, more beautiful than ever.

First, the less said about the lily-livered fiends at Guinness, whose book of records is seen as the gold standard and who recently refused a claim by an Israeli charity which helps people make kidney donations because of, you know, “the situation”, ie screw the Jews, the better, I think. 

But, and this must be said, a few days back they did finally recognise Dylan Graves’ most turns on a wave, achieved some years ago at an Indonesian tidal bore. 

The adventures of Puerto Rican Dylan Graves in his pursuit of the strangest waves on earth have been assiduously documented on BeachGrit, a website that may be counted as Graves’ biggest fan, first in his ongoing series Weird Waves and, now, as he traverses the world solo.

In this episode, Graves travels to Queensland’s Gold Coast, specifically Surfer’s Paradise, where sand-replenishment works has created an island-like bank in front of the towering, Miami-like skyscrapers that cast their ominous shadows over the beach every afternoon.

Graves, who at forty-two, might have gained a bit of the dreaded matronly demeanor that comes with maturity, is, in my opinion, more beautiful than ever. 

As the most coveted Puerto Rican export since Daddy Yankee, Dylan Graves gets better with age and shows no signs of slowing down.

Essential.

“Like a sheep trapped in a maze designed by wolves.”

I believe in purity and goodness and there’s something about Dylan Graves’ total beauty, the restless and lonely independence of manner, the proud serenity in the way he moves, that make a man fall in love over and over and over again.

Although Dylan Graves is of middle age, he’s no fat, shiny, liver-coloured man, but an example of who we can be if we don’t fall into the trap of remaining in our velvet cages of couch, device, home.

The adventures of Puerto Rican Dylan Graves in his pursuit of the strangest waves on earth have been assiduously documented on BeachGrit, a website that may be counted as Graves’ biggest fan, first in his ongoing series Weird Waves and, now, as he traverses the world solo.

Click here, here, here, here and here.

And here.

Here.

Here, too.

And, here, where it all began

In his latest instalment, Dylan Graves travels to the New Zealand city of Dunedin, a wild, windswept, cold-as-hell Scottish-Maori metropolis that stretches from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the Otago hinterland.

Dylan Graves immerses himself within the local surfing community, surfs as many different waves as he can during his stay and lionises the local surfers with the best clips of their lives.

“Definitely as core as it gets, here,” says Dylan Graves. “All the locals willing to do the mahi as many times as it takes to get the treats. And you can’t help but be all in on that vibe when you’re here. Yes, it might be cold. You might have to drive far, sea lions may confront you, penguins may be elusive, but you have screensaver views everywhere, and a good crew of people, all pushing each other, trying to be the best version of themselves, in or out of the water. Rain, shine or sea lions, this crew is on it. Gloves optional.”

"Someone just brought the dream backyard to reality."

Not all wave pools gotta cost fifty or a hundred mill, take years to finance, plan and build, eat up power and water, spend a significant time getting fixed and sting customers a couple of c-notes for an hour of fun. 

In the Arizona desert, a trio of pals have combined skills and resources to build a wave pool, called The Wave Source, that disrupts, the paradigm that tanks are for the monied only. 

Ben Gravy, a high-end intermediate surfer and novelty wave maestro from New Jersey whose pivot from drinking to daily vlogging saved him from a life as a drunk has revealed a little wave pool that took four months to build, is made from off-the-shelf nuke reactor parts and rarely breaks down. 

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Gravy writes,

About a month ago I received a random dm about visiting a wave pool that was built in a guys backyard. The pictures weren’t very impressive & I had no way of telling how big the waves were, but as the novelty guy of course I agreed to visit. When I arrived in Arizona & got to experience the first set my perspective changed immediately. It was a massive layout with 3-4ft perfect waves pumping through on command. I’m honored to tell Tony, Ash & Justin’s, amazing wave pool story today, through my platform. 

The goal, says one of the three in the video, either Tony, Ash or Justin – who knows! – them whites all look the same etc, was to create a pool quickly, cheaply and make it available to all surfers and not just the monied few.

The founders say the joint uses two-thirds less power, rarely breaks down and if it does, they can swing on down the road into town to buy whatever part is busted.

Blair Conklin, a deadly sweet skim and softboard clown, got himself a piece. At one point he uses the winch tow-method popularised by my ol pal Sam Mac back in KL in 2004.

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Yeah, it ain’t Slater Abu Dhabi or Slater Lemoore or even Wavegarden Tullamarine, but don’t tell you can’t see y’self frolicking in these little wedges.