ADVERTISEMENT

How about a carve contest?

No, no, not the brand, there are enough of those.

Everything old will be new again, or so saying the goes. And it seems true enough. Look at the obsession with retro equipment that’s taken hold over the last few years. Look at Surfcore 2001’s popularity on Instagram.

Front pads.

Fluoro wetsuits.

The list goes on.

But for everything old to be new again, it kind of needs to be old for a while, doesn’t it?

This whole Red Bull Airborne thing for instance. Airshows probably needed to be dead for another ten years before they got dug up and reissued. Not that I’m particularly against Kerrsy’s vision—sounds great in theory—it’s just the guys on the CT are generally pulling more airs and wasting less waves than the dudes in those heats.

Same with the aerial video contests. The whole Kustom Airstrike model that was big ten years ago. Seems some sticker company in the States just ran another one and Flea and Ratboy judged it and some dude from Virginia won $20K for a fairly large rotation. Our own Reef Heazlewood got second and probably should’ve won. But that’s besides the point.

The point is: that whole deal is old in the way Myspace is old, not in the way, say, playing  Mortal Kombat on a miraculously still-functioning Super Nintendo is old. One is old and lame. The other is older and much more cool.

Which brings me to my long-winded point.

A full-blooded hack contest. Same general format as the Kustom Airstrike, where guys submit their clips in a set timeframe, but just with the meatiest, most ball bag-tearing hacks and gouges known to man. Open to anyone.

Imagine it!

Get Occy and Pancho on the judging panel. Fuck that, let them enter. It’d be mindblowing. Literally anyone could win it—Zeke, the Spartan, Margo, some tradie from your local who has all the style of a caveman but by fuck can he move some water.

Airs have been done to death. We could all do with a little holiday from those things. Bring back the grunt. Throw $50K on the line and see what kind of water gets displaced.

It’d be a hell of a spectacle.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
SUBSCRIBE TO TRACKS
A bi-monthly eclectic tome of tangible surfing goodness that celebrates all things surfing, delivered to your door!
SUBSCRIBE NOW
HAPPENINGS
Your portal to cultural events happening in and around the surfing sphere.
Find Events
SUBSCRIBE TO TRACKS
A bi-monthly eclectic tome of tangible surfing goodness that celebrates all things surfing, delivered to your door!
SUBSCRIBE NOW
HAPPENINGS
Your portal to cultural events happening in and around the surfing sphere.
Find Events

LATEST

Ellie Harrison's dream CT debut just got a whole lot more dreamy.

Pairing Italy's famous delicacies with a healthy dose of barrels.

The formation of Goons of Doom, why you should get pissed at their gigs and what a band with Occy, Steph Gilmore, Yago Dora and Jacko Baker would sound like.

ADVERTISEMENT

PREMIUM FEATURES

Bestowing the highest praise upon a surfer.

An edited extract from ‘The Immortals of Australian Surfing’ by Phil Jarratt.

How a land-locked mainlander chased ocean dreams to the North Shore lineups and beyond.

TRACKS PREMIUM

Get full access to every feature from our print issues, read classic Tracks issues from the 70s, 80s and 90’s, watch all of our classic films & more …

TRACKS PREMIUM

Get full access to every feature from our print issues, read classic Tracks issues from the 70s, 80s and 90’s, watch all of our classic films & more …

CLASSIC ISSUES

A threat to Angourie, the death of vibes, and a tongue in cheek guide on how to become a surf star.

PREMIUM FILM

YEAR: 2008
STARRING: JOEL PARKINSON, MICK FANNING AND DEAN MORRISON

This is the last time the original cooly kids were captured together and features some of their best surfing.

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

PRINT STORE

Unmistakable and iconic, the Tracks covers from the 70s & 80s are now ready for your walls.

Tracks
Kandui Resort Interstitial