Two days before Swellnet left for a work trip to South Australia's Yorke Peninsula a 4.5 metre white shark was spotted in local waters. It was a reminder that while Western Australia may be making a run for the title, South Australia is still the heavyweight champion of the shark world. It also served as a sharp reminder to keep your wits when in South Australian waters
If we believe our own mythology, surfing has always been riddled with drugs. These days we probably don't deviate very much from the national average for our demographic profile, but that is hardly the point. We have all seen the damage both to the well known and the unknown and would like to reduce it. These are not statistics, these are those whose skills we admire, these are our friends and family. We give a shit and would like to convert that feeling into something more than sentimental, self-indulgent emotionalism.
At the base of Damion Fuller's Board Collector blog is the motto: "Buy high, sell low, enjoy the ride." It's an excellent summation of the values Damion, an industrial designer by trade, adheres to when indulging his old fibreglass obsession. Rather than merely hoarding boards Damion has an express purpose - a method in his board collecting madness - and it's certainly not financial gain.
Somewhere in southern China a T-shirt has been printed that will never grace a human torso. Made just last week it will be destroyed this weekend, unceremoniously dumped in a bin somewhere on the North Shore along with other items of clothing sporting the same hopeful slogan.
'Slater 12 in 2012' or 'Parko World Champ At Last'.
