CLEAN UP YOUR INSTAGRAM FEED
For many of us, social media is a kind of guilty pleasure. We know it’s not good for us but we do it anyway. But what if your social media feed could be full of goodness, inspiration, humour and beauty?
By Tim Baker
A 14-year-old Alex Baker, son of the author, paddles out at a previously unsurfed break during a trip on the Indies Trader Photo: Martin Daly
Who wants to spend their days scrolling through bathroom selfies or what other people had for breakfast? No, what you are looking for is quality surfing content, free of narcissists, influencers, man-buns, whacky conspiracy theories and what your local real estate agent thinks about the COVID vaccine. To that end, the Coastline is here to help with your definitive guide to Surfing Instagram. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but a few tips to get you started on spring cleaning your feed. (Click on names to see their Instagram feeds)
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Russell Ord – Our very own photo editor and pioneer of the diabolical Right in south-west WA, where has he produced some of the most frightening surfing imagery in history. Russ’s feed delivers plenty of raw oceanic power from the south-west as well as documenting the local surf community with an intimacy only a local could achieve.
Get a bit of this Russ Ord goodness in your timeline, Creed McTaggart loving life in the south-west
Ted Grambeau – One of the true artists of surf photography, Ted will take you to exotic places, reveal the magic of the play of light over the ocean at sunrise, and exhibit his mastery of fashion, lifestyle, landscape as well as surf action photography.
John Witzig – If you consider the late ‘60s and early ‘70s the Golden Era of surfing then John Witzig is your man. His stunning black and white photography captured the so-called Transition Era in Australia better than anyone, and his insightful anecdotes just enrich the viewing experience.
FILMMAKERS
Justin Gane produced a series of high action surf vids in the ‘90s that captured an electric era of Aussie power surfing – Brenden Margieson, Trent Munro, Lee Winkler, Jamie Kasdaglis and a host of others. Now he’s doing it all again – dropping highlights from his back catalogue as well as capturing upcoming groms in Pulse Nxt Gen
If big waves are your kink, Tim Bonython is your man. Tim’s been chasing swells from Nazare to Shipsterns to Teahupoo to Jaws for decades with an almost religious zeal, and his editing it all into his travelling Surf Movie Festival. COVID may have slowed down his global travels but he’s been dropping mad clips from his back catalogue to keep the stoke going.
The kind of big wave mayhem Tim Bonython’s Swellchasers serves up on the reg
If you want to know what it’s like to take off deep behind the rock at Snapper then Mister Clips, aka Lachie MacKinnon, is your man. Formerly based in Bali, Lachie has returned to his Gold Coast roots during COVID and slotted right back into the Goldy surf scene. Hi water skills are elite and no one gets deeper in the pit than him when the going gets heavy. His feed is a who’s who of Gold Coast surfing at the top of their game.
SURFERS
Kai Lenny makes surfing Jaws look like a fun day at your local beachie, chucking airs, chop hops, carving full rail gouges and sailing through pits without a care in the world. Kai rides anything, including foils, snowboards, kites, so there is literally never a dull moment on his feed.
Kain Lenny giving us an intimate view of what it’s like to paddle in and air drop massive Jaws
Surfer, artist, competitor, big wave charger, Flick Palmateer has done it all through her colourful, self-styled career that busts boundaries and always inspires. Come for her surfing, stay for her endlessly varied creative output.
Two-time world longboard champ Beau Young shapes beautiful boards, surfs with an other worldly grace and seems to find waves where ever he goes. Come along for the ride and you’ll be richly rewarded with his refined shapes and timeless longboard style.
So, you think kids have to slow down your surfing life? Ry Craike will make you think again. He and his young family are living their dream on the high seas on the teeming waters of north-west Australia, surfing, fishing, camping, foiling and capturing it all with his mad Go Pro skills.
Everyone’s favourite eternal grommet, Mason Ho charges his Hawaiian home waters whether its booming Pipe or a mad, barely surfable rock break. Mason has mastered social media like few others with his unique style and boundless good humour.
If you want to have your faith restored in the modern pro surfer, then give Pacha Light a follow for her inspired environmental activism, her sunny optimism, her engaged global travels as well as her smooth wave riding style.
Eli Hanneman is the archetypal modern pro surfer grom, sending it in all conditions, as comfortable in the air as he is in cavernous Pipe pits. Guaranteed we’ll be hearing a lot more of this kid in the future so follow now and avoid the rush.
For more, ah, mature surfers, Big Bad Bob Bain keeps the froth meter high well into middle-age with his witty observations of life and surfing, his exquisite “tips for the larger surfer,” and his self-deprecating humour. The former top five pro and world masters champ has kept his edge sharp, both in wave riding and wit.
Come for the female empowerment, stay for the beautiful imagery. Lauren Hill is a surfer, author, and self-described eco-feminist as well as co-curator of the Water People podcast with her partner Dave Rastovich.
Lauren is a powerful voice for women’s surfing, consistently posting empowering content like this trailer for the new documentary film Girls Can’t Surf
HUMOUR
If you’ve ever failed to pull in when you should have, barrel dodgers anonymous is here with emotional support, capturing moments when even the best and most skilled tube threaders have blown it.
If you like some bent comedy along with your shredding then McKenzie Bowden has you covered, with his silky long-limbed style and hilarious skits on modern surfing life in all its glorious weirdness.
Schadenfreude is a German word for the pleasure derived from another person’s misfortune. How else to explain how Kook Slams has 1.6 million followers, more than all but the most popular pro surfers, with a simple fare of wince-inducing wipeouts and moments of excruciating kookdom on land.
Luke Cederman is a big strapping gooyfooter from Raglan, NZ, who both rips and is funny, which is both exceedingly rare and quite unfair. Usually, surfers are one or the other, funny kooks or boring shredders. Luke’s Raglan Surf Report is full of wry and witty observations about surfing, NZ and NZ surfing.
TRAVEL
The surf trip you have when you can’t go on surf trips. If you are missing driving out to the Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport to hop on a plane to go and surf some far flung wave on the other side of the world, may we suggest a little detour just before you get to the airport. Urbnsurf offers man made waves at a variety of settings for any ability and its feed will get you frothing.
Kandui Resort, the self-proclaimed greatest surfing location on earth, lives up to the hype with a constant feed of mind melting barrels that will leave you drooling for your next surf trip. The concentration of world class waves in this part of the Mentawai Islands is absurd and their onsite camera people enjoy torturing office bound desk jockeys with their imagery.
While the rest of the world has been in lockdown, legendary surf explorer Martin Daly has been drifting through Melanesia for over a year, finding new waves, catching fish, fighting off pirates, rebuilding engines and generators. His feed captures all the highs and lows and surreal isolation of this most extraordinary of times.
Surf Aid delivers humanitarian aid to some of the world’s best and most under-privileged surfing zones, primarily in Indonesia. They’ve saved thousands of lives with their inspiring model of malaria eradication, education and local empowerment.
SURFERS FOR CLIMATE
Mobilising the world-wide surfing community to take action on climate change is what Surfers for Climate is all about. Founded by surfers Johnny Abegg and Belinda Baggs, they’ve rallied a broad cross section of the surf community to join their mission to educate, empower and start conversations that help surfers reduce their carbon footprint and become part of the solution.