Surfing World Magazine

Surfing World is the oldest, deepest and most respected surfing magazine in the world. Founded in 1962, it's become a cornerstone of surfing culture both in Australia and right around the globe. It's a premium, high concept magazine, showcasing the best surf writing and photography. It's both classic and contemporary, reflecting the kaleidoscopic surfing culture of today.

Surfing World Magazine

Round Wing Swallow

SW428

THIS WEIRD DANCE • Forty-three-and-a-bit per cent of all recorded shark incidents in Australia this century — encounters, attacks, whatever you want to call them — have involved surfers. It’s understandable, after all we’re in the water more than most people, but it’s still jarring to look at that number and think about what it means for us.

THE GREAT WHITE RESET • As a kid, we’d surf Tuncurry Bar every time it broke. Sitting at the mouth of Wallis Lake, just off the town of Tuncurry, it was a shallow sandbar that, on big swells, would produce top-to-bottom righthanders that would spin off, barrelling and walling for hundreds of metres into Tuncurry Beach. It broke at four foot, could hold 12, was best at eight. Locals guarded it jealously; only an underground crew from out of town would chase it. Short of Kirra, The Bar was regarded by some of those guys as the best wave on the Australian East Coast.

In the Land of the Dinosaurs

Boordo and Camel • Landing in Port Lincoln, Hannah and I spend a day or so in the town built on tuna, and eventually head west, into shark country.

The Nonexistent Pattern • Maybe the biggest surprise I have while talking to the crew is how few of them have actually seen a pointer.

Horror Story #1: The Babysitter’s Wave • "We were so excited to get out there!" KV says. "It was the most perfect day."

Shark Tourism • Nobody west of Port Lincoln likes the idea of shark cage diving. No surfers, anyway.

Horror Story #2: It Makes No Sense At All • It takes us a couple of days to track down Murray Adams. He’s cheerful enough, but seems a bit wayward with replying to messages.

In The Garden Of Eden • The school numbers tell you something: Elliston is short of kids.

The Impossible Dream • The surfers of Elliston don’t just live with the trauma of the past few years. They also live with the knowledge that it’ll happen again.

GOD’S WAITING ROOM • Another Tuncurry shark story

BAD UNCLES • Everything’s bigger in the west

IT NEVER TILL HAPPENS IT DOES • For 87 years Sydney’s Northern Beaches were free of sharks

BOY GOT LUCKY • Mick Fanning, ten years on

Sharkbait • Kids in Cactus, and the attacks that began it all

The Third Run • Early on the morning of August 16, 2021, Dylan* paddled out alone for a morning surf at an isolated beachbreak on Victoria’s southwest coast. Turns out he wasn’t alone. This account of what happened next was recorded by a mate later that night over beers. Dylan was reluctant for the story to be published but later agreed — the way he managed to survive might be something other surfers needed to hear.

KAI MCKENZIE • Cult hero for a Carcharodon age

Keep Spending Our Money • How the people in charge keep us at bay

Inconvenient Truths • A shark/human fact sheet for the modern world.

Plenty of Fish* • Tuncurry has new locals

A SEA OF ABUNDANCE • Australia’s oceans at colonisation

THE HUMBLE MIDDLE SPACE • Dave Rastovich on what we don't know