Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25036
In the early part of the century, Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku first ventured to the US and Australian coasts, seeding what have since grown into the world's two dominating surf cultures. The first band of traveler-surfers were Californians in the mid-50s making the pilgrimage back to "The Islands " to sample the original source. There they established the breaks of the North Shore while living in abandoned quonset huts and subsisting on sugar cane and dog food. Not much later, surfers in Sydney and LA found other reasons to travel. Surfing was experiencing a massive surge in popularity, compelling the adventurous to expand their realm. After first exhausting the possibilities of their own extended coastlines, some ventured into the wider world. Mexico, for Americans, and Indonesia, for Aussies, proved to be cheap, warm, accessible and blessed with consistent surf. The scene went underground in the late sixties, and surf travel took on a new bent. Nothing appealed to the soul of the wave-rider-disaffected with increasing commercialization of his once anti-estamblishmentarian lifestyle-than long journey into the unknown, undeveloped coastal fringes of the planet. ~;;iiriii Deeper explorations yielded unimagined finds in still more remote ~ the emergence of locals and paid professional surf of the very best finds were bought and today are increasingly revealing to the dedicated explorer that his drug comes in more than one flavor. In time, colonies of wave-hunters gathered wherever perfection r1i~rr\"''''r<.r1 But on their heels was always what they were escaping: more I off, swell by swell, to a new breed of traveling surfer who's got more diisplJsalble income than disposable time. Wave "rights, " ecological concerns and impact issues frame a new dialogue questioning the responsibilities of those I trash and consume while gorging themselves on nature's purest high. Escapism is part of surfing. So is Fantasy. You can still travel to get the pack, search for your own personal perfection or sate a longing for imagined watery rush not available at home. But if you want all of this, these d you're going to have to show some commitment. As what was once r",\~ir1''''r""r1 out-of-the-way becomes just another crowded line-up, an intrepid wave h must now go beyond the coral reefs and palm fringed beaches of the Tropics the spots that can be driven up to in an SUv. .. But its not just about just about finding a perfect wave anymore. Reasons to travel have expanded as much as the range. Today, big wave riders chase the largest ocean swells to their most likely destinations, professionals follow a World Tour to compete for money, some people just like to hang where they can camp for free, others where they can see a Cathedral when the ocean goes flat. Let your personal proclivities guide you while considering the m recent trends in surf traveL ..