Plenty Brizzo surfers, but we’ll blow them away, brah. Photo: Cyrus Sutton
Call us what you want: Westie, Townie, Hoalie, Brizzo (in QLD). Call us whatever you want, because we want it more than you.
In Australia, around 80% of the population live within 50kms of the coast. That may make it easier to understand why Aussie’s punch above their weight class in water/surf related sports. We live and breathe it.
It is only the lucky few however, that actually live REALLY near the beach… that is, those that can walk or ride a pushie or skateboard to their local. I am (now) among this lucky few.
It was not that long ago, that I was lucky enough to live in Sydney, where I grew up. It was in Sydney’s south western suburbs when I first discovered the all-encompassing love of the surf.
Growing up a surfer in a suburb close to Bankstown had its challenges. The reality for a grom was if you couldn’t snag a seat in a car heading to the beach for the day or, if the moons aligned, you got a gig at a mate’s dad’s brother’s nan’s beach house, you were relegated to the train. Between a 2-3 hour journey to the beach, starting very much pre-dawn with the trudge to the station.
So with a pocket full of change and dreams of good waves, we headed off. Our trip was a dead set punt – no forecasting apps, surf reports streaming live images, or even a fresh report from the day before.
We wanted to go surfing, and nothing else mattered. They say it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey. For us, it was always the destination.
Westies will work all week and drive all night, every weekend, to get waves. They will surf junk. They will blow in and breeze out. The locals get pissy about “them kooks from town who steal our waves,” but most of these locals were Westies once.
The commitment and optimism of Westies is unwavering: traveling for hours, putting up with crowds, crappy conditions, and dickhead locals.
I accept there are dickheads everywhere, and that not all locals are that way – quite the opposite, in fact, in my more recent experiences. And of course, a Westie can lack the knowledge or respect to surf a certain spot.
What a Westie does bring, though, is stoke when stoke may be hard to find.
We all surf for the stoke, so when you’re out at your local spot and and there is a new head in the line up, say g’day, call ’em into one, or even give a little hoot, because that could be the stoke they were after – the one they traveled fifty kms for. That’s the one they will remember until next Saturday.
