The man behind the fun, Stevo Halpin. Photo: Courtesy Fringe Surf Shop
In a recent conversation with Graeme Webster, the surfmat builder to the stars and owner of G-Mat Custom Surf Mats, he talked of the influence of Steven “Stevo” Halpin. Webster mentioned how Stevo had galvanized the fringe surf community in the UK and abroad through his Newquay Fringe Surf Shop and social media accounts. “It’s not because he’s hacked the algorithm, but because his stoke is so infectious,” said Webster. “People and ideas stick to him like velcro, and what he’s built in the fringe surf community is really important.”
A look into the high-performance surf mat world had already seen me going down a rabbit hole of the fringe surf community and I couldn’t help pulling the thread. It is a growing, fascinating and influential subset of surfing. Halpin is a surfer who has spent roughly four decades searching every corner of the world for world-class waves in between running a juice bar, the Real Surfing magazine, and surf shops in Newquay. He is working on launching the first issue of Fringe Surfing magazine, aiming to keep it underground for the surfers that live on the fringe of surfing culture. We chatted to Stevo about the definition and joys of being a fringe dweller and what it can teach mainstream surfers.
What is fringe surfing to you?
Fringe surfing encompasses the communities interested in other ways of getting stoked in the ocean. That can be mat surfing, bellyboarding, Paipo riding, Alias, traysurfing, kneeboarding and bodysurfing. It is anything that you can take into the sea and get your slide on; the weirder the better!
Just another way to ride. Photo: Courtesy Fringe Surf Shop
How’d you get into it?
I’d always admired the fringe surf community from afar and the surfers not afraid to tread their own paths. In my four decades of surfing, I was too afraid to dabble and try something different. It’s funny how surfers think they are wasting a precious surf if they ride a different surf craft and will often stubbornly surf the same thing over and over again. The journey on the fringe of surfing has led me to some of the most memorable surfs of my life, and I feel way more rounded as a water person, but it doesn’t mean you have to stop riding your surfboard. There’s just more than one way to skin a cat, harvest stoke and keep it all exciting. Put simply, a surfboard or “footboard,” as I now call them, is not always the right tool for the job on any given day.
What is it that’s so good about alternative surfcraft?
The connection and the feeling of speed being so close to the wave face is next level and gets me amped. Also getting more tube time is what appeals to me as a surfer. It’s so much easier and accessible to get barreled, too. Sliding across a wave face with almost nothing between you and the water makes you feel alive, to the point that a surfboard can feel dead afterwards, and in shitty waves and strong onshores, the wave count and sheer joy are a godsend when you just need to get in the water. Wood, i.e. a Bellyboard or Paipo is the easiest to get into, the surfmat the most difficult to master, but the sensation of speed and wonder will far exceed your expectations when it all comes together. Pure magic.
Just another party wave. Photo: Courtesy Fringe Surf Shop
How is it different to mainstream surfing, for want of a better word?
You have to lose your ego. Many surfers look down on you because you’re not standing up, but that is a sad and outdated viewpoint. I’ve met so many surfers coming around to it just because of the pure fun. They can’t help but notice it when a few of us crew are out in the water, and let’s face it, what is the reason we all started surfing in the first place? Fun! I think surfers have lost that. In surfing boards, it’s incredible how quickly ego creeps in and in relative beginners too, it’s hilarious but frustrating. Most of us in the fringe community ride together, and party waves are the norm. They are now my favorite wave. Sharing waves at high speed with your mates is all-time. It is just so refreshing and with little danger compared to a pointy death stick.
It sounds more inclusive.
I guess it is. It may just be because there’s hardly anyone doing it in the lineup, so when you see someone out there on a mat, kneeboard, or whatever, you feel more inclined to chat and call a party wave. I also love the “small makers” vibe to it. It’s a far cry from mass-produced shapes and industry marketing run by corporations that don’t give two shits about surfing or surfers. The mat builders, handplane makers and bellyboard makers are doing it for the right reasons. The surf industry won’t touch it because there’s no money to be made. It’s still pure, and we hope it stays that way, which I think it will. Surfers’ egos will see to that and that’s just fine.
And so, is your shop a movement, or is the movement a shop?
I’ve taken a gamble on the surf shop and it’ll continue or it won’t. People will support it or they won’t, but I pour my heart and soul into it and I think surfers respect and revel in its human aspect. It’s got an old-school ethos. I don’t want to get bigger, I just want to put food on the table and go surfing. I do it because I want to support the community whilst avoiding getting a “real” job. I’ll never be rich, but I’m surfing, a lot, and that’s enough for me. It’s just an old-fashioned core surf shop where people can come in, talk shit, hang out, borrow boards, mats, handplanes for free, and go have a ton of fun. It’s one of those shops that’s part museum, part old people’s youth club at times, but I meet so many rad individuals, and then we all go surf together, instead of against each other. Imagine that!
Whether it’s a mat, surfboard, handplane or dinner tray, it’s all about pure fun. Photo: Courtesy Fringe Surf Shop
What is the fringe community like?
I’ve discovered fringe surfers in pockets of surf-soaked countries around the globe, getting inspired and involved. I’ve surfed for four decades in some of the most perfect waves imaginable, and I loved it and lived for it, and still do, but I wish I’d found this fringe community earlier. Look, maybe I wasn’t ready for it. I was surfboard blind, but I’ve never been happier in the water, or out of it. I love that it isn’t based on progression. There’s a special magic in riding a plank of wood, or a burger tray that isn’t supposed to be for surfing. I trip out on the simplicity of it, rather than the design and hydrodynamics. Stripped-down surfing in a complicated world.
How do people get into it?
You just give it a shot. It’s far easier and more inclusive if you haven’t surfed before to hook up with like-minded crew, and if you can surf, you’ll be pulling into more barrels than you can count in no time, especially through bodysurfing, for example. It is going to help if you are a half-decent swimmer, drowning is frowned upon. You don’t need to give anything up, it’s just a different tool for getting stoke. The fringe community will always swap and share their craft and chew your ear off about what they’ve made, or what they’re riding. You can try anything and find out what you love. It’s so open-minded, just take the blinkers off and get back to feeling like a kid again. That’s so precious today.
It’s your journey, your life, and it’s all there for the taking. I hand on heart have never been more stoked, fit and satisfied after each surf than I am right here, right now.
