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ound by the care of the skinny Haole and a cooler of
longboard beer at which stage I felt suitably comfortable.
As the day drew to an end a larger human than my large
human bodyguard approached the group. He stood off
at a distance and with the silent communication of nods
and eyebrow lifting one of my posse decided to check him
out. As obviously part of the large human club there was
a quite a discussion and then eventually my large human
came and asked “hey Brah, my man wants to make sure
you won’t name the beach in ya snaps.” I assured him that
we never named the beach and with a multitude of clever
handshakes and a famed shuker to myself, he walked
away assured that the most popular beach on the West
Side of Hawaii (with the most obvious of landmarks) would
not get editorial mention in a magazine on the other side of
the world.
Photographers will risk a lot to get an image, whether
that is putting yourself a personal risk by putting yourself
in crazy situation (have another look at the cover of this
issue and see where the photographer is!) or by exposing
yourself to the local’s wrath. We all watch YouTube, we all
have social media, we all buy magazines, (you are reading
one now), we all want the eye candy, the wow shot of a
place or action. Do photographers really understand that
by taking images you risk the exploitation of some areas?
Of course we do, and any that are responsible do all they
can to mitigate that risk of over exposure.
But to dig below the surface, localism is not really
based purely on “if you don’t live here you can’t surf
here, walk here, climb here”, it has a basis in greed.
Sure there may be some locations that have become
overwhelmed by exposure, Roy’s Peak, Tongariro
Crossing etc. but generally those wow images that you
see are not easy to get to, nor are they easy to take. Most
are really inaccessible, so the cost of exposure it low.
Regardless, people get heated under the guise of the
“poor environment”. What we really have is people in white
pointy hats saying, “this is mine and I don’t want to share”.
To be honest localism is an embarrassment, it is a
reflection of an attitude of greed and indulgence. Imagine
if any other sport decided that if you don’t live here you
can’t play, that if you are not local you can’t fish, hunt, ski,
play rugby, you can’t participate. We would be up in arms
screaming with righteous indignation. Most places are
uncrowded for a good reason; they are too far, too hard to
get to and anyone who arrives there should be welcomed
for making the effort, not ridiculed because they don’t have
a bach nearby.
But as you turn these pages, you will see we don’t always
name places, and our photographers will continue to risk
life and limb to bring you that OMG shot. If you want to
find those special places, those uncrowded environments,
the ‘locals only’ places – get in your car, pull on ya boots,
pick up your pack. Go old school; check the weather,
check maps and go look and if you get there by hard slog
and good luck, but you get met by a group of angry locals
with an attitude of “if you don’t live here, you shouldn’t be
here” then f*&k em, you have earned it!
Top: Melanie Bartels, while on the World Tour of Surfing in 2009
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