What a week!…What a weekend!!
The 2018 Byron Bay Surf Festival…
Cheers mates! We did it! Thanks to all of you, we were able to put on a weekend chock full of surf, art, music, fun, and so much more. Despite Mother Nature’s slight interruptions, the vibes stayed high the entire time, and that’s all because of YOU!
Photo by The Wanderful Lyfe
We were stoked on the epic turn out at the pre-festival event, The Peter Crawford Photography Exhibit, at a Spot of Genius on Wednesday night. The display of large scale slides from Peter’s vault of iconic surf imagery was truly out of the box thinking by curator and son, Justin Crawford. We were blessed with some wild and fun music by Josh Rawiri’s creative genius on the front deck too.
Video by The Wanderful Lyfe
Thursday night’s Surf Legends Lounge, presented by ELECTRIC, who generously donated a few epic door prizes, including sunglasses and watches, to a lucky ticket holder. This year was the birth of the Surf Legends Lounge, and we can safely say it will be making a return in the years to come. A massive thanks to Surfing World Magazine’s Vaughan Blakey, for hosting the evening’s event, as well as Big Thanks to our special guests – Andrew Kidman, Stephanie Gilmore, Bob McTavish, Ellis Ericson, and Jon Frank.
Photos by Gabe Ryan
Friday was an all around epic day of surfing, art and film finishing with Rock ‘n Roll at the Beach Hotel! Sunrise saw the world’s best freesurfers meet at Wategos Beach for BBSF’s brand new shortboard concept event, FreeRadical Surf Experiments, presented by RVCA & ELECTRIC. In each session a group of 4 surfers head out for an hour of power wherein they ride 3 totally different surfboards within that time, swapping as they please – hi performance (eg a thruster), Fish (twin keel), and alternative (finless, single fin, log, softboard). BBSF founder James McMillan said, “I wanted to do a shortboard event that was a good time and with very little boundaries on the surfers…kind of like freesurfing at the beach with your mates.”
Ari Browne · Photo by Elliot Kirkwood
BBSF states that it is a non-competitive festival. Surf events are part exhibition part have a good time and ‘winners’ arise through a peer vote based on artistic interpretation, fun, creativity and style.
2018 FreeRadicals Lords:
HI-Perfromance – Wade Goodall
Fish – Ozzie Wright
Alternative – Beau Cram
Overall Shred Lord – Alex Knost
Photos by Kane Skennar
The 2018 BBSF Art Show… Held at The Lone Goat Gallery opened to a packed house and featured 3 amazing and diverse artists – Ozzie Wright, Tim Kerr (USA), & Otis Carey. Thank you to Shelter for the tasty treats, and Stone & Wood, Tea Tribe, and Bucha for the drinks.
Sunset Cinema, Starting with a traditional Welcome To Country by the local Arakwal People and presented by MINI Garage and Stone & Wood. In previous years Sunset Cinema showcased one feature film. This year, we decided to do things a bit different and showcase a series of 3 short films that we love – two of those were Australian premiere’s including Engrained by cinematographer Darcy Ward with surfer/writer Brett Burcher, and KUSP a collaborative film by JJ Stanbrook with Ari Browne. The third film was a special BBSF edit of No Static In The Stars, another collaborative project from Aaron Curnow of Spunk Records’ and local film maker Andrew Kidman.
If you missed out on this year’s Sunset Cinema, take a look at one of the films featured – Stories Of The Sea – a Stone & Wood film.
Rounding out Friday was a rockin’ gig at the The Beachy with opening act Mini Skirt followed by headliners REGURGITATOR, setting the bar high. This day could not have been any better! We can’t wait to do it all over again next year!
Photo by Jak Unterrheiner
A lot could be said about Saturday, but most importantly we want to say thank you! Thank you to all of you who came out and had a blast, despite the weather. Thank you to all the amazing brands who still came out, set up your tents and tipis, and kept smiling faces the whole day! Saturday wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for you all, and that has not gone unnoticed!
To MINI Garage, Stone & Wood, Bucha of Byron, Fallen Broken Street, Deus, Hydro Flask, Ducati, Catch Surf, Channel Islands, Onboard Store, Vissla, Daily Bar, Arnhem, Children of the Tribe, and all of the amazing shapers, stall holders and food vendors… You guys are all legends and we can’t tell you how much we appreciate you for sticking around and rocking the Surf Art Markets with us!
Bryan Bates · Photo by Elliot Kirkwood
Sunday could not have turned out any better… The weather was beautiful, and the beach was flooded with happy faces and vibes higher than the sun! Thank you to everyone for sharing the stoke with us! And thank you to all brands who provided the most insane display of giveaways and prizes, including the Byron Bay General Store Party Wave prize – $1000 cash gifted in the raddest hat custom created by Fallen Broken Street!
To ELECTRIC, RVCA, Stone & Wood, MINI Garage, McTAVISH, Catch Surf, Atmosea, Hydro Flask, Wholi Water, Byron Mal Club, We Are Feel Good Inc, Farmer Jo, Good Juju, Byron Magic Bus, Allpress, and Leaf and Grain… Sunday would not have been the success it was with out ya!
Check out this rad RVCA vid from the weekend! Created by @jacksonobrien_ and @rvca_ausnz
Photos by Kane Skennar & The Wanderful Lyfe
Results from the day:
McTAVISH Trim – Alex Knost (347m ride)
Photo by The Wanderful Lyfe
FREESTYLE & STOKE SURF SESSIONS
Torpedoes – Nick Gibbs
Finless – Stu Graham
Woodsniffers – Gus O’Malley
Extraterrestrial Softboard – Sunny Melville
Mermaids – Kassia Meador (USA)
BBSF Log Invitational – Alex Knost (USA)
YingYang – Robbie Warden & Laure Myr
Byron Bay General Store Party Wave Winner – Bryce young
Photos by The Wanderful Lyfe
A Few More Final Thank You’s
A huge thanks to our special guests that joined us in the festival festivities sharing their skills, creativity, knowledge, and overall stoke.
To Andrew Kidman, Stephanie Gilmore, Bob McTAVISH, Ellis Ericson, Vaughan Blakey, Mark Occhilupo, Ozzie Wright, Otis Carey, Tim Kerr, Alex Knost, Kassia Meador, Jack Coleman, Bryce Young, Ari Browne, Josh Hall, Jay Nelson, Victoria Vergara, Jared Mell, Tom Wegner, Thomas Bexon, Maddie Gross, Bryan Bates, Jack Lynch, Harry Bryant, Joel Fitzgerald, Matt Chojnacki, Chrystal Dawn, Malcolm Campbell, Regurgitator, The Vanns, The Beautiful Girls, Miniskirt, and so many more… Thanks for being such heroes to all of us!
Photos (going clockwise) by Gabe Ryan, The Wanderful Lyfe, Gabe Ryan, Scape Visuals, The Wanderful Lyfe, Kane Skennar
And a final thank you to our incredible community! To all the amazing souls who came out to our events, your support means the world to us. YOU ALL make the hard work that goes into planning and executing the Byron Bay Surf Festival worth it. Nothing touches our hearts more than to see the smiles on your faces and receiving such positive feedback.
We can not wait for next year! But until then, let’s take a look at some of our fave shots from the weekend. Yeeewww!
See ya legends next year!
