I am not sure who asked who for a lighter but I am pretty sure that’s how the conversation began with Liam Sauer. We were standing amongst the crowd. side of stage at Bluesfest seeing one of many bands melt our minds with epic tunes. We struck up a yarn about my Dude Sweet Canoe shirt which led down a kaleidoscope of surf, stoke and tunes. As you do in this modern age we swapped ‘insta’s’ and I began watching what the waves were doing on the sunny coast. Although never tempted to mission up from Northern NSW I appreciated his dedication and commitment to the waves and sharing his view on his local. I admired his froth and grass root view towards sharing with the community. The following are his pictures and answers to my questions. Enjoy!
1. What’s your earliest stoke memory?
Learning to surf getting pushed onto waves far too big for my then skill level at Currumbin Alley by my dad who could barely swim himself, I was around age 10. You can’t forget the feeling the first time it all goes perfectly, floating across the water like some Marty McFly shit, too good.
2. What are you up to/ and what inspires you to do it?
Currently doing live daily surf reports on insta over a 12 month period on the beautiful open beachies of the Sunny Coast. It started as a bit of a laugh late 2018 in the wake of community outrage when swellnet changed their early morn reports to payed content only. At this point I was essentially doing reports anyway for my lazy assed mates (love u all) so it seemed only natural to share it with others as well. Feels good to be able to spread some stoke and put some reports out that aren’t dryer than Nan’s roast beef.
The cold mornings are rough but I gotta say, all of the feedback/vids/comments I get back I absolutely froth. It’s all been really positive and has already brought a lot of people together into this weird micro community thing that’s there just because it can be and not driven by money or advertising. Outside the surf reports I also play in a band called The Sundowners, we play kooky alt rock/funky/surf music and will be releasing our first EP later this year which will definitely be one to check out. Jump on board @gustysurfreports @sundownersband.
3. What have you learnt about/from the ocean?
Insane question, so so many different lessons, I’ll probably write a book on this one day that no one will read - ‘Shredding between the lines - lessons from a seasoned kook’ by Gusty Williams. I’d say the biggest lesson though is to never trust a surf reporter. #trustthegust
4. What’s on your bucket stoke list
As a joke my friends had been G'ing me up to do the weekly surf forecast/recap via DJ set. We held a housewarming party recently where that actually got to be a reality. A mate, DJ Pippos, mixed some particularly cooked sound bites from the reports into a hectic trap set, we hired a smoke machine, lights, lasers, strobes, and even a fucking bubble machine for the garage and all had a grand old time together. I’d be stoked to play a backroom DJ set at SolBar or a big coastal music venue like that, it’s a weird concept but it’d be such a laugh.
Drone shot of Gusty’s local
Moonrise over the dusky sunset.
Hanging 10 at Solbar.
The morning commute.
Lads, rainbows and soup!
Restored Longboard cruiser