For four decades the Australian surf print media was dominated by a few big mastheads: Tracks, Surfing World, Surfing Life, Waves. 

They controlled the Australian surfing narrative in a way that today seems unthinkable. 

But sitting below them in the local newso’s surf section were a plethora of smaller publications that rose and fell with the tides of reader support. Some burned bright, but were relatively short lived: Backdoor, Sea Notes, Deep.

Others never made really made it out of the gates: Australian Surfer, Big Wave Magazine. Many more this correspondent couldn’t even name. 

They’re now nothing more than historical footnotes or colourful quirks in collector’s archives.

But of all the ‘underground’ mags, none had the longevity and success of Underground Surf.

From 1993 to 2003 the magazine pumped out almost fifty issues to news stands and surf shops across Australia, gaining a cult following in the process.

The cover of Underground Surf #1 with Rusty Moran, Rollins, and Bad Religion setting the tone

“The ethos and purpose was to do our best to tell it how it was,” says founding editor Ben Horvath, “minus the ego and industry push to do certain things a certain way.”

In the early 1990s surf media was still a cottage industry. 

Not to say there weren’t any good writers populating column space. Quality journalism was happening. Irreverence was already institutionalised. But the big four were at best an extra arm of the corporate’s marketing departments - and the big names they wanted pushed. 

Underground Surf (US) was an antidote to that. 

“I found that most of the mainstream surf media was frustratingly obsessed, all literally covering the same pro comps or elite sponsored surfers,” says Horvath. 

“The goal of US was to connect with the vast majority of the surfing populace that weren’t that into pro surfing.”

“We wanted to give a voice to lifestyle surfers, and also appeal to crew who were occasionally semi competitive or social in the local boardriders clubs.”

It wasn’t the first mag to set such a lofty goal. But what set US apart was its ability to sustain the model for so long. 

Horvath was a former competitive surfer himself who moved into publishing in the early ‘90s, working with Terry Kavanagh at Line Up and then with Morrison Media on ASL, Slam, Riptide et al. 

Around 1992, photographers Chris Stroh and the legendary Peter Crawford recommended Ben to a Sydney-based publisher - Australian Publishing and Printing co - to compile a bunch of one-off surf guide-style magazines.

“I sniffed an opportunity and explained to the CEO Martin White that I could only produce his specialist surf titles for him, if he agreed to co-publish a new regular mag title with me."

Underground was born buckled in 1993.

US was released quarterly and bi-monthly throughout Australia, and at its peak had circulation numbers rivalling and even beating the big four. 

Its content was a mix of core surfing and socially progressive world views, with a big focus on music. 

US represented an era that coincided with simultaneous explosion of grunge and surf punk. Nirvana had just completed first Big Day Out tour in Australia, Sonic Youth dropped The Year That Punk Broke, and Pennywise, Social Distortion, and Sublime were blasting through the airwaves thanks to the Momentum era.

 “We had real credible music industry contributors like Murray Engleheart, Tony Mott, Rod Hunt and the late Damien Lovelock working for us, and Underground’s Associate Editor Johnny Kwala was the lead singer of infamous Brisbane punk band The Insane Hombres," said Horvath. 

“The mix of bands we chose to cover ensured most of the festival promoters like the Big Day Out guys Viv Lees and Ken West, and the hippest individual promoters like John Watson, Jo Hickey, Tim Pitman, Pav, Joe Seg, Sultan and so many more really got behind the mag.”

Around half of the magazine was dedicated to music news, album reviews and festival photo shoots, combined with some decidedly out there agony aunt-style columns and write ups.  Not your average line up of butt shots and fawning pro profiles.

Even the fashion shoots were different. 

“Our female fashion editors thrived on challenging previous surf mag stereotypes by featuring Chinese and African swimsuit models,” said Ben. 

And US championed what would now be called ‘brand activations’ - though in those days went by the term ‘sponsor-funded piss up gigs.’ 

The Underground Surf Harbour Cruise with Kwala skate and punk icons Agent Orange, Blowhard, and Toe to Toe is today the stuff of lore… as well as a few police colourful police reports.

Plus US was an early supporter of the Warped Tour, Black Fly’s industry parties (Surfads has hazy memories of a couple of their parties at the illustrious Fanny’s nightclub in Newy...), early partnerships with General Pants Co etc. The list goes on. 

But at its heart was the underground core. 

“Our focus was always more on waves and swells and interesting personalities as opposed to competition,” said Horvath.

“My concept in Underground was to offer an alternative to their gossip style state reviews of ASL, Tracks etc by instead providing core surf and swell reportage that provided some kind of historical reference to standout swells and dates.”

This concept became the mag’s staple column, Meltdown Lowdown. It was so successful it  jumped the print/digital containment lines, and still lives over at Coastalwatch. Or so we’re told.

While US still ran shots of the top level pros, big brand ads etc, it actively tried to promote surfers that were still sitting on the periphery of the mainstream. 

Think names like Jay Phillips, Trent Munro, Zahn Foxton, Dru Adler. 

Cronulla surfer Luke Weinert was one such ripper that regularly graced US’s pages.

Luke originally met Ben as a grommet through Elouera boardriders, and quickly found a brand alignment when he became team manager for More Core Division.

(As an aside, Luke at one stage managed a team featuring himself, Archy, Andy, Koby, Kerrzy and Trent Munro. This may very well warrant a future Diggin in the Crates article!)

“Brands like MCD, SMP, Volcom and their teams were the perfect fit for Underground,” said Luke. 

“We weren’t on the hundreds of thousands of dollar contracts like Mick and Joel when we were young. We were still deciding whether or not this surfing thing was something we could do.”

“A lot of us, me especially, made a living from photo incentives. I’d get an alright contract but I’d double it in photo incentives. I’d get half of my pay from Underground Surf and Crank [another surf-snow-skate mag from the era]”.

“You wouldn’t ever get an opportunity without that sorta support.”

But then came the early 2000s digital explosion. Print media began to contract, and the smaller labels began to close their doors and the support they provided to many surfers. Social media was yet to revolutionise the game. 

It was a sink or swim moment for many in the industry, though Underground was somewhat protected. It was the first ever surf mag to get advertising support from retail giant General Pants, which opened the door to a more diverse mix of advertisers in the streetwear, ladies fashion and music industry. 

“We were a profit driven business from year one to year ten, said Ben, “otherwise we wouldn’t of bothered.”

 Eventually it was a backroom change in publishers that saw the mag’s wrap up in 2003.

“I had a trusting publishing partnership and friendship with Martin White. When he left APP for personal reasons 10 years in, the partnership came to an end.”

What followed was a perfect coda for the magazine. 

Ben helped sell the masthead to Pacific Publications/Channel 7. He was subsequently placed in an office in North Sydney and asked to attend meetings with other editors and advertising cats from their mastheads like Smash Hits, Girlfriend magazine, and Better Homes and Gardens.

“I tried to be open to giving it a go, but it didn’t take me long to conclude Underground Surf was no longer going to be underground - so I walked.”

Quickly realising they didn’t have just another surf magazine on their hands, the publishers let the title walk with him.

“Better to burn out than to fade away,” said Ben.

//SURF ADS

PS: If you're in the Sydney area there's some old issues and content from Underground Surf being showcased as part of the Southern Swells exhibition at the Hazelhurst Arts Centre. More details here.