A few weeks back I was surfing the local when an argument broke out between two apparent strangers. It’s not an uncommon scene around these parts, hardly worth commenting upon, except for how this exchange ended.

I’ve no idea how it started and it doesn’t matter anyway - the two were beyond the point of negotiation and into a full blown slanging match.

Just when escalation appeared imminent, a third surfer paddled out, unexpectedly said hello to each combatant. Used their names, obviously knew them, though they didn’t know each other.

A bashful silence fell and it wasn’t hard to read our protagonist's minds:

‘If he knows me, and he also knows him, then we sorta know each other.’

We’ve all had frustrating moments in the surf so I’m sure you’ll agree when I say that it’s easier to be angry at a stranger than it is to be angry at a friend. The rule held true and the two sorta-friends made peace - or at least stopped yelling at each other.

Events of this week reminded me of that scene. On Wednesday I received an email from Emiliano Cataldi, a hot surfer - and hot air balloon pilot - from Byron Bay.

“Hey Stu, just wondering if you have a high res version of today’s Wave Of The Day?” wrote Emi. “I think it’s me.”

When I zoomed in it was indeed Emi. The photo was a classic shot of Lennox, taken by South Oz photographer Andy Smyth back in June. Framed by the crowd on the hill, Emi is making an early entry on his 9’0” Gunther Rohn.

Emi got in contact with Andy and made a copy of the image. A snapshot of an epic session during an equally epic season.

Moving in one direction: Andy is a mate of my Swellnet colleague Craig Brokensha, and he also appears to be friends with many crew on the Swellnet forums. ‘He’s a good egg’ is a recent summation of Andy.

Meanwhile, moving in the other direction: I first met Emi through his partner Taylor Miller when we both worked on Kurungabaa - the now defunct surf journal. Taylor is the daughter of Rusty Miller of Morning Of The Earth fame, and many other things besides.

Emiliano’s name also appeared in a book I was recently reading. Children Of The Tide charts Nik Zanella’s journey from Italian surf urchin to Chinese surf pioneer, while also tracing China’s improbably long wave-riding history. Emi makes an appearance, surfing with Nik on China’s Hainan Island.

Swellnet readers should recognise Nik Zanella’s name as he’s written a handful of articles for us this last year. Always insightful and always well-received, his latest work on surfer and artist Vincenzo Ganadu, was published just this week.

What might seem like an exercise in name-dropping is my clumsy way to illustrate surfing’s version of six degrees of separation - except in our world it’s more like two or three.

It’s true, the surfing population has ballooned in size, yet we also travel more, exposing ourselves to an increasing number of surfers, every one of them potentially leading to a future encounter: “Hey, don’t I know you from somewhere..?”

Something to think about before you next arc up at sorta-familiar-looking stranger in the surf.

-Stu

The Art Of Vincenzo Ganadu

"I was trained in the most traditional, almost reactionary ways of creative work," recalls Vincenzo Ganadu, a first-gen surfer from Italy's most consistent coastline, Sardinia's northwest coast.

Vincenzo renounced the classical approach and turned his eye, and creativity, towards a vibrant take on surf culture. Read More >

Excerpt: 'When The Ocean Awakens' by Marti Paradisis

Surfers weren't the only ones testing the limit during the early days at Shippies. In this excerpt from Marti Paradisis' upcoming book, photographer Stu Gibson describes pushing barriers to capture the inside out view of Shipsterns. Read More >

Photos: Better Late Than Never

As most surfers would be aware, Victoria's Surf Coast pumped this week. Which was welcome, as they suffered a terrible winter season.

Steve Arklay braved the wild weather to shoot this gallery. And hey, who knew there were lefts...really hollow lefts, in the region? Read More >

Also, if you're so inclined, here's Craig's analysis on the why the Surf Coast sucked this winter and what changed to make it good. Read More >

Shark Shield Company Collapse

Bad news for surfers in Selachimorpha hot spots as Australia's leading deterrent device company gets unplugged.  Read More >

Watch: Winter Up North

No huge swells - for the Gold Coast at least, the Northern Rivers region copped some size - but the winter just gone was remarkably consistent for an area not known for winter abundance. Read More >