Simon Phin challenges Australian males to overcome their reticent masculinity and give tandem surfing a go. Blindboy caught up with Simon at his favourite Freshwater cafe.

Swellnet: So why tandem?
Simon Phin: For me I just got tired of solo surfing and the solo attitudes to surfing and I thought there's something bigger out there, something a little bit more. I was always immensely attracted to the waterman ethos about life. So I guess that's where I really started.

How did you get started?
Well my Mum is a great swimmer. Mum and her sister are in their late seventies and have been swimming since the fifties, really great swimmers. So I grew up being a swimmer and a surf swimmer and for whatever reason Mum just thought Duke Kahanamoku was the bee's knees. So at a young age I had access to books and was reading about him. I went to Hawaii in 1988 on a spring break from school in the US. I saw Brian Keaulana and Kathy Terada tandem surfing and just thought that was unbelievable. They were graceful and had this beautiful style coming through the bowl where it jumps up. I didn't know who they were at the time. I knew who Buffalo Keaulana was and I knew of his family name but I didn't know much more. I went back in '94 to Makaha and they were tandem surfing the same day I was there, incredible. Then I met Nicole and nine years later here we are.

So you talked about being a Waterman. How does that relate to tandem?
The term Waterman in Australia only seems to have had some flavour in the last 5 or 6 years. Since shortboarders have now started to get into stand up paddle boarding they have started to take on different boards, people are surfing different things and this term waterman comes out. It was just this intrigue for me. Whenever you would read anything, you would read about Duke as a waterman, Eddie Aikau as a waterman and of course Rell Sunn led the waterman spirit and, for me, I wanted to find out more. I have a foot in both camps as surf lifesaver and a surfer, so you get this understanding that you've got to be more rounded in what you do and tandem is an extension of being a waterman. You go to any Hawaiian festival or event and you see these awesome Hawaiians. They finish something or other and they all run over and do tandem. And I just thought "That's for me!" If I want to be able to say that I am rounded as a water person, I've got to be able to do this.

It is pretty rare in Australia. Are you aware of many Australians doing it?
In Australia I would say there would probably be 20 teams. Globally there would probably be 100. Maybe a few more, there's not a huge amount. When Nicole and I started we had heard of one couple locally who we're doing it, they are no longer tandem surfing. It's a bit like surfing in 1911 or 1912, when Tommy Walker was out there. There might have been 20 or 30 people at the time.

So how do you find a partner?
Ask! It's the easiest thing. And the Australian male is so reticent to ask, so reticent to put up his hand and I don't know if that's a reflection of not wanting to be uncool or to display that there is weakness in their skill set. In Hawaii or California or France, wherever we have been tandem surfing, there will go a call, "Do you want to learn tandem surfing?" And there'll be a whole pile of guys turn up and a whole pile of girls and out they go.

Recently at the Byron Bay Surf Festival I got on the microphone and said "If you would like to have a go at tandem surfing....."  we were at Wategos, it was perfect, small, hip high, shoulder high. I had all these unbelievably stunning girls come down the beach, not one guy. Not one guy put up his hand and you just think there is something going on here.

So what about competition, you were Australian Champions?
I wouldn't lay claim to any crown these days, there was a while when we weren't defeated in competition but in the last few years a French couple have immigrated to the Sunshine Coast, Fred and Aurelie, and they are absolutely outstanding. They would hose us down pretty easily in any competition these days. A class act. I’m pretty lucky. I’ve got this beautiful girl I tandem with who just so happens to be my wife, lucky man.

So where do these competitions occur?
Generally in festivals. In Australia the biggest one is the Noosa Festival Of Surfing. The Snowy Mc Allister, when it had some legs as being a broad church of surfing, used to have a great tandem event. In Hawaii it's the Duke Fest, it's Buffalo's Big Board Classic, there is a number of events. Then in France you've got the Biarritz Festival, in California you've got a few and in Florida you've got a few. But not too much in Australia.

So what about your surfing outside tandem? When did you start surfing?
In 1977 I was 8, I grew up in Glenelg, Adelaide, not known for any surf at all and my mate at the end of the road, Nobby, rode up on a Saturday morning and said "I'm going surfing". Now this is just a scream when you live in Glenelg. So we got on our Malvern Star’s and rode down to the Bay and ended up at Nippers as 8 year olds and there was this tiny little wave at Glenelg, beautiful glassy day and one of the Nipper Dads just pushed me into the wave and I stood up on that first wave on one of those blue Hanimex foamies. And I just thought, "This is so cool" and that's how it started. I remember it clear as a bell, Colin Mosely with a Winnie Blue in the corner of his mouth just pushing kids onto waves all through nippers that first day. I was lucky that my father was from the country so we had a deep affinity with the country and getting out of town and my mother was a beach girl. So, at a young age Mum was really kind, she dragged me down to the Mid Coast, the far Coast and when I was a bit older we went to Yorkes and then I got a licence to head towards Port Lincoln and Streaky and eventually Cactus. I've been surfing since I was 8 and surfing everything I could get hold of, but it was at that point of middle age for me I just thought that there has to be a bit more.

You mentioned something before about body surfing Cactus?
You're a bit young and a bit stupid and one of the things whenever you go west in South Australia is that you have this over supply of alcohol and an under supply of common sense. The Australian male excels at it. I used to go with all the blokes I grew up with in Glenelg SLSC and we would do some stupid things. Unbelievably stupid. So one afternoon we had a bit too much for lunch and I thought "Oh, I won't go surfing, I'll go bodysurfing." So I just grabbed the flippers and body surfed Outside Castles, which is not the smartest place to body surf. Great waves, but then you realise what's underneath. I love bodysurfing but my days of bodysurfing on the West Coast are done. I won’t go into the rumble in the jungle, spear fishing and Bubbles dragging the fish bag behind him…

So what sort of boards do you surf now?
If my wife is reading this article I have 2 or 3 boards..... though in fact she knows there are well over a dozen there. My smallest is a little double ender egg, mid lengths in short boards going up to a 9'1" gun which I use when the call comes and then in longboards I've got everything up to 12 footers. I keep a few around the place wherever I can sneak a trip and a surf in. //blindboy