Photos by Bella Bunce.
There is a lot of cosmic synergy between Wavelength’s origins and the UK’s annual surf slash music festival, Boardmasters.
It is entirely plausible that one would not exist without the other. Or maybe they both would, but not with such aplomb as they do now. It’s strange to think about that. Did you know one half of Wavelength’s founders, the lovable rogue John Conway, was the original contest director for the event, back in 1981? (Though not called Boardmasters back then) Which he used to spring board the launch of the then new, fresh-off-the-press issue one of Wavelength.
John had been in Australia, shooting the fledgling surf world tour, also back in 1981. Inspired by this, John returned to the UK, secured Gul and Alder as sponsors and added Newquay to the contest circuit – bringing Shaun Thomson and Rabbit Bartholomew to UK shores.
Tracks mag, the original inspiration for Wavelength.
So without John, there may not have been Boardmasters as it is today. And without that platform to boost Wavelength to the masses, perhaps there would be no Wavelength either. The two were like DNA for a while, and over time have become their own entities. Wavelength is no longer just a print mag, and now part of the DYSUJO group – focussing on print, retail, events, digital marketing and so much more.
Boardmasters has become a British surfing institute, with the surf event now buoyed by the music festival up at Watergate Bay.
But before all that. It was Conway, whose we-can-do-it-better attitude earned him respect in the local communities. To get Wavelength off the ground, John teamed up with fellow photographer and good pal, Geoff Tydeman, the other half of Wavelength’s founders – and the duo were the somewhat intentional fly in the ointment for other publications at the time.
“We were shooting for Surf Scene back them, but we thought, ‘why are we doing this?’ And wanted to start something truly independent. The real aim, was to blow Surf Scene out of the water, they weren’t too happy about us launching,” said Geoff – and Wavelength was launched in ’81, as the Gul/Alder European Pro-AM, aka, Boardmasters’ OG title.
Moving to Newquay from Ireland helped shape Geoff’s curiosity with the ocean. His father, having been in the military, was stationed at RAF St Mawgan – which was used as a strategic NATO base back then, hosting nuclear-capable United States Air Force detachments. “That’s when I first picked up a camera,” said Geoff. “Must have been the mid 70s and surfing was still relatively unknown.
“But everyone knew where to go when we saw waves. It was; head to Fistral if the wind blows the right way. Or if it’s big and stormy, go round to the bay. The only forecasting we had was whoever was the weather forecaster on the BBC. All we wanted was the wind. Wind creates swell. And that’s all we were thinking about.”
The face of a man who has seen a fair share of Fistral sunsets and sun rises, under many a swell spell.
Back in those pioneering days of the 70s, word of mouth travelled fast when the swell looked good.
“You hardly ever phoned anybody, because nobody had phones really. Unless it was at your mum or dad’s place,” said Geoff. “So you couldn’t just ring someone up and say, ‘what’s it like out there?’
“You had to physically go and look. I was living on Bay View Terrace [in the heart of Newquay]. So, yeah, it was a 10-minute walk down to Great Western. A bit more of a walk over to Fistral. And to be fair, like these days, we didn’t photograph the Bay all that much.
“I was working at Bilbo’s Surf Shop as well. People used to phone the shop and I used to have to do the surf checks for them. Run over the road, look over the top. Never lied about the surf, because if I said it was alright, they’d come to town, they’d come to the shop, they’d buy their wax, maybe a pair of shorts, and then go and surf. I wouldn’t dare say something false, for what reason? To have it to myself for a couple of hours? No. Never.”
“We wanted Wavelength to feel like Tracks Magazine,” added Geoff. “But we printed those first issues massive. It was so expensive, like £4,000. Which is a lot now, let alone back then. Give it’s non-standard size and it was colour, it was just nuts.
“The name, the arguments we had about it were funny. But eventually we settled on the name Wavelength.”
Where some of the memories were made.
And it all seemed fairly straightforward, until around 5,000 boxed up magazines were stored in Geoff’s garage ahead of the 1981 competition. “It was funny,” he said. “But with the contest right around the corner, that was the perfect time to launch it.”
Conway was on board as the contest director. John’s wife’s family owned Sailor’s which hosted the post-contest, now legendary Wavelength parties. “There were some hilarious moments there, I remember John winning a competition downing a yard of ale, cream tea eating competition. All of the best surfers in the world at that time involved. Then there was the after parties. You had to be invited to them.
“People like Shaun Tomson, Rabbit Bartholomew and Nick Carroll – who was here because he thought it was cool that the UK were running a surf competition. He said he had a great time in Newquay. He actually left me a board, which I took to Lanzarote, and then broke it in half. Sorry Nick.”
Those memories of the Sailors parties are the stuff of legend now. And they live on with the Geoff and the people who were there at the time. The passage of time shapes everything into what you want it to be, but the collective consciousness can agree; those were some heady, somewhat innocent moments – in a time when surfing was really at its fledgling routes for the UK.
Wavelength has since survived for 44-years at sea, and long may it continue.
***
Wavelength is a reader supported gig, without our subscribers and advertisers, this would be an impossible mission. The mag’s also not-for-profit. Subscribe to print and get Wavelength through your door, twice a year. See HERE.
