August 6, 2019 • 19 mins
For many winemakers, Margaret River’s epic surf is as thrilling as its grapes – when the waves are curling, the lure of the ocean wins every time. Hear about a big wave surfer’s brutal wipe out, why one winemaker swapped surfing for extreme mountain biking, and find pro surfing royalty in the region’s Surf Gallery at Aravina Estate.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Wine Unearthed.
This podcast takes you behindthe scenes of the Margaret River
wine making region in WesternAustralia, the very place named
best in Asia Pacific by travelauthority, Lonely Planet.
It's produced for you by YourMargaret River Region and the
Margaret River Wine Association.
My name's Fleur Bainger.
(00:22):
I'm a food and travel journalistand I'll be taking you through
this gorgeous spot, tasting thewine, meeting the people and
breathing in the surrounds.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
[ sounds]
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Locals often joke that if you can't find a wine
maker in the winery, they'll beout in the surf.
Margaret River's legendary waveshave drawn countless people to
the region, but winemakers seemto have a particular affinity to
the clean, curling breaks.
"It's a beautiful place.
What attracted everybody to itwas the things beyond wine".
In this podcast, we'll meet MikeGad, surfer and mountain biker
(00:58):
who came to Margaret River andnever left.
Another winemaker and big wavesurfer will tell us about his
worst ever wipeout.
"I kind of skipped work onemorning when the conditions are
good and thought I'll just havea quick surf before work, yet
everything went pear shaped".
And we'll take a walk throughthe WA Surf Gallery at Aravina
(01:19):
Estate to see surfing royalty.
"Taj has won a lot of thingsaround the world.
He was a professional surfer for18 years".
But first wine writer, PeterForrestal joins us for a quick
devil in a wine that'll warm youright up after a splash in the
ocean.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
What have we got here?
"This is the 2017 Cullen RedMoon, a new wine that Vanya has
developed, It's um, from thefamilies Mangan Vineyard.
So this one is mainly Malbeckwith petite verdot and a touch
(01:58):
of Merlot.
And this particular wine wasactually harvested on the, the
day of the red moon in Februaryof 2017.
One of the things that bydynamics does is it emphasizes,
I guess the closeness of bit aculture to the making of the
wine.
(02:18):
And I guess Margaret River in itin a way is sort of built very
much on that connection becauseso many wine makers in Margaret
River came here because ofnature and what it offers,
didn't they?
No, I think that's absolutelyfair to say.
Joe Of the most vulnerable, uh,surfers, uh, Dennis Hogan of
(02:39):
course, who just, he loved his aRed Gate beach and David Honan,
David Honan of course, uh, is awell known surfer, although he
did cop a bit of stick because,uh, some of the younger champs
were critical of the fact thathe used a boogie board.
Huh.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I'm a bookie water.
I love weaver.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, David would love you for that.
The other important surfer ofcourse, is[inaudible] column
herself.
I just have been, he has been alifetime of surfer.
No question.
I didn't know that.
Oh Yeah, she, Huh?
Yeah, no, she has only surfed.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Now let's make diamon a store, a cool calm one.
Micah who's regarded as one ofthe best big wave surfers in the
Margaret River region.
After working as a lawyer, hejoined his family's Wildwood
winery.
Then later switched to flyingfish cove winery, but every
spare moment he has, he's out onthe water.
He wants surfed a monster wavewith an estimated 60 foot face
(03:44):
that's about 18 meters.
It earned him an award forsurfing.
What was believed to be thebiggest wave ever ridden in
Australia at the time.
He says he was intent on takingit.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
I remember when I caught it, it was a bit of
competition for the wide bit ofjockeying.
Other guys wanted the same waveand I was kind of screaming out,
up top of my lines that I'm infor this wave and those other
people are going for it.
Peeled off.
And I remember LIGO, the Rod,and got to the bottom of the
wave and I looked up, it wasbigger than I'd ever sort of
seen before and I was in areally 50, 50 spot.
(04:19):
So I just basically put my headdown and ran at that point.
And luckily it did.
The Y didn't catch up to me andI kind of survived the ride
pretty well.
So, yeah.
Pretty memorable.
What about the fear factor?
Yeah, well I guess, um, thefears, the fears, kind of the
fun part as well, you know, doesit gets everything in your body
for pumping and all theadrenaline flying it?
(04:39):
Yeah.
It all kind of works on the dayor it doesn't tell me about your
worst wipe out all they'd haveto be at, um, a Biddle spot
called, um, the womb, which issnare Ellen's brook, which is
kind of a historic place inMargaret River.
And there's um, a really, um,got a nasty little wave that
blocks close to the shore and itreally shallow rates break and
(05:01):
I'll kind of skip skip work onemorning when a conditions are
good and thought I'll just havea quick surf before work.
Yet everything went pear shaped.
I caught a cold, a tricky wavethat basically collapsed on my
head and it used to abuse me asthis is the meat, the sandwich
between my surfboard and thelift.
I managed to snap a couple ofbones in my leg.
(05:21):
I spent about eight months onthe sidelines healing up.
So yeah, it was a shockinginjury, but the place is
notorious for it kind a wife.
I don't Really gonna go surfingtoo.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
If we look back at your younger self, was it
winemaking or surfing that wasin the blood and led you to
Margaret River?
Oh, definitely.
I'm surfing.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
My parents moved down to the area or the region more
in the northern end of MargaretRiver.
That pretty early on when I wasstill finishing off and we were
taking, before that period wewere taking just about every
spare weekend down there for asurfing holiday on Oh, school
holidays or whatever.
So that's kind of what led us tothe area because it is such a
(06:10):
beautiful area for surfing andthe whole coast line.
And my father was um, Gulu canesurfer as well, so it wasn't
long before he bought a place.
Um, that's when he kind ofstarted looking around for some
sort of pursuit so he couldjustify living down there.
He got into the kind ofviticultural side of, of the
(06:30):
industry and started workingwith local people that were
establishing vineyards and, andit kind of blossomed from there.
Did he have anyone makingbackground hello?
One drinking background?
Uh, he didn't, he might havesome really bad B if that
counts.
No, he didn't really, he didn'thave any background at all.
They were kind of newbies and Iwas just talking to my mom this
(06:52):
morning though.
They went to pick up somecuttings to put in the ground.
And I had no idea what they werepicking out.
They took this trailer to pickthem up and they could have, she
could have put on her lap.
So that's kind of how new theywere to the whole game.
They picked up the business riskby doing it basically.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, when you work in the winery these days,
because surfing is such a bigpart of things, is it kind of
seen as just quite normal totake off for a bit of a surf if
the swell is pumping.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Ah, who's listening to this?
When I was in the familybusiness, oh I had a lot of
freedom to do that, those sortof things.
But the one industry is kind ofboom and bust in a work sense as
we have a really full on periodduring vintage.
And I think most businesses cutpeople a little bit of slack
around that period because I dohave to put in pretty long hours
(07:40):
over that period.
So yeah, I don't think anyonebegrudges um, one that cause the
old surf.
And, and most of them will peeloff and have a good wife if, if,
if the conditions such that it'sa good surf, are there ever days
where secures, get coldrepeatedly.
So there's plenty of sickiesgoing right.
Well, that my lesson, not toskip school because I ended up
(08:00):
on the sidelines for eightmonths, so not me anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Another one maker who came to Margaret River for its
consistent surf is Mike get,he's made wine for many of the
regions, icon wineries from CapeMintel to Cullen and Zana do.
But he says he never actuallyexpected to.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
I grew up in South Australia and I was working on
initially down McLaren Vale.
The first time I came over waswith a couple of mates and we'd
packed up my panel van withboards and everything and drive
across the Nullarbor, stayed atshadows entity and Prune
Vignette for a month and wentsurfing.
And I visited the wineries thatwere there while I was there.
I was offered a vintage job atColin and so I thought, oh,
(08:41):
awesome.
You know, I get to come backnext year and I'll do vintage or
Carolyn and that'd be fantasticand then I'll die back to South
Australia and do what everyoneelse is doing.
I'm working across the valley,so I know I didn't expect to be
there beyond the vintage.
How long have you been therenow?
Nearly 30 years.
It was just one of those thingsthat, you know, as a young wine
maker back then, it was so farfrom the rest of the country
(09:01):
that no one really gave it anyconsideration.
Once I got there, theopportunities just kept
happening.
Like I'm, I did my six month atCallan and as I was leaving John
Darren from Caitlin till said,listen, we'd really love you to
come and work for us and ourWayne.
Jeez, you know, I job at Capeuntil that looks good on the
resume.
It just, that just get happeningin 30 years later.
(09:24):
I've got a house, I'm marriedand I'll live in Margaret, and
most of us were there.
I mean, the thing about Margaretare about, and the wine story
day, it wasn't just about thewine go.
I attracted everybody to, it wasthe things beyond wine is a
beautiful place.
First Time people go there,they're actually go, wow, this
is a beautiful place and if youwant to be a winemaker and going
surfer, where or who do you wantto live?
So it attracts people who areinterested in wine and other
(09:47):
things.
When Mike hurt his shoulder, heturned to mountain biking for
his nature and adrenaline fix,did some ligaments in my
shoulder and I basicallycouldn't paddle anymore.
It just hurt too much and thephysio said, you keep doing it,
you're going to wreck yourshoulder.
So I had to stop, you know, andlet it heal.
But I don't like sitting still.
So I ended up getting intomountain biking and that was
right at kind of the beginningof when mountain biking was
(10:11):
taking off.
I just happened to have a Mikethat was right into it and I'm,
there was only a small trial.
It was really tiny unsanctionedwe called it illegal trial
through one of the nationalparks in Margaret River.
And again, it was thatcombination of the environment
and you know, the adrenaline andall that sort of stuff that
surfing gave you that I kind ofloved about mountain biking.
(10:31):
So yeah, I got hooked on that.
Did they always go throughforests?
These trials?
Yeah, I mean that's the bestpart of of mountain biking.
You talked to my surface and thebest part of surfing a lot of
people talk about is being inthe ocean.
The Best Mountain biking is notjust about seeing how and what
jumps you can do or anythinglike that.
It's about riding through, youknow, amazing environments.
(10:53):
And we're lucky in MargaretRiver to be spoiled with some
pretty nice national parks andbeautiful areas that you can,
you can mountain bikes story.
So yeah, it was the thrill plusthe environment to have that
thrill in.
That was, you walked out of it.
It was almost zen, you know, itwas a little bit, that was my,
my form of meditation was to gosmash myself through a national
park and, and just every now andagain you'd stop and just go,
(11:15):
bloody hell, this is amazing.
You know, and then off you goagain and you don't do anything
by halves.
How far did you go with themountain biking on a national
scale?
Another mate of mine was, you'reright, Ryan is a downhilling.
I saw that once and went, oh, Ito have a crack at bath, which
is essentially you throwyourself off a cliff with a
mountain bike and all thehelmets and downhill bikes are
(11:36):
like a motorbike without amotive.
They're big, big suspension.
Restarted doing that.
Got Right into it racing on thenational circuit.
So I did the, a national circuiton the um, Australian mountain
bike downhilling tour.
It was all about hanging outwith people riding really
interesting places, you know,racing the Australian
championships
Speaker 6 (11:54):
and things like that.
Yeah.
Managed to come out reasonablyunscathed.
I locked myself out twice.
I broke in Columbine twice thisside.
Once that side of broken ribs ordislocated shoulder, which
killed my shoulder again, butapart from that I came out
pretty unscathed.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
None of that will happen to you if you're just
going on a leisurely bike ridebetween wineries, pull isles,
the owner of Harry Marron bikecafe where you can hire all
sorts of bikes, says he'sworking to develop more winery
riding trails in Margaret River.
I caught up with him at amountain biking competition in
the forest.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
The trials I I today, I understand there are a few
more crashes live yesterday topet you might've expected.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
We've got a circle of wineries.
That board of the town and usingyour bicycle to get them and it
is a very easy option.
Sort of enables people to sortof sample the local forests, see
a bit of farm land.
Being on a, on a bicycle reallygives you a whole different
level of that experience.
The sights and the smells, thequality of the light, the
quality of the air.
(12:55):
What group of wineries cancyclists currently ride between
the current cycle route takes inCape Mintel to do voyager and
then Lewin after Louann we'vegot a journey back through the
natural forest back to thetownship from Margaret River, so
it's quite a good roundup ofwhat Margaret has to offer
Speaker 1 (13:15):
back to surfing.
Now.
Margaret River's waves are soclean and consistent.
It's become an annual fixture onthe World Surf League tour, the
Margaret River Pro Lewis, bignames such as Kelly Slater and
Joel Parkinson and local surfingroyalty.
Taj Burrow is also a regularsurfing actually predates the
wine industry by more than adecade pioneer surfers explored
(13:38):
this area way back in the 1950sthis story and every decade
since has been chronicled by JimKing and his friends who've put
together the Franchisee Wy SurfGallery at era Vayner estate
Speaker 8 (13:50):
and, and it opened in uh, December, 2017 let's go have
a look show.
Yup.
Okay.
We'll say starting, we wererunning it through the different
tech guys, but this starting up,this area here is the 50s that's
the pioneers surfing in WWI.
I love this picture of a kind ofa shanty shack made out of
(14:12):
corrugated on with lots ofsmiling faces, big white, wide
Greens coming out of it.
And tell me about this one.
This is funny, I can't rememberit all, but these are Americans.
These are people that come outfrom California to WWI, uh, to
surf for three months.
I made a Shakeout, a driftwoodand lived at left-handers at the
(14:35):
back of Christ town.
That was kind of how it was,wasn't it?
Didn't you sleep in your car?
Yeah.
Uh, well in the 50s, you didn'thave a choice.
All the pioneers, they'd sleepin hammocks and in their cars
under the Melaleucas at yellingup.
Yeah.
I used to sleep in the car.
My poor, we had an old home andI got the suits that was laid
(14:55):
down, but it was still veryuncomfortable.
Speaker 9 (15:02):
[inaudible]
Speaker 8 (15:03):
um, then we had trouble with people coming out
from Boston at night, beatingpeople up.
I think the surface, we'retaking some of the girlfriends
from some of the locals andthere was a bit of friction
there.
Even back in the fifties thatwere having trouble.
They're getting into the localdances cause the uh, the farmers
figured that they were gonnalose their girls.
Speaker 9 (15:30):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (15:30):
does that all kind of came to a head really from what
I know, around about theseventies or so, is that kind of
when things kind of explodeddown here?
Speaker 8 (15:37):
Oh yeah.
A light lightened the sixtiessummer of love, California and
room to come.
The hippies and all the surfacestarted getting along here.
If you look at back in thefifties you'll see everybody was
short hair healthy, well, no low.
They used to drink a lot, play alot, but all of a sudden
everyone become hippies in it.
Yeah.
The funny thing about all theselong haired people heaving are
(15:59):
damn hippies.
They're still here now andthey're all sensible.
I've worked all their life.
They are retired.
They left the known I didn'twant to work in the city.
I come down here, I gotemployment and I've lived here
all the life that lived thedream at this time
Speaker 1 (16:15):
where the surface merging with the winemakers
because this was when the wineindustry was just starting off
in Margaret River.
How did the two worlds meet?
Speaker 8 (16:23):
Well, the surface had to make a living.
There must've been morevineyards around and I started
working, uh, pruning that traysand that during that period it
was only seasonal.
And when they weren't doing thatthough, our carding high in that
for the farmers.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
What is it about wine makers or winery workers and the
surf[inaudible]
Speaker 8 (16:46):
it's just something natural about it.
It was, seemed like a good fithere.
Um, it's a surf Garry here beinglocated in a winery.
I mean just look out here now.
It's just such a beautifulplace.
Everything's natural, I guesswise, natural too.
It's just a natural environment.
(17:06):
I'm 72 now.
I serve February tie with mybrother.
I think it keeps me fit andhealthy and it's just what I do.
I think I tried some otherthings like golf from whatever I
found.
I just can't do it.
And Surfing is unite with me.
I've been doing it priva 55years now and uh, as much as my
lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And it wouldn't be a surfing exhibition without some
staff.
How are from local processor?
Speaker 8 (17:33):
Taj Burrow?
Taj is one, a lot of thingsaround the will.
He was a professional surfer for18 years, which is a long time.
He started when you aside and hewent to 36 it was always in the
top five in the world line.
But in 2009, he the pipelinemasters in a y on the north
shore.
The first prize is thiswonderful board we've got here
(17:56):
with the Jerry Lopez painting onit.
And that board up there looks abit bad at, but that was
[inaudible] first board.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
You can look up Jim King's work on Facebook.
Just search for surfing downSouth
Speaker 10 (18:14):
[inaudible] [inaudible]
Speaker 1 (18:14):
you're listening to local band, the new towns and
their track circles.
Additional music by Josh Hoganand Ned Beckley.
This podcast is supported by theinternational wine tourism grant
funded by wine Australia.
Margaret River wine association,Margaret River Busselton Tourism
(18:35):
Association.
Southwest Development Commissionand Australia southwest.
It's been scripted, recorded andpresented by me.
Fluor manger from white noisemedia, sound design by Tom Allen
from barking wolf and producedby Sophie Mathewson.
We acknowledged the word Dandysoap, water and forest people as
(18:56):
the traditional owners of thisregion.
I remind you to walk softly oncountry for inspiration.
Planning your trip to thisbeautiful part of the world
is@margaretriver.com.
Speaker 9 (19:09):
[inaudible] I hate sick kids.
[inaudible].
Welcome to Wine Unearthed.
This podcast takes you behindthe scenes of the Margaret River
wine making region in WesternAustralia, the very place named
best in Asia Pacific by travelauthority, Lonely Planet.
It's produced for you by YourMargaret River Region and the
Margaret River Wine Association.
My name's Fleur Bainger.
(00:22):
I'm a food and travel journalistand I'll be taking you through
this gorgeous spot, tasting thewine, meeting the people and
breathing in the surrounds.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
[ sounds]
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Locals often joke that if you can't find a wine
maker in the winery, they'll beout in the surf.
Margaret River's legendary waveshave drawn countless people to
the region, but winemakers seemto have a particular affinity to
the clean, curling breaks.
"It's a beautiful place.
What attracted everybody to itwas the things beyond wine".
In this podcast, we'll meet MikeGad, surfer and mountain biker
(00:58):
who came to Margaret River andnever left.
Another winemaker and big wavesurfer will tell us about his
worst ever wipeout.
"I kind of skipped work onemorning when the conditions are
good and thought I'll just havea quick surf before work, yet
everything went pear shaped".
And we'll take a walk throughthe WA Surf Gallery at Aravina
(01:19):
Estate to see surfing royalty.
"Taj has won a lot of thingsaround the world.
He was a professional surfer for18 years".
But first wine writer, PeterForrestal joins us for a quick
devil in a wine that'll warm youright up after a splash in the
ocean.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
What have we got here?
"This is the 2017 Cullen RedMoon, a new wine that Vanya has
developed, It's um, from thefamilies Mangan Vineyard.
So this one is mainly Malbeckwith petite verdot and a touch
(01:58):
of Merlot.
And this particular wine wasactually harvested on the, the
day of the red moon in Februaryof 2017.
One of the things that bydynamics does is it emphasizes,
I guess the closeness of bit aculture to the making of the
wine.
(02:18):
And I guess Margaret River in itin a way is sort of built very
much on that connection becauseso many wine makers in Margaret
River came here because ofnature and what it offers,
didn't they?
No, I think that's absolutelyfair to say.
Joe Of the most vulnerable, uh,surfers, uh, Dennis Hogan of
(02:39):
course, who just, he loved his aRed Gate beach and David Honan,
David Honan of course, uh, is awell known surfer, although he
did cop a bit of stick because,uh, some of the younger champs
were critical of the fact thathe used a boogie board.
Huh.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I'm a bookie water.
I love weaver.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Well, David would love you for that.
The other important surfer ofcourse, is[inaudible] column
herself.
I just have been, he has been alifetime of surfer.
No question.
I didn't know that.
Oh Yeah, she, Huh?
Yeah, no, she has only surfed.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Now let's make diamon a store, a cool calm one.
Micah who's regarded as one ofthe best big wave surfers in the
Margaret River region.
After working as a lawyer, hejoined his family's Wildwood
winery.
Then later switched to flyingfish cove winery, but every
spare moment he has, he's out onthe water.
He wants surfed a monster wavewith an estimated 60 foot face
(03:44):
that's about 18 meters.
It earned him an award forsurfing.
What was believed to be thebiggest wave ever ridden in
Australia at the time.
He says he was intent on takingit.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
I remember when I caught it, it was a bit of
competition for the wide bit ofjockeying.
Other guys wanted the same waveand I was kind of screaming out,
up top of my lines that I'm infor this wave and those other
people are going for it.
Peeled off.
And I remember LIGO, the Rod,and got to the bottom of the
wave and I looked up, it wasbigger than I'd ever sort of
seen before and I was in areally 50, 50 spot.
(04:19):
So I just basically put my headdown and ran at that point.
And luckily it did.
The Y didn't catch up to me andI kind of survived the ride
pretty well.
So, yeah.
Pretty memorable.
What about the fear factor?
Yeah, well I guess, um, thefears, the fears, kind of the
fun part as well, you know, doesit gets everything in your body
for pumping and all theadrenaline flying it?
(04:39):
Yeah.
It all kind of works on the dayor it doesn't tell me about your
worst wipe out all they'd haveto be at, um, a Biddle spot
called, um, the womb, which issnare Ellen's brook, which is
kind of a historic place inMargaret River.
And there's um, a really, um,got a nasty little wave that
blocks close to the shore and itreally shallow rates break and
(05:01):
I'll kind of skip skip work onemorning when a conditions are
good and thought I'll just havea quick surf before work.
Yet everything went pear shaped.
I caught a cold, a tricky wavethat basically collapsed on my
head and it used to abuse me asthis is the meat, the sandwich
between my surfboard and thelift.
I managed to snap a couple ofbones in my leg.
(05:21):
I spent about eight months onthe sidelines healing up.
So yeah, it was a shockinginjury, but the place is
notorious for it kind a wife.
I don't Really gonna go surfingtoo.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
If we look back at your younger self, was it
winemaking or surfing that wasin the blood and led you to
Margaret River?
Oh, definitely.
I'm surfing.
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
My parents moved down to the area or the region more
in the northern end of MargaretRiver.
That pretty early on when I wasstill finishing off and we were
taking, before that period wewere taking just about every
spare weekend down there for asurfing holiday on Oh, school
holidays or whatever.
So that's kind of what led us tothe area because it is such a
(06:10):
beautiful area for surfing andthe whole coast line.
And my father was um, Gulu canesurfer as well, so it wasn't
long before he bought a place.
Um, that's when he kind ofstarted looking around for some
sort of pursuit so he couldjustify living down there.
He got into the kind ofviticultural side of, of the
(06:30):
industry and started workingwith local people that were
establishing vineyards and, andit kind of blossomed from there.
Did he have anyone makingbackground hello?
One drinking background?
Uh, he didn't, he might havesome really bad B if that
counts.
No, he didn't really, he didn'thave any background at all.
They were kind of newbies and Iwas just talking to my mom this
(06:52):
morning though.
They went to pick up somecuttings to put in the ground.
And I had no idea what they werepicking out.
They took this trailer to pickthem up and they could have, she
could have put on her lap.
So that's kind of how new theywere to the whole game.
They picked up the business riskby doing it basically.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, when you work in the winery these days,
because surfing is such a bigpart of things, is it kind of
seen as just quite normal totake off for a bit of a surf if
the swell is pumping.
Speaker 4 (07:18):
Ah, who's listening to this?
When I was in the familybusiness, oh I had a lot of
freedom to do that, those sortof things.
But the one industry is kind ofboom and bust in a work sense as
we have a really full on periodduring vintage.
And I think most businesses cutpeople a little bit of slack
around that period because I dohave to put in pretty long hours
(07:40):
over that period.
So yeah, I don't think anyonebegrudges um, one that cause the
old surf.
And, and most of them will peeloff and have a good wife if, if,
if the conditions such that it'sa good surf, are there ever days
where secures, get coldrepeatedly.
So there's plenty of sickiesgoing right.
Well, that my lesson, not toskip school because I ended up
(08:00):
on the sidelines for eightmonths, so not me anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Another one maker who came to Margaret River for its
consistent surf is Mike get,he's made wine for many of the
regions, icon wineries from CapeMintel to Cullen and Zana do.
But he says he never actuallyexpected to.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
I grew up in South Australia and I was working on
initially down McLaren Vale.
The first time I came over waswith a couple of mates and we'd
packed up my panel van withboards and everything and drive
across the Nullarbor, stayed atshadows entity and Prune
Vignette for a month and wentsurfing.
And I visited the wineries thatwere there while I was there.
I was offered a vintage job atColin and so I thought, oh,
(08:41):
awesome.
You know, I get to come backnext year and I'll do vintage or
Carolyn and that'd be fantasticand then I'll die back to South
Australia and do what everyoneelse is doing.
I'm working across the valley,so I know I didn't expect to be
there beyond the vintage.
How long have you been therenow?
Nearly 30 years.
It was just one of those thingsthat, you know, as a young wine
maker back then, it was so farfrom the rest of the country
(09:01):
that no one really gave it anyconsideration.
Once I got there, theopportunities just kept
happening.
Like I'm, I did my six month atCallan and as I was leaving John
Darren from Caitlin till said,listen, we'd really love you to
come and work for us and ourWayne.
Jeez, you know, I job at Capeuntil that looks good on the
resume.
It just, that just get happeningin 30 years later.
(09:24):
I've got a house, I'm marriedand I'll live in Margaret, and
most of us were there.
I mean, the thing about Margaretare about, and the wine story
day, it wasn't just about thewine go.
I attracted everybody to, it wasthe things beyond wine is a
beautiful place.
First Time people go there,they're actually go, wow, this
is a beautiful place and if youwant to be a winemaker and going
surfer, where or who do you wantto live?
So it attracts people who areinterested in wine and other
(09:47):
things.
When Mike hurt his shoulder, heturned to mountain biking for
his nature and adrenaline fix,did some ligaments in my
shoulder and I basicallycouldn't paddle anymore.
It just hurt too much and thephysio said, you keep doing it,
you're going to wreck yourshoulder.
So I had to stop, you know, andlet it heal.
But I don't like sitting still.
So I ended up getting intomountain biking and that was
right at kind of the beginningof when mountain biking was
(10:11):
taking off.
I just happened to have a Mikethat was right into it and I'm,
there was only a small trial.
It was really tiny unsanctionedwe called it illegal trial
through one of the nationalparks in Margaret River.
And again, it was thatcombination of the environment
and you know, the adrenaline andall that sort of stuff that
surfing gave you that I kind ofloved about mountain biking.
(10:31):
So yeah, I got hooked on that.
Did they always go throughforests?
These trials?
Yeah, I mean that's the bestpart of of mountain biking.
You talked to my surface and thebest part of surfing a lot of
people talk about is being inthe ocean.
The Best Mountain biking is notjust about seeing how and what
jumps you can do or anythinglike that.
It's about riding through, youknow, amazing environments.
(10:53):
And we're lucky in MargaretRiver to be spoiled with some
pretty nice national parks andbeautiful areas that you can,
you can mountain bikes story.
So yeah, it was the thrill plusthe environment to have that
thrill in.
That was, you walked out of it.
It was almost zen, you know, itwas a little bit, that was my,
my form of meditation was to gosmash myself through a national
park and, and just every now andagain you'd stop and just go,
(11:15):
bloody hell, this is amazing.
You know, and then off you goagain and you don't do anything
by halves.
How far did you go with themountain biking on a national
scale?
Another mate of mine was, you'reright, Ryan is a downhilling.
I saw that once and went, oh, Ito have a crack at bath, which
is essentially you throwyourself off a cliff with a
mountain bike and all thehelmets and downhill bikes are
(11:36):
like a motorbike without amotive.
They're big, big suspension.
Restarted doing that.
Got Right into it racing on thenational circuit.
So I did the, a national circuiton the um, Australian mountain
bike downhilling tour.
It was all about hanging outwith people riding really
interesting places, you know,racing the Australian
championships
Speaker 6 (11:54):
and things like that.
Yeah.
Managed to come out reasonablyunscathed.
I locked myself out twice.
I broke in Columbine twice thisside.
Once that side of broken ribs ordislocated shoulder, which
killed my shoulder again, butapart from that I came out
pretty unscathed.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
None of that will happen to you if you're just
going on a leisurely bike ridebetween wineries, pull isles,
the owner of Harry Marron bikecafe where you can hire all
sorts of bikes, says he'sworking to develop more winery
riding trails in Margaret River.
I caught up with him at amountain biking competition in
the forest.
Speaker 7 (12:28):
The trials I I today, I understand there are a few
more crashes live yesterday topet you might've expected.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
We've got a circle of wineries.
That board of the town and usingyour bicycle to get them and it
is a very easy option.
Sort of enables people to sortof sample the local forests, see
a bit of farm land.
Being on a, on a bicycle reallygives you a whole different
level of that experience.
The sights and the smells, thequality of the light, the
quality of the air.
(12:55):
What group of wineries cancyclists currently ride between
the current cycle route takes inCape Mintel to do voyager and
then Lewin after Louann we'vegot a journey back through the
natural forest back to thetownship from Margaret River, so
it's quite a good roundup ofwhat Margaret has to offer
Speaker 1 (13:15):
back to surfing.
Now.
Margaret River's waves are soclean and consistent.
It's become an annual fixture onthe World Surf League tour, the
Margaret River Pro Lewis, bignames such as Kelly Slater and
Joel Parkinson and local surfingroyalty.
Taj Burrow is also a regularsurfing actually predates the
wine industry by more than adecade pioneer surfers explored
(13:38):
this area way back in the 1950sthis story and every decade
since has been chronicled by JimKing and his friends who've put
together the Franchisee Wy SurfGallery at era Vayner estate
Speaker 8 (13:50):
and, and it opened in uh, December, 2017 let's go have
a look show.
Yup.
Okay.
We'll say starting, we wererunning it through the different
tech guys, but this starting up,this area here is the 50s that's
the pioneers surfing in WWI.
I love this picture of a kind ofa shanty shack made out of
(14:12):
corrugated on with lots ofsmiling faces, big white, wide
Greens coming out of it.
And tell me about this one.
This is funny, I can't rememberit all, but these are Americans.
These are people that come outfrom California to WWI, uh, to
surf for three months.
I made a Shakeout, a driftwoodand lived at left-handers at the
(14:35):
back of Christ town.
That was kind of how it was,wasn't it?
Didn't you sleep in your car?
Yeah.
Uh, well in the 50s, you didn'thave a choice.
All the pioneers, they'd sleepin hammocks and in their cars
under the Melaleucas at yellingup.
Yeah.
I used to sleep in the car.
My poor, we had an old home andI got the suits that was laid
(14:55):
down, but it was still veryuncomfortable.
Speaker 9 (15:02):
[inaudible]
Speaker 8 (15:03):
um, then we had trouble with people coming out
from Boston at night, beatingpeople up.
I think the surface, we'retaking some of the girlfriends
from some of the locals andthere was a bit of friction
there.
Even back in the fifties thatwere having trouble.
They're getting into the localdances cause the uh, the farmers
figured that they were gonnalose their girls.
Speaker 9 (15:30):
[inaudible]
Speaker 1 (15:30):
does that all kind of came to a head really from what
I know, around about theseventies or so, is that kind of
when things kind of explodeddown here?
Speaker 8 (15:37):
Oh yeah.
A light lightened the sixtiessummer of love, California and
room to come.
The hippies and all the surfacestarted getting along here.
If you look at back in thefifties you'll see everybody was
short hair healthy, well, no low.
They used to drink a lot, play alot, but all of a sudden
everyone become hippies in it.
Yeah.
The funny thing about all theselong haired people heaving are
(15:59):
damn hippies.
They're still here now andthey're all sensible.
I've worked all their life.
They are retired.
They left the known I didn'twant to work in the city.
I come down here, I gotemployment and I've lived here
all the life that lived thedream at this time
Speaker 1 (16:15):
where the surface merging with the winemakers
because this was when the wineindustry was just starting off
in Margaret River.
How did the two worlds meet?
Speaker 8 (16:23):
Well, the surface had to make a living.
There must've been morevineyards around and I started
working, uh, pruning that traysand that during that period it
was only seasonal.
And when they weren't doing thatthough, our carding high in that
for the farmers.
Speaker 1 (16:41):
What is it about wine makers or winery workers and the
surf[inaudible]
Speaker 8 (16:46):
it's just something natural about it.
It was, seemed like a good fithere.
Um, it's a surf Garry here beinglocated in a winery.
I mean just look out here now.
It's just such a beautifulplace.
Everything's natural, I guesswise, natural too.
It's just a natural environment.
(17:06):
I'm 72 now.
I serve February tie with mybrother.
I think it keeps me fit andhealthy and it's just what I do.
I think I tried some otherthings like golf from whatever I
found.
I just can't do it.
And Surfing is unite with me.
I've been doing it priva 55years now and uh, as much as my
lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
And it wouldn't be a surfing exhibition without some
staff.
How are from local processor?
Speaker 8 (17:33):
Taj Burrow?
Taj is one, a lot of thingsaround the will.
He was a professional surfer for18 years, which is a long time.
He started when you aside and hewent to 36 it was always in the
top five in the world line.
But in 2009, he the pipelinemasters in a y on the north
shore.
The first prize is thiswonderful board we've got here
(17:56):
with the Jerry Lopez painting onit.
And that board up there looks abit bad at, but that was
[inaudible] first board.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
You can look up Jim King's work on Facebook.
Just search for surfing downSouth
Speaker 10 (18:14):
[inaudible] [inaudible]
Speaker 1 (18:14):
you're listening to local band, the new towns and
their track circles.
Additional music by Josh Hoganand Ned Beckley.
This podcast is supported by theinternational wine tourism grant
funded by wine Australia.
Margaret River wine association,Margaret River Busselton Tourism
(18:35):
Association.
Southwest Development Commissionand Australia southwest.
It's been scripted, recorded andpresented by me.
Fluor manger from white noisemedia, sound design by Tom Allen
from barking wolf and producedby Sophie Mathewson.
We acknowledged the word Dandysoap, water and forest people as
(18:56):
the traditional owners of thisregion.
I remind you to walk softly oncountry for inspiration.
Planning your trip to thisbeautiful part of the world
is@margaretriver.com.
Speaker 9 (19:09):
[inaudible] I hate sick kids.
[inaudible].
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com