Derek Hynd | Off-Black Fact

By Derek Hynd

Worse than inserting yourself into a conversation is making a living out of doing it. Consider surf writing. 9 in 10 surf writers cop out with first-person narrative, flogging personal ego by 'being there for the reader.’ The bottom line is just a vainglorious technique to cloak false foundation. This is and always has been the shit-easy way out of the classic pitfall: lack of knowledge.

This kind of crap leads to the door of these Black Hole Transmissions.

You will NOT find bullshit here – or at least you shouldn’t. That is why I am drawn to contributing to these Transmissions. Knowledge, experience, and warranted opinion have placed those contributors you will encounter here decades ahead of the dreaded curve. You, reader, hacking through the overgrown surfing jungle, need to focus on this point of difference.

The entire industry is awash in top-heavy bullshit — but you don't need to be told. Right? Exceptions to the rule? Everywhere, certainly. With the written word take Matt George and his Rainbow Bridge profile of Cheyne Horan for SURFER in the mid 1980's. Bold, literally taking notorious liberty with Cheyne's private space. Also consider Steve Shearer, breaking investigative ground, notably a focal Sunny Garcia piece turning over most stones re Gold Coast violence 20 years ago. Other than these guys, all just gonzo shit.

It's the confronting darkness of colour at the depths that matter. You can label it 'Objective Off-Black' without putting it in thematic darkness. Truth through experience isn't easy to find but such narrators reflect a style of penetration not easily forgotten. Such 'Off-Black' was captured at the turn of the century by surfer Paul Ryan in his backyard painter's shed south of Sydney at Sandon Point. 8 or 10 canvases all dimensionally packed in paint, all black; but, look long enough and not black. Look longer still, question it, meditate on nothing remotely dark grey, and lo, herald such shards of darkest blue/purple. The scream of artistic genius. Poetic that his paid job was as a kaleidoscopic clown.

There's no pure black fact in surfing once past obvious basic, foundational truths: the complete merit of BK at Sunset, Gerry at Pipe, Simon at Narrabeen on singles; the speed of Bunker; the leash as an attachment of cowardice; the surfer as an environmentally woeful human. A surf writer plying first person narrative must automatically be placed at the other end, laying little claim on depth of perspective. Paul Ryan's off-black is generally the closest any surf writer is likely to get to what we should be reading.

Somewhat poetically fitting, the only thing I ever penned that was 100% objective had nothing to do with me, simply a set of 1000 unpublished Q&A interviews compiled 30 years ago. The key? Simplicity of the list: D.O.B., schooling, work, marriage, children; also, three further questions: best surfer they ever saw, best year of their life, heaviest experience of their life — land or sea. The reason it was never published was because it was the only pure thing I ever did in surfing. So I kept it to myself. This was the colour black.

Which brings me back to the Black Hole Transmissions experience. You can do far worse than trust these written contributions. Base knowledge and embedded experience, and a low margin of bullshit serve to help the reader discern the painter's study in off- black. Depth of consideration is needed to splinter the arguments laid out here.

 …And here you come into play.