Interview by Ali Klinkenberg | Photos by John Respondek

Craig Anderson broke the internet on Tuesday with his edit, Welcome Elsewhere. But here’s the scoop: For the most part during filming, Craig travelled with bodyboarders. Craig became friends with the tight-knit crew of spongers a while back, and they’ve since become his ticket to scoring aqua blue gold in areas of Australia where local knowledge is essential. We dialled in Craig to learn the origins of this unlikely union, and why bodyboarders are completely awesome.

The meeting.

“I actually met them mainly through Instagram direct message, funnily enough. You know how you can add a whole bunch of people to the same thread? And they’re just funny motherfuckers, and I got tagged in all these messages and then bumped into a whole bunch of them who film and bodyboard when I was filming on the South Coast with Dion, and it just went from there.”

Vibes.

“Their vibes are really cool, just super laid back. Their etiquette and manners are flawless, they're easy going and at the end of the day they just want to surf fun uncrowded waves with their pals. I guess there isn't a ton of money in their industry, thus stripping it back to basics. There's no ego, they just do it for the love.

And in particular they’re trying to chase waves with no one around, because there’s always someone with something smart to say to a bodyboarder, just because they don’t stand up. Unless it’s a 10-foot slab of course. Then everyone’s pretty quiet because they charge.”

"(Laughs) I don't bodyboard, but it's fun to muck around at Oz Pipe because that wave gets super frustrating with the crowd sometimes," Ando tells us. "You fall off heaps too because the ramps are almost too big. Spon got me good here." "(Laughs) I don't bodyboard, but it's fun to muck around at Oz Pipe because that wave gets super frustrating with the crowd sometimes," Ando tells us. "You fall off heaps too because the ramps are almost too big. Spon got me good here."

Secrets.

“No one wants to give away their secrets. But especially the bodyboarders, because when a spot gets blown out they go straight down the pecking order. Which is a joke and it shouldn’t be like that. They go harder than anyone and their psych for adventure and finding waves is second to none.”

The Search.

"They all work hard at whatever it is that they do. Lots of them are tradies. And then when a chart pops up, they just drop everything and drive like 20 hours, sleep in swags, surf pumping waves on their own and eat cans of baked beans on the fire. They’re not worried about staying in five star hotels. It’s awesome, and totally different to how I’ve gone on most trips growing up. It’s totally different to how some surfers travel, fly in, take and go. Sure, there’s a lot of dudes that do it tough, on wild camping programs. But at heart the bodyboarders just love the mission and travelling and will do anything to find good waves. If the wind goes funky they'll come in, and drive hours and hours in a different direction just on the off chance they may stumble on something good.”

Love thy neighbour.

“It’s cool to see that certain people really respect them, like when Slater posted that clip of Lewy Finnegan, one of the West Oz groms, and then everyone’s like, ‘ah, yeah, maybe bodyboarding is cool.’ It should be mutual respect no matter what equipment you’re on. It shouldn’t take Slater to validate it.”