Logging with Belinda ‘Bindy’ Baggs

Last year Kuni and I published a feature story on Single Fin surf culture in Australia in Japan’s BLUE magazine, featuring some amazing Australian loggers, shapers, unknowns and legends. Along the road we met up with the beautiful Belinda Baggs who shared her home and local waves with us and our cameras. The story is yet to be published elsewhere in English, so enjoy a day out with Bindy and her log!

Logging with Belinda ‘Bindy’ Baggs

By Angie Takanami

Photos Kuni Takanami

Woman of the waves, lover of the land, sister of the simple. Belinda Baggs is one to lose herself in the moment when she surfs. Giving up the professional game for the life of a wandering surf traveler, Bindy enjoys surviving on the minimum and being in the water every waking moment.

The car park at the entrance to Noosa National Park is full; surfers slipping into bright coloured board shorts, the sweet smell of sun cream in the air as black turkeys with red wrinkled heads run wild searching unattended bags for food. Circling twice in her spotless silver Mercedes van, Bindy throws her hands up and laughs ‘no parks!’ stopping suddenly next to a grassy opening, jumping her slim figure out of the car around to the trunk. Inside are the tools of her trade; neatly stacked surfboards in striped cotton cases, wetsuits long and short hung carefully on coat hangers, bodysurfing fins, water, a change of clothes and Patagonia catalogues. Without hesitation, she pulls a pastel purple 9”2 ‘log’ from its cover and sets it gently on the grass with her shoulder bag, block of wax and favourite blue Australian beach towel. Jumping back in the van Bindy drives off out of the car park, back up the hill and out of sight.

The verdant parkland is cool under the shade of big Eucalyptus trees, a refreshing sea breeze tingles our skin – relief from the humid summer heat. Half-naked kids run around on the grass, eager to get to the beach and play. Bindy comes running back down the hil dressed comfortably in tight black spats, a sleeveless t-shirt and jogging shoes. Her short cropped blond hair neatly styled. “Sorry to keep you waiting! It gets so busy in summer!”

As we wind down the coastal path, the ocean shimmers blue and green under the sun. Kookaburras giggle above in the treetops. Bindy stops momentarily and looks upwards, telling us to keep an eye open for Koalas. As she continues along the path her broad smile widens.

“Beautiful place isn’t it..you know I’ve done a lot of travelling but there is still no place like home!”

Back in oz for just under 48 hours, Bindy is amping to surf Tea Tree Bay, one of her favourite point breaks in the world. “I just spent 3 months living on a friend’s island in the Mentawai Islands in Indonesia, living in tents, eating healthy, helping them build a house. I get so in my element at Noosa and sometimes you need a change, so it was great surfing perfect 4-6ft barrels every day. But I love 1ft point breaks”

Arriving at Tea Tree is like stumbling upon utopia as the national park gives way to a beautiful protected bay where deep green right handers roll in off the rocky point. The lineup is a balance of guys and girls, old and young, lost in time on their logs. Away from break kids are snorkelling in the shallows as their parents tan their already golden bodies in the sticky heat. Bindy picks a spot in the shade, slips into her long-sleeved springy and secures her bag from sneaky wild turkeys. A set rolls in as she watches a local trim fluidly along a knee-high wave on his Alaia. “Oh it looks so fun out there. Yeew!”

Knee paddling out to the break Bindy doesn’t push straight to the take-off zone, instead waiting her turn in the friendly lineup. “Us locals just go one for one!” Her turn comes and she casually drops down the face, elegant and agile, gaining speed down the line as she dances gently to the nose, effortlessly hanging five. Poised and with flair, her arms floating weightlessly through the air.

“The log is great for noseriding. The position of the fin and the soft rails in the tail allows the water to wrap around the board, holding it in the water and counterbalancing your weight.”

Bindy, a professional free surfer and women’s ambassador to Patagonia Australia, gave up competition discontented with the tour, the nerves and pressure even making her physically ill. “In the end I just couldn’t see the point of competing. I would win a contest and feel great for a week but then the feeling would be lost and I would ask myself ‘How did that change my life?’ And it didn’t. I was the same person and it didn’t change a thing’. So I thought I’d rather spend the money and go right off the beaten track, surf with nobody and hang out with locals. I’d rather experience the place and gain a lot more from the culture.”

Growing up on 3-fin longboards influenced by her dad, it was ex-husband Dane Peterson who introduced Bindy to single fins, taking her to Malibu in 2000 where she got her first log. “All those guys just ride single fin ‘logs’ because that’s what works best for the wave there. I was kind of awestruck at how good they were at it and I could almost see the feeling they were getting. I realized that’s what I wanted…to feel that. The flow, glide, inertia.”

Riding logs has opened Bindy’s interest in various surf craft. “I paddle board when its flat to keep fit, been getting into bodysurfing lately, and I still ride my ‘egg’ shortboard when I’m amped or angry. But when I longboard, I just want to glide and nose ride, and that’s the log.”

Back at the house, Bindy relaxes on the balcony decking, looking out over swaying palm trees and a lush green garden. Chewing on a piece of vegemite toast her gentle hands are wrapped around a cup of coffee. “In Noosa we drink coffee! Everyone’s into going to get coffee after a surf and just hanging out. It’s part of the local vibe, no matter how built up the town gets that friendly vibe will never disappear. That’s what I love about the place.”