Single Fin Slidin’ Deep Down South; with Glen Casey

Another story from the SINGLE FIN IS KING Blue Magazine April 2009 cover feature. This time we spend a day with Glen Casey and his Wayne Lynch Single Fins, deep in the heart of Southern Australia.

“I haven’t been down there since winter…it could be a bit overgrown” says Patagonia Australia’s top man and grassroots surfing idol Glen Casey, as he loads a bunch of Wayne Lynch single fins onto the roof of his black Land Rover 4WD ‘bush basher’, then launches it south down the coast along Victoria’s scenic Great Ocean Road. “Wayne Lynch used to call my car the ‘Bog Basher’, because I’d always get it bogged. But I’m a much better driver now!”.

Turning off the main road, he throws the car along dusty dirt roads, then suddenly bursts out onto an open plain, driving fast and wild through thick grasslands before stopping just short of the edge of a wide open cliff top. Strong offshores blow out to sea. Untying the boards requires care and a strong grip. Our attention is lost towards a family of kangaroos sitting low on a ridge, looking out over shimmering turquoise water. As Glen follows their gaze, a smile comes over his neatly bearded face. Walling left and right handers break into an empty bay with no other surfer as far as the eye can see.

Uninhabited surf in this area exists for good reason; freezing water, Great White Sharks and powerful inaccessible beaches.
But Glen is already looking for a path, mumbling something about forgetting a machete…What was that mate?
“Aw nothing, It just could be a bit of a trek…”

Choosing a line through the thorny shrubs, he leads the way in 40degree heat. Slashing through spiny twigs with one hand, holding two surfboards, a wetsuit and backpack in the other, trying to stay balanced down the steep decline whilst bashing away at thousands of pesky flies. Eventually breaking out of the dense wilderness, a final effort through ankle biting grass leads to a sprint across hot white sand. We throw our gear down in celebration cut short; the flies have found us again, tripling in population. The land providing no sanctuary, we search for somewhere to run. My focus shifts south as something special comes into view….

The sun reflects off the surface of brilliant turquoise water, and a lonely left hander breaks nosily over a hidden reef. Blue sky paints a stunning canvas background to the empty line up and I feel like I am standing in a printed photograph.
Glen is paddling out before I have time to bring myself back into the moment. He takes off on a wave and lays down a powerful, drawn out bottom turn then smoothly links it into a mellow top turn, his blue ‘Wayne Lynch’ single fin shortboard slicing through the cold water like a razor through thin glass.

Having grown up with Australian legend surfer and shaper Wayne Lynch, Glen knows this coast like the back of his hand and has a hidden soft spot for huge surf. He speaks highly of his mentor and even today rides Wayne’s single fins.
“Wayne once told me, ‘I’ve been surfing the waves along this coast for 25 years, and you’re the most courageous surfer I’ve surfed them with’. We’ve surfed some of the most extreme waves together and had some of the funniest times together. The guy’s got one of the best sense of humour. Especially when he gets a few beers into him!”
Working as a sales rep in the surf industry for most of his life means Glen has always created a working lifestyle that allows him to skip out of the office from time to time to go wave chasing.10 years younger than Wayne, the two would go off tripping the coast together during surfing’s innocent years, exploring waves from Torquay along the wild south coast to the arid, secret spots along the west coast of Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.
“I would drive down to his place really early in the morning whilst it was still dark and we would drive along the coast anywhere finding surf. A lot of times we’d find waves and just camp there the night and he was right into playing the didgeridoo so we’d play music. Then I’d go back and do a few days work and then we’d re-fuel and do it all again.”

When the Great Ocean Road got busier and the surf breaks more crowded, Glen built himself a stunning retreat-style ‘octogon’ house deep within the rainforest of the Otway Ranges, his refuge from the stresses of life and base for surfing the south coast’s wild secret spots. The shelves stocked with organic canned soups and curries, Glen uses the house to re-connect with nature and his higher self.

An area very attached to his heart, Glen spent the last few years battling heartless loggers against ripping out some 550 hectares of pristine rainforest next door to his property.
“Right on the edge what they planned to log there are two really old trees next to a beautiful waterfall. I went to their planning meeting and told them all they were absolutely nuts.”
Refusing to stand down, Glen rallied his friends and family and fought strong until logging was finally banned in the Otway Ranges.
“Now every time I drive down that road I feel like all the trees are clapping me! All my friends.”

Glen is an advocate for anything that keeps him interested and smiling in the water, currently hooked on Wayne’s re-invented single fins; modern boards based on the templates Wayne was riding in the 70s.
“In 6 foot hollow beach breaks they surf unbelievable. I think they’re a faster board than the originals, encouraging you to surf off your rails more, to swoop like a bird. You just surf different lines, so you are experiencing something new again. It’s nice to do a new dance you know, a new arrangement. There’s a certain time and certain day that you wouldn’t want to ride anything else.”

‘Wayne just surfs them amazing. Because he rode them for 18 years. He gets on them as if he’s never got off them. I actually sometimes think I like him better on a single than a thruster because it shows all his grace and his smoothness. He’s one of the most in the moment surfers. I’ll be taking off on a wave and thinking about a chocolate milkshake but he just is zennin on the wave. He just looks so much more graceful and real pretty on the single fin.”

Often ‘deckhand’ on trips out on Wayne’s boat, the two will always pile up the cabins with single fins, ready for everything from 1 to 20ft.
“Of course they go so well in the tube, because they hold and you can slot in deep. But the single fin can often be that late afternoon moment when you don’t really want to go out because you’re so tired from surfing all day, but you think ‘why don’t I take the single fin out and just have a cruise?’ just like laying around on a beach towel under the sun!”

His lifestyle grounded but flexible, Glen pulls out a brand new full-nosed 6”2 Fletcher Chouinard quad from its cover, joking how he is up for testing out pretty much anything.
“I think you can become too complacent with your own surfing and if you don’t try new things you just become disinterested. They’re all just tools that keep your surfing experience joyous. It’s about experiencing all the different dances you can do on a wave. But I still have days that I just want to hit the lip on a thruster….”