Surfing sells: Tracks celebrates 600th issue with Stephanie Gilmore on its cover
The archived website of Australia’s surfing bible jars, with its banner of 10 years ago promising “news, blogs, video and girls”. In the girls sub-menu, there are links to something called “vixen”, “poster girls”, videos and someone called Miss Bintang.
That was wrong, Tracks magazine’s long-time editor admits. “There are great stories to tell in women’s surfing at the moment and as an editor, that’s exciting,” Luke Kennedy says.
Ten years after it was selling sex, Tracks – now under new ownership, including Kennedy – is printing its 600th issue, and celebrating 55 years as a world surfing authority and Australian institution.
In a sign of the prevailing conditions, the cover is adorned by Australian female surfer Stephanie Gilmore, ripping the kind of turn that won her eight world championships. “There is a desire to make amends for things done in the past to an extent and to even the playing field, certainly,” Kennedy says.
A new ownership group bought the title from commercial publishers in 2021, recognising its cultural significance and seeking to embed more of a social conscience in its pages. Compared to that version from 2014, still visible on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, the tone has shifted.
The magazine has always had a subversive and anti-establishment voice, but its green tinge was largely focused on clean oceans and environmental awareness that has a direct impact on its readers. The refreshed brand has jettisoned raunch, and has also adopted climate change as a cause.
In the August issue, Tracks covered those involved with the Surfers for Climate group and printed a piece from Simon Bradshaw, research director at the Climate Council. “Where we see a cause that we feel like we can make a meaningful contribution to, we’ll be involved,” Kennedy says.
The cover of the 600th edition carries a pointed message, as part of Tracks’ long-time “the next best thing” tag-line: “The next best thing to not destroying Earth.”
Surfing magazines have anchored the community and supported its development since the 1950s, and there are titles that were conceived before the birth of Tracks in 1970. But Kennedy proudly notes none have produced the 600 issues the now bi-monthly release marks in December.
“It feels very satisfying, I mean, personally, I just feel privileged to have been a custodian of what’s really an iconic Australian brand,” he says. “This is such a rich Australian surfing culture, and so much of that is entwined at the pages of Tracks.”
The issue names Gilmore as “surfer of the new millennium”, recognising her resilience through eight titles in 16 years, and detailing the reasons why she took a sabbatical in 2024 to travel and freesurf, and her plans for a comeback to competition.
“There’s no doubt that women’s surfing is in a really exciting phase at the moment, the women’s surfers are making giant leaps and bounds in terms of performance and also their presence on the world stage, and we thought it was important to have a woman on the cover to reflect that,” Kennedy says.
The 600th issue also includes a feature from Guardian contributor Kate Allman, who charts the rise of women’s surfing. But it looks backwards too, with a list of quotes from the pages of Tracks, including support for the anti-Vietnam movement in issue one from world champion surfer Nat Young: “By simply surfing we are supporting the revolution.”
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In recent years the new ownership group have sought to stabilise the publication and seek new investors to help fund a digital overhaul. It prints around 10,000 copies of the magazine, and is looking to online commerce and video tie-ins to unlock more revenue. But in a market already decimated by digital competition, there is no guarantee it will succeed.
Kennedy remains drawn to the history in the print edition, and has hopes for another 600 issues. “It’s that idea of having your foot on the accelerator but you’ve also got your eye on the rear, that’s always the Tracks approach,” he says. “I hope in 600 issues’ time it’s still in print, I hope it’s still vibrantly reflecting surf culture, I hope it’s preserved. Some of it’s irreverent, it’s larrikin to an extent. I hope that’s all still part.”
