Stab Interview: Dion Agius On Frosty Winters, Ultimate Surfer Hissy Fits, Worsening Hangovers And The Under-Appreciated Art of Tiling

Dion, Agius.

What can you write about the man that hasn’t been set down already? I agreed to interview Dion readily when asked, and quickly composed a list of questions I was sure I’d asked him before. So, whilst that list circled the wastepaper rim, I merely scribbled down a couple of vague topics down and hit “call.” After a bit of phone tag, facilitated by Dion’s temperamental Tasmanian internet, D picked up and we, well, chatted. 

Dion’s a high achiever but a master self-deprecator, which is an enjoyable quality in a conversationalist. We jumped around, didn’t talk about half the stuff I’d planned, but, on hitting “end,” it felt like one of the more engaging interviews I’d done in some time. So without further waffle, here’s Dion, late October 2021, in his own words.

ALI KLINKENBERG: Did you just get back to Tassie from a trip?
DION AGIUS: I went over to West Oz for a week doing some Globe stuff with Shaun (Manners) and TB, because it’s open to flights from Tasmania. Then came straight home into a bloody bucks camping trip down the bottom of Tassie, like as deep as you can go in the bush. I just got home from that and it’s taken me two days to recover. Now I’m behind on work so I’m literally driving up and down my road trying to get signal and send shit on my laptop because my internet’s being an absolute piece of shit.

Did you spend the winter in Tassie?
I’ve been in Tassie all winter besides Stab Highway. It was my first full winter. Usually I come and go, then try and do more of the summer down here because summer’s awesome. Winter is just so fucking cold. And actually pretty shit for waves where I live, as it gets too flogged by shitty, windy south swells. It was pretty hard to get motivated to surf when everything was covered in ice and there’s no one in the water. You’ve got to wear gloves, boots and a hood, so it was interesting doing winter and trying to maintain consistent surfing. 

Did you miss being on the road?
For sure. It was really sick to shred with Shaun and TB and get psyched to go surf good waves. It was actually really weird packing up and getting on a plane again, taking boards and all my shit. I was like, “Fuck, what do I need?” I’d kind of forgotten how to pack. 

That must’ve been the longest you’ve spent at home since you were a kid?
It’s definitely the longest I’ve spent in one spot since I was 18. It was nice, but it’s just really quiet down here at the best of times so by the end I was going a bit stir crazy and ready to get out. I was going down to Hobart a little bit towards the end just to go to a restaurant, see people and hang out. But fuck, most people spent winter in lockdown so it was the same thing pretty much. At least we could move around.

What’s your summer plans, build it and they will come?
Yeah a lot of friends have been hitting me up to come down. Then I was planning on a bit of a road trip up the coast. Maybe West Oz too, just because it’s a direct flight from Hobart to Perth and Shaun and TB are both over there so I can work on Globe stuff with those guys. The waves are pretty fun over there in summer compared to the east coast too. International travel looks possible now too, so a little jam overseas to see friends or chase waves is pretty tempting. I don’t really know yet, still waiting to see how it all pans out. I’m pretty excited for summer, I’ll tell you that much. I feel like there’s going to be some good energy around.

Let’s talk spatial design, when did you finish the shipping container?
CNTR probably got fully finished about two and half months ago now. I think it was my biggest project this year. Ah, and Dark Hollow with Globe, that was a pretty big one to get out the door. But then I went straight into finishing off the container. It was pretty epic to be home and get to be there for the final touches. I missed the bulk of it because I was travelling, but I got to put the final touches on it and furnish it, and then do all the landscaping. I just put it up online and wasn’t really expecting that there would be that many people coming to stay just yet, but it’s been amazing. We’re kind of the little holiday destination for people who live in Hobart and Launceston. But it’s been nice to have people stay there. By the end of the build I was so fucking sick of it. I’d been working on it for so long I was going, “Oh my god is this thing shit? Is anyone going to like it?”

What was the hardest part?
The crazy pave we did around it. One of my Dad’s friends Charlie is an insane tiler, but that ended up being the most labour-intensive part of the whole build. I gave him a hand for a week, but I think he was at it for three and a half weeks solid. There’s such an art to it. I was helping him for a while, but I was honestly just making his job harder. You’ve got to break the tiles and then try and figure out some form of pattern that looks natural, and it’s just so fucking difficult to do without it looking awkward. Charlie’s a weapon.

Your old man’s a builder, right?
No, but he’s a crazy handyman. He built his first house down here in Tasmania, which is the house that I grew up in. He built that with a couple of buddies and then was pretty hands-on with the next one they built, but he’s just one of those old boys who can do it all.

How do you go on the tools?
If I’ve got him there I’m alright. And then I’ve been lucky that my buddy Jarvis was able to build the container, and he gives me a hand with stuff a lot of the time, like shit around the house. But yeah, Dad’s a weapon. If he can’t do it then he figures it out. I’m alright once I know what I’m doing, but I definitely need to be guided through it pretty heavily. 

You’re a labourer.
Picking ups bricks and hammering in nails. 

What about interiors, when did you start collecting trinkets and antiques?
That just came from being on the road so much. I remember going to the States and being so blown away. I guess with the sheer volume of people over there they end up with an insane amount of stuff. Also I’m a bit of a hoarder. If I’m on the road and I see something I like then I’m more inclined to just get it and bring or ship it home. Then half the time I don’t have anywhere to put it, so my house ends up a cluttered mess.

Does anything hold pride of place on the mantle?
Yeah, there is actually one. I have a photo of Duncan Macfarlane’s of Creed and Iggy Pop playing on stage wearing a pair of these aviators that I designed and bounced off Creed. A lot of my ideas I bounce off Creed actually. He’s been an amazing sounding board and has an amazing eye for design. We’d talked about the aviators he’s wearing in the photo a lot, so it was such a special moment. I’ve seen Creed grow up and I knew how much of a special moment that was for him to be on stage with one of his idols. I was so stoked for Creed, but then for the sunnies to be there as well, I was like, “Right, that’s going on the wall.” So I have a big print of Duncan’s that he gave to me that I’m super stoked on.

How’d you go on Stab Highway? In the first episode I thought you were hating it, but it turns out you were just hungover…
It was after the first lockdown and I hadn’t seen the boys in ages. Harry and I were talking before and we knew we had to be on the Gold Coast and thought, “What could be more iconic than going to Surfers and renting a penthouse?” I just remember Harry coming in the next morning and going, “Dude, we have to drive to Currumbin, we’re already late!” I remember being in bed and deciding, “I’m not going. I can’t get up.” As I’m getting older the hangovers have been absolutely knocking me. 

In the surf world you run with a crew with a diverse age range. Have you noticed that you’re slotted into a senior statesman role? Do any of the younger crew come to you for advice? 
I don’t feel like the old guy, but my hangovers definitely tell me different. Nothing’s really changed for me since I was a kid. I kind of have the exact same lifestyle and travel with the same guys. I’ve been travelling with guys like Craig, Creed, and now Shaun, since they were 18, so our crew have kind of grown-up together. I don’t have a partner, I don’t have a kid, I don’t have a dog, I can kind of leave whenever I want, and I’m still chasing the surf dream pretty hard. I’m kind of still trying to get away with living this young lifestyle. Who knows how long it’s going to last, but as long as sponsors keep me on trips and there’s still trips to be done with our friends then I’ll keep doing them. I definitely don’t feel too old, yet, thankfully.

And the body’s still holding together?
Yeah, fortunately I haven’t had any real blowouts. A couple along the way, but nothing that I wasn’t able to recover from over time. No bad knee ones. I snapped my foot twice and did my ankle pretty bad, but they came back pretty good.

What about “work?” Between your various projects you must do a fair bit of computer time these days?
It’s been fine with COVID because I’m not on the road travelling. I have this weird thing where the more emails I send and the more work I do, the more I seem to get back? Which is super annoying. My business partners probably don’t want to hear this, but I need that balance of work work, surf work, and then everything else. But because we haven’t been able to travel as much, I’ve definitely been doing more of Standard Procedure and Epokhe stuff. Both those companies are growing pretty rapidly too, so it’s hard to keep up with those and surfing sometimes. But fuck it’s nice. I’m so thankful to have those two side projects because they’re things that I care a lot about, and hopefully when surfing’s done, those will be my job. But surf’s still my number one priority. That’s my main job still, and until that fades away, I’ve just got to balance my time.

Are you organised?
I’m pretty much the most disorganised person that’s ever lived. Luckily my partners in Epokhe — which is ten years old next month! — are super organised so I just talk to them everyday and keep track of where I am. Then my Standard Procedure partner Zepha is the most amazing, organised person ever. I swear she looks like she’s about to have a panic attack when I tell her how I organise things, which is not at all. It’s been a journey and I’ve definitely learned a lot along the way, but I’ve always worked whilst on the road surfing. So it’s never been, “Alright, here, in the office, this is now my job.” I think that’s when I’d learn a lot more and become a lot more organised. And probably be a lot more enjoyable to work with, as well.

Vlogs… Is it the content or the formula that’s the problem?
The Vlog stuff just is what it is. I mean there is a lot of shit stuff, but I was doing it for years so I can’t say much. But yeah, there’s probably a bit of stuff that doesn’t need to be there. But if there was something that I had a hissy fit about recently, then it was The Ultimate Surfer. I can’t really remember, but I was probably just sitting at home, after too many glasses of wine, and saw something about The Ultimate Surfer, and then had a rant. Which I seem to do every now and again. That show was just, fucking, pretty bad.

Do you think that something like The Ultimate Surfer seems particularly jarring to Australian surfers?
I definitely think there’s a lot of differences between American and Australian surf culture. I feel like the Australian surfers and surf culture is a lot more blue-collar, salt of the earth kind of vibe. The US seems maybe a lot more competition-based. I don’t know, that’s a really bad generalisation because literally all I’m thinking about is Trestles. I’m picturing 1000 electric bikes, Kolohe, everyone hassling, Huntington Beach, etc, and obviously that’s a really small portion of the US. I couldn’t tell you what it was like in the Northern California, or Florida surf scene.

What’s making you optimistic about the state of surfing at the moment?
All the Stab Highway stuff has been really fun to watch. I was on it, but we were only one team doing our own thing, so I didn’t get to see 70% of whatever was going on with the other teams. Everyone on the road fucking around and having a good time — it was light-hearted, fun shit that’s probably quite needed in the world in general right now. 

What about archival stuff, have you been down the power surfing rabbit hole a bit?
I grew up on Pulse and all of Justin Gane’s old stuff. Everyone should do this actually, but recently I went online and bought all of Justin’s back catalogue. I’ve always had them on VHS, but I haven’t seen them for years because I don’t have a VHS player. So over the last six months, going back and watching all his old films like Pulse 1 & 2, Odyssey, WanderJah, Unleashed, there’s so many good ones. He was an absolute icon of surf filmmaking in Australia. I guess around the same time as Taylor Steele in the States. All those old films are full of guys that I used to look up to. Especially guys like Lee Winkler, Trent Munroe, China — who was an insane aerial goofyfooter, but would surf switch at Kirra — and then obviously Occy and Margo. Oh, and Simon Robinson. There was a crazy cast of Aussie dudes in those films, 

It seems like a lot of people have rediscovered that era and realised that surfing had got a lot right already?
For sure. Probably more than anyone, Creed is really bringing back that Australian power surfing. I think he’s such an icon to all the younger guys, his surfing and Creed himself. We were watching some stuff the other day, one of Ganey’s old films, and Margo’s on a 6’4, maybe longer, surfing a two-foot left beachie. He does four whacks in a row and by the time he’s done the wave’s one foot, and his board’s three times the size of the wave. He’s whacking it so hard, it’s so epic to watch. There’s so much in that linking of turns and combinations that was happening back in the day that got lost when the focus shifted to really big airs and one big turn. There are a lot of nuances that are just as enjoyable as watching someone go super fast and do an air reverse.

I guess you haven’t had to do it for a little while, but what do you write under “Occupation” on the immigration form?
Always “surfer.” It’ll be surfer until I’m clearly too old to be a surfer. But never in my years of travelling have I ever run into problems if you just put “surfer.” I think it catches them so off guard that they don’t even know what to say or do. Even in the States where Immigration’s so strict, I think it’s this weird get out of jail free card. Especially once they start asking if you compete, and you explain you’re a freesurfer. By that point they’re like, “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” stamp your passport and let you through.