Watch: ‘Dreading South’ — A Reluctant Odyssey Through Lower Latitudes
20 minutes of enviably smooth surfing from Christian “Wispy” Barker.
In partnership with McTavish Surfboards
The first time I saw Christian “Wispy” Barker surf, he was getting barreled on a day that wasn’t barreling.
The second time I saw Wispy surf, he was getting more barreled than anyone on a day that was teetering on the fringes of beachbreak perfection.
Considering my status as a veritable blow-in at the lineups south of Byron Bay, his bearded blonde smile offered a refreshing warmth, a reprieve from the oft icy shoulders of the region’s crusty sentinels.
After growing up between Crescent Head and Southwest Rocks, Wispy moved to Byron almost 15 years ago. Between surfing and masterminding designs at the McTavish factory, he plays with Neal Purchase Jr. and Dave Rastovich in their band Single Cell Organism.
Watching him navigate Northern Rivers foamballs with the casual dexterity supplied to a select few individuals, I’d always assumed he was a few years older than me — late twenties, early thirties at most.
When I called him up to hear about the above film, I discovered he’s astonishingly 42 years old, and didn’t get sponsored by McTavish until his early 30s.
“I moved to Byron from near Crescent Head in about 2010, so I’ve been here for almost 15 years. Just before I turned 30,” he tells me. “I came on with these guys as a team rider first. I did that for a few years. That was an unexpected experience. Basically, they found me at the beach here in Byron surfing. I turned up for an interview with the guys and after a sit down for 20 minutes or whatever, I walked away with a couple of order forms and they’re like, ‘fill these out and get yourself a couple of boards and we’ll get started.’
“That was in my thirties, so it was all pretty late. As it went on, I found myself out of work and they asked me to do a few days in the shop. And then I moved into the factory and started working on the boards in the factory. I was doing gloss coats and fin boxes, now I’m in a role of dealing with wholesale board accounts and also the ambassador stuff. It’s really good. It’s kind of like a family here, a really good bunch of people to work with.”
His secret to graceful surf maturation? Whiskey and toasties.
…and stretching sometimes.
“I’m pretty lucky,” he laughs. “Just going full Peter Pan style. I think I’m blessed, I got lucky, good genes or something. Definitely at this age you gotta to start doing something, so I just try and get a little stretch routine going. That’s been my savior lately.”
In the film — created by his good friend Ben Bagley — Wispy rides a collection of heavily glassed missiles from the McTavish arsenal.
“That yellow board’s been around for a while actually,” he says. “That’s a Vincent (6’9″ x 20 1/4″ x 2 3/4″), kinda like a mid twin fin. That goes good in tubes, but generally I use it on the fattest days as a midlength. If I’m a bit lazy and I don’t want to do much, I’ll pull it out. That’s one of my go-tos and has been for a while now. I went to the Maldives with it last year, and I took a long board plus that for my two board quiver.
“The smaller twin fin is the new Dually (5’8″ x 20″ x 2 1/2″) That’s about as close as I get these days to a shortboard. I haven’t really stepped on a conventional thruster for a long time, although it’s tempting. I pick ’em up and I’m like, oh, maybe. But then I just always end up on a twin fin or something.
“And then I had that Super Stock Mid Twin (6’7″ x 20″ x 2 3/4″), which is kind of a good all rounder. I can use it on those fatter days, but that one I can definitely put it into some juice. I took that over with me to Indo just now. I actually left it there with the guys at Ulu Surf Villas. I took that with me to Indo and I surfed eight foot Temples and two foot Temples on it. Super versatile.
“Then there’s the Battler longboard (9’3″ x 22 7/8″ x 3″) That’s one I actually designed with Benny McTavish, Bob’s son. We sort of put our heads together on that one. With that, I’d kinda been surfing here in Byron a lot on sort of heavier, bigger longboards. But since I’ve been living down in Ballina and wasn’t surfing the points, I wanted a longboard that went good in beachies.”
Though they didn’t exactly score mystical arctic slabs down New Zealand’s South Island, the above film displays Wispy’ s quiver in a kaleidoscope of relatable conditions.
“I guess when you do these kinds of things, you’ve almost got to have that backup plan of what if we don’t get waves — I guess that’s where having a story can help. We had a lot of fun with the script. And, I mean, we shot that in about a week, so to get that amount of waves in a week without getting bombed by weather down there was pretty good,” he laughs.
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