Flying Stealth a.k.a. Jordy Smith

This had public humiliation written all over it.

“We just wanted to combine Jordy’s amazing surfing with music at a high level,” say the boys from South African pop outfit, Goldfish, about this unlikely collaboration.

So what was the outcome? Not as bad as you’d think, in fact. Some would say downright pleasant.

Such is Moby-esque production skills of the Goldfish lads, they’re able to turn the current world title contender’s vocals into something halfway listenable.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

You’ve probably heard of Tame Impala right? Well, KGLW are one of half a dozen other psyche/rock/blues bands in Oz ripping at the moment. Better yet, a bunch of them hail from down Surf Coast, Victoria way.

It was here that the great mysto shred-demon, Wayne Lynch disappeared in the 1970s while on the run from conscription.

He was joined by the likes of Gerry Lopez at times. Together they took a lot of acid and went surfing. They probably listened to a shitload of Hendrix and Zeppelin too. You don’t have to look far to see the connection with KGLW

Babe Rainbows

Just to reinforce how hard Australia is killing it in psyche-world at the moment, here are the Babe Rainbows, hailing from the famous surfing heartland of the New South Wales north coast.

It was here that the shortboard evolution was born, when a loose cohort of aqua-bohemians lopped the tops off their malibus so they could get more pitted. All of which was beautifully captured in the seminal art house surf film, Morning of the Earth.

These boys love single fins and they love point breaks. As for their music, well, there’s more than a little pisstake in what these guys do, but fuck it sounds good.

You could say they’re the acid scene come full circle. Which is pretty weird, cause acid is pretty circular to begin with. I’ll stop now. This is starting to sound like a post-grad essay.