Getting back to the roots of surfing is an exercise that can take several forms. There's the physical and the cultural, for example.
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For Kyle Lochhead, it could be how he spent Friday: teaching school kids to surf at North Wollongong beach, where he himself learned how to catch a wave 30 years ago in kindergarten.
Or it could be spending weeks travelling through Scotland with his dad - who was the one who taught him to surf way back then - looking for waves in the icy North Sea, looking for traces of family history among the castles and the heath.
Or chasing the "stoke". What's that? For those of us not up to our necks in surf culture, a quick explanation might be chasing the dream. Or that transcendental moment when everything seems, for a second, perhaps impossibly in this mortal world, just about perfect.
Lochhead, a Wollongong High product, now lives in Europe - in Cornwall after seven years in France - and nothing makes him happier than finding new places to surf, relatively untrodden in a still-developing Euro surf scene, where as he points out there's only been three generations of surfers in most places, compared with six in Australia.
Like when it all began.
"It's more of a way of life than a sport," Lochhead says.
"There's two sides to everything. A lot of guys are chasing their dream of competitive surfing - there's even the Olympics coming up - but for me traditional surfing is just a lifestyle, being part of beach culture, being town there, being in a little bit of a tribe, enjoying the ocean.
"We've all got that same mentality - we're all down there enjoying that bit of nature, that bit of life.
"A lot of the guys that I surf with, we all ride either bigger boards, or hand-shaped - less of the computer-shaped, they're more for the competitive surfers.
"Our boards are heavier, more traditionally shaped, the same boards they were riding in the '50s and '60s. Myself, I like boards like from the '70s and '80s.
"It's more about enjoying the waves and the sea, as opposed to trying to better ourselves or beat other people."
Where some surfers talk about dominating a wave, these guys have a different approach, one which harks back to the laid-back language that has been associated with surfers since the early days - just "being in the wave", or "riding it to its full potential."
Lochhead and his fellow travellers mix in a newer aspect of surf culture as well, using their skills with cameras and aesthetics to get sponsorship from surf and style brands to support their adventuring. When they head off for a trip across Spain's north coast, they bring a photographer to document the piece.
And it's here that being hip and rootsy can pay off - with young Queensland surf brand Rhythm in particular, for whom Kyle writes sometimes, dresses him and provides equipment, sometimes even paying for a whole trip.
"It's not a living - but I certainly base my life around it," he said.
"For guys that do the competitions and stuff like that, they make a living from it. And there is a small crew of people who do what I do, adventure surfing and chasing new places, they could live through it. But it's not an easy game, there's a lot of people doing it.
"I'd say I'm more adventurer than anything. I organise adventures, events with other surfers, we plan trips and we just live it. We take a photographer or filmmaker with us - it's a friend, or by the end, definitely a friend - and we do what we do best: chase waves, eat local food, adventure the areas - the days we don't find waves we climb mountains, or jump off piers, whatever we have to do to get the thrill."
In other words, the "stoke".
More people are getting back to the roots of surfing, getting to enjoying in a less competitive way. We do what we do best: chase waves, eat local food, adventure the areas.
- Kyle Lochhead
"And the branding like it, because it's what goes with the actual product, and what they do. They're happy to support us on our adventures ... they're giving us products and clothing so we look good while doing it, but recently the trip we did in northern Spain ... they paid for our accommodation the week we were there.
"They get all the photos, the stories and whatnot on Instagram and on the website, and we get to live a dream and live the stoke."
Of course this isn't a nice long ad for Rhythm - but it's worth describing their approach to beach style is decidedly old-school, rusty and sepia colours everywhere, not a flash of flouro in sight.
Their publications are refreshingly free of the tired and frankly misappropriated term "ambassador" - instead their models and fans are called "advocates". But there's no doubt they're trying to emphasise the art in surfing - or showering, shaping, waxing or waiting.
It's an alternative surf world that openly embraces the aesthetic dimension of their craft. And why not? Waves are beautiful, as are coastlines, rock shelves, old vans, and surfers.
This new wave is impeccably stylish in an I-care-a-little-but-not-too-much kind of way. Everyone's familiar with the camera, but who isn't these days, so they come up with a no-nonsense and effortless kind of style which, of course, is exactly the image the brand is going for - and it doesn't hurt that the camera loves these men right back.
Taking a photographer along on a surf trip isn't new - people have been filming their moves for years, and not always in a bid to land a sponsorship.
Plus, for Lochhead and his surfer mates, the style factor is more than skin-deep - it highlights an alternative approach to surfing which they seem quite pleased to represent, apart from the macho attitudes and uber-modern gear that rule some more competitive surf subcultures.
Lochhead's no stranger to the camera, but he was more familiar with the other side of the lens when the Oxford Hotel was the place for punk rock in Wollongong, and Lochhead could be found rolling around on the floor photographing bands.
Which is where he got the none-too-flattering nickname that adorns his social media and blog presence - KreepyKyle.
No, not like that.
"I wanted to get more personal, more portrait, shots of the singers, using natural light," he explains.
"So I had get around on the floor - getting moshed on, stuff like that. Someone just said 'there goes Kyle, creeping around again', and it just stuck from there; I could never shake it. So I ran with it."
Lochhead doesn't claim to be some stand-out, but he's pleased the traditional - sometimes called "alternative" - surfing has been enjoying a comeback in the past decade.
"More people are getting back to the roots of surfing, getting to enjoying in a less competitive way. Being more like a surf gang - back to the days when people sat on the beach all day. You all come down to the beach, and if you haven't got a board, someone will lend you one. It's about being a little tribe, and looking after each other, and having a good time together."
Not quite as simple as "what's old is new again". Perhaps what's old has always been there, all along.