Take a trip down memory lane and win a post-Castaway surf session with What So Not
Old boogin' photos, club friends and a hectic first WSN show in the west.
Island good times festival Castaway is this freakin' weekend, with the beach + bangers party making its inaugural journey east on Saturday February 20 to take over Queensland's Bribie Island, before heading to its first home Rottnest Island on Sunday February 21. Both lineups will play host to What So Not, Golden Features, Sable and Tina Says, while the QLD edition stacks on a huge local contingent also featuring Dune Rats, Allday, Feki and Gill Bates, and Perth adds Time Pilot and DrSPACE. More info/tickets on both at the Castaway WEBSITE.
To celebrate the incoming good times, Emoh has dug up a bunch of old clubbin' and surfing photos for a little trip down memory lane, and we're also offering a pretty sweet little giveaway:
QUEENSLAND: For the chance to win a double pass to Castaway on Bribie Island, email info@pilerats.com with CASTAWAY QLD x WSN COMP in the subject header and your deets in the body (please note this does not include surf comp).
WEST AUS: For the chance to win a double pass to Castaway on Rottnest Island AND a post-Castaway surf session with the man himself*, email info@pilerats.com with CASTAWAY WA x WSN COMP in the subject header, and send us a ~cool~ pic of you surfing to go in the draw.
Winners for both will be notified Friday 19 February.
*Surf will be somewhere along the Perth metro coast on the morning of Monday 22 February and dependent on conditions (i.e. if it's flat we'll have to cancel), winner will be notified of location morning of via text.
Back in 2007, Hayden James, Cassian, a bunch of friends and I started a weekly party called Ram Jam. We'd decked out the club with a new theme each week and go impromptu B2B for seven hours. I was beardless, likely intoxicated and dropping something between Scottie B, Bag Raiders and the latest ED Banger slammer in this photo. Those were some wild years. Alison Wonderland was also present as our sassy door girl.
My first show at they mystical Elsewhere bar on Queensland's Gold Coast. I remember nervously calling up the venue manager on my lunch break at my old desk job, asking if i could play a show there. I negotiated my fee at three bottles of cheap sparkling wine and some petrol money (for the drive up from Sydney).
I used to do warm up sets and wear panda hats in the round house at UNSW (the University I'd dropped out of). These were insanely fun and some of the biggest shows at that point in my career.
Grommy Emoh chasing some slabs back home at South Narra. Thanks Don Norris.
Sweaty, loud, grimey - DJing at one of my weekly residencies in Sydney's Kings Cross with a broken hand and good friend Thomas.
Baby face Emoh enjoying some Xmas bevs with Danny T, Hey Now and the gang at 'Monastery' (now Oh Hello).
I think this was my first ever crowd surf.
My first Splendour in the Grass! What a weekend! What a time crazy time in my life! I'd quit my day job a few months prior, I'd just moved out of home, What So Not had just released the Get Free and Van She remixes and a few weeks prior I had started the making of a track called Jaguar. And here I am with a black eye and good friends Alex (Pilerats) and Alison Wonderland.
During the first WSN Asia tour I was lucky to catch some waves in Bali. Wasn't much swell so I tried my luck at standup hacks on the boog.
WSN x Perth #1: Not only is this shot from the green room of WSN's first Perth show ever, it is the second post I ever made on Instagram. I also never saw that shirt again.
WSN x Perth #2: What So Not's first Perth show brought us to a legendary Pilerats office after party. Pop-punk records, indoor skating competitions and some unruly behaviour. I believe the white fluff is the remains of my mattress.
WSN x Perth #3: Things went a little further south from here. Being removed from the office because of noise complaints we proceeded to someone's house where it was deemed intelligent to launch beers across the neighbour's property and see if we could crawl through a chimney like Santa.
This was shot at my local, Dee Why Point, by good friend @JackBennet92. He just bought his first water housing so we dived in to test it out.
The man himself - Ajax. This guy was and still is one of my biggest inspirations. He was the one that believed in the What So Not sound when everyone else had said it was too weird and wouldn't work. He was a phenomenal DJ, big upped by the likes of Justice, Busy P and A-trak, had an ear for music like no one else. RIP my man.
This was my first real surf experience in WA down south - a magical trip around the Margaret River region just a couple of weeks ago. Image Credit: Calum Macaulay.