Logan shares with us a frame grab from a lengthy tube at his local.
You may DK, you may not. You may have heard of Mr Bennington, you may not have.
Truth be told DK has slowly almost completly vanished from the bodyboarding
media. All over the world there are underground rippers. The East Coast of
Australia provides a handful of some of the most under rated rippers the sport
has ever seen. Names like Jake Sharpe, Dane Pope and Daniel Bennington. Also
known as ‘Logan’. If you have surfed Straddie chances are you have looked down
the beach and seen him pulling into the widest pits of the day. He surfs amazing
and after recently hurting his knee belting a heavy ramp, he had a bit of spare
time on his hands. Dan was kind enough to share some shots and talk some booging.
Hey Logan thanks for taking some time out to have a chat. First up tell us what
happened to your knee.
No worries, I have a lot of time on my hands at the moment. My knee… Did it at
Straddie last Thursday. First wave, been out for about 5 minutes. It was probably
a solid 5 foot bowl and really heavy. I hit it super clean and flew. Landed way out
in the flats and my board just bogged. Creased it in three places on that one wave.
Wasn’t sure how bad it was and tried to ride another wave about 30 minutes later
and it hurt so much. Getting back to the car park sucked too… Went to the hospital
the next day and found out i had fractured my knee cap in a few places.
Dan showing Straddie who's boss
Fuck. That’s heavy. You have been surfing Straddie for a long time now.
What is the best and worst thing being a local at one of the best beach
breaks in the world?
The worst is definitely the crowd it attracts. So many wankers. The best thing is
getting to surf there all the time with my best mates.
So who do you usually boog with then?
Nick and Evan mostly, Stevie when he’s not hurt and the other usual guys over
there. All prone riders. I never surf with dropkneers. Its pretty annoying cause
I don’t really have anyone to compete with or push me.
Deep in the Cook Islands
As a full time Drop Kneer who do you think is pushing the sport, who do
you look up to?
Hahaha um after seeing The Lackey Project, Matt’s definitely the best dropkneer
around. His sections are so sick. Roach is obviously still killing it too. Apart
from that I don’t see much other dropkneeing. No one really gets shot run
apart from Matt.
So true. You have a shitload of good photos, and a swagger of amazing
footage. It doesn’t seem like the Bodyboarding media is too keen to
publish or get a hold of much of it. Does this frustrate you at all?
Thanks for asking this, hahaha. Yeah it use to annoy and frustrate me but now I
don’t give a shit. I don’t know what you have to do to get in a magazine. I’ve had
lot of good photos and sequences that would’ve definitely been run if I had a
different name. Its all about who you know not how you boog. It means more
that Matt gave me a little section in his video than getting shots run anyway.
He knows good dropknee….. hahahahhahah.
Getting out of the sun and back into the barrel at Cooks
You have steered away from the comp scene and are known as a
‘freesurfer’. Have you got any desire at all to compete?
I did Border South years and years ago and that was fun. Feels good winning
but when you have a shit heat it’s so annoying. I was thinking of entering a few
comps just so I can surf with some dropkneers.
Yeah mate it would be epic if you did choose to compete. Your section
on The Lackey Project is amazing to say the least. Have you got any
plans to travel this year and collect some more footage?
Hahaha it’s pretty much 2 days at that reef and 2 days at straddie. I would’ve
liked to actually film for the video with other dropkneers. I was hoping to go
overseas in May but that’s kind of gone out the window. I am very keen for
waves but.
You don’t have any sponsors that I’m aware of, yet you surf better
than most who do. (Myself included). Are you just not interested in
sponsorship? If someone approached you to ride for them would you
consider it?
Hahaha yeah I don’t have any. Wish I did but I haven’t handed my resume in
anywhere. It would be great to get boards or at least cheaper boards. I’ve been
experimenting with my GoPro on my old boards but they are all so soggy.
Thanks for your time man, is there anything else you’d like to say.
Any shout outs you would like to give?
Yeah thanks Steve and BBS for the interview. I’m going nuts at home not being
able to do anything. I’d definitely like to give a big thank you to Chanel my
girlfriend. She has been looking after me since I hurt my knee.
Good lad.
Check out one of the most amazing video’s you will ever see.
Featuring Logan and the Straddie boys by clicking here.
Interview by Stevie Lloyd
