Moonshiner: Lachlan Micale
Tell us about yourself, what do you do?
I'm a 29-year-old, living in Yallingup with my wife and our seven-year-old Kelpie. I'm currently working in my trade doing fly in fly out. I love spending my time at home surfing, hanging out with friends and occasionally playing golf.
I began surfing at a pretty young age. From what I can remember my old man was pushing me into white wash when I was about five years old. I've always had a love for the ocean growing up and I guess it's defined the way I live my life today. Surfing's taught me to be patient in life, there's no point trying to force anything but at the same time you can always make something out of nothing. I often think about those things you know, comparing surfing to life.
Your reputation as "Gadge Man" precedes you. What's the most unusual or unexpected tool you've whipped out in a surf-related situation?
I think I got the nickname Gadget Man for the reason that I've always got the right tool for the job. It's not so much that I've got heaps of cool gadgets it's more the fact that I'm organised for situations that most are unprepared in. The name definitely originated from Jack. I always had the best tripod or lens or whatever for my camera when we filmed together a lot. That's definitely where the name originated from.
How do you find the balance between the FIFO world and being home? It's definitely a contrast but I find when I'm up at work it's easy to focus on the job at hand with no distractions (like the surf), then when I come home it's really easy to switch off from that work ‘mode’ and just enjoy myself.
I think less is more when it comes to Moonshine films. It's more about the surfers enjoying their time out in the water and surfing with friends rather than watching someone just go up and down on a high performance surfboard not that there is anything wrong with that. I still love watching high performance surfing but there is just something different about watching the style ooze out of someone when they are riding a log or a twin fin really well. One of my favourite projects working with Jack was on Dust In The Wind. It was a bit of a mash-up of footage I'd shot of Jack over a long period of time and it was nice to put it all together into one project rather than some shortform media that I would usually just chuck up on socials.
Your Moonshine quiver spans a wide range of shapes and sizes. How do you collaborate with Jack to refine and design your custom boards? Is there anything in the pipeline to add to your quiver?
Growing up I always surfed thrusters. I recently worked in the Boardstore in Dunsborough, which is basically full of high performance surfboards. I think my short-boarding background definitely plays a part in coming up with some new shape ideas with Jack. I'm probably always pushing him to do things he doesn't really want to do but in the long run we've come up with some pretty cool shapes together.
The 6’10 Long Fish is probably the one we've worked on the most. I've had quite a few of these boards, each one being slightly different in design. More recently we have worked on a more shorter twins like the 5’6 Brumby and the 5’10 Diamond tail twin. Sometimes when I'm explaining things to Jack about how the board feels and what I want it to do I feel like I'm talking in a different language, but Jack seems to always understand my gibberish and find the best way to make changes. I think because we surf so much together, he understands my style and that helps a lot too.
It's always so hard but I think I've narrowed down the quiver so that I don't have two boards that I would take out in the one condition. It saves me wasting precious time in the carpark trying to decide what board to take out. I've got the 5’6 Brumby that would be my day-to-day grovla. The 5’10 Diamond Tail which is my ‘good wave’ board anywhere from four-to-six foot. Then I've got the demon 6’0 which I can push in quite big heavier waves with a nice tight pin tail to give me a little more control. I like the 6’10 Long Fish in those open face waves like Yallingup main break. FInally, my 9’6 log, which I've learnt I only enjoy riding in knee-to-waist high waves. I can't do turns like Jack on a log so I've just resorted to try and nose ride in small surf.
When was the moment you decided to ride a twin fin and what was your first encounter with one?
I think the moment I had the idea that I wanted a twin fin was in those early days when Torren Martyn was making cool films of him surfing in Indo. I remember seeing those and watching him draw nice long lines and pulling in to glassy long barrels thinking wow that looks so fun.
It was after seeing those films that I realised I wanted to try it. Pete Dwyer was a local shaper doing some pretty cool stuff at the time. I approached Pete over social media (Dwyer Surfboards) asking if he could make me a keel fish twin. It was a pretty humble experience ordering a board through Pete. I remember going to his property where he had two little makeshift sheds from Bunnings. One, a shaping Bay and the other, the Glassing Bay. I think I actually agreed to filming them making the board for a bit of a discount but it was about 9 years ago now. One day when I dropped into the Shaping Bay on their property in Injidup which is where I first met Jack. He was in the glassing bay, pretty sure he had no shirt on and he was probably covered in glass and s***. I remember in conversation talking about short boards and my interests in trying out a twin. I might have even mentioned that I wanted to get a log down the track. Jack's first words to me was ‘has someone been talking some sense in to you or something’. Jack, Pete and I have been friends ever since, and it's now Jack that is my inspiration for riding alternative boards. If you've seen the man surf you'll know what I mean.
Images by @peggyvoir & @billycervi