The story behind the Shane Herring story in SW418 is a story in itself. Derek Hynd had already spent months interviewing Shane and an ensemble of key characters in his life, when fate intervened. The February floods washed Shane’s caravan down the Richmond River, leaving him homeless. He moved in with Derek, and the pair continued working on the story together in the weeks ahead. “Thirty years on, late July 2022, a still afternoon,” explains Derek of the photo of he and Shane here. “The light was perfect, studio light as we sat on a bank of the Tweed. We could’ve been at J-Bay at 4pm on a pumping July 1992 afternoon instead of sitting here, but the feeling was just about the same. Shane gave his iPhone to a lass sunning herself in that special kind of winter heat – asked if she wouldn’t mind taking a shot for posterity – two basking walruses. A dormant raised sand bar was in front. I guess we thought the same thing at the same time when the trawler appeared, straight out of the mind upstairs of our mutual long-gone friend, Peter Crawford. We got up and ran to the shore. The woman came too, trying to return Shane’s phone. Then even she got it, as ripples started winding down the bar. She started clicking. She was channelling PC. It was as good a surfing moment as ever was for Shane Herring – a finger wave – and boy, how well he knew it.” SW418 on sale now, link in bio.