On the Road Tee, July 1975

A crisp white treatment gives this iconic cover a clean, timeless finish while retaining its unmistakable sense of escapism. Everyone loves a road trip, and this issue covers plenty of miles as far-flung contributors “make Tracks” through Morocco, Mexico, Hawaii, California, South America, Portugal and even India. It’s the mid-’70s, and it feels like there is still so much of the world left to explore. In one of the magazine’s most evocative lines, Geoff Watson writes: “There is a land as far from this country as a man’s dream can carry him.” Meanwhile, Phil Jarratt has emerged as Tracks’ number-one scribe. In Hawaii for the summer, he parties hard in Honolulu, attends a polo match and gets bailed up by the cops just before surfing Ala Moana Bowls. In an interview with “Rubberman” Larry Bertlemann, Larry claims he tries to do everything on a wave: “roller-coasters and cutbacks and I’m trying to get down this 360 thing.” In California, Jarratt travels up the West Coast, riffs on the American surf scene and drops in on skateboarding visionary Tom Sims. Together, they ride skateboards down the winding hills of Montecito. What a trip.