The trained journalist, who followed the world's best surfers on the pro circuit for eight years, has compiled a "surfing memoir" which celebrates the south-west's "hardcore" surf culture.

"There's a real sort of mystique about it," said McAloon, who spent his early years in Warrnambool before his family moved to Ararat.

"I had this unrequited love for the Southern Ocean growing up in this inland town."

McAloon cemented his love for surfing during family holidays in Port Fairy.

"(Port Fairy) has this sort of hardened surfing experience because of the conditions," he said.

"You have to be really dedicated to be a surfer on the south-west coast."

In Deep Water: Travel Stories & The Search for The Perfect Wave, McAloon, 35, reveals the formative influence the sport has had on his life.

"I was pretty obsessed with it. It was a driving force for a lot of the things that I did professionally and personally for quite a few years," he said.

McAloon, who still has relatives in the south-west, has surfed in places like Hawaii, Indonesia, California, Ireland, Brazil and Tahiti's remote Tuamotu Atolls.

A break in the Mentawai Islands, off the coast of Sumatra, was one of his favourite spots.

McAloon still enjoyed breaks between Cape Otway and Cape Bridgewater, but he opted not to name them in accordance with the surfer's unwritten code.

He said the book was as much about the philosophy of travel and the people he had met as about himself.

"Surfing gives me a reason to travel to these places but the great thing about surfing is there's more to it than just riding the waves," he said.