Here is the fourth in the selection of the most important photographs in Australian sporting history. The images are not ranked or presented in any particular order. Ranking is a subjective notion that I won’t buy into. Each image presents a frozen moment in time that has historical significance in the Australian world of sport. Even more importantly, each image opens the door … [Read more...]
RITUAL: BEING CHAIRED UP THE BEACH
Now that the 2022 WSL World Championship season is over it is probably an appropriate time to revisit a story published by Chas Smith in online journal BeachGrit a few years back. One would think that, after his scathing critique of this ludicrous practice, that winners of surfing contests would have put their feet down by now and refused to be made to look like a staggering … [Read more...]
Surfer philosophy – Let no wave be unridden, no flip-flop unworn!
Today I got a lesson in surf philosophy. Is there a better way to start the day than to share a surf, a cappuccino, and an epistemological and ethical debate? “That’s the problem with you… you’re loud but you don’t act,” said my surfer friend when I explained to him that my neighbour had fenced off and “acquired” the public road that adjoined both of our properties. “If … [Read more...]
The little surf that nearly ruined a promising career…
It’s tough when you grow up in a place where hanging out at the surf is a way of life then, suddenly, work takes you to a place that is land locked and the ocean and waves become things that you can only dream about. I know. It happened to me. Years back I moved from beautiful Queenscliff Beach in Sydney to dreary old London to progress my career and, for the first six months … [Read more...]
Battle of Palm Beach – the day the surfers stood their ground
These days surf life savers and surf board riders happily co-exist on Australia's beaches. In fact, many surfers are now serving members of their local surf life saving clubs. It wasn't always so. There was a time when the two tribes hated each other... and occasionally even came to blows. This fictitious yarn about a bad day at the beach is based on real events that happened … [Read more...]