Learn to Surf: Australia
Surfing NSW by Simon Punch
Woodslane’s latest offering is a good full-colour guide to over 200 fantastic breaks along the NSW coast. From Byron’s chilled out surf, to the overcrowded waves of Bondi (where colliding with a tourist is almost a gimmie), to the lonely breaks along the state’s southerly coast, Surfing NSW tells it like it is - it's an accessible, easy to follow book that will fit snugly in your board bag or glove box. An excellent guide to the best NSW has to offer, from the busy through to the bucolic, Simon Punch has produced a ripper book chock full maps with clear and detailed descriptions, along with plenty of additional info on where to eat, drink and sleep, and what to do if there's no surf. And despite living in the age of Google Earth and GPS, there are still plenty of secrets spots to be discovered. As Simon says in the intro, “there are still plenty of hidden gems out there.” I look forward to Punch’s next surf guide. RRP $34.95.
Happy Days 2011
Keeping on top of life’s commitments and schedules can sometimes appear to be the antithesis of surfing. So when the Happy Days Diary 2011 arrived in the letterbox, I was stoked. It's a yearlong celebration of surfing and the environment - it's a million miles away from the usual boring diary which can make you feel like an office-drone.
This spiral-bound diary is in a seven days-to-two-pages format so you can see at a glance your week ahead. It features over 200 pages of delightful surf-related art and photographs and contains loads of interesting details – from feature stories on the marine environment through to surfing destinations. For those of us who like to doodle there is space for notes and drawings.
Another cool feature is that each month focuses on a different country, with photos and surfing information with the weekdays written in the local language. Sustainability is covered by the limited-edition run of 2000, it is printed locally in Australia on Ecostar 100% recycled FSC certified paper with soy based inks.
The Happy Days Diary 2011 also supports non-profit organizations on marine environmental issues that feature in the diary, including whaling, rainforests, climate change, plastic and over fishing information interspersed with the months. It is available in select book stores, art galleries, surf and eco stores, and online at http://www.happydaysdiary.com/
Stoked! by Bob McTavish
Stoked! has been a long time coming.
But like a cranking, glassy right-hander, its well been worth the wait.
“It was my intention to make this book a window into the birth of the surfing culture in Australia,” muses the man who is still considered a shaping innovator. “It took me 15 years typing four pages a day with two fingers but I did not get serious until about four years ago when the surfboard business hit a bit of a slump,” he recalls. “And by the end of that winter I had 9/10ths done.” But Bob will soon be back at the laptop as his first book while chock-full of adventures, ends in 1970 and he’s already been swamped with requests for the next installment.
It’s Thursday morning and Bob is drinking jasmine tea with his breakfast at a local hotel, still marveling about the crowd that packed Torquay’s popular surf gallery Tigerfish the previous night. Living proof of the old adage that it’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, Bob is full of energy and raring to go. He may have snow on the roof but is just as positive and dynamic as the first day he picked up a board and paddled out. He shakes his head as he butters some toast and smiles. “Last night was just great,” he says.
It sure was.
A large crowd of surfers of all ages, vintages and board persuasions including legendary surf photographer Barrie Sutherland were happily lined up in queue that snaked through the shop and spilled out onto the pavement. The vibe was fantastic; an eager throng waiting happily to meet a man whose boards they had been surfing for decades. There was no hurry – Bob was as delighted to as much time chatting with a young bloke who was probably not even born when he decided to write his autobiography back in 1994, as he was with some old surfing mates. Longboarders and waveskiers mingled with kneeboarders. Standingg in line to have their copies of his memoirs autographed, you could not have had a happier crowd if Bells had tuned on the corduroy swell. Tigerfish owner and surfing stalwart Grant Forbes was really, well, stoked by the response. “This is great,” he grins in between taking photographs, handing our beers and chatting with all and sundry.
Bob admits he’s been blown away by the response. “It's been amazing!"
According to Bob, Peter Henry of Hyams Publishing who brought out the title has been very supportive. "Peter was really great and took me on when some bigger ones thoguht the market was too small," he says. Well, if those publishers could have seen numbers of Stoked! walking out the door they'd be choking on their chardonnay.
Not only has the self-confessed larrikin writen a compelling account of his life in surfing, lauded author and surfer Tim Winton whose literary bestseller Breath carried surfing into the mainstream, also provides the forward. “Bob McTavish is the living embodiment of beach culture, surfing tradition,” he writes. “He might be a pioneer and historical figure but he’s still water most days as stoked as any 13 year old”.
Also attending the launch were fellow board design luminaries Steve Walden, Greg Webber and Thomas Meyerhoffer who are traveling with Bob in a kind of Wizards of Shaping in Oz tour that Dan Flynn and Matt Martin from Global Surf Industries are taking around the country.
Stoked! is not only a cracker read about his amazing life, it’s also a fantastic social account of Australia recounted in around 130 anecdotes. “You can pick it up and put it down”, agrees Bob. “I wanted to make it accessible to everyone.” It covers the good times and bad and includes luminaries such as Scott Dillon, George Greenough, Nat Young, Midget Farrelly, Ma and Pa Bendall and Claw Warbrick - as well as myriad of others along the way. “I believe every word I said is honest but sometimes the memory can play tricks”, Bob says.
Now while Bob is accounted as one of the great shapers and surf greats of Australia, he credits all his success to his wife Lynn whom he has been married to for some 39 years. “I would never have achieved any of this with Lynn,” says Bob. “She taught me all about loyalty,” he says of the woman he’s shared his life with for four decades.
Despite his success, there’s no resting on his laurels. “I’m still shaping” says Bob. “I still shape the difficult custom boards and oversee the production of our company,” he says. In between paddling out and catching a few waves of course.
“There’s better surfboards around the corner,” he says, his eyes on the horizon.
A few moments later the other shapers finish breakfast and they head off to visit Richard at Strapper Surfboards and his crew for a session on innovative board design.
In the meantime, Stoked! is the perfect read for anyone keen to be entertained while enjoying a romp through the birth of Australia’s surfing culture and characters. From his infamous stowing away and deportation from Hawaii to his leading the shortboard revolution that crashed through like a log in the lineup, there's plenty of laughter, love, tears, sex, drugs, rock and roll, surfaris, shaping and bloody good waves along the way.
It contains a comprehensive index, so if you want to jump to a particular incident such as when Bob and his mate David Chidgey stowed away to Hawaii or catching waves at Noosa when three was a crowd. Beautiful photos by John Witzig, Mal Sutherland, Dave 'Mexcian' Sumpter and others also communicate the empty waves and stoke of the time.
Stoked! takes you back to a time when surfing was way outside the mainstream, the Endless Summer was on at the cinema, you could catch a wave at Wattegos on your own and the future as wide as the ocean.
Keep it in your boardbag for when the surf’s not working. but don’t loan it to you mates; you won’t get it back! Make them buy their own copy.
Contact Hyams Publishing when you get back from the beach.
Deep Water - Travel Stories; The Search for The Perfect Wave by Brendan McAloon
“I spent my adolescence dreaming of escaping a land-locked country town in western Victoria… of sheep and wheat and dirt,” write Brendan McAloon.
Deep Water is part memoir, part surf travel, all passion. While his writing about the various exotic waves, locations and people he meets is interesting, it’s his recollection of his early days as a surf addict stuck in the Victorian sheep and wheat belt.
His writing about his only half-understood yearning for the feel of a wave under his feet makes gentle yet compelling reading.
Deep Water will strike a chord with all surfers, be they former sandy-toed grommets or those who came to surfing later in life. I could go on and on about hey this a great read, but you are far better off getting your hands on a copy and finding out for yourself.
Highly recommended.
http://www.hipshoulder.blogspot.com/
My Brothers Keeper - The Official Bra Boys Story by Sean Doherty
Unless you have been living under a rock you’ll be familiar with the Bra Boys.
Every surfer seems to have an opinion of them, be it good or bad.
Doherty’s My Brothers Keeper takes the reader beyond the tabloid headlines, the sensational reportage and into the lives of the blokes who proudly bear the words ‘my brothers keeper’ inked upon their skin.
Forget the murder cases, the charges, the clashes with police and gangs; while it’s all there, their story is far bigger and more complex. Doherty has avoided the easy route of offering the usual sex, drugs and rock n roll so beloved of too many surf writers; instead he allows the brothers voices and their sometime different accounts and perspectives of these sometimes shocking, sometimes mundane and often difficult times.
It’s a raw and rough story and often you want to shake them by the scruff of the neck. But in the end, Doherty has written an extremely insightful account of their lives and actions and one that lets you glimpse beneath their public personas.
My Brothers Keeper represents a new level of Doherty’s writing and shows why he is one of the most interesting and intuitive surf writers around.
http://www.harpercollins.com.au/books/9780732285548/My_Brothers_Keeper_The_Official_Bra_Boys_Story/index.aspx
