Possibly overwhelmed by the solemn, book-lined gentility of the Jubilee Room at the NSW Parliament last week, Tom Carroll, this year’s recipient of the prestigious Midget Farrelly Lifetime Achievement award, revealed in his acceptance speech that he had gone to ballet school to learn how to emulate the great Farrelly’s “dance on the surfboard”.
In all the years I’ve known the surfing legend and two-times world champion, and all the interviews I’ve done with him, I’d never heard that one.
But it was singularly appropriate because it helped explain to a room full of politicians the enigma of Farrelly, surfing’s first world champion who passed away in 2016.
Often awkward and occasionally nerdish on land, on water Midget walked the board with grace and poise that few others could emulate. But Tom Carroll did, after his lessons, and it brought him his first world title.
I’ve been involved with the Midget Awards as part of the selection panel since Surfing NSW instigated them in 2018 in memory of Midget, but this was a very special one.
Not only was it a double-bunger, with the 2021 recipient, 1990 world champion Pam Burridge also receiving her award following last year’s Covid cancellation, but the venue change to Parliament House, at the invitation of the Parliamentary Friends of Surfing group, underlined the seriousness of the other part of the agenda – a celebration of the achievement of gender equality in amateur and professional surfing.
Pam wasn’t the first woman to receive a Midget award – seven-times world champion Layne Beachley was the first recipient back in 2018 – but her post-pro tour career of a quarter century devoted to developing women’s surfing at all ages and abilities made it the perfect ramp into a wide-ranging panel discussion of initiatives like Surfing NSW’s Her Wave program, which Parliamentary Friends founder and current NSW Environment Minister James Griffin pledged to further support.
Also on the panel was newly appointed delegate to the Olympic Program Commission, former junior world champion, Tokyo Olympian and current world tour surfer Sally Fitzgibbons.
“Surfing NSW and its network of government and corporate supporters has always provided people like me from coastal communities the opportunity to be part of world-class events,” Fitgibbons said.
“And now, via programs like Her Wave, it is encouraging more girls and women than ever to get healthy and be involved.”
In accepting her award, Mollymook’s Pam Burridge said: “I feel very privileged to stand here in Parliament House to receive this award. I feel so connected to Midget, he did so much to inspire me as a competitor, to run a business making surfboards.
“Surfing has given me everything,” said the champion who overcame addiction to win a world title and then become an iconic figure in women’s surfing.
Layne Beachley, chair of Surfing Australia, said it was entirely appropriate that women should be in the spotlight at the Midget Awards’ first visit to the Parliament.
“Gender equality in surfing hasn’t come easy, and there’s still work to be done, but it’s a privilege to be sitting here today with the people who have the power to help us make that happen.”
But it wasn’t all about the women.
Outside of Sydney, the Midget Awards are sometimes critiqued for being too state-based, requiring the recipient to have been born in NSW.
But acting chair of Surfing NSW, Harry Hodge produced some statistics that floored several in the room, including your blue-turned maroon columnist.
“Since 1964, 103 world titles of surfing have been decided,” Hodge said.
“Out of those, 37, or more than a third, have been won by NSW surfers. That’s more than any country or state in the world.”
That’s a remarkable success story.
In Queensland we tend to think that we have the conditions that breed champions, but even some of ours are actually theirs. Mick Fanning was born in Penrith and eight-times world champ Steph Gilmore lives and was born just across the border in the Tweed.
Damn!
Hodge continued: “What Surfing NSW does is provide critical pathways that enable this kind of success through our initiatives that support every aspect of surfing from kids through to adults.
“Our partnership with the NSW Government is crucial to ensure we can continue to deliver world-class events, community programs and athlete pathways.”
After the formalities concluded I took the opportunity to spend some time with Midget’s family, daughter Johanna who has the casting vote on our selection panel, and her mother Beverlie, who I’ve known for decades and who still misses her husband of half a century every day.
All the Farrelly women, including absent daughters Priscilla and Lucy, are strong-willed, spirited and absolutely charming.
And I know that they are delighted that the Midget Awards not only keep his spirit alive, but also shine a light on the benefits of the surfing life to the broader community.
FOOTNOTE: The Noosa World Surfing Reserve Community Surf Awards nominations close on Sunday 30 October, so if you’ve yet to nominate a surfer you think is deserving, you’ve got just a couple of days to get moving. To read more about the award categories and to download the nomination form, visit noosaworldsurfingreserve.com.au
