By PHIL JARRATT
I woke up, so all good.
Firstly, thank you for all the goodwill messages on social media, phone calls and texts following last week’s revelation, in the place of this column, that I was recuperating after a “minor health scare”. I’ve been writing to deadlines for a very long time, and I never miss one, which is possibly why I found myself flat on my back in the coronary care unit again when last week’s passed me by.
I always loved reading that old rascal Jeffrey Bernard’s Low Life column in The Spectator. We used to drink in the same Fleet Street pub in the early 1970s where he would frequently pass out of the drink and be carried to his nearby hovel. If he was too shot to file, The Speccie would simply explain: “Jeffrey Bernard is unwell.” Soon there were more explanations than columns and then he was no more. I’m off the booze and anything else that might be considered fun, so that won’t be happening here.
I won’t bang on about old guy health issues too much here or you’ll desert me for Benny Pike or Ron Lane, but I am slowly coming to the realisation that what the shrinks say is true: that when you think you’re bulletproof and then you discover you’re not, the emotional healing takes even longer than the physical. Not to be melodramatic, but stuff that meant so much now seems to mean so little. Life’s priorities begin to change, and I know that when I finally learn to adapt, it will be for the better.
Old mate Billy Wallace has got a couple of decades on me, but I love and I learn from his attitude about these things. When I phone to ask after his health, he says: “Well, I woke up this morning, so all good.”
Gongs all round at the Sports Star Awards
Speaking of Benny and Ron (as I just was), both cut dashing figures at last Friday night’s Sunshine Coast Sports Federation Sportstar of the Year Awards, where the Cricks Noosa Festival of Surfing was honoured with the accolade of Event of the Year. Against some stiff opposition, Festival manager Sam Smith and I were thrilled to accept the award, a real highlight of the seven years that we’ve worked together as a father/daughter management team. Grant Absolom and the team from Cricks Noosa joined us for a memorable night, alongside Noosa’s former world longboard champion Josh Constable, who was inducted into the Sporting Hall of Fame. As if this wasn’t enough excitement, I thought Grant might blow a valve when your humble columnist was awarded a Bob Tisdall Legends medal, along with Mal Meninga and Glynis Nunn-Cearns.World champion archer Ryan Tyack beat Julian Wilson and other worthies for the Senior Sports Star award, and gutsy grom Jett Lawrence, 11, took out the Junior award for his win in the 65cc Junior Motocross World Championship in Belgium last year, beating highly touted American prospects. When Benny presented Jet’s award, it seemed like a cue for an old Elton John song, but it didn’t happen. Oh well, probably showing my age.
Great night, thanks Benny and the Fed, and thanks Grant for your contagious excitement.
Up in smoke
I was just waking up in my own bed for the first time in a while, and full of very strange drugs when I received a text that the Classic Malibu factory and shop had burnt to the ground in the wee hours. Fires in chemical factories are not exactly a rare occurrence, but this struck me as quite surreal (and it wasn’t just the drugs). For surfers in our town, Classic Mal is part of our collective DNA. Whether you ride their boards or not, the brand and the family behind it are indelibly linked to Noosa’s surfing history for the past quarter century, and now much of their own history has gone up in smoke.
I phoned Peter White that morning and he seemed calm and accepting, but that’s typical Whitey – passionate about what he does, but down to earth, matter of fact. Later in the week he was stoked to discover that his favourite planer and a bunch of his design templates had survived, but as the days wear on, I’m sure there will be a lot of sadness and frustration as they start their brand again. It’s a mark of the respect within the surf industry for Classic Malibu and the Whites that rival surfboard builders were among the first people to offer tangible support, and I know there are many more initiatives being considered to help CM rise from the ashes, and a great surf brand recovers its history.
