By Phil Jarratt
Surfers from all over the world arriving for next month’s 32nd Noosa Festival of Surfing will be hoping for big(ish) waves rolling through our points throughout the nine-day event, but at least they can be sure that Big Wednesday will be lighting up the Noosa Surf Museum on Wednesday 13 March.
Our first world professional surfing champion Peter “PT” Townend will be hosting this very special celebration and screening of the John Milius surf epic that first hit big screens around the world back in 1978 and has remained a cult classic loved by generations of surfers ever since. And who better to take us behind the scenes of the production than PT, who was the surfing double for Hollywood star William Katt, alongside other surfing doubles Ian Cairns, Billy Hamilton and Gerry Lopez.
The film, set in California and Hawaii in the 1960s, then fast-forwarding to Malibu a decade later, tells the story of the biggest swell to hit the ‘Bu in 50 years and how it reunites friends who have drifted apart for one last shot at glory before middle age engulfs them. It’s hilarious in parts, a little teary in others, with nonstop surf action filmed by the best in the business, and PT was there for every minute of it, shooting scenes in California, Hawaii and El Salvador.
The story of surfers Matt Johnson, Jack Barlow and Leroy Smith was adapted from a short story by surfer/musician/author Denny Aaberg and first published in the Australian surf magazine Tracks. As editor of Tracks in 1976, I was invited to visit the Hollywood studios and take a sneak peek at the pre-production. I wrote: “Screenwriter and director John Milius describes Big Wednesday as ‘a surfing How Green Was My Valley, the loss of an aristocracy, the end of an era’. He also says it’s the most personal film he’ll ever make.”
If you needed proof of John’s obsession with surfing, you only had to look at the Vietnam War epic Apocalypse Now, which Milius wrote, and snuck in the brilliant surf scene under fire, and the unforgettable line, “Charlie don’t surf!”
Back then in ’76, I drove out to Burbank Studios and spent a wonderful afternoon with Milius and Aaberg, immersing myself in the Big Wednesday project. At that time, PT had already been cast as double for Jan Michael Vincent, but as soon as surfers and actors got together, Milius realised that PT was a dead ringer for Billy Katt, playing the role of Jack Barlow. He and Billy got on like a house on fire, and are still the best of mates, often reprising their Big Wednesday adventures at screenings of the classic. Billy can’t make it to Noosa, but surf legend Tom Carroll and this writer will be helping PT draw on his spellbinding memories.
In fact, Big Wednesday recalls a golden era for Australia’s first superstar of the pro surfing era. Just a couple of months before starting to film for Milius, PT had been crowned the first IPS world champion, having accumulated the best results over the 1976 season. Actually, “crowned” is going a bit far. In the rush to tally the scores and announce the winners, IPS bosses Fred Hemmings and Randy Rarick had forgotten to buy a trophy. When the cameras rolled up for the announcement at Waikiki’s Outrigger Canoe Club, Hemmings had to grab a substitute out of the trophy cabinet, then snatch it back from the champ.
In the months leading up to his world title, PT had joined forces with top surfers Ian Cairns and Mark Warren and Sydney journalist and promoter Mike Hurst to create the groundbreaking promotional group The Bronzed Aussies, which soon opened sponsor doors in the US. Then, in Hawaii for the last events of the year, he met a pretty Californian girl named Loyann, who would become his wife and the mother of his children.
PT was on a roll, and he still is!
Big Wednesday and The Immortals of Australian Surfing, 6-9pm Wednesday 13 March at the Noosa Surf Museum.
Tickets are limited: events.humanitix.com/big-wednesday-x-immortals-launch
Or visit noosafestivalofsurfing.com/events
