By Phil Jarratt
As we go to press Noosa surfers are mourning the death early this week of Danny Watt, fine surfer, loyal friend and “loveable larrikin”.
Although Danny, 63, had been fighting cancer for several years, he had recovered well from recent radiation when the disease returned and hit him hard. One of the best travelled surfers in the world, Danny had been in and out of Noosa over the decades, forming lifelong friendships with many of this area’s surfing pioneers, including the Male brothers, Reg Johns and Mick Court. But Danny was also the kind of man who made friends with everyone he encountered.
“I think he was sent to look after people like us,” said friend and former president of Noosa Malibu Club Reid Johnson. “You could feel the love pouring out of him, and it was reciprocated.”
“People saw something in Danny that we all aspired to,” said another former NMC president and close friend Craig Johnson. “He’d lived life to the fullest and it took its toll on him, but he was a humble, non-judgmental man who immediately enhanced all our lives from the moment he settled in Noosa.”
Danny Watt was born in Taree on the mid-north coast of NSW and grew up surfing the coast around Forster, particularly the gnarly break at Black Head, where he made a name for himself as a fearless young charger who survived a month in ICU after a late take-off went wrong. He was soon signed to the Bob Brown Surfboards team, and began taking out regional age comps.
Noosa’s Mick Court, later a Queensland champion but then growing up in the same area, had heard of Danny before he met him, the day his older brother brought home his new mate, the Black Head charger. They were all mates for life immediately, but Mick describes his friend as a “wandering, surfing minstrel”. When the Court family moved to Noosa in 1975, Danny just turned up one day, and stayed, ripping into the Noosa points with all the best locals, partying hearty and never saying no to a coldie after a session.
Surfing at its upper levels breeds as many feuds as friendships, but no one has a bad word to say about Danny Watt. He travelled the world looking for waves, spent a year living in Hawaii with his young family after he married, and when the island of Kauai was devastated by Hurricane Iniki in 1992, Danny returned to the Garden Isle as a chippie, taking his Noosa mate Reg Johns along as a labourer, and they worked for a pittance on the reconstruction for more than a year.
When Danny returned to Noosa half a dozen years ago to settle, he decided he needed a couple of longboards in his quiver, so he sought out the best in former world champion and ace shaper Josh Constable. A devastated Josh said this week that they became best surfing buddies from the moment they met, and Danny soon became a stylish longboarder, as well as vice-president of Noosa Malibu Club, where he was one of the most popular and hardworking members, honoured as “Clubman of the Year” for 2019.
Danny leaves behind wife Zoe, children Kyle, Taren and Kirra, and about a million surfing mates. His legacy will be celebrated in Noosa in the coming days.
