Up at our Agnes Water hideaway last week I took advantage of a surfless day to reshuffle our largely surf-oriented art collection hung there in order to make way for a couple of special pieces I felt belonged in our home away from home.
Such an endeavour is not to be taken lightly. What I thought might take a few hours, with a daughter’s partner standing by with a ladder, a drill and plenty of hooks, ended up taking a few days, dragging me into a rabbit hole of personal history with which I was delighted to be reacquainted. This goes back to the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-10, or the GFC as we came to call it, which was preceded by a mere matter of months by my wife and I returning to Noosa after some years toiling in the corporate jungle in Europe and America with a small golden handshake just large enough to feel that I could indulge my latest fantasy.
No, not a Porsche 911, although midlife was well upon me. My fantasy was to create a shop which supplied everything a surfer or a beach lover might desire to decorate the fantasy beach house, and that meant bamboo and cane lanai furniture, aloha print fabrics for cushions and covers, surf and beach books and music and, of course, surf and oceanic art from around the world.
After a decade working for the surf company Quiksilver I was well connected with many potential suppliers, and for those I wasn’t, my wife and I made a mission of visiting them wherever they lived, personalizing the deal and bringing home as much stock as possible as passenger luggage. It was hard work but it was also a long holiday, and the result was a shop in Noosa Junction we called Back Beach.
Ray Smith, a designer and surfing buddy from California who had recently moved to Noosa with wife Jocelyn, created a logo which he fixed onto two beautiful wood boards for our signage, backed by a simple red and white aloha print. We filled the place with beach stuff we loved and soon had a solid customer base.
It didn’t last long. The GFC kicked in big time and people were selling not buying the beach houses we wanted to help them decorate. Back Beach struggled on for three years before we had to pull the pin, but I still look back on that period with fond memories, and when I look at the art we still have, the stories come flooding back. Here are just a few.
Over my years at Quiksilver Europe I was fortunate enough to travel and surf on the ruggedly beautiful Italian island of Sardinia on several occasions. This place not only boasts the best surf in the Mediterranean by far, but the hospitality of the local surf community is top drawer as well. Every good surf deserved an even better lunch, served at long tables overlooking the surf and accompanied by wonderful local wine.
So when Sardinian-born artist Vincenzo Ganadu walked into our shop one day, it was time to repay the hospitality. We exhibited Vincenzo at Back Beach and at the Noosa surf festival, and every time I look at his work on our walls, I’m happy.
I first met the multi-talented John Severson in the late ‘70s when I was a contributing editor at Surfer Magazine, which he had founded back in 1960. Big wave rider, successful publisher, film-maker, author and artist, there was virtually nothing “Sevo” couldn’t turn his hand to. When he retired to Maui to devote himself to painting, I knew I had to get a few more originals to add to the couple I’d paid far too much for at surf auctions, so I emailed him and got a quick response: “Time marches on, us in tow. I don’t think I’m going
to make Randy’s auction this year but will be on Maui. If you get a chance, we could get together and discuss some products and art for your store. As for travel, it’s doubtful these days; projects, grandgirls, painting and surfing keep me home. Throw in a little age. . .”
We flew to Maui and drove up past Lahaina to Sevo’s clifftop bungalow and studio just a few bays south of Honolua Bay, spent a wonderful afternoon with him and daughter Anna, and came away with a treasure trove of originals and signed prints, including a couple of my favourites, his water colour Hawaiian village scenes. Sevo died in Lahaina in 2017, aged 83.
Another of my favourites is an oil by the great Australian surfer/artist/shaper Richard Harvey, whom I first met on the track into Uluwatu in 1975, but whose fame had preceded him. This one has pride of place at Agnes and is called “Promised Not To Tell”. If you surf, you’ll know why.
That’s enough words for this week, enjoy the images.
