This week I want to share a couple of surf-related books which have landed on my desk in recent weeks, one a tome of surprising wisdom from a completely unlikely source, the other a surf travel guide to the great and relatively unknown destinations which has stirred up local NIMBY (not in my back yard) surfers even before its Australian release.
First, let’s look at Blake Johnston’s Swellbeing, a book I previewed in these pages about a month ago. Back then I commented on Blakey’s absolute passion for breaking all known records for self-inflicted surfing torture: “Why this obsession? Well, Blakey’s not in the biggest-longest business for the sake of his ego, although if it gets a boost or two along the way, so be it. He’s in it to save lives, to draw attention to the hidden mental health problems of so many young and active people, and specifically suicide, which claims nine Australian lives per day.
“Blake Johnston knows a bit about this. He lost his surfing mentor Andrew Murphy and his surfer dad Wayne in this way, people who loved what he loved but just couldn’t cope with life. I was part of the global Quiksilver camp when team manager ‘Murph’ took his own life and I can vividly remember the grief of that time. Here was a young guy who was well-loved and who seemingly had everything, talent, looks, charm and a very big heart, but it wasn’t enough.”
I knew Blakey’s intentions in creating awareness of suicide and mental health in general were honourable and coming from an honest place, but to be frank, I approached this book with low expectations, uncertain that a one-time QS journeyman-turned-surf-coach, even one who can surf 700 waves in 40 non-stop hours, could keep my attention through this, his first foray into long-form writing. I’m very happy to admit I was wrong. Blakey’s life so far has been far from ordinary, and he knows how to turn it into a ripping yarn.
I think the key to that is the guy’s grit. He may not have notched up too many wins in his pro career, but he never gives up, not on a wave he’s got no hope of making, not on the ridiculously difficult challenges he sets for himself, not on friendships and relationships and certainly not on the settings of his strong moral compass.
I’m not big on advice books. The only two I’ve read from cover to cover and keep going back to are Cicero’s How To Grow Old (from which my favourite take is “the mind is a muscle which must be exercised”) and Richard Carlson’s Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff (fave take, “make peace with imperfection”). So I had my doubts about Blakey’s “toolkits” which accompany each chapter, but guess what? Wrong again. All sensible tips on organising your priorities, and through them I discovered that, just like me, the author is a surfer who discovered distance running. I retired from it long ago, but never regret the 25 years or so of pounding the pavement, from the Honolulu Marathon to the Pomona King of the Mountain and many places in between.
So thank you, Blakey, for sharing your rides, runs and rambles, and I agree with you, everyone deserves to feel awesome.
I’ll be in conversation with Blakey at his Noosa launch of Swellbeing at Sunshine Beach Surf Club on Thursday 30 October from 6pm. Tickets selling fast so phone Annie’s Books on 5448 2053.
SurfEXPLORE speaks for itself
Singapore-based photographer John Seaton Callahan has been organising surf trips to far-flung destinations for more than 20 years – about 50 expeditions by his own calculation.
These trips, far from being commercial undertakings, are organised with and for a group of global surf buddies (several of whom are also friends of mine) loosely connected as surfEXPLORE. They cost the participants, including John himself, an arm and a leg, but the rewards are significant, finding not only unknown surf breaks of great quality but sometimes communities where little has changed over the centuries.
I think that’s a fair enough basis for a coffee table surf book, and so did his publisher, the American Schiffer group, but others apparently disagree, as pointed out by the estimable Steve Shearer on the Swellnet website:
“A large chunk of the potential readership, judging from reactions below the line on both sides of the Pacific, sees this book and its author as morally compromised from the beginning; an illegitimate exercise in ’neo-colonialism’ and exploitation for the enrichment of the author. They see what remaining secret spots there are as sacrosanct and requiring protection from the ravages of commercialism.”
As much as I admire Steve’s work, I think that’s a bit rich. Commercial surf tour operations have done far more to trash secret spots over the past 30 years than this group of adventurers, and because of its historical perspective, Callahan’s book is as much about places that once were secret as it is about ones that still are.
I’ve only seen a digital version so far, but it looks like a fun book, with cultural insights peppering the text and informing the photos. It should be available in bookstores here before Christmas.
