As I write this (Tuesday afternoon) it’s been a patchy start to the 30th Noosa Festival of Surfing, with nothing showing on the points so far.
Fortunately, a nice sand bank at Castaways proved to be a good early option, and hopefully the predicted swell increase will swing to the east and allow us a big finish at First Point over this weekend.
Castaways can be a fun wave, but it has mixed memories for me, and they came flooding back as I trudged over the sandhill for my heat on Monday. When we rebranded the Noosa longboard event a “festival of surfing” back in 1998, we enjoyed a week of small but fun waves at First Point, and everyone loved the carnival atmosphere on the beach and along Hastings Street’s cafes and bars. It was so popular that Breaka Flavoured Milk, a minor sponsor in ’98, decided to become a major sponsor in ’99, and threw so much money at us that we flew in just about every star and legend in the surfing galaxy.
The tents went up at Main Beach, the Breaka executives filled Netanya Noosa’s best rooms and we had a colourful Hawaiian-style opening ceremony. And then the surf went flat. For a week. Not one wave of the contest was ridden at First Point. The sponsors would come down to Sails for breakfast and gaze out at nothing.
Meanwhile, our small team was up long before dawn each day, building a site at Castaways, hauling tents and chairs and heavy Eskies over the sand dune at the start of the day and hauling them all back at the end. In this way we conducted the first ever world tandem championships, the Greg Noll Legends Classic and the 1964 World Titles Rematch (won again by Midget Farrelly).
A lot of old salts who were present that year still remember it as the best Noosa surf festival ever. I certainly don’t, and nor did the Breaka executives, who took their money away and never brought it back.
Speaking of old salts …
This stylish old gent, seen here apparently shopping for a new tee shirt on Hastings Street after a surf at Tea Tree, thrashed me (yet again) in a heat this week, so I don’t know why I’m feeding his ego, but in many ways Eric Walker exemplifies all that is good about the Noosa Festival of Surfing.
He’s not alone, of course, but as a veteran of 27 of the 30 festivals (and with more Noosa trophies than even Ray Gleave, who you can meet elsewhere this issue) I singled him out for a chat on the microphone when sponsor GemLife brought all the senior competitors together for a drink and a nibble in the beach bar on Monday night. Eric, 70, a former jockey who has lived and surfed in Ballina for many years, is a brilliant competitor and strategist, but in all the years of being beaten by him, I’ve never once felt that he won by anything other than skill. No gamesmanship, no temper tantrums, just smart wave choices and great surfing.
On Sunday, when we were all groveling in tiny waves at Noosa West, Eric somehow score a nine, which is a near-perfect score. Then the next day at Castaways, Steve O’Donnell, 71, a surfboard builder from Sydney’s northern beaches and a Noosa veteran who’s clocked up almost as many wins as Eric, scored a high nine, with one judge giving him the perfect score.
What’s going on? Are old surfers getting better? Maybe, but judging by my performance at this festival, I’d say it’s selective. But not to worry, Gleavey has taught me the secret of the drop knee, and if I can somehow train my knee to get back up before the wave is over, I might do better next year.
Place of Shadows
Because you’re such a great bunch of regular Brine readers, I’m giving you all a sneak preview of the cover of my new book, which goes off to the printers in a week or so, and will be launched by Australia’s greatest living playwright, our own David Williamson, with much fanfare at the Harbour Wine Bar at the end of July.
Some of you may have been around in Noosa long enough to remember a magazine called Noosa Blue, the shire’s first lifestyle magazine throughout the ‘90s. A few of you may even recall that it started out in 1991 with our founding team – Matt Rees Jones, Alan Jones, Rick Cooper and myself – cheekily calling it Noosa Tatler, after a rather more famous London magazine.
It didn’t take long for the real Tatler to get the lawyers onto us, but we managed to get two issues out before changing the name. The second one featured a sensational Dali-esque and futuristic vison of Noosa, in which the art deco buildings of Hastings Street were matched in beauty by the rolling green hills behind the village. It was the work of my friend Tony Edwards, the artist and cartoonist behind Captain Goodvibes and Ralph the Rhino, who was also a very fine painter on the side.
I was delighted when Tony agreed to paint our cover in 1991, and I was even more delighted when he agreed to let me use it on the cover of my history of Noosa. I don’t think anyone since Walter Hay imagined that Noosa could ever look quite like this, but somehow it captures the wonderful vision of all those who have fought over many decades to keep Noosa beautiful – people you’ll read about at length in my book.
Watch this space in coming weeks for more about the launch in July.
