By Phil Jarratt
Surfboards are funny things. Basically just inappropriate big chunks of plastic that find their way into your heart. Or sometimes not.
In nearly 60 years of surfing I’ve had a lot of surfboards I’ve literally loved to death. Just kept riding them until they could take no more. Case in point: In 1980 the great surfer/shaper Terry Fitzgerald gave me the board on which he’d just won the Om Bali Pro, saying it was the perfect board for the powerful waves of the Bukit, and Fitz knew I needed all the help I could get. A beautiful, bright yellow and black six-six Hot Buttered stinger that lived at a friend’s house in Legian and was my only Bali board for a decade.
When it fell apart at Uluwatu I felt like giving it a decent burial above the cave, but I took the pieces back to the Wira compound and the kids made a couple of crude bodyboards out of the remains. A fitting end to a board that gave me so much pleasure.
Since then, in the longboard era I’ve owned so many special boards I’ve had long and lasting relationships with, including quite a few Jeff Hakman cast-off Takayamas, John Carpers and Dave Parmenter mid-range flyers. And then in 1997, veteran shaper Darrell “Rooster” Dell and I were both staying with Hakman at Hanalei Bay, Ka’aui, when Rooster swapped boards with me on a nice day at the bowl.
Thus began a long relationship with a fine Queensland shaper that is ongoing. For a long time, Rooster would bring me a new board every Noosa surf festival. I didn’t have to order it, I just left everything up to him. Which is why I expected to find the yellow Rooster with the slightly feminine aloha print comp stripe (his bent little joke) sitting in my board stash when I got home from Sydney late the other night.
It was gone, as was my other favourite, a gorgeous, if somewhat rock-weary, Josh Constable Creative Army Jive model with outrageous Echo Beach polka dot cosmetics that Josh took from my favoured retro board shorts of the time. A gift from my daughters when I retired from the surf festival, it had twin places in my heart.
A thief in the night isn’t thinking about what possessions might mean to people. In fact I doubt this one was thinking at all, or he may not have chosen two of the most distinctive boards in Noosa. But the boards were gone and I was gutted. I took to social media, mainly to vent, not believing I’d get the boards back.
Because of the forum for hate and ratbaggery that social media has become, I often think about abandoning it and resuming the simpler, more private life that came before, but you can’t deny its power to unite a community in a common cause. By the next evening, I had my boards back, thanks to Noosa Community Notice Board and a couple of lovely on-site managers from a nearby establishment.
I was double lucky. Lucky to get my beloved boards back, and lucky to live in a community that cares.
Curly Mal Jam goes off
Speaking of Josh Constable, he looked one of the standouts in early rounds of last weekend’s big money Curly Mal Jam, held in pumping conditions at Sydney’s Curl Curl.
Noosa’s guru snapper Ian Borland was on hand and captured some great action of Josh powering off the bottom and off the lip, but Curly can turn like a tap, and Josh found himself wave-starved and out of the money in the semis. The Open Men’s went to deserving young gun Declan Wyton, with Jason Livingstone taking the over 50s from former shortboard pro Rob Bain, who won best wipeout for a horrific tumble in the shorey.
I had a beer with Bainy at the Narrabeen Pro last week, a jovial, enduring presence in all forms of surfing who has survived a tsunami in Java and a broken neck at Avalon, so a little plonk at Curly won’t be an issue.
In the Open Women’s our very own hardworking Noosa World Surfing Reserve steward and surf coach Kirra Molnar put on a brave show to finish second to Lucy Small, but still managed to pick up a handy cheque and win the competitor draw surfboard. Go Kirra!
DATE CLAIMER: Note to mums, dads, teachers, coaches. Noosa World Surfing Reserve will launch its Surf Code schools program with a premiere screening of the video series at the Noosa Civic Food Court from 4.30pm, Friday May 7. Plus, live music from teenage sensations The Myths. Meet our local surfing legends and top coaches, and learn how to surf safe in crowded conditions. Prizes and product giveaways. Come along and join in the fun. Further info phone 0400 118045.
