By Phil Jarratt
As you read this, I’ll be winging my way to Timor Leste to start a new adventure with my filming buddy Shaun Cairns – about which more next week – and so I’ll miss the memorial service for Garth Prowd in the Noosa Woods tomorrow.
I’m sure the tributes will be many and heartfelt, in the manner of Ron Lane’s beautiful farewell to Garth in these pages last week, so I won’t add superfluous words here.
Rather, I’d just like to share a memory of working with Garth on the Noosa Festival of Surfing back in 2008.
During 2007, the then-president of the Noosa Malibu Club, Norm Innis and I worked with Garth and his team at USM Events to construct a deal whereby the fastest-growing sports event company in Australia would take over the ailing surf festival under licence and put it on the path to profitability. Although he was a good surfer, still riding a shortboard well into middle age, Garth’s focus was ironman and triathlon.
He’d never run a surfing event, whereas I had run many, including the founding years of the Noosa surf festival. So he hired me to run the surfing parts, while he and the USM team concentrated on putting our event on the global sporting stage.
For good measure, he also hired former Australian surf champ and reporter Darren “Flex” Landers, to make sure the media got the authentic story.
I’d been living overseas for some years, and although I’d known Garth personally since the early ‘90s, I didn’t fully appreciate the powerhouse that USM had become.
I soon found out at our weekly management meetings, where Garth was so busy managing his diverse business affairs (one of them being the sale of USM, as it turned out) that festival matters were left largely in the hands of his capable team.
Except that nothing escaped him, and if he didn’t agree with the way things were heading, he was suddenly a quiet but authoritative presence in the room, steering us back onto the well-trodden path that led to success.
The surfing side of things was pretty much left to me and contest director Alan Atkins (who is still with the festival) but around it USM created a star-studded program of off-beach events and charity fundraisers, and a huge concert finale in the Lions Park.
With champions like Mick Fanning, Steph Gilmore, Shaun Tomson and Tom Carroll in attendance, we raised more than $100,000 for local charities in one crazy night, and it was easily the biggest festival up to that point.
It was a steep learning curve for both Garth and myself, but despite our business and cultural differences, I don’t recall that a harsh word ever passed between us. That wasn’t the way he operated.
Alas, a surfing festival didn’t quite fit the cookie-cutter mould of the other events in the USM stable, and with few economies of scale that worked, it became difficult for USM to sustain, and the company pulled out in 2009.
I don’t regret that for a moment.
Our family company took over the licence and I was joined in its management by my daughter, Sam Smith.
Using the basic template of sport, lifestyle and entertainment for all of the family that Garth had shown me, we have grown the Festival of Surfing (now supported by lead sponsor Laguna Real Estate) every year since, until it is now the biggest event of its kind in the world. And the most fun.
Make it big and make it fun. Straight out of the Garth Prowd playbook.
Brine goes big!
The Halse Lodge Noosa launch of my memoir, Life Of Brine, was a cracker last week, with people coming from all over to enjoy a night of great acoustic music from the Band of Frequencies’ OJ and Shannon, a couple of short films from Panga Productions, and a lot of laughs along the way.
Often overlooked as a backpackers-only venue, Halse is really a perfect place for a relaxing function or get-together in a chilled, not to mention heritage-listed environment.
The launch was one of a few events I’ve been involved with at Halse recently, and at each one, some one has commented, “Wow, I live in Noosa and never knew this place existed!”
So, as Molly used to say, do yourselves a favour.
And if you missed the night but are interested in the book, it’s now in book stores all over, and Annie’s Books in Peregian has signed copies.
Prior to flying out of the country this week, I will have done more launches in Sydney and my old stomping ground (literally) of Wollongong. Looking forward (well, backwards by the time you read this) to that one.
