COVER STORY
Endless summer for the silver surfers Surf’s up, the sun is shining, the waves are rolling in and south-east Queensland’s silver surfers are heading for the beach in numbers that might surprise you. JULIE LAKE investigates the boardriding surfie culture of the Baby Boomers.
I
n 1966 the seminal surfing film Endless Summer expressed the idea of following the seasons around the world on a surfboard, searching for the perfect wave and endless sunshine. Back then we beach-loving Queenslanders felt pretty smug. Thanks to our climate we already had an endless summer and just about anyone who grew up within an hour or so of the sea was affected by the fast-developing surfing culture – even if they never owned a board. Every weekend young surfers and their girls set out in their old bangers to point breaks north and south of Brisbane. Surfboard manufacturers and shops selling associated merchandise sprang up from Noosa to Coolangatta. The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean played on our transistor radios. We watched films and TV shows with surfing themes. Local surfing identities like Peter
Troy, Ken Adler and Hayden Kenny were our heroes, along with national legends like Rabbit Bartholomew and Phyllis 0”Donnell. And if we didn’t surf ourselves we loved to watch others doing it and were proud of our surfie culture. Let’s go surfin’ now, everybody’s learning how, come on a safari with me….” And many of those Baby Boomers from the ‘60s and ‘70s are still riding the waves today in their 60s and 70s, and competing just as fiercely too. Phil Jarratt is among them. Now 70, he is still working and still surfing and his iconic status in the surfing community comes from years of writing and photographing for the world’s leading surfing magazines (plus Playboy, among others!). He also produces films, writes books, mixes with surfing royalty and has held executive positions with Rip Curl and
Surfing takes judgement, fitness, agility and courage – all attributes that help make for success in the corporate world and many of the young surfers of yesteryear went on, like Phil, to lead useful and profitable lives. For some, surfing remained the “pure” life and conventional consumerism and comfort was sacrificed for the endless search for the perfect wave. Benny, 74, is one of those to whom it has always been a pastime, rather than a sport. He hasn’t been in a competition since 1972 and says: “You can do it for the prizemoney and the glory or just try and find a good wave on a quiet morning”. He owns little but doesn’t care. “When I was young we had to say we were lion tamers or glass blowers so we could get the dole without having to look for a job,” he says. “Then I had to turn my hand to any old odd job just to earn enough to keep surfing. These days the government pays me a pension to do it, how good is that!” Benny lives in a rented fibro flat, runs a IMAGE: BY NEIL GRIFFITHS, BRINE TIMES
Phil Jarratt, now 70, rides a wave at Cloudbreak, Fiji. (Photo supplied by Phil Jarratt)
Quiksilver which took him to live in France and California. In 1998, he co-founded the Noosa Festival of Surfing, which is known for the high number of competitors in its senior divisions, and remained a director until 2002 when his daughter Sam Smith took over the role. In 2014, Phil had a heart attack while surfing and made it to shore in time to get medical attention. It doesn’t seem to have slowed him down much. Today he is working with lifesaving bodies and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to have defibrillators installed in strategic places along surfing beaches, to make activities safer for all beachgoers, especially older ones. He is also involved in a surfing educational program in schools which, among other things, helps promote water safety and good etiquette for boardriders. Overcrowding is the major problem in surfing todayand leads to bad manners. “I still love to catch a wave,” Phil says. “If that feeling ever stops it will be time for me to give up.”
The surfing culture is alive and well for Wednesday Wanderer Terry Halloran.
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4 YOUR TIME MAGAZINE / January 2022
04.indd 2
Brisbane
16/12/2021 10:11:41 AM
