Australia S Century Of Surf

"Australia's century of surf marks the centenary of the great Hawaiian Olympic swimmer and surfer Duke Kahanamoku's visit to Australia in 1914. Duke was not the first to ride a surfboard in Australia, but his surfing exhibitions in the summer of 1914-15 set in motion a great wave of oceanic obsession that continues to this day. Surfing has morphed from exotic curio to regimented training for lifesavers, from counterculture revolution to respectable mainstream sport. Along the way, it's shaped our coastal migrations, spawned vast business empires and design innovations, produced sports stars and spectacular casualties, and helped the beach overtake the bush as our national, natural habitat of choice."--Back cover.

The definitive guide to Australia's surfing history, published in conjunction with Surfing Australia. Australian surf culture is over a century old, and it still hasn't grown up. From its roots as an illegal pastime to its current incarnation as a professional sport, surfing's enduring appeal has always been the carefree, quintessentially Australian lifestyle that goes with it. Australian surf culture has always had competing impulses of chaos and order. For every Boot Hill Gang there is a Surf Life Saving Association; for every tragic drug disqualification, a World Title winner. From Tommy Tanna, Alick Wickham and Freddie Williams's pioneering surf lifestyles to the hedonism of 1950s beach culture, the Coolangatta Kids of the 1970s, to the eventual professionalised machine that surfing in Australia has now become, this is the complete, no-holds-barred history of both sides of the story. With forewords by Mark Richards and Layne Beachley, Australia's World Champion surfers, this book is the definitive history of surfing in Australia.

Australians are surrounded by beaches. But this enclosure is more than a geographical fact for the inhabitants of an island continent; the beach is an integral part of the cultural envelope. This work analyzes the history of the beach as an integral aspect of Australian culture.

"A brief biography of Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku, five-time Olympic swimming champion from the early 1900s who is also considered worldwide as the 'father of modern surfing'"--Provided by publisher.

On the Road meets Endless Summer as Tim Baker, bestselling author of Occy, High Surf and Bustin' Down the Door, embarks on the classic surfing road trip around Australia. All surfers dream of shedding responsibilities and answering the siren's call of ocean swells. For most, it is an ideal that recedes as age advances - as family, career and provider fatigue threatens to overwhelm the wanderlust of youth. But what if you could defy the slow march of age? Shelve all your worldly pressures, pack up the family and a few trusty surfboards and hit the open road for the Great Australian surfing road trip? Inspired by the dreams of his youth, surf writer Tim Baker embarks on the Big Lap in search of the perfect wave and domestic bliss. Surfari documents the state of surf culture and our coastline, and the array of colourful characters who inhabit these parts, evoking all the magic, charm and challenges such a lifestyle entails. It is a story for anyone who has ever dreamed of an alternative to the busy, micro-scheduled existence of work, school, shopping and the daily drudge. The result is a lively, colourful account of what happens when you trade your life for another variety, and the delights and dangers that lay in wait when you dare to chase your dreams and follow another path.

That Summer at Boomerang, by leading surf writer Phil Jarrat, is an evocative retelling of the little known story about the birth of surfing in Australia and the early beginnings of our beach culture and sporting heritage. In the first summer of World War One, while Australian soldiers made their way to the battlefields, the world’s original aquatic superstar sailed for Sydney. Over a two-month, three-state tour, Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku revolutionised perceptions of surfing and swimming, and changed forever the direction of fifteen-year-old Isabel Letham’s life. When the charistmatic Duke picks an average Aussie girl out of the audience to ride his long board with him into shore before a packed beach, it’s a symbol of the seismic change that is already rippling through the nation as the rules and regulations of the 19th century give way to the anything-goes beach culture we recognise today. The story centres on Sydney, Australia, but moves between Honolulu, Stockholm and the Olympics in 1912, and even California (where the Duke eventually goes in search of a Hollywood film career, followed by Isabel). But many more characters from history people these pages – such as novelist Jack London, our first sport promoter Hugh ‘Huge Deal’ Mcintosh as well as other sporting greats – as one season, one summer, epitomises the end of an era and the birth of a new one. ‘That Summer at Boomerang immerses the reader in a time “when fun was young”. The entwined stories of Duke Kahanamoku and Isabel Letham, whose paths crossed at Freshwater beach at the dawn of the age of celebrity and the beginning of the Great War, are the foreground to a fascinating portrayal of Australia and Hawaii, of sport and business, at that seminal moment.’ MALCOLM KNOX ‘Duke and Isabel are entrenched as iconic figures in the world of surfing. This is a wonderfully romanticised account of what “really” happened in the summer of 1914.’ LAYNE BEACHLEY ‘Phil Jarratt has worked a miracle and resurrected Duke Kahanamoku, bringing him to life with great research, wit and storytelling, and above all love for all of surfing’s characters.’ BOB MCTAVISH Phil Jarratt lives in Noosa, Australia and is the leading writer on surfing and surfing history in Australia. He has published many books on surfing and sport biographies including Salts and Suits, Hottest 100 Surfing Legends, Kelly Slater, Surfing Australia: The Complete History of Surf Board Riding in Australia. He is a former editor of Tracks