Australia's premier surfing website, Coastalwatch, recently ran an extract from Chapter 9 of Deep Water (Whitecaps & Windsocks) as a travel feature. The extract charts an excursion to Iceland, driven by that obsessive wave-hunter, legendary surf photographer Ted Grambeau. Ted passed through his old home state of Victoria a few weeks back, catching the biggest swell in recent memory and witnessing his Old Navy Blues cop a good old-fashioned shellacking at the hands of Adelaide in the final round of the AFL home-and-away season (Ted was a teenage football star for the Wonthaggi Blues before a knee injury ended his career). Ted and I passed like ships in the night. On Thursday, August 27, while he disappeared down the coast with Maurice Cole, Tony Ray, Ross Clarke-Jones & co, I managed to snag a couple of bombs at Bells Beach. It was big and cold and grey, and I was under-gunned and outclassed by a man with no fins (Derek Hynd) and another riding a surfboard his Dad shaped back in the 70s (Kye Fitzgerald on the same board that Hawaii's Bobby Owens rode at Bells Beach in 1981).
And then winter ended.
Hi Brendan,
ReplyDeleteJust wanted to say thanks for the shout out on your blog! I'm not sure if you tracked that link down cos I sent it to you or you tracked it back . . . because I actually did email you, but I'm not sure if it got through. I approached you at the Airey's festival of words cos a few mates and I are making a surf film. Anyway. My memory isn't as good as I thought it was and I may have written your email address down wrong! Oops. I was wondering . . . if I could have it again?! Or if youwouldn't mind emailing me on fran@ladychameleon.com.au . . because we would absolutely love to get your thoughts on our film.
Pretty please, Fran.
P.S I meant metaphorically barefooted, that sounds a bit lame, but seriously, it's the way you came across.