Chapter: 5
Barefoot Revolution
- Revolution is not a Dinner Party
- The Tao of George
- Getting Slippery with Bob McTavish
- Bismarck with a Tan
- Plastic Machine
- Enlightenment at Honolua Bay
- Panic on the Showroom Floor
- Style Takes a Dive
- Everybody Must Get Stoned
- Surfer Goes Electrical Bananas
- No Contest
- There Will be Slaps
- Kook Straps, Cadillacs, and Sex Wax
- Blame it on the Boogie
- Country Soul
- Higher and Brighter with Alby Falzon
- Fresh Blood on the Newsstand
- Long Road to Bells Beach
- Speed Freaks
- Gods of Thunder
- The Impossible Wave
- Into the Vortex
- Gerry Lopez, Pipeline Firewalker
- The Rubberman Cometh
Speed Freaks
Terry Fitzgerald. Photo: Alby Falzon
Terry Fitzgerald. Photo: Jeff Divine
Michael Peterson, 1977. Photo: Dan Merkel
Michael Peterson, 1977. Photo: Peter Crawford
Michael Peterson's short, brilliant, toxic career made him a rebel surfing legend second only to Miki Dora. Terry Fitzgerald, meanwhile, did for performance surfing what Led Zeppelin did for the blues—made it bigger, louder, heavier.
“Performance surfing” is a loosely defined term, but it generally means a fast, active, dynamic style of riding in waves smaller than eight or ten feet. By the early '70s the Aussies were taking ownership of the category. Under-18 junior division champs like Mark Richards, Wayne Bartholomew, and Peter Townend—years before their respective primes—were out-surfing all but the best from California an...
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