Morning of the Earth and Tracks made it look as if Australia had forsworn surfing competition altogether. In fact the Aussies never really took to the anti-contest barricades with the same enthusiasm as the Americans—hardly surprising, given that cricket, tennis, soccer, swimming, and Aussie rules football provided a background hum for the entire country, and that most Aussie surfers cut their teeth at surf carnivals. It was practically expected that surfers like Midget Farrelly, Nat Young, a...
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 Rubberman Cometh /
- The Impossible Wave /
- Into the Vortex /
- Gerry Lopez, Pipeline Firewalker /
Long Road to Bells Beach
“Easter Bells” would come to mean the Bells contest itself, the pilgrimage to and from Victoria, lots of extracurricular surfs sessions at nearby breaks like Winkipop, and at least three big nights at the Torquay Pub, where the barkeep, as one surf journalist noted, “announces closing time with the aid of a fire hose."