Surf, Sweat and Tears by Martin Andy;

Author:Martin, Andy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code 1: BIO000000
ISBN: 6514840
Publisher: OR Books
Published: 2020-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

24.

Rabbit maintained that it was all a big mistake. All Wayne Rabbit Bartholomew had ever wanted to do was “build bridges” and “heal wounds” and “mend” one thing or another. Or “surf hard and then have a barbie and a beer.” The plain fact of it though was that his one article, “Bustin’ Down the Door” probably generated more wrath and ire and all-out aggro than any other article published in a surfing magazine in the history of the world. Rabbit’s shot at beach diplomacy did nothing to calm the storm but rather intensified it. Maybe, some maintained, if he had never said anything, then all would have been well. Maybe–in this improbable alternate universe–Australians could have beaten Hawaiians in the water and they would all have swum back to shore and shaken hands and had a barbie and a beer and been the best of mates and lived happily ever after. But it didn’t work out like that. Everything Rabbit said was just rubbing salt in the wounds.

Rabbit’s hair is now more grey than blond. But he is looking in good shape. When I drove down the coast from Brisbane to meet him in Coolangatta at Café Dbar (where even the benches are in the shape of surfboards–or may actually be old surfboards), looking out over Snapper Rocks, he was wearing dark glasses. Not entirely to minimize the glare of the sun. He was not only a former world champion, but a “global ambassador” for Hurley, and had once been president of the ASP. He was giving free surf clinics to youngsters, too. But he had the look of a wanted man, a fugitive, on the run, still looking over his shoulder even decades later. There is an old joke: “You may be paranoid, but they really are after you.” The fact is, Rabbit wasn’t the least bit paranoid. From around 1976, they really were after him. And still are. Especially in Hawaii.

So he wasn’t too surprised to hear that Ted didn’t die surfing at Sunset.

What happened was this. Rabbit–a skinny young Australian surfer, raised in poverty on the Gold Coast, half Australian Huckleberry Finn, half Artful Dodger, intent on climbing up the charts, with a back-up career as juvenile delinquent–felt he had run into a degree of resistance in Hawaii. A certain froideur. Whatever happened to aloha, he wanted to know. He didn’t notice a lot of brotherly love emanating from the locals. So he went and wrote his article for Surfer magazine. They had asked him to do it and he actually sat in the Surfer offices in faraway California and wrote it right there. From a safe distance, it must have seemed. The gist of it was this: “The fact is that when you are a young emerging rookie from Australia or South Africa you not only have to come through the backdoor…but you also have to bust that door down before they hear ya knocking.” The “bustin’” and the “ya” were there to betoken a rough-hewn vernacular and authenticity.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.