Ask Carroll

[rmb]

Spot on no wit but they are a bunch of bloke's having fun doing what any bloke could do with their mates on a fishing/surfing trip maybe with the exception of the tiger shark.

I enjoy watching their clip's they look like they have a pretty good life and most fishing show's are pretty dull compared to what they do.

[Beanpole]

Last time we were up at Coolangatta which was a couple of years ago there was a full Mick Fanning Clone. Younger, shorter, same haircut, wetsuit etc. Funny when you see that degree of hero worship.

[collnarra]

What ever happened to Nick Wood?

I remember ten years ago or so I was doing a story on surfing for a national mag I worked on. It ended up on the cover (the cover shot being an excellent photo of TC massively grinning in a barrel). I wish I still had a copy. In any case ...

When I was researching it I was lucky enough to have a chinwag with one of the Rip Curl founders, RC being a long-time Wood sponsor. Towards the end of the chat I asked the interviewee whether they felt any personal or corporate responsibility for what happened to Wood (and I was not, to be fair, really clear on what HAD happened). I seem to recall getting a very non-committal answer. Wood wasn't a part of the piece in any case - it was a ra-ra about the strength of the Aussie surf industry or something. I can't remember my pitch to the editor with any clarity. Still, it was a cover.

Which brings me back to my inaugural "Ask Carroll" question: What did happen to Nick Wood?

Josh

[Nick Carroll]

You know what I'm not totally sure. There's a whole slab of time in the first two thirds of the 1990s when I lost contact with a lot of the Aussie larrikin crew thanks to being in CA, and I didn't see what sounded like a pretty tough and sad decline. It must have affected him quite strongly to see Kelly and co come almost out of nowhere and turn the sport around the way they did, and he battled with knee problems thanks to a big growth spurt in his late teens. People are pretty quick to blame the Surf Industry for what happens when a surfer falls from grace but the driving forces behind that fall usually lie a bit closer to home than some team manager or the Evils of Capitalism or whatever. I don't know what Nick is up to these days. Anyone?

[steve shearer]

Last I heard he was living somewhere on the Goldy (where surf stars go to die?), surfing every so often. Underground.

There is an enduring interest in these fallen idols (much to Nicks slight annoyance and bemusement) because of the history of destruction of our finest talents.

The sense I get from people I talk to is that we saw it happen to MP, how the fcuk can we let it keep happening?

And yes, I think Surf Media must shoulder some of the blame. Due to the advertorial driven nature of the content, as soon as these guys start to fall and lose sponsorships, they become persona non grata. Not worth anything to the industry and by extension surf media so thrown on the scrapheap.

It's obvious now there was a toxic drug culture that flourished around the Tour and it did claim those vulnerable. Would it have happened if journalists had been braver and called it as it was? There would have been some short term pain for sure but I think the culture would have been forced to change, maybe sparing a few casualties and forcing the sport to grow up.
Still, the journos were moreorless in service to the industry or unabashed cheerleaders for Prosurfing, so no-one had any interest in shining the light into the dark corners. Best to turn a blind eye and just pretend the continuing stream of human casualties weren't happening.

[Nick Carroll]

Still haven't read that book eh shearer.

You can really come across as bloody pompous at times.

How many people have YOU helped out of alcoholism or drug addiction? How many people do you reckon have given that a real shot? What close friend or member of your family would you have put on the fcuken media chopping block so as to Save The World From Itself?

Surf culture, not just pro surfing but surf culture, not even just surf culture but youth culture as a whole, was infected for a generation with the idea that taking drugs of various kinds was just the funniest shit imaginable. Surfers at every fcuken beach in Australia, not just pro surfers on tour and off, indeed not just surfers, went down in every conceivable way. I bet surfing helped a lot of kids avoid hard drug use; nobody's ever studied this but it may be that surfers as a group were a bit better off than the general youth population. It's even possible that more non pro surfers per head of surfing population lost their way in drug or alcohol addiction than did pro surfers per head. But you know what, I don't see a whole lot of people calling for accountability there, oh no. Don't fcuken look at yourself whatever you do.

And the people who did it tough have not been ignored by the surf media. They've been written about often, almost endlessly. There's been big books written about MP and about Jeff Hakman. Articles and book chapters about Kevin Brennan. There's been dozens of articles on Herring, fcuk it's almost turning into a rite of passage for Australian surf journos to do an article on Shane. There's been a heap of revision and it continues to this day, and it's probably got a way to go as people mature and get enough distance between them and events that they can make sense of it.

I know where I fcuked up in my life but I think it's pretty fcuken rich for you to be holding me and other surf journalists to account for something that spread clear across youth culture and has been a part of Australian culture generally (the booze) since day fcuken one. Specially since it's mostly those same journalists who are doing the actual work of revision.

Specially since you seem so determined not to read that book. Because it might kind of clarify things a bit for you about my supposed slight annoyance and bemusement.

[ctd]

Nick, as a major factor do litres give a close to accurate view of the board people should ride or is it just bunk from surfboard companies making it easier for surfboard salesman to push boards rather than have an idea about foils and surfboards in general.

I think I might have answered this before?

What do you think is the most ignored - by purchasers (and perhaps marketers) - part of surfboard design ie the thing that is actually quite important but people tend to not even think about or gloss over and should be paying attention to?

[crabmeat thompson]

I never saw hardcore drug use. Lots of drinking, almost always at inopportune times. Maybe pills on a big night after a contest had run. I never saw any professionalism either. Maybe Kelly, and Taylor Knox in his later years. Dorian too, I guess. Definitely not the aussies though.

I saw a whole heap of infidelity ... but I dunno. All this behaviour was mirroring my own life and the family and friends in it. So I thought it was normal.

It's that normalisation of these behaviours I was seeing which made me loathe the job too. Like the egos of the pro surfers simply because they could surf good.

... like trying to interview some of them, it was like, Dude. All you do is surf, drink and habitually cheat on your girlfriend/ wife. It's not that big of a deal, the surfing bit. And definitely don't think you're better then me because you can bust fins out in a contest singlet.

Most of them weren't respectable in the least. At least when I was at surfing life. Now things have changed. There's coaches, professionalism -- to an extent -- guys are taking their families and wives with them on tour. They are savouring and valuing the life they have and actually working hard to maintain it. Not turn up drunk to round one tahiti because it's 10 foot and they're shitting bricks.

It's why I could go back and cover some events for swellnet. The respect for what they are doing now, was suddenly apparent, and I could identify with it. I love professionalism, I try to be when I'm working, so the people I'm reporting and writing about have to exemplify it to some extent.

It's why I love parko & writing about him so much. I couldn't really care for his competitive surfing. But Joel the person is a really good person. Solid family guy, loves a laugh, but knuckles down and gets it done when the job's on. Unless the spanish mackerel are running at some distant reef a day's boat ride away. lol

[steve shearer]

Nick I finished the book last night.

The salient criticism is that the journos were too close to the subjects, too indebted to the surf industry, too much overt cheerleaders for ProSurfing.

All that is made abundantly clear in your book. You're quite open about it.

But still there doesn't seem any willingness for the slightest bit of reflection on the costs of silence. Just more deflection, obfuscation and defensiveness.

Blame everyone else : "society is full of drug addicts, surfing is no different".

It's hard to think of any professional sport where a blind eye has been so systematically turned for so long. Imagine the top guys in Rugby league going down the gurgler with nary a word......bizarre. And it's different five years after the fact when they're washed up carcasses somewhere. There's no risk in that, no challenge to the status quo. It's too late then.

Understandably you're defensive about your position; hell it's been your life's work. But just because you've written a book and repeated ad nauseum " I didn't write about the drugs" doesn't absolve you from people asking "why the fcuk not?"
There were more people than Tom going down the gurgler.

I have plenty to say about the book. But for now, I really enjoyed it. I found the last third immensely moving and I really related to it.

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, as a major factor do litres give a close to accurate view of the board people should ride or is it just bunk from surfboard companies making it easier for surfboard salesman to push boards rather than have an idea about foils and surfboards in general.

I think I might have answered this before?

What do you think is the most ignored - by purchasers (and perhaps marketers) - part of surfboard design ie the thing that is actually quite important but people tend to not even think about or gloss over and should be paying attention to?

Probably just your own skill level. It's really hard for a board maker to figure out what that is, and many surfers aren't really sure how to describe the way they surf, like even in this forum there's a lot of uncertainty in posts about people's personal surfing abilities. In some cases the shaper might know the surfer quite well and have watched him or her surf for a while, and will thus have a clear grasp on it. But I reckon that's the major wildcard.

[Nick Carroll]

Nick I finished the book last night.

The salient criticism is that the journos were too close to the subjects, too indebted to the surf industry, too much overt cheerleaders for ProSurfing.

All that is made abundantly clear in your book. You're quite open about it.

But still there doesn't seem any willingness for the slightest bit of reflection on the costs of silence. Just more deflection, obfuscation and defensiveness.

Blame everyone else : "society is full of drug addicts, surfing is no different".

It's hard to think of any professional sport where a blind eye has been so systematically turned for so long. Imagine the top guys in Rugby league going down the gurgler with nary a word......bizarre. And it's different five years after the fact when they're washed up carcasses somewhere. There's no risk in that, no challenge to the status quo. It's too late then.

Understandably you're defensive about your position; hell it's been your life's work. But just because you've written a book and repeated ad nauseum " I didn't write about the drugs" doesn't absolve you from people asking "why the fcuk not?"
There were more people than Tom going down the gurgler.

I have plenty to say about the book. But for now, I really enjoyed it. I found the last third immensely moving and I really related to it.

Yeah but that's the thing shearer, what I'm trying to say is this shit is personal. We are all viewing the events of the past from a different place now. I really hate being accused of somehow causing people to go down the mine of drug abuse, because I don't believe it's true for a second. If you just asked me straight, "Do you think you should have written about drug use among surfers back in the 1980s" etc, then I could answer you. But you're not doing that, you're standing up there and chucking blame around. You're too smart for it and you should know better.

[alakaboo]

Sounds like you guys need to write some letters.

[Nick Carroll]

It's hard to think of any professional sport where a blind eye has been so systematically turned for so long.

Oh stop it.

Early onset Alzheimers as a result of repeated head contact in rugby league and US football, it's been going on for 40 years or more and everyone's ignored it till recently, and still nobody's doing much about it.

Numerous cases of cocaine and other drug abuse over many years in professional tennis.

Cycling, do I even have to bring it up.

Every elite sport has its dark sides in this area, even, maybe especially ones that are way more "pro" than surfing.

[Nick Carroll]

Nick,
Could you could give a bit of history to the modern 'pig dog' stance of backhand tuberiding. I'm guessing a lot of the credit would have to go to the South Shore boys Liddell, Ferreira, Kealoha et al at Ala Moana?

The first guys to pig dog in my memory were Marvin Foster and JBG on the North Shore, they seemed to really grasp the idea and run with it. Guys were grabbing the rail backside in the 1960s but I think what we're discussing here is the full backside tube squat, back knee on the board, shoulders fully turned open to the line etc. I can't remember anyone even using the words "pig dog" until '84 or so. It really works best with a multi-finned board, with a singly backside you kinda have to put weight back then forward, which is hard with a full pig-dog takeoff to barrel, where everything is tipped on to the mid rail. You might recall some of the epic single fin backside barrel stances, like the layback etc - Simon's was the best in the business and he used it well at Pipe.

To fully trace this development you'd have to spend some hours with old mags and videos and I just don't have the plasma for that right now mate, sorry. But yeah a bit later than Liddell etc.

[steve shearer]

Yes, you're right.

You think I'm singling you out but it was a culture. A culture I was a part of too.

But I did try and write about the drug culture in surfing, as well as a few other things and it was just flat out rejected by the gatekeepers. Too likely to cause offence to the advertisers. Not cool. Taboo. Thats the way it was. And I saw people going down the gurgler. Picked up at fifteen, dragged out of school, thrown into the whirlwind and then spat out the other side, thanks for coming. No duty of care whatsoever. Sure we'll write the redemption story when you struggle back onto the QS for a few years before fading into obscurity, but as for now, good luck on the Goldy I heard laying tile pays a living wage, try not to step on my beachfront property.

I'm more concerned now with the way it's going to be.

Boo I hope Nick and I can have this conversation in public, respectfully if ocassionally passionately, as men of letters have always done. I know I have a tendency to step over the line and I apologise in advance and retrospectively for having done so.

No doubt Nick will remind me when I see him next.

[Natho]

That's a good point Nick re peoples skill. Was trying to explain that exact point to a friend recently. He is not a very good surfer but seems to think a custom board is always the way to go. It's like beacause the board is 'custom' for him it is somehow going to make him surf better and make up for his lack of skill and fitness. He is really struggling on his latest $750 custom pro model however he seems to think because the board was 'made exactly for him' it is somehow perfect. "Oh so and so made this board exactly for me" he stated. Truth is the board is a super high performace rip stick well beyond his level of ability. If the shaper did know his ability he should never have sold him the board that he did.
How can a shaper make you a perfect board when he has never seen you surf? Im sure like most people my mate also talked his ability up, but at the end of the day I think many people put too much faith in the word 'custom'. They also put too much faith in shapers in general to somehow create a miracle when they have never seen the person surf. I think the surfboard industry to a degree has done a bit of a con job on the average punter at the same time. I mean if a board is pumped out exactly the same as a standard off the rack model in the same dimensions is it really 'custom' just beacuse its got your name on it? What is 'custom' these days anyway?
I know there are a few shapers left who make a real custom boards in the true sense but there wouldn't be many.

[Nick Carroll]

Yeah boo this is how it is when you give a fcuk, I understand that and I'm glad of it, even though it hurts.

[steve shearer]

I almost lost my job several times over the book.

I read it at the Coolangatta Airport newsagency over a couple of week period......ten, twenty, forty pages at a time.

I was so engrossed and then the phone would ring.......fcuk!.....I was ten minutes late and people were spazzing out.