Ask Carroll

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, do you feel you could have done more throughout your career to help combat violence in Life Saving Australia? Are you a violent sexist as well Nick Carroll??

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/201 ... hing-woman

Yes. Yes I am.

[Nick Carroll]

NC,
Who do you think stand out as the most intelligent of pro, or high profile, surfers that you have interacted with?
Blokes/girls who could have looked as comfortable at having a dig at Fermat's Last Theorem as tearing the bag at J Bay, or making Tim Winton's expression sound like Matt Reilly's or wherever their brainpower manifested brilliantly off a wave.
Kelly seems very switched on, and have read of Ace and Kieran Perrow being bright sparks too. Shaun Tomson

Ummm well just as long as everyone knows I am not bagging anyone who isn't on this list.

Dave Parmenter stands out in my mind, so does TF, Kelly for sure, BL, Ace, Mark Foo, RCJ, Kieren P, Lopez, Bugs, there's quite a few. Midget Farrelly is very intelligent though perhaps not very literary. CJ Hobgood is very perceptive though not necessarily super brainy, his perceptions feel to me like they are born of native intelligence. Mick Lowe. Rasta's pretty smart for sure. Hynd is extremely intelligent but in a Davros sort of way, he secretly wants to exterminate stuff. Wayne Lynch is also very intelligent. I could add to this list I'm sure.

[crabmeat thompson]

god damn it wing nut, stop it. What have you done with fong. Don't tell me he's run away to sea.

And by sea, we really mean C.

[Davros]

Back to Lockyer, I always thought of him as Jonathon E from Roller Ball, almost bigger than the game at one point.

[Beanpole]

Nick you forgot Occy. His narrative skills not to mention his dancing make him an obvious inclusion.

[daryl]

It's ice, a stronger version of ice, crystal meth, formerly known as speed, now and it's everywhere. There's some lovely pics of a 30yo addict coming out of court now too, and him 15, 16 years ago being assisted by what looks like a bit of a chubby indian guy, taking a used syringe back off him as a little kid perched on a gutter in the back lanes of Redfern.

[Nick Carroll]

As I age, I have less interest in mind altering substances, and tend to be out of the loop when it comes to drug types, popularity and use. So Nick, just going back to that issue again, do you think drugs generally are used less extensively now than back in the 70's and 80's, not just by pro, or top line surfers, but by surfers in general? Are there as many marijuana users who smoke as widely, openly and often? And in the light of this Hoffman roosters death, do you reckon smack will ever again reach the heights of popularity? What is your handle on drug culture relative to surfing in Australia, and worldwide, at the current time?

Well from what I can tell, illicit drug use is still pretty common among younger people, perhaps in different contexts though - way more festivals and music stuff these days and I think there's a lot of party drugs in use on those days. Among surfers generally there's no way the drug use is anywhere near as high as it was, but that's largely because the age and gender range has blown way out, I bet in the narrow band of surfers between 17 and 25 there's still a fair bit of dope smoking, but cocaine seems to be pretty old hat and even sorta sneered at. One thing I've noticed in the 17-25 band is that they drink more openly, like the crew at my beach always seem to be having beer o'clock down at the beach, which never happened in the late 70s and 80s, well maybe at Northy. The ice thing is weird, underground, and very much a social stigma now I think. Smack, I don't know, it's such a retreat-from-reality drug, I hope it doesn't gain a foothold among the post-hipster kids, the social circumstances that drove its popularity in the early to mid 70s don't really exist any more so I sorta doubt it.

In the pro leagues there's no way the party-drug thing is the way it was in the 80s, I think everyone knows what's up with it now -- they've watched Kelly who has been a fantastic influence in that area, and there's not that 1980s naiveté, that uncritical willingness to get smashed one day and win the contest the next -- and the few guys who probably do go hard on occasion have got way better at hiding it and do it way less. In today's pro world, you can't get away with it the way you used. You'd hope that some may have taken on board some lessons from AI's sad death, but they'd be in the minority I suspect.

[steve shearer]

In this area, formerly a stronghold of the drug/counter-culture there's WAY less drug use amongst the young surfers. A lot of factors there. It's more expensive to live here now so you can't be on the dole, live here and smoke bongs all day. Also the good young surfers all want to be pro and they look at Danny Wills, Kieren Perrow, Melling or Wright or even Kyuss King and it's just not the done thing.

A massive alcohol and violence problem though.

[Beanpole]

Another couple of factors is seeing the results among theirs parents generation pretty directly at the beach, the added expense of OS Travel plus wanting electronic devices to use so they have to make money to buy the stuff and also peer group pressure to get tanked on spirits.

Unless your hitting speed or something like that your aren't going to be standing for long if you knock back a few bongs and shots together quickly.

[Lucky Al]

Nick, how did Tom come to ride for Byrne? What dimensions was he riding in crappy beachbreaks in his World Title years? Do you think those dimensions could work for crappy breachbreak surfers today? Who came up with the swoosh? Sorry if this is in your book - I haven't got a copy yet.

[Karlos]

Hang on a moment. Someone called their kid 'Kyuss'?

Whoah.

[offshore1]

Pip pip fong my good man and tally-ho.

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, how did Tom come to ride for Byrne? What dimensions was he riding in crappy beachbreaks in his World Title years? Do you think those dimensions could work for crappy breachbreak surfers today? Who came up with the swoosh? Sorry if this is in your book - I haven't got a copy yet.

What the HELL, it's not on sale in Vietnam yet? I must send a terse email to the publisher.

Ok Tom started riding for Byrne in 1980, he'd been riding Morning Stars for a few years but things were changing for both him and Col, Tom needed to be connected to a board maker with an international perspective and Phil definitely had that at the time, and Col wasn't interested in that side of things, indeed he pretty much walked away from shaping over the following years. Plus Phil and Quiksilver were pretty close, Alan Green and John Law had actually offered Phil Byrne the US licence in partnership with Bob McKnight, and Tom was partly sponsored by Quik at the time.

Tom's beach break board in 84/85 was 5'9" x 19" x 23/8", square tail with belly channels, and a pronouncedly straight rocker line through the tail. I think with some tweaking it might be a good design for a lot of surfers in small waves, but not for any of the pros these days, it'd need more than tweaking for them.

[Nick Carroll]

Oh and the swoosh was Tom's idea, he actually has quite a talented graphic eye.

[pinhead]

Horrific ! I'm sure that slipped past the Real Surf grammar police. The sheer rudeness of a couple using a name that's not up to our standard. On their own child!
It makes me wonder for our collective futures. What has the world come to? Parents naming children what they choose. Terrible stuff.

Giving your child a name like that is a form of child abuse IMHO, you may as well tattoo "Bogan" on his forehead.

...or should that be "might as well" Ron?

[Karlos]

I'm now hopeful that someone will name their kid 'Black Sabbath'.

[marauding mullet]

After Moonunit and Dweezil everything else is so John Smith.