Kirra 78-79 remembered

[foamy]

On Swellnet, a great extract from William Finnegan's surfing memoir 'Barbarian Days'.
I was around at that time and it all seems very accurate.

http://www.swellnet.com/features/lucky- ... m-finnegan

[chrisb]

That's a really good read. I might hunt down the book.
"Larry", a regular contributor to this site years ago wrote similar short stories covering, among other subjects, his days working at the Byron Bay meatworks in the 1960's. It's very interesting reading about those long-gone eras.

[Beanpole]

Quite descriptive.

[2nd Reef]

That's a really good read. I might hunt down the book.
"Larry", a regular contributor to this site years ago wrote similar short stories covering, among other subjects, his days working at the Byron Bay meatworks in the 1960's. It's very interesting reading about those long-gone eras.

"Larry" - otherwise known as Peter Bowes - has a couple of books out now, both collections of his short stories such as the Byron Bay abattoir tales. Think he went by the name "Scoresby" then - he had a few nom de plumes, and also used to play with narrative points-of-view. The first is called 'Bloodlines' and the second 'Lineage', both published by Bennison, a small pommy company, and both of them fine reads.

Finnegan and Bowes might be clever with words, but they couldn't be more different as people. Finnegan comes off cool, debonair, and intense, a fairly humourless fellow. While Pete is an irascible ratbag, consort to wrongdoers and wretches, and a fucken funny bloke to boot

[2nd Reef]

^^Still can't fucken swear here?

[rmb]

Is this Larry the inspiration behind Leisure Suit Larry?

[2nd Reef]

Dunno, but if it pays royalties I'm sure he'll claim it.

[2nd Reef]

Cheers Fong, hope you're getting a few hollow ones wherever you are.

Best wave in the world? Maybe. Even after all these years and all these discoveries it's still the benchmark for perfection.

[Beanpole]

Best barrel I've ever got anyway.

[Larry]

I'd appreciate it if you blokes would let me know when you're talking about me, I have sensitivities that cannot be ignored, being a child of the 40's.

[steve shearer]

Pete is also a dead ringer for Gregory Peck as Ahab in Moby Dick.

[Larry]

Was that you I ignored at the Lennox gas station, Steve? You're pretty hard to recognise without a fucking great Jewfish slung over your shoulder.

[chrisb]

Welcome back Larry. Are you going to write some more stories for us on Realsurf?

[Larry]

chrisb, cheers mate ... I'm about as done with surfing as it is with me, when it comes to relevance I don't have any. But espionage and deep noir criminal fiction with unsavoury characters and seedy nightclubs are something else. Not to mention murder and revelations of one of Australia's great mysteries.
That, I've got by the balls .. Book due by December.
Bob Barrat should eat his heart out, God bless the old scoundrel.

[Cranked]

I love the australianess of your writing larry, and you're sure touch with distinctly oz characters. Looking forward to your new one.

[Larry]

Thanks Cranked, much appreciated. I've got a few dead-set cranky old bastards in there, plus an operator who rips off the yanks when his mate nobbles a Harley Davidson in a bike race in Rabaul.
Some of it's true, so help me.

Sorting through this stuff has taken four years, but I've got a yarn.

http://tomsbytwo.com/2014/10/25/a-field-of-bones/

[marauding mullet]

Man that is one interesting story, being from a neigbhouring suburb to where "The Somerton Man" was found, even more so for me.

[Larry]

Stay tuned mullet, I'm interviewing for the movie. Crowe looks good for the lead and I'm liking Kyles for the nurse. Her or Kate Moss.