Pro surfers who don't surf anymore??

[Karlos]

The MP saga has been analysed to death. It's all very sad but the really interesting question is why is it just assumed that a pro (or anyone else?) who stops surfing is some sort of failure? Sorry to disappoint anyone who thought otherwise but surfing is not the only way to add meaning to your life.....if it stops working for you, stop doing it! perfectly reasonable!

I agree that surfing isn't the only way to make your life meaningful & god knows that I've had my moments over the last 20+ years where I've drifted away at times, but I don't think anyone has called any of these guys failures. Failure really has had nothing to do with it, as it seems that most of those that we've discussed here have given it up due to some pretty extreme situations in their personal lives. Maybe I ought to trawl back through all the posts to confirm this, but I can't recall anyone we've talked about giving it up purely because it's stopped working for them.

We've also touched on some who simply haven't lived up to the hype they recieved early in their careers, but are still surfing like Nick Wood & Chappy Jennings.

I think a lot of us here consider surfing different to most (maybe all?) other sports in that it is something that we can keep doing for a long time (unlike say, Rugby League), as well as being something that we'd be unlikely to ever give up totally. You know that 'only a surfer knows the feeling' quote that did the rounds way back when. I know it was probably some savvy marketer that came up with it, but it explains my argument in 6 words better than I was able to over the last 3 paragraphs.

[Beanpole]

Cruel, cruel, Dino.
Hakman was relatively brave to even have the book put out in the first place I reckon. The fact that he's loaded and an exjunkie doesn't make him need to be in the public eye. It could have been a much bigger white wash.
Success and failure have always been the makings of a sports bio. Is Rabbit's bio or Kelly Slater's' a better read than Hakman's or MP's?
The bigger the roller coaster ride the bigger the interest. Also the further away the reader is from the actual events the more realistic the book appears.
I presume most Nth Beaches surfers would take Nat's bio as gospel.

What other former high profile surfers deserve a bio?

[ether]

thats very interesting nbg. I was debating with myself wether or not to bring up the hakman bio. Now that you have, I have to disagree 100%. I would say that book is one of the most ordinary sanctimonious piece of hero worship vomit i have read. After reading that book all i could see that hakman had going for him was that he was a good surfer. Imagine anyone else, not of his surfing staure being a serious junkie and fcuking up so many times screwing close friends and buisness relations. The outcome? You end up running quicksilver europe. Poor old hakman. That bio had about as much weight as a book that praises a supermodel for being beautifull. I mean really the title of that book should have been " Jeff Hakman- Im really lucky na na nana na"

Haha couldn't agree more. Actually the book has one redeeming feature, which is its photography, especially the shots of uncrowded Hawaii in the 50s & 60s.

But Phil Jarratt's sycophantic treatment of a bloke who was clearly just an immature cretin who could surf is a disgrace. It really struck me as a pathetic and transparent attempt at revisionist history: portraying a complete loser as some sort of troubled genius.

[Beanpole]

sycophantic treatment of a bloke who was clearly just an immature cretin who could surf is a disgrace. .

So no surf star bios then?

[ether]

sycophantic treatment of a bloke who was clearly just an immature cretin who could surf is a disgrace. .

So no surf star bios then?

Well as someone pointed out earlier, bios are always selective accounts. I just thought this one was a particularly toadying effort.

[Chamberess]

Well i like Eddie Would go...the bio of legendary waterman Eddie Aikau.I've recommended it to a couple friends and both have found it an insightful read,BUT it does take a while to get into at the start.You feel like the booking is just dragging out the intro and repeating itself.

I would give it a go.The type of book that leaves you thinking about it even after you've finished.

[Beanpole]

Come on Dino. Since when have surf stars been egotistical?

The other abandon all hope of other interests group is coaches and sport commentators. There is usually a disfunctional relationship lurking in the background while they give their all for the team, viewers, pats on the back and the chance to relive past glories.

[Hawkeye]

... you know what you have to do to be an elite sportsperson? The particular sport you are involved in to the detriment of virtually every other aspect of your life. People who have spent their whole lives focused on one singular pursuit are generally, with a couple of notable exceptons boring as bat shit with very little life experience whatsoever.

Ah, thankyou! At last, someone with the insight to see through the sports star worship cult in Australia.

[petelev4]

yeah so surfings gay

[Laurie McGinness]

People who have spent their whole lives focused on one singular pursuit are generally, with a couple of notable exceptons boring as bat shit with very little life experience whatsoever. Doesn't make very good reading material as far as i can see.

Nailed it there dino. Doesn't make for great conversation either in my experience! (with the exceptions duly noted).

[Nick Carroll]

I dunno, guys, I think you may be writing off the wrong people.

Biography writing is extremely difficult, and one of the biggest challenges is putting your subject's life into context, over and over again, with the world in which he/she has existed. Most surfer bios have failed horribly in this crucial area -- perhaps because the writer has failed to understand its importance, perhaps because he hasn't really grasped the context in the first place, perhaps because he's just not a good enough writer for this most complex task.

Sometimes there are other significant holes. For instance in Stuart Coleman's book on Eddie Aikau, Stuie utterly failed to a) put Eddie's life into context with his father's, which is critical to understanding why Eddie might have chosen to jump off that canoe, and b) take the reader into the water at Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach and explain how deeply the experience must have lived in Eddie's Hawaiian heart. Maybe the first one scared him a bit -- Sol Aikau had some big mates -- but the second was a real loss I reckon.

Surfers, even great ones, are rarely as one dimensional as you suggest. I think much better books will be written -- bios and otherwise -- in years to come.

[Meataxe]

I was dissapointed with Kelly's bio. He's come across as a very reflective guy in some interviews I've seen/read but the actual bio showed little insight or self-awareness. At times it was pages and pages of contest results or "then-we-did-this-and-then-I-did-this-and-then-we-did-this".

[Nick Carroll]

I was dissapointed with Kelly's bio. He's come across as a very reflective guy in some interviews I've seen/read but the actual bio showed little insight or self-awareness. At times it was pages and pages of contest results or "then-we-did-this-and-then-I-did-this-and-then-we-did-this".

Well that's the other danger: Autobiography.

It relies so much on the subject to tell all precisely and clearly and with context -- in other words be the writer. I think if Jason Borte had been given a free hand to write a biography -- a third person account, including lots of background interviewing and contextual stuff -- it woulda been a much more interesting book.

Then again a biography of KS might be better left until he retires, people are always more interesting once they've grown up.

[marcus]

Sometimes there are other significant holes. For instance in Stuart Coleman's book on Eddie Aikau, Stuie utterly failed to a) put Eddie's life into context with his father's, which is critical to understanding why Eddie might have chosen to jump off that canoe, and b) take the reader into the water at Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach and explain how deeply the experience must have lived in Eddie's Hawaiian heart. Maybe the first one scared him a bit -- Sol Aikau had some big mates -- but the second was a real loss I reckon.

Nick, for those of us that are interested in why Eddie jumped off that canoe, and the story of his father, where can we find information on this?
care to share your knowledge or understanding of this event?

[bro]

Nick did i hear it right that you are writing Layne Beachelys biography?

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, for those of us that are interested in why Eddie jumped off that canoe, and the story of his father, where can we find information on this?
care to share your knowledge or understanding of this event?

Ahh it's a long story and I don't feel comfortable recounting it here, without Clyde's giving it the OK. Suffice it to say, Sol was a classic character, the type of Hawaiian guy who didn't act rich but who could command the Mayor of Honolulu to attend his luaus, and we'll never really know what Eddie was thinking when he went off Hokule'a with the nearest land 12 miles to windward in a 30-knot-plus north-east gale. I have never read it anywhere in complete form. Down the track in the right place it'll be written.

And no bro, I'm not writing Layne's bio, I'm writing Lisa Andersen's. It's given me a fair bit of insight into the biographic arena I can tell ya.

[Laurie McGinness]

Surfers, even great ones, are rarely as one dimensional as you suggest. I think much better books will be written -- bios and otherwise -- in years to come.

Nick I'd be more optimistic about this if the strike rate of sporting bios and entertainment bios wasn't so appallingly low. The first ingredient of a good bio is an interesting life and, even for most surfers, a life spent chasing waves isn't particularly interesting. In my opinion there is also a bit of a problem with the kind of personality types that tend to become great athletes. They have to be a bit obsessive and somewhere in their heart have an absolutely irrational belief in their own ability. The true greats can turn it on and off but even so it's a significant barrier to the biographer because it reduces their capacity to open up about themselves....but good luck with your Lisa Andersen bio, maybe you will be able to break the mould.

[Nick Carroll]

Nick I'd be more optimistic about this if the strike rate of sporting bios and entertainment bios wasn't so appallingly low. The first ingredient of a good bio is an interesting life and, even for most surfers, a life spent chasing waves isn't particularly interesting. In my opinion there is also a bit of a problem with the kind of personality types that tend to become great athletes. They have to be a bit obsessive and somewhere in their heart have an absolutely irrational belief in their own ability. The true greats can turn it on and off but even so it's a significant barrier to the biographer because it reduces their capacity to open up about themselves....but good luck with your Lisa Andersen bio, maybe you will be able to break the mould.

I think there's a third big problem that's going under the radar -- time.

Most sporting and entertainment biographies these days are written in frantic haste to meet some crap publisher's marketing deadline. But the longer a piece of writing, the more effort is required. It's not an even play in my opinion -- a good book isn't just a bunch of 1000-word riffs, it's a big piece of its own. This is especially true when you're trying to reveal a real human being.

I've been fortunate with Lisa, not only is she a great subject but the publisher hasn't stuck a fork up my arse. Of course this might all change when LA reads the ms! But her story is essentially one about a woman wrestling with her past and finally turning it to some real good; winning all the world titles and such was almost a byproduct. Anyway, I like Lisa a lot...She's anything but one of those blank-minded obsessives -- I can't help wondering if it's partly because she's a woman. She had a child before she won any world titles, which tells you something about her earthy sorta priorities.

OK Nick stop here...