"Conversations: Larry Blair," written by Drew Kampion, ran in the April 1980 issue of Surfing magazine. This version has been edited and slightly shortened.

How long have you been over in the Islands?

Ah, well, I'm not too sure if I'm going to California to compete in the Katin contest or not. If not, I'm going to go over to Maui and Kauai, then back to Australia and start getting ready for the Surfabout contest.

Um, no . . . Well, I'll be missing out on the Stubbies and the Bells contest. I'm just aiming for the Surfabout, on winning that one, which is worth $19,000 this year. First place is $19,000. So that'd be pretty good to start the 1980s off with.

It seems like I only hear about you competing in big hollow left-handers. A lot of people know you basically for your win at Narrabeen and the two Pipe Masters wins. Do you like surfing backhand much?

Yeah, I love surfing my backhand. In fact, my main aim now is to win a contest on my backhand. Last year at the Surfabout, remember, the flew the whole contest to Bells, and I placed second, and that was on my backhand.

Coogee Beach. Just around the corner from Bondi, that's where Cheyne [Horan] lives. I live about two miles from Cheyne. So that's good. We keep each other amped up.

That's a lot of surfing in 21 years. Half your life next year.

That's right; getting old! Have to win a few more contests real quick.

Did you come to Hawaii with the aim mainly to win a contest?

My aim was just to win the Pipeline Masters; that's the only contest I thought about. And so it was really good that I won it, and I'd like to win it again. [Note: Blair won the Masters in '78 and '79.]

Do you have any formalized aims in professional surfing; any definite goals?

I'd like to win the Pipeline Masters five times. I'd be happy just to win it three, though. I've got two at the moment, but three, I'd be really stoked. That's what my aim is, to make it three.

Not being as experienced as a lot of people on the North Shore, how do you figure it is that you were able to kind of step right in and knock off two big wins in a row?

I put a lot of time in the water, and I suppose it just all adds up. We get plenty of surf in Australia, and I'm out in the water all day putting in my hours.

I was doing acting work in Australia with 

I was a patient injured in a surfing accident. They evolved a whole story around me, where my mother was a celebrity, an actress, and after this surfing injury she never wanted to come see me. Because the show always came first. But in the end it all settled out and everything was okay. You know, a typical soap opera thing.

So you'd just come into the set every day and crawl underneath the sheets and look sick.

Yeah, it was funny because the surf was really good and I was preparing for the Coke contest and I was getting browner every day. So instead of looking sick, I was getting tan.

It was, yeah. Really good. I'd been going to acting school for a year and a half, and the more experience I get from shows like that, and doing plays, the better I get.

Yeah, I've been in . . . um . . . what was it? 

That's a Shakespearean play, and I was in that.

Sir Lawrence or something like that. I can't . . . It's outrageous, I'm so muddled up I can't recall. I don't even think it was 

Well, y'know, they all wore tight stockings . . .

Yeah, that's right; it was pretty weird. I played this guy who had a really high voice, and I had to prance around the stage . . . And I was sort of a drinker; I drank a lot in the play, I was drunk all the time, and all these people would come in and make stories and I'd be talking to my drunk friend and this girl would walk in and scold us.

That's the one with Sir Toby Belch and Sir Andrew Aguecheek!

, that's it! It was a good play. But gee, it's weird when you can forget things like that that you were so involved with!

Yeah, I know, it happens to me every day. How does acting fit into your life as a pro surfer? Or does it?

Acting helps because it sort of brings you peace of mind. It teaches you to relax under pressure.

Getting used to being watched while performing, you mean.

Yeah, that helps a lot. Even when you're not actually relaxed, you learn to act relaxed anyway.

I've got a pretty good agent, and they said they've got a bit of work for me when I get back. So things are looking pretty good. I don't want to devote my whole time to pro surfing. I just prefer to be in the contests I like going in, and if I win . . . Well, that's what's been happening lately; I've just been winning, so I'm really happy with how things are going at the moment.

What else have you won besides the Pipeline Masters?

I won the Surfabout in Australia, and that was my first professional contest. That was in 1978.

But your focus, as you said, is the Masters.

Three people have won Pipeline twice in a row: Gerry, Rory and myself. So I'd like to win it three times. I've got a few more years to get three, but I'll try and get it next year anyway. Why not?

He's making boards for a lot of good surfers these days.

Aw, yeah, he's great. Geoff and I get along really good, and I find that that's really important between a surfer and a shaper, to be able to talk on the same level and take and make a board exactly what you want it for.

I was talking with Cheyne a while ago, and he was saying that Geoff was making him special boards to approach surfing in a new way. Do you know about all that?

What they're into is future surfing, which is really interesting, and Cheyne's just trying to work out how to these new boards. [Note: Horan and McCoy were just getting started on the no-nose Lazor Zap design.]

Yeah. I've seen him up at Avoca; that's where Geoff's factory is. Cheyne just rips. He just rips waves apart. I can see what he's getting into with the new boards, and it's good.

Who have you learned from? Who influenced you?

I watched Wayne Lynch surf a lot in movies and saw him in all the magazines, and when I was a kid, 14 and 15, I sort of followed along the lines he Wayne was putting down. Later I starting doing my own kind of surfing as well. At the moment there isn't anybody who I think I'd like to surf like.

I just go out there and surf how I want to surf, you know, and if it blends in with the contest scene, that's really good. But I just go surfing and have a good time.

So if the whole competition circuit folded next year it wouldn't upset you too much?

No. No, it wouldn't. It'd be terrible to see, of course, 'cuz the money does come in handy.

[Photos: Simon Chipper, Larry Pierce, John Witzig, Craig Fineman]

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