Nat Young of Australia, world champion in 1966 at age 18, made a return to competitive surfing in 1974, for the Coca-Cola Surfabout event in Sydney—with it's purse of $7,000, the Coke was the second-richest contest held that year, after the Smirnoff Pro-Am. Young, 27—ancient by standards of the time—finished 3rd in the event, and surprised onlookers by donating his $600 winnings to the Labour Party. He spoke with Phil Jarratt a few months later. This interview was originally published in Tracks magazine as "Nat Young: Fire on the Mountain."

When did you win your first major contest?

That would have been the Australian Championships in 1963, at Bondi Beach. The prize was a first-class ticket to Hawaii. That was my first trip to the States; it was great. I was pretty innocent, didn’t really know what was going on. I surfed in Hawaii four months before going to California and when I stepped off the plane I was thrown straight into jail (laughter).

I was 16! Too young to be in the States without a legal guardian. So they held onto me until arrangements could be made with Butch Linden's mom. Butch was a Malibu surfer, a guy I'd met in Hawaii. So she became my guardian! It was a shitty thing to do to a kid, I mean, they held me in the city jail in downtown Los Angeles. But the next few months were great. I’d heard so much about California, so much was happening there. It was just like 

. Butch and I used to cruise the strip in his '47 Chevy, then going up to surf Malibu.

What else do you remember about the Bondi contest?

Everyone thought Mick Dooley was gonna to win. Somehow I got talked into surfing the open division, instead of juniors. So at first I didn’t think I had a chance. But as it went I thought, Yeah, I probably could do it. So I did.

Let's talk about the Coke contest. You don't approve of the system. [Note: the Coke event, like many other early pro contests, used an objective "points-per-manouver" judging system, rather than the now-common 1-to-10 subjective system.]

No, their system now is a total fiasco. They didn't have any waves [on the final day of the contest], so everyone did tricks instead of surfing. Even the people who I respect. [Contest winner] Michael Peterson is a fine surfer and he understands how to carve a surfboard, in fact he’s the best surfer in this country today, not one doubt about it. But he went down in my eyes when I saw him do that sort of stuff. I know how much he wanted to win. I wanted to do the same myself. But it's just too blatant, where you're going straight in the whitewater and putting your foot over the nose just to get an extra point or two. You're just chalking up points. It turns surfing into the pinball. It makes surfing smaller. Whereas I think surfing deserves more respect. There shouldn't be a contest unless there’s surf. Because fundamentally, no matter what the fuck they say, surfing is riding waves.

Yet you’ve recently talked about making a re-entry to surfing as a profession, which implies a willingness to accept bad waves.

No. I'm going into them on my terms. That’s probably why I won’t do any good (laughs).

What happens if there’s good waves the first day, then the next day it's terrible but there’s a first-prize of $5,000.

Then I’ll compromise! (laughs). Yeah, look. I’ve got to be flexible.

You’ve long had the reputation for not particularly liking anybody else on the wave you choose to ride.

Oh, most certainly. I consider that some waves are made for me, or come for me. And if I feel that strongly about a wave . . . I mean, call it dash, arrogance, whatever, I don’t know. That’s just the way I feel. It happens a lot less these days because I have more respect for others. I’m prepared to give and take. But when I was younger I felt that way about every wave I rode. It was a very tenacious thing. I would totally disregard any other feeling. I knew that my ability was probably better than anyone else’s and that would justify it.

How do you feel about that now, looking back?

I think it’s understandable, but I don’t think it’s admirable.

Did you get into sticky situations, where you'd have a punch-out on the beach?

Yeah, a couple of times. But nothing I couldn't get out of.

No, I wouldn’t say so. I don’t think that would have anything to do with it. I don’t think I was spoiled at all. I think it was more a matter of having to fight for everything.

I was just always fighting to get everything.

I wanted everything, yeah (laughs). So I’d fight to get it. And if it meant knocking off milk money to get it, (laughs) or fuckin’ grabbing that babe down there, then that was the way it was gonna be.

While we’re on your childhood, did you take to the water naturally?

I think so. I was seven when I was kicked into the water at a swimming carnival and I swam out. That was the first time. It was no great trauma. I’ve got large hands and feet which arc good for swimming. I wasn’t a brilliant swimmer in school but I always did respectably. My life since then has always revolved around the water. Which is interesting because I do think that one has to come to terms with the ocean.

Well, at this point I'm involved with raising a family as much as being a surfer, so that changes things. It used to be, when I was young, that I'd live with the frustration of chasing waves. If I only got two-foot slop it didn’t matter. Now I've decided what I really want to do is just ride good waves. Those are the terms I’ve come to with the ocean. When the waves are good, and I think this will be true for the rest of my life, I'll ride them. No matter what. When the waves are good, I’m there. But when it’s bad, or medicore, I’m not really interested. I’m not interested in being frustrated by the ocean any more. I went through years of it, years of chasing waves around, just living every day for whatever that wave was going to be. It wasn’t very satisfying.

You were a star athlete at a pretty young age.

Yeah, I guess so. I was given an incredible opportunity and I took full advantage of it. At first, you know, a professional surfer was a very strange thing to be. To the tax commissioner, this was unheard of. I’m sure myself and Midget Farrelly were the only two. This goes back to 1967 or '68, after the world contest, when I’d made quite a lot of money.

The principal source of your income was from endorsements?

Right, there was no money in contests. Prizes sometimes, maybe a plane ticket, but no money. But there was great participation from the commercial companies at that stage. Companies outside of surfing. I think even more so than there is now, in fact.

That must have been a trip. There you were, just 19, a flash star, and building your own house in Palm Beach.

Well I had a lot of money and had nothing to do with it. Except build a beautiful pad overlooking the ocean. The whole trip definitely gave me a financial start. My income through the years has been mainly from property. Investments in property. It’s done well.

Around 1970. I lived there for over three years, and was really content for the first year. Then it began to change. People began moving in around me and the place developed into a scene, a scene where people did nothing much more than hang out. It wasn't getting me high.

I was one of the founders of a little subculture, if you like. I knew it couldn’t last. And the changes certainly spoiled what I had there. What I really wanted to do was learn about raising cattle and horses and working a farm but in Byron all I ended up doing was sitting around all day. I mean life was easy. We were making money off property investments.

Byron strikes me as being a kind of a hip new money place, a mandatory stop on today’s ’round the world hip itinerary.

Well, to some people it’s fashionable. Like “where are you doing it, man?” In Byron you feel you’re part of a whole youth movement. And that's not my thing. Some of the best people I know are 65 or 70. That may sound weird but I don't give a fuck about age. I don't like to be associated with a whole change of consciousness or a New Wave or a New Era, or whatever you want to call it. I didn’t like it in surfing when they talked about a New Era and I didn't like it in Byron when we were expected to stand up and be counted.

You seem to be very trustful of Marilyn to be able to handle a lot of responsibilities in your absence.

Not ... no, she's a woman. She's an independent woman. And I think independence in a woman can only go so far. She knows ... and understands. We have a good thing together. She understands that I love her. I’ve always gone away and I've always come back. It's good to have an understanding with a woman, one where you're not treading on each other's toes. I think it's a rare situation.

We seem to understand where we both stand. As far as the immediate future is concerned, she won't stay on the farm, of course. She'll come to Sydney where she'll be staying with family and friends. And I think it's good for hor to have an opportunity to be totally absorbed with her new baby, to be able to care for it and get to know it, to develop a mother-child relationship.

It's a beautiful thing and I love to see it happen. I think she's secretly really stoked about it. I also know these past few weeks have been trying for her. And I want our family to come through it and for my children to be with us.

From what I’ve seen of surfers who are committed to following waves as a life style, their relationships with their women appear to be characterised by different priorities — the waves seem to come first.

Well I think it's true in that situation. Like I was saying a minute ago. I've got to go out of my way to make sure that Marilyn has ... Like for this emotional security that a woman requires, a surfer has to go out of his way to provide it, whereas it would probably come more naturally to someone who has more time to devote, who didn't have a love affair with the ocean. And basically it's a love affair. But now I feel that I have it in perspective.

I have my marriage in a certain perspective. Like now is a pretty trying time. When you're riding waves in Hawaii it's a trying time there, too, y’know, if you're trying to ride very big waves and your ability is not up to it then you have to work on it.

It’s like all relationships. If it’s worth it, you’re got to really give. I think it’s very very hard for a surfer to live with a woman. To give to a woman, to give of himself, to love someone before you love yourself.

Is it a self-love a surfer has, or a love of the ocean?

I think we get confused in there, or it can go either way, but I think it mostly manifests itself as a form of self-love.

Do you consider yourself a spiritual person at all?

If you mean do I have the desire to have a figurehead or god, I’d have to say no. I sometimes worry that this is something lacking in me, that I have no real desire to be a spiritual person. Maybe there is a God, that’s as far as I can say. But I don’t have a longing for it.

Let's shift back to surfing. What would you say is happening commercially to surfing these days?

Well, there’s that resurgence of interest in the sport. But it seems like it’ll never be as strong as it once was. I mean, in terms of surfing, everyone in Australia still only knows the names Midget Farrelly and Nat Young.

I've let a few people know that I'd really like to get back into professional surfing. And there are companies that are thinking, Wow, if Nat does well it'll be good for us. So they're interested in paying me for endorsement. It's not a sure way to make a living, but right now it's timely. The contest thing is nice, and for sure I'm prepared to compromise when there's only two-foot mush. I proved that to myself in the [Coke contest]. I was able to create my own energy. That’s what Michael Peterson did; he's a master at it. He's good at it and I'm good at it, especially if I'm in tune. And if I surf good waves for a month I'll be in tune. Enough to be able to surf junk.

Do you have confidence in the way the judging system is run these days?

It can go either way. We'll see. If the surf is bad, there's a good chance I'll get frustrated and leave. My tolerance level probably isn't that high. If the surf is terrible . . . well, it's been very nice, but I think I’ll go home. It's a very arrogant thing, I know. But if I've already got a pocketfull of money, they can stuff their contest if it's the surf isn't good. (laughs).

But look, the contests are a buzz. Like at the Coke contest, when you turn around on the beach and see Lopez or Kanaiapuni, and Hakman’s right over there. All these professionals. Surfing contests are a buzz at that level, no doubt about it. At the Coke I got high just hanging around all those people, rubbing shoulders with them. But that's not surfing, you know?

Where in general do you think surfing is going?

Well, I think that it’s going to get much more honest. Because I think it's gonna be more appreciated by the person doing it, particularly given the pressures we all live under today. This is something I could never get across to McTavish—I could never understand why he couldn’t regard surfing itself as a religious activity. That sounds a bit ridiculous when I consider that Bob probably gets things from religion that I don’t get from surfing. But it seems to me surfing is headed for a place where people really appreciate just being able to ride waves. Just getting out in the water with a friend, watching the rain squalls pass by, hooting and hollering. So few people get a chance to do that in their lives. I think the more people who are appreciative of surfing, the better the world is gonna be.

Nat Young (1974)

Subscribe or Login

Subscribe or Login

Encyclopedia of Surfing

History of Surfing

Interviews

Features

The Sunday Joint

Videos

Contests