“I would never have been the surfer I was if it wasn’t for Michael Peterson.”
– Peter Townend: World Champ, Big Wednesday icon, Cooly Kid.
What I know about…
Money… Money is great to have but it doesn’t solve anything. It just makes things more complicated. These days I don’t have any money. I have a great life, and I don’t have many complications.
Success… Success can be wonderful and good for the head but you’ve got to make sure it doesn’t go to your head. I’ve had my share of success and I’ve had my share of disappointment but I’ve been very successful at fatherhood and that feels really great.
Family… It’s the most important thing in life. If there’s anything I’m proud of it’s that I’ve raised three great kids. My daughter Rana works for Billabong at Burleigh Heads. I have two boys; Jai works for the magazines, he’s an account executive for Surfing and Surfer Magazine. And Tosh was a high level skateboarder. As I like to say, “Your biggest goal in life is raising your children to be meaningful citizens, gainfully employed, and not in jail.”
Women… Love ‘em… one at a time (laughter).
The original Coolie kids… If you go back in family history the Bartholomews and Townends have been friends since the 1940s. Rabbit’s grandmother used to work in the Coolangatta Hotel, which was owned by my grandparents back when my dad was the man around town. So Rabbit and I have been friends before we were even into surfing. MP and I actually started out in the Greenmount surf club together. We lived a house apart in the 60s when we were making cutdown surfboards beneath our parents’ houses. Then all three of us ended up in the Kirra Surfriders Club. Michael was one year ahead of me at first and then I moved up into the men’s division in the early 70s and it was on! Competitively it was Michael and I, and Rabbit was in the juniors. The three of us coming together at that time, especially with regard to riding the tube at Kirra, was a monumental time for us. It was the first time people had really started to get barrelled at Kirra and on top of that we had the rivalry at the Aussie Titles. I would never have been the surfer I was if it wasn’t for Michael Peterson. I went to Hawaii and I was one of the Aussies who had early success. My relationship with MP changed after that because he respected that. Then Rabbit came up and it was more of a battle between them for the King of Cooly, because MP was unquestionably the best at Kirra and was the King of Cooly and the best in Australia at that point, if not one of the best surfers in the world. That was the genesis, and it was a great time for Australian surfing and a golden era for surfing in Coolangatta.
First World Title… I was in the right place at the right time. It so happened that Fred (Hemmings) and Randy (Rarick) decided to launch the World Tour halfway through the year and go back and count some events that had already happened. A little-known fact is that the first ASP/ISP event was won by MP, the New Zealand Pro.
Big Wednesday… They declared me the World Champ and I went to the Stubbies, which was a monumental event – the birth of man on man surfing – and I got to the quarter-finals and got fifth – I lost to Rabbit. And then I quit and went to Hollywood. They said, “You can’t do that you’re the World Champ!’ And I go, “Yes I can! I’m going to Hollywood!” If I look back it was one of the most important decisions I made in my career because it elevated me into a different place of being a surf star. Today Big Wednesday is lauded as one of the great cult classics and I still get invited to stuff because of my role in it. I get small cheques in the mail every year, too (laughter).
Soul Arch… I paddled out in the 76 Coke contest at Narrabeen. The contest was going on up at the point and there were four-to-six foot rights down at the car park. I had a photo in my mind for a while then of Kemp Aaberg from the 60s, which became the Surfer Magazine logo, that I could replicate on a short board. And I laid one down and my good friend Steve Core from Cronulla got the shot and that shot went in Surfer Magazine. That started it. From that point I perfected it and did it in big waves at Sunset and in Big Wednesday I was actually throwing in the soul arch, too.
The WSL… We are heading in a new direction that is needed. We hit a roadblock where the ability for the surf industry companies to take it up another notch had run its course. Where was the sport going to go without the money coming in from somewhere else? I think Zosea and the ASP – or the World Surf League as they just changed it too – are heading in a really positive direction. All I can say is that pro surfers better pray that it works because unlike a decade ago there will be no bailout from the surf companies.