Surf Rage: Turning Negatives into Positives

Surf Rage is an undeniable fact, that every committed surfer has experienced in some form at some time. " It's not only rampant in Australia, everywhere increasing numbers of surfers search for quality waves " say's Nat Young, the 53 year old, 4 time World Champion who compiled this anthology. Nat suffered incredible injuries from an incident at his home beach of Angourie back in March 2000, the time spent writing his 2 chapters was a form of therapy. When Nat had sufficiently recuperated he contacted Derek Rielly, a young surf journalist who had written an inspirational piece about Surf Rage back in 1989, when he was the editor of Australian Surfing Life magazine. Derek wrote one chapter and together they drew up a short list of the most qualified surf journalists they could think of, and invited each one to contribute a chapter. American Drew Kampion is regarded as the elder statesman of surf journalism, having been editor of Surfer and Surfing magazine and written numerous books on the subject. Nick Carroll needs no introduction to surfers his editorship of Surfing, Tracks and Deep magazine are memorable. Fred Pawle is a dedicated surfer and sub editor with the Australian newspaper. Carol Ann Philips is the only girl on the team, as an attractive white boogie boarder growing up in Hawaii, hers is a unique perspective on the pecking order in the crowded line up of the islands. Two very informative chapters were contributed by Gunter Swoboda a surfing Psychologist and Gordon Stammers a councillor with the Victorian State government justice department. Both these learned men see surf rage as a fact of overcrowding that has to be dealt with by every surfer if they want to continue riding waves into the future. Certainly California has seen the worst cases of surf rage, from the surfer who was sent to jail for assault with a deadly weapon when he attacked another surfer with his board to a group of young surfers being arrested for stoning an older man who paddled out at their home break. Michael Kew is a 25 year old surfer who has a degree in English and his chapter is the most detailed account of surf rage in America. In order to give a balanced understanding of the situation Glen Hening one of the founding fathers of the Surfrider Foundation wrote an inspired chapter. South African surf writer Craig Jarvis turned in a revealing piece concerning a honeymoon couple visiting Mauritius and being confronted with violence and aggression, that defiantly put a damper on their married life. To lighten the heavy nature of this topic, DC Green an experienced surf journalist who always manages to reveal the funny side of any situation wrote about his confrontation with surf rage in a typical Australian country town.

About the Author :
Nat Young has lived the surfing life for almost half a century. He is recognised as one of the great surfers in the history of the sport. His motto is and always has been to " make it a beautiful life " he believes you have only one chance and you had better make it a good one. Nat was an integral part in the redesigning of the longboard in the late 60s and a co-founder of the longboard renaissance in the early 80s. The four times World Champion still lives his life totally devoted to riding waves, surfing either a long or short board at every opportunity he gets. Nat has always loved good projects, so far he has written 5 books, 3 of which are available on this site. The other 2, Surfing Australia's East Coast and Surfing and Sailboard Guide to Australia are collectors items. He has made 2 movies, Fall-Line(1977) and The History of Australian Surfing (1984). These days he lives an idyllic but still eventful life based in his beloved Angourie, where he combines his love for surf with his other great passion, his family.