surfresearch

2015
Brisick, Jamie :
Becoming Westerly
The transformation of surfing champion Peter Drouyn into Westerly Windina
Allen & Unwin, February 2015.
Soft cover, 344 pages, colour and black and white plates, Acknowledgements, Credits, Index.
Review.
While Jamie Brisick had devoted immense time and resources in telling the story of Westerly, it is unfortunate that a similar effort was not accorded to Peter.
In the account of the surfing career of Peter Drouyn there are numerous errors and although these are mostly minor, for anyone already familiar with this period of surfing history they are annoying and reflect on the author's authority.
It is not the case that Duke Kahanamoku introduced board riding to Australia and Isabel Letham became Australia's first surfer; Peter's first board, a second-hand balsa Malibu from a shaper who moved up from the the Gold Coast from Sydney, was probably Joe Larkin, less likely Roger 'Duck' Keiran; Keith Paull, not Paul; McTavish did not compete at the 1966 World contest in California (he was unable to enter the US because of his conviction for illegal entry circa 1963); Magic Sam ? ... Nat did write that Sam was magic, but he/she was only ever Sam.

Many of Westerly's interpretations of events go unchallenged, for example after his victory NSW surfers started trickling up to Queensland ... now people respected Queensland surfing and Drouyn's role in prompting Nat and McTavish in their development of performance surfing and shorter boards.
It is unclear if the claim, two consecutive junior titles was a monster feat, is that of Westerly or Jamie. Regardless, given the earlier dominance of Farrelly, and then Nat, in the junior ranks this was
unlikely to be considered particularly remarkable at the time, unlike the four connective junior titles of Victoria's Wayne Lynch, 1967-1970.

Randy Rarrick was probably misquoted in referring to the sand dunes of Taree (page 63).

Although he did attend the world contest at Puerto Rico in 1968, Peter Drouyn contracted pleurisy on the flight (page (68), but it is unclear if he did not compete or his performance was impeded.