Men of Wood and Foam

Renowned wave rider Phil Jarratt waxes lyrical to Sandra Simpson. Photo/file

Renowned wave rider Phil Jarratt waxes lyrical to SANDRA SIMPSON

Veteran Australian surfing writer Phil Jarratt is hoping to get some longboarding in at Mount Maunganui between his speaking engagements at Tauranga Arts Festival - some welcome downtime in what is turning into a hectic year for the 66-year-old.

The US premiere of his documentary Men of Wood and Foam, which has also been shown on the History channel, was followed just last month by the launch of his memoir, Life of Brine, and easing out of running the Noosa Festival of Surfing that he co-founded in 1998. When NZME spoke to him, he'd just landed from Timor L'Este where he's making a new doco with the help of Australian human-rights lawyer (and surfer) Patrick Burgess.

"I don't think I'll ever retire," he says, laughing. "Documentary film-making with no budget is a young man's job but I'd like to make this particular film. If I can keep doing docos in an orderly manner it would be great to punch one out now and again."

Surfing since he was 11 and writing journalism since the age of 16, Jarratt decided to make Men of Wood and Foam about Australia's pioneering surfboard makers before age overtook them any further. The film focuses on the 'Brookvale Six' - Gordon Woods, Bill Wallace, Scott Dillon, Barry Bennett, Greg McDonagh and Denny Keogh - who range in age from 91 (Gordon) to 79 (Denny).

"I always saw it as a cinematic project," he says, "It was about looking at the faces of the men telling the story. And there was such good archival footage available."

He got into documentaries after hearing best-selling Indian author Amish Tripathi, a former banker, speak about promoting his first book by making a short video that could be shown on social media or in bookstores.

"It was a little light going on for me," Jarratt says. He made his first video in 2013 to promote That Summer at Boomerang, did another for Bali: Heaven and Hell and has also made 8 Days of Pure Stoke about the Noosa festival that was shown on Australian television and had runs on both Qantas and Virgin Australia.

Although his biography Life of Brine started as a surfing memoir, Jarratt's American mate William Finnegan in the meantime had published Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life - and won a Pulitzer Prize for it.

"I couldn't compete with Bill's writing about the experience of surfing so I went back and looked more widely at my life, and I think the book's better for it. For me, surfing is a constant element in a much bigger adventure."

Searching old articles for other projects, Jarratt realised there was plenty of potential and although most of his travel diaries had disappeared over the years, he unearthed about a dozen, mainly from his trips to Australia's interior when writing for The Bulletin magazine.

Phil Jarratt

For recollections of his childhood and family history he interviewed his two older sisters and also asked them to read the manuscript before publication.

"There are quite a few things they didn't know about and I didn't want them in the front row hearing for the first time I'd been a coke hound, before I woke up to myself. To their eternal credit they showed complete understanding and forgiveness."

Jarratt has been delighted with the positive comments about his early days in journalism and is taking on the chin any feedback that his memory might be faulty.

"I've been telling the story for 40 years that when I was broke in Portugal in the summer of 1973 I sold my blood for $US20 a time. But when my friend who was with me read that, he said it didn't happen - we went to the clinic but they wouldn't take our blood. Memory does play tricks."

After a heart attack in 2014, Jarratt reckons there's a few who will see his memoir as a valediction "but I reckon I've still got a few more chapters left in me".