011: Jamie Brisick/Chronicling The Margins
If you only have five minutes…
Listen to this section - Jamie on the issue with modern surfing.
Show Notes
- Trailer for the Westerly Windina documentary.
- Jamie’s first encounter with Peter – the Super Challenge advert.
- First meeting in South Africa – 1989
- ‘The Rosy Resurrection‘, the original Surfer’s Journal piece.
- What attracted Jamie to the piece.
- Early exposure to surf culture.
- How surf culture has become homogenised – and how the Westerly story subverted this.
- The conservatism of modern surfing.
- ‘Everybody is praying to the same god.’
- Diminishing returns.
- Surfing’s early counter culture heroes – known and unsung.
- ’They had a different version of killing it in Los Angeles’
- The inevitability of the board sports arc…..
- …or the inevitability of personal nostalgia as you get older.
- The post-modern nature of surfing’s modern counter movements.
- The many layers to Westerly’s story.
- Jamie’s first meeting with Westerly…
- …and how the story evolved.
- How Westerly is now Peter again.
- How Jamie chronicled the two reactions to Westerly’s story – is it a con, or is it somebody simply expressing themselves?
- Peter the actor – faking death at an awards ceremony.
- The mystery of internal motivation.
- The Westerly tale as an extreme manifestation of modern self-improvement culture.
- ‘This is a story about identity, rather than gender dysmorphia’.
- Westerly’s complex, almost narcissistic relationship with the trans-gender community.
- Peter Drouyn’s history of innovation – inventor of man-on-man surfing.
- His history of self-sabotage – and how it relates to his provincial chippiness.
- 1968 Australia Surfing Championships.
- Peter’s spat with Slater over Kelly’s wave pool design.
- Free friction surfboards.
- The hidden meaning of Westerly Windina.
- Jamie’s next project – an autobiographical novel about surfing.
- Jamie’s life on the pro tour, and how incessant travel led to reading and journaling.
- Early influences – Derek Hynd’s surf journalism.
- ‘There was a performative side that drew me to writing’.
- Writing as an inverted triangle.
- The importance of reading and learning a lot, and being passionate about what you’re interested in.
- The importance of gateway writers to Jamie.
- First gigs at Waves and Tracks Magazines.
- The end of Jamie’s pro surfing career, and how writing helped to expanded his surfing universe.
- Moving back to LA, and embarking upon a writing career proper.
- ‘I wasn’t interested in having things. I was interested in experiencing a different lifestyle’.
- Jamie’s current workload and writing routine.
- How writing has saved him during the darkest of times.
- His beautiful meditation on grief.
- ‘Rhymes With Shove’
- Jamie’s surfing life today – and the sad part of being an ex-pro surfer
- Jamie’s current board: Channel Islands Pod 5’10”
Places Mentioned
- Australia
- South Africa
- Sydney
- France
- Brazil
- Tahiti
- Malibu
- Los Angeles
- Fiji
- Queensland
- Surfer’s Paradise
- Superbank
- Kirra
- Burleigh Heads
- Cape Town
- Durban
- Reunion Island
- Venice Beach
- Rio de Janeiro
People Mentioned
- Westerly Windina
- Peter Drouyn
- Mark Richards
- Miki Dora
- Malcolm McLaren
- Allan White
- Barton Lynch
- Derek Hynd
- Cheyne Horan
- Kelly Slater
- Tim Baker
- Steve Pezman
- Craig Stecyk
- Drew Kampion
- Nick Carroll
- Charles Bukowski
- Henry Miller
- James Baldwin
- Jack Kerouac
- Tom Carroll
- Ross Clark-Jones
- David Carson
- The Brothers Marshall
Events/programmes/media/institutions mentioned
- Super Challenge
- Gunston 500
- Surfer’s Journal Magazine
- Waves
- Tracks
- ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’
- WSL
- The Sex Pistols
- Australian Championships
- Surfing Magazine
- On The Road
- Quiksilver
- RayGun
- Bikini
- Club Fuck
- Wall Street Journal
- Huck
- Outside TV
- Channel Island Surfboards