Nat's Nat and That's That

Robert "Nat" Young claims honestly not to remember the first time he rode a wave. He remembers the place- Sydney's Collaroy Beach in the 1950s- and he remembers how it felt. The sensations of those early rides on an inflatable rubber surfmat, "kicking and paddling into it, rushing straight down the face of wave," drove the course of Nat's life from then on. Today, with numerous world titles spanning three decades, he is generally regarded as the greatest surfer of the modern era, and one of Australia's finest ever athletes. But surfers are not like other athletes, and this book shows us why. It began as a series of short stories, drawn from Nat's dinner party tales; in the writing process it became something else entirely. What has emerged is not just yet another story of a sportsman's relentless training, ups and downs, and eventual triumph over adversity. It's a sociological journey. As Nat crashes around the world from adventure to adventure, winning, losing and everything in between, he experiences the big Western cultural shifts of the past forty years from ground level. Australia before Vietnam and during the draft; hippie 1970 Byron Bay; the good life in California with obscure surfing legend Mickey Dora; Kuta before the tourism boom; environmentalism; dope; international fame and its consequences; it's all here. As Nat "It's been a wonderful time to be alive and if I had it over I wouldn't change a thing- and it ain't over yet."