Salts and Suits
Stuart Nettle May 10, 2010
The big news of last year, at least in the world of surfing, was the Kelly Slater / Rebel Tour brouhaha. The reportage took up an absurd amount of column space and it was covered from every angle, so I've no need to acquaint you with the story. Yet there is one small fact that has been overlooked: despite the enormity of the Rebel Tour story, it was a small regional newspaper, The Noosa Times, that first reported it.
And the journalist credited with the scoop? Ex-Tracks editor, raconteur, industry stalwart, and Noosa Times sports writer, Phil Jarratt.
That an old hand got the jump on the legions of young upwardly mobile and electronically connected scribes says much for Jarratt's journalistic ability - with nigh on forty years of surf industry experience he's developed a network of colleagues, a nose for a story, and the means to tell it.
The old dog has sniffed out another great tale for his latest book, Salts and Suits, and it's a fair dinkum ripsnorter. The tagline says it best: 'How a bunch of surf bums created a multi-billion dollar industry...and almost lost it'. The main thrust of the book being the commercial tensions between the 'salts' - the founders of the large surfwear companies trying to remain true to their surfing visions - and the 'suits' - the talented but non-surfing executives brought in to run the booming empires.
Don't be put off by the big business theme because, for one, the surfer vs non-surfer model is one that we can all identify with, and two, it's an entertaining tale told with good humour.
It's tempting to call it a fly on the wall account except Jarratt's not merely an eavesdropping outsider, his Rebel Tour scoop being testament to his insider knowledge. Involved in the industry since the early 70's Jarratt has been witness to all of the landmark moments and privy to many of the backroom dealings. In his own words the idea for the book came through "frustration at having parts of this great story vetoed by the brand that was paying the bill for it's publication at the time".
Free of corporate shackles he is now able to tell the whole story without fear of injunction, but it is not, as some might expect, a vindictive tale of greed and deception. Rather it's a tale told without fingers pointed. Jarratt gives each player a fair hearing, even the outlandish egocentric, Bernard Mariette, who brought Quiksilver to it's knees, or Matthew Perrin, the conniving corporate raider of Billabong.
Yet it's the 'salts' who interest most, the surfers who created the surf industry to escape the workaday world, and how their early visions - however sincere - held little sway against the forces of commerce. Especially when their tinshed companies became international corporate behemoths servicing foreign markets and with an economic responsibility to unknown shareholders.
Some of the information and quotes that Jarratt has acquired are truly astonishing, and it's either a measure of the esteem in which he is held, or the gift of his gab that he has managed to do so. Either way it's good, PR-free, reading. There will likely be some flinching from the protagonists - few come out completely unscathed - yet none of the 'salts' suffer too badly at the hands of Jarratt. Though if they think they do, they can always console themselves with the millions they made.
Salts and Suits is published by Hardie Grant Books and retails for $39.95.
Comments
Very true, Stu. Phil Jarratt was doing hard news surf reporting as well as the bullshit gonzo stuff 30 years before the current crop of Hunter S Thompson wannabes were born - and doing it with considerably more style and humour than the new lot. He's also forgotten more about surfing's long list of heroes and villians than this bunch of wannabes will ever know. Salts and Suits is a great read through the good, bad and ugly of the surf industry, probably the most substantial book on it ever written in fact. For example, how many of today's "surf journalists" - is that an oxymoron? - have heard of John Arnold and how he spent big to bring the O'Neill wetsuit franchise to Australia and went on to found Golden Breed - before crashing and burning in spectacular fashion? He was from Adelaide and so the Sydney-Gold Coast-Torquay fixated surf media of today have never heard of him - but Jarratt has and reports his rise and fall in detail. I reckon it comes back to Jarratt being a professional journalist, learning the trade on the road with Fairfax in Sydney a million years ago, before taking on editing etc. He's not some mouth with a laptop who can barely string two words together - he's done the hard yards. And, no, I'm not a mate of his - I just recognise his abilities and, no, again, I'm not from Adelaide - I live in Bondi ... but don't hold that against me.
Zuma, even though you're taking aim fairly and squarely in my direction just FYI if you ever are on the Gold Coast check out Carl Tanner's vintage surfboards which are now housed at the Surf Museum at Currumbin.(curated by Mal Sutherland). There's some great surfboards shaped by John Arnold for Wayne Lynch, which was a particularly fertile but under-reported partnership.
Steve Shearer aka the Outsider.
also if you are asking why John Arnold wasn't better known you'd need to ask the Witzigs.
A bit of a confession ... in another life many years ago, I knew John Arnold who used to run his wetsuit and board-making businesses at the back of his surf shop in Adelaide's Gawler Place. It was probably the biggest fire trap in the city with the lethal mix of chemicals and flamable materials in a rabbit warren of back rooms - but those were different times. Arnold was a dreamer whose big problem was that he was always chasing the next big idea and never consolidated what he already had. Not an unusual story in the surf industry then or now. His family had made a fortune in the shoe business and he was also the guy who started making ugg boots for winter surfers - not Shane Stedman as surfing folklore would now have it. Anyway, I can remember Wayne Lynch, who was just a kid then, asking "Uncle John" for a few bucks after his allowance had run out - who knows what was the business deal between them! Arnold cut and even sewed the O'Neill wetties but I don't think he shaped boards too often, if at all. His stock stuff was shaped by a guy named Ziggy Something-Or-Other and later I think by Wayne Dale, who was a very good local surfer. As I said in my initial post, Jarratt's book is great because it's about the forgotten guys as well as the big guys, about the villains as well as the heroes - and I don't claim to know what side of the hero-villain divide Arnold ends up on. But he was a character. Him and the Witzigs? I have no idea. But the Witzigs, like all the big guy survivors from those days, have their own version of surfing's long and winding story and, as they say, history tends to be written by the victors - not the vanquished. Steve, for what it's worth which isn't much coming from me ... you're one of the better internet writers today. At least you have a sense of humour and of the ridiculous which can take someone writing in the first person a long way. BTW, I met Carl Tanner up at the Noosa festival some years ago and he told me he had so many great old boards that he had to store them in all sorts of secret places so his wife wouldn't find out how many he actually had - it wasn't a quiver, it was an arsenal!
Can we all stop using the word 'gonzo'?
I'm so far behind the times I'm only just now beginning to understand what the term 'gonzo' means.
But I'm up for no longer using it Ben. Consider it done
Well i had to find out what Gonzo meant. For others wanting to here's a ref link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gonzo_journalism#Origin_of_the_term
Just finished this book and personally I have never had too much interest in the history of the brands surrounding surfing and their founding's, but this book gives a great account of the history starting way back in the early 1900's.
It's fascinating seeing how the major brands were turned into billion dollar industries after being projected into the corporate world, and then used for a quick cash grab in Billabong's case, while Quiksilver aimed to high in its vision to expand across all sporting platforms. As Phil Jarratt states, it was a 'loss of innocence', for not just Quik and Bong, but the industry as a whole.
Some of the quotes and stories are amazing to say the least!
Anyone who's interested in surfing history as well as how the big companies got to where they stand today should give this a read. It's an very intriguing and interesting insite into the surf industry and easy to digest as well.
First book I've read from front to back in about 4 years.. Think I need to get into reading more, as it was really enjoyable!
zumabeach. that would be sigmund 'ziggy' kwiatkowski..