For all the available jokes about 'treading the boards' the list of surfers who are actors is awfully short. However, it's about to increase by one.

Mike McArthur is a surfer and surf photographer who originally hails from Ceduna but has spent the last few years in Ulladulla on the NSW south coast.

Late last year Mike announced he was selling his camera gear, the post accompanied by a cryptic message about "new beginnings".

Mike, as it turned out, had been "following his heart" and taking acting lessons that ultimately led to an audition at NIDA. Fella passed the audition and is now a student of the National Institute of Dramatic Art with a view to "telling stories that have to be told".

Swellnet recently spoke to Mike about his career change.

Swellnet: Where are you originally from?
Mike McArthur: I'm originally from Ceduna, South Australia. Out on the start of the Nullarbor Plain.

Was there much of an outlet for drama there? High school plays, rock eisteddfod?
There wasn't much of an outlet for drama there at all. I didn't really know the dramatic arts were a thing whilst living there. We had drama in school but I never did it.

I was such a scared and sensitive kid. I cried every day. I remember there being a stage performance when I was really young and I couldn't go on stage because I was too scared, so I sat to the side of the stage crying.

...so yeah, throughout school, no drama for me.

Were you born into a family of performers?
My family definetely weren't performers. Where did all this branch from? Well, why I want to act is because I love stories - all humans do, right? We search for stories in everything! I want to one day tell stories I believe need to be shared because stories can be such powerful things.

Is that where the drive to act comes from?
Yeah, I really love to understand things. I can't handle not knowing. Aren't we all searching to understand to some extent or are yearning for a certain experience? I want to act to understand other types of people, to give people a voice, and most of all to go deeper and deeper into my own self. I want to forever grow until my body dies.

All my life I've wondered why this and why that: why do murderers do what they do? What is it like to be 70-years-old? What it'd be like to be homosexual? Or to create a completely different self in the realm of fiction?

I could go on forever on why I'm pursuing it, but it's simple and it's the same answer to why I surf, or why I used to shoot surf photos: because it's in my heart and I don't want to live a life not doing what's in my heart. I'd honestly rather be dead for I don't feel like living if I don't live out my heart.

Though in saying that, it's tough since our world is made up of dollar bills and we gotta do stuff we don't want to so we can eat. I'm just going to put my head down and make it all happen. 

When did you first think you’d have a shot at NIDA?
Having a shot at NIDA....I didn't really think to much into it. I did three short courses there, as anyone can do, before auditioning. So I knew the place a little, that made me feel better. We were given four or five TV and film scenes to pick from about two months before the audition date, so I picked one and went over it many times before the audition. I was confident, and knew I was going in to give it my best shot - I couldn't do anything more than that.

It's like if you're surfing you go into a session giving it your best, and sometimes you get a bunch of good waves or sometimes you snap your leggy and you're sent swimming in...ha ha. 

So the audition went well? I've heard some gruesome stores about auditions...
The audition went well. Everyone I've met at NIDA, students and teachers, have been so good. It's just a great environment, there's a lot of mutual respect and so much support to grow.

When you committed to NIDA you sold all your camera gear. Did you have any second thoughts on that?
I never really second guessed selling my camera gear. It just wasn't in my heart anymore, I'd rather surf. I'll shoot again but only for the sake of creating books of memories for myself and my kids and their kids. Though I don't have kids yet! 

I remember as a young kid sitting in our lounge room and having slide show nights of all my fathers slide from all over the world. From Africa to Egypt to Antarctica. It's pretty funny growing up as a teenager and being off your parents for whatever reasons and then realising they are only humans as well as you trying to sort out their shit.

Homepage photo of Mikey giving it a nudge on the NSW south coast by Simon Punch. Portrait shot this page by Missy McArthur. Surf shots by Mike.