Alby Falzon Receives OAM
Fifty years down the track and 'Morning of the Earth' still resonates, perhaps more strongly than ever. Its creator, Albert Falzon, now 78-years old and living at Eungai Creek, has just been awarded an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to surfing and visual arts.
I caught up with Alby just as he was about to head to the beach on a glorious winter day with tiny surf. What followed was a classic Alby spray when asked what the award meant to him and his thoughts on mainstream culture recognising surfing given MOTE was made when surfers were still considered societal outcasts. As an antidote to the current controversies roiling the surf world, our conversation is reprinted in full, only lightly edited for clarity.
On receiving the award:
The thing I like about it is if you take out the A it's the OM medal [laughs]. I got the OM award! I can live with that one. I graciously accept and bow towards that. There's a lot of people out there who are really deserving of recognition - millions and millions of people. Initially I wanted to duck for cover, but I accept and say thank you very much on behalf of all these people doing very great work that will never get recognised for it. It's a holistic award: I'm just a vehicle but it's about all of us. It's not about any single individual. Every one of us has potentially great opportunity to do something for someone else. Even if it's only one person in your life. An act of kindness is a beautiful thing to behold. If you take the individual out of the award and look at it holistically I think it's a wonderful thing to be reminded of selfless service to others.
On surfing receiving recognition from mainstream society:
I just think you do what you love. Doesn't matter whether you paint a picture, or ride a surfboard, or you're a dentist or a carpenter. If that's what your calling is and that's what you love, I think you just follow that path. I've always recognised the holistic aspect of life; we're all connected. Even though I wasn't able to intellectually look at it from that level as a young man, I always recognised it on some level.
The ocean is a beautiful thing to bring us all into line because it doesn't matter what you do on shore. Whether you are a scientist or a garbage collector, as soon as you get in the ocean we are all the same. We're all brothers and sisters in the ocean surfing together and doing something that we love. I think that is really useful and if that can be expanded into humanity then we'd be living in a different world - there's no two ways about that.
That's the most important thing about the award. It's not about the award for me and surfing. It's the award for all of us to make us realise we are part of a human family and what we share is important.
On the power of nature and surfing:
I like the idea of isolation and invisibility. It gives us time for reflection and inspiration. Being connected to nature in a quiet space gives us the opportunity to listen to the voice of the silence and I think that is important for every individual. But at the same time you get the opportunity during those moments to reflect and pass that onto others who are still confused about what they're doing and where they are going.
It's humbling but at the same time I'm full of grace and gratitude for everything and if we all could realise that then we'd be living in a really beautiful place. You reflect that in the ocean through surfing.
On ending our conversation:
You have a beautiful day.
// As spoken to STEVE SHEARER
Comments
Great outlook Alby
I guess you can say his spirit comes through in MOTE.
Nice words.
Long Overdue....
A few ancients might remember Alby manning the camera counter at one of Sydney’s department stores 60+ years ago, ok for him, we were doing crotch measurements in the menswear shop.
Well deserved. Albe's innate love of humanity and our Ocean/Earth home shines bright through his understanding of things theosophical. A trail-blazing torch-bearer.
Only those who live in the house know where the roof leaks. Like so many covert narcs ... brilliant marketing! 'Hollowman' is the locals view!
I hear similar words copied and regurgitated so relentlessly these days with little or no meaning.
Thank you Alby for living and embodying them.
And more so, uttering them without the slightest hint of contrivance.
A genuine Australian treasure.
Yeah totally agree, the dangerous ground of toxic positivity and self-congratulation is touched in that sphere. Souls like Alby have words and actions that are entirely genuine and sincere, and effortless as it is quite simply; no BS.
Keep it real humans...
Lovely, meaningful, insightful and true words. The words from someone who has understanding of what it really means & matters to be a good, decent human. Well deserved award.
WSL can eat a d#$k.
Wow, great words Alby.
Even after all these years he still has such a positive and great attitude not just regarding surfing but life.
Good on ya, some beautiful take home points there.
Very well deserved recognition of Alby's lifelong dedication to his art. Seeing MOTE as a 16 year old in 1972 changed my life, as it did for so many, igniting the desire to travel, particularly to Indonesia. That Bali sequence remains a highlight. I first got there on my 19th birthday in May 1975, 'discovered' coral reefs (with 'reef-inspector' scars to prove it). Forty-eight years later, with a career as a coral ecologist, I am just as inspired and awed by coral reefs as from those initial waves at Kuta Reef, Ulus and further afield, having been fortunate to surf and dive around much of that remarkable archipelago in the decades hence. As is well known, our collective impacts are placing reef-building corals at increasing peril, with extinctions looming. But reefs have been around, built by different species-groups, for hundreds of millions of years, albeit with long gaps in the fossil record. In the extreme long-term future, many millions of years hence, reefs will, I feel sure, thrive on tropical island arcs, producing countless waves for whichever sentient lifeforms are extant, probably long after humanity has exited stage left, or right. Thanks Alby.
Scholar and a gentlemen. What a champ. Well done.
Fuck he’s looking well for 78 amazing how most people in
the past would of been pushing up the daisy’s by then …
The surf in the the background doesn’t look that small ….
Wrap around little headland maybe ?
A worthy recognition and he’d be a little embarrassed with the attention ..
Wonder what MP’s thinking out there …
The shape he’s holding looks very nice
The shape he’s holding looks very nice
I'm feeling emotional. I have been dancing and singing to "Sure Feels Good" all week. I picked up the SW issue after MP's death two weeks ago and it reignited my passion for him and the film. Two songs from MOTE will be played at my funeral whenever that is. I feel so much love for Alby and I wish I was more like him.
I put the MOTE soundtrack on and cry the older you get the more sentimental for sure
“I like the idea of isolation and invisibility. It gives us time for reflection and inspiration. Being connected to nature in a quiet space gives us the opportunity to listen to the voice of the silence.”
That’s as good a reason to be in the water as any other I’ve found. That’s also the one that lasts the longest, keeps you in the water into your old age.
Wonderful fellow human.
The ocean is an elixir of life today, just as it was billions of years ago when photosynthetic bacteria liberated the first bubbles of oxygen into a new atmosphere. We have a lot to thank the ocean for. AW.
https://www.soulsurf.com.au/product/surf-scene-no-1-dec-1964/
Only those who live in the house know where the roof leaks. HA HA HA ... 'baffled' by his OAM!? Nominated by his new AMERICAN marketeers; with Alby himself boasting of the millions they are going to make. 'Hollowman', we call him. Never once tested in public. Many women in the area who will recall his chauvinist behaviour. A theosophic:
WTF!!? When out of his depth (which happens very quickly), blows people off with a, 'Nobody gives a fuck!' Sigh.
Another masterful covert narc!