The noted author Jamie Brisick discusses his bio of Westerly Windina neé surf superstar Peter Drouyn…
Several decades ago, the surfer Peter Drouyn was the best surfer in Australia, better even, than the icon Nat Young. But how do you want to say it? Drouyn was, by nearly all accounts, an asshole swollen by ego and torn apart inside an infinite sense of injustice.
But then, and I’m dragging this off the kickstarter website that has funded the Westerly Windina documentary now in post-production, “In 2002, Peter suffered a traumatic surfing accident that nearly drowned him. Not long after, Peter’s feminine side fully emerged. ‘It was a supernova,’ said Westerly. ‘It just kicked in one night, and suddenly Peter went, Westerly was there.’
And, in 2008, “Peter Drouyn announced on Australian national television that he was living as a woman. His new name, she said, was Westerly Windina. Since then, Westerly has been living in public housing on Australia’s Gold Coast. Her life is not easy. She is alone, poor, and often taunted by her neighbours.”
Now that’s a story, right? Surf hunk to showgirl!
In this interview recorded in Bondi, January 27, the day before the Australian release of Becoming Westerly (it releases in the USA, July 1, 2015) the book’s author Jamie Brisick talks about the six-year journey of bringing the story to life in print and on the screen (the documentary, working title Westerly, will have a northern hemisphere summer release).
Is the book good? Yeah, it is. Part thriller, part melodrama, all page-turner. To be and not to be is the result.
