Rabbit Bartholomew says, "I do not want to read this book!"
If you know surfing, you’ll know the name Ian Cairns, a man with the physique of a comic-book hero (nicknamed Kanga) who ruled big waves, who was pivotal in the creation of a world tour, who would launch the ASP after tearing the game off the IPS’s Fred Hemmings and whose thin-eyed stare could give a man stomach cramps.
For the past three years, Ian, who is sixty-five, has been working with the Ireland-based writer Wayne Murphy on a two-volume memoir called Kanga: the trials and triumphs of Ian Cairns. Ian chose Wayne, a former contest judge and pioneer of waves in Western Australia, to write the books because, a, “because I wanted someone from WA to write this thing because it’s important he knows that when you’re from Western Australia you have a chip on your shoulder”, b,”because he wasn’t a conventional surf writer. I wanted a different look at things” and, c, “because he pested the crap out of me.”
Volume one, which is 544 pages long or 155,000 words, charts his childhood, growing up surfing in Western Australia, having the dream of making a living out of it right through the conclusion of 1976 and the introduction of the world circuit. Volume two is where it gets interesting… dirty. The creation of the Bronzed Aussies. His role in the Hollywood movie Big Wednesday. Winning the World Cup. The launch of the OP Pro. The launch of the ASP. WSL and the future of surfing.
Copies land April 13 although you can pre-order here at his website.
Earlier today, I called Kanga, who lives in Laguna Beach with his former pro surfer wife Alisa and twin teenage boys, to talk about the book, the direction of pro surfing under the private ownership of the WSL, why he doesn’t give, as Nick Carroll says, “a flying fuck whether you liked him or not”, about testifying in court against Da Hui’s Eddie Rothman and to ask why Rabbit Bartholomew, his peer and also a titan of the sport, says, “I do not want to read this book.
About the WSL and the sport’s direction, he says, “We watch all these moments, Paul Speaker and his treatment of surfing, the disenfranchisement of the surf industry from the WSL direction, hiring an Englishwoman, a former tennis and rugby executive, to run surfing – in terms of painting a picture of what my perfect vision would be, it may not align with what the WSL direction is.
“I really struggle with the concept of it being a full-blown league sport ala tennis and football and NBA,” says Ian. “As surfers, we all do it for lifestyle and spiritual reasons. Look at the comments on your articles. The gulf between the presentation of the WSL and what the average surf fan thinks is so great. The concept that you can find salvation for the economic reality of WSL in attracting more non-surfers to support sponsors, to me, is the exact opposite of what it should be. I’ve got a screen-grab of an article that says World Wrestling Entertainment made 850 million bucks last year. They have one-and-a-half million people pay ten bucks a month to subscribe to their channel. These are wrestling enthusiasts. They’re clear on who their audience is. I don’t see that clarity coming out of the WSL.”
On Rabbit, who said, when asked for a testimonial, “Ian’s life seriously impacted on me and many other people, for better, and worse. I do not want to read this book”.
“Well… you know… that’s Rabbit’s problem,” says Ian. “It’s not my problem. When he was a nobody and I was beginning to be someone, I let him be my caddy. He was my sidekick. He thinks I soured his relationship with people in Hawaii. He needs to look at his own actions. When we were looking for a new executive director of the ASP, I was the guy who proposed Rabbit. I knew the ASP needed a surfer at the helm. I fought hard for him. Rabbit was a great surfer, we were ultra-close buddies back in the early seventies and we had to go through the turmoil to change the world. If we look at the good times and the things we achieved we gotta high-five each other. What a great time we’ve had!”
On Mark Richards, the four-time world champ who said, “Kanga didn’t start the ASP for the benefit of Ian Cairns. He did it for the benefit of pro surfing.
“This is consistent with how sport was in the years that I grew up,” says Ian. “Sporting clubs were owned by the members not billionaires. When I left the ASP I left with nothing but the satisfaction of putting pro surfing on the correct path.”
About not giving a flying fuck.
“Everyone in some sense is concerned about what people think of them. But I wake up in the morning and I think, what am I going to today? How can I do all these things that are crazy and cool and how can it benefit my family, my friends and all of this? The moment you start to think about these things you move forward and all those criticisms, which are about what you did yesterday, don’t matter. If you’re thinking about the future, you’re already one step ahead of the critics. Do I want to be disliked? No! Do I want to be focussed on coming up with some awesome idea tomorrow? That’s what I want to do.”
As for his 1987 testimony against Da Hui founder Eddie Rothman, who was indicted on racketeering and drug distribution charges, which prompted his former Bronzed Aussie pal Pete Townend to say, “I thought he was fucken nuts,” Ian says: “This is just ethics 101. Myself, and many many other people, have been tortured and harassed by Eddie and the Hui for decades. And the truth is, Hawaii is an amazing place. I have many friends in Hawaii. But I just hated the idea of gangs, I hate the involvement of drugs in surfing and I hate the involvement the idea of strong-arm tactics to stop people from doing things. I do think there are issues, and I’ve reached out on a number of times to Eddie, to say, ‘Why don’t we work together to help the plight of Hawaiian surfers? Let’s take the gravitas that we both have in surfing and do something really positive with it. Let’s not bitch and moan about the past, let’s talk about what we can do in the future.'”
When asked for a quote for the book, Eddie Rothman said, “Why would I want to talk about Ian Cairns? That fucker kept me in jail.”
Ian?
“The fucked up things I had to suffer through… What does he expect? For me to get down on my jones and kiss his arse? Or to fight back? Which is what I did. ”
Going to be a hell of a read.
Trump
I had the privilege of reading segments of an early copy of this book. I think Chas will find it particularly, particularly interesting. It answers a lot of questions Welcome to Paradise might have left you with. Let’s just say, Kanga pulls few punches.
haven’t read so much hilarious shit being passed off as commentary in a fargin long time…. I surfed my home break with Cairns, Rabbit and a few other Ozzies…. they hogged all the waves, gave not a flyin fk for anybody but they could turn it on…..speaking about the Hawaiian belief that all waves there belong to them…. we experience similar with foreign surfers at one of the worlds greatest waves, spend a week there and they think they own it without the citizenship! ‘spose that’s surfing!
Does that make Eddie a kook too?
Derek…..
I think your next assignment is “Wednesdays with Eddie”
Sit him down with his pipe and hit record on your phone….bound to be plenty of far better stories, if you can decipher it all
I would buy it!
“I’ve reached out on a number of times to Eddie, to say, ‘Why don’t we work together to help the plight of Hawaiian surfers?” This is about as condescending as it gets — only he doesn’t get it. “…I hate the involvement the idea (sic) of strong-arm tactics to stop people from doing things.” Like disrespecting kanaka maoli/locals? Cairns’s comments (views, actually) echo the entire problem with professional surfing in the islands, past and present — the snubbing of Hawai’ians who’ve been elbowed out of contests and/or had to fight for their own waves or on behalf of their keikis on their own land.
Eddie – isn’t he a mainlander? He is NOT kanaka maoli – don’t be fooled by the pidgin shtick, the farshtunken schmatta!
Eddie always seemed like a poser of the highest order. Tough and connected, but as fake as it gets.
He’s from bloody Pennsylvania – posted up in Hawaii as a 14 year old runaway thief and drug dealer, and eventually enforcer. He ingratiated himself into the kanaka maoli by being aggressive and thuggish, with a personality disorder born out of a fucked up childhood. There’s a tinge of sympathy and pathos there, just a tinge.
And on Dirk Digglers gravestone is engraved: “just a tinge”
I need this book
When he was becoming a somebody and Rabbit was a nobody?! Hah!
carry ya own damn board
I’m hoping this will not be another could of should have been washed up old man look back at ancient history white washed and fashioned to make Ian look great. Yes he could surf but his ego has planets orbiting around it. Bored just thinking about it
Kanga was/is a beast… but two volumes seems excessive.
Met his wife while coaching NSSA. Creepy.
Kanga was a charger of the highest order who buried a rail deeper than anyone of his era (fair comment, Matt Warshaw?). He refused to be bullied. He is the archetypical Western Australian all Western Australians would like to be.
(I pulled him out of a bog once at Gallows, and he was a fine gentleman, also).
PS – Wayne Murphy will do him credit.
Barry K turned harder, but you wouldn’t want to live on the difference.
I watched BK at Sunset one nite with Kanga , PT Wayne Dean , no-one did it as well as BK . We were all blown out that nite as he made about 6 waves in a row and did/nt fall , we were all gobsmacked.
Funny story when I was on the ASP board , an argument broke out over between the Contest owners and the surfers , Kango claimed that the surfers would be nothing with out the ASP management ! I replied , why don’t you go and manage a new tour , you can have number 50 on the rankings to 100 , and we will just find another manager.
next!!!
et tu brutus
…is that Gordo with the whistle?
Was he high?
Bogged to the guts in a shitbox hatch back hire car. I backed up and put the tow rope on without even looking, thinking it was just some kook on holiday. Looked up and there was 6 foot plus of kanga, my child hood hero! Got quite excited.
Should be worth a read! What happened to Kong’s book, impossible to get!
Kong’s book is good but suffers from being written for the father’s day gift crowd. A real tell-all would be awesome but probably see him sued by all the other former pros. The best two surfing books IMHO are “All for a few perfect waves” (Miki Dora story) and “To the four corners of the world”, about Peter Troy. The Troy book is incredible, but hard to get.
I’ll keep an eye out for the Troy book, cheers!
https://www.facebook.com/11… might be out of print but this is it. 10/10.
Would love to get a copy of this book – the executors of the Peter Troy estate should do a crowdfunding for a reprint edition.
They should make a movie of it starring Aussie Thor. It’s as good a story as “catch me if you can”. It’s unbelievable what the guy did.
Fuck me, that power gaff in the lip is bitchin’! WOOF
he isn’t catching that lip in the chest?
“Why don’t we work together to help the plight of Hawaiian surfers? Let’s take the gravitas that we both have in surfing and do something really positive with it. Let’s not bitch and moan about the past, let’s talk about what we can do in the future.”
What a sneaky haole.
And he SUPs. I’m vacillating between Trump love and SUPing as the most egregious, and the best answer I can come up with is: ¿porque no los dos?
Kanga puts it front and center, for that he gets for all its worth ,my respect.
He deserves respect for what he’s achieved. Would love to see him running the show.
If that’s true he can go rot in the foulest hell available, despite any positive things he may or may not have done for surfing.
I’m still not convinced that the whole ‘professional surfing’ thing was such a good idea to begin with.