"He was a force of nature."
The pretty Sydney costal hamlet Palm Beach is going to light up in little over an hour as thousands of surfers come together to celebrate the life of surf filmmaking giant and Tom Selleck-lookalike Jack McCoy.
It kicks off at twelve thirty Sydney time, which makes it, by my not entirely infallible calculations about seven-thirts in California and three-thirds in the morning in London.
Surf filmmaking great Jack McCoy died aged seventy-six one month ago and only three days after concluding a tour of his seminal documentary Blue Horizon around Australia.
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Each show included lengthy post-show question-and-answer sessions with Jack McCoy and the film’s star Dave Rastovich, McCoy delivering surf culture artefacts one after the other, a legacy of him being the creator of what would become folklore.
“Jack McCoy looked like a leaner meaner version of Tom Selleck, spoke well, amazing voice, and above all had unlimited confidence and ambition. Whatever Jack was doing, whatever the project, whatever he was focused on—he’d just tractor-beam you. He’d just pull you in. He was a force of nature. Jack stayed in the game longer than anybody, and literally and figuratively covered the most ground. And looked like Magnum PI while doing it,” wrote Matt Warshaw in a BeachGrit obituary.
Perhaps his greatest feat was in 1995 when he wrestled baby whale Mark Occhilupo off the couch, his weight had ballooned to three hundred pounds, got him back in training and, four years later, became the oldest world champ in history, aged thirty-three.
The whole concept of the Billabong Challenge was developed by Jack McCoy as a way of testing Occ against seven of the world’s best.
Last time I saw Jack he wrapped up half an hour of post-Blue Horizon questions with a plea for a little chill in the lineup. “Share waves, love your brothers and sisters.”
His exit from this mortal coil was classic Jack McCoy, touring his best movie and putting his final touch on a culture he shaped in no small way.
From Tubular Swells to Storm Riders to Bunyip Dreaming, Sons of Fun, the Challenges, to Blue Horizon and the Occumentary, Jack McCoy was the king.