A definitive history of surfing in Australia, Bombora tells the story of Australian beach culture through our surfing champions, writers, pioneers, entrepreneurs, mavericks, legends, drop-outs and drop-ins.
Global surfing culture is a mix of wildness, grace and cool that is utterly Australian, but how did a nation of people, who mostly couldn't swim, turn a Polynesian pastime into a national obsession and international cultural force?
Bombora charts our first encounters with the surf when swimming in the sea was banned and shows how we were seduced by the freedom of the waves and the beaches. The series takes us into the lives of the larrikins who invented everything from surf skis to shark nets, and also looks at the tensions that arose between 'duty and pleasure', between the growing surf life-saving clubs and those who just wanted to surf.
Using archival footage, it follows the first Australian surfers as they head to Hawaii - the spiritual home of the sport - and introduces the wild men who made it their own, surf legends such as Midget Farrelly, Bob Pike and Nat Young.
Bombora also looks at the later years of Australian surf history from 1967 to the present. Using archival footage and interviews, it charts the rise of the surf and drug culture, the start of a hippie trail north to Indonesia, the launch of surfing films and dedicated surf magazines, and introduces the hard men of the 1970s including Michael Peterson Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew and Terry Fitzgerald
But the 1980s brought another cultural change, and the success of surfers such as Mark Richards and Tom Carroll helped to clean up its image. As surfers formed boardriding clubs, the sport grew more professional and women were not only welcomed back, they started to win world titles.
Bombora charts the history of surfing in Australia - the bodies, the boards, the music, the drugs, the fights, the freedom - and shows the cultural phenomenon it is today.
