Thursday, August 27, 2009

Peter Troy - one year on

There are at least five sizable islands off the Brinecoast - all with different mixes of reef, rock platform and sand bottoms. Some call this one Kong's Island after local legend Gary Elkerton's film appearance. Others call it Troy's Island after the late surf pioneer Peter Troy (RIP), who held  a 99 year lease on the place. I prefer the traditional murri name Mudjimba.

Back in the 70's, my brother and cousin and I paddled over from the nearest beach one day and surfed the rights, which sometimes run into the lefts, as this is kinda tear shaped.  So we hit it on our pintail singlefins. Needless to say, we had it to ourselves. 
Rested on the rocks after that, rolled a smoke (yeah we brought over supplies in a plastic bag) and paddled back over the shark infested channel.

A couple of years later, I was in Peter Troy's surfshop blabbing on about our adventure,  pointing to the beautiful aerial shot of The Island that he had on wall. He was such a nice bloke, listening to me dribble on and on about our big paddle over and back, then he just nodded and said softly, "yeah, it's a great spot, I have the lease for the island". And this from a bloke who had already surfed a million countries before I was born. 

RIP Peter Troy 1938 - 2008

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