WINTON’S A WONDER
Nobody writes about surfing the way Tim Winton does. When I spoke to him just after Breath (which has just won the Miles Franklin Award) was published he did point out that it was not a surf novel, despite the subject matter. It’s about much more, of course, but it works as a surf novel too. In fact it’s pure filth! That’s a good thing. The only other novelist I have read who can do surfing in print is the American Kem Nunn and if you haven’t read his book The Dogs of Winter, do yourself a favour. Those of us who surf appreciate it when a writer gets the surfing stuff right but few manage it. There are, of course, the surf mags but the mindless drivel most of them serve up nowadays is undigestible, not to mention offensive! But Winton is a surfer’s surfer and he writes about it in a masculine but poetic fashion. Breath may be for everyone but we surfers are the only ones who really get it - a la the old Tracks motto: only a surfer knows …