This Surfing World interview with Keith Paull ran in 1967, when Paull was 21. One year later he won the Australian National Titles.


I started surfing when we moved to the Gold Coast, where I met Bob Ryan, who introduced me to surfing. The early days were great. I can remember getting up early every morning and surfing Greenmount. The only time it was ever crowded was during the summer. For the rest of the year, only a few of us surfed there.

I was a bit of a dreamer, and used to imagine I was Mickey Dora, ripping the curl. I would often put myself in the place of someone I thought was really great; it made me surf much better, especially on Sundays, when all the young kids were down there. I was always trying to be better than I was.

My idea on surfing, then, was the more beaches you surfed the better surfer you become, so I tried to get around quite a bit. The other guys were content to ride Greenmount, but after surfing there for a couple of months I got so used to the slowness of the waves that I wanted something different. This is when I started riding Currumbin. I walked there almost every morning and surfed it by myself. My strongest desire was to travel. I wanted to see as many different beaches as I could, and see all the riders who were so good . . . Midget Farrelly and Phil Edwards especially.


I remember traveling to Byron Bay the first time Phil Edwards was in Australia. I really didn't understand Edwards at the time, his style was so smooth and different. I didn't realize how good he really was. The one thing that impressed me was that he never fell off. Bruce Brown was on the beach filming and the sequence appeared in 


I've been living down here now for a couple of years. The main reason I left Queensland, apart from the shortage of work, was to better myself. My aim was to get a job shaping. The only previous experience I had was a little time spent with Joe Larkin after work each day. So before I came down to Sydney, I had about six months' experience in a board shop. When I came down here I told them that I had been shaping for Joe Larkin and that I was his top shaper. I somehow managed to get a job, but it didn't take them long to realize that I hadn't done much shaping.


When I first arrived [in Sydney] I wasn't over-impressed with the surf. It wasn't as good as I expected it to be after reading so much about it in the magazines. I found the surfers to be friendly, though. One thing that was very noticeable was the faster pace down here. I liked this, because my surfing improved much quicker. There is a constant drive down here; in Queensland, the push is more towards relaxation. Down here, because of this drive, everyone pushes themselves to the limit. This can either make or break you, especially if you take it the wrong way. If you have aggression towards other people, it can break you. On the other hand, if you put all your aggression into surfing, this is the thing that will put you ahead. I like the happy medium of living and working down here and getting away to Queensland for a while.


Surfing is a thing of beauty. It's an art form really. It's self-expression of one's person to convey to other people who you really are. You have to surf the way you feel and the way you think. Surfing should all blend in naturally; you shouldn't have to say that you're going to do this or that. Just surf the wave as it comes to you. A lot of people think surfing is an escape from reality. But it isn't. Surfing is a form of mental relaxation, through concentration. It's also a form of freedom and exercise. Surfing, really, is another world altogether; a release from the strains of society. Even though I make living from surfing, it still gives me the freedom that I'd never have if I had a 9-to-5 job.


Involvement is the big thing in surfing right now. Everyone is trying to get further inside, cleaner, without getting caught by the whitewater. Very close involvement means using the breaking curl for speed and power.


Surfing in Australia in another ten years is going to be fantastic. Look what's happened in the last ten years; it's just improved so much and the kids who started ten years ago are just becoming the citizens of today; they are just starting to vote and so on. The kid's who will be surfing in another ten years will be backed by people who are surfing now; people who know how it feels to surf, who are also holding responsible positions in society. This is important. People today are looking at us and just don't understand. You can't understand surfing until you have surfed.


My board is eight-foot long, much shorter than average. It has a wide full plan shape, with fairly parallel rails, sweeping to a full nose. The bottom design has three planes; the two back planes form a "V", approximately 3.5 inches deep. The deck is slightly rolled at the back, through the middle, and flattens on the nose which has a one-inch scoop. The rails have an even curvature throughout with slight low area in the center of the board. It's glassed with 28 ounces and has Stage III Greenough fin.

[Photos: Barrie Sutherland, Vic Joyce, Greg MacGillivay]

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