Australian Beach Cultures: The History of Sun, Sand and Surf

By Douglas Booth, Frank Cass Publishers: 2001, , 260 pages, hardback, £45.00. Reviewed by Richard Waterhouse in the June 2002 issue.

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My first impressions of this book were highly positive, for it is handsomely presented. On the cover is Charles Meere's striking oil painting Australian Beach Pattern (1940), and interesting and relevant photos and cartoons are spread throughout the book. My second impression was less positive. The 'Series Editor's Foreword' by the distinguished British historian, J A Mangan, reads like something from a Monty Python sports-journalist sketch. His script contains such gems as: 'Are children now disillusioned on the beaches of Australia? ... Are there not beaches beyond beaches? ... Is it really the death of the Australian sandcastle?' Only someone who had never visited an Australian beach could write stuff like this! But my first impression was the right one, because this is in fact an outstanding book and it contains a series of complex, informative and well-researched arguments relating to Australian beach cultures, their histories, and the people who created them.

Three main themes/histories run through the book. First, Booth recounts the history and role of the body on the Australian beach. At one level, this is simply about exposure. At first bathers had to lobby even to bathe in daylight. Later they campaigned to be allowed to wear less and less, or simply ignored instructions from local authorities to cover up. Men became topless, women went two-piece, then adopted bikinis and then they too adopted topless gear. Yet he argues that moralisers never relinquished the belief that too much physical exposure was a bad thing. Their continued influence, even in recent times, is reflected in their success in having nude bathing banned on some Sydney beaches where it was previously sanctioned. At another level, Booth's argument centres on the role of women, as swimmers, surfers (board riders) and life savers. Indeed, the discussion (142-9) on the male reaction when women were admitted to life saving clubs in the early 1980s is wonderfully insightful -- and it makes depressing reading.

Second, the book is about the history of the surf life saving movement. Here, Booth provides some sharp insights into the male-dominated movement, pointing out, for example, the contradiction it always faced. On the one hand it was a service organisation, whose object was to patrol beaches and rescue swimmers in difficulty. On the other, it was a social and sporting organisation. Because of this it was reluctant to include female members, fearing a loss of camaraderie. It was also cautious in embracing new technology, such as inflatable boats and torpedo buoys, because it feared such equipment might render traditional surf carnival events/competitions, like those involving surf boats and surf reels, irrelevant. I find his discussion of the surf life saving movement the least satisfactory both because it is apparent that Booth doesn't actually like the movement very much, and because it is very Sydney-based. Twice, he argues that life saving clubs 'were never bastions of humanitarianism' (73, 148). Rather, he suggests, most people joined to participate in the sporting activities and 'mateship', and to use the facilities. But do people really sort their motives out in such straightforward terms? And in any case how do people's motives in joining other service clubs, Rotary, for example, compare? In both cases the desire for fellowship was and is important, but a lot of good works are accomplished as well. In the end, I suspect people's motives in joining surf clubs were more complex and intertwined than Booth allows. In the final chapter, 'The end of the beach?' Booth announces, almost with glee, that 'traditional surf life saving culture is dead' (184). Well, perhaps it depends what you mean by 'traditional'. Moreover, the yuppification of Sydney's beachside suburbs and the dearth of kids may have created a crisis there. In many other places the opening of surf clubs to women, the resounding success of the nipper movement (with its Sunday morning lessons and competitions) has turned surf clubs from male bastions into vital family and community institutions. Anyone who walks along, Crescent Head, Umina, MacMasters or Avoca Beach on a Sunday in summer can tell you that.

Booth is much more at home in discussing the history of board surfing, a subject towards which he is sympathetic. What impresses me about his account is the way in which he shows that surfing was a complex and contradictory movement. Originally it was aligned closely with the life saving movement, but it struck out in its own hedonistic direction in the 1960s. Although its adherents sometimes described the Sydney Life Saving Association as a 'fascist' movement, surfers were not necessarily progressives themselves, often reflecting homophobic and sexist values. Booth also neatly demonstrates that as the counter-culture lost its influence on surfing and as such a prosaic device as the leg-rope lessened the danger of boards to swimmers, board surfing lost its reputation both for radicalism and as a menace to swimmers. In the last chapter he suggests that board riding, too, is at the crossroads, challenged in its homogeneity by yuppie long board riders and by a new generation of body boarders (the surfing equivalent of skate and snow boarders) who have little respect for the mystique of the waves or the etiquette of catching them.

This is not the definitive history of Australian beach cultures. It is too Sydney-centred, too valorising of the board riders and derogatory of the surf clubs to deserve that status. But it is a well written, provocatively argued and challenging account nevertheless. It is a valuable and important contribution to Australian cultural history.

Citation

• Richard Waterhouse. 'Review: Australian Beach Cultures: The History of Sun, Sand and Surf by Douglas Booth' [online]. Network Review of Books (Perth, Australian Public Intellectual Network), June 2002. Availability: <please cite the web address here> ISSN 1833-0932. [accessed 19 June 2013].

Back Cover Blurb

• Australians are surrounded by beaches. But this enclosure is more than a geographical fact for the inhabitants of an island continent; the beach is an integral part of the cultural envelope. This work analyzes the history of the beach as an integral aspect of Australian culture.

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