In the winter of 1976/1977 Tracks editor Phil Jarratt was on the North Shore covering the contests and peripheral action in the style that would make him one of surfing’s most famous scribes. It was the first year an official world champion was crowned, Peter Townend claiming the honours after some hasty, last-minute calculations. Meanwhile Rabbit, Ian Cairns and a several of the other Australians were ducking and weaving a posse of Hawaiians who were baying for their blood.
In a setting that featured a strange mix of impending violence and nascent pro surfing, things got even weirder when Jarratt interviewed Bunker Spreckles. Some of it is probably not suitable to print on this platform but below is an extract of the wild conversation. A month after the interview Bunker Spreckles was dead, reportedly from an overdose.
Excerpt from the original Tracks interview by Phil Jarratt
As the heats of this winter’s Pro Class Trials got underway at Sunset Beach by far the most bizarre competitor climbed onto the roof of his white Mercedes Sports, tied his hair back with a silk scarf, hauled up a beautiful lady in a brown one-piece to join him, lit up a KoI in a three-inch gold cigÂarette holder, sipped on a Margarita and settled back to watch the action. Anthony “Bunker” Spreckles, heir to a US sugar fortune, Clark Gable’s stepson, design innovator of the sixties and self-proclaimed underground surf star of the seventies who is not a man who does things by halves.
Bunker on surfing and decadence
The type of life I lead is not exactly one of your Mike Purpus type of surf lifestyles. I’ve lived all my life in hotels. I’ve got the TV on, the phone never stops ringing, I’ve got between three and nine surfboards around me at all times and at any time I might grab one of them and go check one of these major Hawaiian surf spots just down the road. I think there’s a certain amount of decadence in surfing. It’s an occupational hazard, just like in the rock business or in Hollywood, wherever there’s money. Some surfers do have money to spend and they can indulge themselves and more or less create their own bubbles with it and crawl in it or whatever. The beauty of surfing is that you can do it on a more individual levÂel. You don’t need, like in a rock band, five guys to get you off. You need a surfboard – which is a stage to dance on – and a surf spot with good waves and you go out there and perform. The underbelly of decadence in surfing is that peoÂple don’t moderate themselves in the things that they do. There’s a tendency to want to par ty. People come up to you and say, “what’s happening?” Everyone likes to know what’s happening. What’s happening for me is let’s have a party, or let’s get some chicks or let’s get fucked up. I’m satisfied with being described as decaÂdent because I think it fits the image, and if you’re going to have any credibility as a media person you don’t want to be phoney.
Read January 1977 in full here
Bunker on surfing and violence
I have a reputation for being violent when the situation calls for it. I was brought up around violence. I come from a wealthy family but that didn’t preclude them from sending me to some pretty strange schools where there were a lot of different ethnic groups and a lot of prejudice. They were military schools too, and violence was the order of the day.
Getting in fights in the water is pretty fucked. It’s a bad place to fight be cause it turns into a drowning match or a ball pulling match. There are times when someone will paddle over and slug someone in the mouth, but you can’t get too much leverage in the waÂter. I’ve only been involved in a few fights in the water, most of my stuff has either been barroom stuff or hoÂtels.
Bunker on Crowd Control
When I’m surfing a crowded spot like Malibu I employ certain techniques when people take off in front of me. I may push them off the wave, but not in a vicious way. I may grab their nose and pull myself through a section just to get them out of the way, but I don’t slug them in the head, or do what Mickey used to do and kick out at their teeth. I don’t do stuff like that I can get them out of my way without hurting them. That’s crowd control which is really starting to come to the fore in surfing now. In Hawaii I don’t employ those tactics because the waves are so immense that I don’t usually have time to bout it At Honolua when it’s perfect if two or three guys take off in front of me I come from so far back that while they’re doing their turns I’ll come down their track and turn so hard that my track just blows them off the face. I learned this from when I used to ride motocross.
