One of the first surfing pictures that my older brother John tore from a surfing magazine and pinned to his bedroom wall was of Keith Paull. It was the early 70s and the iconic photo depicted a man with a surfboard walking along on a beautiful beach. He had movie star good looks, like Marlon Brando with a square jaw. John knew all about Keith Paull and not only copied his radical but smooth surfing style, but also appropriated his out-there life philosophy. No other Australian surfer from the 60s experienced such highs and lows as Keith Paull.
This was a unique time in history, Western civilisation was changing dramatically, as the younger generation rebelled against everything they thought was immoral, unethical, or unfair. There was a tectonic shift in our culture and Keith Paull seemed to me the embodiment of it. Two generations were clashing, at times violently, and it wasn’t going to be painless. There was a book in our school library that I pored over daily. It was called The Pictorial History of Surfing. In it, Keith Paull looked like a well-groomed surfing gentle-man. In one portrait he looked like he could have just got back from the Vietnam war, clean shaved with short back and sides. Soon after, I saw photos of a very different man in the surfing magazines of the times. He had a shaved, painted head, and carried a hand painted surfboard that looked like a psychedelic rock album cover. Keith Paull was born in 1946 and started surfing on the Gold Coast at the age of 14.He was initially best known as the master of the ‘power’ crouch; something you really have to see in photos or on film to fully comprehend. Wayne ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew, remembered him as: “…having the most beautiful style in surfing.” Sadly, in the end, Keith was remembered more for his outlandish behaviour, which ranged from very funny to almost fatal.
In 1966, Keith left Queensland to work with surfboard shaper, Peter Clarke, in Sydney. He told his friends that he wanted to win the Aussie Titles. They must have thought it was an impossible dream, but Keith was determined. He applied a strict methodology to his surfing regime. He was super fit and ate well. He was a perfectionist, down to the last detail, and often became angry and frustrated if his surfing didn’t measure up to his high standards. Keith evolved into a fine surfboard shaper, his designs were a means to an end, as he became one of the period’s top surfer/shapers.
The 1968 Australian National Titles were held on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. There were three separate contests, it must have been gruelling. The wave height ranged between two and 12-foot. Keith surfed brilliantly throughout the entire event, beating everyone, including Midget and Nat. He was late for the final at Warriewood, and after the other contestants had paddled out, his name was called out on the loudspeakers. Keith emerged from the back of a combi-van, where he had been making love to a woman. He paddled out and won the contest. A move like that in Australia, made him a legend.
This win led to American ‘Surfer magazine’ describing him as: “The most powerful all-round performer in Australian waters today.” Not long after winning the Aussie Titles, Keith had a life changing six-month trip through South Africa, Europe, Puerto Rico, and the United States. He had been dreaming of a trip like this for years. While the trip was a great success, cracks started to appear in Keith’s psyche. The fragility of his mental state became apparent. Particularly, after repeatedly surfing all day in Biarritz and then taking acid at night in the popular French nightspot ‘The Steak-house’. One night he had a bad trip and spun out completely. He told no one what happened that night, other than: “It was really heavy.”
From France, Keith went to California, via Puerto Rico. He met Bing Copeland ands tarted working for Bing Surfboards, in Hermosa Beach. It was a radical time in California, and Keith fell in with a couple of guys who knew where to get the best acid. Being the Aussie Champ led to Keith feeling a great pressure to surf well. He greatly impressed everyone with his surfing, particularly at Trestles.
Keith left California and arrived on the North Shore of Oahu just in time for the fabled winter of ‘69. He stayed with Randy Rarick, who also remembered Keith showing signs that the pressure was getting to him. He was not only the Aussie Champ, but he was also now the public face of Bing surfboards. This didn’t stop him charging though, and Randy and Keith surfed Sunset together often. This was to provide an excellent foundation for what was to follow. In the early hours of the morning on December 5, Keith and Randy were awakened by the sound of big surf. At day break they saw waves washing over the Kam Highway. They loaded up Randy’s car and sped to Makaha. It was difficult to judge how big the surf was, but it was well over30-foot. Bigger than anyone had ever surfed it before. The conditions were good and the two paddled out. An enormous set approached, and Keith paddled his8’6” out to meet it. He swung around and took off on the huge wave. He rode as high as possible to make it along the endless wall and flew right through the infamous Makaha Bowl, just ahead of the pitching lip. Midget Farrelly saw the wave from shore and called it: “The greatest surfing achievement I’ve ever witnessed.” Keith was the only Australian surfer out there that day.
Keith returned to Australia a hero in the surfing world. Later that year he married his girlfriend, Collette. She reportedly noticed that he began acting strangely in1970. He told her he had a mental condition referred to as Schizophrenia. Collette loved Keith and thought they would be able to manage it together. They started Keith Paull surfboards and later opened a surf shop at Kirra called Harmony.
This is when the voices in his head started in earnest. Perhaps the pressure was too much for him. He began acting weirdly and doing strange things. At Bells one year he ran naked around the Torquay Pub. On the drive home he kept jumping out of the car and running off. For a while, most of his friends thought it was funny. But not Collette. She was worried for him. Interestingly, Michael Peterson was also worried for Keith. Michael told his little brother, Tommy, that he saw a crazy look in Keith’s eyes. “I’m worried about him, there’s something wrong.” Sadly, Tommy had seen that look in Michael’s eyes too and was more worried about him.
In his autobiography, Bustin’ Down the Door, Wayne Bartholomew describes Keith’s 1975 breakdown. “That evening, in Caloundra, all the competitors gathered together at the Pearl Hotel for the contest meeting, and I spotted Keith outside the pub driving his panel van. Next moment, he drove up onto the footpath, and I thought: “Classic Keith, what a way to make your entrance and intimidate your opponents before a contest.” But then he drove up the stairs of the hotel and lodged his van halfway in the entrance. I was impressed! And again, I’m thinking, Keith’s really surpassed himself here. This is the greatest stunt I’ve ever seen. The showmanship! When I was walking over to congratulate him, Keith got out and his head was shaved bald and painted with concentric blue circles. I stopped in my tracks. This wasn’t the Keith I’d seen that morning.” Keith was also wearing knee high silver boots and blue Superman underpants. What wasn’t reported on for many years was that the following day Keith grabbed his six-month-old son off the beach and tried to drown him. This was witnessed by many, and some have wondered whether this act of insanity is why he was cast into surfing purgatory. Just a few short years earlier, Keith Paull could have done anything. It was unimaginable that he might be dropped from the collective memory of the next generation of Aussies surfers.
Keith quit surfing and shaping altogether in 1976. For nearly 30 years he led a tragically sad life. He was tormented by the voices in his head and abused drugs and alcohol trying to find some relief. But self-medicating only made the problem worse. He lived in extreme poverty and died of a heart attack in a nursing home in 2004. He was 57.
