Surfing found its motely place within the literary scene at the Byron Bay Writers’ Festival on Sunday. The event titled ‘The legend of surfer M.P.” was set to feature Sean Doherty and Malcolm Knox in conversation with Chris Flynn of Monster Children. But the audience was surprised to find two extra chairs on stage; in the first sat Joan Peterson – M.P.’s mother – and in the second sat renowned surf photographer Dick Hoole.
I’m sure many of you are familiar with Sean Doherty’s definitive biography of M.P. Malcolm Knox however, is a lesser-known figure in the surfing world. He burst onto the literary scene in 2011 with his novel, ‘The Life,’ which borrowed aspects of the M.P. story but was ultimately a fictional tale. The book thus spurred substantial controversy and gave rise to questions surrounding the ethics of storytelling and the inevitable entanglement of fact and fiction. Joan Peterson was famously quoted calling the book a load of ‘crap’ and chucking it in the bin.
Seeing the lot of them up on stage together, it was obvious that any bad blood between Joan and Knox was now in the past. In the long run, perhaps Joan was able to reconcile with the idea that somebody can actually write a fictitious account of a real person in the public sphere – and a public figure he was, albeit an extremely private one. It happens in all genres, across TV, theatre and on the page.
But being predominantly a writer of fiction, why was Knox drawn to use M.P. as a model for his protagonist? “Because he was a fictional character living in the real world,” explained Knox. “When someone becomes a figure of mythology, it’s interesting to look at the community and circumstances from which they come.”
Surfers are a storytelling species, and M.P. was fertile ground for doing just that. “Because he was never present,” suggests Doherty, “he ended up with a vacuum around him – he’d turn up, surf, win, take the trophy and fly – and people filled the gaps using their own imagination.” And so the story of M.P. was constructed in this way. Doherty admits it was difficult to discern fact from fiction when it came to writing about Michael. “When I set out to write the biography,’ said Doherty, “I told myself, I’m not going to write a book about the myth of M.P… Afterwards I realised that’s exactly what I’d done.” In hindsight Doherty reckons the bio was probably around 30% fiction. “But that’s what you get when you choose to write about a reluctant subject.” Of course, fiction is a natural part of memory, and any research that relies on peoples’ recollections is going to be peppered by it.
“M.P. let his surfing do the talking,” added Dick Hoole, “and dying is a great career move, but unfortunately you don’t get to keep the royalties.” While the comment came off a little crass, seeing as Mrs P. was sitting just a few feet to the left, Dick was on the money. The intrigue surrounding M.P. only intensified as a result of his death. Dick admitted that he’s still making more coin off the photos he took of M.P. than off any living surfer today.
Doherty recently wrote about the death of surfing mythology. Could a character like M.P. exist in today’s world? Doherty thinks not. With the rise of social media and the Internet everyone knows what everyone is doing all the time, and myth can no longer develop, enlarge and mutate in the ways it once did. Furthermore, how much did M.P.’s schizophrenia contribute to his surfing brilliance? “If another M.P. came along today,” said Doherty, “his schizophrenia would be diagnosed early on. Granted, you wouldn’t get the terrible lows, but nor would you get the stratospheric highs, and you wouldn’t have the best surfer in the world.”
For all its controversy, Doherty suggested that Knox’s book was by far the braver of the two. He (Knox) attempted to see inside Michael’s head, which was no easy task by any means. Dick Hoole went on to say that when looking through the lens into Michael’s eyes, he could never guess as to what might be going on behind them. He was the mystery man! Dick declared.
Doherty has released a second book called ‘M.P. Untold, the lost stories of an Australian surfing legend’ – a collection of many unseen photos, stories, anecdotes and tributes from those who knew him best. Mrs P. gave it the big thumbs up on Sunday, so you’d better get your hands around a copy and relish a few yet unheard yarns about the man behind the myth.
MP Untold is on sale now, buy it online here.
