1960s-70s WA surf writer and photographer Greg Woodward has reviewed Kanga The Trials and Triumphs of Ian Cairns, Volume I, a 2018 biography by Wayne Patrick Murphy and Ian Cairns that follows the life and surfing career of Australian champion surfer Ian “Kanga” Cairns.
Volume 1 is set in Australia, South Africa and Hawaii’s awesome North Shore. Cairns features with other surf legends, heroes and hard men in conflict. Together they provide a detailed narrative of surfing’s transformation as it evolves from a drug-infused hippy era of the late 60s to a fledging world touring the late 70s. Extract Kanga Vol 1.
Front cover Kanga Vol 1. Photo Steve Wilkins.
Greg’s Book Review–more a book like
[Better late than never 2026]
“Kanga” Volume 1. 2018–a biography of the life and times of Surfer, artisan and entrepreneur Ian Cairns
By Wayne Patrick Murphy with Ian Cairns
A great book cover photo on the ‘Kanga’ book, taken by Steve Wilkings shows Ian after a radical cut back in zero gravity, laying horizontal to the wave face and garlanded by a ribbon of white water.
I went down to Free-mantle last week to visit Bills second-hand bookshop to trade some books and find something interesting to read. Not an easy trick at 80 years. Been there done that etc. Turns out Bill had a shelf of surfing books – where I came across KANGA vol1.at $16. Apologies guys! I had known about the book in 2018 but had other things happening at the time and put ‘Kanga’ on the back burner as a special treat for leaner days.
— and so, turning pages, I found Kanga a great read with many fine passages by both Ian and Wayne Patrick Murphy. The chapter that first drew me in was called ISOLATED For example Ian and family arrive at Cottesloe in 1966 after the long thirsty drive across the Nullarbor. Ian’s folks head for the Cottesloe hotel for a well-deserved beer and shandy and Ian heads for the beach and discovers “Isolated” surf break and waves a breaking!
Reviewers note
Wow, a mention of “Isolated’’ surf break in print! – that’s one my /our home breaks. I spent many happy hours in that briny locale, and one unreal session at Dutch Inn. Never got a decent wave north of the groyne at Cottesloe, although many did.
High points in the book are too numerous to mention so please allow me to make a selection of bullet point precises to give a flavour of events and to cloak my lousy English expression skills.
—-Ian was both a surfer and an artisan. He learnt to craft and shape surfboards from Midget Farrelly who was a master craftsman and shaper. -How many Olympic level sports people can make their own artifacts. Many surfers do. Continually making and refining their surfboards. designs and materials.
—The Wayne Lynch interview in KANGA explores the finer points of surfboard design and how boards perform in the water. He explains the logic of how board designs evolved to improve a surfer’s engagement with the wave. It turns out that changes in design were not just fads created to keep selling more product, but a steady evolution of intelligent updates.
—Bad Sunset beach – Ian and mate paddled out at Sunset when first arriving in Hawaii. The surf was 8 foot and over the next hour rose to 15-20 foot. The boys were scratching desperately over these humongous waves to get out back with Ian losing his board after being bombed onto the reef and was lucky to survive the scene. Better young men risk their lives in giant surf than in the other big wave of bullets, bombs and land mines. By the way where is the bloody take off point at Margs and Sunset and Waimea and Pipeline and Jefferies Bay and Nazare? Guess you have to ask the professionals.
—- It’s remarkable how in such a short time a thriving surf industry arose to power the new surfing world. Cars, surfboards, clothes, idols and food to mention a few products. A generation of young people all over the planet dropped out of society to do what they enjoyed. When it’s time to steam train woo woo.
—- In 1973 there was a strong kick back from eastern states surfers when WASRA threatened to cancel the Australian Titles at Margaret River out of fear that West Australia would be inundated by surfers from the eastern states. The titles were eventually held and partially recorded in a beautiful film by Paul Witzig, called “Evolution “
— In this biography Wayne Patrick Murphy records and describes the evolution of just about every surf competition since the 1960s. The competitors, the politics. the struggles and the prize monies.
—- On Thanksgiving Day 1973 Ian found his groove at Sunset Beach in Hawaii and entered the zero-gravity zone. As he describes it – “A mindless Zen like interaction “with an oceanic lady he had been courting and wooing for a long time. He finally found his place amongst the Hawaiian waves.
—–In 1976 Ian was determined to get in better physical and skill shape and prepare himself for The Pipeline Masters competition a break that had given him a few nasty beatings in the past. So, he drove the 600miles to Jakes point at Kalbarri anticipating the big WA surf breaking on shallow ledge reefs. Caught his first wave, was way too far inside, did the rinse cycle, got badly hammered and suffered a serious ankle ligament injury and had to crawl back to his car and make the 600-mile drive back to Perth, alone.
—- Kanga Vol.1 was a fascinating read for me because like many I was a weekend surfer and participated in the culture through surf magazines and watching movies. So, reading KANGA I was able to get the inside goss on behind the scenes thru this text. In my view the book works well by combining Ian’s story -out there living the surfing life and Wayne Patrick Murphy as the author, recording angel, researcher and narrator both people contributing to the creation of a detailed and entertaining sociological document of a special time in history. WPM’s detailed knowledge and recall of events woven into this page turning narrative is most impressive.
In my view this biography beautifully describes the old-time heroes’ journey – the trials and tribulations of the human pitted against the chaos of the world and not only for Ian Cairns heroic journey [which has largely been ignored by West Australians] but all the heroes that made the surfing era one of the few grass root sociological revolutions of our era.
2018 Back cover Kanga vol 1. Features book preview and photographs of Ian in Hawaii and Wayne in the North Atlantic.
Photo Album
2018 Kanga book launch at WA Surf Galler.y Authors Ian Cairns and Wayne Patrick Murphy signing celebrity surfboard. Photo Mick Marlin.
2018 Kanga book launch at WA Surf Gallery. Ian Cairns’ comments on celebrity surfboard at WA Surf Gallery. Photo Mick Marlin.
2018 Kanga book launch at WA Surf Gallery. Barry Day, Ian Cairns, George Simpson & Wayne Patrick Murphy. Photo Mick Marlin.
2018 Kanga book launch at WA Surf Gallery. Ric Chan, Ian Cairns & Jim King. Photo Mick Marlin.
2018 Kanga book launch at WA Surf Gallery. Mick Marlin, Jeannette de Haas & Ian Cairns. Photo Mick Marlin.
2018 Kanga book launch at WA Surf Gallery. George Simpson & Ric Chan. Photo Mick Marlin.
Watch Ric Chan’s 2018 Kanga Vol 1 book launch video. Run time: 1 min.
Thanks to Greg and the other contributors.
Both volumes of Kanga are still available for purchase on Amazon Kindle.
——————————————
