Bob McTavish writes like he speaks. Short, rapid fire sentences are often interspersed with one word exclamatories. Understand? Cool!

Recently Surfing Australia held its annual awards night. As it was their 50th anniversary Surfing Australia marked the milestone with a special presentation, 'Australia's Ten Most Influential Surfers.' Bob McTavish was deemed Australia's tenth most influential surfer, and, as they were announced in reverse order, he was the first to accept his award. Bob began his speech by opening up on an old topic: Is surfing a sport or an art? As the speech progressed it felt like we were heading toward an awkward faux pas, a black mark on a black tie night.

The surf industry has a propensity to look backwards - to look at what happened in the 50' s and the 60's and the 70's - and I doubt very much if you went to an aerospace conference people would be talking about the Wright brothers, like 'yeah they killed it back then!'