DAMON HURST had 20,000 words written down to explain surfing and what it tells us of being human. But he had to condense it all down to just 16.
That was the word limit for the explanatory caption to accompany his exhibition, Frontier Surfing, at the Fremantle Arts Centre.
“We chase perfection when all we can get is imperfection and that is a beautiful thing,” the Freo local ended up with.
Surfing became Hurst’s “guiding light” following a family holiday to Rottnest, aged 14.
Travelling the world on an unofficial surfing circuit he suddenly realised he was 25 and had become a member of a very close-knit global community.
“I was in Morocco and a surfer said he’d heard about me in South Africa and that I was coming here,” Mr Hurst says.
An accountant-turned-writer and story-teller, the exhibition will be his first as a curator, something he fell into after hosting music and story-telling sessions on surfing at the North Fremantle bowls club.
But with visitor numbers hitting a thousand he needed a bigger venue and approached the FAC. “[Curator] Ric Spencer said, ‘I reckon you have enough ideas for an exhibition.”
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Frontier Surfing tracks WA’s surfing history, with photos by legendary surf photographer John Witzig and a series of historically significant boards designed to withstand the force of the ocean’s most colossal waves. There’ll be images of the state’s most infamous breaks by big wave photographers Jamie Scott and Russell Ord, interviews with the surfers who ride them and action footage.
“The exhibition explores the singular spiritual connection between the surfer and the wave,” Hurst says.
Witzig’s emotive 1974 photo of Murray Smith, at Smiths Beach, shows the surfer riding up a wave. “Murray is so lit up with expectation. [The] transition between paddling and taking off–it’s an incredible moment.”
There’ll also be a sound installation mimicking what it sounds like inside a tube.
It’s on April 1 to May 22. There’ll be artist talks Saturday April 2, 2–4pm, with Russell Ord, the curators and free-diver and breathing coach Joe Knight, followed by a surfing film night.
by JENNY D’ANGER
