Illustrious characters at the Byron Bay Surf Festival 2013

This year the Byron Bay Surf Festival is hosting a unique and rare array of captivating workshops and presentations delivered by several illustrious characters from our worlds surfing tribe.

Some of the individuals presenting include international and local identities such as Keith Malloy, Belinda Baggs, Derek Hynd, Bob McTavish, Nat Young, Rusty Miller, Tim Baker and many others. Some of these will be ticketed evening events at the Community Centre on the main street with others up by the main beach day markets in the Presentation yurt and SurfLit Tipi Lounge. For the larger events, tickets will be limited and available to buy at the Byron Community Centre online or on site at the centre. Many others are for free viewing.

Californian free surfer Keith Malloy will be presenting his recent project 'The Plight Of The Torpedo People' on the Saturday evening, guaranteed to be a rare window into a the niche world of bodysurfing; the purest form of surfing there is. This has been a long anticipated project undertaken by the celebrated Malloy brother and will be a great visual scene to behold, revealing of the magic and trickeries of various ocean masters.

Just as fascinating, and not known for his public outings, the illusive and friction free surfer Derek Hynd will be also be showing his face at the Community Centre venue. Hynd will be delivering a standing dissertation on the 'State of the Art of Surfing' which will highlight some unknown quirks, tales and designs across surf history unto today. Derek's sharp and poignant 'gift of the gab' and uncanny ability to articulate language and historical detail is something to behold. Being the only top ten pro surfer to have ever completed a university degree, he is a clever cat and revolutionary surfer to this day. In his time, he has documented over 2000 interviews with top surfers including icons like Isobel Lethem or Skip Frye and remembers every single detail.

Also brushing the topic of design and historical surfing will be Belinda Baggs speaking to a short film by Nathan Oldfield documenting her unique experience with an old 1960's logger board inherited from Australian legend Wayne Lynch. Belinda is renowned for her grace and style in the longboarding world and has a lot to say about the use of weight and line in logger surfing. Accompanied by some female logger greats, Lauren Hill and Taylor Miller, Belinda will discuss the evolution of women in modern day loggin with the audience.

Also presenting/ reading at the festival specific Surf Lit Lounge will be Bob McTavish and Rusty Miller on their newly released books, Nat Young joining Bob for a historical yarn, Rebecca Olive on her academic thesis about women in the lineup and a handful of other obscure talks and activities such as the helidrone demo, ocean survival skills and surf forecasting/ oceanography drill. Check out more details and the rabbit hole of succulent events at the online festival program.

Get your tickets for all Byron Community Centre presentations early and book online here http://www.byroncentre.com.au/whats-on/ or at the Centre.