The Bodysurfing Bushranger
or 'How six-times
world surfing champion, Kelly Slater, acquired his
name'
Michael Zerman
December 2001
source: zerman.net
And so to Ned Kelly, winner of the 2001 Booker Prize
for literature, awarded posthumously for his book,
True History of the
Kelly Gang. The novel was co-ghost
written by Australian standup surfer Peter Carey who
recently accepted the award on Kelly's behalf in London.
Kelly was one of the earliest recorded bodysurfing
bushrangers in Australian mid-colonial history, the
1860s onward. Most bushrangers (outlaws) of the period
preferred hard boards to the simple pleasures of bodysurfing,
but Kelly, always rebellious, fought Australian police
for the right to bodysurf without infringement notices
being issued. Kelly was particularly outraged at the
delivery of court summonses while bank robberies were
in progress.
Note: Australian bushrangers (outlaws) robbed banks
for travel money to get to the coastal beaches, as
public transport was quite limited in the 19th century
in Australia's south-eastern corner. Excess funds from
the holdups were distributed to poor farmers for the
purchase of surfboard blanks (trees) which enabled
their teenage children to leave the land and a life
of poor farming.
Like other oppressed bodysurfers, Kelly
came to a grisly end, being hung in Melbourne, Australia,
in the late 1880s.
His contribution to international surfing has been
recognised over the past thirty years, particularly
since 1992 with a name change by then upcoming American
surf prodigy, Ned Slater. Slater's first major competition
year (1992) included the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach,
Australia, a location only 200 kilometres from the
site of bushranger Ned Kelly's most famous final shootout
and showdown.
When Slater was informed of Ned Kelly's contribution
to the waveriding world, he initiated a complex name
changing procedure of statutory declarations, civil
lodgement of documents and IRS negotiations. By the
end of 1992, all legal and US government requirements
had been satisfied.
Ned Slater was thus able to accept
the first of six world surfing titles under his new
name, Kelly Slater, chosen in homage to the first Australian
bodysurfing bushranger.
 Accompanying
photo: 19th Century Wetsuit, possibly
worn by the Bodysurfing Bushranger, Ned Kelly, at his
last stand at Glenrowan, Victoria, Australia. Please
note the early adoption of head guards, now quite common
at Hawaii's Pipeline and other big wave venues.
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Steve
Hart descendant Paul O'Keefe has alerted me to yet
another ridiculous Kelly Gang claim (the latest in a line
of many). Not just content to see Dan escape, this time
around Steve also made a bolt from the Glenrowan Inn
fire (so why was Ned heading back when they had both left?).
Lucky Steve also headed north where he lived a long and
happy life in Queensland under the name of Billy Meade. Apparently
this Meade character confessed about his double identity
on his deathbed in 1938. Well, in that case, it
