Nat Young (surfer)

Nat Young (surfer)

Robert Harold "Nat" Young (born November 14, 1947) is an Australian surfer and author.

Born in Sydney, New South Wales, Young grew up in the small coastal suburb of Collaroy. In 1964, he was runner-up in the Australian junior championship at Manly, and two years later was named world surfing champion in 1966. He won the title again (then called the Smirnoff World Pro/Am) in 1970. Young won three Australian titles in 1966, 1967 and 1969, and won the Bells Beach Surf Classic a record four times. Young featured in a number of important surf films of '60s and '70s including the classic 1973 surf movie Crystal Voyager and he also had a featured role as surfer Nick Naylor in the 1979 Australian drama film Palm Beach.

Since retiring from professional surfing, Young has written several books about surfing and sailboarding in Australia. His son Beau Young has also seen some success in the sport, winning the World Longboard title in 2000 and again in 2003.

In 2000, Young was a victim of 'surf rage' when he was severely bashed on his home break of Angourie after a long-running feud and heated altercation with another local surfer. During his recovery he wrote a book titled Surf Rage, calling for greater tolerance and mutual respect in the surfing community, although Young admitted he had acted aggressively during his career (where he had earned the nickname "The Animal"),[1] and had acted provocatively towards his attacker, who he met and forgave several months after the incident.[2]

Publications

  • Young, Nat; Bill McCausland (photographer) (1979). Nat Young’s Book of Surfing: The Fundamentals and Adventure of Board-riding. Sydney: Reed. ISBN 0589501305. 
  • Young, Nat; Craig McGregor (1983). The History of Surfing. Sydney: Palm Beach Press. ISBN 0959181601. 
  • Young, Nat (1983). Surfing Australia’s East Coast. Sydney: Horowitz Grahame Books Pty. Ltd. 
  • Young, Nat (1986). Surfing & Sailboard Guide to Australia / Nat Young.. Sydney: Palm Beach Press. ISBN 0959181628. 
  • Young, Nat (1998). Nat’s Nat, and That’s That: An Autobiography. Sydney: Nymboida Press. ISBN 0646357786. 
  • Young, Nat (2001). Surf Rage, a surfers guide to turning negatives into positives. Sydney: Nymboida Press. ISBN 0958575010. 
  • Young, Nat (2008). The complete history of surfing: from water to snow. Utah: Gibbs Smith. ISBN 9781423602668

References

  1. ^ Cralle, Trevor (2001). The Surfin'ary: A Dictionary of Surfing Terms and Surfspeak. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press. ISBN 1580081932. 
  2. ^ Surfing legend tells of surf rage, The 7.30 Report (ABC TV), 23 October 2000.

External links

Preceded by
Felipe Pomar		 World surfing champion (Men)
1966		 Succeeded by
Fred Hemmings
Preceded by
-		 World surfing champion (Men)
1970		 Succeeded by
Gavin Rudolph


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