Rabbit Bartholomew

Wayne “Rab­bit” Bartholomew is an Aus­tralian surfer who lit up Hawaii’s North Shore in the mid 70s with style and atti­tude. His exploits were recently fea­tured in the film “Bustin’ Down The Door.” We spoke with Rab­bit to learn more.

What was your life like grow­ing up?
I had a great child­hood. We built tree­houses in the bush, played rugby league (foot­ball) and cricket, went body­surf­ing and skim­board rid­ing. Then I dis­cov­ered surf­board rid­ing and that was it.

Where did the name “Rab­bit” come from?
There were lots of pin­ball par­lors in Coolan­gatta when I was a kid. I had mas­tered the art of play­ing two machines at once. How­ever, it required a hop­ping action so as not to lose con­trol of either machine. Between that and the slightly out­sized front teeth, a guy called Rod­ney Goober Barnes turned around one day and said, “You’re a rab­bit”. And that was it.

When did you get your first surf­board?
My first surf­board was deliv­ered to me by the Deane brothers—Wayne and Robye. They had cut a mal down to 6’8″. The year was 1967, so it was a bit revolutionary—one of the first cut­downs that prop­erly ush­ered in the short­board rev­o­lu­tion in our part of the world. A friend of mine from high school was con­vinced it was a knee­board, and used to try and beat me home from school and steal it out of my shed. He was a lot big­ger then I was. I paid that board off at $1 a week for 40 weeks.

What was the feel­ing you had when you first stood on a surf­board?
Phe­nom­e­nal. There was a bit of a story behind it. Twelve months ear­lier, I had been given my first go on a surf­board at Green­mount Beach. A kid named Kerry Gill had this hot shortboard—it was 8’6″—and I car­ried it to the beach for him right through the sum­mer hol­i­days. On the last day of the hol­i­days, he offered me a go. Kerry pad­dled the board out the back, I swam out, he then handed the board over and he body­surfed in. I was alone, out behind the break­ers, in the blue water sit­ting on this majes­tic surf­board. Then a four foot set rolled down the point. A guy came body­surf­ing toward my posi­tion. I tried to swing the board out of the way, and he surfed right into the nose of the board, open­ing up a huge gash on his fore­head. I apol­o­gized. He cussed me out. I swam to the beach and retired from surfing.

I rode the swing fea­tured in the movie Free Ride for a year. Then it was arranged for me to start surf­ing one Sat­ur­day morn­ing. My turn came at Snap­per Rocks. I caught a wave and rode the board prop­erly. All that train­ing and sim­u­lat­ing on the swing served me well; I could turn and ride on the green face straight away.

Who did you look up to and admire when you were a young man?
My big heroes were Nat Young, Midget Far­relly and Peter Drouyn. I also admired Reno Abellera and Dora. How­ever, Drouyn was prob­a­bly “The Man” because I saw him surf Kirra reg­u­larly and he was a mas­ter styl­ist. Nat was my power hero. I also had local heroes in Harry Hacka Allen, Snake Sims and Graeme Black.

Of all the places you have trav­eled to, what place in par­tic­u­lar stands out and why?
The North Shore of Oahu will always stand out; I had so many life-changing expe­ri­ences there. I was most chal­lenged in the waves at Sun­set and Pipeline, and over many win­ters I have so many amaz­ing mem­o­ries. The other place is prob­a­bly J-Bay; it’s just a real spe­cial place to surf and visit. The early days at Hossegor were very special—big, empty bar­rels and per­fect Sep­tem­ber days.

Who/what inspires you?
Lots of things inspire me. The peo­ple who inspire me are my Free Ride gen­er­a­tion friends, in par­tic­u­lar Shaun Tom­son, Mark Richards and Peter Tow­nend. Past and present polit­i­cal fig­ures have inspired me, includ­ing JFK, Churchill, Nel­son Man­dela and Barack Obama. Tom Wat­son and Greg Nor­man inspire me with their tal­ent way into their 50’s. Ali inspired me for pro­mot­ing his sport, ele­vat­ing his image and being coura­geous out of the ring.

Kelly Slater and Andy Irons inspire me, as do the Coo­ley kids (Joel, Mick and Deano). Peter Gar­rett inspires me with his courage. Bono and Eddie Ved­der inspire me to keep the faith. Guy Ormerod inspires me by being a role model. Ian Wright and the crew at Green­Cell inspire me to make a dif­fer­ence. Dave Ras­tovich and Paul Wat­son inspire me to fight for one’s beliefs.

What is the great­est thing you have learned in your life?
I think it’s the sum of the parts—all my com­bined expe­ri­ences, the set­backs and achieve­ments. No one thing stands out, but per­haps it’s to really appre­ci­ate life and those clos­est to me.

Do you have any regrets or wish you had done some­thing dif­fer­ently?
It’s impos­si­ble to not have any regrets. The big ones usu­ally are of a per­sonal nature, tak­ing a course of action that I could have used with some bet­ter judg­ment. But one can­not look back and dwell on things; just keep look­ing for­ward and hope­fully learn from mistakes.

What are you most proud of?
Def­i­nitely hav­ing a cou­ple kids. I waited quite awhile. I sup­pose there was a bet­ter than even chance of not hav­ing chil­dren, but it hap­pened and I’m quite proud of that.

What mean­ing does surf­ing hold for you and how has it changed your life?
Surf­ing is the star around which my life revolves. For me, all roads lead to the surf; I feel most com­fort­able near or on the coast. I think surf­ing has given me a bet­ter appre­ci­a­tion for all things. I most def­i­nitely respect the envi­ron­ment, par­tic­u­larly the ocean and fore­shore, and I think it smoothed out some of the rough patches in my character.

What brings you the most hap­pi­ness in the world?
Just being with my kids, watch­ing them grow up, shar­ing adven­tures with them, watch­ing them play sport—even just think­ing about them makes me happy.

Who are some of the peo­ple you feel are shap­ing the path for surf­ing today?
Mick Fan­ning has stepped up as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of pro surfers, so he is lead­ing in and out of the water. Kelly still has an enor­mous influ­ence. At heart, I think he is dri­ven to make it a bet­ter world for surfers and surf­ing. Young guys like Dane Reynolds are Jordy Smith are peo­ple that a whole gen­er­a­tion aspires to be like. I think Julian Wil­son, Owen Wright, Dusty Payne, John John Flo­rence, Tor­rey Meis­ter, Stephanie Gilmore, Carissa Moore and Coco Ho are among a group that will take surf­ing into the future.

What is your favorite board? Your favorite surf spot?
My favourite board is a 6’3” Dar­ren Han­d­ley Design. It goes really well at Snap­per Rocks—super free yet pos­i­tive in the hol­low section.

What’s your favorite meal?

I have two right now: choo chee chicken (a spicy Thai dish) and salmon toro bowl (a tasty Japan­ese lunch plate).

What are you cur­rently lis­ten­ing to on your iPod?
I just lis­ten to all kinds of music—today Pearl Jam and U2.

What causes/organizations do you sup­port?
I sup­port Surfrider Foun­da­tion and Sur­fAid Inter­na­tional. I am also part of a surf­ing char­ity group called SAND Sip­pas (Surfers Against Nature’s Destruc­tion), and KPI (Kirra Point Inc.), a group ded­i­cated to bring­ing Kirra back to its for­mer great­ness. I am a mem­ber and past Pres­i­dent of Snap­per Rocks Surfrid­ers Club and Patron of NSR (National Surf­ing Reserves) in Australia.

What are you most grate­ful for?
I am grate­ful for the sup­port of my fam­ily, for hav­ing so many won­der­ful friends around the world, for the free­dom to fol­low my pur­suit and, most of all, for the life I am hav­ing. I am grate­ful for the empty waves at Kirra when I was grow­ing up and for those epic days at Sun­set and Pipe and V-Land in the 70’s and 80’s.

What’s next for Rab­bit?
Now that I have moved on from ASP, it closes one chap­ter and opens the next. I am involved with an envi­ron­men­tal entity that is devel­op­ing a bio-reactor, cul­ti­vat­ing algae, devel­op­ing alter­nate waste dis­posal sys­tems, low emis­sion lights, eco-friendly bac­te­ria for use on farms and to deal with pol­lu­tion in dams—just a whole range of appli­ca­tions and prod­ucts for the com­ing age. I am co-raising my chil­dren and still surf­ing when I can. In fact, I can right now.

Vin­tage pho­tog­ra­phy of Rab­bit Bartholomew by Art Brewer.