Doco bellies up to Torquay’s surfing history

A new documentary from Surf Coast local John Teague and Melbourne creative Max Miller unearths the stories and the people that have built Torquay into the surf juggernaut it is today.

Belly of the Beast: A Torquay Story goes deeper into the history of how a small town went global when the swell of surf culture swept in.

Teague, a director and filmmaker, spent six years interviewing surfers, industry moguls and people of all ages from the Surf Coast to research the region’s history and gain first-hand accounts.

The feature-length documentary begins with the history of the Wauthaurong people and Traditional Owners, who speak fondly about their spiritual connection to Torquay and Bells Beach as a gathering point for more than 20,000 years.

 

It then moves into key surfing moments such as the construction of the Torquay and Jan Juc surf life saving clubs and the birth of larrikin surfing groups including the D’s Club.

Belly of the Beast highlights how surfing at Melbourne’s 1956 Olympics and the establishment of surf clubs increased the sport’s popularity, leading to many locals experimenting with board equipment and a subsequent boom in surfing.

Through Teague’s lens, the film documents the industry and cultural expansion no one saw coming, including the emergence of locally-born and now global surf brands Rip Curl and Quiksilver and the evolution of the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach, which brought some of the world’s best riders to the Surf Coast.

It also details the next generation of surfers and business entrepreneurs that are trying to keep “the spirit of Torquay alive”.

 

Teague, who spent more than five years acting and directing films in the United States, said the idea for this film came to him while checking the surf along the Surf Coast.

“I needed a new project when I got back and as much as I loved the US, I wanted to build things back up in Torquay where I’d grown up.

“I was checking the waves and my mate Gareth was holding an old Watercooled surfboard from local shaper Kym Thompson, and we just got talking about the history of Watercooled and he suggested it would be a cool documentary.

“After chatting with him, I went home and thought it was a small part of what was ultimately a big Torquay story.

“The big story was what needed to be told to the world, it had never been put to film.

“The film is what I’d describe as ‘a Torquay story’ and not ‘the Torquay story’. There is so many differing views to what Torquay is and has become; this film is just a timestamp of some of the chain of events that have shaped it to what it is today.”

For the project, Teague said he had to find a true line of the history of the town, which involved him gaining access to some of the town’s surfing royalty.

 

“It’s hard to get people to talk to camera, it’s certainly not the easiest thing for people to do.

“Without giving anyone too much weight, I certainly enjoyed chatting to Brian Singer, Simon Buttonshaw was amazing, Maurice Cole was beautiful, Pinhead [Craig Stevenson] also spoke so articulately.

“Bells champion Gail Couper was absolutely amazing, but ultimately no one was any more special than others, they were all absolutely great. They really helped to shape so many prevalent parts of the Torquay culture.

“Surfing was pretty loose, it had a core looseness to it until the ’90s, it was pretty cool to hear those stories and bring that alive for the older folk who will watch and know they were a part of it all!”

 

Teague hoped the documentary would fill in the history books for locals and tourists wanting to learn more about the town.

“It’s getting lost as we move further and further into the future. What made this town, most people wouldn’t even know,” he said.

“The generations before us have so many amazing stories and knowledge and this film helps to bring some of that to life before it’s gone.

“Watching a film like this is like a modern campfire story; it’s about sharing and it’s important.”

 

Teague has held onto the film since finishing it last year for an ultimate opportunity to showcase it to a wider audience.

After submitting it to the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival late last year, he was rapt to find out earlier this month it had been accepted.

“I was completely chuffed,” he said.

“The best way to get publicity for a film, other than paying a distributor straight up, is to submit it to a film festival and then get some traction through that. Once you get the eyeballs on it, that’s the way through.

“I hope to use this as a platform to leverage to push it out to the world. I don’t know what sort of life it will have, but I hope it’s a good one!”

Belly of the Beast: a Torquay Story is showing at Cinema Nova in Carlton on July 22 at 2pm.

For tickets, head to cinemanova.com.au/films/mdff-belly-of-the-beast-a-torquay-story