At home with Andrew Flitton

Torquay Boardriders life member Andrew Flitton has been involved with the club for nearly 40 years and despite moving to Torquay as a 17-year-old, won’t quite call himself a local yet.

“I would call myself local to the area for sure; my family is two-plus generations living in the Otways before resettling to Geelong and camped and holidayed at Apollo Bay for over 40 years,” he said.

“My earliest years were all at Apollo Bay where my brother and sisters used to bring me here (Jan Juc/Torquay) surfing all the time. I’m not an original local like Joe Sweeney – they’re going back to the ‘50s – I’m going back to the ‘70s but in relative terms to Torquay now, I’d say that’s pretty local.”

Andrew built an illustrious career off the back of Torquay’s bustling surf industry having been sponsored for surfing in his youth by Quiksilver and Rip Curl, and went on to represent the Billabong brand as general manager.

“My wife Kath and I took our three kids, Harley, Tori and Palmer (now 26, 24 and 18 years respectively) and moved to Queensland in 2002 where we stayed for 10 years,” he said.

“We were deciding what to do and were in a great spot on the beach at Catarina so flew down to sell our house at Winkipop. I stood out the front on a beautiful day and said to the realtor ‘sorry mate, I can’t do it’ and we moved back home in 2012.”

After travelling the world, Andrew said there’s no place quite like home and shared some of his favourite things about Torquay town.

Love of music

I’ve been playing guitar forever, I really got involved after I injured my back renovating a few years ago and while I was incapacitated I had nothing I could do but lay on the bed and play.

The last three or four years i’ve worked with Chris Hay from Waves Music and he’s taught me lots of stuff, i’ve got seven guitars at the minute and am probably due for a new guitar!

My favourite guitar is a Maton SRS808C cutaway with a sunburst top, it’s a beautiful guitar.

I played mostly with Ben Day, who’s a harmonica player, we just had a bond and similar taste in music style and most people liken harmonica to blues but we probably play more Australian folk, ballad/soft pop crossover.

We had a really good thing going with a guy called Luke Batterbury who produced our Sea Away album and we’ve done a few gigs down here including Geelong’s Pulse radio station and at Soul Fuel Café and Swell.

There’s some great musicians in Torquay and things like the Nightjar market are just great platforms for local musicians that are coming through.

A love of town history

It’s the people in the town and experiences that give you feelings about living here, that’s how it kind of works for me.

We look back at the past in sort of decades and when you go right back to the 50s the original guys Joe Sweeney, Vic Tantau, Owen Yatemen, Rex ‘China’ Gilbert, Dick Gerrard, Peter Troy and Al Reid, these first guys were the ones who bulldozed the road out to Bells.

Back then Bells Beach was in a whole other district from where they were and I just like to remember those original pioneers.

I knew all of them personally, when I first started surfing those guys used to surf Torquay and Bells so I use to see them all the time.

Owen Yatemen had his big fat brass band that use to play at the Torquay Pub and they were part of our everyday life.

They were the elders of the town and everybody knew and respected them even though they were ratbags in the day and there’s lots of stories from those days.

I just don’t want them forgotten, a lot of new people come into town and I think it’s important they understand the history and there’s still lineage of these families in town that are carrying the family name and stories forward.

Can’t live without

I can’t live without being at the beach, I can’t live without the ocean, I can’t live without the freedom of the coastline and I can’t work in an office.

I can’t live in the city and do traffic or driving, I have to be at the beach and have space around me.

I just generally like surfing all around the Great Ocean Road, it’s such a beautiful place to surf in comparison to Gold Coast beaches where every spot you’re just looking at houses and buildings and down here you’re looking at cliffs and nature.

I’ve got lots of different surfboards that are good for different reasons. I surf most of the time and ride both short and long boards, I just love surfing. I’ve got a new 7’6” Pyzel Paddilac, which has been a recent favourite, it’s a bigger board but I like riding it.

Jan Juc Grass Growers Guild

The Jan Juc Grass Growers Guild came together with a group of mates on a boat trip around the Mentawai Islands off Northern Sumatra. We were all boasting one night about who has the best lawn and said ‘right when we got back home we’re going to have a competition to decide’ and that was the start. I’ve got a friend, Reevso, from Elliston in South Australia, who has a few mates and they do it as well so we sort of have a bit of an interstate thing going on now and it’s been running since 2015. It’s just great fun and we raise money for Spring Creek House here in Torquay so the money goes back into the local community.

Torquay Boardriders

I’m affiliated with the Torquay Boardriders, it’s been going for 40 years and I’ve been involved nearly the whole time.

There are still guys in town that were from the very first meeting held at Don Alcroft’s place, like Ross Slaven, the original guys.

I’m a life member of the club and I like to see the kids get involved.

There’s a lot of new families in town now and they’re introducing their kids to it, young guys and girls, there’s quite a few young girls in the club now that are doing really well.

I’d just like to see the club to keep going and be successful.

Oh, the times they are a-changin’

Torquay is changing and we’re putting a lot of faith in the council to make good decision for the future, the covenants on buildings and developments are going to be key to the lifestyle of this area over the next 10-20 years.

There’s a lot of people coming in and the infrastructure needs to be managed and what goes up needs to fit in to the coastal mould.

On the Gold Coast, there’s only certain styles you can build and colours you can paint and I don’t see enough of that here in Torquay, they’re allowing too many buildings going up that don’t fit the coast. Anglesea has done a good job and Aireys Inlet have maintained those things and Lorne to a degree; the coastal village is the image of Torquay and if we lose that I’m not sure what we’re going to end up with.