Bob McTavish, 74

Shortboard Revolutionary, Byron Bay, Australia

- Matthew Shaw

You never know what might change the course of your life. When Bruce Brown came through Australia in ’61, I saw “Barefoot Adventure” and “Slippery When Wet” in a theater in Brisbane. Before that I was an office boy for an advertising company and was fascinated by television, so I was going to take a job as a camera person. But then I saw Bruce Brown’s movies and I thought, “No way, I’m going surfing.” That night I decided my future and entire career would be in surfing. I left Brisbane and never went back. It was just surf, surf, surf from that day forward. I didn’t have any plan. I didn’t know or care what I was going to do for a living. How I survived was just to cast my fate into the wind. I just followed my passion.

Creative thinking is infectious. George Greenough has the most wonderful, mechanical mind I’ve ever encountered, and I learned a real lot about physics and mechanics and how things work from George. He’s very extreme in that realm. He’s out there. He doesn’t really function in the social world. He just focuses on one thing: How can we make this work better?