That Summer at Boomerang

That Summer at Boomerang, by leading surf writer Phil Jarrat, is an evocative retelling of the little known story about the birth of surfing in Australia and the early beginnings of our beach culture and sporting heritage. In the first summer of World War One, while Australian soldiers made their way to the battlefields, the world's original aquatic superstar sailed for Sydney.Over a two-month, three-state tour, Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku revolutionised perceptions of surfing and swimming, and changed forever the direction of fifteen-year-old Isabel Letham's life. When the charistmatic Duke picks an average Aussie girl out of the audience to ride his long board with him into shore before a packed beach, it's a symbol of the seismic change that is already rippling through the nation as the rules and regulations of the 19th century give way to the anything-goes beach culture we...