FOLLOWING the successful regional premiere of cult surf movie The Present at Lighthouse, The Surf Screen is returning to Poole on Friday with hit surf scene feature, Searching for Michael Peterson.
Jolyn Hoff’s documentary tells the moving story of one of Australia’s greatest surfers whose career was cut short by mental illness in 1983 and the director will introduce the film as well as host a Q&A session after the screening.
For five years Michael Peterson led the Coolangatta Kids and won virtually every event he contested, including three Bells Beach Pros back to back.
His aggressive surfing style provided the centrepiece for Albert Falzon’s classic movie, Morning of the Earth in 1972, and his final tour victory, at the inaugural Stubbies Pro at Burleigh Heads in 1977, is regarded as the high point of surfing’s early professional era.
A year later Michael’s mental health deteriorated and in 1983 he was locked up after a 15-car police chase across Queensland before finally being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
He never surfed again.
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