Tim Baker’s life was changed forever the moment he saw the general essay topic in his HSC English exam. “Early morning experiences.” As a devoted surfer, that could mean only one thing - the ritual of the dawn surf check. With the clock ticking, Baker penned a frantic, spontaneous, stream of consciousness rave, straight from the gut. He wrote of the grandeur of the sunrise, the majesty of the ocean in the pre-dawn half light, of “pissing off a cliff, marking my territory like a dog.”
Afterwards, outside the exam room, in the cold hard light of day, he figured he’d blown it. “Marking my territory like a dog? What was I thinking?” he would mutter, inconsolably. This was not what the HSC examiners were after, surely?
Baker had been on a maths/science path all through high school, destined for a serious, respectable University course in Forestry or Agricultural Science. When he tore open his HSC results, he was shocked by the English mark. 100%.
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In that moment, a whole new career direction revealed itself. Could there be a living in those frantic, spontaneous, stream of consciousness surf raves? He changed his University preference to Journalism, completed a cadetship at the Herald Sun, and embarked on the life of a sports reporter. Two years later, fate intervened again, when he saw an advertisement for a job vacancy at Tracks Surfing Magazine. He fired off a job application with about as much expectation as buying a scratchy, and was stunned when he was offered the job.
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Twenty-odd years later, Tim has been editor of Australia’s two leading surfing magazines, Tracks and Surfing Life, written four books on surfing and edited an anthology of Australian surf writing. He has twice received the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame Culture Award and been nominated for the CUB Australian Sports Writing Awards. His work has appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Financial Review, GQ, Inside Sport, the Sunday Age, the Bulletin, Rolling Stone, as well as surfing magazines around the world.
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Tim's 2008 book, Occy the biography of surfing champion Mark Occhilupo, was a national bestseller and was chosen as one of “50 Books You Can’t Put Down,” in the annual Books Alive promotion. His latest book, Surf For Your Life, is a collaboration with world surfing champion Mick Fanning - exploring Mick’s inspiring rise above devastating personal loss and potentially crippling injury.
Tim has appeared at the Sydney and Byron Bay Writers’ Festivals and conducted writing workshops at the Hunter, Northern Rivers and Sydney Writers’ Centres. In 2009 he was a keynote speaker at the national conference of the Australian Primary School Principals’ Association.
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Tim speaks with candour and humour about the unlikely vocation of surf writing, the key lessons learnt about surfing and life from a cavalcade of great surfing characters, and about resilience - how finding your passion or special talent can help sustain you through life’s peaks and troughs!
Tim can work with secondary students and adults, conducting writing workshops in biography, journalism and creative writing. He is based in Queensland. |
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