Come surf with me

Who is the best surfer ever to have emerged from Watford? There are many who would say that there's no contest: it has to be Rodney Sumpter, born there on 27 May 1947, and, despite such an unprepossessing start (if surfing's your thing), a man who went on to be an Australian, United States, British and European surfing champion. There is more to this than meets the eye, for Sumpter did not hone his smooth and elegant style in the streets of Watford but on Avalon Beach, near Sydney. His parents emigrated to Australia just before Sumpter was five, but absence only made the heart grow fonder. Sumpter, a surfing prodigy down under, yearned to see his country of birth, and returned to the UK when he was 16. Almost at once he was blowing minds when he took to the water, and in 1965 he cemented his reputation as the UK's best surfer with a win at the first British championships in Jersey, in 1965. Then began a lifetime of surfing and travel, the early years of which are captured in Sumpter's beguiling film Come Surf With Me.

Come Surf With Me contains wonderful footage of surfing from the late 1960s and early seventies. Ireland looks distinctly unappetizing as howling winds destroy a lacklustre swell, but we all know better now and Sumpter was one of the pioneers of surfing the Emerald Isle's rugged and beautiful west coast. Shot in 16mm film and originally made for cinema, Come Surf With Me might be over 30 years old but it is still a fresh and invigorating work, one brimful of innocence and unadulterated enthusiasm for surfing. Sumpter's occasional narration illumines episodes such as setting what was, for a long time, the world record for the longest wave surfed (at the Severn Bore, in Gloucestershire), river surfing among ice and snow in Canada, road trips to France and Morocco, and charging the North Shore. Some of the wipeouts courtesy of Oahu are horrific to behold, for as Sumpter says: "The North Shore teaches you up... There comes a time when you've got to turn back and say no, for the ocean will surely kill you."

Today Sumpter lives near Perranporth on the North Cornwall coast. He stills surfs regularly and devotes much of his energy to writing. He has published a number of surfing books, the most popular of which has proved to be Schiffer Books Surf Art, and is working on his autobiography. One thing that he will have to include is that he is doubtless unique in being the only surfer to have had a film distributed as part of the Rocky franchise. "I made a film in 16mm for cinema called White Waves, featuring Hawaii and all the stars of the day - people like Gerry Lopez, Eddie Aikau and Billy Hamilton. It was a 21 minute short and, back in the days when the main feature had a proper trailer, was distributed world wide with Rocky 2." Cinephiles will be interested to learn that the score for White Waves was by Vangelis. "My editor knew him before he was famous," explains Sumpter. "Fortunately he agreed to write the music for the film, and for a couple of others that I made, too." Those shorts - Windsurfer and Skysurfer - were also distributed with mainstream films.

Sumpter remains as passionate about surfing today as he was during the heady days of Come Surf With Me. "Surfing is the ultimate in free expression," he says. "It's an activity where all of life's problems - racism, ageism, financial issues, relationship difficulties - just disappear. It's a state of pure excitement and pleasure."

That state, for Sumpter, was most memorably experienced at Thurso East in Scotland. "It's definitely my favourite wave," says the regular-footer of Thurso East's legendary right-handers. "At Thurso the speed barrels make you hold your breath and emerge transformed, enlightened forever."

Anyone seeking some celluloid enlightenment should check out Come Surf With Me, available from www.A1surf.com, one of the most uplifting surfing films released for some time. But while there are few people who can compete with Sumpter in terms of their contribution to British surfing, but he's no longer the only surfer to emerge from Watford. Step forward Tom Anderson, writer and competition surfer, brought up in Porthcawl but, like Sumpter, from the town whose football club is beloved of Sir Elton John. Must be something in the air - how many more surfers lurk in the Hornets' nest?

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