Dave
Rastovich, pro surfer and environmentalist


SURFERMAG.COM
INTERVIEW: Dave Rastovich
On God, competition, fighting, success, balance,
and a whole lot more.
by
Scott Bass
Online Editor
“Rasta
…what’s that guy like?”
I fielded this question numerous times, more than
any other--save the standard, “How was your
trip?”-- upon returning from a recent boat
trip. At first it was a tough question to answer.
Many saw glimpses of Rasta’s personality
from Jack McCoy’s Blue Horizon, and so many
are intrigued by this New Age surf star. Dave
Rastovich is unique. He maintains a broad quiver
(which includes Greenough-style mats, longboards,
fishes and everything in between), lives an alternative
lifestyle (vegetarian, practices yoga, lives at
Byron Bay), and surfs with Curren-esque style
and inspiration. But these external things don’t
make him unique; rather it is the internal mechanisms
that set him apart. He is viewpoints are deep
and thoughtful, his “hippie vibe”
(as someone once called it) is better described
as honesty, with inward reflection as its catalyst.
He
isn’t the way he is because it’s cool
to be a free-loving free-surfer, and he doesn’t
ride freaky boards because it’s currently
fashionable to do so. (Credit:
Surfer Mag)
Perhaps
the best way to answer the question is to say
that Dave Rastovich is an adult--a very refreshing
description in a culture spilling over with men
of large egos and childish behavior. What is he
like? Read on and you decide. —Scott Bass
SURFERMAG.COM:
Can we just start off, Dave, with a little bit
about where you grew up?
RASTA:
I spent the first five years of my life in New
Zealand on a farm, then my whole family, we moved
to the Gold Coast in Australia. I grew up around
the northern part of the Gold Coast ‘til
I was 14, and then I grew up at that end of surfing
Burleigh, that was the premier spot. Then when
I was 15-ish my parents split, I moved to Burleigh
for a week, then the northern end of the Gold
Coast for a week, so I would spend time down with
my mom in Burleigh for a week, then my dad for
a week in the northern end of the Gold Coast.
I did that ‘til I was about 18. Now I live
south of there, between the Gold Coast and Byron
Bay. As I was growing up, I guess my life was
spent in Burleigh, that was where I always surfed
at all the time. It was pretty amazing to live
there and see the older guys at Burleigh and the
nature of their surfing, being very kinda stylish.
I guess flowing really, really flowing with the
wave. When you’re at a point break like
that where you’ve got a lot of room to think
about what your body is doing and feel what your
body is doing between turns, it’s a natural
reaction to that environment for your style to
be kinda longer, more drawn out. So I think I
really adopted that kind of approach of surfing
from seeing the older guys where I live really
having an emphasis on flow and rhythm, so that
was really cool, and also you’d see the
pros come to town at the start of every year for
the contests, so you’d get to see that whole
aspect of surfing as well. But generally it was
just the local boys, a very tight group, very
localized. It’s all about the barrel, especially
at Burleigh, it’s such a good barrel.
SURFERMAG.COM:
If I could bring you back a little bit and talk
about the time your parents got divorced, was
that something that was traumatic, or…?
RASTA:
It was funny, around that period I didn’t
see it as a volatile situation. I saw acting on
that situation was more advantageous to growth
and things, and I celebrated the growth of personalities
(parents) and to act on certain things.
SURFERMAG.COM:
What do you mean ‘to act on things’?
RASTA:
Well instead of just them staying together and
feeling obligated to stay together for the kids
and not being able to act on all the strong feelings
they both had. And thus just everything being
stagnant, but not really stagnant because it was
probably boiling to the surface still. But they
accelerated the process by acting straightaway.
SURFERMAG.COM:
What did your dad do for a living?
Listening to Peter Garrett recite aboriginal poetry?
Bass
RASTA:
My dad, when I was real young, was in the Special
Services in New Zealand and in terror squads and
things. Very, very intense job. Then we moved
to Australia and he did a bunch of things, small
businesses and stuff. Then he developed this skill
for healing. He just became this amazing natural
therapist and Chinese herbalist and kinda sports
medicine. He is a very sporting, athletic, amazing,
physical person…very strong and very fit
and powerful, so he really understood the nature
of sports medicine and stuff and he just went
off. He went from being a complete kind of aggressive
and moody person and really strung out and stuff,
to being very helpful and healing and supportive
to a lot of people. So that was pretty amazing
to see that happen also when they split up, so
that was when I was 14. To see that change in
someone, and especially in your dad, you know,
the person you look up to the most. To see a change
like that happen…so he dived into that world
for the next six or eight years ‘til I moved
outta the home. My mom was a real sporting too,
a kinda outrigger paddle lady who just did a job
that allowed her to have enough money to go and
do holidays and sport. Her job wasn’t the
kinda job where she poured her heart and soul
into it. It was just what she did to get by and
be happy and be able to paddle outriggers and
go to Hawaii every year. She’s a very happy-go-lucky
kind of a person.
SURFERMAG.COM:
Was your family above average as far as wealth
is concerned?
RASTA:
Oh, the average, the average house, you know,
just living in your own house. You know, just
living in our own house and paying off a hefty
mortgage like the rest of everyone else, and the
majority of Australians. (Credit:
Surfer Mag).
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FOR CETACEANS ~ press release - Taiji Dolphin
Ceremony, Bondi Human Whale
Media
Man Australia was delighted to have met Dave Rastovich
at Bondi Beach as part of the Sale the Whales
Again! campaign
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