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Biography
Peter Troy
photographer
Peter Troy grew up in Victoria and helped Australian surfing in the early days, before setting off on World travels in the early 1960's to discover many surfing locations and introduce surfing and life savings techniques to such countries as, Brasil.
Troy's travels included over 100 countries and epic adventures, such as hitch-hiking from Teirra Del Feugo (Sth Argentina) to the North Pole. He also helped discover surfing spots in Indonesia.
Later in his life Peter Troy helped establish the surfing museum in Torquay, but his true passion was studying the history of the postage stamp in Papua.
Troy was the recipient of an OAM Order Of Australia medal for his services to surfing and is one of only two surfers at the time to receive one, the other being Marck Richards for his services to 'SIDS' Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Peter Troy died in September 2008, and Andrew Crockett had interviewed him ten days prior to his death and along with several other interviews has made a significant story on Peter Troy for the 'switch-foot II' book which you can view here .
Troys stamp collecting earned him the highest honors prior to his death and he was, in his later life, far more passionate about it than anything else.
Peter Troy
Below is a World map that Troy had in his house showing the places he has travelled. This image is printed in the switchfoot II book and Peter Troys story and extensive interviews are the opening story. You can see the book in the shop here
Photo by Nigel Arnison, to see Nigel's website click on surfari
'My parents did not recognise me when i came home.' Peter Troy
MUSIC 'in search of Peter Troy' by English band Whiskey Cove who hail from Sheffield. This link takes you to a myspace page with the band. WHISKEY COVE
DECEMBER 2010 saw the release of the book TO THE FOUR CORNERS OF THE WORLD and below is the cover. If you want a copy you can order it here.
The following are some words from Keith Curtain, the editor of 'ASB' magazine.
Peter Troy (OAM) 1938 – 2008
I remember my last conversation with Peter Troy: he’d asked me if any new waves had been discovered west along the coast near his birthplace in Hamilton, Victoria. It’s a place where the road turns away from the coast, where access is by forest trails and the beach stretches for miles, through rolling sand dunes and aboriginal middens all the way to the South Australian border, the Koorong and beyond. It’s a place where the water temperature dips into single digits, thanks to a cold water upwelling, where ice cream headaches are the norm all year around and where krill swarm up from deep sub-antarctic trenches and provide abundant food for the world’s largest living creature, the blue whale. It’s one of only three places in the world where you can experience the sheer size and magnitude of this sea creature. Another place is Peru, a destination Peter knew a lot about.
Perhaps it's Peter’s epic voyage through South America for which he’s most remembered, from the foothills of the Andes, to the bone jarring waves of Puntas Rocas, through the jungle tracks of the Amazon to the beaches of Arpoador and nearby Ipanema into the cradle of Brazil’s bossanova renaissance and that song about a girl. Peter Troy put ‘Brazil’s Malibu’ on the surfing map, but ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ heralded it to the world. According to traveling companion and ex pat Aussie Mark Lund, it wasn’t until after Peter left Rio to head on to Argentina that he envisioned himself becoming surfing’s first globetrotter - this in a time that pre- dated the notion of a ‘free surfer’ (in fact it was also ‘pre hippy’). Thanks largely to his aversion to being an accountant, Peter Troy went on to visit over a hundred and forty countries and is credited with introducing the sport in France and with stumbling upon Nias enroute to finding enlightenment in Nepal. It’s difficult to imagine any stretch of coastline, anywhere that had escaped Peter’s watchful gaze. His life was about the journey, not necessarily the destination. He once famously told journalist George Negus his advice to any would be young adventurer is to "avoid the aeroplane…make the attempt to go by local cargo boat or inter-island canoe or whatever, and then go and live with the people on that island”.
Marcos Conde is the head of the Brasil Surfing Association and was in his teens when he first saw Troy paddle out at Arpoador. Conde says before long, a crowd of several hundred had gathered to watch the spectacle. You can imagine Peter Troy returning to shore to a sea of smiling faces. He stayed for 6 months and was instrumental in starting the fledgling surfboard business in Brazil. During the recent ASP 6 star WQS the Maresia Surf International held at Praia Brava in Santa Catarina, Brazil friends gathered around a portrait of a long blond haired, tanned and skinny surfer, a person they say is the father of modern surfing in Brazil. It’s tempting to compare Troy’s influence on the nation to that of Duke Kahanamoku here in Australia, but that’s treading on sacred ground. It is however, possible to say his influence had the same impact on Brazilian surfing that Noll and Zahn had on Australian surfing in 1956. Brazil’s Fluir Magazine published a book some 15 years ago that succinctly and unequivocally says Brazilian surfing can be divided into two periods “Before Peter Troy; and After Peter Troy.”
Peter Troy was able to convince the ‘powers that be’ more than two decades ago that surfers and surfing could contribute something to the community. According to his wife of 19 years, Libby Troy, Peter had a motto that he lived by and that was to ‘hold out your hand, to help the next person up’. Peter Troy held out his hand and his immeasurable depth of surfing knowledge to future generations of surfers by helping to establish a spiritual home for surfing at Surfworld Museum and by acknowledging its contributors through the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame. Peter was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame in 2002 and received the Order of Australia Merit (OAM) in 2007 for his contributions to the sport.
RIP Peter. Keith Curtain (ASB Magazine)
To enquire about these images as photographic paper or canvas prints, signed prints, please email ac@switch-foot.com
Selected Work
