Born 1945 in Coventry, England, Peter Green did not go on to be one of the greatest blues guitarists of all time with Fleetwood Mac, but he sure took some lovely photographs in the early 1970s.
His work had previously not been published in any hardcover surfing books or magazines until Hodaddy tracked him down!
You can read his own words below.
I was in love with the surf and always wanted to come to Australia, like most Californians do. A good friend came back from Australia and was raving about Kirra in 1971 that convinced us to buy tickets and come out late 1972. Coming from Southern California to Coolangatta and in 1972 felt like we stepped back in time. There were very few high rises, great waves, pretty girls on the beach, warm water; it was like arriving in surfing fantasyland. Lets just say, we were convinced to stay. I applied for residence and eventually became a naturalised citizen. A good reference from Warren Cornish surfboards was the key to me staying.
I have only been back to California twice to visit.
I always went out of my way to get photos of empty lineups …they were so different to what I was used to surfing in Southern California. You could go down to Lennox Head on a weekday and there might be five guys out. The clean warm water, empty waves, fresh and new, sand bottom point breaks, you could see the bottom, fish swimming, I couldn’t buy enough film. The only camera gear I had was a Nikonos 1 with an interchangeable 80mm lens to go with the standard 35mm lens.
