Bondi Local | Barney Quinlan
Bondi Local | Barney Quinlan
We met Barney in 2007. That’s when Roman started going to his legendary Surfsquad sessions. Those four hour sessions are not just about surfing. They teach kids how to survive in the ocean and lots more. The sessions normally kickoff at the pool with swimming stroke instruction, but then the kids (in varying age groupings) move into the open water. Barney sessions also involve healthy snacks, skating, making art and everything else in between. The are very holistic. Whenever you see Barney, he is surrounded by kids in wetsuits covered in sun screen. Barney is the much loved Pied Piper of Bondi.
Melanie talked to Barney at the beach.
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You’ve just come in from the surf. There’s an enormous swell out there. Where does your affinity for the water come from?
I guess I have just been playing in the ocean for a very, very long time. I started surfing when I was about 8 years old. I didn’t like surfing the first 2 or 3 times, but by the 4th time I loved it, and stuck with it. I’ve been surfing ever since. And through surfing for so long I guess I always look for new ways to keep surfing interesting, and I’ve been quite obsessed with it most of my life. In the last 10 years or so body surfing has been a large part of what I do. So surfing, ocean swimming and body surfing takes up half of what I do in the water, coz it’s free and easy and I don’t have to worry about bringing my board down. Like today, I just have my swim fins with me. It’s just a really nice thing to be able to do.
And tell us a bit about your understanding of the ocean.
That kind of began indirectly by my becoming a swimming teacher in my mid 20s. Through not having a career or a job that I knew I wanted to do, I became a learn-to-swim teacher and not long after that realised that there might be some sort of window of mixing teaching swimming with teaching swimming specifically for the surf, which would be mixing my experience that I’d gained through surfing. And it became quite a nice mix, and a unique mix coz it seamed like everyone else was doing specific things like ocean swimming or surfboard riding or swimming pool swimming. And what I got to do was to bridge it all together and mix it all up. So I’ve been able to pass on and build knowledge as I’ve gone along. It’s been really fun.
Are you a bit of a Pied Piper (in a good way!)? The kids seem to really love you and I wonder if it’s because you help them find their limits?
I guess a part of explaining that is because it’s a swimming programme and I’ve approached it as a swimming teacher. There’s quite a formula to it, but it’s also quite a simple concept of having almost a check list of things that work in moving water that work in any [water] environment and then learning how to approach that environment so you remain in some sort of control. Yeah, you can actually end up being comfortable in situations that most people might feel out of control. Coz you can build on it slowly and you can come back to having this sort of repertoire of skills that are going to work in any situation, on the rocks, in the current, in big swell, small surf … you’ve always got the ability to get back to shore and to stay calm. It seams to work really well like that.
What’s your attachment to Bondi?
It’s Bondi, because I learnt to surf [here] at a young age. I grew up in Watsons Bay, so the closest surf beach was Bondi and North Bondi. And at that point in time my dad was living on Gould Street, North Bondi; so that’s the very late 80s, early 90s. So my attachment to Bondi starts then at about 8 years old, being newly obsessed with surfing, and North Bondi being the spot where I did all my surfing. Just that beautiful summertime, out of the north easterly breeze, crystal clear North Bondi experience. And then through sticking with surfing, but being from Watsons Bay – I’m one of a small crew of Watsons Bay Bondi surfers – I’m not alone. We were still Bondi surfers but the Bondi surfers knew there was a group of Watsons Bay surfers. I never lived in Bondi as a kid, but it was always the first place that I was coming to and I had a bike that I would ride down from Watsons Bay. The bus didn’t go all the way then. From pretty early on there was a bunch of us who didn’t live in Bondi who would rent a garage. From about 14 or 15 years old. And before that it was kind of camping out at friends’ houses and camping in back yards.
You’ve spent enough time here to be classified as Bondi identity!
I think sometimes it’s quite funny that a lot of Bondi locals don’t live in Bondi. Some of them of them don’t want to live in Bondi! I’m quite happy in Watsons Bay. And I’m quite happy to be down at the south coast but [being identified as a Bondi identity] is something that’s [happened] through my surfing and through my work and it’s never gone away. I feel like I can’t help it.
What would you consider to be your Bondi beat?
My Bondi beat? Gosh, I don’t know. North Bondi I still like a lot. I like teaching there and I like being there, out of the wind. South Bondi as a kid. I certainly had a lot of good times at “the office”. I love the Icebergs pool these days. That was never a part of my life as a kid. I think it’s just amazing, I love it.
We do see you pounding that Promenade, north to south and back again with your protégés.
I love the Promenade … now you mention it. I think it’s a massive part of Bondi, I really like it. Walking on it. Slowly skateboarding on it. I love taking my daughter along the Promenade. I think that’s a huge part of what Bondi is to me. I also love remote beaches that aren’t in the cities, so if you’re going to have one in the city the Promenade’s fantastic with the graffiti wall and all that urban thing. And that’s what I loved as a little kid, how urban Bondi was, and I was very proud of it. It’s fun being up at Watsons Bay. You get a different perspective. You’re not down in the valley. I’m on top of a cliff looking out at the ocean and then I can come down into the valley that is more urban which is Bondi.
Do you ever eat out or drink in Bondi?
I like Sushi Train at North Bondi. But it all changes so quickly that I can’t even think what I enjoy at the moment.
I love my little spots to go like Birichina on Lamrock Avenue. That’s been my office for my whole life. I’ve never lived on Lamrock, the closest was Hall Street, but I still went to Birichina. Someone bought me my first coffee there when I was Roman’s age and still in high school, and that’s how that all started. That’s when we hung on the South Bondi Hill.
Well, you bring food in don’t you when you do your camps with the kids, which is another great thing about your programme.
We try and act as a counter culture to the sausage sizzle that goes on in Nippers etc. … all with very good intentions. We like the symbolism of not having a sausage sizzle.
Were you part of a Watsons Bay boys that hung on the Hill?
No, it was a real mix. That’s what I always loved about Bondi – the mix.
What are you excited about right now?
Teaching in my 10th year of the programme. I’m excited about other people teaching my programme. I’m really looking forward to it getting to that point, where other people are teaching the skills that I teach, including Roman. Those kids who started with me at 10 are now teaching [others].
What about the Indonesia Project?
Yeah I’m excited that my programme is teachable to anyone anywhere. Bali wouldn’t be my first place to go on holiday, but it worked really well for this project. I have an attachment to Bali because my dad lived there so that was good to get back there.
Reading/Watching?
I just picked up a book from the bookshelf at North Bondi … which was set up by a guy called Barney I just read yesterday. There’s a little sign there saying that his children and grandchildren keep it going. Anyway the book is some kind of apocalyptic, end of world novel. I usually like reading real things, biographies and stuff. I struggle with novels.
What am I watching? A bit of ABC and SBS for half an hour before I fall asleep after Luella has gone to sleep. I love any kind of documentary.
Do you have a motto?
Not really but when I think of Surfsquad, the kids used to muck around with “keep it real” which was an Ali G quote, which I’ve use from time to time. It sounds like a piss-take, but I think there’s something good about it too. And I like that it’s from Ali G.
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Full interview on SoundCloud below or HERE
