'Mum once admitted that the only time she thought I was truly safe was when I was out in the water, beyond the breaking waves, in the tranquillity of "The Outside" . . .'
Larry Blair shot to fame at barely 20 years of age when he became a double-winner of Hawaii's Pipeline Masters - the biggest and most dangerous prize in surfing. He became a household name, appearing in soapies, on milk cartons and in TV ads for Levi's and Coke.
But Larry was harbouring the deadliest of family secrets.
His father, Frank 'Baldy' Blair, was a notorious criminal in the 1960s and 70s, when Sydney was a lawless city run by corrupt cops, contract killers and gangs fighting for supremacy. Larry's doting mother, Patricia, was a beautiful, charismatic thief who regularly hosted an all-star gathering of underworld personalities, dreaming up the next heist from the comfort of their living room.
It was Baldy's abduction, torture and murder at the hands of the notorious 'Toe Cutters' gang, soon after he'd pulled off the country's biggest armed robbery, that set into motion a chain of dark, dramatic events. Larry, only 15, already schooled by 'uncles' and 'associates' in the ways of the family business, was forced to flee with his mother - anything to stay ahead of the cops and killers, anything to stay on 'The Outside'.
For Larry, it was the beginning of a very long surf trip, and a journey of self-discovery that would take him to some of the most exotic places on earth, while also entangling him in yet another dangerous world not of his making. Hawaii's pristine North Shore was in the throes of its own turf war, between the Da Hui Black Shorts and anybody who dared to challenge locals in the surf.
The Outside is Larry Blair's extraordinary memoir of the lengths he went to outrun the sins of his father, escape the gravity of the past and carve out a new life, beyond the breakers.
