📍Collaroy NSW 2097, Australia
1947 – 1966“Robert Harold Young was born in Sydney in November 1947 and grew up in Collaroy, a small seaside suburb on Sydney's Northern Beaches, between Long Reef and Narrabeen, with long, open beaches facing the Pacific. He was a small boy, and his friends called him Gnat, which became Nat. Collaroy in the 1950s was a quiet beach community, and Nat spent his whole childhood in the ocean. He started surfing as a boy on the waves in front of Collaroy, and as surfing exploded in Australia in the late 1950s and early 1960s, he was part of a new generation of young surfers on the Northern Beaches. He grew tall and powerful, and he was nicknamed the Animal for his aggressive, physical approach, carving turns rather than simply riding the wave. At sixteen he won the Australian junior title, and he became one of the leaders of the shortboard revolution, working with the shaper Bob McTavish to develop shorter, more manoeuvrable boards that let surfers turn harder and ride more radically. In 1966, at eighteen, he won the World Surfing Championship at Ocean Beach in San Diego, riding a board called Magic Sam, with a radical style that changed surfing. He won Australian titles again and became an author, filmmaker and environmental campaigner, helping to protect the coast of New South Wales. He later moved to Angourie, on the far north coast, where he has long lived. Collaroy remembers the boy from the Northern Beaches who became world champion.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
🛰️ Satellite view · © Google