One of Australia’s 50 Most Influential Surfers by Surfing Life magazine. Photo: Sydney Morning Herald
When you think of influential Aussie surfers in the ‘70s and ‘80s, Mark Richards, Rabbit Bartholomew, and Ian Cairns, among many others, are the usual suspects who come to mind. Back then, their revolutionary prowess gained a considerable amount of attention, landing them each a shiny gold throne to rightfully and forever sit upon.
Today, there is virtually no mention of Captain Goodvibes, a drug-taking, boozy, surfing pig who, in 1992, was named one of Australia’s 50 Most Influential Surfers by Australia’s Surfing Life magazine. Although this vulgar character wasn’t revered for his skill like the aforementioned legends, he still managed to make a profound impression.
Captain Goodvibes, also known as the Pig of Steel, was created by Australian cartoonist Tony Edwards and quickly became a staple of Australian surfing culture in the ‘70s. The Captain’s keenness for surfing, sex, cursing, and ingesting copious amounts of easily-recognizable substances through his tunnel-shaped nose seemed to jive nicely with the surfing culture at the time. When asked what made his character such a hit, Edwards told the Sydney Morning Herlad, “He seemed to tap into the mood of the time, not that I knew that was what I was doing, which was smoking reefers and making myself laugh.”
According to the Encyclopedia of Surfing, “Goodvibes was arguably the most popular surfer in Australia during the mid- and late ’70s, appearing in comic books, calendars, and records.” But it wasn’t just the Australian continent that was taking note of the peculiar character. The American surf publication, Surfer’s Journal, stated, “Captain Goodvibe was, for many Americans, a first glimpse of honest Ozzy humor.”
Although it has been a long time since Captain Goodvibes has reared his vulgar head, the spirit of this hard-drinking, drug-taking, straight-talking spirit still lives on. When the Sydney Morning Herald asked his creator if Goodvibes is still looking over his shoulder, Edwards replied, “Oh, yes. He leads me up the garden path. He sits on my shoulder saying, ‘Let’s have a beer, Tone’ or ‘Let’s swallow a wheelbarrow of pharmaceuticals’ or ‘Only pooftas paint pictures, fatty. Let’s go down the pub and glass a few wankers’.”
