What do you do when you lose your job and you find yourself with a bit of time on your hands?

Easy. You decide you’re going to write and record a surf movie soundtrack, of course. And what if you don’t have a surf movie to write to? Well, then you simply create one. That’s exactly what Murray Paterson did. The result is an album called Headland. It's a record that evokes the shifting moods of the ocean, surfers and surfing of the early 1970s.

How Murray Paterson created a movie, from almost thin air, is where this story starts to get really interesting. Having grown up in the area around Lennox Head on the north coast of New South Wales, he tells me that he knew from post-surf chats with people that there was a lot of old Super 8 movie footage tucked away in suit cases and garages, waiting to be liberated. So liberate it he did, converting the footage to video and using it for inspiration.

"We scoured through a lot of shit. Blurred stuff, you know. And then the magic moment came when we saw Bob McTavish and John Thomas surfing big Lennox Head. It blew my mind."

He isn't wrong. For anyone who's been to Lennox Head when the swell rises, you can be certain it's a situation that's beautiful but not for the faint-hearted. Lennox is a majestic headland standing well out into the ocean. Big black, board-eating rocks and powerful waves complete the picture. Surf it with a leg-rope and you can get a beating. Surf it without one, as they did in the early seventies, and you and your board may never be the same.

Of course it's all very well to have all this footage, but how did he inspire his fellow musicians to write to it? Well, if the musicians won’t come to the sea, bring the sea to the musos. He took the footage and projected it on the wall of the recording studio in Brisbane where they were working.

"The musicians picked it up straight away. Yeah, they were hand-picked, they didn't all surf, but you don't have to be a surfer to respond to the sublime beauty." He pauses. "People respond."

Murray Paterson also made the decision to let the footage he'd been given become an integral part of the creative process.

"We played and worked on the album while the footage was playing. So the footage determined what was in the music. Even if there was good music that didn't fit the images, we didn't use it."

Swirling mix of cultures created unique surf scene

Immediately the question comes to mind though. Why footage on Super 8 and why from the early seventies?

"Well I want to make it clear we didn’t want to make a nostalgic film. The word that I think of, for that era, is 'cultural' because it was a time when major changes happened on the north coast. There was the mixing of the farming culture with what really were hippies. It made things interesting."

Reflecting on what he’s just said he pauses and then explains a little more.

"I can still remember going to Lismore and there were these hippies in the town, some were naked. One guy had painted himself red on one side and blue on the other. He had a black line running down the middle of his body and it went down his penis. It wasn't the nudity that shocked me it was the commitment to saying something ... artistically."

So did that swirl of cultures make its way into Australian surfing? Murray Paterson thinks it did.

"It created a mix that is muscular and rugged but still spiritual." And what of women in all this? Well here's a surprise. "Women shot a lot of the footage we found. They were girlfriends, wives. A feminine aesthetic is at work, and that's what makes it great."

When he looked at the footage it seemed to have a light and a colour that is very evocative. He explains it cautiously. "I don't want to be too romantic but when you watch these people surfing you can see what kind of people they were and how they lived their lives."

Quest to find more footage gaining momentum

One thing you certainly do notice is the sense of space in the film. Lots of waves, with not a lot of people. Surfing the in the seventies could be a very lonely endeavour. Made more lonely by the fact that with no real surf industry, many of the individuals had to give up a lot to pursue their dream of surfing perfect waves. Some, like Bob McTavish and Nat Young, became household names. Others didn't survive the ravages of a lifestyle that demanded risk taking.

In surfing there's been a massive movement to relive what for some is almost a mythic period. Retro is the term, and retro is booming in surfing right now. Young men and women are riding boards that look like they’ve fallen out of the sky from the late sixties and early seventies. This movie is authentic evidence of what they are trying to recreate. What does Murray Paterson think about the trend, is it authentic? He isn't so sure. Cautious not to put anyone down though, he offers a frank opinion.

"Well this surfing is different now to those days. Young lads replicating it isn't the same. Having someone now ride a board from that era is a bit like white guys playing the blues. It's different."

Right now he explains there is about 45 minutes of edited footage to go with the soundtrack. Murray Paterson would like to find more, because he wants to create a feature and a DVD that includes life on land as well as the ocean, so that everyone can share the wonder of the characters and images he's been inspired by. It's clear to him this is something more than surfing history.

"This is mainstream history, and it's important to archive the life of small towns on the coast," he says.

To help him fulfil the dream he has applied for a grant from the Royal Australian Historical Society. He also is more than happy to accept any contributions or leads that might help him find more film. The goal is to preserve it and make a document that will stand the test of time.

Which leads us back to the music album. So far it's done OK in Australia, but it’s gone top 10 in shops in parts of England, including Manchester. Who would have thought? But that’s the beauty of surfing, the sea and music ... they speak across oceans and time.

Visit the headlandsoundtrack.com here and the Headland Facebook page here.