Kanga - Volume 2

Surf legend Ian "Kanga" Cairns has an even bigger story to tell than the giant waves he rode in Hawaii. "KANGA" is a sports biography, adventure and surf history wrapped into two volumes. In the 1970s Cairns and pioneering professional surfers dreamed of being recognized as legitimate sportsmen. In these books they tell how it became reality. Volume 1 is set in Australia, South Africa and Hawaii's awesome North Shore. Cairns features with other surf legends, heroes and hard men in conflict. They provide a detailed narrative of surfing's transformation from the drug-infused hippy era of the late 1960s to a fledgling world tour in the late 1970s. Volume 2 charts the spectacular fall and resurrection of Cairns in the USA as surfing becomes a multi-billion dollar industry with Olympic Games status. Insightful reading for anyone interested in the dramatic changes surfing and surfboards underwent during the short board revolution as the sport reaches high performance skills and equipment of today. We follow Cairns on his odyssey from a stoked kid with a passion for waves, to an outspoken young man who rises from the obscurity of Western Australia to become an acclaimed big wave champion, trail-blazing sports administrator and winning coach in USA. Cairns is confronted with many life-threatening challenges along the way as his remarkable journey reaches the absolute pinnacle of world surfing. Volume 2 is the story of a powerful man going the full circle to redeem himself. Ian Cairns relocates to California in 1978 to expand his doomed Bronzed Aussie brand. After working on the Hollywood surf movie Big Wednesday with business partner and world champion Peter Townend, they coach a new breed of dedicated American surfers to take on the world. Ian then forms the Association of Surfing Professionals in direct conflict with Fred Hemmings and his Hawaiian-based IPS business. A power struggle for supremacy ensues. There are casualties. Ian is targeted for perceived injustices inflicted upon Hawaiian surfers. Then it happens, his astonishing fall. Ian's rapid demise begins in 1986 with a massive beach riot at the biggest surf contest in the world. He resigns as chief executive of the ASP and flees California to start afresh in the isolated security of his beloved Western Australia. But everything he touches there fails in spectacular fashion too. Ian returns to California in 1991 to regain all he has lost. There are more big tests, unimaginable wealth and huge losses awaiting him. He must overcome his enemies and new challenges as surfing becomes a multi-billion dollar industry with Olympic Games recognition. Today, battle scarred and forever changed, this epic surf journey has made Ian Cairns a wiser man after having faced his monsters and numerous ordeals. KANGA is a modern-day classical surf story.

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