Silver surfer
Trader Faulkner, 92, braves Sydney’s shark-infested waters
Surfing with sharks at 92
During my working life I earned my living as an actor, theatre director, writer, acrobat and flamenco dancer.
How have I lasted so long? First, I walk to every destination whenever possible. I no longer have a car. I left it parked back in 1982 after the entire floor of the car collapsed onto the road and I landed bum first on the asphalt! For years afterwards, I travelled around London on a push bike. But, in 1995, a van turning left into a side street failed to see me and knocked me to the ground.
Luckily I’d seen him turning and had swung my leg over the bar of the bike a second before the collision. I was fine, but the bike was a complete write-off.
I live in a top-floor flat in London, near Gloucester Road, with 98 stairs and no lift. These I climb several times a day to reach my front door – the arrival always a well-earned joy.
I love a whiskey and ginger ale and I allow myself one every evening at six. Never more. I also like a good red wine and have one glass over lunch or dinner.
My father, who was born in Ashby-de-la-zouche, was a very successful character actor in Australian silent movies. An alcoholic, he died aged 62 when I was a boy of seven. As he lay dying, I was taken to his bedside to say goodbye. A year later, I was taken to visit my dying maternal grandfather. Just as I wished him goodbye, he vomited at my feet and instantly expired – unforgettable.
When I awake every morning, I do forty minutes of stretching exercises and then – every day of the year except Sundays – I take a cold bath, soaping myself and lying submerged for 13 seconds before rinsing and getting out. On Sundays, the Lord’s day, I allow myself the luxury of a warm bath. Such a decadent indulgence!)
I was raised in the Church of England but, as a 12-year-old day pupil at St. Aloysius College in Sydney, I was attracted to the
Catholic faith simply because it had women saints – Mary Mother, Mary Magdalene, Bernadette, Joan of Arc etc –and converted.
From that time on, I attended mass each Saturday evening to give thanks for my good fortune and my long healthy life.
I can no longer hear the sermons but my faith is a great source of comfort and reminds me to cherish the memorable moments of my life.
There are two particular moments in my long life that stand out as especially memorable.
My proudest and most humbling moment was easing my only child
Sasha out of her mother’s womb and into my waiting hands.
Secondly, there was my lucky escape from a close encounter with a shark while surfing off Queenscliff Beach. It was at this same beach in 1934 that I saw surf champion Colin Grant lose his leg after being mauled by a shark.
Ten years later, he returned to Queenscliff with a wooden peg in place of the leg. ‘I want to still a ghost,’ he told us. ‘Will you all come into the surf with me?’ We did – and he stilled his ghost.
As a youth – up until I left Australia to come to London in 1950 – my earnest ambition was to swim right round the rocky headland in Manly on Sydney Harbour’s north shore, dividing Queenscliff Beach from Freshwater Beach – a distance of some 1,000 yards.
When I return to Oz this year, I intend to realise that ambition. In addition to my daily excercises, I have added 30 lengths a day in the pool to my regime in preparation.
My old boyhood surf club, hopefully, will provide a surf boat to shadow my progress, with lifesavers rowing and my devoted friend Nesli Fairburn on board in case of any difficulties – as well as observers to look out for sharks.
I hope to still my own ghost and that that hungry shark’s grand children aren’t around and eager for a taste of old Trader!
‘In 1934, I saw a surf champion lose his leg after being mauled by a shark’