RENOWNED surfer Mark Richards may have competed worldwide, but he first learnt his trade on the gentle waves of Blacksmiths Beach.
He remembers the early days well. It was the start of the 1970s and there was no prize money in surfing - just a shared love for the sport and the ocean.
"I first started surfing in the under 14s Newcastle schoolboy championships," he said. "I think I was about 14 years old then. From there, you progressed to the state schoolboys championships.
"There was no such thing as pro surfing," Mr Richards said. "The most you could aspire to was a Newcastle title followed by a NSW state title.
"Basically, all you could do was progress through the events as you aged," he said.
But in the mid-70s, that began to change.
For the first time, prize money was involved. Mr Richards was surfing some of the biggest waves globally, including at Waimea Bay.
"Some of the events around the world started to actually offer prize money," he said. "We are talking about maybe 1000 bucks for first prize. They'd throw in a little bit of prize money and call them pro surfing events."
The sport grew rapidly and by the 1980s, it had blossomed into a professional game.
Mr Richards was a consecutive four-time world champion under International Professional Surfers from 1979-1982.
But even as the competition became fierce, one thing stuck: an unbreakably positive culture.
"There was genuinely no animosity between [competitors]," Mr Richards said. "It was a fairly unique thing. There were people you were competing against fiercely for a decade were your friends.
"It's a nice thing to come out of a career with competitors as friends," he said.
This comradery is a hallmark of the surfing free ride movement that travelled Hawaii to challenge local surfers.
Fellow surfing legends and free riders Shaun Tomson and Wayne 'Rabbit' Bartholomew will join Mr Richards in Newcastle for a one-off screening of Free Ride (1977), which tells the story of their movement.
Directed by Bill Delaney, the film was the first of its kind as it documented the real surfing experiences of the world's best. It is a time capsule from one of the biggest eras in surfing history.
Tracks Magazine will fly Mr Thomson to Newcastle for the tour. The city is one of only four spots on the film trail and Mr Richards said a place on the map was "very well deserved".
"The level of surfing on a whole in Newcastle is pretty incredible. If you went to the beach tomorrow and you saw our two world tour surfers, Ryan Callinan and Jackson Baker, surfing, they would stand out but it wouldn't be some crazy night and day difference.
"The level of recreational surfing in Newcastle is incredibly high. There are really good surfers."
The film will be screened at Civic Hall on 16 November at 7pm.
