‘Near where my mum lives,’ interjected Grace.

‘There were three guys who worked on producing Tracks surfing magazine: David Elfick, a music entrepreneur; John Witzig, an amazing earthwise architect; and photographer Albe Falzon. They were all surfers, so the mag was pretty out there, promoting pot, pop surf music, hippies and anything anti-establishment, but above all, surfing. They were in seventh heaven working on it. So they decided to make a surf film,’ said Steve. ‘But they had no idea that their little surf movie would become, and remain, the icon it is. Its music has a cult following too.’

‘You don’t think they knew what they had when they made it?’ said Grace.

‘I’m sure there was no grand plan. They filmed in Australia but Elfick felt the film needed a bit of adventure. So he did an advertising deal with an airline, got tickets to Bali, even though no one thought of it as a surfing destination then. No one in Bali surfed, so they needed some talent. And Elfick found this fourteen-year-old kid from Narrabeen, Stephen Cooney – a killer surfer,’ Steve said. ‘Elfick needed a mentor for him in the film. It so happened that the 1965 USA surf champ, Rusty Miller, was living in Byron Bay . . . And the rest is history.’

‘So did they go to Uluwatu?’ asked Mateo.

‘No foreigners even knew it was there till Albe and another guy hired a bemo to take them up the Bukit Peninsula. The driver dropped them off at the temple on top of the cliff at Uluwatu. As they scrambled around the clifftop they saw that unbroken wave rolling from horizon to shore. Steve Cooney was the very first to surf it, that we know of.’

‘They’d found their nirvana!’ exclaimed Henry. ‘Albe must have been stunned.’

‘That’s an amazing story,’ said Grace.

‘Sure is,’ Steve said. ‘If you get a chance to see the film, you should. It’s best to watch it on the big screen, with the music blaring out.’

*

‘Man, this is amazing,’ said Henry as they drove along the winding road past the clifftop temple, where tourists were taking photos and monkeys darted about, looking for treats and making a nuisance of themselves.

‘Look at that surf break!’ Mateo said, craning his neck to check it out. ‘I can see why people say this is so incredible. The sunset will flood the whole place and the ocean. Stunning. Shame there’re so many people.’

‘Let’s drive down and shoot from the beach first. Andy should be there,’ Grace said. ‘Get the surfers on the sand then going into the water, and swimmers going between the rocks and the cave. Save the high-angle shots till the sun is going down. Then we can come back up here for the monkey dance spectacular. Get the temple in the sunset too.’

‘Where’re the monkeys? I want to see the dance,’ said Daisy, almost jumping out of her seat behind Putu.