Dave Pearson

So that was a Sunday family trip.

So we'd pack everybody in the car, go down the beach really early in the morning.

You know, from the western suburbs, we would head down to the Royal National Park.

We'd usually get there before anybody else was, six o'clock in the morning.

Dad would cook us bacon and eggs on a barbecue down the beach and we'd spend the whole day playing in the waves.

And that's where I guess my love of surfing started.

I was born in the UK in a little fishing village called Hartlepool in the northeast.

It was all about fishing.

Most of the industry in town was fishing, fishing the North Sea, which can be quite treacherous.

We would see the beach every so often.

Obviously, in England, it's a lot colder than it is here in Australia.

No, certainly not as inviting.

But needless to say, I remember swimming when I was, you know, four or five-year-old in the ocean as well, so...

Yeah, as I said, unfortunately, if there's somebody going to get hurt, it's going to be me.

And yeah, one in particular, I was in preschool.

A young girl that I was in class with scratched me in the eye.

And back in the good old 60s, we used to use stuff called lead-based paint, even in schools.

And my eyes got infected.

And off to hospital I went and they gave me penicillin to which I had an allergic reaction and went blind.

Went blind completely.