Keith Paull(1946-2004)

Regularfoot surfer Keith Paull was born in 1946 in Queensland, Australia. Paull first began surfing at age fourteen. Keith initially made a name for himself in the surfing community after he beat world champions Midget Farrelly and Nat Young at the 1968 Australian National Titles. In the wake of this particular triumph Paull went on to finish runner-up in the 1968 Bells Beach event, won the small wave portion of the 1969 Peru International Surfing Championships, and finished third in the 1970 Australian National Titles. Moreover, Keith was a well respected surfboard shaper who started his own company called Keith Paull Surfboards and Harmony Surfboards in Australia's Gold Coast circa 1970. Alas, Paull also had long undiagnosed schizophrenia that was further compounded by his experimenting with LSD in the early 1970's. Keith eventually quite surfing and surfboard shaping altogether in 1976 due to his ever-worsening mental state. Paull died alone at age fifty-seven in his sleep in a hostel in Brisbane, Australia in 2004.