Searching for Michael Peterson

I’ve only read about 3 books since I left school, but the Michael Peterson bio was the best of them. This guy was a legend, he was easily the best surfer in Australia in the 70’s but was an undiagnosed paranoid schizophrenic.

Micheal was driving to Noosa when a police car with siren blaring came by and it set him into a panic and he drove off as fast as he could. He had not realized the police car was actually going the other way. The policeman saw him and took up a pursuit.

The pursuit turned into something straight out of a Hollywood movie, 20 police cars following, two side-swiped, and pedestrians nearly killed when he mounted the footpath at one point. The chase went on at high speed all the way to Brisbane where a further 15 police cars setup a roadblock on the Story Bridge, at which point Peterson stopped. It made national news and became known in surfing circles simply as “the chase”.

Michael ended up in Jail for a year and on his release never surfed again.

Finally there is a movie coming out telling MP’s story. Check it out on www.searchingformichaelpeterson.com.au