Bra Boys (2007) - full transcript

Violence flared again

in Brighton-Le-Sands,

Cronulla, and Maroubra.

Gangs smash cars

and shop fronts

along the city's

suburban beach strip,

leading to the arrests

of 11 people.

A member of the so-called

Bra Boys surfer group

from Maroubra Beach

says most residents

are sick of the attacks.

Premier Morris lemma insisting

the people behind the riots

have declared war on society.

Police are licking their wounds

after a vicious brawl

outside a club at Coogee

on the weekend.

44 off-duty officers

were hurt in the fight

with a notorious beach gang.

A professional surfer

has been charged

over an underworld murder.

Bloodstained drag marks

led police to Mistral Point

at Maroubra.

The victim was shot

and dumped over a cliff.

Police are of the view

that this body was in the water

for anything up to four days.

14 kilometers

from Sydney Harbour

and five beaches south

of the world-famous Bondi Beach

lies Maroubra Beach,

a suburb with a poor history

but one of rich characters.

In 1770, after passing

through the Pacific Islands,

Captain James Cook sailed

into Botany Bay

and discovered and unexplored

continent of Australia.

As he entered the bay,

wild, pounding surf

exploded onto the rocks

around the entrance,

and Cook viewed natives

from the local Yorta Tribe

swimming and fishing

in its waters.

Upon anchoring and landing,

Cook was confronted

by two natives

and ordered his crew

to open fire.

He claimed the unexplored land

for England,

and the British returned

to the same spot

18 years later to colonize

Australia as a jail.

It was a harsh beginning

for the first convict

inhabitants of modern Australia

and for the native Yorta people,

whose lands included

the nearby beach of Maroubra,

a name meaning

"place of thunder."

100 years later, Sydney,

as the city became known,

saw many of the poor forced

to live amongst

the persecuted aborigines

in the bays and caves

around the Maroubra area.

By 1930, dilapidated beach camps

around the Maroubra area

housed up to 1,000 poor

and unemployed families.

To limit the growth

of the camps,

the government purchased land

adjacent to the bays

and relocated

these poor communities

into government

housing estates.

Next came the building

of the biggest sewage plant

in the southern hemisphere,

with the beach bordered

by a rifle range,

and Australia's biggest jail

built on top of a hill,

which from its hilltop location

served as a constant warning

to the community below.

Maroubra, with its challenges,

saw many of the younger members

of the community

born into an environment

rife with domestic conflict,

parental neglect, and drugs.

Over the decades,

the beach and the surf

has been their savior.

At the core of this story

are the Abberton brothers:

Sunny, Jai, Koby,

and their

younger brother, Dakota.

Both Sunny and Jai

have surfed professionally,

while Koby is now regarded

as one of the best

big-wave surfers in the world.

They, along

with their childhood friends,

were raised by the beach tribe

at Maroubra.

Bra Boys, as the tribe

is now known,

have grown to be one

of the most infamous

and recognized surf tribes

in the world.

For years, authorities

have battled

to disperse the beach tribes,

but as the centuries passed

and the tribe names changed,

their culture has survived.

This is their story.

I would honestly say,

without a doubt,

the most localized surf

community I've encountered

is Maroubra.

You guys at Maroubra,

you ain't nothing but trouble.

No, I don't think

we're all bad.

We were just cheeky little

grommets, mate, you know?

You can have a big community

that all sort of, you know,

kind of hangs out.

These guys all hang out,

and they've got each other's

backs, no matter what.

You got to have a brain

that will allow you

to take off on a wave like that,

and that's where these guys

differ a lot

from most every surfers.

He pulled out his knife,

and he stabbed me twice.

I lived in a house where my mom

was a heroin addict

and my mom's boyfriend

was a bank robber.

And they didn't

really control the house.

Me, Sunny, and Jai pretty much

done whatever we wanted to do,

went to school on whatever days

we wanted to.

And the beach was our life.

That's all we

that's all we had, really.

And we didn't

have much money.

We ate Corn Flakes

and Rice Bubbles every night,

which we loved

when we were kids.

Home life for me and my brothers

was pretty hard.

It was four of us,

and we pretty much had to fend

for ourselves.

None of us knew our dads.

We grew up with our mom.

Me and Jai

have got the same dad.

Koby and Dakota

got different dads.

My brothers were definitely

my male role models.

They took care of me,

you know,

took me to the beach every day,

and my brothers'

older friends and stuff.

There was a hard period that

when I left to go on the tour,

I was only 15,

and Koby was still very young.

My other younger brother

had just been born,

so, you know, in one way,

you want to succeed

through surfing,

but on the other hand,

it was still very hard

leaving your brothers behind

to the home life

that we were living.

Not only was he a father figure,

but he was my hero

as to the way

he would surf in the contests;

whereas me and Jai have lived

with each other for a long time,

so me and Jai

would just fight a lot.

But still, it seems to be the

person you fight with the most,

you loveyou know,

you're really close to.

We lived up in the housing commissions,

which we were lucky

that we lived there

in a housing commission near the beach

and not a housing commission

out in fucking Liverpool

or something.

So we lived there,

and we used to just go down there.

Our grandmother lived

one block from the beach,

so we were very lucky to have

my grandmother live there, and very happy.

She used to look after us a lot

at that early stage.

My grandma Mavis Abberton,

who we all called Ma,

she had a big house

at the beach.

And back in the day,

there was a lot of the kids

from around the area

were from broken homes,

and, you know,

so she used to let us

all leave our stuff there.

You know,

we'd sit there in that garage

for the five days on end,

you know,

hanging out

at the house and just

just swim in the pool,

hanging around.

And she'd just take care

of us all at all times,

make sure we were all all right,

every time

we ever needed anything,

give us whatever we wanted.

Ma's house was like a clubhouse

for all theyou know,

the Bra Boys.

She was pretty much

the grandma to Bra Boys.

If anyone started Bra Boys,

it was her.

I've never met another lady

like her,

who's a lady who could handle

little kids

running around

screaming in the backyard.

We all left

our surfboards there.

I hung there for 15-odd years.

So the boys were more

kind of just like a family and that.

Maybe they had shit going on at home

or something, or maybe, you know,

seeing as we weren't

as comfortable at home,

we said, "Well, I'll just go to the beach

every day to be in the water."

The older crew was Ma's Hell Team

in those days.

And they were all just, like,

the best surfers,

charging the biggest waves,

and, you know, doing all the stuff

that you want to do

when you're a kid, you know,

so we looked up to them.

You know, we were young kids;

we were young hoodlums,

and we named our gang after her,

you know, Ma's Hell Team.

And then the younger kids

named their gang after her.

We started our own little gang

called Ma's Madness.

She gave us her house,

and that was the headquarters,

Ma's Hell Team headquarters.

Along with Ma being that central

figure in their lives,

there are also a number

of older guys

who were to play significant

roles in their upbringing,

like Steve "Blackie" Wilson,

Brad Johnson,

Larry Blair,

and Marty Lee.

But the one who would later

have the most dramatic influence

on the family's lives

was Anthony Hines.

There'd been gangs of different

groups of guys

coming down

and targeting surfers

or fighting with surfers

since the early 50s

or as long as anyone

can remember.

But around the early 1990s,

the gang violence

really started to increase,

and we started

to get weekly attacks

of different gangs coming

to the beach to fight surfers.

We'd had a lot of stabbings

and a few shootings.

It just became a part of our

daily lives, you know.

Just saying,

we had to always be ready,

because you never knew

when it was gonna go down.

There was other gangs around,

you know.

At the time, that's when

the gang mentality

was kind of starting

to take off, you know.

And then it was just starting to

happen all the time, you know,

dances, and, you know,

down the beach,

or even coming down here

and starting to do it.

We justand then

you know,

and as we grew up and got

to go into the pub and stuff,

then it started

happening there.

Growing up, I mean, we had

a lot of crazy things happen,

like guns held to ours heads,

chased down the street

with people shooting at us.

You know, we were

in a car one night,

and people shot up the car,

all sorts of things.

It's good.

It turns us into what we are.

Have you ever been stabbed

or shot?

Yeah, shot.

When we were

when I was 14, 15.

I was stabbed there,

just on the left arm there.

Not to be a coward

and run away.

I had a bat down me pants,

and if...

I only had one of my other boys

there with me.

Why'd you have a bat

down your pants?

I don't fucking know.

When we were growing up, there

was always homeboys and that,

you know, creeping around

down the beach.

Always had to be prepared when

you walk around by yourself.

Pulled this nice silver gun

out of his shoulder holster.

Stuck it right in me chest,

and as I backed off

and went to grab it, he let it go,

and the round ended up

going through both me legs.

Bullet, like, entered

through that one there

and then came out

through that one there

and then just ended up going

straight back into me knee here.

Did the police ask

did they ask you to identify the guy?

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

they asked all that.

And did you?

No, no way in the world, no.

He pulled out his knife,

and he stabbed me twice

and then went to stab me again

but missed.

The knife went in there

that's from the operation

and once in there.

It felt like I just got winded

pretty bad,

and then I grabbed me stomach,

and I felt a handful

of intestines hanging out.

Now that I look back on it,

it's the day that I walked in

and found my mom

shooting up heroin,

and then my mom's

boyfriend hit me.

Like, I come into the house,

and I caught them all in there

shooting up heroin.

I said, "Get out of the house,"

and then my mom's

boyfriend jumped up

and hit me with a baseball bat,

told me to get out of the house,

and I went flying down

the beach, saying "Sunny."

And Sunny just gave me

a big hug and said,

"Look, you know, we've got

our own family of friends."

And from that day forward,

I think it really

it made us all realize that,

you know,

the family life at home

can finish at any time,

but the boys will never die,

you know?

The boys will

always be there for you.

And that's how it felt.

I think, from that day,

it started.

In those early '90s, everything

seemed to be falling apart.

Koby had just been

thrown out of home;

the gangs were coming down

and attacking.

Then, you know,

our only real structure

was Ma's and Ma's house,

but Ma had a stroke,

and she was left paralyzed

and speechless

down one half of her body.

So we knew at that stage

that, as a group,

to survive

and to get through it

that we really

had to do something.

And we knew that

by uniting together

that it would be the only way

that we could get through it.

And that's how it come about.

Sunny actually said,

"Oh, let's all

what about the Bra Boys?"

We were like, "Yeah,

the fucking Bra Boys."

We just came up

with a handshake,

and it was just

like more of, like

it's just a brotherhood for us.

The Bra Boy grip

is like that.

The Bra Boy grip

is like that.

It's pretty much the strongest

handshake you can possibly do.

It's in the tat.

And anyone who's a Bra Boy,

that's how they shake hands

and say hello.

"What's happening?

What's going on?"

It's called slappin' it up.

We were just in Ma's garage,

just talking about it,

and then we're like,

"Fuck, we'll just

"we'll go up,

and we should get a tattoo.

We should get a tattoo,"

you know.

Fuckin', whoever's solid

won't be scared to, you know,

put their hand up and say,

"Yeah, I'm a fucking Bra Boy,"

you know.

The next thing,

we're all just covered in ink.

Before we knew it,

we were like 50 out, you know?

And then blink again,

and there's 100.

You know what I mean?

Not anyone could just roll up

and get a tattoo

just because you're

a good surfer, you know.

You had to be, like, a standout

type of man, you know.

Like, you had to earn your spot;

that's for sure.

You get a Bra Boys tat

just by being with the boys

for a good, you know,

five or ten years

and showing you're worth it.

You know what I mean?

Showing you're

not gonna mess up

and getting the older guys

to approve it.

There's this responsibility

with the brotherhood.

You drop everything and turn up,

no matter what it is.

Your boys ring you,

you turn up.

It's a brotherhood,

but sometimes it gets

you know, as we've seen,

it gets a little ugly.

You know, it justit turns

into tribal warfare,

localism, whoa.

Some people have a real bee

in their bonnet

about localism and stuff,

but if you took localism away,

the whole thing

would just disintegrate.

You're taking away the fact

that people are actually proud

of where they come from.

You just can't do that.

To have that tight group of guys

that you grew up with

and, you know, you hang around

every day,

that'sthat'syou know,

that's what

Australian surfing's about.

You know, you look at the way

the coast is made.

It's broken up

into headlands.

Places, there's a long stretch

between beaches.

So it's natural.

Surfers have grown up

in their tribes.

That's the way it is.

And you always thought

of the tribe over the hill

as the enemy.

It's the unspoken lore.

And, you know, you can look

at the radical cases

like the Bra Boys, you know?

The Bra Boys, man, they live

in an urban society.

I mean, they're surrounded

by heavy shit.

How do you fight something

like that?

With heavy shit.

The whole reason

why it escalated

to where it did around here

is because

we just stood our ground.

You know, and that's what the

whole thing was about for us,

was standing our ground and

not being walked over by anyone,

because this

was our little place, you know?

We didn't go out

and bother anyone else,

so we didn't expect

for people to come down

and bother us, so...

Like, we've got this reputation

as being troublemakers

or instigators in fights.

I'm not saying the boys

are angels or

you know,

or anything like that,

but it always seems

to happen that way.

We always seem

to just be defending, you know?

The situation at Maroubra was

really starting to become news.

The situation at Maroubra was

really starting to become news.

The defense of the beach and

the formation of the Bra Boys

had earned the area

a fearsome reputation,

which over the next few years

would cause a lot of tension

with the local police.

This tension finally

reached boiling point

after one particular incident.

On December 22, 2002,

professional surfer

and Bra Boy member Mark Matthews

celebrated his 21 st birthday

with 300 of his mates

at the Coogee Randwick RSL.

Some 200 to 300

off-duty officers

from the local

Waverley Police Station

were celebrating Christmas

just one floor above.

Police are licking their wounds

after a vicious brawl

outside a club at Coogee

on the weekend.

44 off-duty officers

were hurt in the fight

with a notorious beach gang.

I didn't know

what was going on.

There was

just some older people,

probably 4040 years old,

hassling a few

of the younger guys.

Some of those people attempted

to gate-crash the police party

on a number of occasions

and were quite well aware

that there were

off-duty police officers there.

And we sort of walked over

and said,

"Come on, what's going on?"

And then I seen

a few people running behind me

and this and that,

and then there was this

there was a bit of a ruckus,

and then it was just on.

Two to three bodies high

of people on the ground.

On top of them

was like a massive mosh

with just punches

flying anywhere.

It was the only, really,

way we could get out of it

was to fight.

There was

no other way out of it

except just fight

your way out of it.

And that's

that was the end result.

Spilled out the front door here

onto the front street.

All the uniform coppers

ended up turning up.

Mate, there was helicopters

with floodlights on.

There was paddy wagons.

There was police dogs.

It was justit was one

of the most hectic things

I've ever seen

or been involved in.

Fuck.

Eight Bra Boys were arrested

on various charges,

but all were later found

not guilty.

No police were charged.

The affect it had

on the community probably just

like, just bred more hatred

for the police, I think,

than there was before,

you know?

Like, they say, likelike,

people were getting off

without getting convicted,

and all the charges

were dropped,

but it was still costing,

like, friends of mine

$30,000 to go to court,

you know?

They were losing the deposits

for their home loans and stuff,

like, and they act like

we got off scot-free, you know?

The thing I was dirty on with

the papers and everything was,

you know,

we get labeled a gang;

we get labeled this;

we get labeled that.

There wasn't one knife pulled;

there wasn't one gun pulled.

It was just a good

old-fashioned brawl, you know?

They call us a gang.

They call us all these names.

And, you know,

it wasn't a gang.

We're not a gang.

We justit was a fight,

and weyou know, we won,

and they're all

licking their wounds.

That's it.

There's always been tension

between the police

and the local surf community,

but I think after

the Coogee Randwick RSL,

it seemed to get personal.

It seemed to get personal.

Whether it's been

the community's attitude

towards the police

or the authorities' attitude

towards the surfing community,

but for over 100 years,

there's been

a real strong conflict

between the surf community

and the local authorities.

Surfers were, like,

the bottom of the

were the scum of the Earth,

you know, vermin.

You know, the police

really gave them a hard time.

There's no doubt

that the media

always saw surfers

as a easy shot, you know.

Like, they still do,

you know?

Inside Australia,

we're still, like

the stigma was alive and well.

Outside Australia,

it was like, they'd

"Oh, yeah, those surfers, man,

they can ride the big waves.

"They're hardcore.

They charge.

That Australian surf animal

is something to be respected."

Inside Australia, we had

to completely continue battle

just to hold our head

above water in society.

Conflict started

as early as colonial times

with the banning of city's

aborigines swimming in the surf.

When surfers returned

in the early 1900s,

they were again banned

from the hours

of 6:00 a.m. To 6:00 p.m.,

as these hours were thought

to be reserved

for those

in meaningful employment,

and not for scoundrels who

shamelessly bathed in the surf

instead of working.

Maroubra's local council

were the first in Australia

to pass such laws

that effectively drew a line

in the sand

between the establishment

and the surfers.

This saw the birth

of Australia's

first counterculture

surf movement.

As surf culture exploded

in the '60s,

surfers were made

to pay to surf.

If you couldn't afford

the board registration,

you were, in effect,

unable to surf.

The surfers' invasion

of the beaches was deplored

and seen

in much the same strain

as farmers deplored the invasion

of their paddocks

by grasshoppers.

But the most ridiculous law

to keep them off the beaches

was when the authorities

made surfers wear skirts

while in the surf.

The ludicrous nature

of the law

required an equally

ludicrous response.

Thousands of larrikin surfers

turned up to the beach

in skirts, bonnets, and bows,

and within weeks,

the law was dropped.

This is the same

larrikin attitude

that perhaps is still at

the heart of the conflict today.

The Aussie surf culture

has always had larrikin characters

in it, you know.

I guess,

when we were growing up,

I guess,

when we were growing up,

like, maybe it was different

than a lot of beaches,

but we didn't have, like,

a lot of money, you know?

Not many of the people did

back then, so...

We would just find stuff to do

to keep ourselves entertained,

you know,

just writing off

when there was no waves.

Light yourself up!

Can I use that, Kobe?

- What?

- Your six-eight.

No, you'll break it.

You've got a six-ten,

don't you?

Dakota, run this back up.

That's your six-eight.

I got my six-eight.

Pushing social boundaries

is not really new to the boys.

It's that same carefree,

perhaps careless, attitude

that sees the boys push

the boundaries in the surf.

You know, there's

just nothing better

than being with your brothers

and your friends

and all psyching each other up

to see who's

gonna charge the hardest.

It's how we first came about

surfing a break

which was supposed

to be unsurfable.

In early 2003, we had heard

rumors of a wave in Botany Bay

which broke right in front

of the cliff face,

and it only worked

on really big swells.

It was just that crazy of wave,

and we just used

to watch it.

You know, people would call me,

like, a wuss and that,

but I never really

thought of surfing it.

It was just too close

to the rocks.

It was a good wave to watch,

but I never thought

it'd ever get surfed.

And then I saw the fellas

and the guys,

like Koby and that, riding it.

But those guys are just crazy,

so it doesn't surprise me.

The wave's just one headland

across from us.

After checking it out,

it looked pretty good.

So we named it ours.

Look at this.

Had a big crew of, like,

50 guys on the rocks,

just cheering, you know.

Like, fucking everyone

hanging out,

having lunch, just,

like, cheering the boys.

It's just,

like, shift after shift.

Like, one surfer

would come in.

The other boys

are out there going mad.

And then we get back out there,

and just all day

is just crazy surfing.

Did you get my two?

Yeah, it was your two.

Bang one off for the boys, eh?

Bang one off for the boys.

Still got it, eh?

It was really heavy,

because, I mean,

we're charging it so hard

that everyone was wiping out.

But no one knew how

you know,

how hard you can push it

before you get washed over

the rocks.

Fuck off!

Who's had the best wipeout

you've seen out there?

Without a doubt, Richie Vas,

without a doubt.

That kid got just whomped.

It's about the heaviest wipeout

I've ever seen in my life.

I was falling, and I fell

backwards and twisted around,

sort of knocked all the wind out

of me,

and I hurt me shoulder

and I bruised all my ribs.

You know, I got sucked back over

and bounced across the reef.

Keep filming.

Oh, my God.

Richie, Richie!

He's still under.

Richie!

I was gonna roll around,

you know, as me board

just jabbed me in the neck.

Chicks dig scars.

Should I show a little more?

Yeah, go up.

Oh, it'sthat's

oh, it'syeah.

Is that the shot?

Yeah, that's the shot.

Okay, keep your head down.

My mum let me have

the day off school

so I could come

and surf here, yeah.

Good opportunity.

Jess.

Yeah, it was good fun out there.

Is that your first time

surfing out?

No, my second but...

there the first time I've got

barrels and that.

Yeah.

Fuckin' A, I was nervous.

I was shittin' myself.

Got that drilled,

hit the rock, and that.

Touched the bottom.

The boys make it

heaps better too,

because they psych you up more.

They just got you into it.

It looked just so round

and perfect,

you know,

when I come out.

What about being out here

with Koby and the boys,

mixing it up?

Yeah, it's sick being

with Koby and that.

They give you the good waves

and that, so it's good.

We take the younger guys

away on trips

and try and push them

in the surf

because that's exactly what

the older guys did

for me, Jai, and Koby

and our other friends

that were growing up.

And without that, we would have

never found a life of surfing,

so we are trying

to pass that back down

to the next generation.

Jess comes from

a housing commission background,

and he is hungry to do good

for himself.

I've taken him away

on some trips,

and he's charged as hard

as he possibly could every time.

Yeah, we just watch

the swell maps,

and if we see

a big swell coming,

I just ring up Jess and ring his

mum and dad and say,

"Porky, Debbie,

we're going here or there.

Jess is coming."

They say, "No, no, no,"

and I say, "Yes, yes, yes."

Every time we go away,

Koby's got a rule, like,

if you don't charge, you've got

to get your own way home.

The whole point of me taking him

away on the trips

is just letting him have

the life that I've had.

There's nothing like it.

You can earn massive money

and do something you love.

I picked him

because he's respectful

and he wants to do it.

He doesn't sit back

and, you know,

run off our reputations.

He wants to make his own name

for himself.

The only reason

I do go on trips with Koby

is because I'm focused,

and he has already told me

that if I play up

that he won't take me away.

Because Koby is paying for me

to take me away and that,

and I don't want

to let him down.

Whoa, brother!

Oh, he stole it!

The surf has saved

so many kids around here,

you know, and led them

to a lifestyle in the ocean

instead of a lifestyle

in crime.

Maroubra beach has definitely

been moms and dads

to so many kids in Maroubra.

I mean, you go down there,

and you know you are going

to be taken care of.

Any kid can come down there,

and in a strange way, Maroubra

Beach will take care of you.

I had my doubts.

First of all, I was worried

about the drug situations

and all the fights

and all this,

with all this gang talk.

But now I'm not at all,

not at all.

I'm not onefrightened,

not one bit scared

of my son hanging

with the boys.

Confident in it.

It's great.

Oh, only when he first started

hanging down here.

I didn't really know

what to expect.

He was so young, and then there

was the grommet treatment.

I would come down,

and Joel would be tied up,

screaming, "Ma!"

You know tied to Jessie

or something,

eating dog poo

and things like this.

Or he'd be holed up

in a phone box.

And then I got

to know everyone,

and I have

no issues whatsoever.

As Deb said, they treat them

with respect, the kids.

They look after them.

And I think his life

is down here.

Joel just loves it.

There's always been

a sense of mistrust

with the police in the area.

There is a lack of communication

between the two,

and inevitably,

some of the younger kids

get targeted by the police.

This inevitably leads into them

receiving small fines

for things like loitering, which

can stack up quite heavily,

while they are

in their mid-teen years.

- What happened, boys?

- Busted.

In Australia, the fines are

built into

the driver's license system.

So by the age of 16,

these kids can owe

$2,000 or $3,000 in fines.

What that means is

that they're prevented

from getting a driver's license

precisely the time

that they need one to become

a fruitful member of society.

I was only 13 or 14,

and I was trying to sell

Ecstasy pills.

And a guy put a gun

down my throat,

and I still didn't give it up.

So I basically put my life

in front of those tablets.

Started stealing,

breaking into houses and that,

just to sort of support my habit

type thing.

Started using other drugs,

like ecstasy,

cocaine, stuff like that.

Stopped surfing, stopped

training, stopped football.

I used to play req football

and that.

But now it's just all gone

downhill sort of thing.

And then ended up in juvi,

juvenile justice center

sort of thing.

And when you're in there,

you get locked down in a cage

six hours a day.

Was there a message

from the older guys

down here at the beach?

Yeah, there was.

Can't smoke.

Don't take drugs.

Just surf, just,

you know, train, get fit.

Did they think you were

going to end in jail?

Lots of them said that

to me, yeah.

Lots of the boys said,

"Watch out,"

you know, "You're gonna

"you're only gonna go

one place," you know.

A few of the boys

had already been there;

you know, they'd done that.

And you get back out

into the community,

it's sort of like

it's sort of likeyou know,

it's justit's just weird.

And it's like you don't

fit in sort of thing,

you know, because you are used

to being inside and that.

And it's just not

the way to be, man.

It's no life to live at all.

How old are you now?

I'm only 15,

just turned 15.

There has always been

a fork in the road

for youth growing up

in Maroubra.

It's no different

for today's generation.

They can either choose a path

to glory through the ocean

or a path to destruction

and fall off the rails.

All dressed

in black, black, black.

With silver buttons,

buttons, buttons

all down her back,

back, back.

Being a local member of

the community for over 30 years,

I saw a lot of the older crew

who got into crime

end up in Long Bay Jail,

which was practically

in our backyards,

in particular, a violent

standover character

by the name of Anthony Hines,

who I knew

from his early teenage years.

Hinesy ended

serving five years for rape.

After Tony served his time,

he triggered

a series of devastating events

that would change

the course of the lives

of the Abberton family,

who I also knew

since they were kids.

Hinesy was always dark.

There was always something

dark and brooding about Tony.

And he was okay

to talk to one-on-one,

but he was just

on another planet as far as,

he's in the community

but not really part of it.

He had his own thing

happening in his head,

and it certainly wasn't

to do good by people.

Tony Hines had

something in his mind

about Jai

and two other blokes

having slept

with his girlfriend.

Out of the three guys

that Hines had

this obsession with

he wanted to get revenge

one of the guys is now dead;

another guy has been bashed

within an inch of his life

and his sanity,

he was that batted around

the head by Hines.

And thirdly,

Jai was the next guy in line.

That seemed to be Hines' plan.

What you got to realize was,

Tony was a really good friend

of mine

since a young age, you know?

For me, I was feeling

that such a good close friend

put me in a situation like that.

Hinesy just followed them

up to this girl's car

and told Jai

to get in the back.

The girl drove off

with Hines in the front seat.

Hines pulled a gun,

put it behind his head,

and whispered to Jai,

"We're gonna do this."

What Jai knew Hines meant

by "we're going to do this"

was to rape that girl

in the car.

Gun came out.

Jai just acted instinctively,

grabbed the gun.

It went off as they were

grappling with the gun.

Jai just said he shut his eyes

and just kept

that trigger squeezed.

Bloodstained drag marks

led police

to Mistral Point at Maroubra.

20 meters below the cliff,

they found the naked body

of 37-year-old standover man

Tony Hines.

Koby's older brother

Jai Abberton

has been charged

with the murder.

When we first found out

about Jai getting arrested

after the murder,

we just didn't know how to act.

You know, it was just

that uncertainty

of what to do next.

You know, what now?

How is this going

to affect our lives?

And will our lives

ever be the same again?

Six months

into Jai's incarceration,

Koby was arrested by police

for refusing to assist

with the investigation.

He was charged with accessory

to murder after the fact,

hindering

a police investigation,

and attempting to pervert

the course of justice.

When Koby was arrested

as well, I think it just put

it made me feel

totally just numb.

You know, like,

it was incomprehensible

to maybe lose two brothers

to a prison cell

for the rest of their lives.

But I think it was

it made the whole community

feel numb,

the whole extended family,

you know.

Koby faces the Supreme Court

and is granted bail

just days before

an international surfing contest

at Maroubra beach.

When Koby was released three

days before the pro contest

and he drew Kelly Slater

in his first heat,

the whole atmosphere,

the whole tension on the beach,

it was just

it was electrifying, you know.

Here was his chance to say

"You want to have a go at me?

"You want to take

my livelihood away?

"You want to lock me

behind bars?

Well, give it your best shot."

The sponsors tried

to pull his wild card.

His own sponsors

threatened to dump him.

But he was at his home beach,

in front of all of his friends

and the people who mattered,

surfing against

the world champion.

This was it.

This was game on.

Who's going to win?

Kelly or Koby?

Koby.

Kelly or Koby?

Koby!

Good on you, mate.

Good luck.

I had a funny feeling

when I came down

for the Snickers contest,

because I don't remember exactly

what people were saying,

but it was just, you know, like,

"Koby is gonna kick your ass,"

and all this stuff.

Andand, you know,

I'm almost turned around, going,

"Yeah, well,

fuck you too," you know.

And Koby is just,

like, laughing.

But at the same time,

he's kind of serious,

because he wants

to beat me in the heat.

And it was just

a funny little scene.

When he won and came down

to the water,

the whole beach

surged forward

and just formed

a big tunnel for him.

And it was just

it was amazing, you know.

He'd done it.

With his back

up against the wall,

he was representing him

and the whole family

and the whole beach

against the world's best.

And it was amazing.

It was amazing.

Koby beat me

in that first heat we had.

And then the next day,

or maybe that afternoon,

I was surfing,

and somebody left

a note on my car.

It said, "Koby is going to kick

your ass again tomorrow,"

and, you know,

"Fucking beat it, Slater,"

or something like that.

And I just thought

it was so funny.

I was facing 15 years in jail

if I was found guilty.

I was facing 15 years in jail

if I was found guilty.

I'm just ringing up to see

how that swell is in Tahiti.

I just thought, "Fuck it.

"In between

all these court appearances,

"I'm going to go and surf

the biggest waves I can,

the biggest waves

in the world."

I took Mark with me,

and we surfed some

of the maddest waves ever.

When Koby was going

through this court,

and him and Mark were just

all over the globe

surfing crazy waves,

that's definitely

when he shone,

and it shows through

all the covers he got.

It's not because

he was going through court.

It was because

he surfing crazy waves

and stepping up

above everyone else.

And him and Mark were sort of

just going at it, you know.

I mean, like, hammer and tong,

everywhere they went,

they just got the best shots.

Me and Mark, a good rivalry.

It's dangerous, but it's good.

Mate, no one stepped it up

more than Koby, you know.

He was like, "This is it.

"I'm gonna go out

with a bang.

"I'm going to throw it

all on the line

just in case I never get

the chance to do it again."

And after his performance

at Jaws,

Koby teamed up with big wave

legend Laird Hamilton,

who would go on to tow him

into one of

the biggest barrels

ever ridden in Fiji.

Koby had his thing going.

It was his birthday.

"It's your birthday;

today's your birthday."

You know, and he was like

he was gonna get his present.

So he got his present.

I was glad to be

the fortunate one

to be able to give it to him.

I enjoyed it.

It was nice.

And I had a front row.

I was looking straight

in the barrel at him.

And it's funny;

I listen to Koby talk,

and he thinks a lot

like I think.

When you get to meet

people like that,

those are the people you want

to spend some time with.

So when he opened up,

you know, an invitation to me

to come Down Under

and do some surfing

with him and, you know,

his boys, I was,

"I'm going to take him

up on it."

The period that me and Mark

were chasing

those really big waves,

I've been waiting

for that my whole life.

And it was really fulfilling.

It was a shame that I had

so much bad stuff going on

in my life,

because I really didn't get

to appreciate it.

That was the best one all day.

- Huh?

- That was the best one all day.

100% of the times

whenever I was in court,

there was a big swell.

And I would just be

sitting in court,

wouldn't even be watching

the judge, just going,

"The waves are pumping.

I've got to get out of here."

Just throw my hat in, you know,

walk out the door,

and get on the next flight

to wherever I had to be.

People don't understand

that when I'm in court

thinking about these big waves,

that's what I do.

That's my job.

You know, I'm not thinking

about going surfing.

I'm thinking about going

and doing my job

and getting paid

and supporting my family

and doing what I do.

Koby was so angry

and frustrated

and had all this stress

on his mind.

And when he got in the surf,

he was just, you know,

that kind of "fuck it" attitude.

You know what I mean?

Like, he would just put

all that anger and aggression

and all that frustration

into his surfing.

Koby leaves Tahiti

with his final court appearance

in less than 24 hours.

How do you think that will

affect the surf community

if Koby does

go to jail tomorrow?

Fuck.

It'll really suck.

It'll affect

you know, I mean,

hopefully it doesn't happen,

but if it does, you know,

we're just gonna lose

one of, you know,

surfing's biggest

psycho charging pioneers.

You know what I mean?

Definitely one

of the heaviest guys

to come out of Australia

and one of the heaviest guys

in the world.

And one of the heaviest guys

in the world.

My last day in court.

So this afternoon, I'll either

be in jail or be a free man.

We'll see how it goes.

I'll be happy just

to get on with my life again,

start trying to do

good things for my family,

make money and buy houses

and, you know, sell them

and get my little brother

a good education

and help out the family

with money,

because before this,

we were doing really good,

better than my family

had ever gone.

It's okay.

Koby will receive a maximum

of 15 years behind bars

if found guilty.

Yeah, brother.

All right, Koby.

Congratulations, man.

How do you feel, Koby?

Feel good.

Well, what happened today was,

the Crown prosecutor

has formally withdrawn

the charge

of accessory to murder.

And he did that on the basis

that they felt that they just

couldn't win that charge.

There simply wasn't

the evidence there.

And what's left are some

what are known

as backup charges.

There is a backup charge

of pervert the course of justice

and also hinder police.

And I think what will happen

in the fullness of time

is that they'll probably

go away as well.

But we won't know that

for about another

four or five weeks.

Guess what.

I got off court today.

Beat all the charges, Ma.

Not guilty.

I'm a free man, Ma.

Are you happy?

Thrown out of court.

We went to court today.

Threw it out.

How good's that, eh?

No jail for your favorite

grandson, eh?

Good relief, eh?

One down, Ma.

We got one down.

One to go.

Jai's six-week trial

is nearing an end.

He has already spent

20 months in jail.

I got off the accessory

to murder charge,

which is a really big charge.

But then I was still

really worried about Jai,

because he had

a 30-year sentence, you know?

The last thing I wanted to do

was to see Jai

go to jail for the rest

of his life.

Everyone was stoked

and really happy.

It's like sort of

one chapter is over,

but it was kind of still

in the thick of the book.

So we've still got

a lot to go through.

Did Tony Hines threaten

to rape your girlfriend?

It was a bad situation

to be put in, you know.

But I'm not going to sit here

and run Tony down

and say,

"Oh, he's done this,"

because it's a fine line

between telling the story

and telling on someone.

The only person I

the only people

I had to tell the story to

was the jury.

The jury knows the story.

I don't have to explain

the story to anyone else.

Tony had a lengthy

criminal record,

Tony had a lengthy

criminal record,

including entries

for violent sexual assaults

and other serious violent acts

on totally innocent people.

He was a very

complex character.

He could be charming,

and that was

part of his danger.

Through his charm

and his intelligence,

he could put himself

in positions

that would make the people

who were around him

in serious danger

without realizing it.

Just nervous.

Jai is really feeling

the pressure after.

It's been a four-week trial.

He's lost 10 kilos during the

during the trial.

So, you know, we're just

really feeling for him

and anxious on a result.

Obviously,

a good result, but...

pretty much got a feeling

that we want it

to be over, you know?

We're just praying

that justice is served,

and Jai's gotJai's got

a not guilty verdict.

It's just being away

from your loved ones,

being away from the ocean,

you know.

All the young kids

and that out there, you know,

like, "they never will go there"

kind of thing,

like, for uswe're surfers

and for any kids out there.

This was always

going to be difficult.

The circumstances

of the events themselves

painted a poor picture.

But it was important for us

to be able to get out

the facts that are behind

the events that happened.

Oh, mind fuck,

that stressed.

I'm going to make phone calls

to people to say

looks like we're going

to get one today.

How long you reckon

it might be?

I don't know, mate.

It's just fucking...

It's just too much

to bear right now, you know,

to think about exactly

what could happen either way.

You know, he could either

be free or facing, you know,

a long time in jail.

So it's just

Fuck, it's just

Don't worry about it,

all right?

Since I was a kid,

I've never been apart from Koby.

Since Koby was born,

like, the most I've ever been

apart from Koby

is maybe four months

when he went on a holiday.

You know, three months

he'd only usually go for

so that I was never really apart

from Koby.

So I'd see Sunny

because he was coming out,

and I'd see the boys

would come out,

so it was good, you know?

But I'd miss Koby a lot,

you know?

From when we were kids,

you know,

we were always

in the same house.

We were always together.

You know what I mean?

Even though he was

rumbling me every day

and bashing me up,

mucking around every day,

it was still just me and Jai,

you know,

when Sunny was traveling.

When Jai went to jail,

I wasinside me was aching.

I wanted to be

with him so much,

but you don't have to see

someone to love them.

You know what I mean?

And that person

doesn't have to see you

to know that you love them.

We had like ayou know,

that's all I'm saying,

that we knew

that it doesn't matter.

Nothing can break us apart.

Seeing my grandmother too,

you know,

that was

one of my worst fears.

You know, like,

would this outcome happen

before my grandmother

passed away, you know?

Would my grandmother

get to see

what really happened

and stuff, you know?

Silver buttons,

buttons, buttons

all down her back,

back, back.

How are you feeling, Jai?

Tell us how it feels

to be free.

I'm on top of the world.

Have you been holding that cross

for that whole time?

I always had

faith in God, always.

So those moments in that car,

it must have been

horrific for you.

No comment now, guys.

The family will be issuing

a statement tomorrow.

This juryl mean,

unheard-of scenes,

as far as I am aware.

They stayed and hugged

and kissed him

after they delivered

the verdict.

And if my recollection

is correct,

they even whispered in his ear

that they were so proud

that he had been as brave

as he was.

I got a call,

and I picked up the phone.

And I'm like, "Who's this?"

He's like, "It's Jai."

And I'm like, "What?"

He said, "Yeah, well,

I'm standing

out in the front

of the court house."

He just started screaming

his head off.

It was probably

the happiest day of my life.

I could not believe it.

Well, I'd be surprised

if any other lawyers

or any other person

who's had to go through

the legal system

as an accused

has put on a party

like the Bra Boys

put on for us that night.

Here comes the legal team!

Tunnel!

The party was one of the most

moving moments of my life.

They formed

a guard of honor for us.

They cheered

and shouted our names.

There were women

and children there,

all people

from the community.

And it just really made me

feel fantastic

to have been able to do

something like that

for a person like Jai.

I thank God to this day,

you know,

that my grandmother

got to be happy, you know,

and my grandmother got to see me

get cleared and see that.

And, yeah, it's the best thing

in the world.

Now, the jury

also had the alternative

of finding him guilty

of manslaughter

if they thought that Abberton

didn't think that

the shooting was reasonable.

Instead, the jury let him

walk away a free man.

I always knew that I'd be back

in the water, you know?

But I just didn't know

whether the jury

were gonna see it

for what it was.

It was good to be back.

Had all my brothers

there with me.

It was probably one of

the best times in my life,

just sitting back

and being free again

and kick back, surfing;

it was good.

Tell you the truth, I never

thought it would happen,

so it's the best thing ever.

I used to fall asleep crying

thinking about him,

you know, not being able to surf

with him again.

So you can see

how happy he is too,

so it's mad.

Every time I spoke to Jai

when he was in trouble,

I didn't speak to him much,

but he just really

said to me,

"This is what

we're going to do, Koby.

"We're going to charge

big waves from now on.

That's our lives."

So as soon as he got out,

that's what we did.

We went and just charged

big waves.

We got ourselves ready

with a couple of little trips

that just happened to be

the heaviest waves

in Australia anyway.

But we were pretty much

getting ready

for the grand final,

which was Cyclops,

which is renowned as

the heaviest wave in Australia

and probably the only wave

in Australia that scares me.

We'd seen the wave

and were starting to plan it.

And there was

a massive swell came

that we really had

no idea where to go,

no idea where it was;

no one did.

We don't know

if we go that way into it

and right to there.

But then we don't want

to go there.

We want to get to there,

so if we're in between

Face it like that.

That's how it is.

- Yeah, we know.

- The point is up there.

So when we couldn't go any

further with four-wheel drives,

we launched the skis,

just went exploring.

And after about

an hour and a half...

Hey, there's full-on seals

on the island,

big albino dolphins.

It's hectic out there, bra.

We found this wave about

2 kilometers out in the ocean,

just huge and just going...

It's the sort of place

where you take the wrong wave

regardless of who you are

you know, Kelly Slater,

Andy Irons, Koby Abberton.

You take the wrong wave,

and you're going to eat it.

And when you eat it there,

it's probably

about the worst place

you could wipe out

in the world.

I can't describe it much

but saying

it's barely surfable,

you know.

And that's giving it

a compliment.

It's just so heavy and thick

and big and shallow

and dangerous.

There's not much more

a wave could be

that's any heavier

or more dangerous.

I mean, that coastline is

really known for its sharks,

white pointers in particular.

There are some beaches

not far from there

where there's four or five

tombstones on the beach

for people

that have been eaten.

Cyclops is so scary

because it's six hours

from the hospital,

a four-hour car ride

and two-hour jet ski ride.

So if you hurt yourself

properly,

you're in a lot of trouble.

Through natural selection,

there is only going to be

a handful of guys

that are going to be able

to do it anyway.

You've generally got to be

a pretty red-hot surfer

to start with

to be able to ride this stuff.

But probably the other thing

is the mental aptitude.

You've got to have a brain

that will allow you

to take off on a wave

like that,

and that's

where these guys differ

a lot from most every surfers.

One of these things

with these trips,

that there is a lot at risk

a lot of the time.

And when Koby cut himself

on the third wave,

sliced two veins in his arm,

and we're

in shark-infested water,

we basically had to make

the decision, you know.

Do we pack up and go?

Or do we at least try and do

what we came here to do,

which is surf on one

of the most dangerous waves

in Australia, so...

There's gonna be

fuckin' ten great whites here

in five seconds, bra.

Who cares?

Let's go.

The whole water was just

burlied up with blood.

We didn't see any sharks,

but they were

definitely there.

We hadthe wave was

so shallow and so dangerous

that you couldn't wear

a leash to your board,

because that would drag you

over onto the rocks

and then over onto the reef.

He's in trouble, man.

Oh, you got that.

All right.

Beef's got the first aid kit,

but we'll get a towel around

that now, mate.

No, don't, bra.

The best part

of our lifestyle

is that adrenaline

part of it, you know.

Where it is an adventure,

you are part putting yourself

on the line.

That's how we do

in the desert.

Nah, pretty good trip.

Yeah, it's good just to be

surfing with my brother

and my good mates.

It's just good to be back here

surfing with the boys.

Bringing that up.

The boys were all just happy

to be back together

doing what they love.

But just when they were

feeling on top of the world,

they received

a phone call from home

which would again

devastate them.

It's just sad to see

such a lady

who gave everything

she gave us a house,

the backyard, the pool.

There's a full clubhouse

out the back.

You know, it was a lady

who just opened the door

to justyou know,

just struggling kids.

That was a big heart-wrenching

thing for us to see,

that for Ma to die while Jai

or Koby was in jail,

you know,

almost would have been

like she'd failed.

So...

Yeah, it was just

it was just so important

for Jai and Koby

to be cleared, you know,

before she passed away.

Ma played a big role

in our lives,

and after she passed away,

we realized how much

of an influence she was on us.

One of the many things

she did teach us

was not to judge people

by how much money they had

or by their skin color

but by the type of person

they were.

Perhaps it was Ma's wisdom

that would prepare us

for yet another dramatic turn

in our beach community.

December 2005,

nearby Cronulla Beach exploded

onto newspapers around the world

courtesy of a shameful exchange

between the local surf community

and Sydney's Lebanese community.

Claim back the beach!

Claim back the beach!

Claim back the beach!

Claim back the beach!

With police moving in to enforce

a lockdown of Cronulla,

convoys of youth

from Sydney's inner suburbs

staged retaliatory attacks

on the surf community.

Yeah, as a matter

of urgency,

could all the St. George

Highway Patrol OSC cars

deploy to Maroubra ASAP,

please?

I think we might need

some help here.

Maroubra Beach,

although not part

of the incident at Cronulla,

was the target.

With word

of the reprisal attacks

circulating around the beach,

the Bra Boys gathered

to defend the area.

We only had a couple of minutes

to prepare for the attack.

We started getting calls

that there was 150 armed men

heading our way,

smashing everything

in their paths.

They just ran down the hill,

a whole bunch of them,

you know.

Frog got to 'em first

and said,

"Fuckin' take it easy, guys,"

and they just fuckin'

batted him down.

He just went straight at 'em.

He was the first guy to reach

the whole fucking...

the whole gang.

Next followed up, was a wave

of the fucking jujitsu party.

Sunny and that, came up behind him.

By the time they got there,

fucking Frog

was gettin' pumped.

Fuckin' what?

Hundred of 'em?

Mate.

Fuckin'...

nothin'.

And then it just got into

a running race, you know?

They took off up the hill.

The boys chase after them,

caught up

with a couple of them,

and then, you know,

they pretty much drove off.

But fuck, they left

a path of destruction.

The following day,

with sensational media reporting

about a race war between

Anglo-Australians

and Lebanese-Australians,

the Bra Boys

used their association

with migrant communities

to work behind the scenes

to help broker a peace deal

between the warring factions.

Maroubra has had

a very good relationship

with the local

Lebanese community here

for around ten years.

We're calling

for calm on the beaches.

And we've never, ever

backed these things

against the Lebanese

community, never.

We never have,

and we never will.

Is it true

the Bra Boys were involved

in protecting the police

last night?

We don't protect police,

full stop.

It was a defining moment

for the Bra Boys,

so often criticized

for their antisocial behavior

and running battle

with authorities.

There was some confusion

about their role as peacemaker.

We called for peace

in the race riots

because, number one,

we had nothing to do

with what happened

at Cronulla.

Number two, we've got one of

the most multicultural beaches

in Australia.

And number three,

if one of the kids

from here were killed,

it would have spiraled

out of control,

and it would have been

very hard to stop.

But, you know,

the ironic thing was

that half of people

who defended the beach

that night were ethnic,

and three of them couldn't

even speak English.

We think the beach

belongs to everyone,

but when people go to a beach,

any beach around the world,

they need to realize that

there might be a whole history

and a culture there

spanning for generations,

and that should be respected.

After a three-year

roller-coaster ordeal,

the Abberton brothers

and the rest of the Bra Boys

are back together

where they belong.

And as time goes on

and the tribe names change,

the ocean will continue

to give solace

to the youth

of the place of thunder,

and the next generations

will fight

to keep its culture alive.

- Aboriginal.

- Australian.

- Cook Islands.

- Lebanese.

Half Australian,

and half-Samoan.

Half Italian,

half Australian.

Half Aboriginal,

half Danish.

Half Australian,

half Rotuman.

- Brazilian.

- Australian.

- Half Australian, half Czech.

- Chilean.

Half Australian,

half Nigerian.

Half Australian,

half Chinese.

Australian, mate.

Who knows? Maroubra?

Thank you!

I'm glad you fucking came

to Maroubra!