Natural ability, a sharp intellect and an irrepressible social conscious combine to make Barton Lynch one of the most formidable figures in surfing of the last three decades.
Barton emerged from the beach-breaks of Manly with a flexible style and a fiercely competitive drive, which helped him achieve an impressive junior career with victories in the Pro Junior, the JJJ Junior and the Australian Professional Surfing Association (APSA) ratings.
He refined his competitive act into a near flawless, fluid routine of vertical manoeuvres that brought him immediate success on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) world tour. He spent 13 consecutive years in the elite top 16 rated surfers, earning a reputation as a tactical competitor as well as a forthright and articulate spokesman for the sport.
His greatest competitive moment could not have been more perfectly scripted, as he surfed the perfect tubes of Hawaii's famed Pipeline, to take out the 1988 Billabong Pro and the World Title. He retired from competition in March 1998, after 15 years on the ASP tour and a total of 17 WCT victories.
Barton has given his time generously to charities and community service, including the Variety Club, the Humpty Dumpty Foundation and the Disabled Surfers Association (DSA) of which he is Patron. He donated $15,000 to the DSA and organised the surfers' protest against French Nuclear Testing in the South Pacific. He spent 10 years on the ASP Board as a surfers' representative and a passionate advocate for surfers' rights in the marketplace.
Barton received the Association of Surfing Professionals' (ASP) Sportsman Award in 1995, the ASP Service to the Sport Award in 1997, was inducted into the Australian Surfing Hall of Fame in 1998 and into the Australian Sporting Hall of Fame in 2000.
Since retiring from competition BL has continued with his love of surfing and gets on the board everyday. He has also taken passionately to snowboarding and skateboarding. BL is known as the thinking mans surfer and for his opinions, story telling and eloquence. Consequently he has appeared and spoken for many companies including BMW/MINI, BankWest, Commonwealth Bank, Sensis, ABN AMRO, Credit Suisse and Blake Dawson Waldron.
BL mentors, coaches and trains hundreds of surfers of all levels including many of the countries aspiring champions and his programs include 3day intensive camps, Weekend Camps, Day Squads, afternoon squads, Hawaii camps, Private Tuition and the Corporate day of Stoke.
BL is Australia's leading independent board sports consultant and clients have included V energy drink, Milo, The Australian Jockey club, Clearasil, Messenger Publishing, Carveboards Australia, GQ mag, ON Sport Management, Explore Planet Earth, Vitaman and others.
BL has been executive producer on 60 Television programs including 52 episodes of the RA Board riders show on Fox8, and other programs that have aired on Channel 10, 9 and Fuel.
In 2006 he created BL's Blast Off, Australia's premier pre junior surfing event and coaching program. Now in its 4th year BL's Blast Off attracts the countries best surfers both boys and girls under 14 to Sydney's northern beaches in the October school holidays for a surfing celebration like no other.
BL loves writing and has been published in Inside Sport magazine, Surfing World, Japan Surfing World, Juice magazine, Australian Snowboarder, Tracks Magazine and is currently working on a few of his own publishing projects.
