Part two: The Gold Coast is home to a lot of iconic figures, but none more so than these…
Muscle-man Caribbean Thor, playboy Candyman and 101-year-old bikini pioneer Paula Stafford and Damien Rider who skydived off a hot air balloon are cult figures in part two of our series.
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The Glitter Strip is known for its quirky and loveable identities who don’t always make headlines, but make an impact in their communities.
There’s so many that after revealing the top 10 cult icons of the Gold Coast, we were flooded with requests to add some other notable and zany local characters to the list.
Without further ado, we introduce eight more iconic figures:
Caribbean Thor (Christian Perez)
Gold Coast bouncer Christian Perez aka ‘Caribbean Thor’, was dubbed a hero in 2020 after breaking up a violent and bloody brawl in Surfers Paradise.
In the aftermath of the vicious attack, which according to witnesses left one man “so bloody he was unrecognisable”, Mr Perez blasted onlookers who were filming the incident and not helping to intervene.
He told the Bulletin: “It was horrible, he was completely covered in blood. Like the scene from Carrie where there was pigs blood everywhere, it was just like that but the kid’s blood,” Mr Perez said of the incident.
Mr Perez assisted paramedics at the scene, where the man was rushed to hospital with facial injuries. He’s since become somewhat of an “unofficial protector” for Surfers Paradise partygoers.
These days the buff and brawny Perez is enjoying the fruits of fatherhood and serves up the odd shirtless selfie for his 12,000 followers on Instagram.
Travers ‘The Candyman’ Beynon
Tobacco tycoon Travers Beynon is no stranger to publicity after nearly a decade in the spotlight as a wild party man and Australia’s answer to Hugh Hefner.
Better known as The Candyman persona, Beynon is one of the Gold Coast’s most talked about and colourful characters, having gone from AFL hopeful to superstar model to head honcho behind tobacconist empire Free Choice.
Always surrounded by a bevy of beauties, his crazy ‘Candyman Mansion’ parties and high-profile antics have gained him some notoriety over the years. The married Beynon parades a live-in girlfriend on Instagram and scantily-clad antics regularly.
Late last year, he reached a secret settlement with a neighbour he claimed had defamed him in emails.
In late 2017, he received coverage for a good deed – he presented then seven-year-old Brydi Saul, born a paraplegic, with a $7500 imported custom-made bike she needs to compete in triathlons.
During the bike handover, he admitted he would have preferred to do it without the publicity – given it didn’t fit with his image – but he turned up to help with highlighting the I Can I Will charity partner and to give it some profile: “If it was just me I would have done it privately. There’s a saying if you do something good and more than two people know about it, you haven’t done it for the right reasons,” Mr Beynon said.
“This is not the first time I have done something like this but I don’t need to prove anything to anybody.”
Kerry Smith
Few councillors are better remembered than lawyer-turned-politician Kerry Smith.
The eccentric Kerry attempted to enter politics in the late 1980s on an anti-monorail platform but was finally elected in 1991.
She was a close ally of Southport’s Dawn Crichlow and the pair were known for their antics, including buying then-mayor Lex Bell a pet pig named Oink.
Kerry even bought a rabbit during a trip to Canberra with Cr Crichlow and brought it back to the Gold Coast in violation of existing laws.
Despite police threatening to charge her, Kerry was able to keep the rabbit by negotiating for it to be used by a Broadbeach school for educational purposes.
Kerry left office in 1994.
Jayson Huthmann-Grace
Meet the Gold Coast’s real life superhero.
Jayson Huthmann-Grace became a local legend after he tackled an alleged car thief who dumped a stolen car at a Labrador sports field last year.
The Gold Coast father-of-three and Aquaman lookalike chased one alleged thief on foot before lunging and making the diving tackle.
Polair footage showed the co-accused appearing to stop before surrendering to the ground as the police officer arrived and subdued him.
Police said the drama unfolded at a sports field just before the start of an OzTag game.
Mr Huthmann-Grace was coaching his son’s OzTag team when he saw a helicopter circling in the sky and police lights.
“My first initial thought was ‘holy s**t, are they going to be driving that car on the field?’” he said.
“Luckily they didn’t because there are safety bollards.
“Then I saw two guys running and the police were trying to chase them.
“I ran about 80 metres to catch the guys and then did a baseball slide underneath the fence, got up and started straight for the bigger guy and tackled him.”
Claude ‘The Lawn Mower Man’ Harvey
Bestowed an Order of Australia Medal in 2019, Claude Harvey has raised more than a million dollars to help at risk children.
The grandfather has spent more than two decades walking his trusty mower across Australia to fundraise, first for the Gold Coast Project for Homeless Youth in 2000.
It was after child protection organisation Bravehearts visited his granddaughter’s school in 2008 he decided to start pushing the mower for them.
“I really started because two girls close to my heart were sexually abused, and the guy got away with it,” he said.
“Just thinking about these two little girls keeps me going, and one of them came up to me before I went to South Australia and said ‘do you do this because of me and my sister?’, and she thanked me for it.”
Paula Stafford
Bikini pioneer Paula Stafford, 101, changed the face of beachwear on the Gold Coast after unleashing a scandalous section of midriff on Surfers beach in 1952.
She is credited with bringing the bikini to Australian shores.
A woman wearing a Stafford bikini was ordered off a beach for being immodest, and the designer turned it into a PR stunt by sending five models to the beach in bikinis.
The mother-of-four leveraged the attention into a lengthy fashion career, with a brand supplying more than 400 stores, a chain of boutiques carrying her name and a manufacturing staff of 65.
“We were living at Surfers Paradise and everybody wanted what I was wearing,” she recalled in 2020.
“I kept telling them I was too busy with four children. But I agreed to make one for someone and orders rushed in, it all went a bit bonkers.”
Stefan Ackerie
Hair-dressing supremo, world-record-breaking boat racer, savvy businessman and veteran restaurateur are just a few words used to describe this cult figure.
Stefan Ackerie, an avid power boat racer with six Australian championships and a world record to his name, came to Australia from Lebanon in 1957.
In the decades since, he has built one of the largest hairdressing chains in the country, with more than 30 stores across Queensland.
He also runs a boat dealership called Stefan Boating World at Coomera.
In 2014, Mr Ackerie told the Bulletin about his love for the Glitter Strip.
“It literally is a paradise, not just the beaches but the weather, the people,” he said.
“I remember when I drove into Surfers Paradise it was a beautiful day, I was in a beautiful blue sports car, everybody was waving to me and I was waving back to everybody.
“I think God may have had some thoughts about living here himself, it’s a beautiful place.”
Damien Rider
When he’s not undertaking painstaking 800km paddles from the Gold Coast to Sydney while battling monster sharks and massive swells, Damien Rider is running marathons with a mattress on his back - and skydiving off the top of hot air balloons.
Yes, you read that right.
The Gold Coast boundary-pushing adventurer’s most recent high-octane stunt involved a world-first skydive off the top of a hot-air balloon. And just prior to the awe-inspiring leap, he sat atop the balloon and meditated.
He also had a brief stint on The Bachelorette, where he vied for the affections of blonde bombshell Ali Oetjen.
Mr Rider, who has been vocal about sexual abuse he suffered as a child and has used his exploits to raise funds and awareness, once paddled all the way from Rainbow Bay at Coolangatta to Sydney’s Bondi Beach.
Word is he has something in the wings that surpasses even the hot air balloon dive. Watch this space.
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