Surf City, Sydney

Thanks to Ray Moran at the South Steyne Lifesavers Club and the Manly Daily for this great slideshow…

image from South Steyne SLSA picture archives

According to Stephen Thompson, who curated Surf! Environment, Politics and Life at the Laperouse Museum in 1997 and wrote this entry on the late 40s Kivlin Balsa Mal at the ANMM, The impact (of the visiting US lifesaver’s malibu demos in 1956) was broadened when newsreel footage of the team surfing Collaroy was shown at cinemas (movietone news 28/3/56). This was followed by a colour film titled Service in the Sun (1957) that was commissioned by the sponsors Qantas and Ampol Australia. 
http://vimeo.com/9699526
This film included three and half minutes of the American team surfing at Bondi. After cinema release, the footage was shown independently in virtually every Surf Life Saving Club on the Australian coast.

Thomas Edward Blake, born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 8, 1902 and died in 1994 at the age of 92.

image: surfing heritage foundation

Here’s a roll call for starters…

1922 – set the world swimming record in the ten mile open
1926 – first person to surf Malibu, along with Sam Reid
1926 – invented the hollow surfboard
1928 – won the first Pacific Coast Surfriding Championship
1928 – invented the hollow paddleboard
1929 – invented the water-proof camera housing
1931 – invented the sailboard
1931 – patented & manufactured the first production surfboard
1932 – won the Catalina Paddleboard Race
1935 – invented the surfboard fin, aka skeg or keel
1935 – published the first book solely devoted to surfing, Hawaiian Surfboard
1937 – produced & patented the first torpedo buoy and rescue ring, both made of “dua-aluminum”
1940s – first production sailboards, leader in physical fitness, natural foods and healthy diet and virtually began the surfing lifestyle as we know it