Surf City, Sydney

Here’s an early stab at a surfboard history wishlist… (with plenty more to come)

1950s

tom blake hollow paddler
16′ toothpick racer
late 40s quigg/kivlin/rochlen ‘malibu’
foil shaped balsa gun (as demonstrated in ’56 by US lifesavers)
dillon (velzy style) gel coated pig
dave nuuhiwa noserider
woods hollow ockanui

1960s

bennett foam/glass mal
geoff cater’s 62 recessed stringer, hollow mal
dillon gun for queenscliff bombie
keyo balso hot dog ’63 (ie midget makaha)
hayden thin railed hot dogger ’64 (ie midget manly)
cabell model mal by mcdonagh ’64
dave nuuhiwa style noserider model
multi stringer phil edwards inspired model

woods ’64 island design mal
keyo mctavish ‘sam’ style ’66
woods involvement model ’67
mctavish gun style stubbie
greenough style spoon
vee bottom stubbie (wide tail)
stubbie pin tale
rounded pin
tracker/pocket rocket

1970s

lynch involvement model
super egg – double ender
rounded pin, down rails
twin fin ’71
fitzgerald speed model, worthington spray
shane/farrelly standard (white kite)
swallow tail
stinger, channelled, etc
thruster

Words of wisdom from Inara put me straight today. Focus, first of all, on what kind of stuff you think visitors are gonna want to see when they walk into the exhibition space, was her advice. So that’s what I’ve been working on – putting aside the cultural analysis, character development, technical histories and surfer biographies for the moment to think about the basic 3D install and the kind of ‘must-see’ objects that both surfers and non-surfers would anticipate in the show.

Well, this is where I’m at so far… the show will contain a core installation of beautiful, resonant boards (treasures, icons and design breakthroughs, favouring desirable, classy examples over gnarly, misshapen clunkers), high impact moving footage and interviews, breathtaking photography, nostalgic beachwares and surfing accessories, clothing, artefacts, magazines, etc and a large format interactive map of the Sydney coastline. Oh yeah…and an EH station wagon out front.

Ended a big weekend eyeing off classic and curious old sticks at Geoff Cater’s [surfresearch.com.au] amazing exhibition of surfing treasures strewn across the Gerringong Town Hall floor in, as Geoff said it, true darwinian style. You get the feeling these boards are dying to be back in the water.

Geoff was generous with his time, passion and knowledge and even agreed to help us out with the MOS board installation with advice and direction – bringing his critical insights, balanced perpectives and, in his own words, ‘palpable enthusiasm’ to the job facing us in Nov 2011.

Picked up a great 5′ 10″ thruster for Charlie today and tried it out this afternoon in 2 foot shories at Harbord.

We all reckoned this mint condition ‘surfo’  stole the show at the inaugural Deus Surfboard Swap Meet, along with several Gordon Woods boards (couple of transitional era trackers and a fantastic ’64 triple stringer Island Design malibu), a few Keyo plastic machines and vee bottom brethren, a pair of Hot Buttered speed boards and a beautifully sprayed Sea ‘biscuit’.

Lucky enough to catch Australian prog rockers Taman Shud at the recent Manly Surf Festival, in the soiled nether regions of the Old Manly Boat Shed.

Heard stuff straight out of early 70s Sunbury…in equal parts fresh and primordial that totally blew a drunk and largely unsuspecting audience away. Even got a glimpse of their earlier stuff, back when they called themselves the ‘Sunsets’ and sonically energised Paul Witzig’s explosive ’67 surf movie The Hot Generation.

Knocked out by tunes from the spacey rock soundtrack of Evolution, Witzig’s follow up surf movie in ’69 and the Shud’s first commercial recording.

Here’s an essay on the band’s amazing story.

Just heard Nell Schofield talk about her new exhibition Wax On at the Hazelhurst Art Centre.  It features mainly recently commissioned and created art works inspired by beachgoing and surfing and, as well as featuring fantastic stuff to look at, treads confidently through surf culture’s muddy minefields of sexism, environmental damage, localism and intolerance.

She’s also put together a great blog (onwaxon) documenting the exhibition development process and exploring cool tangents and linked themes.

Met Dave Milnes on the weekend.

(poorly) cropped from photo by Dave Milnes

He’s been photographing surfers, mostly on the NSW south coast since the early 60s and caught this fantastic shot of Midget Farrelly trimming at the watershed Manly world titles in ’64, with a boatload of clubbies looking typically churlish in the background.

Rubbed shoulders yesterday with Sydney surfer Steve Cooney at a curb side book launch for Andrew Crockett’s impressive Switchfoot 2 mega compendium of surfer interviews, photos and lore.

Here is soul surfer Steve, age 15, in the Falzon/Elfick surf movie Morning of the Earth, first screened in 1972.

This movie unlocked the secrets of Uluwatu and sparked a deep desire for undiscovered breaks in dreamy, far away locations. Don’t think anyone would argue that Bali has ever been the same since.