Surf City, Sydney

A nice take on Little Pattie’s debut single He’s My Blonde-Headed, Stompie-Wompie, Real Gone Surfer Boy, co-written according to wikipedia by Jay Justin and Joe Halford that surfaced in the final months of Sydney’s surf-music craze at the tail end of 1963, just as Beatlemania was starting to stir.

Sydney surfer Rick Collins sent in this 1968 photo of his MGB with a nifty set of bespoke board racks, on a road trip somewhere out of town, taken by his girlfriend. Photo courtesy Rick Collins

I took the opportunity to ask Rick a few questions about his inspired invention…

Cool pic and great idea – I’m wondering what kind of niche market would there have been for surfers with MGs in those days…?

Carrying a board was a real problem if you wanted to take a passenger.

Can you tell me a few things about them like – where did you make them, or have them made?

The board racks are home made – just needed a tube bender, some welding & some tubing. Looking back on it they were knocked up pretty quickly and were not really that well made however they did the job. They would definitely not have passed a RTA roadworthy inspection. They were fairly secure and could travel at speed however were not quite so secure with the hood up.

The board looks like 66/67 vintage, was it yours and if so what was it…?

It was an older board that I bought secondhand. I did not know how old it was or what type it was. Back in those days as long as it did the job, I would not have asked too many questions.

Where was this pic taken and was it taken for promo purposes or just a random photo…?

Not exactly sure where it was taken however I am pretty sure it was near one of the beaches along the South Coast. It was just a random photo taken at the time.

Who took the photo?

It was taken by my girlfriend Novello (who became my wife – and still is my wife).

It looks like you’ve got a trailer hooked up. Where were you off to…?

Surfing the South Coast. It was an interesting trailer for carrying around all the surf gear etc.. It was fully sheet metal covered all over with no windows and two lockable back doors. It was about 2m long, 1.5m wide & about 1.4m high inside. We could half stand up inside. It used to belong to a baker who used it as a spare on his bread run. He had it custom made. It must have looked really ridiculous being towed by the MGB however back then, at that age, that did not matter.

Where was your surfing base in Sydney…?

The Northern beaches mostly between Mona Vale and Palm Beach depending on the surf, conditions etc..

Would it be OK for us to post your photo on our blog and use it in the exhibition…?

No problem – glad someone can enjoy it. Nobody has looked at it for probably over 40 years. I am just pleased that I was able to find it after reading about your exhibition.

Manly 13 year old John Smythe in 1962 on his Gordon Woods ‘Foley’ six footer, photo courtesy John Smythe

Received a whole pile of great pics over the weekend from Manly veteran John Smythe, who admitted he went …a bit ballistic on the scanner on this bleak Saturday with not much surf.

Here’s what John says about the short foam boards he and his mates were riding in the early 60s… Gordon Woods made mine and another friends 6ft 6″ board and Scotty Dillon made one for another friend. John Otton had a small board made for him around 1960 it was marble painted. Dave Treloar had the (6 foot?) Hobie his brother bought him in the states c1961. So there was, around 1962-63, a small number of (Sydney) grommets riding short boards.

This is Michael McCormack ‘Little Maca’. He is riding a foam board that was so full of holes that he’d have to stand it up against wall after a surf to let it drain out. This would have been 1960 possibly 1959 as it was already (a wreck?) when the photo was taken.

Big thanks to John Smythe for the photos and notes.

image sourced from The Surfing World Vol 5 No 4 December 1964 page 14

Just had a great conversation with Bruen Finey, a fibreglass sculptor and manufacturer in Brookvale in the late 1950s and 60s who made surfboards for Dunlop along with his own business ‘Crest Surfboards’ out of a factory in Roger Street. Dunlop distributed his boards far and wide across the state – wherever they had a sports store.

Bruen left the army after 1945 and studied sculpture, funded by an ex-war service grant, and took up working with fibreglass and foam in the 1950s, building chemical vats and shop displays, based in Brookvale where land was cheap and other fibreglass companies were located. Read the rest of this entry »

Great photo of Maroubra surfers Barry and Wayne Dixon… at home (as Barry writes) around 1968. That board wasn’t mine as I wasn’t allowed to surf on fibreglass boards then as Dad thought they were going to kill us. Nothing could stop me though and before long I was out there – them were the days… photo courtesy of Barry Dixon

Middleton Avenue youngster Dorothy Watson was about 9 when this photo was taken at Bondi in 1931, according to her son Ross Bailey, who went on to share her love of the beach, cool jazz and a good sized surf. Dorothy was there at Bondi in 1931 on Black Sunday and remembered the waves sweeping terrified beachgoers out to sea and the hundreds of swimmers rescued. Thanks to Ross Bailey for this and a handful of other great photos.

So what about the “Sun Silver Reel” imprint stamped on her costume…? According to Manly Local Studies Librarian John McRitchie… the Sun (newspaper) ran a competition in late 1931 to find out which beach had the most beautiful and sporting girls – Manly or Bondi. The prize was a solid silver life reel. Alderman McNiven of Waverley Council asserted “We have the beach, we have the men, and we have the beauty too.” The finale was held at Bondi on 12 December 1931. Manly won the Senior Girls division, and Bondi won the junior boys and junior girls divisions. The trainers of the two teams were Harry Hay (Manly) and Val Atkinson (Bondi). See Sun, 20 December 1931 for some great photos.

Big Thanks to John McRitchie for setting us straight.

Sun Silver Reel contest entrants Dorothy Watson (left) and friend at Bondi around 1931, courtesy Ross Bailey

Dorothy Watson, The Sun Silver Reels, photo taken at Tamarama 1931, courtesy Ross Bailey

Dorothy Watson and friend, The Sun Silver Reels, photo taken at Tamarama 1931, courtesy Ross Bailey

 

Edited sampler of footage shot around Cronulla in the mid to late 70s by local surfer, film-maker and board riding club mover Alastair Waddell, courtesy of Alastair Waddell.

In 1976, when he first screened his movie Just Cruising – An Australian Surf Movie Alastair Waddell had been surfing around Cronulla for almost 20 years and closely involved in the local boardriding club scene. He shot the affectionate flick using a camera bought from Jack Eden and a lengthy lens that used to belong to Bob Evans, two of surfing’s big hitters of the 60s. His aim was to promote Australian surfing overseas and give Cronulla surfers a rare opportunity to shine on the big screen. It was a pleasure to meet and interview Alastair today and get his perspective on 60s and 70s beach life, movie making, competitive surfing and Cronulla waxhead culture.

Alastair on the beach near Red House, Cronulla, for Just Cruising promo shots in 1976, courtesy Alastair Waddell

Fantastic poster rescued from Narrabeen Boys High, clipped into a scrapbook around 1964 by Marilyn Birmingham, courtesy Marilyn Birmingham

Here’s a special treat…colour surf movies at 12.30 and 15.20 in the Geography Room at Narrabeen Boys High arranged, as the poster says, by ‘Nat’ Young who, according to those who were there, was a peerless president of the school surfing team in the early 1960s.

Ron Perrott photo of Sydney Bells surf contest 1965-66 courtesy of Ron and Kath Saggers

Petroleum giant Ampol was a keen supporter of Sydney’s lifesaving and fledgling surf contest scene from the early 1960s, getting behind the first ‘Invitational’ championships at Bondi in 1963 and the so called ‘world’ contest at Manly the next year. Someone should be able to identify the beach above, where some kind of a contest is underway, around 64 and 65 going by the boards, proudly brought to you by…

Craig Baird from Surfworld Torquay thankfully sets the record straight…Sorry folks but that is a contest at Bells. Ampol had a long association with contests at Bells and sponsored the Vic Open titles for a number of years. They also sponsored the Aussie titles there in 1967.

Super 8 footage shot by David Clifton around Bronte Beach, 1976, courtesy David Clifton

No stretch of footpath, driveway, storm water channel, overhanging bush, cement slope or random act of paving was safe from the onslaught of mid 70s skating, as shown here by the guys around Bronte Beach in 1976. Surfer David Clifton was nursing a broken arm that summer so turned his time to filming his friends in and out of the surf. The new polyurethane wheels and flex decks, hot from the US had reignited a skater craze, complete with the latest moves – layback cutbacks, handstands, double deckers, tick-tacks, coffin rides and the rest of it.