Vale - The Hat

[Felix]

The Hat (aka Harry the Hat) passed away up in Ballina recently according to the Manly Daily last Saturday. Although I did not know him well I shared many a surf with him over the years. He was 82 ... a good bloke.

[kreepykrawly]

Harry would always give you the time for a chat… whether it’s about black fishing at Longy, board shaping or a nostalgic chat about the way things where in the past.
I will certainly never forget him. A true gentleman that would give anyone the time of day.
In fact he could possibly be the total opposite of me. We need more people like that in the world. It's a true loss.

Gonna light a candle for ya at Longy me old mate.


Top Bloke.

RIP

[daisy]

thanks for posting this. he was a substitute teacher at my high school back in the 80s... it was never very hard to get him talking about surfing, he used to tell us about riding hollow wooden boards in the real old days. i think it was the first time i heard of queenscliff bombie. i remember more of those stories than most of what i heard from our regular teachers.

[moreorless]

Yes, a top guy. Full of great stories about the old days.

I remember him dropping into sets at Longie bombie back in the 1970s, when he must have been hitting 50. He was still doing the same thing 20 years later. A real inspiration to surfers of all ages.

[Nick Carroll]

Harry the Hat! Used to surf south Newport with us. We were only 14 or something but it always gave us a vague hope that we'd be surfing when we were about a hundred years old too. Good on ya Harry! A surfer's life is a happy one, he'd have known that for sure.

[Surfin Turf]

crikey he got around ... I remember him out DY point when I was about 15 ....

[chrisb]

I remember him from around 1972-1975 out the back at North Narrabeen but only when the waves were bigger. He looked like an old bloke then but when your'e barely out of school everyone looks old.

He was very unconventional: the only guy in the surf who wore a hat and in the midst of the shortboard revolution he rode what appeared to be a sizeable board and on the side of his board was emblazoned the label "The Hat".

As others have already said we was a friendly chatty guy. A real character.

Vale.

PS: Does anyone know when he actually stopped surfing?

[daisy]

yeah i remember him saying that the shortest board he ever rode was a 7'6 ... it sounded pretty strange to a couple of high school kids at a time when the pros in the mags were riding stubby little thrusters well under 6'.

[Lucky Al]

who was the hat? where can i read a full obit?

[Felix]

who was the hat? where can i read a full obit?

Frederick Noel Pentecost (aka The Hat, Harry the Hat)

Don't know if there is a full obituary but you could try:

St Marks, Hunters Hill West, Sydney (funeral service)

Liberty Funerals (funeral directors)

ex-services hostel, 7 Bentinck St, Ballina (where the family asked donations be sent)

Above from Manly Daily, Saturday 6 September 2008.

[daisy]

you can see the notice in the Manly Daily online:
http://digitaledition.manlydaily.com.au/?iid=9483
go to page 71 or use the search function. Felix posted pretty much all the information.

[walloper]

Oh no way, I remember seeing him out at Curly, and I've got an old surf vid somewhere with him getting a few waves, I think he was about 70 at the time. I think it's called Gripping Stuff 3.

[grazza]

Harry had two boards, both yellow, that he had made himself. 7'6' maybe, and a bigger one. Rough measurements 23" wide x 4" thick, with a homemade logo of top hat and cane. Possibly two of the crudest boards ever constructed, but he was so proud of them.

I don't think he ever did a turn. I remember going to a surf flick (can't remember which one) at the Opera House, and in the middle a section on all the hotties ripping up northy, there was one wave of Harry, making like an oil tanker heading arrow straight across a five foot left. Very funny, and everyone cacked themselves. I told him about it a few days later. He was so stoked. I don't think he got the irony.

He would talk to anyone and everyone. A favourite topic was his design theory, such as it was. He seemed so old back then, but it's frightening to think that he must have the same age as I am now. Through the all knowing eyes of 20 year old, he seemed a bit ridiculous, but looking back now all I remember is the stoke. Well ridden, buddy.

[cs]

He was the only subby teacher we had at school that we didn't put sh1t on...

Can remember as a grom scrambling to get out of his way as he steam rolled his way through the bomby line up from miles out behind everyone else.

Good life!

[marcus]

RIP Harry the Hat
Much respect
shared many a wave at cronulla point with him
will miss the sight of the cricket hat blowing off as you charge down the shoulder

[Felix]

I always remember Harry as having a diggers hat with a piece of elastic under the chin.

Not saying that you got it wrong, just that it's funny how our memory adds or subtracts things as we get older.

[AC]

I fondly remember a couple of surfs with Harry some 20 years ago at Long Reef - sitting way out beyond the pack on his big yellow board, letting everything pass but claiming only the bigger sets - heaven help anyone who dared take these off him. He would paddle back out cackling like a teenager.

All round nice bloke, loved to chat and keep us young blokes honest (back then, anything under 50 he considered a young bloke).

I was saddened when I read the obituary.