A Little Treat...

[Nick Carroll]

hey team just thought I'd share a minor delight to which I've just been treated.

Returning a favour I'd done him, US surf writer Ben Marcus sent me a copy of the ABC Wide World of Sport coverage of the 1968 World Surfing Championships in Puerto Rico.

This was one of those contests about which much talk spread down through the years, mainly because it was supposed to be the last gasp of the longboards.

It was said that the mens winner, Fred Hemmings, was lucky to win and it was the dead-hand triumph of a passing school of surfing, while the progressive guys like Wayne Lynch, Nat and Reno Abellira were the ones doing the real shit but none of the judges could see it -- yet.

Yep, weirdly reminiscent of what some guys say about ASP events today. Round and round we go, etc.

I hadn't even started surfing at the time. By the time I was old enough to begin to think about it in a bigger context of surfing, everyone's positions had calcified on the matter. Fred was like "whatever, I won 'cause I knew how to," Nat was like "Duh, we were ripping and Fred wasn't", and Midget Farrelly, who came second to Fred in a countback, had decided Nat was the anti christ in any case.

So I stuck the ABC show in the dvd player with a fair bit of anticipation. Let's see what the visual record showed.

And you know it was fantastic. They were surfing pretty nice waves which looked a bit like a tropical Bells, around 5' and fun as. Seemed like about 500 spectators, all geared up in late 60s hipster gear.

Some highlights:

Wayne, at 17, doing off the lip foam bounces on his backhand. Whatever else anyone said in the years afterward, one thing looked pretty clear, Wayne was a long way out in front of the pack. Just too young to challenge the older bigger guys for set waves.

Nat was right with him, not quite as creative but more composed and powerful, hacking cutties and proper down the line bottom to top turns, making the call on the commentary that he was surfing better than anyone else, but didn't get the set waves in the final.

Allan Byrne dropping in on California's Pete Johnson in the semis, then having a crack at a full on floater on the inside but falling off.

Midget being all cool, surfing beautifully, and carefully posing his board for the "finalist-lineup" shot so that the Farrelly logo was in full view. They interviewed him after the final and he said he'd felt "lost out there ... from when I took off on a wave to when I finished the wave I couldn't remember anything! It was that exciting!"

Reno on a tiny board with a logo reading "Le Serpent", the thing woulda been maybe 6'0" and 17" wide but with absolutely no rocker -- they were ripping down length back then but they hadn't realised about rocker. As a result Reno would take off and go flying down the line like a tow-surfer, but could only really sorta pivot-wiggle off the tail curve of his mini board. Awesome to watch it in the awareness of what would happen over the next few years.

Russell Hughes could have dusted the lot of 'em, but couldn't find the waves in the final. At one point he lost his board and ended up bodysurfing all the way to the beach in a brilliant impression of a superclubbie, even finishing the bs with a classic one-hand-out, one-hand-stroking technique. Russell was supposed to be a hippie! But I reckon he might have been a Clubbie at heart.

Margo Godfrey, from Santa Barbara, later would become perhaps the greatest woman surfer ever with her devastating performances at Haleiwa and Sunset Beach to win multiple world pro titles. Here, at 15, she wins the girls with a performance so perfectly tuned it might as well have been Tom Curren at the same age. Right there with Wayne in many ways. Just amazing.

Dead-Ahead Fred just got the best waves, he played the game. If Nat had got the same waves, Nat woulda won by about 50 points. As it was, Fred tied with Midge, and won in a countback. The scenes on the beach were great! Ben Aipa is the first to realise Fred's won and he grabs Fred in a huge Ben bearhug; it's like watching the NZ rugby league front row except with no shirts on.

Meanwhile Midge bows his head against his board ... and next to him, Nat, in a safari-helmet hat, reaches out in a quite sincere, unaffected gesture, and pats him on the shoulder, like "tough luck mate."

We owe a funny kind of debt to ABC (the US network). They took surfing seriously before anyone else, even before most surfers did, and their visual record of this and other events (Duke Classics, Pipe Masters etc) shits on anything the surf moviemakers did. The stuff now sits mostly in mouldering archives, Ben's been digging it out and hopefully he'll get it all together over time.

[steve shearer]

Lot of that stuff is in Witzig's Evolution.

The ambience of backlit Puerto Rico is fantastic.

The thing that stands out is the quality of the coverage.

There's a fantastic ABC (aus) tele-doco from the '77 Stubbies that is just pure Gold.

Hows about a link Nick?

[Nick Carroll]

well I am not sure of the copyright etc, I'll find out and if I can post it somewhere and link then I will

The ABC aust archives on surfing are fcuken amazing btw

[oldman]

There must be some gold in them their hills. Good to hear that someone is doing a bit of mining.

Would be great to get some available online.

[LONGINUS]

Hey Nick,

I've seen some of that footage and its amazing. Those old RCA TK 41 camera weighed 100's of kilos and ABC's commitment to getting them down to the beach was amazing. Was it colour TV footage? So a little washed out looking like the old Don Lane stuff with odd light bursts? Thats the rarest, so much went free to air and was never recorded, what was recorded has sadly degraded. I've seen some 16mm footage from that event as well which is pretty sharp.

A lot of 1960's ABC material is now public domain because of the change over from one company structure to another so we may be lucky, Disney owns everything else now though. ABC of course peaked in the 60's with I dream of Jeanie.

Oh Barbara Eden, if only you knew.

[black duck]

ABC of course peaked in the 60's with I dream of Jeanie.
Oh Barbara Eden, if only you knew.

Longy. She knew, all too well, she knew.

[oldman]

From genuine surfing nostalgia to fantasising about Barbara Eden,

in only 4 posts.

That could be a new land speed hijack record, I'm impressed.

[LONGINUS]

sorry Nick

[steve shearer]

nevr apologise over barbara eden.

[oldman]

nevr apologise over barbara eden.

Well at least not Barbara Eden in her Jeanie outfit.

[LONGINUS]

Except when she made that little guest star appearance at the end of the Brady Bunch movie in the 90's wearing it, she must have been 60. meh...what am I talking about, she was still incredible then as well.

Easily one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. Compare her to the modern day fare, Angelina Jolie? WTF is that thing. Its like a scientist has ripped the head off a spider and put a lady head on it, hmmm, we will keep these two legs for feeding, yes...hmm and these for walking...hmm, there, finished!... brrrr

[entropy]

I am so with you on this I dream of Geanie one. That bloke was living the dream alright - an astronaut, getting to pole her at his leisure, whilst she called him master and she could pull of magic stunts (erm, OK). However, was he outdone by the similarly lucky Darrin Stephens in Bewitched? Samantha was hot too and he got to suck down martinis for lunch with his boss. Happy times before the fun police ruined everything by banning fit witches and lunchtime martini frenzies before it was my turn!! Surfing archives on the ABC, yeah sure, whatever you say. I am getting on the utube to watch some Bewitched vs I Dream of Genie...

[oldman]

I'd root Jeanie, but I'd be thinking of Samantha.

God, look at me, who am I kidding. Samantha would never leave Darrin.

[mical]

Yep, Elizabeth Montgomery kicks Barbara Eden's a$s.

[Trev]

Ah yes. Two hotties from my youth.
But --- Barbara Eden is still alive.
Don't know about Genie but Elizabeth Montgomery was a heavy smoker. That'd be a turn off.
But boy she looked good.

[Nick Carroll]

Fred Hemmings is also still alive ... but I bet even Brad wouldn't fcuk him.

[daryl]

Jeanie Jeanie.

Sam or Darren were or are born agains. Shudder.

[puurri]

Fred Hemmings is also still alive ... but I bet even Brad wouldn't fcuk him.

Touche!!!!!