Sydney Board Rider Clubs

[Jorgo]

Nice one Carlton St!!
Lots of names there that I recall very well and that Contest that was held at Carlton St was quite a pretigeous event to win along that strip - if we are talking the same contest. George Stanachef came second to Mickey C from Manly I think and I recall there were good/typical banks and 5-6 waves between the pipe and Carlton St. Ralph Woods even pulled on a shirt for that contest - now he was smoothe as silk on a Carlton st left

With the Manly Club - I think Brian Beer(sp) had a lot to do with them too.
Loads of characters like the late Bobby Mills and a guy from Mosman Jeff Vidal(sp) - no relation to our Ric

Of course Barton Lynch and Bainey came a bit later - again from different parts of that stretch of beach.

Did Jeff Duff have Sunshine before or after Rick?? Seem to recall he moved to WA and had some strife over there and Rick moved to Yamba and the the Goldy where I used to see him at Burleigh regularly in the early 80s.

Again I digress but fun times

[carlton St]

Thanks Jorgo. I must confess the memory is not what it used to be, but here goes. Tim Duff worked at Manly Stor-a- Board for Garry Willer. Gary bought it off Bob Brewster and his wife. Garry ran Age Surfboards based at Bankstown but Age got a bit of a foothold with the young Mid Steyne crew and a couple of hot Manly Pacific juniors. Anyway Tim split from Garry around 1972 and moved upto 89 Pittwater Rd and opened the Tim Duff Surf Centre. Again, there is an old ad in Tracks just after Tim opened with Twizzle, Tim, Robbie Holt, Larry McMurich and a couple of other punters who were around the shop at the time.Tim even stuck it to Garry by having an Age surfboard in the pic. Tim knew Bill Cilia and he started shaping Shanti Surfboard and the shop morphed into Shanti Surfing. Rick was an employee of Tim's for a while, Tim split and Rick had the shop, Sunshine came about around this time (maybe early 74). Tim ended up in WA. Years later Rick sold the shop to Saxon and Kingsley Looker and headed to Burleigh but he did return and opened the original Dripping Wet Shop in Pine St. Heaps of characters from that time are still around. Time for them to stretch the memories.

[osakabob]

Jeff Vidal. R.i.P .
not really a surfer but one of lifes most interesting characters .

[Jorgo]

Carlton St - yes It just came to me "Tim Duff" doh! Jeff Duff was the lead singer of a band who did a take off of David Bowies Ziggy stardust i reckon. He's still playing around now - but you can be lucky- or not to see him on one of his good nights or one where things have gone haywire for various reasons
Age - yes I remember them - and Shanti too. The Lookers - yep and Merrick Davis was on the tour around then too with Kingsley.
Robbie Holt could ride anything I reckon - and his dimunutive frame was always there abouts in any sized waves. Bob Brewster and his wife - yeah Manly Stora - Board and they sold "Bower Boy" surf wax and Platts Surfrider boardies - but again I digress -
Osaka - Jeff Vidal - yep was a character always at the beach and his gravelly voice still rings in my ears - or one of his tall stories.

[Beanpole]

I would have thought Jeff Duff would have been sponsored by one founding member of Windansea.

[Nick Carroll]

Manly was an interesting place in the early 70's and like Nat and Wayne proclaimed competitve surfing was around but it was not cool. This was the downfall of Mid Steyne and one of the original versions of QBC. Manly Boardriders and Manly Pacific hung in there and most of the blokes who still competed at Northern Beaches Titles etc were members of one or the other. Which brings me to Mid Pacific Boardriders. Rick Dabrow was running Sunshine Surfing and had a bunch of young blokes who stored their boards there and who surfed down the end of Carlton St between the Nth Ryde guys and the Balgowlah Boys. Like all young lads there was always a bit of shit about who was a best surfer and Rick was often asked for his opinion. So around the end of 1973 Rick shut us all up and held a contest. All very informal, just a bit of fun but one bloke did not agree with the outcome. (if you know Billy Thorpe's "It Almost Summer" and you know the bloke with the red pintail you know the bloke) So, there was another contest and interest grew from other juniors along the beach. Early 1974 Rick and a few other the older blokes then floated the idea of a new club with both seniors and juniors. The problem was to get the best surfers there was a bit of politics - as there always is. So Mid Pacific was the melding of Mid Steyne Board Riders and Manly Pacific. Tee shirts were printed, beige with red print for the juniors and dark blue with light print for the seniors, of course "Sunshine Surfing" on the pocket. There juniors were good but the senior were very strong: Pickles, D.C. Twizzle, George Stanchef, Neil Ohlback,Steve Lennard, Sludge, Larry M and maybe Parrot for a while. There was an old ad in Surfing World for Hot Roc or Sunshine taken at the cottage next to the shop with the boys standing on the verandah, it was pretty much a senior team photo. Despite their best efforts they could never sign the Knights or Baddie. For more details you can catch Rick at Dripping Wet from time to time. Doug Bell is at Bennetts and he can give you a rundown on Manly Boardriders. Reggae Ellis and the over 50s QBC guys can give you the history on "the garages" and how the young Mosman guys kick started QBC (one or two of them were Mid Steyne Juniors as well). Good luck with the book.

Great stuff carlton st. Thanks for sharing. I dunno how Peto is going with his book or whatever but the stories of boardriding clubs are the real stories of surfing in Australia and how it evolved.

[ajohnsen]

Peto, you can get in touch with Neil Ohlback at Neil's Guitars and Amps on Pittwater Rd. DC runs a recording studio in Manly. Happy to put you in touch if necessary.

[buzzy]

So far as I know Saxon and Kingsley Looker owned Sunshine Surfing at different times. When Saxon had it he was in partnership with some other bloke (Tim?). I think Kingsley had it with Brett someone or other (not Curotta). Maybe I'm completely mistaken! Saxon went on to grow Surfection with Chris Athos but I'm not 100% sure how that all started.

Also, I think Merrick Davis did great on the Australian pro tour but never graduated to the World Tour whereas I think Kingsley made it to the top 16 and won a couple of events.

Great to read about the "old" days although those early to mid 70's days are a tad before my time.

[Hollowed out]

peto,famous 60's club was called North Shore and sort of ran out of Freshie as mainly a comp based northside bunch to take on Windansea. Some seriously hot surfers who had the coolest shorts (Brit flag) and I think many were dual members of other clubs just roped in for their comp ability...names are vague, Butch Cooney, Kavy, Lester Brien, + more
Also there was a pretty strong 'far north' crew surfing for the original NASA (Nth Avalon) and Peninsula Boardriders out of palmy who also dragged in some comp riders from further south
early club 'A' grade and "B" grade clubs travelled every year the 7 hour race up to Crescent for a June long weekend showdown...freakin wild pissup and some serious competition for the best club for A and B divisions...Northy had the full blown world class team (both drinking and surfing)
Bilgola may have had some action in the 80's with a club but those bastards like Nick Carroll from N/Plus kept stealing all their gooduns...Vine boys, etc
Thats it, nurse here to change the bed pan...

[simplesimon]

Whatever happend to Newport Plus. Are they still around?

[Yuke Hunt]

Kavy

Bloody hell ... now theres a name I haven't heard for a while ... he ended up being a bit of a loose unit ... with the help of his beloved Strongbow Cider ... and was quite the regular at Narrabeen's Antler ... Tracks did an article on him once ... titled ... tell em I ain't dead yet ... wonder if thats still the case.

[Hollowed out]

yeah kavy is still kickin...or last I heard some time back...bloody good surfer in his day...Australia's answer to Dora...sort of...but just loved that grog.
Witnessed him ripping Collaroy kick way back when a lost board became an instant wreck. Stuck it to Nat and patrolled the footpath from the Roy to Sth Narra like a cop on the beat.
Kenno could tell some tales I reckon...still hangin out at Crescent if Peto wants him

[omar]

Funny thing, I saw Kavy in Narrabeen today. He looks like a bushranger. Bit of a waste of talent. Was a good surfer and sometime member of the Shane gang. Also wrote music reviews and satirical pieces for either Surfing World or Surf International in the early 70's. I think he worked for a while in the Public Service. Saw him surfing at Southie in the 70's with a bottle of grog down the back of his wetsuit

[ajohnsen]

Peter Dragar or Louie still around?

Greg Graham was living up around Byron last time I saw him.