Early surf memories (aka Way back when....)

[Nick Carroll]

Being out the back with my Dad at 8yo, riding my surf-o-plane, and giving it to him to hang onto when a big set came, screaming, diving under the white water, then going home for lunch with zinc still on my face and drinking a big glass of icy lemonade.

Hearing the shark alarm go, clambering out of the water with a crowd of people around us, not afraid but excited. Then later on, seeing a dead bronze whaler cut in half, its head and jaws sticking up out of a garbage bin behind the surf club, and just feeling awe at its shape and the fact that it was real.

Being out of my depth soooo many times...being scared...but always just feeling it overwhelmed by that same awe at the shape of waves that I'd felt with the shark. Waves up close, so different to how they'd looked from the beach.

[cousteau]

Growing up in the English countryside, I was 14, Mum and Dad picking me up from boarding school and then telling me we're movin to Australia ...
That was it, I knew from that moment i was gonna surf and have the lifestyle that i'd seen in a book that i think my Dad had brought back to England from a work trip to Aus called "this is Australia" , it had all these great pics of suntanned youth on the beach and surfing, i wanted that life so bad, twenty years later i think i've got it.

Guess it's not my earliest surfing memory but certainly the moment the dream of a surfing life became a reality .... awww

[andycumo]

in summer whilst staying at my grandparents the howling nor easter used to whip up some seas and on the run out tide perfect left handers would peel through the tuncurry rock pool whilst the big boys rode the pressure waves in the bar, used to be such a good atmosphere with heaps of kids out lovin it but unfotunatly u never see it anymore

[Jorgo]

As a scrawny 6 year old, I'd got to the beach with my parents to Freshie and ride my "zippy board" (bright yelow hollow plastic thingy) - but always find myself wandering to the south corner - the alley to watch the big boys ride real boards. Those days (early 60s) no leg ropes and boards regularly bound for the rocks and the bane of all surfers lives - dings. I had this idea that if I "saved" the boards that their owners might give me a ride - or even donate their old boards to me - sad young boy dream I guess. :?
Anyway, my grandparents used to live on Cronulla Point and visits were few and far between from the northside - but same story up till 10 or 11 years old - there I'd be pulling errant boards off the rocks. Probabaly saw Purri there all thise years ago.
Still I always knew that surfing, even for a scawny, callow youth was the life I was drawn to.

[Lucky Al]

When my brother started going to Bulli High he became mates with a Bulli boy named Jake Spooner, and that year Jake often came to Thirroul on weekends when the Jetty wasn't working. Jake's board at that time had the coolest spray job I'd seen: a jetty pole on the deck, about the size and shape of Tom Carroll's slash. I was so envious, I jumped up and down wondering what I, a proud Thirroul boy, could have sprayed on my next board - the pool wall, the pumphouse, Nana Mouskouri? Nothing promised to look nearly as cool as Jake's jetty pole. There was a lot more to envy Jake for: at the age of twelve he was doing vertical reos, slashes in the pocket and long floaters, and getting covered up where no one else would have thought to find a cover-up. I still remember clearly the time he sprinted down to the water's edge after strapping his leggie on and jumped onto his board in time to carve up the face and knock the lip off a hollow shorey. It was the first time I'd seen anyone do that, and I thought it was rad.

[vb]

KK ... wondering if we're talking about the same John Payne (related to the Paynes of Newport SLSC). If so, he'd have to be 65 plus. I Googled up the name and it appears Long Reef longboardriders have got a John Payne Memorial mal comp. Don't know how serious "memorial'' means ...

[RickyG]

in summer whilst staying at my grandparents the howling nor easter used to whip up some seas and on the run out tide perfect left handers would peel through the tuncurry rock pool whilst the big boys rode the pressure waves in the bar, used to be such a good atmosphere with heaps of kids out lovin it but unfotunatly u never see it anymore

Yeah, I remember waves peeling along the inside of the rock wall and into the pool in the late 70's early '80's - pretty much learnt to swim in the rockpool. Eventually paddled out to the shark net on my air mattress and caught a few. Seemed to stop happening after a while for some reason

[kreepykrawly]

VB
Im about 90% sure. The name sounds very familiar and he had a rep. He was a quite'ish sort of guy that let his surfing do the talking.The age would be right. I was heaps younger than him. In fact i would have thought he would have been a little older than that by now.
If memory serves me correctly he used to shape his own boards.Last time i saw him would have been around 1986/87/88

Im gonna ask someone who surfed out there the same time who might know him and get back to you.

[collnarra]

VB
Im about 90% sure. The name sounds very familiar and he had a rep. He was a quite'ish sort of guy that let his surfing do the talking.The age would be right. I was heaps younger than him. In fact i would have thought he would have been a little older than that by now.
If memory serves me correctly he used to shape his own boards.Last time i saw him would have been around 1986/87/88

Im gonna ask someone who surfed out there the same time who might know him and get back to you.

I'm pretty sure he's paddling into that great point break in the sky. Cancer, I think.

[vb]

Yeah Col,
low gig that cancer ... anyone catch that ABC stateline show about 78 year old McGuigan (spelling?) and his MGoo central coast comp. So far it's raised well over 100 grand for cancer research

[monkey]

Got a Boogie Board from my older sister when I was 9yo in 1979. She had just moved to Coolum with her husband who was building the Kingaroy Power Station. We would go up for Christmas Holidays to visit for a few weeks. I remember walking down to First Bay on the day I got the board and just being mesmerised by these crystal green waves, peaking on an outside bank and lazily folding, thin-lipped. I mucked around in the shorey before venturing out. One small clean face and that was it, life was laid down from there.
The following year I got an old 7' Farrely.
The rich sweet smell of Mark Warren wax tangled in my leg hair

[Trev]

What a great thread.
I had forgotten Ampol surf wax. I grew up on the Goldie when it was just "the south coast". Lived at Tugun, went to Currumbin Primary School (at its old location beside the creek) and then Tweed River High. Grew up body surfing, hiring surf-o-planes at Kirra & Greenmount then my mates and I all got foamies for Christmas. We avoided the rash by painting the tops of them but one of my mates, Carl, tried to clean the paint off with Kero. WRONG! Pretty well ate right through it.
My first board was by Joe Larkin after 18 months of begging boards from the Kirra Clubbies. It cost me 50 pounds. I paid him 25 pounds on pickup (Christmas Eve 1963) and paid the rest off over the next few weeks while I was working for my school holidays. 9 foot 3 inches with a 1 inch stringer under translucent yellow (and a reverse fin)
We used "Merrin" surf wax. Graeme Merrin made a living out of wax and a few boards from his parents' block of flats on the beachfront at Kirra. Joe Larkin was set up over the back near the aforementioned Coolangatta Zoo.
There were plenty of "characters" around in those days. Boggangar Bob (Ryan?) was a surfer who also sailed catamarans off Kirra Beach. He was the nearest thing we had to a "beach boy". He achieved some sort of notoriety by running off with one of the other local identities, an underwater photographer (whose name escapes me at the moment).
Someone tell em to shut up. Shut up, I say.
God, the memories.

[Colonel Fiction]

Great thread.

As a scrawny 6 year old, I'd got to the beach with my parents to Freshie and ride my "zippy board" (bright yelow hollow plastic thingy)

Zippy board! Yes. The first surfcraft I ever used.

My mate Big Phil had one of those when we were 8 or 9 - it was before our coolite phase.

The zippy was also good for cement-surfing down his very steep driveway.

Also remember the rubber surf-o-planes Nick Carroll mentioned, pre-cursor to the soft surf mat.

Next step for us was coolites: Big Phil got a Kenchucky Fried one at first, but then the kids in our "gang" all got Firestone coolites from one of the Newport servos, think it may have been the Esso (RIP). All fin-less, shaped a bit like a fat, rounded coffin, and we each had a different colour, I had a green one, Phil had red and Richard I think had yellow.

I remember us having standing up contests in the rock pool - a long forgotten skill. Should be a part of the ASP Tour.

Plenty of good times and plenty of board rash.

[Trev]

He achieved some sort of notoriety by running off with one of the other local identities, an underwater photographer (whose name escapes me at the moment).

I remember, I remember. It was Ben Cropp and he went on to at least 2 more wives (Ben, not Bogangar Bob).

[Jorgo]

Col. Fictitious. Like you, after Zippy boards I progressed to a Coolite from ages 9-12. No fins as you say - just twin almost full length 1 inch deep keels. As I recall, in our group it was either a Coolite or the less fashionable "Barton" Board. Same deal - foam but a single keel (probably 3 inch deep) down the centre of the board and a slightly more pointy nose than a Coolite and perhaps 2 -3 inches longer. Regardless all were painted to stop the dreaded gut rash and for thise years my toes were perpetually rubbed roar from kneel paddling them
Again - after a long day in the surf, my little brother and I used to do "stand ups" in still water in Manly Pool (Pre 1974 wash away storms) and beg for coins to be tossed in by the toursists coming in on the ferry and dive for the coins - then hit the pie shop with the money for a late scoff of vanilla slices or custard tarts before heading home sunburned and happy.
Simple pleasures eh!!

[Felix]

About 20 of us started surfing down at South Steyne around about the same time. It was ’61 or ’62. Some of us had been trying to surf for a couple of years without much success. There was Twiz, Beanie Kimmins and Deano, Bob and Lindsay, Chris Doulus, Shark, Sparg, Porky, Gaz, Lester and the older guys we looked up to; Ted Spencer, Gilesy, Jim Pollard, Neal Purchase, Glynn Ritchie, Baddie and all the Manly Pacific guys up at North Steyne; the Mid-Steyne boys like Billy Scholer, Mooch, Mouse, the Hatter, and the Feared Queensie boys; the Otton brothers, Barthgate, Barnes and Goodie.

We spent a few years floundering around, getting caught in huge North Steyne (we had moved up there for better waves) and having to paddle in at halfway, traveling up and down the coast, surfing the Bower and Winkie and even paddling out at the Bombie, making fools of ourselves all over the place with ridiculous go for its, but then all of a sudden we noticed that the good surfers from other places; Conneely, Brown, Morris, Tim Lopez, Keith Paul, Parkinson, Drouyn, etc were coming to our beach and for some reason they wanted to know us.

Manly Pacific recruited us ‘en mass’ and although we were only 14 and 15, eight of us became the senior surf team. We were not beaten in three years. We surfed comps in the Gong, Newcastle, The Goldie and against every club in Sydney except for WindnSea.

It was now ’66 and we were often featured in the Daily Mirror or the Tele and soon we were getting paid $25, a pair of Lee jeans and other clothing plus coupons for various other shit, just to go surfing. Wetsuits followed and boards and ads.

We were part of taking boards shorter. Spencer was the leader but we all had new Keyo’s shorter than the last, almost every week.

The big contest against WindnSea at Queenscliff had TV coverage and thousands on the beach. Drouyn defected to us, Spencer to them, then Baddie. We were pissed off but worst of all, the contest was held in 1ft rubbish and we lost, just. Won’t say who fucked up the final heat but it was one of my most embarrassing moments.

There were many funny moments, tragic events and friends and enemies made during this time. Too many to recall but probably no better or worse than every reader has.

After that it sort of fell apart. We were getting too stoned and all we wanted to do was travel, catch big waves and cruise. A whole lot of Narrabeen guys came around, Fitzgerald, Dappa, Warren etc but they didn’t stay long. They saw us at our worst and they had other things to do (like take surfing forward where we had run out of puff, or run into it). We beat them in the footy match but they were redefining surfing. Our time had gone…..or did we come back a bit later.

Every generation reckons they defined their chosen thing, truth is we all define it, for ourselves.

[Johnno]

What a trip down memory lane or am I having a flash back from acid.

Zippy boards, Surf o planes, Coolites, Skim boards, the smell of Coconut Oil, Coppertone, Zink white then pink, seeing that girl from school in her new bikini and she now has tit's.

Endless summer days at the beach and exploring new locations thinking you may be the first as it had no name.

When lunch consisted of a pint of milk (with cream on top), half loaf of uncut bread and a bag of chips. Then sitting on the beach like a bloated whale waiting an hour that seemed like eternity before going for another surf, because that is what mom said.

Being allowed to go out one night to see Ride a White Horse at the Cronulla Cinema but had to be home straight afterwards or dad would come looking and give you a flogging.

Seeing surf boards shrink in a blink and drooling over the latest twin fin a mate has just bought and wondering how long you are going to take to save up to buy one from the paper run.

That first paddle from South Cronulla to the bay to ride waves that seemed to go forever.

Or hitting the mud flats in an older mates EH and seeing how many 360's he could do after gunning it then putting it on full lock.

Making sand boards in wood work at Cronulla High to ride the dunes on the week-end while keeping an eye out for the dune buggies that would get air coming over the dune you where surfing.

Passing that first forged note from mum and getting away with it because the waves where so good on Monday.

The evolution of surfing has been a great ride and still continues today ...........

[ric_vidal]

John Payne also used to take off behind the point at North and surf all the way through. The guy had balls !!!

KK, how well did you know John?

Dont know him well. Surfed with him out the back of the point a coupla times. Only because i didnt want to surf it by myself .I was cr-ping myself (dont tell anyone).Nice enough guy. Havent seen him for years now. I was told he surfed Winki (manly) when it was huge. He liked the big stuff.
I would recognise him if i saw him.
Do you know him Ric ?

He surfed with us in Reef Riders for many years and knew him prior to that, or at least mum did as he and his dad had a popular butchery down at Manly for many years.

Did pretty well on the mal in later years and he racked up some impressive surfski titles both here and overseas in his early days.

Unfortunately he passed away, probably a couple of years back now, from a rare form of cancer. Kind of sad but not in a strange way as he had achieved so much and did what he loved. Like many he was resigned to his life coming to an end as it was like there was nothing more needed to be done - a life lived. Not that he said that, just a sense I got in a brief period of remission.

Ashes were scattered out at his beloved bombie. Great bloke, bloody cunning contest surfer, good craftsman of both timber and foam boards and sort of a mentor in many ways as both a person and boardmaker.

I believe he was one of the originators of NN boardriders...