A Surfing Career

I became interested in surfing around the age of ten when we moved from Melbourne to Brisbane and spent a lot of time on the Gold Coast during weekends and most holidays.
At that stage the light short surfboards of today were virtually unknown. In use were extremely heavy hollow long boards and skis.

Surfing was brought to Australia in 1915 by Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku.

He demonstrated this ancient Hawaiian board riding technique at Freshwater in Sydney, New South Wales.
Kahanamoku's board is now on display in the northeast end of the Freshwater Surf Lifesaving Club.
There is a statue there commemorating the event.

Surfing's massive cultural explosion in Australia took off in 1956, when a team of American lifeguards visited for the Melbourne Olympics and introduced lightweight, manoeuvrable balsa and fibreglass Malibu boards at a carnival in Torquay, Victoria.

I was a junior member of a local Gold Coast surf lifesaving club for a while where body surfing was the main recreational activity.

But then some guys from Sydney brought up their light boards, surfed ‘my’ beach and I was hooked.

Clubies and surfies were a different breed. 

Sitting for hours on a tower during your lifesaver shift watching families splash around in the shore break while beautiful rideable waves rolled in outside the flagged area was very frustrating.

My first board was a second hand fibre glass covered balsa wood ‘log’ just like the one pictured below.

And no leg ropes then. A wipeout usually meant a long swim, not to mention a danger to those paddling out.

But it was all a great learning curve.

My first polyurethane foam and fibre glass board was shaped by Joe Larkin in Kirra in the early 60s.

My third board was made by Ray Woosley in Brisbane in the mid 60s.

It was to be my board for the next 30 years.

Despite replacing it a few times over the following decades I couldn’t get rid of it.

It was beautifully made and covered in heavyweight fibreglass and strengthened with a big central stringer.

Heavy compared with today’s boards but extremely tough and ‘ding’ resistant.

When leg ropes became a thing, I drilled a hole through the fin to attach one.

Sadly it was burnt when we lost property during the 2019/20 bushfires.

Obviously unlicensed, we relied on parents and older friends to drive us to the various surf spots.

But then with our own cars we were ‘free’ and the years of surfaris began.

To Gold Coast beaches and those in northern New South Wales.

Snapper Rocks & Greenmount

Byron Bay

Angourie

To the Sunshine Coast north of Brisbane.

Noosa

Moffat Beach

And one long three week trip down the east coast to iconic Bells Beach in Victoria where I rode some of the biggest and most powerful waves of my life. 

Bells Beach

There was a bit of a hiatus when I moved to Sydney in 1969 to pursue a business career and eventually raise a family but the call of the ocean was strong.

I took up the sport again in 1988 mainly on the beaches of the Sutherland Shire and south to Wollongong.

Cronulla Beaches

Then with my move to the south coast of New South Wales, I enjoyed waves at many of the then deserted beaches all within a few kilometres of home.

Tabourie 

Racecourse Beach

Golfcourse Reef

Unfortunately a shoulder injury in my early 70s ended my surfing career. No amount of physiotherapy could fix it. 

I was content with a bit of belly boarding for a while but when you know it’s time, it’s time.

Am happy now to watch surfing videos on YouTube and the WSL on television.