The old/new Surfin’ Safari…

There’s always a better surf up the coast, over the hill or around the next point.

So how do we get there? First we check the internet. Obviously some weather guru from “whatever.com” can point us in the right direction. Hop in our state of the auto-art, globally connected, GPS controlled plastic surf-mobile and off we go.

No need to get the mates, they’re already on the same app; and you can talk to them through your well-connected dashboard while driving.

Don’t bother to stop and look, all the best weather guru’s have little camera’s that shoot a streaming video straight to your tablet, precisely mounted so you can see it while driving, ahh the marvels of modern surfing.

 

Well, believe it or not some surfers back in the old days actually looked at a weather map in the paper and tried to work out what all the little lines meant. For the really advanced there was the barometer hanging on the oldies wall.

 

So began the best trip of all, the old surf safari. Get all the mates together, see if you could pool enough money to fuel whatever beast someone had bought that resembled a car. Hopefully it had racks, although they weren’t really necessary, then all pile in and off you go.

It almost didn’t matter which way you went, and even if others were already there that would be fine. Congratulations all round for being on the ball in finding the spot and into the waves.

No hassling, no agro, just a bunch of old and/or new friends having fun.

 

Yep, it must be fun nowadays driving up or down the coast knowing every surf school graduate with a smartphone is on the road with you. If you can make it through the parking lot rage unscathed you can hit the water and enjoy a surf with your new friends. They’re the ones that don’t talk to you and scowl if you actually get a good wave.

Things just aren’t what they used to be, and the new Surfin’ Safari just got old.

In the immortal words of Bruce Brown, “ya shouda been here yesterday”…!

 

Endnote: All these photos were taken in the late 1950’s or early sixties by Ron “Babalooey” Graham. The blokes are all old mates of his and were the early surfing crew at Manly (Sydney, Australia).

 

Words by Bryan Hughes, photos © Ron Graham.

 

Surfboards and buildings.

Walking through a back lane in Hobart the other day I noticed the street art appeared to be the same as I had first seen it a few years ago. I had taken a photo back then so I took another.

November 2012.

The tagging looked the same over-all but was it really? I’d never thought about it before.

November 2012.

September 2014.

So I looked at the two pics and yep, there were changes. Did the tagger paint over his/her own work or did some-one else go over it? What’s the protocol for this, is it cool to cover the work of others or insulting to the original tagger? Help me out, what is the deal in going over someone else’s tag?

Hot Buttered Surfboards graphics, early 1980’s. Martyn Worthington the tagger.

When we colour a surfboard it usually reflects the colours, shapes, social era etc. either in the customers mind or the artist’s. The graphics above are completely different to Martyn’s iconic sprays of the 1970’s and different again from what he does today. Some of the artwork on old surfboards is now being touted as “extremely collectable”, something we didn’t think about when we did it.

What’s the difference? We tagged boards and others tag buildings. I wonder in fifty years if graffiti will be something we should have appreciated a bit more, just because it’s there.

Vandalism aside, to me there is no difference between a building or a surfboard when it comes to the colours and designs we put on it.

I like the randomness.

 

Endnote: Check out this bloke… Banksy

Australians in Hawaii 1962.

Australian surfers were always good at travelling and in 1962 a bunch of blokes all met up on the ship to Hawaii. They hadn’t planned it that way but all had the same idea and ship was the best and cheapest way to get there back then.

Manly surfer Geoff Bull was one of those blokes and being a photographer with “The Sydney Morning Herald” he always had a camera, he also had a custom Bennett semi-gun made for the trip.

Geoff sent these photos to me some years ago and as we look back at our surf history it’s shots like these that become the real treasures of the past.

Here are the boys walking along a street in downtown Honolulu. Robert “Doc” Spence is on the left, eminent Sydney surgeon and future president of the Australian Surf-riders Association. Geoff is third from the right then Robert Conneeley and Ken Adler. The rest of the blokes names I’ve misplaced but Bob Boot was one and Norm Stamm another. Owen Pilon took the photo with Geoff’s camera.

This next photo shows “buying gas” for the old cars they bought to get around in. “Waipio Service” is on the sign, Waipio being not far from Pearl City on the way to the North Shore. Check out the classic cars and the big wave boards on the racks.

What a great time they must’ve had. No huge crowds in those days and the north shore would’ve been pretty laid back. The memories of that trip would last forever.

Endnote: Geoff Bull became an abalone diver in Tasmania and went on to become one of Australia’s iconic winemakers with his Freycinet Vineyard on Tasmania’s east coast.

Words by Bryan Hughes, photos © Geoff Bull.

 

The “Little Island Weekly” email.

Bicheno flyover by Freycinet Air.

The old Bicheno Aquarium once hosted an email called “Little Island Weekly”. It was just photos of everyday things happening around the town, scenery, surf anything that took my fancy. It may have got a little repetitive but no-one seemed to care, at least I didn’t get any complaints.

The regulatory of the mail-outs have been a bit indifferent of late but I’m always getting emails from people harassing me for more issues. So the word “Weekly” has been dropped and we are now just “Little Island”. The content is still the same, maybe taking in a bit more of the coast but it’s hard to beat the beauty of the Bicheno area. The emails hit your inbox every couple of weeks so you won’t be bombarded. I sometimes add links and info that I like or others might be interested in.

View the latest Little Island email, sent to subscribers on the 25th August. If you like the pics here’s an online form to sign up and give it a try, you can bail out whenever you like. The MailChimp email system is secure and they won’t let me spam you.

Hope you enjoy it…

 

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Australia’s First Women’s Surfing Champion.

 

Beth Jackman, a quiet, unassuming girl from Freshwater Beach won the first women’s surfing event at the first Australian Surfboard Titles.

Held at Avalon 27/28 May 1961, it was a time when women’s participation in most sports was classed more as a novelty than serious competition. Beth won that day, and along with all the girls who competed probably did something for women’s surfing that wasn’t really recognised at the time. Competition surfing obviously continued to develop and some of the girls went with it, but most just went surfing. Beth continued surfing but marriage and children came along and surfing took a back seat.

Beth married Maurie Lee.

Maurie was arguably one of our best big wave surfers, one of the original four “Bower Boys”. He had travelled the world before it was trendy to do so and was also a very keen fisherman.

They moved to Seal Rocks in the 1970’s, this catered for all the thing’s they enjoyed in life. Family came first but surfing was never far away and although Beth didn’t ride a board much any more she was always in the water. On the nice peaks at Treachery in a summer nor’easter she would body surf and always looked at ease.

So times have changed since the early sixties, but Beth still has that sparkle in her eye when you mention those days, the sign of a true surfer.

 

 

 

Endnote: I wrote this for the blog page at Bennett Surfboards. Photo’s from the Lee Family Collection.

Time-lapse of Waub’s Bay Sunsets, Bicheno.

I took a bunch of time-lapse clips of the sunsets at Waub’s Bay, Bicheno in late winter and spring 2013. Shot with iPhone 5 and GoPro 3 Black. The clips went together un-edited with Premier Pro.

 

YouTube link: Waub’s Bay Sunsets.