Uncle Jaffa's vague wandering Aussie Surf History.

[Naeco78]

There was however a readily available supply.

Post WWII mothballed Navy Ships!

Moore in Sydney Harbour , their liferafts were Balsa planking covered in Navy Grey tin sheeting, night time Raids and dodgy deals liberated much to the new market for boards. FOAM had not even entered the Industry but it soon would and interestingly enough EPS came before PU.

Sounds like that could've been how the USS Eldridge disappeared

Thanks for sharing the history. Great read

[Naeco78]

Any idea what type if fins they were using in that photo. Kinda looks like reverse D fin.. or maybe the Takayama "Halo" fin that gained popularity about 10years ago. I don't think I've ever seen one like that from the 60's. Good stuff

[jaffa1949]

Ah the fins ,early sixties , were called reverse dixie ( pixies) or reverse D fins,. Made first off out of plywood and glass covered and glassed on, fibreglass fins came later.
Laminating , foil, but there were twin fins and Foley boards turning up but fins were very rudimentary, the leading and trailing edges were about the same thickness but rounded to lessen bruising encounters!

There were home made boards with almost square rails but the normal standard was half round , but tapering thicker from the nose and then less to the tail.
Pictures next post !

[jaffa1949]

So as promised a picture of fins for the early 1960s

Not sure about the fin with the hole and rope through it, it may have been a prototype leash attempt. It was likely to be just rope with a football sock tied around the ankle! This May be a little later but the fins are early sixties, how about the car, often surf cartoons were painted on the side
Traveling up the coast you were guaranteed to be pulled over and have minor nuisance fines, drugs were little known and so full car searches didn't happen!
About 1958 when I started surfing there was an inflatable strong rubber surf device called the surfplane, invented in the 1930s the next generation of surfers was hitting the waves on them, and could go in hordes in the designated swimming areas between the flags, swimming and bodysurfing was part of the school of waves.

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The surf craft of our group was a Coolite

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This too could be used in the swimming area .It was EPS which was coming to Australia for refrigeration and insulation.
The Coolite required wearing a Tee Shirt as one session would reduce your chest and stomach to a red raw suppurating mess.
Ordinary oil household paint were tried as a coating, only to have the board dissolve into a slimy gelationous mass at your feet.

Plastic Paint had just been introduced to Australia, tins ( cans for Americans ) went missing and new coloured coolites hit the surf!
This was my starting Point I could graduate to a Balsa and Fibreglass board, when I proved to my father I could swim a mile, I also achieved a Surf Lifesaving Bronze medalion, so qualified as a lifesaver. So I gained my board

9'6'' Balsa pig shape, 3'' thick, D fin carved in Rocker and always under constant repair as water leaked in through any crack delaminating where the water soaked. A much loved first board, named the can opener because of the pointy nose.
A major step up the food chain.

[jaffa1949]

We now wander further into the 60s, the first named World Championship ( one event ) had been held in Manly Australia and won by Midget Farrelly from Mike Doyle and Joey Cabel, then things began to go short, backyard sheds were employing saws to cut down older longboards in 18" increments.

The change came about when Aussies saw George Greenough make tracks on a spoon knee board that had never been seen on a wave face before:
This is in 1967 I had cut down my board which was 8'6" and added a Greenough fin several times as a bottom turn often ladet it up and then snap, faceplant

Cross stepping and other forms of longboard control would enter a shadow land and for a while become less seen

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D Fins and very flat rockers had reached then a natural limit for the skills most average riders had

Nat Young, Bob McTavish and others began experimenting with shorter but thicker boards extreme V bottoms and edge rails.
Culturally we had committed troops to the Vietnam War and there was serious opposition to it by many who could be drafted.
Bolt holes up the East Coast happened to have great surf and cheap living west of Melbourne on the south Coast of Victoria and Southern Western Australia the same. Byron Bay and Noosa were classic hang out spots, in those days they were crowded like these photos.

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Performance skyrocketed and still only single fins the full twin fin and thruster revolution was yet to come, much imput being added to the mix from California and Hawaii.
Video= "Going Vertical" highlights the development and rivalry between the Aussie Camp and the Dick Bremer Hawaiian camp in particular .



Meanwhile the rural surf secrets gradually and later became populated by monied executives and movie elite
Cheap days were gone!

Twin fins thrusters and other stuff next!

[oldmansurfer]

That’s my kind of crowded conditions

[stimbley]

love this thread, thanks Uncle Jaffa!

Just wondering if you have any photos or history from Kirra/Coolangatta area. Also what part of Noosa are the photos above from? Is it Tea Tree Bay?

Love that 'hippy' photo. As soon as I read Hippy in Nth NSW I thought I bet that was taken in Nimbin! Have spent many weekends there, hasn't changed in 40 yrs.

Did you ever meet Bob McTavish?

[jaffa1949]

Great Stimbey, I am now a short haired latter day hippy at 72 next week!
None of the surf photos are of Noosa, elsewhere on the east coast and quite recent

The hippy days photo was outside of Nimbin in the prime years…….. a property named after a Carlos Castaneda book, required reading for all who were seeking mystical uplift, ( i’m going to have to google it).Ixtlan.
Aquarius festival days
Sadly Nimbin kids, many went on to harder drug and crashed and burned, I might have once supported openness to some drugs but see the damage done so not now!

I learnt to shape for a little while from Bob. but really only had the theory ala Bob but not the eye!

[Naeco78]

9'6'' Balsa pig shape, 3'' thick, D fin carved in Rocker and always under constant repair as water leaked in through any crack delaminating where the water soaked. A much loved first board, named the can opener because of the pointy nose.
A major step up the food chain.

Hey Jaffa, thanks again this has been a really interesting read. That Pig mustve been so much different from the typical boards from that era? I cant remember seeing or hearing much about those, but it looks like it would've been a big part of the transition to surfing more vertically.. before the shortboard era. Just the swing weight on the front of that board must've seemed way ahead of it's time. Were you looking for that shape before you got the board?
Did they recruit surfers to be Lifesavers in Australia back then? Like did many of them lead the waterman lifestyle.

[jaffa1949]

Surf life saving was pretty regimented and sort of had a military command structure, you had to pass all your tests, SLSA bronze medallion minimum, you did patrols at your local beach, required with a heiracy within the patrol. your could do, ski paddling, and board paddle at first. just racing to buoys outside the last wavelike and back, racing only, board riding demonstrations sometimes, the malibu was considered not suitable for racing. just like today specialised paddle racing boards and skis were the go!
You could however turn up at any beach where there was a surf club and find rough bunk accommodation and if you fulfilled a patrol requirement stay for a few days!
surfers started wanting freedom from regulations and younger guys left in droves or didn‘t join, the pseudo military structure of the clubs was also perceived as toxic to young guys who were facing the draft for Vietnam.!
The press created the hippy dole bludgeoned, drop out , no good surfer image and there were little turf skirmishes between clubs and surfers over paying board registration, surfing into patrolled areas and confiscation of boards and fines. Fisticuffs and sneaking into surf spots by rock offs rather than being checked on the beach..
Eventually. clubs and surfers mostly reconciled as there were fights to be pursued against developers and land grabs for the beaches, sand mining and beach destruction up and down the coasts. A pretty strong environmental network grew out of this !

Oh about the board it was a dog really, heavy a drag to turn huge rocker not much speed, but it was my first board and I rode in some pretty huge surfs, . Next board foam was a light year advance!

[Naeco78]

Didnt see the balsa part about that board at first.. maybe more like a Millennium Falcon running on a straight 6 cylinder

That sounds pretty crazy about the turf wars between surfers, surf clubs and the surf Lifesavers. And then developers giving them a unifying purpose. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

I guess history repeats in some ways.. we had a surfer given a summons the other day for surfing red flag after a tropical storm but in the next town over (literally the opposite side of the Jetty) it was open to surfing with like 40 surfers huddled into a small takeoff zone (which is inherently dangerous on its own) but had no issues at all. Crazy

[jaffa1949]

Just ain’t of clarification, the surf clubs were the buildings forthe surf lifesavers, all voluntary! Paid lifeguards on busy beaches came much later and they all came through training in thesurf life saving clubs.

Many surfers now enroll their children and have become latter day members!

[Silvery]

Thanks for this thread jaffa, really looking forward to getting my teeth into the posts and giving it the attention it deserves

[jaffa1949]

Thanks for this thread jaffa, really looking forward to getting my teeth into the posts and giving it the attention it deserves

Just doing a little digging for the next episode, mrs Jaffa has jut had two cataract operations with good results but my attention needed to be there! All good + some recreatIonal river surfing, much easier now after losing 22 kilograms of weight!

[jaffa1949]

Dug up an early Aussie Northern Beaches surf film by Phil and Russell Sheppard from the you tube archives so have a look , Uncle Jaffa‘s learning era! 1960s!
some of the footage is in links and there some footage in the Collaroy movie theatre watching surf movies by Bruce or Bud Browne, the air was a cascade of thrown jaffas, Hard orange coated chocolate balls, how no one lost an eye still amazes me.

Sit down with the first thickshakes, they had just reached Australia or a choc coated icebreaker and enjoy! No smoking