My Own Surfing Thread!

[Baz]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

I think I only read Surfers World and an Australian one called Tracks, so I can't remember that cover.

I had a MR twin that I bought in Sydney in the late '70s. I remember it was a bit of a wild ride compared with the pin tail single fins I was used to LOL

I tried to google the pic of him sitting in his car that I remember, but no luck.

Ha, you never know. Us kiwis travel quite a lot.

I used to read Tracks and SW too. I still have all my copies!

More hot dog'n!

[Bill Douglas]

Oh! makes me want to get out in the water.

[Bill Douglas]

Umm, yes and no. Winter hasn't really struck yet, and it's pretty mild around here. Not as warm as Australia though.

[Geary]

You undoubtedly went to Piha Beach, Peter. ("You should have been here yesterdie .." .. Endless Summer)

For a few years, I lived in Titirangi, right between downtown Auckland and Piha, so many an afternoon spent surfing that left ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40rK8qiEcqI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8xukEGuocY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dw38zZBiEDA

[Geary]

Right at the bottom of 90-mile beach is another great left, Ahipara. Pretty cool fun driving along that beach ..

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by Geary

For a few years, I lived in Titirangi,

I'm a Titirangi boy. We lived along Old Titirangi road. And used to swim at French Bay and Green Bay.

[Geary]

Had a great hideaway @ 21 Arapito, with a nice little dock on the Manakau (until a freak high tide stole it) ..

[trader220]

Has anyone been to N-Land in Austin Tx ?

Is it worth going for the heck of it?

Thanks

[Baz]

Legends!

[Geary]

Thanks for the photo, Baz. From that group, Paul Strauch was my favorite to watch .. a true stylist. The first real "floater" I ever saw was Strauch @ Canoes, and amazingly, he could surf goofy with the same ability as regular stance. It's a pity we don't have more footage of him in 6-8' surf, where he really performed ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mtx6diOaKw

[Baz]

Geary....you're welcome. Thanks for your commentary which I always enjoy very much!

Right now I'm reading MR's autobiography. It's been out for a while but trying to get more reading in, especially what I consider inspirational works. Very interesting stuff that you'd never know about unless you had his book. For one, his parents always attended his contests. He was very close to them - their only son. They shunned publicity and always chose an out of the way spot to view the contest. More on that in a future post.

Re-organizing stuff in my back room and thought some would get a kick out of these surf movies all in VHS I have collected through the years. I also have the Bruce Brown series in VHS and a whole lot of DVD flicks. That "Free Ride" is a very rare item, BTW. One of my fav. surf movies....

[Baz]

Just remembered also from the book - MR was let go from Lightning Bolt right after he won his fourth in a row world championship and ddn't understand until later he found out the whole organisation was in financial trouble and ended up closing shop so all employees were out of work too. Apparently Bolt Australia was a separate entity and they stepped up and kept MR on.

[Baz]

Took a couple minutes out while doing my re-organizing to browse a couple mags from my massive collection yesterday. SW was my fav. surf mag because it featured mostly Australian surfing but they also had the best ads and fewer of them plus the editing was more tastefully done than both Surfer and Surfing Magazine.

From a 1982 issue.....some very exciting times in pro surfing and Gary Elkerton aka "Kong" exemplified all that was Aussie surfing.

I loved the centerfold shot of Kong cranking off the bottom at Burleigh Heads!

[Baz]

And these from a 1981 Surfing Magazine copy........(Larry Blair with the slash at Pipe!)

[Baz]

My friend JL just posted this pic on FB...one of his airbrushes.....it's a Redfish for those who didn't know.....pretty cool....

[Baz]

Speaking of JL...here's a couple pics I took of him from back in '75. We were best buds and surfed every day there were waves.....

This was the year everyone was riding Natural Arts....

[Baz]

Couple fuzzy old pics of me at our inlet.....single fins '79-'81?...

[Baz]

Present day JL in the water teaching...coaching.....mentor......I'm so proud of my old friend....

[Geary]

There were 3 major milestones in my 60+ years of surfing: Foam boards, the short board revolution, and tow-in surfing. There were of course many smaller milestones, but those were the major ones for me.

The first surf book I had (just before foam boards made the scene) was Surfriding by OB Patterson. This was a few years before Surfer Magazine, so quite an influential book in its day. Here are some of the better photos from the book (I couldn't scan without destroying the binding, so I just took photos):

The "modern" balsa surfboard design:


Waikiki on a "First Break" day (which while common during summers in '50s & '60s, is quite rare today):


Ala Moana break was the closest we had to a glassy California type wave:


Young Fred Hemmings @ Ala Mo:


The most popular big wave break was Makaha .. Here's a medium-size "Point Break" day:


To the left of the above photo of Point Makaha is "The Bowl" .. the end section of Makaha's wave. Making it from the Point all the way through the Bowl section was a big deal .. at least in those days. Usually, you either surfed the point and proned out, or you took off at the Bowl. My worst wipe-out ever was at Makaha Bowl (I remember it like yesterday).


Rabbit Kekai was one of the young, handsome Beach Boys in Waikiki, and a wonderful mentor to us young kids. In his prime, it seemed as though he scored a new lovely co-ed every day. Rabbit at small Makaha:

[Baz]

Thanks, Geary....those are some really great photos and that's great you have that book and appreciate it so much. I love books about surfing.

That wave at Makaha looks very powerful! No wonder you remember that gnarly wipeout!

Rabbit looks so young in that last pic...wow!