In the 60s Mandurah beaches were popular with metro surfers. Local surf beaches included Long Point, Surf Beach, Stewart St, Halls Head, Bitumen, Miami Bay, Geary’s Shack, Avalon Point & Tim’s Thicket.
Veteran surfboard manufacturer Len Dibben remembers fun waves hitting the point and wrapping into Miami Bay.
Len Dibben: “I first went surfing at Miami in 1956-7 with other Fremantle guys. We learnt to surf at Miami & Avalon on wooden hollow boards. There was a crowd of us girl friends to boot. We used to take umbrellas with eskys full of food & surf the little waves inside the reef at Avalon as well as the small point at Miami. When I met the boys at Cottesloe I would tell them about the waves down there, but they were sceptical until one day about 1959, when we organized a surf trip to Mandurah & surfed great waves at Gearys”.
Photo: 1967 Miami Bay car park with Store and Petrol Bowser at rear of car park. Photo courtesy of Len Dibben.
Photo: Early 60s girls & boys enjoying fun Malibu waves at Miami Bay . Photo credit Len Dibben.
Photo: 1963 Arty Sherburn loading surfboards on his parent’s car at Miami Bay. Photo credit Arty Sherburn.
Teena Christon (WA State Women’s Surfing Champion 1965-67) lived and surfed at Miami in the 60s. Her parents built and ran the Miami Store located on Falcon Bay in the 60s. Teena was a member of the ‘Miami Surfinks Board Club’ until it was disbanded in 66. She then joined the Scarborough Boomerang Board Club.
This image of Teena Christon featured in an article on the Miami school girl surfer in the April 1965 edition of Womans Day Magazine.
Image: 1965 Teena Christon (age 15) surfing Miami Bay. Photo courtesy of Womans Day Magazine.
This image of Graham Walmsley featured in a Tom Collin’s article on WA Surfing in the Spring 1967 edition of Surfing Illustrated Magazine (USA).
Image: 1966 Graham Walmsley surfing Tim’s Thicket south of Miami. Photo credit Tom Collins.
Photo: 1967 Bruce & Jim King surfing Miami Bay. Photo credit King Family.
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