Greg Woodward was a WA surf photographer and writer from 1966 to 1974. He photographed in Perth, Mandurah, Cape Naturaliste and the Eastern States and contributed photos and articles to the then brand new OZ surf magazine Surf International.
This is Greg’s homage to Cape Naturaliste surf and bush: –
Friday night round about 1966 our Perth surf crew were down at YALS for the weekend getaway to adventure and young man stuff eating rice-a-riso and luxuriating sometimes in mother SURFSIDE, bacon, eggs and baked beans, energy for a day of surfing in the mystery breaks around the granite bays and the crazy Melaleucas crawling down to the water like serpents. Smell of saltbush and free ozone wafting into the back of panel vans as we drifted off to sleep. Awoke on Saturday to the sound of howling on shores at YALS and out of control big chaos and mushy water salts. Shit, what now!
Image: 1967 Surfside Store beach front Yallingup. Sharon McDonald pic
Image: Bush track through the melaleucas.
Andy had a room at Caves house, very cool. No panel van and sleeping bags for him. So off we trooped to Caves to find our buddy Andy. Archaic Caves House– been there for 500 years, a bastion of stone and terracotta against the wild of the bush. Drank cordials, ate pies, hung around the bar –a bit of pool playing, getting very bored watching the hours of getaway freedom slowly disappear. That afternoon we noticed the other crew The Sunset Board Riding Club [always aim high] who arrived same time as us, had disappeared. Where to – very mysterious! That evening when they returned windblown, exhausted and stoked we got the facts out of them. Local knowledge Perth boys didn’t have! When the swell is too big at YALS you go around to the other side of Cape Naturaliste and bingo there’s surf with offshore winds. Whoa -who could have worked that out. Nevertheless a real miracle
Next day Sunday bright and early out we go in the panel vans, trooping down the Cape Naturaliste Road, past the Dunsborough bakery [smells of new day saviour breads] and a million redgum trees with gumnuts rolling underfoot. Could we really get surf today? A hard right into the bush and a sandy boggy track and finally a long walk to the beach.
Image: 1968 shore break near the Farm surf break in Bunker Bay.
Image: 1968 Cottesloe/Yallingup surfer Peter Dyson surfing the Farm.
Image: 1968 Margaret River surfing legend Fred Annesley surfing the Farm.
Image: 1968 City Beach surfer Ron Waddell surfing the Farm. (This image appeared in Greg’s WA surf article published in Surf International Magazine 1969).
Image: 1968 unidentified surfer at the Farm.
Image: 1968 Greg Laurenson trimming on a board shaped just for that wave at the Farm.
And there it was – a sight I still remember to this day 50 years on. Beautiful big swells marching down from Bunkers in righteous lines with a slight offshore wind gently ruffling the wave faces THEY are breaking at about 6-8 feet and no one out…..and breaking and breaking.
What a unique event that was – something out of nothing – no wonder surfers gave up the race and went sea urchin for this sort of experience every day. Any way I drifted away from surfing and I never returned to The Farm Break until years later when nostalgia overcame me and I began searching in vain in the virtual for the freshness and promise of my youth. I never found it of course!
Postscript – about the Farm break
According to the locals, a winter creek which used to run out into the Farm surf break has been dammed up and restricts the creek’s flow. There is now less sand movement on the beach and the Farm wave formation has changed to more of a beach break. If you compare the pics I took in 1968 with 2018 image below, you can see a different wave form, it used to break further out to sea and had more body to it.
Image: 2018 Bruce King watching the shore break at the Farm. Jim King pic.
Collage by Greg Woodward
Thanks Greg for sharing your Farm surf break memories and images.
Homage to Cape Naturaliste by Greg Woodward.
Greg Woodward was a WA surf photographer and writer from 1966 to 1974. He photographed in Perth, Mandurah, Cape Naturaliste and the Eastern States and contributed photos and articles to the then brand new OZ surf magazine Surf International.
This is Greg’s homage to Cape Naturaliste surf and bush: –
Friday night round about 1966 our Perth surf crew were down at YALS for the weekend getaway to adventure and young man stuff eating rice-a-riso and luxuriating sometimes in mother SURFSIDE, bacon, eggs and baked beans, energy for a day of surfing in the mystery breaks around the granite bays and the crazy Melaleucas crawling down to the water like serpents. Smell of saltbush and free ozone wafting into the back of panel vans as we drifted off to sleep. Awoke on Saturday to the sound of howling on shores at YALS and out of control big chaos and mushy water salts. Shit, what now!
Image: 1967 Surfside Store beach front Yallingup. Sharon McDonald pic
Image: Bush track through the melaleucas.
Andy had a room at Caves house, very cool. No panel van and sleeping bags for him. So off we trooped to Caves to find our buddy Andy. Archaic Caves House– been there for 500 years, a bastion of stone and terracotta against the wild of the bush. Drank cordials, ate pies, hung around the bar –a bit of pool playing, getting very bored watching the hours of getaway freedom slowly disappear. That afternoon we noticed the other crew The Sunset Board Riding Club [always aim high] who arrived same time as us, had disappeared. Where to – very mysterious! That evening when they returned windblown, exhausted and stoked we got the facts out of them. Local knowledge Perth boys didn’t have! When the swell is too big at YALS you go around to the other side of Cape Naturaliste and bingo there’s surf with offshore winds. Whoa -who could have worked that out. Nevertheless a real miracle
Next day Sunday bright and early out we go in the panel vans, trooping down the Cape Naturaliste Road, past the Dunsborough bakery [smells of new day saviour breads] and a million redgum trees with gumnuts rolling underfoot. Could we really get surf today? A hard right into the bush and a sandy boggy track and finally a long walk to the beach.
Image: 1968 shore break near the Farm surf break in Bunker Bay.
Image: 1968 Cottesloe/Yallingup surfer Peter Dyson surfing the Farm.
Image: 1968 Margaret River surfing legend Fred Annesley surfing the Farm.
Image: 1968 City Beach surfer Ron Waddell surfing the Farm. (This image appeared in Greg’s WA surf article published in Surf International Magazine 1969).
Image: 1968 unidentified surfer at the Farm.
Image: 1968 Greg Laurenson trimming on a board shaped just for that wave at the Farm.
And there it was – a sight I still remember to this day 50 years on. Beautiful big swells marching down from Bunkers in righteous lines with a slight offshore wind gently ruffling the wave faces THEY are breaking at about 6-8 feet and no one out…..and breaking and breaking.
What a unique event that was – something out of nothing – no wonder surfers gave up the race and went sea urchin for this sort of experience every day. Any way I drifted away from surfing and I never returned to The Farm Break until years later when nostalgia overcame me and I began searching in vain in the virtual for the freshness and promise of my youth. I never found it of course!
Postscript – about the Farm break
According to the locals, a winter creek which used to run out into the Farm surf break has been dammed up and restricts the creek’s flow. There is now less sand movement on the beach and the Farm wave formation has changed to more of a beach break. If you compare the pics I took in 1968 with 2018 image below, you can see a different wave form, it used to break further out to sea and had more body to it.
Image: 2018 Bruce King watching the shore break at the Farm. Jim King pic.
Collage by Greg Woodward
Thanks Greg for sharing your Farm surf break memories and images.
Coming soon more A Place of Surf by Greg Woodward
——————————————
Share this:
Like this: