The Australian
mainstream media today gives surfing major league status in back page headlines
and prime time TV coverage. When the WSL elite compete for world title points
at The Box, North Point and big Margies, global online video streaming
audiences soar into the stratosphere.
But it
wasn’t always so down here in the bottom left hand corner of Australia!
A
handful of people did the hard yards back in the late 1960s and 1970s to slowly
start growing the media presence of WA surfing.
“Daily
News” gun reporter, and early Scarborough longboarder, Alan McIntosh was amongst the first to start regularly getting
articles into Perth newspapers – which in that era dominated the WA media.
Trevor Burslem with his live surf reports on the market leading radio 6PR, plus his surf contest, surf movie and beach sponsorships promotions on the radio waves, was a trail blazer. Although “T.B.” didn’t surf, he was hugely committed to growing the local profile and credibility.
Scarborough Board Club luminary Doug White reported regularly on Perth radio (6KY I think) and wrote a popular surf column “Wave Lengths” in the “Sunday Times” through those early years.
Later, big wave goofy charger Randell Owens kept the momentum going with his weekly “West Curl” surf column and feature articles in the “Sunday Independent” newspaper, and some spots on TV and radio. Photographer Ric Chan was a huge presence with his surf shots regularly appearing in the same newspaper.
Rolling
into the 1980s, Star Surf shop’s Dave
Kennedy manned the dawn patrol for well over ten years to file live surf
reports on Perth radio. And he was also a generous sponsor of State
championship events and other surf competitions, plus supported many local
riders.
As a raw cadet reporter working on the afternoon “Daily News” and Saturday “Weekend News” from 1969 to 1972, I slowly started to get enough cred with the Chief of Staff and Sports Editor to be allowed to provide coverage of State championship rounds.
1971 NO SURF, SO SPRING TITLES CANCELLD 1971 SURF NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR SEMIS
Keeping sponsors happy by running State rounds on metro beaches – and before the availability of today’s internet based forecasting – saw regular news reports appearing on competitions having to be postponed due to small onshore slop! This report was probably in 1971 and the story noted that the Spring Titles had been postponed for more than a month – and that had followed four successive years of bad metro wave conditions for State Spring championships!! Ugly…
1971 HARDY WINS SPRING TITLE AT SCARBOROUGH
Back in those days, to get the news through
before deadline, press journalists had to compose and scribble their story in a
notebook (on the beach or next to Caves House pub); find a public phone box;
and call through to a “copytaker” – a typist (always female) – and dictate the
report: spelling out names, punctuation (e.g., “comma”, “full stop”) and
paragraph breaks. As a rookie reporter,
it was a bit nerve wracking until you got the hang of it. Way before YouTube,
that meant learning by watching experienced journos like Alan “Macca” McIntosh,
who were brilliant operators, doing the business.
1971
saw a changing of the guard with Ian Cairns taking his first Open championship,
after moving up to the seniors following his dominance in taking three
consecutive Junior State titles (1968-69-70). And after the March long weekend
saw a Saturday postponement, the finals were held at Margaret Mainbreak on the
Monday holiday. In earlier years, the event had pretty much always been surfed
at Yallingup.
1971 STATE TITLES AT YALLINGUP POSTPONED IAN CAIRNS (20) WINS STATE SURF TITLE
Bring up the screen size – the names of
the heat and finals riders make interesting reading – a virtual ‘who’s who’ of
WA surfing from the era. A few of them, sadly are no longer with us, but others
are still out there in the briney and catching the stoke!
1972
saw the State title held in “near-perfect, 10ft plus waves” …I reckon today
we’d probably called it ‘6-to-8’! …and the champion was determined on a ‘count
back’.
This
pretty arbitrary system used to also be used to break voting deadlocks for the
Brownlow and Sandover Medals. By about 2000, footy chiefs realised it was
pretty unfair and retrospectively awarded medals to all players who had tied
for the honour and been denied by a countback Since then, the Brownlow has even
seen a three-way tie (2003) and all awarded medals. Maybe Surfing WA might
consider re-writing the record books to show two joint winners for the ’72
State champs and any other titles determined by countbacks?
1972 SURF TITLE COUNTBACK 1972 MERIFIELD TO CAPTAIN SURF TEAM IN SYDNEY
In 1972, WASRA was run on a shoestring and had to work bloody hard to court the media. But it was nice to get a little personal recognition – coming not long before I was sacked from WA Newspapers for various seditious misdemeanours …forcing me into TV, which all turned out pretty good in the long run!
1972 WEST AUSTRALIAN SURFRIDERS ASSOCIATION LETTER
The
real turning point for the sport’s elevation into the big leagues came in 2011 when
Surfing WA lured 11 time world champion Kelly Slater back to the Margarets
event after many years of skipping WA. The news was the full back page story in
“The West Australian” newspaper and all over TV and radio headlines. This laid
the platform for the premiere Down South event getting full Championship Tour
status.
These
days, journalists across all media regularly seek out Mark Lane and Justin Majeks
at Surfing WA for comment on all sorts of surf-related issues – from the Drug
Aware Margaret River Pro, to Taj Small Fries results, and opinions on the shark
issue.
The Australian mainstream media today gives surfing major league status in back page headlines and prime time TV coverage. When the WSL elite compete for world title points at The Box, North Point and big Margies, global online video streaming audiences soar into the stratosphere.
But it wasn’t always so down here in the bottom left hand corner of Australia!
A handful of people did the hard yards back in the late 1960s and 1970s to slowly start growing the media presence of WA surfing.
“Daily News” gun reporter, and early Scarborough longboarder, Alan McIntosh was amongst the first to start regularly getting articles into Perth newspapers – which in that era dominated the WA media.
Trevor Burslem with his live surf reports on the market leading radio 6PR, plus his surf contest, surf movie and beach sponsorships promotions on the radio waves, was a trail blazer. Although “T.B.” didn’t surf, he was hugely committed to growing the local profile and credibility.
Scarborough Board Club luminary Doug White reported regularly on Perth radio (6KY I think) and wrote a popular surf column “Wave Lengths” in the “Sunday Times” through those early years.
Later, big wave goofy charger Randell Owens kept the momentum going with his weekly “West Curl” surf column and feature articles in the “Sunday Independent” newspaper, and some spots on TV and radio. Photographer Ric Chan was a huge presence with his surf shots regularly appearing in the same newspaper.
Rolling into the 1980s, Star Surf shop’s Dave Kennedy manned the dawn patrol for well over ten years to file live surf reports on Perth radio. And he was also a generous sponsor of State championship events and other surf competitions, plus supported many local riders.
As a raw cadet reporter working on the afternoon “Daily News” and Saturday “Weekend News” from 1969 to 1972, I slowly started to get enough cred with the Chief of Staff and Sports Editor to be allowed to provide coverage of State championship rounds.
Keeping sponsors happy by running State rounds on metro beaches – and before the availability of today’s internet based forecasting – saw regular news reports appearing on competitions having to be postponed due to small onshore slop! This report was probably in 1971 and the story noted that the Spring Titles had been postponed for more than a month – and that had followed four successive years of bad metro wave conditions for State Spring championships!! Ugly…
Back in those days, to get the news through before deadline, press journalists had to compose and scribble their story in a notebook (on the beach or next to Caves House pub); find a public phone box; and call through to a “copytaker” – a typist (always female) – and dictate the report: spelling out names, punctuation (e.g., “comma”, “full stop”) and paragraph breaks. As a rookie reporter, it was a bit nerve wracking until you got the hang of it. Way before YouTube, that meant learning by watching experienced journos like Alan “Macca” McIntosh, who were brilliant operators, doing the business.
1971 saw a changing of the guard with Ian Cairns taking his first Open championship, after moving up to the seniors following his dominance in taking three consecutive Junior State titles (1968-69-70). And after the March long weekend saw a Saturday postponement, the finals were held at Margaret Mainbreak on the Monday holiday. In earlier years, the event had pretty much always been surfed at Yallingup.
Bring up the screen size – the names of the heat and finals riders make interesting reading – a virtual ‘who’s who’ of WA surfing from the era. A few of them, sadly are no longer with us, but others are still out there in the briney and catching the stoke!
1972 saw the State title held in “near-perfect, 10ft plus waves” …I reckon today we’d probably called it ‘6-to-8’! …and the champion was determined on a ‘count back’.
This pretty arbitrary system used to also be used to break voting deadlocks for the Brownlow and Sandover Medals. By about 2000, footy chiefs realised it was pretty unfair and retrospectively awarded medals to all players who had tied for the honour and been denied by a countback Since then, the Brownlow has even seen a three-way tie (2003) and all awarded medals. Maybe Surfing WA might consider re-writing the record books to show two joint winners for the ’72 State champs and any other titles determined by countbacks?
In 1972, WASRA was run on a shoestring and had to work bloody hard to court the media. But it was nice to get a little personal recognition – coming not long before I was sacked from WA Newspapers for various seditious misdemeanours …forcing me into TV, which all turned out pretty good in the long run!
The real turning point for the sport’s elevation into the big leagues came in 2011 when Surfing WA lured 11 time world champion Kelly Slater back to the Margarets event after many years of skipping WA. The news was the full back page story in “The West Australian” newspaper and all over TV and radio headlines. This laid the platform for the premiere Down South event getting full Championship Tour status.
These days, journalists across all media regularly seek out Mark Lane and Justin Majeks at Surfing WA for comment on all sorts of surf-related issues – from the Drug Aware Margaret River Pro, to Taj Small Fries results, and opinions on the shark issue.
ENDS
——————————————————-
Share this:
Like this: