1968 Peter Cornish (Newcastle) surfing Mid North Coast NSW. Images by Ric Chan

Surf photographer Ric Chan left his homeland NZ in 1965 and travelled the East Coast of OZ, shooting some of the hottest up and coming locals until 1969, when he left for Melbourne, Adelaide, and eventually WA.

His East Coast surf adventures took him from Sydney in NSW to Noosa in Queensland and return.

Ric had East Coast surf travel articles published in Californian surf magazine International Surfing in 1969 and Oz’s Surfing World magazine in the late 60s.

Ric Chan: “Hotties that I travelled with on the Magic Bus Tour in my Gold Kombi around that time were: – Neil Purchase, David ‘Baddy’ Treloar, Peter Cornish, Ron Ross, Wayne Williams, Wayne Smith, Jack Knight, John Henneberry, Lane Habib, among others.

My memory is terrible, so much, nearly all of the stuff I did back then is washed away. But I do recall some good times with Newcastle goofy footer Peter Cornish at Treachery Beach on the Mid North Coast of NSW. He ripped because he just wanted too!”

Peter Cornish was runner-up to Wayne Lynch (Vic) and finished ahead of Ian Cairns (WA) and Roger Clements (NSW) in the Junior Titles at the 1968 Australian Surf Riding Championships held in NSW.

This is a collection of Ric’s 1968 images of Peter Cornish (PC) surfing Mid North Coast of NSW. Caption comments by PC.

**PC:** *“Treachery Beach just north of Yagon is a great location with very hot offshore NE winds. Waiting for the tide to change*”.

Treachery Beach is in the small coastal settlement of Seal Rocks in the Mid North Coast region of NSW. Seal Rocks is famous for its many premier surfing beaches (including Lighthouse Beach, Treachery and Yagon.

**PC:** “*Small waves with a new super thin board, squared tail, ultra-light”*.

**PC:** “*Small waves cuttie new board.”*.

**PC:** “*One of those moments with close friends and a new board*”.

PC with his new board and Ronnie Ross laughing in the hat.

**PC:** *“Single fin, ultra-thin, gold design on the bottom, surfed. Four waves later after an off the top reo, the new board was finished”.*

Kath Cornish. “Great to see such awesome pics.

First thing PC said when looking at first few pics “I broke that board in half”

Next pic …the broken board😀”.

**PC:** “Same board, what a shame. Sometimes small waves can do more damage. I think the reason for the break was that the board was made in one go and finished the day before it broke”.

**PC:** “*Riding Cornish tracker design, surfing at Boomerang Beach south of Forster on Mid North Coast”.*

**PC:** *“Treachery Beach light offshore winds 4-5 feet, surfing my tracker”.*

**PC:** *“Was a great day for a bottom turn”.*

**PC:** *“Ronnie Ross always laughing, trying new designs”.*

PC with Ronnie’s Dale surfboard. Ronnie is sitting on the beach in the background.

**PC:** “*Riding Ronnie’s board small wave Treachery Beach*”.

**PC:** *“Annette Forsythe lovely lady”.*

**PC:** “*Taking in the view of the beach”*.

In 2009 Peter Cornish was included in the first ten surfers inducted into the Merewether Surfboard Club Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame images courtesy of Tim Ryan, Life Member, Club Patron, and self-appointed club historian for the Merewether Surfboard Club.