Hawke Surfboards – The early days by Tony Harrison

I started surfboard riding at Cottesloe, Dutch Inn and Cable Station in 1962-63.

I lived in Saint Leonards Street, Mosman Park and my parents bought my first hollow plywood board from Cordingley Bros, while they were living in Mosman Park, way back.

My first fibre glass board was a 9’6” single stringer by Scott Dillion (NSW), which was the first “Hire Purchase” thing that I had. I was getting regular pay in the Navy at H.M.A.S. Leeuwin in Freo. That was 1964.

While serving in the Navy on the East Coast, I surfed nearly all the local beaches from Fairy Bower to Avalon and the popular Bryon Bay, Crescent Heads etc from 1965-67.

As I had been a clearance diver in the R.A.N. I was planning to get a job on the oil rigs back in WA, but that didn’t happen. I cannot remember if it was my Dad, or me that found a Job advert wanting someone to fix surfboards and do other fibreglass jobs at Hawke Surfboards.

“I’ll get this job”, I thought, the only problem was I didn’t really have any fibreglass experience.

When I met Len and Peter at Hawke Surfboards in Scarborough Beach Road, Osborne Park, for the job interview, we spent most of the time talking about surfing and where I had been. Anyway, I got the job in late 1967 and Long Boards (Malibu’s) were the norm.

At that time W.A. board builders were Hawke Surfboards, Cordingley’ s & Len Dibben. As the boards started to go shorter other surf brand names came in and flooded the WA market.

The Eastern Coast surfboard builders included Scott Dillion, McTavish, Shane & Keyo.

But back to my beginning at Hawke Surfboards!

I was amazed at how big a set up that Hawke’s had in their factory on Scarborough Beach Road, Osborne Park.

When I started working at Hawke’s, I brought in my Keyo surfboard (NSW) that I had while surfing on the East Coast, so Peter said he would do a swap for a Hawke board and sold off the Danny Keyo.

Things progressed quickly. I started to get the hang of this resin and fibreglass stuff. I could now fibreglass a board from start to finish, sanding and then the final gloss and polish.

The next person to start at Hawke’s was Doug Lachlison, he was much like me, he could surf but knew nothing about making a surfboard. In time Len and Peter Hawke paid for us to go to Carlyle Tech School to learn more about Industrial Fibreglass, that went for 4 years, I think.

Then Murray Smith joined Hawke Surfboards. Peter came into the factory one morning with this guy we had never seen him before. We were told that he was a State or National surfboard champion.

Murray was to take over from Peter shaping the boards, then Peter could concentrate on Sales and Orders. Murray also glossed, wet & dried the rails and polished the boards. Doug and I carried on glassing, sanding and finishing the boards. 

Every part of the construction of the surfboards was paid by Piece Work (i.e., work paid for according to the amount produced). Everyone got paid for the different processes shaping, glassing and glossing, trays of fins were paid for separately as well.

We used a big mechanical bandsaw to cut out the fins. It was slow work! Sometimes if you put too much pressure on the blade while doing some tight turns, the blade would come off the large wooden wheels and by the time you got to turn the bandsaw off, the top and bottom wheels would keep spinning for some time and making a lot of noise.

Peter Hawke and Murray Smith did the surfboards and Len Hawke was looking to get more into the fibreglass industry other than surfboards.

My time at Hawke Surfboards from 1967 went through changes from longboards (Malibu’s) to real short boards in the early 1970’s, which by then I think Murray Smith had gone his own way. Greg Laurenson was across the road from us. Tom Blaxell was just down the road on the left-hand side in a small shed on Scarborough Beach Road. I seem to remember a parachute hanging from his roof.

As Hawke’s were up Scarborough end of the coast, they were the most dominant boards at that end of coast. If you were down at Cottesloe, Mosman Park and a small number in the Freo area, you would be riding Cordingley’ s surfboards, which started in Mosman Park and later moved to Hay St Subiaco.

As I was working at Hawke’s and a member of the Surfers Incorp Board Riders Club which hung out around the Cottesloe area, I was promoting Hawke’s and I did ok in the club comps. Murray, Doug & I were in the Hawke Surf Team.

One Saturday morning Doug and I decided to call into work after a surf at Scarborough. Murray was just finishing glassing a board and was cleaning up.

Doug and I thought it would OK to light up a small smoke we already had rolled.

We formed a small circle ready to pass the smoke around. As soon as the match was struck, there was a rather loud thud. The finishing room door blew open and the show room door, swung open and Peter asked, “what was that?”. My reply was “its a wind gust from next door at the Tile Manufacturing Company”.

We all had a slight burnt hair smell about us for a while 😊

In 1968 Warrain Board Club & 6KY ran a Paddle Through Perth surfboard paddle race from Barrack Street under the Narrows Bridge around to Crawley Bay. Murray Smith paddled a monster piece of styrene shaped up like a small keel boat with a flat deck. It didn’t go that well. I came 4^th one year.

About March or April 1968 Doug and I went over east to NSW (Manly). We did the Nullarbor in Doug’s Holden FC Panel van; it took us 4 days to get to Adelaide mainly because the Nullarbor Highway wasn’t sealed. There was a gravel road all the way from Madura Pass WA to Ceduna SA and it was flooded most of the way. We made it to Ceduna OK.

We stayed in Adelaide one night to see my cousin and wash away the Nullarbor mud. Doug & I surfed some lonely spots along the coast from S.A. to Vic and onto Bells Beach.

At Bells it was 8 to 10 foot a cloudy day, nice conditions with an offshore wind. We didn’t take out our 9’6” Hawke surfboard, NO! we took out our 8-foot stringer-less Flower Power Hawke boards. A chap in the car park next to us waxing up his board called our boards toys😊 We managed a few waves. I wiped out near the shore break, no leg rope and my wet suit jacket ripped inside out.

We survived Bells. Once we arrived in Manly NSW, we tried to get work in the surfboard industry, that never happened. We dug trenches for the N.S.W. Water Authority for three months. Then on the weekends, we would go surfing as far north as Byron Bay.

In 1969, back in WA after our trip to Sydney, Doug and I went down to “The Shack” at Prevelly Park Margaret River where the North End Board Riders club had built a small house for members to stay at, while surfing the Margaret and Yallingup area.

At this time, the National Surfing Title was being held for the first time in W.A. around the Margaret River and Yallingup area.

Just before we arrived at the Shack, we noticed a large dead boomer Kangaroo on the side of the road. We stopped and check it out after inspecting the size of it, we noticed the ball bag had been cut off. We found out the reason later, Peter Hawke had made a money pouch out of the Roo’s missing parts.

Doug and I met two girls at Prevelly Caravan Park a few days after our arrival, on about the 3^rd night we took them into Margaret River for a drink and meal. After saying good night and watching them go into their tent, there was an almighty scream and yell as both girls came charging out of their tent in a fearful state. We just stood there dumbfounded as we had no idea that the boomer kangaroo was sitting up in the tent and rigor mortis had well and truly set in. The girls blamed us, as though we set it up. We were the grommets, so we got picked on from the older members of the surfing crew.

That night Doug and I took the rigid kangaroo up to the carpark at Margaret’s and sat him up on the hill overlooking the surf and the competition area for the Nationals. We also hung two empty cans of Emu Bitter from his claws. He must have looked a welcoming sight for the early morning surfers.

“The Animal” Nat Young was living up to his title he was trying to repair the nose on his board before his next heat by lighting a small fire to create some warmth to set the resin off quicker, the wind blew the board onto the fire, Nat Young screamed and shouted out loud extreme language as he put the fire out before his board caught fire.

“The Animal” didn’t know that there were two Nuns from the local Catholic School behind him watching a South Australian competitor who was a Priest. They weren’t that impressed with the language Nat used.

After the finals, the presentation ceremony and light meals was held at the Yallingup Hall, all went well until someone threw some food at one another and then it was on for young and old food everywhere. We were all “Animals” that day. So ended our first Nationals.

Afterwards Nat Young did pay a visit to Peter Hawke and us crew out the back doing the boards, Murray, Doug and me.

We saw Nat on the beach with a small crowd listening to him talk about the size and shape of his board. He made special mention that his board was only 2 ¾ inches thick (normally 3 inches). As I walked past, I held out my Hawke surfboard and said my board is only 2 ½ inches thick and just kept on walking down the beach for a surf. Peter Hawke wanted many of our boards on the beach and out in the surf just in case the TV was filming Nat Young and the people would see the Hawke surfboards in the surf.

We did a Hawke Surfboards promotion down in Albany on Easter long weekend in 1970. We had a Locals Surf Contest. Hawke Surfboard’s rep in Albany was Mott Lloyd, he sold quite a few Hawke boards down there. I see Mott now and then, also the overall winner was a young lad named Jim, he now runs a fishing tackle shop in Stirling Terrace, Albany.

Business was going well; Peter and Len hired a secretary/reception etc her name was “Yana”. An English girl, my cousin took an interest and they eventually got married. The only other important member of the crew was Bill Hawke, we didn’t’ see him that much and his room was right down the back of the factory where he made the surfboard blanks. Hawke’s were the only ones to make them in W.A. Once cured the blanks were cut in half then put in a jig with a wooden stringer and glued together. Bill worked as a fireman and did blanks when he had time.

Mr and Mrs Hawke would come into the factory sometimes. Mrs Hawke would come and clean the Smoko Spot next to the sink and usually tell us off, or whoever was closest. Mr Hawke filled up resin tins and clamped the lids down with a homemade press.

One time nearly Xmas, we had quite a few boards to get finished. Doug was glassing a board which didn’t have enough catalyst in it, so Len was holding an electric heater over the board to set it of quicker. A small piece of dust caught fire and dropped on the board. Len yelled to Doug to get a bucket of water so Doug grabbed the first one he could see which had clear liquid in it. Len yelled “not that one its acetone” Saved the board, lost the fibre glass, that was close!

While Hawke surf boards were manufacturing on Scarborough Beach Road, we started getting into fibre glass canoes, the models we made was surf kayak, slalom, white water racer, Touring, double and treble canoes, Canadian and the Olympic KI.

Peter McDonald, Doug Lacklison and I took up white water racing and Olympic KI. We made a mould so that we could make our own. The three of us raced each other in the Canoe Race from Pinjarra to Ravenswood pub. That was a popular race.

Then the Canoe Association or Swan River Canoe Club had the annual Canoe Race from Fremantle to South Perth foreshore near the Narrows. They got upset because Doug and I were winning races in Hawke Canoes and the Club was mostly Davenwood Canoes, there was a rivalry as to which was the best canoe. (same as surfboard builders!).

We suggested a Northam to Perth race, but the Swan River Canoe Club said “no” it would be too dangerous. That club was dominated by Davenwood Canoes, our opposition. Not long after that someone went down the Avon in a runabout dingy, then they decided to trial a race. In the first Avon Descent in 1974, Doug and I came 3^rd not bad first time, plenty of Hawke Canoes and weird designs, like the jet ski double kayak. I competed in three of these paddle races and in the fourth year I raced a power boat, we sank the 2^nd day, that was it, no more, it was getting too crowded.

As the canoes took off in popularity, the surfboard ceased production as Hawke’s then moved into Frobisher Road and a bigger factory.

The new factory became Hawke Bros (and still is) we then got into Industrial fibre glassing. And that covered everything, canoes, surf cats, fishing boats, runabouts and tanks.

In the 1970’s surfcats were all the rage, the Hawke Cat design was an extremely popular craft, strong hulls, fast, easy to sail. The formation of the ‘Hawke Mobile Surfcat Club’ was popular, as they would travel to lakes as far as Kalgoorlie and have races. The Annual Whitfords to Yanchep (Two Rocks Marina} for all clubs and public used to enter this race. The wind was either calm or blowing a steady south westerly. Hawke Cats used to do well in the ocean conditions, Sun City Yacht Club had a few. I had mine as well.

We had the 24-hour Sail-A-Thon in the Swan River near the South Perth foreshore.

We sailed to raise funds for a charity and S.C.Y.C. members participated and H.M.S.C.C. members. I came a draw with another member, but I reckon I won by a Lap, that’s the way the wind blows ☹

We drove to Sydney for the National Hawke Surfcat Titles in 1977. They were still sailing Americas Cup 12 metre in Sydney Harbour while we were running our National Titles. I had just finished sailing Southern Cross and Australia 1 at Two Rocks Marina. Didn’t get picked, I was only a “surfer sailor” now look what they are using. Peter and Len, “if only we were younger, I would have been skippering one of those things, big surfcats, and you guys would be making them”.

So, Hawke’s became busy building anything in fibre glass, rainwater tanks, all shapes and sizes. Len would “quote it” and we would build it, and Peter would “Sell Em”.

For some time, I was also the Foreman of the factory, this was OK for most of the time. I had it all running on time during the construction of the product. Occasionally a job might get pushed in front of another by Len or Peter, and I wouldn’t know. I still remember our one and only disagreement about managing the factory or communicating etc.

I left Hawke Bros 1974-75 as I was buying my first house in Two Rocks.

I decided to learn how to do cray fishing. This was a whole new industry, hard work but good job. During the cray fishing “Off” season, Peter and Len would employ me for that time as I still knew how to do all the fibre glassing work.

In 2015 I contacted Peter and Len for some Hawke surfboard transfers as I was going to shape up a 9’6” long board out of Jarrah and use the Hawke logos on this board. This was to celebrate the 100 years since “The Duke” came to Sydney and surfed at North Steyne at Manly. This was at “Surfers Beach” at Middleton Beach in Albany.

I have five old Hawke boards, all from different stages of the surfboard progression.

I’m now age 72 and still surfing and competing on a 9’1” Bruce Montgomery board. Bruce was one of the early long board and short board builders in W.A. and now resides in Geraldton.

THAT’S IT!

Footnote.

In 2016 the City of Albany presented Tony with the Premiers Active Award of the Year on Australia Day. This award was won by Tony for his environmental work and his surf school ‘Due South Surf Academy’. The Award was also a reward for his passionate work with the Granny Grommets in Albany.

Coming soon.

Hawke Surfboards Est. 1962

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