A SWELL LIFE FOR PIONEER by Reuben Carder

Tina Daly (age 16) competed in WA’s first State Surfing Championships held at Yallingup in 1964.

1964 Women competing in first State Surfing Championships held at Yallingup WA. Media coverage by WA Newspapers.
L-R Jeanne Abbott, Stephanie Meyer, Jenny Shackley, Tina Christian & Tina Daley.

Mid West journalist Reuben Carder spoke to WA surfing pioneer Tina Wilson (nee Daly) for a Geraldton Guardian newspaper story that was published on November 27, 2020.

While covering a wide variety of topics, like the time a surfboard fin stabbed her at a contest at Huzzas and having the police knock on her door to inform her parents she was thumbing lifts as a teenager to ride waves, she revealed she still had the big-wave Cordingley surfboard belonging to her late husband, Joe, in the shed.

This picture of Tina holding the board is supplied courtesy of the Guardian.

*Tina Wilson with her husband’s big-wave board, made around 1960. Reuben Carder pic*

An excerpt follows:

“We made our own board shorts,” [Tina] said.

“I used to thumb down to Mandurah, and my parents didn’t know until there was a knock at my parents’ door one day (by police) to say I was … thumbing it everywhere with my surfboard”.

“I used to get picked up all the time and taken as far as Mandurah, but it was not the done thing, I guess, and definitely not now”.

“I didn’t have a car, didn’t have a licence, I would just do anything to get a good wave”.

The full article is available at www.geraldtonguardian.com.au through a subscription.

Kind regards

Reuben Carder Journalist | Editorial – Regional

Bonus Photos.