**Update 13 July 2021** Bay City members images removed at request of Greg Habib (South Aust).
By the mid-late 60’s WA surfers Peter ‘Spook’ Bothwell, Brian Boynes & Hume Heatley from the Yallingup Board Riders Club and Craig Brent-White & Fred ‘Fredlegs’ Lochowicz (Cottesloe Board Riders Club) and others were honing their surfing skills in South Australia.
The WA crew stayed in the Gulf area and surfed Cactus, Streaky Bay area, York Peninsula and the South Coast. They hung out with surfers from the Roader’s (Seaview Road Board Riders) and Sand-n-Sea Board Riders Club.
Craig Brent-White and Fred ‘Fredlegs’ Lochowicz were the first WA surfers to join the SA chapter of Sea-n-Sea.
On return to WA in 1968, Craig Brent-White, Peter ’Spook’ Bothwell & Hume Heatley recruited surfers and formed a chapter of Sand-n-Sea in WA.
1969 Craig Brent-White on his Harley Davidson in Southwest WA
This is the story of Sand-n-Sea’s origin in WA and its South Australia connection by WA Club President Craig Brent-White. (The comments are Craig’s unless stated otherwise).
Craig: The W.A. contingent as I remember it started with Fred Lockowitz alias “Fredlegs”, Fred had a house in Moana, and I joined him in August ’65, all the crew that visited the house were Sand-n-Sea members and how it all started with that club. There were other board clubs in SA at the time such as the Four Point Club which was “Moose” and “Robbo”, Ocean Siders and Sea View Roaders aka Baz Young.
All the Sand-n-Sea guys had animal nicknames and the like such as “the flea”, “the boag”, “the shtur”, “the gull”, “Moose”, “box & Kiwi” etc. Some of the other club’s members used to visit us at the Moana house as well, they were an eclectic group from all parts of Adelaide. You can’t make this stuff up!
1967-68 Lane Habib modelling Sand n Sea sponsored clothing. Other S-n-S members include Snake Burford, Ali Boot, Flea Buchan, Mubsey & Bill Johnson.Bill Johnson was SA Open Men’s champion in 1968.1967 Daryl ‘Robbo’ Robinson and Al Boag at Moana.1960s Al Boag nose ride at Da Trof.
Al Boag: “It used to take great skill in climbing down to the beach at Da Trof – Now there is a bus stop and steps to the beach.”
1960s Lane Habib surfing Da Trof when he was a lot thinner.1969 David “the Gull” Marshall at Middleton Beach.
The focal meeting place for Sand-n-Sea members on a Friday night in Moana was at Artie’s deli, we all just hung out with his pin ball machines, life was just so simple.
Al Boag: “Moana corner Rat House shot giant rats in the kitchen with a .22 rifle.”
Arty Norman’s Deli Moana South Aust. Left: 1965 Dave Sandercock outside the deli. Right: 1971 Al Boag at rear Moana shop with board shaped by Lane Habib.
“The Boag” and “box” were the first of a tight group that surfed Cactus back then. “the Moose” used to clear the water at Daley Heads with his .303 rifle so his crew could have uncrowded surf. He is a legend at Cactus and still lives there today. Baz Young has a story about the Moose who could really handle himself, he single handled clean up about five bikies, one who pushed Baz off a walkway at a crash scene on Anza Hwy in Adelaide. Moose owned a single spinner without a driver’s seat, it had a tin can to sit on and if Spook was asked, he would probably say Moose had an influence on his and Brian Boyne’s choice of car.
1965-66 Yorke’s old farm shed at Daly Heads South Aust where the boys used to stay. Johnny Martin standing 2nd from left.
As for W.A. guys: Jamie Doig, John Balgarnie, Hume Heatley, Spook Bothwell, Brian Boynes, Fred Lockowitz, myself, John Pozzi, Vance Cocks, Bob Shenstone, Alex Chobanoff, There are probably others, I would have to think a bit longer to come up with any others but only about five of these people lived there and surfed with the SA crew for any length of time.
1966 West Aust Surfers Inc Cabaret Fred ‘Fredlegs’ Lockowitz & Bill Brehney. Colleen Burkepic1966 South Aust Fred Legs memories by Al Boag.
I just stayed with ‘Fredlegs’ recently in Esperance, he rang me a week later to say he had been surfing with the younger crew at Cape Arid the previous weekend and four kids went in the water without telling their parents. A 5M white pointer swam right through between these kids without giving them a second look on it’s way around the corner to where the new seal pups were living. It’s belly was in the sand as it went by them. Apparently not the first time this situation has occurred at that spot. There is an island out from Cape Arid that is renowned as the densest population of Whites in the world.
Tragic Traffic AccidentSA
On the October Long Weekend in 1966, we went to Bells Beach in Vic with the South Aust crew in the car. We returned early because there was no surf, I didn’t go with them the next day to Middleton Beach, but connected up with the boys with another club member later on the Monday morning of LWE. The remaining five club members were returning to Moana from Middleton Beach and hit a train head-on at 70mph at a railway crossing. They were blinded by afternoon sun. Resulting in five Bay City club members dying at the scene.
Those fatally injured in the accident were: Greg Rodda, Chris Toms, John Martin, Michael Laver & John Reordan.
Al Boag and I were at my place when the police arrived to inform me that two of my flat mates had been in a fatal accident at Middleton Beach, would we mind accompanying the Sargent to the mortuary to assist with identification. I was 17 at the time and the images still haunt me today.
This unbelievable tragedy galvanized us all to realise that life’s not forever at our young ages and what we all meant to each other. So we decided to have a huge party in memory of those we lost, it was the ‘circuit breaker’.
The tragedy impacted on us and the whole SA surfing community. The funeral procession was massive and was 3 miles long.
Three funerals first day and two the second.
Peter Bothwell: “In 1966 Brian Boynes and I were surfing on the East Coast. When we heard about the tragic traffic accident in SA, we bought a 1951 Ford Customline in Queensland for $60 and drove to SA. We surfed with the SA locals and later picked up passengers at the 1966 Tunarama Festival in Port Lincoln for the drive back to WA.“
1966 Peter Bothwell outside Art Norman’s Deli in Moana SA. Photo courtesy Peter Bothwell.
Tunarama festival in Port Lincoln SA
SA & WA surfers attended the annual Tunarama festival held at Port Lincoln SA. This event was a big deal in SA. There was a surfing contest and all SA surfboard clubs attended and paraded down the main street to open the festival.
Sand-n-Sea hired that bus for the club and we strapped our boards on the roof, Sea View Roaders were the other club in that procession for the tuna festival in Port Lincoln, Baz Young was a Sea View Roader, they had a hearse for wheels, I think it was 1967. There were some other W.A. surfers in the procession, John Pozzi and Vance Cocks. We had a surf comp over at Fish Cove during the weekend. Awesome stuff, surf clubs just don’t have that much fun anymore it was a blast.
The photos show the procession down the main street of Port Lincoln with the Lord Mayor waving like the royal family from a balcony when a Sand-n-Sea member (Alan Boag) threw a flour bomb at him, then it was on for young and old😊
1967 Sand-n-Sea bus at South Australia’s Tunarama Festival in Port Lincoln. Baz Young pic.1967 Unknown surfers in parade at South Australia’s Tunarama Festival in Port Lincoln. Baz Young pic.
Alan is now a minister (ex-pastor in Aberdeen, who would have guessed) about to publish a definitive book on Krishnamurti who was meant to be the new messiah at one stage. Alan Boag stayed with me recently, many of the old crew from Sand-n-Sea days still stay in touch between W.A. and S.A. Bill Johnston recently stayed with me too he was our president in S.A. Baz Young would remember him well. Bill was S.A. state champion, joined the air force and became squadron leader of the F-18’s and Mirage jets, then became Defence Attache to the federal government.
I guess the point is surfing produced some pretty unusual characters, accomplished and successful human beings in their later life.
The Roader’s (Seaview Road Board Riders Club) South Aust
SA surfer Barry ‘Baz’ Young (now a Yallingup resident) was a foundation member of the Roader’s (Seaview Road Board Riders Club) in 1964. Baz surfed with Spook & Hume in SA.
Baz Young: “1960s SA Adelaide beach Sunday Session. Includes SA surfers Gull, Flea, Lane Habib, Murray Addison & Baz Young with Spook Bothwell & Vance Cox from WA.” Baz Young: “1960s Charger and crew Middleton. ‘Roader’s’ days shows the old Hearse we used as a weekend club house! I’m second from the right on the bonnet”. 1967 Roader’s Charger surf wagon. Photo credit Darryl McGowan. Spook is in the wagon & Hume is standing alongside. On the roof are Horny, Porky, Bobby Waldeck & Darryl McGowan.
Porky’ married a Muslim lass, I mean the cheek of the guy, it’s too funny really 😊
1967 Nev, Peter Bothwell & Hume Heatley with Roader’s Charger surf wagon. Photo credit Darryl McGowan 1967 Enjoying cigars at a Roaders Cabaret held at the Arkaba Hotel. Photo credit Baz Young L-R Spook, Gull, Hume, unknown, Baz Young & unknowns.
Phillip Island Victoria
In 1966 I travelled by train from WA to Phillip Island in Victoria with Cottesloe surfer Peter ‘Dyso’ Dyson & Scarborough surfer Peter Lumis. Peter became an accountant for a car dealer in Albany. It was the first surf trip to Phillip Island by WA surfers.
1966 Craig Brent-White surfing Cat Bay Phillip Island. Photo by Surfing World Magazine photographer Ian Wilson.
In 1967 John Balgarnie and I started the first surfing school in Victoria at Phillip Island. We had a ball while our pupils sat on the beach at times while we surfed, all part of the process really😊
I ended
up abalone diving there for the next three years….perfect, you had to go
surfing when the surf was up because it was unsuitable for diving.
It was a
wonderful time in our surfing lives and an opportunity for surfers from various
communities across borders to discover friendships that endure today for many
of us.
In 1968
John Balgarnie (Cottesloe), Jamie Doig (City Beach) and I travelled overland to
Phillip Island Vic. It was another epic surf journey. John, Jamie and I didn’t
have much money and we struggled to get across the Nullarbor to Melbourne.
My shining achievement was beating Wayne Lynch in the inaugural Interstate Surfing Competition between SA, WA and Vic held on the island in 1968. It was the real inaugural Interstate surfing competition between Vic, SA & WA held on the Island.
There is a sequence that follows on from the ’68 Interstate Surf Comp at Phillip Island that came back here to WA and turned into something very special. It is the beginning of a new chapter, a new story.
This was the WA contingent of travelling surfers looking for a new adventure in the mid to late sixties. We had all been mesmerized by “Surfing World’s” magazine (Editor Bob Evans) photos of Crescent Heads, Noosa, Angourie etc endless right-hand point breaks we starved for here in the West. So off we went, straggling along at different times hooking up at some point on the East Coast and eventually basing out of Manly NSW. The first one of us to do this was Fred Legs, then John Pozzi followed by Myself, Terry Jacks, Peter Bothwell, Brian Boynes, Dave Beamish, Geoff Berry, Jamie Doig, Hume Heatley and others.
It may seem a contradiction to be mixing SA with Victoria and NSW around the same time but that’s how it was. We alternated on an annual basis between these places for years, working intermittently at any job we could get to save enough money to carry our surfing habit as a lifestyle, emphasis on surfing full stop. This included taking jobs far away from where we wanted to surf that paid a bit better than the mundane jobs available to us locally. In those day’s jobs were plentiful in remote areas.
South Australia connection
In South Australia, the WA guys hung around with surfers from the Sand-n-Sea board riders club. While there, I mooted to Spook Bothwell and Hume Heatley the idea of starting a S-n-S club in WA. In 1968 I returned to WA and we recruited surfers and formed our own S-n-S club. I was the President of the Club. We had very good surfers including Terry Jacks, Dave Beamish, Spook Bothwell, Hume Heatley, Brian Boynes, Steve Cockburn and other top surfers. The other WA clubs didn’t want to compete against us. The club was a great idea, but everyone travelled and our surfers were always coming and going. The club never really folded; we just didn’t get back together. Ha!
In 1969 I travelled with Brian Boynes to South Africa. Spook returned to WA from the East Coast and won consecutive State Open Surfing titles and represented WA in 1968 & 1969. In 1969 Spook (Open) & Ian ‘Kanga’ Cairns (Junior) became WA’s first finalists at the National level when they progressed to the finals of the Aust Surfing Championships held in WA. (State & National Open Division = Pro-Am without age groups).
1969 Craig Brent-White, Jim Ross, Alf and Co at Jeffries Bay South Africa surfing.
There were a lot of surfers who hooked up across from East to West, not just Phillip Island. There was a huge affiliation with SA and WA surfers for a long time, I still stay in contact with a lot of the crew from SA mainly. Had two of them come and stay with me recently at different times. Those long-standing friendships are the best, the most comfortable, as close too or closer than brothers.
Surfing is today an accumulation of past events and people who were involved at the time, the past shaped the present, it’s just a natural evolution. All of us from way back in the beginning of surfing contributed to some degree, surfing in the beginning of the 60’s in W.A. had little profile to the Eastern states let alone the world. By 1970 we had W.A. surfers challenging the world’s best. Sure, surfing started before 1960 in W.A. but I just highlight the massive ground we made up as a state to the culture of surfing in such a short time. Our waves are world class and powerful, it’s not hard to understand how far we came in ten years.
Where are they now.
Craig is the owner/wine maker at the prize-winning Cape Naturaliste Vineyard 1 Coley Road Yallingup. He is also a Master Mariner and currently owns Kimberly Coastal Pilots handling super liners between Broome & Darwin, parts of Indo, NT, New Guinea & Solomon Islands.
2006 Craig Brent-White & Salty Dog at Harvest party on Craig’s vineyard Yallingup.
“Salty Dog” was my head diver in the 80’s for Pearls Proprietary Ltd.
2008 John Balgarnie, Vic & Jan Kailis with Craig Brent-White at his 60th birthday party.
Spook is retired as senior Horticulturist with the Railways and is now free surfing in Southwest WA.
Hume had two University degrees ended up as an Accountant (high level) with the Tax Department. He was a talented surfer and colourful character, but sadly passed away prematurely from melanoma in the late 80s.
Dave Beamish was a senior Meteorologist and passed away 2019. His vision was appalling, and he only saw a wave when it was right on him, then he would swing around and surf like nobody else.
Terry Jacks was one of the most under rated surfers WA ever produced. His style was like Hawaiian Champion Joey Cabell. Terry passed away in 1990 (age 46) from blood poisoning which he contracted while surfing in Nias Indonesia. Terry had other health complications including malaria that contributed to his passing.
Thanks for sharing your S-n-S recollections Craig.
**Update 13 July 2021** Bay City members images removed at request of Greg Habib (South Aust).
By the mid-late 60’s WA surfers Peter ‘Spook’ Bothwell, Brian Boynes & Hume Heatley from the Yallingup Board Riders Club and Craig Brent-White & Fred ‘Fredlegs’ Lochowicz (Cottesloe Board Riders Club) and others were honing their surfing skills in South Australia.
The WA crew stayed in the Gulf area and surfed Cactus, Streaky Bay area, York Peninsula and the South Coast. They hung out with surfers from the Roader’s (Seaview Road Board Riders) and Sand-n-Sea Board Riders Club.
Craig Brent-White and Fred ‘Fredlegs’ Lochowicz were the first WA surfers to join the SA chapter of Sea-n-Sea.
On return to WA in 1968, Craig Brent-White, Peter ’Spook’ Bothwell & Hume Heatley recruited surfers and formed a chapter of Sand-n-Sea in WA.
This is the story of Sand-n-Sea’s origin in WA and its South Australia connection by WA Club President Craig Brent-White. (The comments are Craig’s unless stated otherwise).
Craig: The W.A. contingent as I remember it started with Fred Lockowitz alias “Fredlegs”, Fred had a house in Moana, and I joined him in August ’65, all the crew that visited the house were Sand-n-Sea members and how it all started with that club. There were other board clubs in SA at the time such as the Four Point Club which was “Moose” and “Robbo”, Ocean Siders and Sea View Roaders aka Baz Young.
All the Sand-n-Sea guys had animal nicknames and the like such as “the flea”, “the boag”, “the shtur”, “the gull”, “Moose”, “box & Kiwi” etc. Some of the other club’s members used to visit us at the Moana house as well, they were an eclectic group from all parts of Adelaide. You can’t make this stuff up!
Al Boag: “It used to take great skill in climbing down to the beach at Da Trof – Now there is a bus stop and steps to the beach.”
The focal meeting place for Sand-n-Sea members on a Friday night in Moana was at Artie’s deli, we all just hung out with his pin ball machines, life was just so simple.
Al Boag: “Moana corner Rat House shot giant rats in the kitchen with a .22 rifle.”
Left: 1965 Dave Sandercock outside the deli.
Right: 1971 Al Boag at rear Moana shop with board shaped by Lane Habib.
“The Boag” and “box” were the first of a tight group that surfed Cactus back then. “the Moose” used to clear the water at Daley Heads with his .303 rifle so his crew could have uncrowded surf. He is a legend at Cactus and still lives there today. Baz Young has a story about the Moose who could really handle himself, he single handled clean up about five bikies, one who pushed Baz off a walkway at a crash scene on Anza Hwy in Adelaide. Moose owned a single spinner without a driver’s seat, it had a tin can to sit on and if Spook was asked, he would probably say Moose had an influence on his and Brian Boyne’s choice of car.
As for W.A. guys: Jamie Doig, John Balgarnie, Hume Heatley, Spook Bothwell, Brian Boynes, Fred Lockowitz, myself, John Pozzi, Vance Cocks, Bob Shenstone, Alex Chobanoff, There are probably others, I would have to think a bit longer to come up with any others but only about five of these people lived there and surfed with the SA crew for any length of time.
I just stayed with ‘Fredlegs’ recently in Esperance, he rang me a week later to say he had been surfing with the younger crew at Cape Arid the previous weekend and four kids went in the water without telling their parents. A 5M white pointer swam right through between these kids without giving them a second look on it’s way around the corner to where the new seal pups were living. It’s belly was in the sand as it went by them. Apparently not the first time this situation has occurred at that spot. There is an island out from Cape Arid that is renowned as the densest population of Whites in the world.
Tragic Traffic Accident SA
On the October Long Weekend in 1966, we went to Bells Beach in Vic with the South Aust crew in the car. We returned early because there was no surf, I didn’t go with them the next day to Middleton Beach, but connected up with the boys with another club member later on the Monday morning of LWE. The remaining five club members were returning to Moana from Middleton Beach and hit a train head-on at 70mph at a railway crossing. They were blinded by afternoon sun. Resulting in five Bay City club members dying at the scene.
Those fatally injured in the accident were: Greg Rodda, Chris Toms, John Martin, Michael Laver & John Reordan.
Al Boag and I were at my place when the police arrived to inform me that two of my flat mates had been in a fatal accident at Middleton Beach, would we mind accompanying the Sargent to the mortuary to assist with identification. I was 17 at the time and the images still haunt me today.
This unbelievable tragedy galvanized us all to realise that life’s not forever at our young ages and what we all meant to each other. So we decided to have a huge party in memory of those we lost, it was the ‘circuit breaker’.
The tragedy impacted on us and the whole SA surfing community. The funeral procession was massive and was 3 miles long.
Three funerals first day and two the second.
Peter Bothwell: “In 1966 Brian Boynes and I were surfing on the East Coast. When we heard about the tragic traffic accident in SA, we bought a 1951 Ford Customline in Queensland for $60 and drove to SA. We surfed with the SA locals and later picked up passengers at the 1966 Tunarama Festival in Port Lincoln for the drive back to WA.“
Tunarama festival in Port Lincoln SA
SA & WA surfers attended the annual Tunarama festival held at Port Lincoln SA. This event was a big deal in SA. There was a surfing contest and all SA surfboard clubs attended and paraded down the main street to open the festival.
Sand-n-Sea hired that bus for the club and we strapped our boards on the roof, Sea View Roaders were the other club in that procession for the tuna festival in Port Lincoln, Baz Young was a Sea View Roader, they had a hearse for wheels, I think it was 1967. There were some other W.A. surfers in the procession, John Pozzi and Vance Cocks. We had a surf comp over at Fish Cove during the weekend. Awesome stuff, surf clubs just don’t have that much fun anymore it was a blast.
The photos show the procession down the main street of Port Lincoln with the Lord Mayor waving like the royal family from a balcony when a Sand-n-Sea member (Alan Boag) threw a flour bomb at him, then it was on for young and old😊
Alan is now a minister (ex-pastor in Aberdeen, who would have guessed) about to publish a definitive book on Krishnamurti who was meant to be the new messiah at one stage. Alan Boag stayed with me recently, many of the old crew from Sand-n-Sea days still stay in touch between W.A. and S.A. Bill Johnston recently stayed with me too he was our president in S.A. Baz Young would remember him well. Bill was S.A. state champion, joined the air force and became squadron leader of the F-18’s and Mirage jets, then became Defence Attache to the federal government.
I guess the point is surfing produced some pretty unusual characters, accomplished and successful human beings in their later life.
The Roader’s (Seaview Road Board Riders Club) South Aust
SA surfer Barry ‘Baz’ Young (now a Yallingup resident) was a foundation member of the Roader’s (Seaview Road Board Riders Club) in 1964. Baz surfed with Spook & Hume in SA.
Spook is in the wagon & Hume is standing alongside. On the roof are Horny, Porky, Bobby Waldeck & Darryl McGowan.
Porky’ married a Muslim lass, I mean the cheek of the guy, it’s too funny really 😊
L-R Spook, Gull, Hume, unknown, Baz Young & unknowns.
Phillip Island Victoria
In 1966 I travelled by train from WA to Phillip Island in Victoria with Cottesloe surfer Peter ‘Dyso’ Dyson & Scarborough surfer Peter Lumis. Peter became an accountant for a car dealer in Albany. It was the first surf trip to Phillip Island by WA surfers.
In 1967 John Balgarnie and I started the first surfing school in Victoria at Phillip Island. We had a ball while our pupils sat on the beach at times while we surfed, all part of the process really😊
I ended up abalone diving there for the next three years….perfect, you had to go surfing when the surf was up because it was unsuitable for diving.
It was a wonderful time in our surfing lives and an opportunity for surfers from various communities across borders to discover friendships that endure today for many of us.
In 1968 John Balgarnie (Cottesloe), Jamie Doig (City Beach) and I travelled overland to Phillip Island Vic. It was another epic surf journey. John, Jamie and I didn’t have much money and we struggled to get across the Nullarbor to Melbourne.
My shining achievement was beating Wayne Lynch in the inaugural Interstate Surfing Competition between SA, WA and Vic held on the island in 1968. It was the real inaugural Interstate surfing competition between Vic, SA & WA held on the Island.
There is a sequence that follows on from the ’68 Interstate Surf Comp at Phillip Island that came back here to WA and turned into something very special. It is the beginning of a new chapter, a new story.
This was the WA contingent of travelling surfers looking for a new adventure in the mid to late sixties. We had all been mesmerized by “Surfing World’s” magazine (Editor Bob Evans) photos of Crescent Heads, Noosa, Angourie etc endless right-hand point breaks we starved for here in the West. So off we went, straggling along at different times hooking up at some point on the East Coast and eventually basing out of Manly NSW. The first one of us to do this was Fred Legs, then John Pozzi followed by Myself, Terry Jacks, Peter Bothwell, Brian Boynes, Dave Beamish, Geoff Berry, Jamie Doig, Hume Heatley and others.
It may seem a contradiction to be mixing SA with Victoria and NSW around the same time but that’s how it was. We alternated on an annual basis between these places for years, working intermittently at any job we could get to save enough money to carry our surfing habit as a lifestyle, emphasis on surfing full stop. This included taking jobs far away from where we wanted to surf that paid a bit better than the mundane jobs available to us locally. In those day’s jobs were plentiful in remote areas.
South Australia connection
In South Australia, the WA guys hung around with surfers from the Sand-n-Sea board riders club. While there, I mooted to Spook Bothwell and Hume Heatley the idea of starting a S-n-S club in WA. In 1968 I returned to WA and we recruited surfers and formed our own S-n-S club. I was the President of the Club. We had very good surfers including Terry Jacks, Dave Beamish, Spook Bothwell, Hume Heatley, Brian Boynes, Steve Cockburn and other top surfers. The other WA clubs didn’t want to compete against us. The club was a great idea, but everyone travelled and our surfers were always coming and going. The club never really folded; we just didn’t get back together. Ha!
In 1969 I travelled with Brian Boynes to South Africa. Spook returned to WA from the East Coast and won consecutive State Open Surfing titles and represented WA in 1968 & 1969. In 1969 Spook (Open) & Ian ‘Kanga’ Cairns (Junior) became WA’s first finalists at the National level when they progressed to the finals of the Aust Surfing Championships held in WA. (State & National Open Division = Pro-Am without age groups).
There were a lot of surfers who hooked up across from East to West, not just Phillip Island. There was a huge affiliation with SA and WA surfers for a long time, I still stay in contact with a lot of the crew from SA mainly. Had two of them come and stay with me recently at different times. Those long-standing friendships are the best, the most comfortable, as close too or closer than brothers.
Surfing is today an accumulation of past events and people who were involved at the time, the past shaped the present, it’s just a natural evolution. All of us from way back in the beginning of surfing contributed to some degree, surfing in the beginning of the 60’s in W.A. had little profile to the Eastern states let alone the world. By 1970 we had W.A. surfers challenging the world’s best. Sure, surfing started before 1960 in W.A. but I just highlight the massive ground we made up as a state to the culture of surfing in such a short time. Our waves are world class and powerful, it’s not hard to understand how far we came in ten years.
Where are they now.
Craig is the owner/wine maker at the prize-winning Cape Naturaliste Vineyard 1 Coley Road Yallingup. He is also a Master Mariner and currently owns Kimberly Coastal Pilots handling super liners between Broome & Darwin, parts of Indo, NT, New Guinea & Solomon Islands.
“Salty Dog” was my head diver in the 80’s for Pearls Proprietary Ltd.
Spook is retired as senior Horticulturist with the Railways and is now free surfing in Southwest WA.
Hume had two University degrees ended up as an Accountant (high level) with the Tax Department. He was a talented surfer and colourful character, but sadly passed away prematurely from melanoma in the late 80s.
Dave Beamish was a senior Meteorologist and passed away 2019. His vision was appalling, and he only saw a wave when it was right on him, then he would swing around and surf like nobody else.
Terry Jacks was one of the most under rated surfers WA ever produced. His style was like Hawaiian Champion Joey Cabell. Terry passed away in 1990 (age 46) from blood poisoning which he contracted while surfing in Nias Indonesia. Terry had other health complications including malaria that contributed to his passing.
Thanks for sharing your S-n-S recollections Craig.
Related content.
1960s Phillip Island surf trips by Craig Brent-White and Peter Dyson published 16 August 2017
Cottesloe Board Club in the early 1960s published 7 Feb 2018
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