Many “Waves of Pain” stories are about merciless thrashing handed out by the ocean when it’s in an angry mood. Not all. Some come from a wholly different kind of pain. I remember thinking, oh… what a load of bullshit, the first time I heard the expression “sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” To me, an emotional beating has always been way worse … [Read more...]
Fairy Bower monsters surf-boat crew! True story from the horses mouth!
On Sunday the 22nd of March 1966, the crew of the Palm Beach Surf Life Saving Club surf-boat, “Cabbage Tree I” rowed from the calm safety of Shelly Beach at Manly a few hundred meters out and just around the corner into the twenty foot plus waves that were breaking at Fairy Bower on that day. I have written about the event before. But here we have one of the … [Read more...]
Surf or golf? Nah. Neither. Should have stuck by the pool.
A bloke I know was taking a quick holiday at a luxury golf resort that just happened to own its own private beach rimmed with an outer reef that had pretty good waves. Ninety-nine percent of the guests at the hotel were golf nutters (and the beach was off-limits to non-guests), so my mate, Grunter, figured that a quiet paddle with no-one else to nick any of the best waves might … [Read more...]
A bad day at Palmy – surfies and clubbies at war!
Shane was stoked that Kiddies Corner at South Palm Beach was firing up after days of shitty southerly storm conditions making surfing impossible right up and down the Northern Beaches. It was 8.00 a.m. Sunday, November 1966. Things hadn’t been good in recent weeks for Shane and his mates with the local Warringah Council passing regulations that banned surfing at most of his … [Read more...]
Smashed at Gas Chambers
The ocean often plays the role of a trickster as two young women who tried their luck at the Hawaiian North Shore “experts only” surfing spot, Gas Chambers, found out. Cara and Ana paddled out a two person surf kayak at this shallow-breaking, reef-bottomed barrel generator with the gruesome name on what they thought was one of the North Shore’s mild and manageable days. The … [Read more...]