These days surf life savers and surf board riders happily co-exist on Australia's beaches. In fact, many surfers are now serving members of their local surf life saving clubs. It wasn't always so. There was a time when the two tribes hated each other... and occasionally even came to blows. This fictitious yarn about a bad day at the beach is based on real events that happened … [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...]
Death Wish at Fairy Bower
Fairy Bower - sissy by name, gnarly by nature Once in a blue moon the surf on Sydney’s northern beaches gets so big that it is virtually impossible to go surfing. Just about the last rideable spot on a huge day is the point break near Manly incongruously known as Fairy Bower. If the swell gets up and over eighteen or twenty feet, as a general rule, “The Bower” is the only … [Read more...]
A very strange summer (1966–1967) – when surfers became sporting gods but social pariahs!
In a strange quirk of history while one of Sydney Northern Beach's greatest ever surfers was winning the world title in the USA, public authorities back in Australia were banning his wonderful sport! On a windy Sunday morning a few dozen surfers were enjoying some fun, little waves at the protected southern end of Palm Beach. Around mid-morning the patrol captain of the … [Read more...]