All '60s mystery surfers identified

Classic surf photo from the early sixties
Cronulla surfers all identified

Good friend, life-long Cronulla surfer and avid board collector from the Stringerless era; Larry Cohen has managed to shed some additional light on the mystery '60s surfers photo published last Saturday in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Photographer Bob Weeks captured this rare shot
of these Cronulla surfers at the Ulladulla
Golf Course Reef back in the early sixties.

Larry lives just a few doors up from John Coleman, who we identified as the young 'Gremlin' in the photo earlier this week in a story.

John dropped in to visit Larry and could clearly name all the guys who were in the photo. As John tells the story, he was around 14 yrs old at the time and the photo was taken around 1963/64. He goes on say that all the other guys in the photo are much older than him, but they let him tag along on surf trips just because he was such a good surfer.

The photo, which turns out to be a fashionable time stamp of the times, was taken by Bob Weeks and the location was the famous Golf Course reef at Ulladulla, on the NSW South Coast.

'60s shot of Nigel Dwyer glassing boards
at Norm Casey Surfboards, Taren Point.
Photo from the Nigel Dwyer,
Del Surfboards Collection, NZ.


Identified and hand marked in the photo above; are Cronulla's top surfers from the era, here's the entire crew: John Coleman, John Gittins, Nigel Dwyer, Robert Ayers and Tony Nicholas. 

A surf industry person, Nigel Dwyer worked at both Jackson Surfboards and Norm Casey Surfboards. Nigel moved across the pond to North Island of New Zealand in 1965 and founded Del Surfboards in New Plymouth and is still entrenched there - some 46 years later.

Cronulla's loss was New Zealand's gain. Nigel became and essential part of the development of surfing in New Zealand and to this very day, still makes a major contribution. Take a look at his Del Surfboards website - it has a timeline of some awesome old photos on there.

All this is perfect timing for this nostalic photo revival action as it will all be vividly relived starting tonight at the Surf City Exhibition at the Museum of Sydney.

If you like this, you might also like:
Huntington Beach surfboard pioneer 'Gordie' passes away
Manly's Heritage Surf Shop to close its doors
Surfing in Vietnam during the Vietnam War

*