FREE: 18seconds Surf Magazine on-line

18seconds - Issue No.7
Read it for free on-line

FREE MAGAZINE: The new Issue, No.7, of '18seconds' Surf Magazine is now available on-line. In fact you can read all previous 6 issues for free on their site.

Just in case you’re unaware: 18seconds magazine provides a rich reading experience through multimedia and interactivity, by bringing the best surfing from around the world. 18seconds can be viewed on all media devices including iPads, Iphones and Androids.

In the new issue; they track down Murray Bourton of Queensland-based Base Surfboards and discover, after all the chaos, there are great changes in them hills.

Read it for free on a nice digital platform at: 18seconds Surf Magazine


Don't forget to mark in your calendar:
Mick Mock's Vintage Surf Auction
Harbord Diggers Club
Freshwater Beach, Sydney
Viewing: Saturday 26th November, 2011 - 3:00 to 5:00pm
Auction: Sunday 27th November, 2011 - From 10:30am

Vintage Swap Meet - Coolangatta

Underground Surf
One Slightly Obsessed Collector holds his own Swap Meet

Coolangatta Event poster

Slightly obsessed - they're the best kind aren't they?

Co-owner of Underground Surf in McLean Street, Coolangatta, Andre 'Ondi' Marsaus has his own Vintage Swap Meet coming up on Saturday 8th October, 2011.

A highly impassioned collector, Ondi, runs the surf emporium with his partner Maree.

So if you're in the market to buy/sell/swap up any old vintage surfboards or related gear, the Southern end of the Gold Coast is the place to head on October 8th.

If you want some of idea how deep Ondi is in - you have to have a peek at the current issue of the awesome free bi-monthly surf magazine, Smorgasboarder.

They just published a two-page spread featuring Andre 'Ondi' Marsaus and part of his collection of over 300 boards. [see insert right].



Meet the Fleet: This assemblage of foam and fibreglass
represents about one quarter of Ondi's classic
surfboard collection. Above are pages
48-49 of the new Smorgasboarder Magazine
[Click to enlarge]

Event organisers, Ondi and Maree are on the lookout for more contributions to add to the gathering. So if you have something to display or offer, consign, swap, or just want to get an appraisal done - then make sure you contact them.

Should be a real fun day and a good chance to rub shoulders with many fellow enthusiasts. It's always interesting to see what gets dragged out from the rafters.

This is all part of testing the waters for the big Bleach Surf Festival that will be coming up on the Gold Coast in February in 2012.

Here's the skinny...

Location: Underground Surf
Date: Saturday 8th October, 2011
Time: 10:00am until 2:00pm
Call: 07 5599-1040 for more info or help

READ FREE: The new 164-page Smorgasboarder Magazine on-line. Click here

You may also be interested in:
Our report from Mick Mock's 2010 Vintage Surf Auction

You can purchase Steve Core's '75 Ocean Rhythms DVD at Underground Surf, Coolangatta

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

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Photo: Typhoon Wave Power

Pure Ocean Power
Massive waves lash Japan's Tsunami ravaged coastline

Tokyo: A powerful typhoon slammed into Japan Wednesday, halting trains and leaving 13 people dead or missing in south-central regions before grazing a crippled nuclear plant and heaping rain on the tsunami-ravaged northeast.

Giant waves generated by Typhoon Roke explode against
the breakwaterin Udono, Mie Prefecture, Japan.

The storm, packing sustained winds of up to 100 mph, made landfall in the early afternoon near the city of Hamamatsu, about 125 miles west of Tokyo. The fast-moving storm went past the capital in the evening and then headed up into the northeast, where it eventually lost strength.

Tokyo, where many rush hour commuter trains were suspended, stranding thousands of commuters who were trying to rush home were stuck at stations across the sprawling city. More than 200 domestic flights were cancelled.

Parts of Japan's central city of Nagoya, about 170 miles west of Tokyo, were flooded near swollen rivers where rescue workers helped residents evacuate in rubber boats.

Toyota Motor Corp., Japan's No. 1 automaker, shut down its plants as a precaution. Machinery maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries told workers at its five plants to stay home, company spokesman Hideo Ikuno said.

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Puzzle: Mystery '60s surfers - problem solved

Can you name this surfer? I can.
Sydney Morning Herald's lost '60s surfers


From last Saturday's Sydney Morning Herald.
Surf City Curator; Gary Crockett holding the board.
The young 'gremmie' sitting on the car [arrowed] is
Cronulla's 14 year old, John Coleman.
[click to enlarge the photo]

As the countdown draws near to the opening of the Surf City Exhibition at the Museum of Sydney later this week, the Sydney Morning Herald last Saturday published this montage of photos and asked if we [the readers] could name any one in the photos.

In the group shot of the guys sitting on the car, perched on the far left of the car [with my arrow] is life-long Cronulla surfer and resident, John Coleman.

John was one of Cronulla's hottest young surfers throughout the sixties to the mid-seventies. Getting his picture regularly published in the surf magazines in the late sixties when I was just a struggling grom.

Above, John Coleman [left] and Steve Core
just a week ago at the Bobby Brown
Exhibition at Jackson Surfboards.
Photo: courtesy Jackson Surfboards.

John, like myself, these days is in his very early sixties and still lives in Cronulla and still surfs at every opportunity. 

He can be easily spotted in the line-up at Sandshoes Reef, where he's been a local stand out surfer for 45+ years. Ripping it up on his Force 9 thruster.

By the way, that cool looking car in that photo above is a classic '46 Ford sidevalve V8 Super Deluxe Sedan - which incidentally, also came in a distinguished wood paneled [Woody] station wagon version - see photo below.

So not only do I know John, and have done so for decades, we were both pictured together just a week ago at the Bobby Brown Exhibition at Jackson Surfboards in Caringbah.

Mystery solved.

Steve

DETAILS: The Surf City Exhibition opens this coming weekend at the Museum of Sydney and will run right through the Summer.

RELATED: Want to see some of the realy cool surf related photos capturing the bygone era of Sydney's surfing scene that Curator Gary Crockett has unearthed? Then check his: Surf City Blog

End note: How cool does this beautifully and
authentically restored '46 V8 Deluxe Ford Woody look?

Phuket: It's just a wave

Phuket: It's just a wave
It's just another empty wave - but isn't that we're all searching for?

Everyone thinks there's no surf in Phuket, Thailand. Wrong. I guess it's because it really has not had much coverage globally. But check out this photo that Saltwater Dreaming's Rick Gamble has sent us that was taken this week - just as their wave season is supposedly coming to an end.

No big deal - it's just a wave. But this is Surin Beach, about 10K's North of the popular Patong Beach. So how about the size? Compare it to guy you can see paddling out.

Surin Beach, Phuket, Thailand this week.
Surin is home of Saltwater Dreaming Surf Shop.

If this sparks your interest in perhaps travelling to Phuket, then I suggest you have a good look over Rick Gamble's Saltwater Dreaming website. It's got a surf report and all the good information about breaks, conditions and wave season.

Phuket's best waves are on the island's West facing beaches - in the vast Andaman Sea.

Phuket doesn't get the deep ocean swells fanning over an abundance of reefs like Bali. But it's beaches are nice and white, the waters are crystal clear and really warm all year round. All you need is a bit of Monsoonal activity offshore and bingo - you've got nice little waves to have some fun amongst.

Rick Gamble is an Aussie ex-pat and has the only true salty surf shop on the island. Apart from carry everything you need for any kind of wave riding or SUP, Rick also makes his own local formula Surf Wax called Gekco Glue surf wax - ['cause Geckos can stick to the wall - get it?]. Nice one Rick.

"Undoubtedly the island's best Surf Shop" - says Lonely Planet

Steve

Steve Core's Ocean Rhythms now available on DVD

You might also like:
3rd Quiksilver Thailand Surf Competition
Surfers in Vietnam during the Vietnam War

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Event: Seventies Sessions

PT's Seventies Sessions
A no pressure, no judges, fun event

My good friend, former '76 World Surf Champion, Peter Townend [PT], is putting on what he calls the Seventies Sessions Surfing event this weekend in his home beach of Huntington Beach.

In the true spirit of the decade of the Seventies, this weekend in Huntington Beach as part of the new 'Surf City Days' weekend the inaugural 'Seventies Sessions' event will take place.

In a celebration of the surfboard culture that swept the globe in the Seventies, heavily impacting in Huntington Beach, this event was inspired by the Golden Breed Expression Sessions on Hawaii's North Shore in the early Seventies. These events were less about competition, they had no judges or scoring system, no winners and losers, but instead were focused clearly on the creative individual expression of wave riding.

The 'Seventies Sessions' will be no different says PT, with a congregation of forty-eight [48] participants gathering in front of the Waterfront Hilton to surf from 8:00a.m. until 1:00p.m. on Saturday September, 17th. Then retire back across the street to the Hilton Hotel's 'West Coast Club' to drink a few beers and 'Talk Story' on those who surfed best and the stories behind the boards they brought to ride.

Here's the unique hook; participants are required to bring their own boards and those baords must have been made under a Huntington Beach surfboard maker's label during the time period of the Seventies.


Photo #1 - PT riding his hollow W.A.V.E.
surfboard at Tea Tree Bay Noosa, 1974.
Photo: Steve Core

Some of those classic '70s Huntington surfboard brands are still around like Check Dent, Randy Lewis, The Greek and Robert August, some have left town like Infinity and Walden, while others have become extinct like Plastic Fantastic, RC, Hawk, David Nuuhiwa/Dyno, Carl Hayward, Bronzed Aussies, Wayne Brown, Corky Carroll Spacesticks, Sunline, Creative Designs and Gordie.

RELATED: Huntington Surfboard Pioneer 'Gordie' passes away.

The format is much the same as the original North Shore, Hawaii event, with four one hour heats of twelve and one final one hour heat 'Free For All' with everyone invited to participate - to express themselves on their vintage weapon of choice.

PT, late afternoon backside turn
at Gas Chambers/Rocky Point,
North Shore, Hawaii.
December '77
Photo: Steve Core



Event producer and organiser Peter 'PT' Townend of The ActivEmpire [ATE] says; “I participated in the last of the very original Golden Breed Expression Sessions on Hawaii's North Shore and that's where the inspiration for this event is coming to me from - only this weekend our event will adapt a localised Huntington Beach flavour”.

Of further interest, PT also posted a couple of old surfing photos of him [taken by me] on his Facebook site this week. I had not seen these photos in many years and they come to us from courtesy of the extensive PT Collection.

Photo #1 above: We were chasing some cyclone surf and headed up North to Noosa from the Gold Coast. Ended up with some nice clean surf at Tea Tree Bay, Noosa. I took this shot from sitting on my surfboard with my Nikons II waterproof film camera in 1974. PT is riding is hollow W.A.V.E surfboard. This is the same board that he rode in the "Pipeline Rights' sequence in my 1975 16mm film 'Ocean Rhythms'.

Photo #2 [left] Originally a Kodachrome slide, I snapped this shot very late one overcast afternoon at Gas Chambers/Rocky Point in Hawaii a few days before Christmas in December '77. PT said this week, that this is just about his favourite backside shot of himself ever.

The view down over Huntington Beach from
the rooms at the Waterfront Hilton. Nice.

Thanks for sharing PT and we should have some photos of the Seventies Sessions to post next week.

Steve

Ocean Rhythms is available on DVD
Some Ocean Rhythms stockists are: Saltwater Dreaming Phuket - Heritage Surf, Manly - Jackson Surfboards, Caringbah, - Express Surfboards, Taren Point

Something to add or say? E-mail us at: swapsurf@gmail.com

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