John Witzig:
Iconic Surfing Photographs from the 1960s & 1970s

17th March - 25 April 2010

Official Opening Celebrations and artists talk

5.30 pm Friday 26 March 2010

www.graftongallery.nsw.gov.au
Ph: 0266423177







1/2/10

Author- Marsha Neville


www.dailyexaminer.com.au/story/2010/02/01/witzigs-wave-of-support/


THEY say a picture is worth a thousand words, but there were certainly more than that spoken at the opening of John Witzig’s photographic exhibition on Saturday night at Angourie.

Yarns flowed into the evening recalling the history of one of the world’s most famous surf breaks and the culture that grew.

“I remember driving to Angourie for the first time and seeing all the cane fields,” said local shaper Rod Dahlberg, who originates from New Zealand.

“I thought I had arrived at some kind of tropical heaven,” he said.

While Witzig’s works hang on the walls of galleries in Sydney and Melbourne and regional galleries in between, the birthplace and focus of so many of his shots had never staged its own exhibition until one local surfer stepped in.

“I asked John if he had any old photos of my dad or my family,” Jeremy Walters said.

“And he showed me these shots of my dad and my uncle in the late 60s and early 70s at Angourie that were just incredible.”

Jeremy knew that a lot of the surfers Witzig had hung out with and captured on film were still living locally and so suggested an exhibition, inviting a few of them to share their memories of Angourie in the late 60s and 70s.

“I thought it was incredible that four of the five speakers that I organised were still living in Angourie,” Jeremy said.

He invited Rod Dahlberg, Dave Treloar, Dennis McPherson, Geof Walters and Chris Brock to share tales from the past. While it took some convincing to make the show happen, the tickets sold in a matter of days. The exhibition will remain at Frangipani restaurant until Sunday.

A charity auction of Witzig’s most famous photograph, Fresh Mullet, fetched $1500.

An exploration of the global phenomenon of surf art, from Byron Bay to Chile, the crest to underground.

Featuring works by original Mambo artist Jeff Raglus, legendary Byron photographer Dick Hoole, founding
Quicksilver artist Peter Webb and renowned Australian filmmaker photographer brothers John and Paul Witzig. Plus
international artists Dave Homcy, Crystal Thornburg and Sean Davey (Hawaii), Christian Tuki (Rapa Nui),
Jose Nacho Vargas and Alfredo Escobar (Chile) and upcoming young Australians Ryan Heywood,
Luke Taaffe, James McMillan and Alberto Sanchez.

Opening 5.30pm Thursday March 11 Sponsored by Stone & Wood
Exhibition runs until March 25

View an online preview of the work or for more info www.retrospectgalleries.com

JOHN WITZIG: SURFING PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE 1960S AND ’70S
Item # 000106

by John Witzig

Limited Edition of 100 signed copies.

Packaged with print of Midget Farrelly at Palm Beach. (RRP $475.)
Image size: 40 x 60 cm
Matt size: 62.5 x 81.5 cm

http://www.pacificlongboarder.com/products.asp?id=106&category=27


EXHIBITION

John Witzig exhibition titled :

ICONIC SURFING PHOTOGRAPHS from the 1960s & '70s.

is exhibiting from 11/12/2009 to 06/02/2010 @ Shoalhaven City Arts Centre - Ph 0244220648 - 12 Berry St, Nowra, NSW 2541, www.shoalhavenartscentre.com.au

The Shoalhaven City Arts Centre aims to promote and enrich the understanding of art and artistic endeavours in the Shoalhaven.
It is supported through funding by the NSW Ministry for the Arts and the Australian Government Regional Partnerships Program.
Issued by Lachlan Harris, Media Manager, (02) 4429 3595, 0412 102 790 (mobile)
harrisl@shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au, or visit www.shoalhaven.nsw.gov.au for the media releases

Editorial Review- @
http://melbourne.citysearch.com.au/arts/1137590179504/-

7 May-1 Jun '08
Dickerson Gallery
2a Waltham Street
Richmond VIC, 3131

Catch the wave of Australian Surf Counter Culture
Image: Catch the wave of Australian Surf Counter Culture

For most surfers, it’s a fact universally known that when you catch the perfect wave no-one’s watching. Except of course, a bloke called John Witzig, whose iconic photographs capture the birth of an Australian surf counter-culture starring fresh-faced youngsters Midget Farrelly, Nat Young and Bob McTavish, who together heralded what Witzig called “a new era of Australian surfing.”

The exhibition features a collection of photographs spanning the mid '60s to 1976, and with titles including Nat at Winkipop (1969), Bob McTavish, big Bells (1965) and Midget at Palm Beach (mid '60s), it is a stunning and often humorous depiction (those outfits, those haircuts!) of the true pioneers of Australian surfing.

The medium format photographs capture Australia's early surfers riding monster waves that would put a shiver down the spine of the Kelly Slaters and Mick Fannings of today, and without the luxury of wetsuits, the safety of leg ropes or the ease of jet-skis, remind us of the bravery or lunacy inherent in that first generation of Australian surfers.

A house at Torquay (c.1970) depicts a group of laconic young surfers capable of stealing the heart of every teenage girl in Australia, (incurring the wrath of every teenage girl's father in the process), while The locals at Angourie (early 1970s) captures beautifully the despair and disappointment when surfers find themselves at a perfect break surrounded by incredible natural beauty, but one where the waves have failed to materialise. Nat at Fishos, Victoria (1965) is the simple reason why the act of standing on a board and riding a wave is in our blood, and something Australians from all walks of life will continue to do in growing numbers.

Witzig's photographs document a vital period in the history of Australian surfing, comprising a collection of moments featuring golden young gods easily illuminated against the darkness of Vietnam and the social upheaval that followed. A time when a surfer caught the occasionally perfect wave and someone was watching.

Whether it's photography, graffiti or paintings by the old Masters, we'll tell you the what where and when of some of the best exhibitions in town via the Citysearch Arts tab in your city. Start Citysearching today.

Cath Pope
Managing Editor, Citysearch



Media release


25 November 2009

Surfing photos track the birth of an
irreverent Australian culture

In 1967 surfing was about to undergo a shift – to smaller boards with developed rails and fin areas – that
would affect every surfer in the world. The era of a surfing culture was burgeoning throughout the world
and one young 23-year-old Australian surfer, photographer and freelance writer, John Witzig, was
capturing the moments.
An exhibition of the major photographic works by John Witzig will be on exhibition at the Shoalhaven City
Arts Centre from 11 December.
Phil Jarratt, former editor of Tracks, said: “John Witzig’s idea was that a core of young Australians (and
an expatriate Californian) had redefined the sport of surfing by focusing on riding the wave, rather than
riding the board. Ahead of his time by a full year, Witzig contended that this development had been
brought about by the design of new, more sensitive wave-riding equipment (the real innovations were to
come during the winter of 1967), and almost immediately he was proven correct when Australian surfer
Nat Young, used the techniques to blitz a star-studded international field and win the 1966 world surfing
championships in San Diego.”
Mark Cherry, a Sydney-based writer and surfer, describes the influence of Witzig in a foreword to the
book, John Witzig: Surfing Photographs from the 1960s and 1970s: “At times ethnographic, Witzig’s
[photographs are] not items of nostalgic fetish, but forensic traces of lives that revolved around surfing
and were active in creating it. He had a knack for this type of thing. It wasn’t just that he was good with a
camera. His photographs are more than a technical exercise – they are intuitive pieces of art-directed
reportage.
“John Witzig’s photography and writing made a difference. Often political in subtext and pointed in effect,
it is no surprise that his time at Sydney University coincided with a period of aggressive student politics.
He studied architecture, a discipline that closely relies on the symbiosis of function and aesthetics. This
period was the grounding for the electric confidence in his written voice and the cultural focus of his
photography.”
The exhibition provides clear insights into the burgeoning culture or surfers and surfing that are well
established on the South Coast. Witzig’s photographs also roam around the surfing spots on the
Australian east coast as well as international sites such as Honolua Bay and the north shore of Hawaii.

Photo captions: Bob McTavish and a 1948 Holden. The picture was taken in 1966 as McTavish was
overlooking an uncrowded surfing line up at Noosa.
Fresh mullet … In the early 1970s a sandy track led to the rock shelf of Angourie. The mullet were sold
by a caretaker at the reserve.

What: John Witzig: Iconic surfing photographs of the 1960s and 1970s
Where: Shoalhaven City Arts Centre 12 Berry St Nowra
When: Gallery Hours 10am – 4pm Tuesday to Friday
11am – 3pm Saturday, Closed Sundays and Mondays

CONTACT: Arts and Events Manager Rachael French (02) 4429 3460


CONTEXT-@
http://www.watoday.com.au/executive-style/motors/tarmac-surfers-20090518-baat.html

SINCE the halcyon days of the 1960s, the surf wagon of choice has been a home away from home for boardriders on "surfari".

When it comes to cars and their place in surfing folklore, the Kombi is right up there at the peak of the wave.

One of Australia's best-known surf photographers, John Witzig, owned a Kombi in the late '60s, using it to get to the beach to capture his images.

"It was a very well-set-up unit," Witzig says. "I even had a couple of bunk beds in there with individual mosquito nets. It made two trips from Whale Beach to WA, long before the Nullarbor Plain had a paved road.

"The Kombi was the quintessential travelling car for surfers, unquestionably. Wandering around Australia throughout the '60s, you could pull over and camp anywhere. No one bothered you. Now we've become a quite authoritarian community and you can't do any of those things."

Witzig remembers when his friend, surfer Bob McTavish, lived in an old 1936 Hudson at the North Avalon Beach car park in NSW.

"It didn't have a proper driver's seat," Witzig says. "Just a lounge chair for more comfort. One day the council bulldozed his car into a ditch, covered it up with soil and built a toilet block on top of it.

"I think it would make a great archaeological dig."

Throughout the '60s, the car became a means by which boardriders could go on a "surfari", exploring the Victorian, NSW and Queensland coastlines. The car enabled surf pioneers to discover such legendary breaks as the world-famous Bells Beach, Gunnamatta, Crescent Head, Angourie, Lennox Head and Byron Bay, which at the time was little more than a village with an abattoir, spilling its blood into the brine.

For some people, the surfari never stopped. Barry "Magoo" McGuigan, of Norah Head, NSW, still enjoys travelling north looking for waves and entering longboard competitions. These days his transport is a Nissan X-Trail.

"It's good for one person because you can lay the passenger seat flat and put your board inside," says McGuigan, who turns 80 next year. "I entered the Crescent Head longboard competition in April and slept in the car for four days. I've got a mattress in the back. It's pretty comfortable."

This remarkable bloke started surfing as a child in the 1940s at North Bondi. His first "surfing car" was a 1953 VW Beetle, on which he'd sling a couple of 16-foot plywood monsters. He graduated to a green-and-white '62 EJ Holden wagon, which he'd often take to Noosa and back. During the 1980s, McGuigan owned three VW Kombis - "a terrific car for surfers".

Another Kombi lover is 34-year-old landscape architect Jacob Stuth. He owns two Kombis: a 1973 2.0-litre Microbus with a fold-down queen-size bed in the rear, and a 1967 1.6-litre split-window model.

"Kombis have great ground clearance and because the engine is over the rear axle they have good traction," he says. "They also keep everything dry and secure and boast heaps of space. As long as you keep a check on the oil . . . they're the perfect vehicle for surfers."

Like many surfers, Stuth also owns a Mercedes-Benz - a 1977 300D with a five-cylinder diesel.

One of Australia's most influential surfers, Nat Young, has sat behind the three-pointed star since he was 17. He got around in a 280SEL coupe for 20 years, lumping his boards on the roof. Now he drives a 2004 ML350.
Young says his favourite surfing car was a 1938 Dodge in which he had shares when he was a teenager.

"Nine of us each put in 10 shillings to buy it," he says. "I loved it, it was just so big. We only ever used it to get around the northern beaches because none of us had licences . . . we were only about 15. It was the perfect surf car because we didn't have to worry about looking after it.

"Another early car I got to the surf in was an ex-bread delivery van. I think it was an old Morris or Austin that was owned by my next-door neighbour. It had Murphy the Surfie cartoons painted all over the side of it. We'd all pile into the back. It was terrific fun."

Vans have always been popular with surfers. The humble panel van was developed by Holden in 1953 for tradesmen but during the '70s, surfers took to them en masse, not only as a secure place to store boards and wetsuits but a semi-private zone for young lovers. Who can forget (although we'd certainly like to) the image of Bruce (Jay Hackett) trying to deflower Debbie (Nell Schofield) in the back of his Holden HT Belmont panel van in the coming-of-age surfie girl flick Puberty Blues (1981)?

One of the most desirable panel vans of all was the Holden Sandman.

Launched in 1971 as an HQ derivative, it wasn't really until the HJ in 1974 that the Sandman garnered attention. And with lurid paint jobs such as lime green or banana yellow, it was pretty hard to ignore.

Artist and surfer Gerry Wedd, based in Port Elliot, South Australia, immortalised the Sandman in an image for Mambo surfwear in 1995. The car on which he based his drawing was owned by a friend.

"It was loud and brash and almost something to make fun of," Wedd explains. "I've always been interested in the connection between surfing and cars and the characters that drove them.

"I don't think real surfers ever really owned a Sandman; they couldn't afford one. It was always the pseudo-surfers who had them and I don't think their boards ever got wet."

The first car that four-time world surfing champion Mark Richards owned was a HQ Holden panel van. It wasn't a Sandman, he is quick to point out.

Like many surfers, he eventually traded up to a Kombi.

"The thing you look for as a surfer is a car you can store your surfboards inside, because of security, plus it's not good to leave them on roof racks in the hot sun," Richards says.

Nowadays he drives a Toyota Kluger, mostly using it to get himself and his boards from his home above his Newcastle surf shop down to nearby beaches.

"It's a great car. I can fit five boards and four people in there - myself and my three kids. My wife, Jenny, doesn't surf at all, she doesn't even really like the beach."

Richards reckons the Kombi's title as the ultimate surfer's car has been usurped by small four-wheel-drives, station wagons and hatchbacks.

"If I'm going anywhere, I rent a Toyota Corolla," he says. "It's amazing what a load of boards you can put in one of those things."

Take a trip to a beach car park in 2008 and you're more likely to see a mix of soft-roaders.

Surfing Australia chief executive Mark Lane says 4WDs have opened up a lot of previously inaccessible coastline.

"There are some parts of the country where 4WDs are critical to get to the waves," he says.

"There are places just two hours north of Perth where you can drive your 4WD along the beach and pitch your tent in the dunes. It's pretty special."
Robyn Harvey, founder of Women in the Waves (women-in-waves.com.au), an organisation devoted to female surfers, has a Nissan Murano.

"I wanted something that was sleek and sexy and could fit a nine-foot Malibu inside," she says.

Harvey, 58, started surfing when she was seven. Her first surf car was a Morris 1100 to which she'd latch the board with octopus straps.

In fact, it could even be argued that the humble "occy" strap is as much a part of surfing folklore as the cars.

Source: The Age

* ABC1

Wednesday December 30, 2009

10.15pm

Bombora: The Story Of Australian Surfing Documentary, G

A definitive history of surfing in Australia as told by our surfing champions, writers, pioneers, entrepreneurs, mavericks, legends, drop-outs and drop-ins - featuring remarkable archival footage and classic Australian music.
Bombora: The Story Of Australian Surfing-

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/guide/abc2/documentary.htm

http://www.metromagazine.com.au
http://www.theeducationshop.com.au

With their archival style documentary
series, Bombora, filmmakers Paul Clarke, Nick Carroll and Greg Appel have created a wildly entertaining account of surfing in Australia. This is social history at its best: passionate, detailed and thought-provoking. It features a vivid cast of champion surfers, mystics, entrepreneurs, pioneers, mavericks, forgotten stars and legends: all with stories to tell that reveal something special
at the heart of our national identity and our spirit of place. Delving back into the history of the sport and the times in which it established its popularity, the series introduces us to wonderful characters such as Duke Kahanamoku, the father of modern surfing, and Isabel Letham, who loved to surf naked in Bilgola in the mid-1910s. Later generations
are represented by stars such as Michael Peterson,
according to some the greatest surfer of all time; and the women who helped to transform the aggressive, drug-riddled culture of the 1980s, Pam Burridge and Layne Beachley. The series comprises two 55-minute episodes. Episode 1 traces the emergence of surfing in Australia up until 1964, when the World Surfing Championships were held here and it was a clean sweep for the locals. Episode 2 looks back at the counter culture the surfies created, their hippie values and the impact of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll. It explores the many great achievements of the new breed of professional surfers, as well as detailing changes in technology and the industries that surfing spawned.

surfboard-riding boom.
http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/showcases/bombora



1

From the creative team behind the Australian rock n’ roll series
Long Way to the Top
comes

BOMBORA
The Story of Australian Surfing



A definitive history of surfing in Australia as told by our surfing champions,
writers, pioneers, entrepreneurs, mavericks, legends, drop-outs and drop-ins.

With music by The Atlantics, Jet, Jesus & Mary Chain, Rose Tattoo, Status Quo,
Hunters and Collectors, The Cruel Sea and The Velvet Underground.


Narrated by Jack Thompson


TWO-PART SERIES PREMIERES THURSDAY 26 MARCH 2009, 8:30PM ON ABC1


For further information or interview requests please contact Rachel Fergus on
02 8333 4250, 0416 263 194 or fergus.rachel@abc.net.au.
For images go to www.abc.net.au/tvpublicity.








2
Credits

Bombora is a Screen Australia National Interest Program//Bombora Film and Music
production. Developed and produced in association with the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation. © Screen Australia, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Bombora Film
and Music Co. 2008.

Key Crew

Directors - PAUL CLARKE (Episode 1), GREG APPEL (Episode 2)
Producers - PAUL CLARKE, GREG APPEL
Writers - PAUL CLARKE (Episode 1 & 2), NICK CARROLL (Episode 1 & 2), GREG
APPEL (Episode 2)
Editors - MARK MIDDIS, ANTOINETTE FORD
Directors of Photography - ANNA HOWARD A.C.S, HELEN BARROW
Researcher and Interviewer - NICK CARROLL
Original music - GREG WALKER, JAMES CRUICKSHANK, LUCKY OCEANS
Executive Producer for Screen Australia - PENNY ROBINS
Executive Producer for Bombora Film & Music Co. - PAUL CLARKE
Commissioning Editor for ABC - ALAN ERSON
Narrator - JACK THOMPSON
Duration – 2 x 55 minutes
Website - http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/showcases/bombora

Featuring interviews with

TIM WINTON - Surfer/Author
LAYNE BEACHLEY - World Surfing Champion 1998—2003, 2006
BERNARD “MIDGET” FARRELLY - Inaugural World Surfing Champion 1964
NAT YOUNG - World Surfing Champion 1966, 1970, Longboard Champion 1988-1990
WAYNE “RABBIT” BARTHOLOMEW - World Surfing Champion 1978
MARK RICHARDS - World Surfing Champion 1979 -1982
BARTON LYNCH - World Surfing Champion 1988
PAM BURRIDGE - World Surfing Champion 1990
MARK OCCHILUPO - World Surfing Champion 1999
WAYNE LYNCH - Surfing Champion
DOUG WARBRICK - Co-founder Rip Curl
ALAN GREEN - Co-founder Quiksilver
NICK CARROLL - Surfer/Writer
BRUCE CHANNON - Surfing Writer
RAY MORAN - Surfing Historian
KATHY LETTE, GABRIELLE CAREY - Puberty Blues authors
PROF. RICHARD WATERHOUSE - Historian
BOB MCTAVISH - Surfer/Boardmaker
GORDON WOODS - Surfboard Designer
JOHN WITZIG - Tracks Magazine Founder
PAUL PATERSON - Big Wave Rider


3
Series Premiere - Thursday 26 March 2009, 8:30pm on ABC1
Synopses
One line
A definitive history of surfing in Australia as told by our surfing champions, writers,
pioneers, entrepreneurs, mavericks, legends, drop-outs and drop-ins.
One paragraph
A definitive history of surfing in Australia as told by our surfing champions, writers,
pioneers, entrepreneurs, mavericks, legends, drop-outs and drop-ins. The two-part
series follows the rise of surfing and its culture in Australia, using archival footage and
classic Australian music to illustrate its growing importance in Australian society in the
20th century and beyond.
One page
A definitive history of surfing in Australia, Bombora tells the story of Australian beach
culture through our surfing champions, writers, pioneers, entrepreneurs, mavericks,
legends, drop-outs and drop-ins.
The two-part series follows the rise of surfing and its culture in Australia, using archival
footage and classic Australian music to illustrate its growing importance in Australian
society in the 20th century and beyond.
From the time we learnt to bodysurf, to our first attempts on boards, to Duke
Kahanamoku’s 1914 visit which kicked off surfing’s roll to popularity, Australians have
taken the surf and made it our own, spawning international legends such as Midget
Farrelly, Nat Young and seven-time world champion Layne Beachley, along with global
surfwear brands.
Set against a changing world, Bombora follows the history of surfing from its maverick
early days, through three significant wars and a depression, the development of surf
clubs and the ensuing battles between lifesavers and surfers, the sea-change seeking
drug culture of the 1970s and its shift to a cleaner, more professional sport in the late
1980s.
Bombora interviews a rich seam of Australian characters, including our first surf
champion Isabel Letham, author and surfer Tim Winton, legendary surfboard shaper Bob
McTavish, accidental entrepreneur and Rip Curl founder Doug Warbrick and former
world champion surfers Barton Lynch and Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew.
It looks at the rise of women surfers and the explosion of Australian labels including
Billabong, Rip Curl and Quiksilver, which helped to cement Australia’s position as a
global force in international surfing.
4
Episode 1 – Thursday 26 March 2009, 8:30pm on ABC1
Synopses
One line
Global surfing culture is a mix of wildness, grace and cool that is utterly Australian, but
how did a nation of people, who mostly couldn’t swim, turn a Polynesian pastime into a
national obsession and international cultural force?
One paragraph
Global surfing culture is a mix of wildness, grace and cool that is utterly Australian, but
how did a nation of people, who mostly couldn’t swim, turn a Polynesian pastime into a
national obsession and international cultural force? From the time we first took on the
waves in the late 19th century, Australians were hooked on surfing. Episode one of
Bombora looks at the early years of Australian surf history from 1830 to 1964.
One page
Global surfing culture is a mix of wildness, grace and cool that is utterly Australian, but
how did a nation of people, who mostly couldn’t swim, turn a Polynesian pastime into a
national obsession and international cultural force?
From the time we first took on the waves in the late 19th century, Australians were
hooked on surfing.
Episode one of Bombora looks at the early years of Australian surf history from 1830 to
1964. It charts our first encounters with the surf when swimming in the sea was banned
and shows how we were seduced by the freedom of the waves and the beaches. The
series takes us into the lives of the larrikins who invented everything from surf skis to
shark nets, and also looks at the tensions that arose between ‘duty and pleasure’,
between the growing surf life-saving clubs and those who just wanted to surf.
Using archival footage, it follows the first Australian surfers as they head to Hawaii – the
spiritual home of the sport – and introduces the wild men who made it their own, surf
legends such as Midget Farrelly, Bob Pike and Nat Young.
Bombora charts the history of surfing in Australia – the bodies, the boards, the music,
the drugs, the fights, the freedom – and shows the cultural phenomenon it is today.




5
Episode 2 - Thursday 2 April 2009, 8:30pm on ABC1
Synopses
One line
In the early days of Australia’s surf history, young people found a place to live out their
dreams of innocence and freedom in the surf, but it wasn’t to last.
One paragraph
In the early days of Australia’s surf history, young people found a place to live out their
dreams of innocence and freedom in the surf, but it wasn’t to last. With the Vietnam War
came an influx of drugs and surfers led a rebellious counter-culture as they dropped out
of society to escape to country towns along the coast, while elsewhere a group of
entrepreneurial surfers began backyard businesses making wetsuits and board shorts.
Episode two of Bombora looks at the later years of Australian surf history from 1967 to
the present.
One page
In the early days of Australia’s surf history, young people found a place to live out their
dreams of innocence and freedom in the surf but it wasn’t to last.
With the Vietnam War came an influx of drugs and surfers led a rebellious counter-
culture as they dropped out of society to escape to country towns along the coast, while
elsewhere a group of entrepreneurial surfers began backyard business making wetsuits
and boardshorts.
Episode two of Bombora looks at the later years of Australian surf history from 1967 to
the present. Using archival footage and interviews, it charts the rise of the surf and drug
culture, the start of a hippie trail north to Indonesia, the launch of surfing films and
dedicated surf magazines and introduces the hard men of the 1970s, including Michael
Peterson and Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew.
But the 1980s brought another cultural change and the success of surfers such as Mark
Richards and Tom Carroll helped to clean up its image. As surfers formed boardriding
clubs, the sport grew more professional and women were not only welcomed back, they
started to win world titles.
Bombora charts the history of surfing in Australia – the bodies, the boards, the music,
the drugs, the fights, the freedom – and shows the cultural phenomenon it is today.




6
Production Story
Nick Carroll believes he has a pretty good job. An Australian surf champion who has
carved out a career as one of the world’s top surf writers while continuing to surf “way
more than is strictly necessary”, Carroll has spent the past year interviewing legends of
the surf for the two-part documentary series Bombora. It was a humbling experience.
“A lot of these people I’ve known for a long time and some of them I regarded as my
elders,” Carroll says. “They’re great surfers who’ve come before me. I got a deep sense
that I was just part of a bigger thing with all these people who’ve been part of it.”
Bombora was born following a 10-year gestation after first being put to ABC Television
by writer and director Paul Clarke in 1997. Clarke also had proposed a six-hour history
of rock and roll, Long Way to the Top, which the ABC commissioned first. He followed it
up with a five-hour history of pop music, Love is in the Air, before creating the ongoing
music-quiz show Spicks and Specks.
“All that time I had just been collecting photographs and stories,” Clarke says. “I knew it
was too good a story not to tell and that it would happen at some point.”
Filmed over six months from June 2008, Bombora includes archival footage, interviews,
dramatic re-enactments and surf vision shot by some of the world’s leading water
cinematographers.
Carroll has been seduced by surf culture from his days as a grommet growing up on
Sydney’s northern beaches. He has won numerous surfing titles, including two
Australian championships, written several books on the subject and edited leading surf
magazines Tracks and Surfing. But he knew little about the sport’s history and was
fascinated by what he learnt while researching Bombora.
“Surfing is all about living in the moment,” he says. “When you walk out on the Sydney
Cricket Ground to play cricket you’re intensely aware of the history of the sport; you’re
playing on this historic ground surrounded by pictures of the legends. With surfing, you
just dive into the water and paddle out and catch waves.”
Carroll spent months wading through archives to trace the development of surfing from
its Polynesian birthplace to its arrival in Australia at the turn of the 20th century. He found
issues of the 1917 Sydney newspaper Surf and learnt about extraordinary characters
such as Port Macquarie teenager Harry McLaren, who invented the world’s first surf ski,
then roof-racks on which to carry it.
“It was fascinating. Surfing came to us from a place that was totally out of sync with any
of Australia’s other cultural wellsprings, it came straight from the middle of the Pacific
Ocean. This is a history of something we’ve got that’s not European. It allowed
Australians to become unique and not tied up with the apron strings of the Empire,” he
says. “The hardest thing was trying to cram everything in to two hours. As we began to
gather the material, all of us began to freak out at how rich it was and how much there
was and how we were going to have to be really ruthless.”
7
For the directors, the biggest challenge was to make the story appealing to the broadest
possible audience while illustrating how much the world has changed.
“It’s not just about waves; what we’re describing is something more interesting about the
way Australian culture has developed,” Clarke says.
“We’re telling a surfing story to a broader audience in a way that really shows that these
people just wanted to be liberated by surfing as a way of escaping and ignoring the
stupid rules of society. Surfers didn’t want to be normal; they wanted to be outlaws.
“And years later, a lot of those people are still exactly the same. Take Bob McTavish, he
must be 60 but there’s so much excitement in meeting him, he’s like a kid with an over-
active pituitary gland. The man is just on fire still!
“They’ve encountered some wild times and some of them have gone a bit mad and for
some there’s no sense of responsibility. There is something very Australian about that,
just the level of freedom in their lives. Maybe it’s because I’m locked into a mortgage, but
I think it’s very attractive to see.”
Producer and co-director Greg Appel, who has worked with Clarke for more than 20
years, including on Long Way to the Top and Love is in the Air, says the musical
montage against which the action is set plays a huge role in the film.
“Unfortunately we couldn’t use all the music we wanted because it costs too much, but
we didn’t go for just the well-known surf songs,” Appel says. “There’s a tedious, twangy
guitar thing that you can get with surf music so we chose pieces we liked that fitted the
time and we’ve had a lot of composed music too.”
Appel says the biggest challenge for the filmmakers was to form a narrative from 100
years of random events in a way that engaged the broadest possible audience.
“To make a story out of random events that occurred historically isn’t that easy, there are
so many different incidents. But there are a lot of people like Paul and I who just like
surfing and don’t really follow the whole competitive thing. We wanted to reach them.
Beach culture is huge in Australia and I think we’ve done what we set out to do.”
Screen Australia executive producer Penny Robins says Bombora is a perfect fit for the
National Interest Program, which creates a “legacy collection” of documentary films
about Australian life.
“It doesn’t have to be formal history; it’s a broad sweep of life in Australia, anything that
provides an insight into the lifestyle and influences that make up our culture,” Robins
says.
“Bombora ticked all the right boxes. It uses the evolution of surfing to reflect the broader
Australian history and culture in a way that has never been done before. It is fresh and
vibrant and reflects the energy of the people who have been part of making that history.”
8
Clarke says the filmmakers had no trouble getting interviews for Bombora because
everyone they approached saw the value of an independent and definitive history. Most
surf films are financed by the big surf companies to showcase their sponsored surfers.
But while the surfing community gave the filmmakers “enormous spirit and generosity”,
that wasn’t always the case in the water. During six months of filming, Clarke says he
managed to surf only twice.
“We had a day off in Angourie, on the north coast of NSW. I hit the reef badly and Nat
Young almost ran over Greg Appel! The other time was in the water at Snapper Rock,
which is the most competitive place to surf in Australia. I was the oldest in the water by
30 years and I got four waves in about two hours! I didn’t stand a chance!”
















9
Timeline of key surfing moments in Australia
1830s Laws are introduced to ban beach swimming during daylight hours.
1903 Beach bathing is legalised. Life saving clubs begin to form after numerous
accidental drownings.
1914 Champion Hawaiian swimmer Duke Kahanamoku visits Australia and triggers a
surfboard riding boom.
1924 Claude West wins the first Australian board-riding championship.
1936 Shark meshing is introduced to Australian beaches.
1939 A team of 28 Australian surfers attends the Pacific Games in Hawaii.
1956 The US Lifeguard team visits Australia to demonstrate new smaller surfboards,
which allow surfers to turn and manoeuvre.
1961 Dave Jackman successfully surfs the heaviest wave then known, the Queenscliff
Bombora.
1962 Midget Farrelly wins the Makaha International, a first for a non-Hawaiian.
1964 Midget Farrelly wins the inaugural World Surfing Championship at Sydney’s Manly
Beach.
1966 Nat Young wins the World Surfing Championship in San Diego then quits
competition, joining an exodus of people dropping out of city life.
1970 The first issue of Tracks is published in Australia.
1972 Morning of the Earth breaks through as the first surf film depicting the nomadic life
of Australian surfers and Bali takes off as a surf destination.
1974 Mike Peterson wins every major Australian surfing contest.
Late 1970s – early 1980s Mark Richards and Tom Carroll lead the charge towards
professionalism, establishing boardrider clubs and shunning drugs.
1982 Puberty Blues puts the suburban surf scene on to the big screen.
1990 Pam Burridge wins a World Surfing Championship.
2006 Layne Beachley wins her seventh World Surfing Championship.









10
Quotes from Bombora
Nick Carroll on young surfers: “There’s an awesome word that Australia has actually
given the surfing world which has been adopted worldwide by every surfing nation now
and that word is ‘grommet’. It means a young surfer, a potentially annoying young surfer,
certainly an energetic kid, stoked on life.”
Isabel Letham on her first experience of surfing with Duke Kahanamoku: “When we got
on to the crest of the wave and I looked down into the trough I thought I was going over
a cliff I said, ‘Oh no, no, no’. I was scared stiff and he pulled back on the wave. I did this
two or three times and he got sick of that and the next time I did it he said, ‘Oh yes, yes,
yes’. We got on this big wave and went right in and after that I was right. I was sold on
surfboard riding.”
Snowy McAlister on his first championship win: “I was thinking I was a little behind in
the judging because I’d missed a few good waves and the other fellas had got them and
I thought ‘well I’ve got to do something different this time’. And this big wave came along
and I got up on my head, the wave receded and left me standing on my head. I could
hear the cheering and the clapping for this marvellous ride that I did.”
Dick Evans on surfing during World War II: “Because we were all desperate to get to the
surf the soldiers created a tunnel for us so we could crawl through the barbed wire to get
to the surf. I remember one day there we were all out in the surf having a wave and
there was this great big burst of fire next to us. They had a target out in the ocean and
they were opening up with machine guns about fifteen yards from us. It was a fairly
intimidating surfing environment!”
Professor Richard Waterhouse on changes to surf life saving clubs after World War II:
“I think the notion of mateship among that World War II generation was very, very strong
and it found expression in places like surf life saving clubs.”
Gordon Woods on changes to surf life saving clubs after World War II: “We were
boardriders; when there was surf we wanted to be on the board and that’s all. We were
somewhat ostracised from the main body of the club … they’d regard us somewhat as a
lot of bums!”
Midget Farrelly on his love of surfing: “Pretty much from the first time I jumped on a
surfboard, I always thought that something special was going to happen to me. I didn’t
know what it was but I always thought there was going to be something special around
each corner.”
Midget Farrelly on the introduction of the short board: “It was a bit like a spaceship had
landed and these guys had jumped out of it and they were riding waves in ways that we
just could not have imagined.”
John Witzig on Midget Farrelly: “He put the whole thing together in a way that you could
not but be impressed. He was the best Australian surfer I’d ever seen. It was a no-
brainer.”
Bob McTavish: “No one surfed Sunset until 3 o’clock in the afternoon when the
teachers and fire brigade guys came down, there was no one there, so Dave and I used
to surf Sunset by ourselves endlessly. Man, it was a piece of cake!”
Tim Winton: “Surfing really did offer us kind of a poetic dimension. It was a different way
of looking at the world, it was a different way of being Australian. For me that was a
really important revelation as a young man to stand on the beach and to see men do
11
things that were beautiful because everything else that men had to do was hard and
practical and wordless and tough and silent.”
Lynne Holmes: “I knew I wanted to go and surf because I just loved it. I just loved it the
minute I saw it. And I liked the look of the guys who surfed! They were so strong.”
Midget Farrelly: “As a kid I learnt ballet with my sister. Ballet teaches you structure and
so I structured my surfing.”
Layne Beachley: “I was never tempted to be a surfie chick, lie on the beach, hold the
keys. I was always the one to drop the keys and the skateboard and the bike off at the
local surf shop and say ‘I’m going surfing’.”
Wayne Lynch: “You grow up on a wild coast and you end up being a wild man and we
were pretty wild back then. We did a lot of things I think weren’t that sensible. Lorne was
such a perfect place. You’ve got a little right-hand point, a beautiful bay, unfortunately
the school looked out right across it and they could all see when I was out there, which
happened all the time.”
Rob Conneeley on surfing remote breaks along the coast: “It was just so wild and so
alone out there, just the packs of sharks, mindful that this was all before leg ropes. There
were certain breaks where my wife would be sitting with flippers and a surfer plane
blown up and a powerhead with a 12-gauge shotgun in it. Surfing was just terror.”
Phil Jarratt on drugs in surfing: “I think most of us tried a few of those things around that
period and found them a texture overlay, if you like, on top of the surfing experience. It
was cool to be a surfer-druggie.”
Nat Young on Bali: We went there in ‘71. There were probably 20 people, 20 hippies, in
Kuta Beach. Surfers created that place.
Alan Green: “We did Quiksilver cos we were bored. You can go surfin’ for a little while,
but I mean, what can you do all day?”
Doug Warbrick on Rip Curl: “In the beginning we just wanted to not have a real or
regular job, to have flexi time and to surf when the surf was good.”
Mark Richards: “All of a sudden we started winning events and getting cheques and I
thought well this is better than shaping surfboards, standing in a dusty room all day
walking around a white piece of foam.”
Pam Burridge: “I was 10 years old and I was a tomboy, I was actually dressed in board
shorts and a t-shirt or a little wetsuit and I got ‘Get a haircut mate’. So I didn’t get any
sexism, I just got grommet-ism!”




12
About the Filmmakers
Paul Clarke — writer/director/executive producer
Since starting his career as a cadet journalist in 1983, Paul Clarke has worked across
the print and screen media. A passionate musician and music-lover, Paul’s early career
including a stint in Paris writing for NME and Melody Maker, while making film clips for
friends’ bands. When he returned to Australia in 1988, he presented and produced
programs for ABC Television including The Factory and Review, before starting to create
his own shows in 1994. His credits at the ABC include the acclaimed history of rock and
roll Long Way to the Top, as well as Love is in the Air, Recovery, One Night The Moon
and Spicks and Specks. After 20 years at the ABC, during which he also made film clips
for bands such as The Cruel Sea, Midnight Oil, Silverchair and You Am I, Paul left to set
up his own company, Bombora Film and Music Company.

Greg Appel — writer/director/producer

Greg Appel is a TV and radio producer, writer and director. Along with Bombora – The
Story of Australian Surfing, he directed Bossa Nova – The Sound That Seduced the
World and is producing a similar documentary on French music. In Australia he is best
known as producer of Long Way to the Top the successful Australian series
documenting the history of Australian rock music. His diverse career has included
working as series producer for Dig TV, writer and co-composer for the musical comedy
Van Park and a radio producer for series including Radio National program Swingers.
He has produced comedy segments and documentaries, including King Street, Newtown
(1994) and Recovery, a youth series that screened on ABC Television between 1995
and 2000. A film he made with Bombora’s co-director Paul Clarke was a finalist in
Australia’s leading short film festival, Tropfest. Greg is an accomplished musician and
songwriter for Australian bands including The Lighthouse Keepers and Widdershins.
Nick Carroll — writer
Nick Carroll is one of the world’s best-known writers on the subject of surfing. He grew
up on Sydney’s northern beaches, surfed from his pre-teens, and just kept going,
winning numerous surf championships including two Australian Open titles and travelling
worldwide, before taking a job at Sydney-based Tracks surf magazine. He edited Tracks
from 1983 to 1986, then freelanced for a range of publications and worked as a feature
and sports writer for the National Times and Sydney Morning Herald. From 1990 to 1997
he lived in California where he was editor-in-chief of Surfing magazine, the world’s
biggest selling surf magazine, and its associated publications. Since then he’s lived in
Newport Beach in Sydney, surfed way more than is strictly necessary, and written many
articles and several books, including The Next Wave, A Complete Guide to Surfing Your
Best, and Fearlessness, a biography of legendary American girl’s surfing pioneer Lisa
Andersen.
13
Penny Robins — executive producer
Penny Robins has been an executive producer with Screen Australia (formerly Film
Australia) since mid-2003 and works with production teams across the country to deliver
a slate of productions. Penny was formerly an independent producer and has extensive
experience in documentary and factual programme making.
She has been executive producer of a varied production slate, including science, history
and contemporary programming. Her credits as executive producer include: the six-part
Australian series Who Do You Think You Are? for SBS; the Logie-nominated cross-
platform longitudinal Life Series; Nerves of Steel (winner Mention D'Honneur Olympic
Spirit category at the Sport Movies & TV 22nd International Festival 2006); Troubled
Minds – the Lithium Revolution (winner Main Prize Vega Science Awards for Excellence
in Scientific Broadcasting); the Logie-nominated series Divorce Stories (winner of the
Sydney Morning Herald Couch Potato Awards); the four-part series Policing The Pacific
and Mr Patterns (winner Hawaii International film festival Golden Maile Award, Best
Documentary Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards).

14
About some of the Key Interviewees
TIM WINTON - Surfer/Author (Episode 1 & 2)
Born in Perth in 1960, Tim Winton grew up in the suburbs close to the Indian Ocean and
decided to become a writer after moving to the Western Australian town of Albany at age
12. He had his first short stories published national magazines when he was 18 and at
19 he wrote his first adult novel, An Open Swimmer, which won the 1981
Australian/Vogel Award. In 1984 he published Shallows, which won the Miles Franklin
Award, Australia’s most prestigious literary prize. Winton has since won numerous
awards (including the Miles Franklin Award three times) for adult and children’s books,
which include Cloudstreet, Lockie Leonard, The Riders, and Dirt Music. His most recent
novel, Breath, is about the addictive and risk-taking nature of surfing. He is a keen
surfer.
BERNARD “MIDGET” FARRELLY – Inaugural World Surfing Champion 1964
(Episode 1)
One of the great surfers of the post-war era, Bernard “Midget” Farrelly had his first surf
experiences at Sydney’s North Bondi beach in the early 1950s, and by 1961 he was the
Australian surfing champion. Nicknamed Midget for his short stature, in 1962, Farrelly
went to Hawaii and won the Makaha International championship in six-foot surf, using a
quick, light-footed surfing style. In 1964, he won the first World Surfing Championship,
held at Manly Beach, and remained one of the world’s most successful competitors
throughout the 1960s. At the 1999 Noosa Festival of Surfing, Farrelly again beat
Hawaiian Joey Cabell in a rematch of the final heat of the 1964 world championship.
BOB MCTAVISH - Surfer/Boardmaker (Episode 1)
A surfer for 50 years, Bob McTavish is a legend in the sport, best known as the head
shaper and designer of the McTavish board company since 1969. McTavish has
pioneered surfboard technology that is now commonplace in board design and
construction, including vee bottoms, concaves and rocker profiles. He was a catalyst in
the development of the short board, and pioneered epoxy construction with Pro Circuit
Board (PCB), a forerunner to modern Surftech board construction.
LAYNE BEACHLEY – World Surfing Champion 1998-2003, 2006 (Episode 2)
A seven-time world championship winner, Layne Beachley is the greatest woman surfer
in history. Beachley has thrived in the competitive field of women’s surfing since joining
the pro-surfing ranks at the age of 16. In 1998 her determination paid off when she won
her first world title, then five more in consecutive years. She won her seventh title in
2006 after 17 years on the professional tour. When she retired in 2008, Beachley was
still among the world’s best, ranked third in the world. Beachley has her own charity, Aim
for the Stars Foundation, and a signature event, Manly’s Beachley Classic.
BARTON LYNCH - World Surfing Champion 1988 (Episode 2)
15
Raised in Sydney’s northern beaches, Barton Lynch was determined to be a world
champion surfer from a young age. At 16, he quit school to turn professional and soon
won the world's most prestigious junior contest, the 1983 Pro Junior. After a couple of
years near the top of the world pro-surfing ranks Lynch broke through with a stunning
finale in the Billabong Pro and went on to win the 1988 World Title. Lynch remained
competitive well into his 30s and remained near the top of the rankings through 1995. He
retired from competition in 1998.
WAYNE “RABBIT” BARTHOLOMEW - World Surfing Champion 1978 (Episode 2)
One of the colourful characters in Australian surfing history, Wayne “Rabbit”
Bartholomew is a master surfer and a stalwart of the industry, a pioneer of the
professional sport, a wily competitor and promoter, an environmentalist and president of
the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP). Raised on the coast on the NSW-
Queensland border, Bartholomew burst onto the international scene in the winter of
1975, was world champion in 1978, remained in the top five for seven consecutive years
and came close to regaining the title in 1984. By the mid 1990s, Bartholomew had
established himself as a global surfing ambassador and mentor to professional surfers.
He became head of the ASP in 1999, moving the association’s headquarters to
Australia.













16
References
Websites
Bombora Screen Australia showcase page
http://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/showcases/bombora
Surfing Australia – National governing body for the sport of surfing in Australia.
http://www.surfingaustralia.com.au
International Surfing Association - World governing body of surfing.
http://www.isasurf.org
Manly Life Saving Club
http://www.manlylsc.com
Tracks Magazine
http://tracksmag.com/
Surf Research
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/

Books

Nick Carroll, A Complete Guide to Surfing Your Best Volume 2, 2008
Nick Carroll, Fearlessness 2007
Nick Carroll (editor), The Next Wave : A Survey of World Surfing, Collins Angus &
Robertson Publishers Pty Ltd, 1991
Phil Jarratt, The Mountain and the Wave: The Quiksilver Story, Quiksilver Entertainment,
Huntington Beach, Calif., c2006
Albie Thoms, Surfmovies: The History of the Surf Film in Australia Shore Thing
Publishing, 2000
Nat Young, History of Surfing, Palm Beach Press/Nymboida Press
Murray Walding, Blue Heaven: The Story of Australian Surfing, Hardie Grant
Mark Warren, Atlas of Australian Surfing, Collins/Angus & Robertson, North Ryde, 1990
Tim Winton, Breath, Penguin Books Australia, Melbourne, 2008

Films
Sunny Abberton (dir), Bra Boys, 2007
Bruce Beresford (dir), Puberty Blues, 1981
Bruce Brown (dir), Endless Summer, 1966
Tim Burstall, Getting Back to Nothing, 1970
17
Alby (Albert) Falzon (dir), Morning of the Earth, 1972
George Greenough, Innermost Limits of Pure Fun, 1969
John Milius (dir), Big Wednesday, 1978

And Start West
By Adam Waldie @tracksmag.com.au


Technically not part of Europe, few would argue that Morocco has some of the best surf in Europe. Make sense? Since the 1950’s when US soldiers based in Kentitra began discovering some of the right hand point breaks dotting the coast here it began making sense to a whole lot of surfers.
Morocco remained very much an underground surf destination until Paul Witzig’s landmark film Evolution. Once the word got out though, Morocco has arisen as a staple on any global surfers hit list.

The 1000 odd miles of Atlantic Coast south of Casablanca fire on almost any swell with a N to NW swell direction. Morocco has the additional benefit of being far enough south from some of the caning North Sea storms that lash Spain and France as nothing but foul weather in winter, down in Morocco these storms often produce clean swell on the endless array of right hand points.

Most Moroccan surf trips start and end in the surf camps around Safi and there is nothing wrong with that at all. Overcrowding in recent years though has seen additional camps open up to the south around the Taghazoute / Agadir area; home to classic points such as Anchor Point, Boilers and Killers. There is a lot in between though and as long as you are sensible about it, Morocco is a destination that you can conceivably explore yourself given enough time.

The Northern Hemisphere Winter is the time to visit. Any low pressure cell hovering around Europe is going to deliver the goods albeit a few days later and a couple of feet smaller along the Moroccan Coast. If you are time poor, head straight to Safi, the breaks around Casablanca and the capital Rabat are generally very crowded and lack the quality of the southern points.