References:<\/u><\/p>\n Coffs Harbour Advocate <\/em>May 10, 1979, page 12<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Coffs Surf Classic is on this Saturday and Sunday at Diggers Beach, just North of Coffs Harbour.\u00a0 A young boardrider is favoured to win the event but an \u2018oldie\u2019 could cause an upset.\u00a0 Classic organiser, Archie Ashdown, takes a brief look for the Advocate at the days when the older surfers ruled the waves:\u00a0 Boardriding at beaches around Coffs Harbour has grown dramatically during the past 15 years.\u00a0 In 1964 there were only a few boards in the area and they were mainly owned by the surf club and a few fortunate individuals.<\/p>\n Members:\u00a0 <\/strong>The first local club was formed in 1966 and was called the Coffs Harbour Surfriders\u2019 Club. The club\u2019s 16 members were Robert Franklin, Kevin Anderson, Graeme Franklin, Kevin Taylor, John Blanch, Alan Anderson, Robert Cowling, John Avard, Barry McKenzie, Bob Moon, Phil Horan, Geoff Unwin, Bob Thompson, Noel Peterson, Clyde Irwin and Russ Glover.\u00a0 The club was one of the most competitive on the east coast and its only sizeable defeat was by the champion Queensland club, Windansea, at a Lennox Head contest in 1968.\u00a0 Meantime, a younger group of surfers were spending their weekends at Park Beach because they had no transport.\u00a0 They decided to form their own club and the Park Area Surfriders\u2019 Club was born. As most of these surfers stored their boards during the week under Bob Watson\u2019s house on Ocean Parade, it was rearranged into a suitable clubhouse.\u00a0 The club boasted 30 up and coming members with Tony Glover being elected president.\u00a0 The club was well run with the surfers being graded on their ability.<\/p>\n Natural form:\u00a0 <\/strong>Tony and Billy Tolhurst showed natural form.\u00a0 Tony was a talented surfer who had a smooth and fluid style while Billy was a very young surfer who spent a lot of time on the beach studying older boardriders.\u00a0 In 1968 the Coffs Area Boardriders\u2019 Club was formed with American surfer Bob Cooper attending the first meeting.\u00a0 Bob is still here and runs a very successful surfboard business in the Jetty shopping centre.\u00a0 Local surfboard manufacture began in 1967 when John Blanch started building boards under his parents\u2019 house.\u00a0 Around the same time Jim Pollard moved from Newcastle to Sawtell while Bob Cooper started in 1968.\u00a0 Another talented surfer who has devoted his life to the sport is Michael Saggus.\u00a0 \u2018Mick\u2019 worked around Pollard\u2019s surfshop while still at school learning the basics about the manufacture of surfboards.\u00a0 He began to build his own boards in 1972 and worked extremely hard until he left for California in 1975 to further his experience in the craft.\u00a0 The older surfers all agree that boardriding gives the youngsters a better sense of competition and helps them become more confident within themselves.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re interested in the draw for this weekend, it\u2019s on display at Bob Cooper\u2019s shop.<\/p>\n Research courtesy of Geoffrey Watts, Museum Volunteer.<\/em><\/p>\n __________________________________________<\/p>\n The museum collection has very little material related to surfing, do you have a surfboard that was made or surfed in Coffs Harbour?\u00a0 Do you have surfing stories to share, or photographs, clothing or other historical items related to surfing in Coffs Harbour?\u00a0 We\u2019d love to hear from you just contact the Coffs Harbour Regional Museum<\/a>.<\/p>\n Don’t forget if you are interested in surf culture to also come and see the new exhibition Ripped Off<\/a> <\/em>at the Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery<\/a> opening on 8th March 2019 and see how Jon Campbell, Robert Moore and Ozzy Wrong join Gerry Wed in looting and pilfering from the images of photo journalist John Witzig.<\/p>\n David Elfick, Alby Falzon and John Witzig produced the first edition of Tracks<\/em> magazine in October 1970.\u00a0 Its arrival in newsprint, with articles about music, places, lifestyle, the environment and politics established a distinctly counter culture orientation that defined surfing during its \u201cgolden age\u201d of the 1960s and 70s.<\/p>\n See the ad below for Coopers surf shop from the first edition of Tracks<\/em> magazine October 1970. \u00a0John Witzig was one of the founding editors of Tracks \u00a0and Coopers were one of the first advertisers.<\/p>\n (Tracks<\/em>, No.1, October 1970)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Past The five Coopers Surf Shops in the Coffs Harbour district have their roots deep in the early surf culture [1] of the local area. Bob Cooper began surfing in Malibu USA in the early 1950s, well before the “Gidget-Revolution” (circa 1960-62) popularised the sport. As a competition surfer, he won the European … Continue reading “Coffs Harbour Surf Culture History and Current Exhibition”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coffscoastheritage.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coffscoastheritage.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coffscoastheritage.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coffscoastheritage.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coffscoastheritage.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.coffscoastheritage.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":563,"href":"https:\/\/www.coffscoastheritage.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548\/revisions\/563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coffscoastheritage.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coffscoastheritage.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coffscoastheritage.info\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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<\/p>\ntranscription of the article:<\/strong><\/h4>\n
When older surfers ruled the waves\u2026<\/h5>\n
The Present<\/h2>\n
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