Surf City, Sydney

an Historic Houses Trust blog

John Knobel, Narrabeen, Teenager’s Weekly 1962

3 comments

John Knobel standing second on left, arms crossed, in original clipping from Teenagers’ Weekly supplement in Australian Woman’s Weekly 22 August 1962, private collection [although this image can also be sourced online here]

Just had a call from John Knobel, Bondi local in the 50s and 60s. That’s him standing second from the left in front of the red balsa malibu, wearing his home-made blue board shorts with a snazzy rope belt. John surfed on a Norm Casey hollow 16 foot toothpick before the malibus arrived in Sydney in 1956 although he was never part of the lifesaving scene. As a youngster he wheeled his board the few blocks to the beach on a hand cart made from a packing case. The switch to light-weight balsa in the late 50s was an amazing break through because “they could be thrown about from the tail” and unlike the old longboards were thrilling to ride. It was also pretty clear that shorter boards meant more fun in the surf, so his early boards were under 9 foot. John also recalled hopping over the back wall into the lifesavers’ change rooms at Bondi to rescue surfboards impounded by the likes of Aub Laidlaw.

I remembered that John Knobel gave me a copy of this image taken on the same day as the Teenager’s Weekly shoot.

Peter Bowes sent through a few names..

Top row left – Denis Lindsay
Top row right, Hawaiian shirt – Mick Dooley
Middle row right with spikey hair – Dave Standen
Black suit – Midget
Next but one – Bob Fell
Front row right – Puppy Dog Paton

Big thanks to John Boylan for adding more names… (Sept 2013)

“more names for front cover of 22 August 1962 Teenagers Weekly – top left Peter St. John, 3rd from left Ken McKnight, 4th Jim Pike, 5th Barry Watson, 6th Peter Menzies, 7th John Boylan, 8th Ross Gibson. Middle row blue Speedo’s John Mater, squatting Steve Try, middle behind Midget (Farrelly) Jimmy Ingham, all Manly boys.”

Written by garycrockett

July 24th, 2012 at 2:31 am

Posted in 1960s

3 Responses to 'John Knobel, Narrabeen, Teenager’s Weekly 1962'

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  1. Let me give you some names here:

    Top row left – Denis Lindsay
    Top row right, hawaiian shirt -Mick Dooley
    Middle row right with spikey hair – Dave Standen
    Black wesuit and silly smile – Midget
    Next but one – Bob Fell
    Front row right – Puppy Dog Paton

    pete bowes

    24 Apr 11 at 10:59 am

  2. Thanks Pete – where were you…?

    Gary Crockett

    25 Apr 11 at 11:45 am

  3. I was never posing for the ‘ Teenagers Weekly ‘

    pete bowes

    25 Apr 11 at 9:25 pm

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