Surf City, Sydney

Tim Vanderlaan and home made ‘spear board’, 1974 courtesy Tim Vanderlaan.

Thanks to Tim Vanderlaan for sending this and a great pile of other Cronulla pics from the 70s, which I’ll post in coming weeks.

I asked Tim to tell me about the boy and the board…

This kid is me, taken in front of the family home at Wanda, Cronulla. It was early 1974 and I’m displaying my first home made board.

My older brother Rick and myself made the board and bought the materials from Graham King’s home at Grays Point. The blank and materials cost me $33, that was a lot of money considering the milko i helped do morning deliveries paid me $1.25 for 3 hours work.

The board was 5’10” and 13″ wide. My brother read somewhere that the width of a board should be the measurement between your nipples plus 2 inches.

We had seen magazine shots of Terry Fitz riding something similar at sunset in hawaii and we thought the spear shape would work at a Wanda beach break. I persisted trying to ride it for ages but Icouldn’t turn the thing.

I later sold to to Max Garlings of the Benz shop in Cronulla. He had the board on display amongst all the bikinis. (big thanks Tim Vanderlaan)