Surf City, Sydney

Picked up a great 5′ 10″ thruster for Charlie today and tried it out this afternoon in 2 foot shories at Harbord.

We all reckoned this mint condition ‘surfo’  stole the show at the inaugural Deus Surfboard Swap Meet, along with several Gordon Woods boards (couple of transitional era trackers and a fantastic ’64 triple stringer Island Design malibu), a few Keyo plastic machines and vee bottom brethren, a pair of Hot Buttered speed boards and a beautifully sprayed Sea ‘biscuit’.

Lucky enough to catch Australian prog rockers Taman Shud at the recent Manly Surf Festival, in the soiled nether regions of the Old Manly Boat Shed.

Heard stuff straight out of early 70s Sunbury…in equal parts fresh and primordial that totally blew a drunk and largely unsuspecting audience away. Even got a glimpse of their earlier stuff, back when they called themselves the ‘Sunsets’ and sonically energised Paul Witzig’s explosive ’67 surf movie The Hot Generation.

Knocked out by tunes from the spacey rock soundtrack of Evolution, Witzig’s follow up surf movie in ’69 and the Shud’s first commercial recording.

Here’s an essay on the band’s amazing story.

Rubbed shoulders yesterday with Sydney surfer Steve Cooney at a curb side book launch for Andrew Crockett’s impressive Switchfoot 2 mega compendium of surfer interviews, photos and lore.

Here is soul surfer Steve, age 15, in the Falzon/Elfick surf movie Morning of the Earth, first screened in 1972.

This movie unlocked the secrets of Uluwatu and sparked a deep desire for undiscovered breaks in dreamy, far away locations. Don’t think anyone would argue that Bali has ever been the same since.