Surf City, Sydney

Well there it goes. End of a great innings. Almost 600 eager visitors over the weekend. As I write, boards are getting wrapped and addressed, objects are being checked and processed with arrangements underway for their prompt return home. Fittings, iPads, screens and showcases are being ‘bumped out’ and already the gallery is emptied of all valuables, with drop sheets, dollies and ladders poised for action.  I’ll post the time lapse video in the next few days.

Another boy’s bottom slithers out of a wetsuit in Tracey Moffatt’s 1997 movie ‘Heaven’

HEAVEN, HELL AND BRA BOYS MOVIE SCREENING

We’re screening Tracey Moffatt’s 1997 movie Heaven, and Nell Schofield’s Hell, alongside the 2007 insider biopic Bra Boys this Saturday at the Museum of Sydney with commentary from broadcaster, writer and critic Nell Schofield and Bra Boys co-director Macario De Souza.

Saturday 25 February 2012
From 1pm

Museum of Sydney
Cnr Bridge and Philip Street, Sydney

event info here

Matt Chojnacki photo courtesy Matt Johnson Photography

EXHIBITION FLOOR TALK

Matt Chojnacki on surf art, style and pop culture.

Sunday 19 February 2012
2pm – 3pm

Museum of Sydney
Cnr Bridge and Phillip Street, Sydney

event details here

WE WANT YOUR HELP… pretty sure someone out there will be able to help Norm with info on the likely shaper of his ripper Bennett v-bottom. There’s a number 5880 printed at the base of the fin. Perhaps there’s a sales or stock register on hand at Bennetts from this period…? Either email the author garyc@hht.net.au or post a comment on the blog.

Hi Gary – Spoke last week at the museum; you mentioned you may be able to help with the age and the shaper of my surf board. As mentioned the build number at the base of the fin is 5880. I brought it second hand in 1968. Regards Norm

MANLY 2012

photo Gary Crockett

Crowds hit North Steyne yesterday for the first weekend of the inaugural Australian Open of Surfing, and the return of big money stadium-style surf contests to Sydney after more than 2 decades. A few minutes after this shot was taken an approaching electrical storm forced organisers to empty the crowded stands and the nearby skate bowl.

MANLY 1964

centre spread photo Ron Perrott [American] Surfer September 1964

The first official international contest of surfers took place on Manly’s North Steyne, in May 1964. Some said it was 65,000 people on the beach, although this aerial shot taken of the big event by Ron Perrott for American Surfer magazine shows a smaller crowd. The photo caption reads… In a helicopter view of the World Contest, surfer-photographer Ron Perrott captures the colour of the spectacle. The crowd on the beach watches participants (left, center), while surfers on the right work out in the “free surf” area.

PAUL CLARKE ON SURF MUSIC
Sunday 5 February 2012
2pm – 3pm

Museum of Sydney
Cnr Bridge and Phillip Street, Sydney

FREE with museum entry

event details here

Surfing, unlike any other sport, religion or lifestyle, comes complete with its own soundtrack. This Sunday afternoon, pop culture buff Paul Clarke – who wrote and produced the surf doco Bombora – the Story of Australian Surfing and car doco Wide Open Road, is talking about surf music and its deep and narly roots in surf culture – from the shrieking reverb and cowboy cool of Dick Dale and the jangling psychedelia of The Easybeats in the 60s through to the salty grunge of Midnight Oil and the Go Betweens in the late 1970s and beyond.

Entrance to Museum of Sydney’s Surf City, © Bruce Usher 2011

Here’s a recent ‘museum sector’ review on Surf City by Richard Waterhouse in reCollections Volume 7 number 1

According to Richard … Surf City is organised in a multidimensional way that is original, creative and challenging. Along three sides of the gallery the artefacts are arranged in three layers. Standing against the rear walls are surfboards arranged chronologically, beginning with the long boards or ‘toothpicks’ of the 1940s and early 50s, followed by the early, imported Malibus; the later, locally produced (shorter and shorter) short boards; and ending with the three fin thruster. Interspersed among the boards along these walls are photos, posters and the surf fashions, including swimwear, of particular eras. In front of these artefacts are display cabinets holding more clothes and smaller photos as well as books, magazine stories relating to surfing, skateboards and even a few LP covers featuring such artists as Little Patti and the Atlantics.

READ THE REVIEW HERE

Get down to the Concord Bowling Club tomorrow for the launch of surf music writer/historian Stephen McParland’s latest book on the Beach Boys.

SATURDAY 2 DECEMBER 2011
2PM
CONCORD BOWLING CLUB
CLERMONT AVENUE
CONCORD

By the way, its the first of three Beach Boys related books he’s got coming out ….so stay tuned.