Crow's Garage

It gets big at Dudley

geoff — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 05:30:28 +0000

August 13th 2010 – the swell jacked up with a low pressure system with a stiff wind.

Some hell men were out at Dudley. The next 3 photos courtesy of Geoff Connors.

Big Dudley - surfer unknown 13th August 2010 photo by Geoff Connors

Dudley 13th August 2010 - Photo by Geoff Connors

Dudley unknown surfer 13th August 2010 photo by Geoff Connors

Dudley on a huge day mid 1970’s.

Big surf at Dudley in the 1970's

There was too much traffic on the beach on this day at Redhead in the 1980’s, nary a place to sit.

Redhead Beach 1980's Beach Traffic

BHP Computer Room around 1976. This large room full of gizmos is equivalent to the last generation of laptops.

Newcastle BHP computer room around 1976

Storm Surf at Redhead in the mid 1970’s. Heavy rain, flooding of the Hunter River and huge surf created this mess of flotsam and Jetsom near the first creek.

Storm surf Debri at Redhead Beach around 1976

NSW SLSC Championships at Corrimal around 1978. This scantily clad and fit looking young lady onlooker caught the eye of Redhead’s boat crew. They asked me to go and take her photo and I said no, she would just tell me to piss off. Hard to say no to these blokes, as is evident from the next picture of them.

So they picked me up camera bag and all and carried me armchair style to where she was sitting and dumped me in the sand at her feet. She willingly obliged to have her photo taken bemused by the proceedings.

Redhead Boat Crew in 1978 at Corrimal Beach SLSC NSW Championships. A fit looking bunch, great blokes and not bad rowers. Strategic use of Boat Oars aye.

Surfers with Style in the 70’s

geoff — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 04:05:04 +0000

You gotta make it look good, no good doing the moves without your own style. Surfing has always had stylists to steal a bit off and add your own too. Some of my favourites are Phil Edwards Miki Dora Midget Farelly and Gerry Lopez, more recently Tom Curran and Joel Tudor, they all make anything they do look great.

Newcastle has many surfers with their own style.

For example Steve Butterworth shown here at Redhead in 1978, tubed with style.

Steve Butterworth Redhead 1978

Paul “Davo ” Davis – the legend of the Leggy at the Mattara contest Newcastle 1978. Paul surfed the Leggy with style and with an uncanny wave knowledge, always making it through the bowl.

Paul Davo Davis at Newcastle mattara comp 1978

Around 1964, one of the first great Leggy surfers was Peter “Hector” Hogan who surfed it with a few Redhead guys with only a sprinkle of other guys. Hector was fearless and rode the place well always coming from behind, and it was long before legropes, and as such his boards were always a mess.

Mark Richards at the Leggy in 1978 cuts back effortlessly and gracefully and with style.

Mark Richards cutback Leggy1978

Dave Robbo, Col Smiths sidekick, at Redhead in 1979. Dave is an excellent tube rider and him and Col, were always getting tubed at Ghosties.

Dave Robbo Redhead 1978

Roger Clements had his own style, shown here at the Mattara contest 1978. Roger seemed to just skate around sections on a tiny twin fin.

Rodger Clements Newcastle Mattara contest 1977

Kenny once told me a clanger about style. He was surfing in Bali when an Italian guy paddles out with the nose of his board way out of the water and he was paddling with a very shallow stroke. He says to Kenny – heya mate you surfa good, you givva me some tips aye. Kenny tells him he could give his paddle style an improvment and catch waves if he moved up the board a bit and did deeper strokes. The guys goes – now way – THATSA MY STLYE! Well at least he had his own style and was happy with it.

Onother kind of style. Aussie girl in Bali 1977

Aussie surf girl in Bali 1977

Weather worn rock formation. Over years holes have been worn by wave movement of small rocks.

Rock weathered patterns 1980

The country side was pretty as picture at Sale in Victoria around 1977. When I found the negative was a bit worse for wear I photo shopped this one to look like a watercolour painting.

Sale Victoria countryside in watercolour

Surf EXPO 1987 – In conjuction with Surfest an exhibition of Newcastle’s finest surfing collectors items was arranged by Ronnie Rudder and others. A photo shoot was arranged at Redhead beach, then the boards were displayed at the Newcastle Showground, with buses provided from Newcastle beach and back. Here the Redhead groms eagerly grab some Newcastle surfing history and pose with a fine collection of 60’s Mals.

Surf Expo 1987 Mals Redhead Beach

Surfing at Redhead in the 70’s and other things

geoff — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 09:36:57 +0000

Col Smith 1978 Surfing Redhead’s Lefts. No one surfed them better.

Col Smith in 1978 surfing at Redhead

Lennox Head 1978. This place is one of the narliest place to paddle out.

Lennox Head 1978

Little Kreen Frock 2008. This little fellow was in full Ribet mode just outside our back door. Cool eyebrows aye.

Little Green Frog 2008

Redhead Bluff in July 2010. Heavy rain has washed the red colour down the clifff face.

Redhead Bluff face after rain July 2010

Me on my first motor bike in 1968 at Redhead 2nd creek. This was a 1948 Jawa, you didnt even see many of those around then. What is interesting in this picture is, in the top right you can see the initial revegetation of the sand dunes after rutile mining. A floating dredge went along the beach from Redhead to Blacksmiths and back.

Crow in 1967 on 1948 Jawa CZ Redhead 2nd creek.

Almost everyone in Newcastle took a photo of the Pasha Bulker grounded at Nobbys in June 2007, it just looked so surreal. Thankfully they got it off before any major damage was done to Newcastle, or the ship, or anyone being hurt. Great work all involved.

Pasha Bulker grounded at Nobbys June 2007

Sandy and Sam at Redhead Beach summer 1991. The water was beautiful.

Sandy & Sam Redhead beach 1991

Ant on Christmas bells Redhead bluff 1992

Ant on Xmas Bells Redhead Bluff 1992

Redhead Beach May 2007

geoff — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 03:37:34 +0000

Redhead Beach May 2007. Not a bad right and no one out. A film company making the movie “Newcastle” were set up in the beach car park, so other surfers were surfing a bank further down the beach. I paddle out here 5 minutes after taking this photo, when from the other side of the shark tower, one of the films surfing actors paddles out with a water cameraman in tow. I struck up a conversation and he advised it was no problem with me out during the filming, so we shared the break for the session with just the two of us out.

Redhead Beach May 2007

Jellyfish. Photo by my daughter Ellen.

Jellyfish. Photo by Ellen Moore

Glenrock Lagoon further up stream in 1993, not far from the now Fernleigh Track car park.

Glenrock Lagoon up stream 1990

Martin Littlewood 1977 surfing behind the Redhead Shark Tower.

Martin Littlewood Surfing Redhead 1977

Martin Littlewood shaping Delta Design surfboards 1977. In the old Chicken Shed Surfboard factory at Redhead. This was most probably my new board.

Martin Littlewood shaping a board 1977

If you want to get an Olympic medal – you have to put in some hard yards. In the water before 6am each morning and again after school. Here Shane Arnold takes his squad through their morning, before sunrise routine at Mayfield Pool in 1998. Olympic medalist Justin Norris was in this swim squad.

Arnold's swim squad at Mayfield Pool 1998

Sandy’s 3 pet hens – the Spice Girls.

Sandy's 3 Red Newhampshire Hens

Sandy and the kids taking a drink break walking back from the beach at Sand Bar 1993.

Sandy & the kids Sand Bar 1993

Cold Chisel Mawson Hotel 1978

geoff — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 06:23:58 +0000

Cold Chisel played the Mawson Hotel at Caves Beach lots of times in the late 70’s. Well the hotel just got lunched, to make way for more stuff. Some good shows and good nights were had there.

This is one of my favourite shots of Ian Moss. In silhouette. I only used the stage lights, as flash bothers the players and washes out the atmosphere. I shot using fast speed film and doubled the time developing it in my garage darkroom. Mossy used to take a solo spot while the band had a drink and he would play Georgia, and it would hush the crowd down.

Ian Moss Silhouette Mawson Hotel 1978

Cold Chisel at the Mawson with the crowd up close and personal.

Cold Chisel Mawson Hotel 1978

Jimm Barnes in combat boots and ex arm gear rocking his heart out. Mawson Hotel Caves Beach 1978.

Jimmy Barnes Mawson Hotel 1978

Grubby, Newcastle’s most favourite drummer, who played in Rim Shot and Rat Salad and many others and has mixed for a lot of bands too, summed up the crowds feeling after a Cold Chisel gig. Quite often Grubby would take in a show at the Mawson and then hitch into town to play with his own band, who would be waiting, wondering where the hell is he. Somehow he always got there, not so much on time, but got there.

Grubby the drummer Mawson Hotel 1978

Phil Small Cold Chisel bass player Mawson Hotel 1978.

Phil Small Mawson Hotel 1978

Ian Moss - another great guitar solo at the Mawson Hotel 1978.

Ian Moss Cold Chisel Mawson Hotel 1977

Don Walker on Keyboards Mawson Hotel 1978. You didn’t get to see much of Don from the front of the stage, but he was the backbone of the group, writing some fantastic songs.

Don Walker Mawson Hotel 1978

Steve Prestwich Cold Chisel Drummer Maswon Hotel 1978.

Steve Prestwich Mawson 1978

Redhead Bluff

geoff — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:52:54 +0000

A close inspection of Redhead Bluff (not too close, there’s rocks falling off – like in Billy the Mountain) shows a Tubular Section in it, recent rain has done some corrosive damage and has hollowed out a literally tubular gnarly slab.

Redhead Cliff with wave June 2010

A solid swell pumped through on the last Sunday of May 2010 and the wind held them up. Unknown surfer behind the Redhead Shark Tower.

Unknown Surfer Redhead left May 2010

An email from Julie and Shayne advised me of surfing footage from the 70’s taken from the movie Fantasea, of Col Smith and also Steve Butterworth on Youtube site: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38YzceIQAtE

Not somewhere in Europe – Hunter Valley Gardens in Cessnock’s wine country, a lot of very nice different types of gardens, very well put together.

Hunter Valley Gardens 2009

The Redhead Crew celebrate Gilly’s Graduation around 1978

The Redhead surf crew at Gilly's Graduation celebration around 1978

Catherine Hill Bay in 1975. Catho hasn’t changed much in 35 years – lets hope it stays that way.

Catherine Hill Bay Township 1975

Lou Reed at the Majestic Newcastle Civic Theatre around 1978. Lou had a great band and played great guitar and had the crowd on their feet.

Lou Reed Civic Theatre Newcastle 1978

Justin Lee, one of the most consistant long term surfers from the Lake Macquarie Beaches on a VERY solid day at Dudley September 2009. Photo by Geoff Connors.

Justin Lee surfing at Dudley September 2009

Up the Coast

geoff — Fri, 28 May 2010 06:56:52 +0000

Angourie 1978 4 guys out.

Angourie 1977 4 guys out

HOW TO GET MORE CHIPS.

In 1968, on a weekend surfari up the north coast, a small group of starving surfers head into town for a feed after a long day of surfing at Green Knob. They stop at their favorite Taree Fish & Chip Shop. The boys walk up to the counter and the beaming old guy behind the counter asks “Yesssh Pleassshse Boyssssh! “ Yes he had a squeak to every S.

Without batting an eyelid one of the guys orders first (…let’s just call him Jim, a normally quiet reserved guy perhaps bouyed by a great day surfing) “Can I have a hamburger and 10 Cssssentssss worth of chipsssh pleassssh!” (10 cents worth is about $3 worth now)

We all roll our eyes and figure we will be thrown out and go starving now… but the gentleman remains cool and proceeds to take the other orders then make the food.

After a tense 10 minutes of subdued behavior from us, he hands over the first order to Jim – and low and behold there is enough chips to feed an army! The rest of us get the standard portion serving of chips.

I guess he felt an affinity to the fellow speech afflicted Jimmy – or perhaps he just admired his cheekiness! The moral of the story – be an up front complete bastard and you can get away with anything.

Ronnie is getting good waves up the coast right now, here is Byron Bay in May 2010, photo by Ronnie Rudder.

Byron May 2010 photo by Ronnie Rudder

At Bells Beach Surfing Comp in 1977 – I spot the other Mr Pipeline, the revered Rory Russell taking in the scene. Aprehensively I raise my camera, Rory spots me about to take his picture, I baulk as I don’t like to take anyones photo without approval. Rory breaks into a big grin then waves, Whew! Click! The next week he was cruising past Newcastle and dropped in to see Col Smith. Col says “where were you yesterday I brought Rory around to your place”. I was at work. I did however get to meet Buzzy Kerbox when he visited Col, real nice guy.

Bells Beach 1977 Rory Russell the other Mr Pipeline

Whats this big piece of Crap below? What’s it got to do with surfing? Who put it there? Why?

This photo was taken from Nobbys Beach in 1978. It is the now decommissioned Zara Street Power Station. Not 300 meters from the beach, it used to belch out smoke all over Newcastle. In its place now is the Nobbys Forshore Park - thanks goes to all who decided to remove it.

Nobbys Power Station 1977

On Big Brother Mountain over looking Laurieton and Camden Haven.

View of Laurieton 1983

Frank “Meatball” Skewes surfs a punchy right peak in 1975 at Redhead Beach.

Frank Meatball Skewes Redhead 1975

The Angels good Doc Neeson blesses his followers and there was plenty.. and it was good.

The Angels Doc Neeson gives his blessing at the Mawson 1978

Photos from around Newcastle

geoff — Sat, 15 May 2010 08:32:19 +0000

Dweezil Zappa, son of Frank, brought his dad’s music to life again in Newcastle at the great Civic Theatre in April 2009. Dweezil played amazing guitar. I saw Frank Zappa play back in 1972 and 1974, awsome. He had guest Norman Gunston (actor Gary MacDonald) play a harmonica solo. Here Dweezil rips out another guitar solo, this one was from the song Montana. My daughter Ellen took this picture.

Dweezil Zappa plays at Newcastle Civic Theatre 2009

Mark Richards gouges a cutback on his twin fin at Leggy Point around 1977, classic style.

Mark Richards Leggy Point 1977

Redhead’s Col Smith around 1979 in his shaping bay with some almost completed Channel boards, this one’s mine.

Redhead's Col Smith Shaping Channel Surfboards 1978

Midnight Oil’s Peter Garrett on keyboards and guitarist Jim Mogine on guitar playing at the Mawson Hotel at Caves Beach in 1977. Awsome night. Not long after they were packing the places out wherever they played.

Midnight Oil 1977 Garrett & Mogine mawson Hotel 1977

Looking back up from Redhead beach to where I was living in 1975 . Before the tar car park, the grassy hill and the real big houses.

Landscape above Redhead Beach in 1975

Crow & Bird and Bridgette my Curly Coated Retriever in 1977 on the verandah.

Crow and Bird and Bridgette 1977

Martin Littlewood cranks a turn windsurfing Blacksmiths around 1978.

Martin Littlewood Windsurfing at Blacksmiths 1977

Old Photos around Redhead and elsewhere

geoff — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:46:01 +0000

On Surfari around southern NSW near Bega 1977 getting close to susnset, we went through this water way and then went back and did it again for the camera.

On surfari near Bega 1977

Redhead Beach from the Bluff 1977

Redhead beach 1978

Ray Lunn stalls hard and then later gets a nice tube from behind the Redhead Shark Tower 1977.

Ray Lunn Redhead Beach 1977

Not a bad surf for no one out. Redhead Little Beach 1978.

Redhead Little Beach no one out 1977

Redhead Beach by moonlight 1977. Even looks good in black & white. A 30 second time exposure.

Redhead Beach by moonlight 1977

Bring back the chariot races and the pillow fights at Surf Carnivals! Newcastle region surf carnival Chariot Race at Blacksmiths around 1978, these teams look like they were having fun.

Newcastle area surf carnival Chariot Race 1978

We gave them the book, but it didnt seem to help much. My daughter Ellen and son Sam seem to be taking the business of toddler taming a bit too lightly.

Toddler Taming Sam & Ellen 1990

Blower & his Dad and band playing some super cool music at Belmont Yatch Club around 1978.

Blower & Dad's Band Belmont Yatch Club 1978

An uncrowded line up at Arrawarra around 1977.

Arrawarra 1977

A bee on a flowering thistle plant close up make a nice combination of colours.

Bee on flowering thistle 1978

Redhead Shark Tower Rocks and other stuff

geoff — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 10:19:53 +0000

The Redhead Shark Tower Rocks have always meant a lot to most Redhead locals, it has the best ring side seat to an awsome view of the bluff and the surf.

My daughter Lia in 1976 playing in the storm blown foam in front of the Redhead Shark Tower. This photo also appears on the ABC Website – You know you grew up in Newcastle when…see http://www.abc.net.au/local/audio/2010/02/22/2826363.htm

Lia Redhead Shark Tower 1976

After a storm around 1975 the Shark Tower Rocks showed themselves for the first time since I was a kid (bloody long time aye)

Shark Tower Rocks exposed 1975

I remember surfing this day still – Redhead Little Beach about 1985.

Redhead Little Beach going off 1985

Eddo again around 1977 – William Harrison defines the re-entry – goes right over to the dry side and glides back down again right in front of the Shark Tower Rocks.

Eddo's Re-entry behind the Redhead Shark Tower 1977

Local Newcastle band Pamdemonia take a break from practice around 1977.

Pamdemonia 1977

It’s my daughter Ellen’s 25th birthday tomorrow – happy birthday Darl.

1985 – After 42 hours labour, a cesearian and 8 days in hospital, Sandy and Ellen finally got home.

Sandy & Ellen 1985

Ellen relaxing in the water at Fingal Bay around 1990.

Ellen at Fingal Bay 1990

Simon Anderson is announced the winner at Bells Beach in 1977, he looks surprised, because all finalists ripped so it would have been a close call.

Simon Anderson Bells Beach Winner 1977

Awsome Byron Bay Line up around 1980.

Byron Bay surf 1980

Belmont South Sunset 1985 – or any arvo there is a few clouds.

Belmont South Sunset 1985